Enhancing memory recall during video lectures: does the visual display format matter?

Abstract

Lectures containing information presented in verbal and visual form are widely used in educational settings. To date, little is known about how the visual display in a video lecture influences immediate and delayed recall. In two experiments, participants listened to a pre-recorded lecture while viewing an animated concept map, sequential listing of bulleted text, or there was no visual display. Results indicated that the concept map lecture enhanced immediate recall accuracy; however, the type of ideas recalled is also important to consider. Compared to the listen-only lecture, the concept map and bulleted text lectures promoted more recall of main ideas rather than details. Finally, the concept map lecture mainly benefitted those with high prior science achievement. These findings suggest that the visual display in a video lecture may affect the type of ideas remembered, and prior knowledge should be considered when choosing how to present information in a video lecture.

Keywords:

• Video lectures
• concept maps
• memory
• prior knowledge
• visual displays

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Jackie Maass and Tegan Jeema for their help in scoring free recall responses, conducting experimental sessions, and providing valuable feedback on this project.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data availability statement

Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Notes

1 Because the median-split technique may have shortcomings such as reducing statistical power, we also conducted a regression analysis in order to examine the relationship between prior science achievement and free recall performance across each lecture condition. Using pre-test score as the predictor variable, the results indicated that prior science achievement significantly predicated free recall accuracy for the concept map lecture condition, Beta =.65, t(23) = 3.98, p = .001. However, prior science achievement did not significantly predict free recall accuracy scores for the bulleted text lecture, Beta = .65, t(23) = 1.01, p = .33, or the listen-only lecture, Beta = .65, t(23) = 1.20, p = .24. It was also found that pre-test score explained a significant amount of the variance in recall accuracy scores for the concept map lecture, F(1, 22) = 15.87, p = .001, R² = .42, but not for the text lecture condition F(1, 22) = 1.01, p = .33, or the listen-only lecture, F(1, 22) = 1.44, p = .24.

2 Similar to Experiment 1, we performed a regression analysis to address any shortcomings with conducting the median-split. The findings from this analysis revealed that prior science achievement was a significant predictor of free recall accuracy scores for the concept map lecture, Beta = .49, t(21) = 2.54, p = .02, but not a significant predictor for the bulleted text lecture, Beta = .33, t(21) = 1.56, p = .13 or listen-only lecture, Beta = .24, t(21) = 1.06, p = .30. It was found that pre-test score explained a significant amount of the variance in recall accuracy scores for the concept map lecture, F(1, 20) = 6.45, p = .02, R² = .24, but not for the text lecture condition F(1, 20) = 2.44, p = .13, or the listen-only lecture, F(1, 20) = 1.12, p = .30.