Allen, W. H. (1975). Intellectual abilities and instructional media design. AV Communication Review, 23, 139-170.

«This paper has two objectives. First, to determine whether interactions exist between the intellectual abilities of learners and the different ways instructional media may be designed and produced; and, second, to translate the findings from this search into prescriptions for the actual development of instructional products.» (p. 139)

«A SUMMING-UP. There is no easy answer to the problem of selecting the optimum presentational mode for a particular ability group. This fact is brought out clearly by the Koran, Snow, and McDonald (1971) study. Here the complexity and visual richness of the video-modeling (filmic) treatment, which might be expected to favor the higher perceptual-analytic individuals, in fact favored the lower ability group, possibly because it compensated for their deficiencies in perceptual processing and analytical skills. It did this by providing an explicit and detailed concrete presentation of the content at a pace slow enough to permit them to process the information. Thus, one design technique may override the effects of another, and it is the designer's task to weigh their relative effects. The opposite effect may have occurred in the Gropper and Lumsdaine (1961) study, where there was an expectation for higher learning by low ability learners from response-eliciting stimuli, but the high difficulty level and rapid fixed-pace of the presentation resulted in better gains for the high ability learners. Then, too, different design techniques may exert their effects when they work in combination with other techniques. The Allen (1970) study is an example of advance organizers working together with the posing of questions to produce a particular influence on learning by different ability groups that did not occur when either technique was used alone. Thus, the production of effective communications may still be largely an art, but an art that utilizes established principles of how individuals learn and what means may be used to enhance that learning.

Although the results and generalizations presented in this paper are tentative at best, they are in general accord. There seems to be a consistency of finding that points logically to one kind of media design approach for one class of learners and to another kind for the opposite class, with a substantial area of overlap shared by both. No claim of finality is made here for the conclusions that have been drawn, only that they present a reasonable and empirically based model for the design of instructional media for learners of different mental abilities. They should be tested further for their appropriateness and modified or expanded through the experience that is gained from such evaluation and use.» (p. 165-6)