Provided visuals can act as a crutch: explaining with provided visuals yielded higher-quality explanations but no transfer advantage over explaining without them¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? College students who explained a video lesson with provided visuals generated higher-quality explanations than students explaining without provided visuals, but the two groups did not differ on a subsequent transfer test (Fiorella, 2022b, as reported). → Fiorella 2023

Evidence¶

Fiorella 2023¶

Fiorella, L. (2023). Making Sense of Generative Learning. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09769-7

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review attributing this to Fiorella (2022b): college students wrote explanations after each part of a video on the human kidney, with or without provided visuals. The review interprets that students 'likely relied on the provided external visual rather than internalizing the visual'. No effect size printed.

"Students who explained with provided visuals from the lesson generated higher quality explanations than students who explained without provided visuals; however, there was no difference in performance between the two explanation groups on a subsequent transfer test."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Drawing can underperform the generative strategy of explaining, particularly on verbally aligned tests — related
• Visualizing support—provided diagrams or learner-generated drawings—facilitates higher-quality explanations and better comprehension than explaining text alone — related
• Prompting learners to self-explain, one generative strategy, improves learning by a moderate average amount; other generative activities are not tested by the evidence recorded here — related
• Prompting learners to self-explain improves understanding and problem solving on immediate tests by a moderate average amount, with little evidence yet on delayed or classroom gains. — related