Introducing the familiarity mechanism: A unified explanatory approach for the personalization effect and the examination of youth slang in multimedia learning

Several approaches have been used to explain how the personalization effect operates in multimedia messages. This paper aims at unifying these statements in a core concept of familiarity and its influence on social cues. By amplifying the scope of possible forms of personalization, the study explores additionally how youth slang as a new factor of conversation influences learning. Secondary school children (N = 166) were randomly assigned to experimental groups and provided with materials about photosynthesis in two different experiments (audio vs. text message). Each experiment consisted of performance tests and a questionnaire concerning the newly found mechanism of familiarity. The results of each single factor between-subject design show that youth slang fosters learning. Strong effects among transfer task performance (d1 = 1.19; d2 = 1.26) confirm the personalization effect. Moreover, the outcomes deliver valid empirical evidence for the proposed familiarity mechanism. These findings are discussed as well as the confirmation of all presumptions for the familiarity mechanism as incorporated in the explanatory approach, resulting in clear theoretical implications and future directions for the field of multimedia learning research.