Redundancy principle
From unthinkMedia
"Instruction that present the same information in different forms or with unnecessary explanatory material increase extraneous cognitive load that interferes with learning." (pg. 167)
When possible it is better to reduce or eliminate as much redundant information material as you can.
Types of Redundancies
- Identical Information: This is a direct illustration of what was stated in another medium
- Elaborative Information: This attempts to enhance the content with information that was not currently stated in the collaboration of mediums. Some elaborations use the same medium, while other differ.
Examples of Cognitive Load
- for written and spoken text, be careful that both mediums don't become disjointed due to not being closely correlated.
- be sure that any redundancies must be coordinated with essential information
My Questions
I could see why, "the redundancy principle is often seen as counter intuitive" (pg 166)
The author states that , "presenting children with written nouns accompanied by an appropriate picture...Performance on the subsequent reading test was better for the condition without the picture." (pg 161)
I am not so sure i agree, and how does this play with dual coding? Wouldn't seeing the visual help in creating more connections to the knowledge, and assist in creating a more accurate mental model? Or is it that the user is force to "sound out" the word, forcing them to practice phonetics? I would imagine this would depend on the learners proficiency in phonics. Thinking as I writes, this theory would exclue learning A is Apple (w/image), at this point the learner doesn't know that the letter A is associate with the object apple, which then would be more of an elaboration since you are giving the learner more information then what they are given by the letter "A". Okay, I think it makes sense now.
