--- title: "Draw it as you explain: pictures and words | DuckyHelper" url: "https://duckyhelper.com/research/principles/draw-it-as-you-explain/" description: "Multimedia learning in plain words: why words with pictures beat words alone, why watching a drawing appear helps, and how DuckyHelper draws as it talks." updated: "2026-10-09" --- Pictures and words # Draw it as you explain People learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone, because they connect the two in their heads (Mayer and Moreno, 2003; Clark and Paivio, 1991). Watching a diagram being drawn while it is explained helped beginners more than seeing it already drawn (Fiorella and Mayer, 2016). DuckyHelper draws while it talks: on your real screen with Ducky, and on Eddy's blackboard in the Eddy tab. > “meaningful learning involves cognitive processing including building connections between pictorial and verbal representations” [Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43-52.](https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6) From Mayer and Moreno (2003), Educational Psychologist. Reproduced for commentary. Source: [Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43-52.](https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6). In DuckyHelper ## It draws while it talks In the film, Ducky's real pen underlines Mayer and Moreno's line, then draws a pendulum. Pictures and words arrive together: - It draws on your real screen (Mac app) - It points while it talks (Mac app) - Words and drawing in time (Mac and web) - Labels on the picture (Mac and web) - You can point too (Mac app) ## What the research found Richard Mayer and Roxana Moreno summed up years of multimedia research in one idea: understanding comes from linking what you see with what you hear. Their paper lists nine ways to keep either channel from being overloaded, such as narrating a picture instead of covering it with text, and putting words next to the part they describe. Dual coding theory (Clark and Paivio, 1991) gives the older reason: memory has a verbal code and an imagery code, and teaching can use both. ### Drawing beats a finished picture In five experiments, Logan Fiorella and Richard Mayer compared a video lesson with already-drawn diagrams against the same lesson where the instructor drew the diagrams by hand: > watching the instructor draw diagrams (by viewing the instructor's full body) resulted in significantly better transfer test performance than viewing already-drawn diagrams for learners with low prior knowledge (Fiorella & Mayer, 2016) Pointing and gesture help in a similar way. Children asked to gesture while learning a new math idea kept what they learned better (Cook, Mitchell and Goldin-Meadow, 2008), and a diagram can make a problem easier simply because related things sit in one place (Larkin and Simon, 1987). ## Feature by feature ### It draws on your real screen In the Mac app, Ducky circles, underlines, boxes and labels things on your own page, one mark at a time like a pen, in any app. The marks stay on what they were drawn on when you scroll. *Mac app.* ### It points while it talks When it says "this", a round blue pointer flies to the spot and labels it. *Mac app.* ### Words and drawing in time On Eddy's blackboard, you hear each sentence just as its drawing appears, so what you hear and what you see line up. The picture grows piece by piece instead of being redrawn. *Mac and web.* ### Labels on the picture Ask Eddy to show you inside a leaf: a picture comes into focus and labels are drawn on it one by one as Eddy names the parts. Click a part to ask about it. *Mac and web.* ### You can point too In the Mac app, hold **fn + cmd** and move the mouse over something: a blue trail follows, and Ducky gets a picture with your path on it, so "what is this?" just works. *Mac app.* The real pen circles the slip on the learner's own page, then draws what the triangle means. What this page does not claim These studies tested other people, other schools and other tools. DuckyHelper has not been tested in a study like these, so none of these results are DuckyHelper's results. They are the reasons behind how it teaches. ## The papers on this page ### Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning Mayer & Moreno, 2003. Educational Psychologist. People learn by linking pictures and words, if neither channel is overloaded. ### Dual coding theory and education Clark & Paivio, 1991. Educational Psychology Review. Memory has verbal and imagery codes, and teaching can use both. ### Effects of observing the instructor draw diagrams on learning from multimedia messages Fiorella & Mayer, 2016. Journal of Educational Psychology. Watching an instructor draw diagrams while explaining helped low prior knowledge learners transfer more than seeing finished diagrams. ### Gesturing makes learning last Cook, Mitchell & Goldin-Meadow, 2008. Cognition. Children who gestured while learning a new math idea kept what they learned better. ### Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math Goldin-Meadow, Cook & Mitchell, 2009. Psychological Science. Children told to make correct gestures during a math lesson learned more than children making partial or no gestures. ### Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words Larkin & Simon, 1987. Cognitive Science. Diagrams can make problem solving easier because they put related information in one place. ### DeFT: A conceptual framework for considering learning with multiple representations Ainsworth, 2006. Learning and Instruction. The DeFT framework for when learning with several representations (text, graphs, pictures) helps. ### Animation: can it facilitate? Tversky, Morrison & Betrancourt, 2002. