Demonstration as an aid to learning from animation

Abstract : The effectiveness of requiring learners to generate operational demonstrations while viewing an animation of a working mechanism was explored as a means of improving their animation processing. We assumed that the demonstration requirement would enhance learner extraction of key dynamic information needed for building a high quality mental model. It is expected that compared with note-taking controls, those in the demonstration group will give more attention to the spatiotemporal relationships amongst the mechanism’s components. This would result in these participants exhibiting superior scores on a test of mental model quality were attributed to the effect on their animation processing of having to ‘act-out’ of the mechanism’s dynamics.