Episode 12 - Dual Coding

02/07/18 • 16 min

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.

Show Notes:

Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:

Spaced Practice
Retrieval Practice
Elaboration
Interleaving
Concrete Examples
Dual Coding

Today, in our last of the 6 learning strategy podcasts, we are talking about dual coding, which involves combining words and pictures while learning. Dual coding can help learning in the following ways:

1) Adding images to verbal explanations can make ideas more concrete

It is easier for us to remember concrete information than abstract information (1). (You can listen to the Concrete Examples episode for more than this.) It is harder to visually depict abstract concepts, so by engaging in the process of expressing an idea in a picture, you are effectively making it more concrete.

2) Images can provide additional cues at retrieval

According to the original dual coding theory, the combination of words with visuals provides us with two different channels for later recall (2). Another way to think about this is that we are adding another retrieval cue by representing the information as a picture in addition to words. For example, a student could forget the verbal description of a process, but still remember a diagram and reconstruct their understanding of the process on the exam from their memory of that picture.

The difference between Learning Styles and Dual Coding

Learning Styles is the idea that each individual has a "style" of learning, such as auditory, kinesthetic, etc., and that it is a good idea to identify that style for each student and teach them accordingly (the "matching hypothesis) (3). However, there is very little evidence that this hypothesis plays out. Instead, we all learn best when we combine these formats. Of course, students do have preferences! But, that does not mean that students will perform better when they study in their preferred style. On the other hand, certain information certainly lends itself better to one presentation style than another. Instead of focusing on which student requires which type of format, we should be focusing on providing all students with multiple relevant representations of the information they are trying to learn.

Too much of a good thing?

It is important not to overdo it by including numerous pictures, as they may distract from learning instead of enhancing it. This is particularly an issue when pictures are not relevant to the information being learned, and are just included for decoration.

Irrelevant image from Pixabay

At this point, images can become distracting "seductive details" (4). See this post for more on the pitfalls of overusing dual coding.

We end the episode by highlighting some ways that teachers and students can combine words with visuals during learning.

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References:

(1) Gorman, A. M. (1961). Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 23–39.

(2) Paivio, A., & Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5, 176–206.

(3) Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105–119.

(4) Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414–434.

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.

Show Notes:

Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists have found evidence for the following 6 strategies for effective learning:

Spaced Practice
Retrieval Practice
Elaboration
Interleaving
Concrete Examples
Dual Coding

1) Adding images to verbal explanations can make ideas more concrete

2) Images can provide additional cues at retrieval

The difference between Learning Styles and Dual Coding

Too much of a good thing?

Irrelevant image from Pixabay

At this point, images can become distracting "seductive details" (4). See this post for more on the pitfalls of overusing dual coding.

We end the episode by highlighting some ways that teachers and students can combine words with visuals during learning.

Subscribe to our Podcast!

Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

References:

(1) Gorman, A. M. (1961). Recognition memory for nouns as a function of abstractedness and frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 23–39.

(2) Paivio, A., & Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5, 176–206.

(3) Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105–119.

(4) Harp, S. F., & Mayer, R. E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414–434.

Previous Episode

Episode 11 - Bite-Size Research on Providing Multiple Concrete Examples

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.

Show Notes:

This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Megan talks about the need for multiple concrete examples in order for students to transfer the underlying idea to new problems.

In the last episode, we talked about the research on concrete examples. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one.) One of the points we made was the need for multiple concrete examples. Students need multiple examples, preferably with different surface details, to help them understand the underlying idea and to increase the likelihood that they will be able to apply that underlying idea to novel problems int he future. Research by Gick and Holyoak (1, 2) illustrates this point.

In one experiment (1), students read a story about a general and a fortress, and then were given a new problem, called the tumor problem:

General and fortress story used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2)

Tumor problem used in Gick and Holyoak (1, 2)

Visual depiction of the general and fortress story and tumor problem

Spontaneous transfer from the general and fortress story to the tumor problem is quite low (20%). When students are given a hint, more are able to transfer (92%). However, a hint is not always feasible.

In 1983, Gick and Holyoak (2) experimented with a lot of different ways to try to improve spontaneous transfer. Unfortunately, many did not increase spontaneous transfer very much:

Having students summarize the solution doesn't help much
Providing a verbal description of the underlying structure doesn't help much
Providing a digram depicting the underlying structure doesn't help much

Diagram depicting the underlying structure, used in Gick and Holyoak, 1983 (2)

But, spontaneous transfer does improve when students are given multiple concrete examples with different surface details.

In one experiment (2), students were given two stories, the general story and a fire chief story, that were similar in underlying structure but different in surface details. At the end of the stories the underlying structure was summarized. After reading these stories, the students were asked to summarize both stories, and make some other ratings. Now, 62% of students spontaneously transfer the solution from the two stories to the tumor problem before the hint. After being given a hint, 82% in total can transfer. This is still not 100%, but is moving in the right direction!

These experiments highlight the importance of providing multiple concrete examples with different surface details. It also demonstrates how difficult transfer can be, even when we're trying to transfer information in the same physical context (in this case, a lab) and close in time (in this case, during the same experimental session). To read more about transfer, check out this blog and this blog.

Tune in next month to learn about the remaining strategy, dual coding!

Subscribe to our Podcast!

Go to our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

RSS feed: http://www.learningscientists.org/learning-scientists-podcast/?format=rss

References:

(1) Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306-355.

(2) Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 1-38.

Next Episode

Episode 13 - Bite-Size Research on Dual Coding vs Learning Styles

This episode was funded by The Wellcome Trust.

Show Notes:

This is a bite-size research episode, where we briefly describe research findings on a specific topic. This week, Yana talks about an experiment that examined the impact of dual coding on second language learning.

In the last episode, we talked about the research on dual coding. (If you haven't listened to that episode yet, we recommend listening to it before listening to this one). The basic premise is that combining words with visuals can be beneficial to learning - but not only to those who claim to be “visual learners”.

In the paper described in the current episode (1), the author looked at Korean middle school students learning English. The materials for the experiment were pairs of words that, when translated from English into Korean, essentially mean the same thing. But if you switch one out for another in English, you drastically change the meaning.

Here is an example from the paper:

They key manipulation was that during learning, some students would see these pictures, whereas others would instead see an explanation of why the incorrect words was in correct, in Korean.

The learning styles matching hypothesis was pitted against the dual coding hypothesis. If learning style matching is important, then those who prefer pictures should benefit more from seeing the pictures during study, whereas those who prefer words should benefit more from getting the verbal explanations in Korean. Instead, however, all learners generally benefited from dual coding, regardless of their preferred learning style.