Listen and learn: An investigation of sonification as an instructional variable to improve understanding of complex environments

Sonification, the use of non-speech audio to convey information, was used to test whether the simultaneous presentation of visual and artificially created auditory (sound) information significantly improves scores on comprehension tests of complex, dynamic computer simulations of an ecology microworld over scores from college participants who were presented visual information alone. Brief training was provided and all tasks were completed online. Participants were also tested for musical aptitude and preferred learning modality. Results indicate that while age and grade point average significantly predicted score on the comprehension test, the treatment tested here did not. For one-month retention of knowledge, only grade point average was significant. Nevertheless, the experimental methodology and the demonstrated convenience of online data collection are a contribution to the field. Moreover, the size of several positive effects and the identification of opportunities for improvement in the presentation of information invite a follow-up study.