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. A review that asks whether animation beats static graphics, and finds the benefits often come from other differences. ### The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall Wammes, Meade & Fernandes, 2016. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Drawing a word's meaning made it easier to recall than writing the word out, across seven experiments. ### Creating visual explanations improves learning Bobek & Tversky, 2016. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. Students who created visual explanations of a bicycle pump and of chemical bonding learned more. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is multimedia learning? The finding that people learn more deeply from words and pictures together than from words alone, as long as neither channel is overloaded. Richard Mayer's research is the best known; Mayer and Moreno (2003) list nine ways to reduce overload. ### Why is watching someone draw better than a finished diagram? In Fiorella and Mayer (2016), learners with little prior knowledge did better on transfer tests after watching the instructor draw diagrams than after seeing them already drawn. Drawing shows the parts in the order they are explained. ### Can DuckyHelper draw on my screen on a Chromebook? No. DuckyHelper is a Mac app (macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon), with no Chromebook or web version right now. In it, Ducky draws on your real screen, and Eddy draws on its own blackboard and on pictures. ## Sources 1. [Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43-52.](https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6) (accessed 2026-10-09) 2. [Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3(3), 149-210.](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01320076) (accessed 2026-10-09) 3. [Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). Effects of observing the instructor draw diagrams on learning from multimedia messages. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(4), 528-546.](https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000065) (accessed 2026-10-09) 4. [Cook, S. W., Mitchell, Z., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 1047-1058.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.010) (accessed 2026-10-09) 5. [Goldin-Meadow, S., Cook, S. W., & Mitchell, Z. A. (2009). Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas About Math. Psychological Science, 20(3), 267-272.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02297.x) (accessed 2026-10-09) 6. [Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987). Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words. Cognitive Science, 11(1), 65-100.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6708.1987.tb00863.x) (accessed 2026-10-09) 7. [Ainsworth, S. (2006). DeFT: A conceptual framework for considering learning with multiple representations. Learning and Instruction, 16(3), 183-198.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2006.03.001) (accessed 2026-10-09) 8. [Tversky, B., Morrison, J. B., & Betrancourt, M. (2002). Animation: can it facilitate? International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 57(4), 247-262.](https://doi.org/10.1006/ijhc.2002.1017) (accessed 2026-10-09) 9. [Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(9), 1752-1776.](https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1094494) (accessed 2026-10-09) 10. [Bobek, E., & Tversky, B. (2016). Creating visual explanations improves learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 1(1), 27.](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-016-0031-6) (accessed 2026-10-09) ## Related principles ### Quiz, don't re-read: retrieval practice The testing effect: why pulling an idea out of memory beats re-reading it, with the real numbers from Roediger and Karpicke, and how DuckyHelper quizzes you. ### Space it out: spaced practice and forgetting The spacing effect and the forgetting curve: why reviewing after a gap beats cramming, what 317 experiments found, and how DuckyHelper schedules review. ### Explain it back in your own words: self-explanation The self-explanation effect: why students who explain ideas to themselves learn more (Chi et al.), the ICAP framework, and how DuckyHelper asks you to think. ## Keep reading ### Showing, not telling: drawing on the learner's screen Design note: why DuckyHelper's tutor points and draws on the learner's own screen, how the screen pen works, and the research behind each choice. ### Show a worked example first The worked example effect: why studying solved problems helps beginners more than solving alone, when it stops helping, and how DuckyHelper shows steps. ### The learning-science library: 100+ papers 100+ real learning-science papers behind DuckyHelper, sorted by principle, each with a citation, a link to the publisher and a one-line summary. ### Circles, arrows and handwritten hints drawn right over your own work, on a Mac On a Mac, DuckyHelper draws on your real screen while it explains: circles, arrows, boxes and labels over any app, and hints written next to your work. ### Eddy writes and draws step by step in time with its voice, then hands you a your-turn Eddy works it out on a blackboard, writing and drawing step by step in time with its voice, then gives you a your-turn and checks your answer. ## Ready to learn DuckyHelper is ready on your Mac. Learn with Eddy on its blackboard, or with Ducky right on your screen. [Download for Mac](https://duckyhelper.com/download/) [See what it does](https://duckyhelper.com/features/) The Mac app needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. There is no Chromebook, Windows or web version right now.