The Past, Present, and Future of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

2024/01/17 by Richard E. Mayer · 1 voice · 7 citations
Psychology · #Educational Strategies and Epistemologies #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10648-023-09842-1

openalex publication_date 2024/01/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Abstract The cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2021, 2022), which seeks to explain how people learn academic material from words and graphics, has developed over the past four decades. Although the name and graphical representation of the theory have evolved over the years, the core ideas have been constant—dual channels (i.e., humans have separate information processing channels for verbal and visual information), limited capacity (i.e., processing capacity is severely limited), and active processing (i.e., meaningful learning involves selecting relevant material to be processed in working memory, mentally organizing the material into coherent verbal and visual structures, and integrating them with each other and with relevant knowledge activated from long-term memory). This review describes how the theory has developed (i.e., the past), the current state of the theory (i.e., the present), and new directions for future development (i.e., the future). In addition, the review includes examples of the events and findings that led to changes in the theory. Implications for educational psychology are discussed, including 15 evidence-based principles of multimedia design.

Citations

• Generative Processes of Comprehension
• Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning
• Fostering social agency in multimedia learning: Examining the impact of an animated agent’s voice
• A coherence effect in multimedia learning: The case for minimizing irrelevant sounds in the design of multimedia instructional messages.
• Eight Ways to Promote Generative Learning
• The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.

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• The cognitive profile of adults with low literacy skills in alphabetic orthographies: A systematic review and comparison with developmental dyslexia
• Exploring cognitive load dynamics with an AI-based voice assistant in high school chemistry experiments
• Beyond Text: Probing K-12 Educators' Perspectives and Ideas for Learning Opportunities Leveraging Multimodal Large Language Models
• Perspectives Future Research in Conceptual Change for Science Education: Systematic Literature Review

Discussions

• X/ on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and written by Dr. Rich Mayer. He goes into how the theory was created, how research findings iteratively developed the theory over time, and what the [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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