Redundancy principle refers to the fact that capacity of both human information channels can unnecessarily be overloaded by redundant information presented through both channels thereby negatively affecting learning process.¹⁾

The redundancy principle refers for example to a learning material in which a text is presented near a picture to explain it, but similar spoken text (carrying same information) is also included in the material. The related information should be complementary. The same (redundant) information is presented to the learner through both information channels, unnecessarily wasting cognitive resources when they could be used to obtain more related useful information.

Still, some research has also pointed that the negative redundancy effect does not occur if redundant information is short and respects spatial contiguity principles.²⁾