Benefits of emotional design in multimedia instruction

Who Benefits from Diagrams and Illustrations in Math Problems? Ability and Attitudes Matter

“…Indeed, the relevant spatial information in the illustrations may have mitigated the potential disruption of the other seductive details for students with high ability. In light of these findings, and in line with others (e.g., Mayer & Estrella, 2014), we suggest that researchers need more nuanced ways to determine what aspects of an illustration are truly extraneous.…”

“…Similarly, Belenky and Schalk (2014) argue that the extent to which a representation is grounded can influence interest, with purely diagrammatic representations being associated with lower interest than visual representations with more detail. However, it is worth noting that not all studies reveal beneficial effects of visual representations on problem evaluations or other motivational outcomes (Harp & Mayer, 1997;Lehman, Schraw, McCrudden, & Hartley, 2007;Mayer & Estrella, 2014).…”

The Better You Feel the Better You Learn: Do Warm Colours and Rounded Shapes Enhance Learning Outcome in Multimedia Learning?

“…The authors refer to these findings as the so-called emotions as facilitator of learning hypothesis ( [8], p. 3). Although these results are promising, subsequent research failed to coherently replicate these initial findings (e.g., [10,11]). Accordingly, the present study further investigates whether positive affect can be induced in the learning situation throughout the design of the learning material and whether positive affect facilitates learning outcome.…”

“…There are several possible explanations for an only partly successful treatment. Results on the effectiveness of emotional design paradigms are generally not consistent: Um and colleagues [8] were able to induce positive affect using warm colours and anthropomorphic design elements that enhanced learning outcome; Plass and colleagues [9] only found partly similar results; Park and colleagues [11] as well as and Mayer and Estrella [10] failed in inducing positive affect.…”

“…Kim et al [54], for example, found that the use of circled shapes in hypermedia environments predicts positive activating feelings such as strength and powerfulness. Other studies indicated that positive affect can be elicited by round and human-like shapes (e.g., [10,55]). …”