Motion in Instructional Media: Some Subject-Display Mode Interactions

Abstract

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that motion in visual media can be differentially effective in enhancing the learning of complex spatial relations as a function of the viewer's aptitude. 84 subjects (42 males and 42 females) of high and low spatial aptitude (as measured by the Guilford-Zimmerman Test of Spatial Visualization) were taught the movement patterns of 5 chessmen with 1 of 3 instructional films: (1) a “stills” condition which simulated a slide presentation, (2) an “Arrows” condition which was identical to the “Stills” condition except for the addition of an animated cueing arrow, (3) a “Full Motion” condition which followed a standard motion picture format. Subjects of high aptitude showed no differences between instructional modes. Subjects of low aptitude performed better with both motion conditions but no differences were found between them.