The Effect of Adding Relevant Music and Sound Effects to an Audio-Only Narration: A Three-Treatment Application of Mayer’s Coherence Principle
type: CreativeWork
description: Sound effects and music can be used to complement instructional narrations in recorded media presentations. College students (n = 143) participated in a study examining the effects of music and sound effects on learning outcomes when compared to voice-only narration. Four groups of participants listened to a recorded short story and answered questions about the story. The control group’s story was a voice-only narration. The three treatment groups’ story was enhanced with one of the following: sound effects, music, or a combination of sound effects and music. Means for each group were not significantly different, and the difference of means between and within each of the groups was also found not to be significant. The results indicated that the presence sound effects and music from an audio-only presentation did not significantly increase or decrease learning.
abstract: Sound effects and music can be used to complement instructional narrations in recorded media presentations. College students (n = 143) participated in a study examining the effects of music and sound effects on learning outcomes when compared to voice-only narration. Four groups of participants listened to a recorded short story and answered questions about the story. The control group’s story was a voice-only narration. The three treatment groups’ story was enhanced with one of the following: sound effects, music, or a combination of sound effects and music. Means for each group were not significantly different, and the difference of means between and within each of the groups was also found not to be significant. The results indicated that the presence sound effects and music from an audio-only presentation did not significantly increase or decrease learning.
author: Curran, Andrew
language: English
keywords: Educational Software, sound effects, music, audio, coherence principle, arousal theory, multimedia learning
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:36:23Z
provider: OhioLINK
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cincinnati