Richard Mayer
Biography
Richard E. Mayer is Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) and a BA in Psychology from Miami University (Oxford, OH). His research interests are in applying the science of learning to education, with a focus on how to help people learn in ways so they can transfer what they have learned to new situations. His research is at the intersection of cognition, instruction, and technology, with current projects on multimedia learning, computer-supported learning, computer games for learning, learning in immersive virtual reality, learning with animated pedagogical agents, and instructional video.
He served as President of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and Vice President of the American Educational Research Association for Division C (Learning and Instruction). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, Association for Psychology Science, and American Educational Research Association. He is the former editor of the Educational Psychologist and former co-editor of Instructional Science, and he serves on the editorial boards of 12 journals mainly in educational psychology.
In terms of major awards, he is the winner of the:
E. L. Thorndike Award for career achievement in educational psychology (American Psychological Association Division 15),
Scribner Award for outstanding research in learning and instruction (American Educational Research Association, Division C),
Jonassen Award for excellence in research in the field of instructional design and technology (Association for Educational Communications and Technology),
James McKeen Cattell Award for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to applied psychological research (Association for Psychological Science),
Distinguished Contribution of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award (American Psychological Association)
Citizen Psychologist Citation for four decades of service as a local school board member (American Psychological Association)
Faculty Researcher Lecturer, which is the highest honor the UCSB faculty can bestow on one of its members (UCSB Academic Senate)
In terms of major rankings, he is:
Ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world in Contemporary Educational Psychology,
Ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world in Educational Psychology Review,
Ranked #1 as the most cited educational psychologist in the world by Google Scholar,
Ranked in the upper 0.01% of scientists in the world based on total citations by PLoS Biology,
Ranked in the top 100 research psychologists in the world by research.com (#27 in the United States and #50 in the world)
He has served as Principal Investigator or co-PI on more than 40 grants, including recent grants from the Office of Naval Research, the Institute of Education Sciences, and the National Science Foundation. He is the author of more than 600 publications including 40 books, such as Multimedia Learning: Third Edition, The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning: Third Edition (co-editor with L. Fiorella), e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Fifth Edition (with R. Clark), Learning as a Generative Activity (with L. Fiorella), How to Be a Successful Student, Computer Games for Learning, Applying the Science of Learning, Learning and Instruction: Second Edition, Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction: Second Edition (co-editor with P. Alexander), and Handbook of Game-Based Learning (co-Editor with J. Plass & B. Homer).
Research
Dr. Mayer's main interest is in determining how people learn (i.e., the science of learning) and how to help people learn (i.e., the science of instruction). Dr. Mayer's research concerns the intersection of cognition, instruction, and technology, including: (1) multimedia learning, such as determining how people learn scientific explanations from computer-based animation, video, and narration; how illustrations affect how people learn from scientific text; or how people learn to solve problems from interactive simulations; (2) learning in computer-supported environments, such as how to improve learning with online pedagogical agents, with online intelligent tutoring systems, with mobile devices, and in virtual reality, and (3) computer games for learning, including determining factors that increase the effectiveness of educational games and examining whether playing computer games can cause improvements in cognitive and perceptual skills.
Dr. Mayer is concerned with how to present information in ways that help people understand, including how to use words and pictures to explain scientific and mathematical concepts. His research is motivated by the question, "How can we help people learn in ways that allow them to use what they have learned to solve new problems that they have never seen before?" Building on cognitive science theories of how people learn, he has developed a cognitive of theory of multimedia learning relevant to the design of on-line instruction. During the past two decades he and his colleagues have conducted over 100 experimental tests leading to 12 research-based principles for how to design on-line learning environments and computer-based games. He is now extending this work to the design of computer games for learning, and using social cues such as polite speech and gesture to increase learner motivation.
Current research grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, Office of Naval Research, and the National Science Foundation include studies investigating how people learn with on-line tutors in computer-based mathematics and science lessons, determining which features of educational games promote deep learning, determining the cognitive consequences of playing computer games, using eye-tracking methodology and cognitive neuroscience methodology to determine how people learn from multimedia lessons, and investigating how the gestures and voice of an on-screen pedagogical agent affect student learning from an online lesson. The unifying goal of these projects is to conduct methodologically rigorous studies that yield research-based principles of instructional design and contribute to cognitive science theories of how people learn.
