Revised CMP2 mathematics lesson visuals based on signaling, contiguity, and coherence principles¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 6 claims (4 for, 1 mixed, 1 against) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The revised lesson was derived from Connected Mathematics 2 (CMP2) and covered graphing independent and dependent variables, set in a story about planning a long-distance bike trip. It consisted of nine pages with identical text in both conditions but revised visuals on eight pages: "additional signaling was added; contiguity of visuals and related text was increased, and math-irrelevant visuals were removed." Revisions included color coding, labels, and call-out boxes on math-relevant tables and graphs, and deletion of decorative features.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Application of the signaling, contiguity, and coherence principles to the curricular visuals

Constraints¶

• The arrangement of visuals relative to text varied across pages, creating more design variability than typical eye-tracking experiments, which the authors note as a trade-off for ecological validity

Target Learners¶

• middle-school students entering sixth or seventh grade

Target Learning Goals¶

• recording data with independent and dependent variables in a table and constructing a graph

Claims¶

• In one eye-tracking experiment, revising math-relevant visuals changes fixation length on them differently by prior knowledge group, with shorter fixations under the revised visuals for low prior knowledge students [+W]
• Revised visuals reduce cognitive load while reading lesson text for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students [+W]
• Revisions to visuals had no effect on post-lesson test scores, though prior knowledge predicted performance [-W]
• Revised visuals reduce cognitive processing of math-relevant visuals for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students [+W]
• Revised visuals reduce cognitive processing of lesson text for low prior knowledge students but increase it for middle prior knowledge students [+W]
• Revisions made no reliable difference to total time spent with the lesson [~W]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Clinton, V., Cooper, J.L., Michaelis, J., Alibali, M.W., & Nathan, M.J. (2017). How Revisions to Mathematical Visuals Affect Cognition: Evidence from Eye Tracking. In Eye-tracking technology applications in educational research (pp. 195-218). IGI Global. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED574984. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-1005-5.ch010