How Multiple External Representations Can Help or Constrain Learning in Science

Abstract

Redundant information has been found to be an important factor that can limit or enhance learning with multiple external representations (MER). As such, it is seen as a crucial factor in understanding how MER can help increase conceptual understanding with low prior knowledge learners, especially when these representations are presented in a sequence. In this study, multiple levels of redundant information are compared with each other to understand how redundancy determines learning with MER when these MER are sequenced. Ninety-two participants, undergraduates in education (age: M = 19.92 years, SD = 2.78 years), with low prior knowledge of the subject of chemistry participated in pretest-intervention-posttest randomized design to study texts and pictorial representations in a sequence. More specifically, we compared (a) 0% redundancy in MER, (b) 25% redundancy, (c) 50% redundancy, and (d) 100% redundancy. Results indicate that partial redundant information leads to the largest increase in understanding and ideas remembered.