Multimedia initial instruction lowers students' perceived difficulty of problems across instruction, practice, and posttest phases¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3 · i1–i2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i1 Participants who saw multimedia instruction reported lower difficulty ratings than those who saw text-only instruction, an effect present at instruction and persisting into later phases. → Gök 2025 q3 i2 The instruction-modality effect on perceived difficulty at instruction was moderated by prior knowledge, appearing only for participants with higher pretest scores. → Gök 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Gök 2025¶

Gök, S., Zhang, T., Goldstone, R. L., & Fyfe, E. R. (2025). Multimedia Effects in Initial Instruction and Feedback on Problem Solving. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000943

q3 · i1 · causal · r2

A 2x2 ANCOVA on self-rated difficulty (0-4 scale) with pretest covariate showed text-only instruction yielded higher difficulty ratings (M = 1.86, SD = .86) than multimedia instruction (M = 1.54, SD = 1.04), η p² = .02. Similar instruction-modality effects appeared for practice and posttest difficulty ratings.

"There was a significant effect of the initial instruction modality on the perceived difficulty of the instruction, F (1,122) = 4.42, p = .03, η p² = .02, with participants who saw text-only instruction reporting higher ratings of difficulty"

Gök 2025 (2)¶

Gök, S., Zhang, T., Goldstone, R. L., & Fyfe, E. R. (2025). Multimedia Effects in Initial Instruction and Feedback on Problem Solving. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000943

q3 · i2 · causal · r2

The same ANCOVA on perceived difficulty of instruction included condition-by-pretest interactions; the instruction modality x pretest interaction was significant, F (1,122) = 4.62, p = .03, η p² = .04, limited to higher prior knowledge participants.

"there was a significant interaction of initial instruction modality and pretest scores, F (1,122) = 4.62, p = .03, η p² = .04, as the effect of instruction modality was only present for participants with higher prior knowledge."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Multimedia feedback produces higher posttest performance than text-only feedback on conditional probability problems — related
• Multimedia initial instruction, but not multimedia feedback, increases students' spontaneous diagram generation across learning phases — related
• A narrative review cites one study in which simultaneous notes, worked example and explanation aided understanding, and another in which temporally contiguous instruction lowered perceived cognitive load — a broader claim this one bears on
• Learners invest more mental effort in media they perceive as difficult, so multimedia should raise perceived demand characteristics — reports the opposite
• Multimedia initial instruction shows no detectable benefit over text-only instruction on posttest performance — related
• Spontaneous drawings at posttest mediate the effect of multimedia instruction on posttest performance, but not the effect of multimedia feedback — related