Regarding figures in physics exercises: A futile endeavour

Sammanfattning: A common method for aiding students in solving physics exercises, is to add an image. That images together with text are better for learning than text alone is called the multimedia effect. It is achieved through integration of textual and pictorial information. Based on this, it can be hypothesized that solving a physics exercise should be easier with an image. Using actual exercises and their corresponding images from Swedish textbooks in physics, a within-subjects experiment was designed. It was then performed by seventy upper secondary school students. The study searched for multimedia effects with control images and used eye tracking to examine integration of information. Integration of information was operationalised as attentional shifts between image and text. The results show that no multimedia effect occurred and that attentional shifts in fact correlated negatively with the proportion of correct answers from students. These results question a long-held belief among teachers and educators about the beneficial effect of images in exercises.