Visual displays, such as illustrated web pages, animations, and simulations, can both aid and pose challenges for learners. The first generation of educational research on visuals focused on the basic processes underlying comprehension. A second generation of research tested various instructional supports for visual displays, and this research was…

Early researchers suggested that virtual humans (animated pedagogical agents) required a persona if they were to be anthropomorphized by the user. Over the past two decades, research has focused on design features that target the perception of persona in order to increase the anthropomorphization of the agent toward the end of increased learning…

This paper reviews research on learning from dynamic visual representations and offers principles for the design of animations and simulations that assure their educational effectiveness. In addition to established principles, new and revised design principle are presented that have been derived from recent research. Our review focuses on the…