When large amounts of information are presented in long-section
animations, a transient information effect has been shown to weaken the
superiority of dynamic visualizations over static graphics in learning a
hand-movement origami task (Wong, Leahy, Marcus & Sweller, 2012). In
their experiment, children were allocated to one of four presentation
conditions: long-section animation, short-section animation, long-section
static graphics and short-section static graphics. In the present paper,
103 ten-year-old children learnt to tie complex nautical knots from
either a video of hand movements or from a static graphic presentation.
Experiment 1 extended the previous study using a conventional sequential
presentation of the knots, under four conditions (long-section animation,
short-section animation, long-section static graphics and short-section
static graphics), but in a learning task involving a combination of
observation and practice. In Experiment 2, with the same task and the
same conditions, transience was reduced using simultaneous presentations.
Results showed that long-section animation did not always lose its
superiority over static graphics in this type of learning task. In
addition to the transient information effect of the cognitive load
theory, complementary explanations in terms of inhibition processes,
attentional continuity and task affordance are suggested.