Teaching effectiveness of sound with pictures that do not embody the material being taught

Conclusions

The data show that instruction through sound linked to images by association only is followed by a significant increase in factual learning over the next most effective method, sound alone. The results suggest further that the projection of abstract forms on the screen distracts attention more than it improves concentration, and that the distraction is worsened by the increased detail, or the incongruity, of an irrelevant picture. These facts indicate promising possibilities for increased use of audiovisual aids in fields where they have been little tried because the subject-matter was not suitable for concrete visualization. Any topic which can be linked associatively with a person, object, or scene would seem to lend itself to presentation by this method. However, more tests appear to be called for to determine whether or not the gain reported in this study can be maintained with difficult material, and at a level which would justify the expense of producing films or photographs. It would be interesting to know, also, how many statements can be attached to a single image or related images before the teaching effect of the image wears out. Finally, further investigation might shed light on the nature of the learning described here, of which it was the purpose of this study to assess only the final result. Does the visual image, as May and Lumsdaine suggest (2), reinforce the sound or mediate the response when recalled? Does it provide a sense of actuality which serves as a stimulus; or does it imply a question which the sound-track answers? Experiments along these lines might furnish evidence which can contribute to more extensive theory of learning from films and similar aids.