A new application of the temporal contiguity effect in designing narrated slideshows

We investigated whether the temporal contiguity effect, which holds that information sources, such as visual information and narration need to be temporally coordinated for learning to be effective, can also be found in narrated slideshows. A concurrent presentation-key point format (CPK), in which visual information sequentially appeared as key points on the slide with corresponding narration, was compared to a concurrent presentation-whole format (CPW), in which visual information was shown all at once on the slide with corresponding narration, and a sequential presentation format (SP), in which the narration was played first before all the corresponding visual information was presented at once. Ninety-nine undergraduates were randomly divided across the CPK, CPW and SP conditions. Results revealed that participants in the CPK group had higher post-test performance and learning efficiency than participants in the CPW and SP conditions. Performance in the CPW condition was higher than in the SP conditions, but only in terms of learning efficiency. The results suggested that the occurrence of the temporal contiguity effect not only depends on whether the presentation of narration and visual information in narrated slideshows is concurrent or not, but also on how concurrent it is.