====== The Spatial Contiguity Principle ======


===== Theory =====

The spatial contiguity principle suggests that related information sources should be **spatially integrated** in order to reduce attention-splitting and facilitate learning.


===== Practice =====

[[http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki/index.php/Split_attention_effect|{{  :images:split_attention.jpg?450x220|Spatial contiguity principle. Image borrowed from: http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki... Click on the picture to follow the link.}}]]An example of a solved mathematical problem taking into consideration and ignoring the spatial contiguity principle is presented in image on the right. Example A shows separated text and graph (two information sources), whereas example B shows same two information sources, but this time spatially integrated. For another example see work of Florax and Ploetzner(([[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475209000358|Florax, Mareike, and Rolf Ploetzner. What contributes to the split-attention effect? The role of text segmentation, picture labelling, and spatial proximity. Learning and Instruction 20, no. 3: 216-224. June 2010.]])).



===== Research status =====

Experiments have confirmed importance of this principle(([[http://visuallearningresearch.wiki.educ.msu.edu/file/view/Chandler+%26+Sweller+(1991).pdf|Chandler, P. and Sweller, J. Cognitive load theory and the format of instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 8(4), 293-332. 1991.]])), yet similar results were sometimes obtained using not necessarily spatial contiguity, but **segmenting text** and **labeling the image** as key contributors to it.(([[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475209000358|Florax, Mareike, and Rolf Ploetzner. What contributes to the split-attention effect? The role of text segmentation, picture labelling, and spatial proximity. Learning and Instruction 20, no. 3: 216-224. June 2010.]]))