The Cue Summation Theory Tested with Meaningful Verbal Information

Abstract

No previous studies pertaining to Hartman’s Cue Summation Theory ("Redundant information simultaneously presented by the audio and the visual channels results in greater efficiency in learning than does the same information in either channel alone.") could be found which utilized meaningful verbal information as stimulus material. Students were presented fitting this criterion and were tested for affective responses and cognitive recall. Comparisons of results were made between three separate presentation procedures: audio along, visual along, and combined audiovisual. Comparisons of affective responses did not indicate significant differences, but analyses of cognitive data showed the combined audiovisual treatment resulting in half the number of errors as either the audio or the visual treatments alone.