Book Chapter 5 Review Blog (Module 5)
Summary: Chapter 5 of Clark and Mayer (2011) discusses the contiguity principle. This principle involves the concept of presenting information to the recipient in a way that allows for continuous absorption. It is easier to talk about what the contiguity principle is in terms of what it is not. The authors go through several examples of common mistakes that break the contiguity principle. For example, some online presentations or e-books displays a large amount of text as a description either before or after a figure. This forces the reader to scroll back and forth trying to read and interpret the figure in a very choppy manner. Problems can also arise when running text is displayed side by side with an animation. This splits the observer's attention and detracts from their learning experience. If one were to follow the contiguity principle, then presentations of text, figures, and animations should be closely integrated. A figure ...