Anthropomorphic faces and funny graphics in an instructional animation may improve superficial rather than deep learning: A quasi-experimental study
Abstract
Information about what visual elements in instructional animations enhance learning via mediating effects of elevated engagement is largely lacking. In this study, high school students (n = 41) interacted in a laboratory with a roughly 6-minute-long, black-and-white, instructional animation with "emotionally" enhanced graphics.
The topic was biological wastewater treatment. The enhancements included a) adding static faces for two schematic visual elements and b) changing the neutral appearance of a fish and a river bed to funny appearances.
The participants' learning outcomes (assessed by retention and transfer tests) and the participants' state engagement (indexed by generalized positive affect and flow levels) were compared to data from a group of comparable students interacting with the same animation with neutral graphics (n = 37) in a previous study. The two groups did not differ in state engagement (flow: d = -0.16; positive affect: d = 0.03) and transfer test scores (d = 0.13), but there was a small trend favoring the enhanced graphics in the retention test, when corrected for pretest scores (?2 = 0.038; p = .095).
Qualitative data suggest that the graphical enhancements might serve as memory cues during the test phase for some participants. The small effect of the enhanced graphics on retention may thus be of cognitive, rather than of affective, origin.
This study demonstrates the importance of considering emotional manipulations in future research.