Abstract
A classroom experiment was performed to determine whether auditory or visual presentation of meaningful material is more efficient in producing learning. Prose material was presented to four groups of college students, either visually, by giving each S a mimeographed copy of the material to read, or in the auditory modality by a lecturer actually present in the classroom, through a television monitor, or through a radio. A fifth (control) group read material irrelevant to the subsequent retention test. A multiple-choice retention test indicated that with presentation time the same for all Ss, direct reading of the material (visual) produced retention levels that were higher than those for the three auditory methods of presentation. This result was explained in terms of the greater practice opportunities available to the direct reading group and the visual nature of the retention test. The absence of systematic differences among the three auditory groups suggested that when the only necessary channel of communication is auditory the incidental stimulation provided by the sight of the person making the presentation does not increase learning efficiency.