摘要:
Recent technological advances now snake possible the full integration of sound in instructional software. Sounds may gain and focus learner attention, reduce distracting stimuli, and make learning more engaging. In addition, they may help learners condense, elaborate on, and organize details, highlighting interconnections among new pieces of information and making connections to preexisting knowledge. Thus, sound may hold great promise for moderating acquisition, processing, and retrieval "noise" in instructional software. Unfortunately, interface and instructional design guides almost completely ignore sound, and research suggests many promising instructional uses remain largely unexplored. This paper explores information-processing and communication theoretical foundations for sound's systematic use in the instructional communication system and proposes a framework for a program of research on instructional software's use of sound.