Abstract
The present study investigates affective-motivational, attention, and learning effects of unexplored emotional design manipulation:Contextual animation(animation of contextual elements) in multimedia learning game (MLGs) for children. Participants (N= 134;M-age= 9.25; Grades 3 and 4) learned either from an experimental version of the MLG with a high amount of contextual animation or from an identical MLG with no contextual animation (control).
Children strongly preferred (chi(2)= 87.04,p < .001) and found the experimental version more attractive (p < .001,d= -1.11). No significant differences in overall enjoyment and learning outcomes were found.
Attention differences, measured by dwell times and fixation durations, were small and reached only borderline significance (p= .035;d= -0.39). The implication is that contextual animation in MLG for children increases such instructional materials' attractiveness without compromising cognitive processes needed for learning; however, it does not lead to their higher instructional efficiency.