Picture Bias in Upper-division Physics Education

Multimedia learning theories tell us that learning is more effective with text and pictures than with text alone. However, pictures can also favor an uncritical attitude towards scientific texts. This can mislead students into believing flawed information or overlooking conflicting information. Furthermore, the types of representations have impact on learning, information processing, and communication. In this project, we investigate possible negative aspects of adding pictures to text and study the impact of equation density in the context of upper-division physics education. In this specific contribution, we present a first preliminary eye-tracking study on the context of integration in electrostatics in “traditional” multimedia settings, involving a contrast between optimal pictures, (possibly) misleading pictures, and no pictures at all. The results confirm the hypothesis that pictures can also have detrimental effects on learning when surface features are conflicting with scientific concepts.