CHAPTER 3 Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning Richard E. Mayer University of California, Santa Barbara Abstract A fundamental hypothesis underlying re- search on multimedia learning is that mul- timedia instructional messages that are de- signed in light of how the human mind works are more likely to lead to mean- ingful learning than those that are not. The cognitive theory of multimedia learn- ing (CTML) is based on three cognitive science principles of learning; the human information processing system includes dual channels for visual/pictorial and audi- tory/verbal processing (i.e., dual-channels assumption); each channel has limited ca- pacity for processing (i.e., limited capac- ity assumption); and active learning entails carrying out a coordinated set of cognitive processes during learning (i.e., active pro- cessing assumption). The cognitive theory of multimedia learning specifies five cogni- tive processes in multimedia learning: se- lecting relevant words from the presented text or narration, selecting relevant im- ago from the presented illustrations, orga- nizing the selected words into a coherent verbal representation, organizing selected images into a coherent pictorial represen- tation, and integrating the pictorial and verbal represen - " tations and prior knowledge. Multimedia instructional messages should be designed to prime these processes. The Case for Multimedia Learning What is the rationale for a theory of multi- media learning? People learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone. This assertion — which can be called the multimedia principle — underlies much of the interest in multimedia learning. For thousands of years, words have been the ma- jor format for instruction — including spo- ken words, and within the last few hundred years, printed words. Today, thanks to fur- ther technological advances, pictorial forms of instruction are becoming widely available, including dazzling computer-based graphics. However, simply adding pictures to words does not guarantee an improvement in learn- ing — that is, all multimedia presentations are not equally effective. In this chapter I ex- plore a theory aimed at understanding how 31