Cognitive Plasticity & Media Selection

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Richard E. Meyer and others have made a major contribution in their Multimedia Learning Theory by pointing out that people can tolerate only limited amounts of incoming information because it is not merely passively absorbed but must be actively processed in working memory to create meaning—this in spite of the dual channels of input (visual and auditory).

I recently read of a man blind from birth who was given the ability to “see” by connecting a video monitor to a device that sent signals to his tongue with video information. After some getting used to it, he could navigate obstacles, and even catch a ball. When a brain analysis was done, it was found that the part of the brain being used was the visual cortex!

In the same book, a woman who had been administered an antibiotic which destroyed her ability balance using the sensory organs of the inner ear. She was no longer able to function because of the effects of the loss of balance. She sought help from a clinical psychologist who created a helmet with a accelerometer (for sensing balance) and connected it to the device fitted to her tongue, which sent information about balance to her tongue. Her ability to balance was almost immediately improved. But more surprising is, it was improved for a time even after she removed the device. After several sessions, she no longer needed the device at all—her sense of balance was effectively restored.

When a MRI of brain function was conducted, it was discovered that the part of the brain connected to balance was still the part being used for balance, but now it had been “rewired” to other senses to respond to that stimuli for the purposes of balance.

Understanding these channels better seems vital to creating and selecting instructional media that reaches the brain appropriately.

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