Coaching practices for Multiple Modality Encoding
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Multiple Modality Encoding, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I learn everything in just one channel
- When I’m teaching something visual I cram the slide with a busy diagram and a wall of text on top of it, and I can see people’s eyes glaze over trying to read and look at once
- I figured more is better, so I cram in every word and every image at once and narrate the picture line by line
- I try to read the slides while the lecturer is talking and somehow take in neither
- The mental pictures I make to remember things come out flat and gray
Practices that may help
- Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
The Learning Styles Myth: What the Research Actually Says - Use spoken audio for explanations paired with visual diagrams
Split visual and auditory working memory resources to process more information than either channel alone can handle.
Cognitive Load Theory: Learning Within Working Memory Limits - Cut redundant words when the visual already says it
Do not narrate a self-explanatory diagram word for word — it overloads, not reinforces.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together - Keep verbal and visual channels separate
Avoid presenting spoken narration and dense text at the same time.
Working Memory: How Your Brain Holds Thoughts in Play - Amplify images with sensory detail and emotion
Add sound, smell, movement, and emotion to your mental image to make it stick.
Peg System Mnemonics, Made Practical - Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together
Dual coding, a theory developed by Allan Paivio, holds that the mind processes verbal and visual information through two partly separate channels, so combining words with relevant images gives a memory two routes instead of one. Controlled studies support that well-designed word-plus-picture material is learned better than words alone — provided the visuals carry meaning rather than decorate. - Pair each idea with a meaningful visual
Attach a diagram, sketch, or image that carries the idea — not one that just decorates it.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together - Process new information by its meaning, not its form
Ask what something means, how it connects to what you know, and why it matters — not just what it looks like or sounds like.
Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember - Put words and pictures together, not apart
Place labels on the diagram, not in a caption your eyes have to hunt for.
Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together - Levels of Processing: Why Depth of Encoding Determines What You Remember
Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) levels of processing framework proposes that memory is a by-product of the type of processing performed on incoming information: shallow processing (appearance, sound) produces weak, short-lived traces, while deep processing (meaning, elaboration, connection to prior knowledge) produces strong, durable ones. The implication for learning is that how you engage with material matters more than how many times you see it.
Related concerns
- Dual Coding Theory
Dual coding, a theory developed by Allan Paivio, holds that the mind processes verbal and visual information through two partly separate channels, so combining words with relevant images gives a memory two routes instead of one. Controlled studies support that well-designed word-plus-picture material is learned better than words alone — provided the visuals carry meaning rather than decorate.
- Audio Visual Learning
Split visual and auditory working memory resources to process more information than either channel alone can handle.
Use spoken audio for explanations paired with visual diagrams
- Dual Coding Learn With Words And Pictures Together At Work
Dual coding, a theory developed by Allan Paivio, holds that the mind processes verbal and visual information through two partly separate channels, so combining words with relevant images gives a memory two routes instead of one. Controlled studies support that well-designed word-plus-picture material is learned better than words alone — provided the visuals carry meaning rather than decorate.
- Dual Coding Learn With Words And Pictures Together During Conflict
Dual coding, a theory developed by Allan Paivio, holds that the mind processes verbal and visual information through two partly separate channels, so combining words with relevant images gives a memory two routes instead of one. Controlled studies support that well-designed word-plus-picture material is learned better than words alone — provided the visuals carry meaning rather than decorate.
- Dual Coding Learn With Words And Pictures Together With My Partner
Dual coding, a theory developed by Allan Paivio, holds that the mind processes verbal and visual information through two partly separate channels, so combining words with relevant images gives a memory two routes instead of one. Controlled studies support that well-designed word-plus-picture material is learned better than words alone — provided the visuals carry meaning rather than decorate.
- Dual Channel Learning
Read about it, draw it, say it aloud, and use it in an example — all in one session.
Use multiple modalities to encode information, not just one
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