Nowadays, picture-text learning has become a mainstream learning mode; however, in the past three decades, a large number of empirical studies have shown that the pictures interesting but irrelevant will inhibit the occurrence of effective learning.

Therefore, there is a debate in academic circles: in order to improve learning efficiency, should learning materials be made more interesting or boring?

In recent years, some studies have explored the boundary conditions of the influence of decorative pictures (words) on learning, and found that decorative details are actually regulated by learners’ prior knowledge, working memory capacity, spatial rotation ability and other variables. However, few studies have focused on the learning materials themselves.

Testing the seductive details effect: Does the format or the amount of seductive details matter?

Recently, associate professor Wang Zhe and his team published a paper entitled “Testing the seductive details effect: Does the format or the amount of seductive details matter?” on Applied Cognitive Psychology. The study is the first one to directly examine the influence of the number and amounts of seductive pictures on learning effect, and provides a potential boundary condition with sufficient evidence for seductive detail effect.

Associate Professor Wang Zhe

The Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, East China Normal University

Experiment 1

01. Method

Eighty-eight students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: base instructional material without seductive images (no seductive details), base instructional material enriched by one single seductive image per screen (single seductive details), and base instructional material enriched by three seductive images per screen (multiple seductive details), students had unlimited time to view the presentation. After viewing the presentation, participants completed the situational interest, cognitive load, and perceived pressure scales followed by the retention and transfer tasks. Participants did not have access to the reading material during the tasks.

02. Conclusion of Experiment 1

The finding revealed that adding one or three seductive images per screen did not significantly increase or decrease learning outcomes as compared to learning without seductive images. Even if the results are surprising and even frustrating, to some extent, it validates the traditional dual-channel theoretical model of information processing: information is processed in verbal channel and non-verbal channel respectively. Thus, the interference information from pictures may not affect the understanding of text information.

To circumvent potential dual-coding that might overshadow the effects of seductive details, the researcher used seductive text instead of seductive images in Experiment

Experiment 2

01. Method

Ninety-nine students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: base instructional material without seductive text (no seductive details), base instructional material enriched by shorter seductive text per screen (shorter seductive details), and base instructional material enriched by longer seductive text per screen (longer seductive details). The process of Experiment 2 is almost the same as that of Experiment 1, besides, the researcher included three new measures focused on perceptions of learning, including, judgment of learning, perceived distractibility, and learning-related emotions.

02. Conclusion of Experiment 2

Experiment 2 shows that: in terms of retention, learners in the long-seductive-details condition marginally outperformed learners in the no-seductive-details condition; in terms of transfer, learners in the long-seductive-details conditions significantly outperformed learners in both the short-seductive-details, and the no-seductive-details conditions.

Further, Experiment 2 also reveals that:

1. Learners in the long-seductive-details conditions spent significantly more time in reading than did both the short-seductive-details, and the no-seductive-details conditions.

2. Learners in the long-seductive-details condition reported experiencing significantly higher germane cognitive load than did learners in both the short-seductive details, and the no-seductive-details conditions.

3. Compared with the no-seductive-details condition, the long-seductive-details condition rated the multimedia lesson significantly more interesting. However, increased situational interest did not lead to increased transfer performance.

4. In terms of perceived distractibility and their judgment of learning, learners with longer seductive text reported being significantly less distracted than learners without seductive details did, and the former group reported that they learned more from the presentation compared with the other two groups.

Overall Conclusion

Experiment 1 verified the traditional dual-channel theoretical model of information processing: information is processed in verbal channel and non-verbal channel respectively, thus, the interference with information from pictures will not affect the understanding of text messages. However, a reverse seductive details effect contrary to traditional research results was found: long-seductive-details enhanced, rather than inhibit learning, especially in terms of transfer. With regard to the beneficial effects observed for learning with longer seductive text, one possible explanation could be related to a desirable difficulty the longer seductive text might have provided.

The study indicates that under the circumstance of self-paced learning, students have sufficient amount of time to study, long-seductive-details may promote learning. This result may challenge the traditional cognitive theoretical framework of multimedia learning.­­