TITLE:
Cognitive Insights: Exploring the Influence of Segmented Documentary Videos on Students’ Brain Activity during Encoding and Retrieval of Information
AUTHORS:
Joseph P. Valley, Stephen Joseph
KEYWORDS:
Cognitive Load, Segmented Documentary Videos, Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex, Memory Retrieval, Multimedia Learning
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.15 No.7,
July
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: In contemporary education, documentary videos have gained widespread usage as powerful tools for teaching and learning, even though many of these videos were originally produced for television audiences. The use of these documentary videos in an educational environment may affect students’ multimedia mental effort in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during semantic information retrieval. Although many studies used the segmenting principle in multimedia learning, there were limited studies that utilized documentaries. This study employed a true experimental design, collecting electroencephalogram (EEG) data from 16 participants in the experimental group and 16 participants in the control group. Data analysis involved a one-way ANOVA to examine the statistical significance of the findings. The results revealed no statistically significant difference in the amount of multimedia mental effort used during semantic information retrieval (p = 0.431,
η
p
2
= 0.021). However, there was a statistically significant difference for the overall intrinsic processing generated (p
η
p
2
= 0.353) and students’ performance (p
η
p
2
= 0.560). Our findings shed light on the inherent relationship between cognitive load management and multimedia mental effort. Consequently, this study highlights the need to carefully assess the complex effects of cognitive load management strategies, as an increase in intrinsic processing seems to impede the formation of schemas in long-term memory, ultimately reducing semantic information retrieval.