Visual Language Retention: Do visual attributes of multimedia utilized in the classroom have an effect on retention?

Multimedia presentation of information in instruction is widely used in many academic and business settings around the world. The multimedia part of this instruction is not only the use of computers, but also includes textbooks with pictures, handouts, videos, etc., anything that uses “multiple” sources of media and multiple perceptions to learn. Today there is a need for a well-defined, wide-spread, and easy to remember definition of visual grammar for presentation software use in the classroom. This research presents the finding of three attributes of this visual grammar, background color, font style and text density. A platform of presentation software was used to test and define these characteristics on student retention in a classroom setting. In addition, this research was conducted in Japan and the USA to ascertain if there is a cross cultural difference in these statistical findings. The results revealed a statistical difference and preference in certain colors, and font styles particular to country specific groups. In addition, results indicated no cultural difference between groups for text density, but revealed a statistically significant result to define an optimum text density with regards to higher retention rates.