Giving students irrelevant information when they are learning something will clog up their working memory. Students may then remember the wrong information and not the parts you want them to remember. This is called the Redundancy Effect. The focus of this Blog will be to connect the Redundancy Effect with Cognitive Load Theory and to highlight a few important strategies to avoid the Redundancy Effect.
The
Question
Do you know what is the Redundancy Effect?
The
Strategy
Become aware of how you can avoid the Redundancy Effect to enhance teaching and learning.
The
Inspiration
Every day, I help school and adult learners become more effective thinkers and learners. Along the way, I support them in managing their cognitive load and dealing with common learning obstacles. One of these is the Redundancy Effect, which I help them identify, reduce, or work around to optimize their learning.
1. Is the Redundancy Effect connected to Cognitive Load Theory?
Hundreds of studies show how easy it is to feel overwhelmed when faced with complex information. That’s because working memory—our mental workspace—can only handle a limited amount at a time.
For learning to happen, we must move information into long-term memory, which has a much larger capacity. But this isn’t always easy. A bottleneck often forms between working memory and long-term memory, slowing down the process.
According to Inner Drive, Cognitive Load Theory helps us understand this bottleneck. It focuses on how to manage working memory so we can transfer information more effectively into long-term memory.
Connie Malamed explains that when cognitive load is too high, learners may feel frustrated or fail to understand. Some cognitive load is natural—and even helpful—but too much can block learning.
Malamed points out that extraneous cognitive load—caused by how the material is presented—doesn’t support learning. The good news? Educators, facilitators, and designers can control this type of load and reduce it.
So, what is the Redundancy Effect? Inner Drive explains that it’s part of Cognitive Load Theory. It happens when learners get extra or irrelevant information while trying to learn something new. This overloads working memory, and they may end up remembering the wrong things instead of what matters.
2. What are some strategies to reduce the Redundancy Effect?
Avoid highly visually decorated classrooms
A study discussed in the Science of Learning refers to Fisher et al, who found that students taught in a highly visually decorated class were more distracted; they spent more time off-task compared to children in a non-decorated classroom; and students in a highly decorated class made fewer gains in their final exams.
Limit PowerPoint animations
There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that adding entertaining elements into lessons (e.g., music, animations, auditory material, etc.) can hamper learning and performance instead of enhancing it. Always ask yourself, “If this does not enhance learning, is it worth it?” If the answer is not a definite yes, then it is best not to include it.
Limit the use of too many fonts and fancy fonts
This applies to notes and PowerPoint slides. Make sure students can recognize headings and subheadings by choosing fonts deliberately and consistently.
Organize text in a consistent and logical way
It can waste a lot of cognitive energy and time if students can not clearly understand the organization of the text and if it is ‘cluttered.’
Choose PowerPoint templates carefully
Decorative templates with no connection to the content on the slides can distract learners and increase cognitive load.
Explain a visual through audio or text, NOT both.
Avoid adding on-screen text to a narrated image
When adding on-screen text to a narrated image, it can lead to cognitive overload as multiple pieces of information must be processed simultaneously. Jim Borden says that the duplicated pieces of information—spoken and written—don’t positively reinforce one another; instead, the two flood students’ abilities to handle the information.
Cut most of what you want to include on a slide
Oliver Caviglioli (author of Dual Coding with Teachers) emphasizes this principle of cutting content on slides. He suggests that you chunk the content into a clear hierarchy and align your content with other elements. Colours and fonts must be restricted on slides. But most important: Cut the number of words on your slides
Limit bullets and do not read bullets
According to Caviglioli, the humble bullet point has grown beyond its primary function. He states, “Once only used to clarify items in a list, the bullet now nodominates both how presentations are created and conducted.” Audiences do not want to hear you read out bullets! It’s simple: Don’t Talk Over Your Slides.
Conclusion
These are just a few strategies to avoid the Redundancy Effect. The blog by Borden titled, ‘Thanks to PowerPoint, I’ve Been an Ineffective Teacher for the Past Thirty Years’ is a very good reminder for all of us to reflect on the Redundancy Effect and to learn more about his effect.
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