RETRACTED ARTICLE: Multimedia Effect in Problem Solving: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Pictures are commonly used to represent problems. However, it remains unclear how the addition of pictures affects students’ problem-solving performance. The multimedia effect in problem solving describes the phenomenon whereby an individual’s problem-solving performance is enhanced when equivalent pictures are added to illustrate or replace part of the problem text. Using meta-analytic techniques, this study seeks to determine the overall size of the multimedia effect in problem solving and its boundary conditions (k = 40, N = 38,570). The results demonstrated a significant small-to-medium-sized multimedia effect on response accuracy (Hedges’ g = 0.25) and a significant medium-sized multimedia effect on students’ response certainty (Hedges’ g = 0.48), but no significant multimedia effect on response time. Function types of pictures significantly moderated the multimedia effect on response accuracy. Yet, only organizational pictures had a significant positive impact on response accuracy (Hedges’ g = 0.46), while representational, informational or decorative pictures did not produce any significant effects on an individual’s response accuracy. Problem difficulty was another significant moderator. The addition of pictures significantly improved students’ response accuracy on difficult problems (Hedges’ g = 0.17), whereas the significant effect all but disappeared for easy problems. These findings suggest that the multimedia effect in problem solving is diversified and limited by multiple boundary conditions. More primary studies are needed to further investigate the multimedia effect in problem solving. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.