Can Motion Graphic Animation About Snakes Improve Preschoolers’ Detection on Snakes? A Study of Inattentional Blindness

Abstract

This study created a motion graphic (MG) animation about the danger of snakes within a story telling structure, which is different from a traditional science animation that relies on explanatory language to explain the scientific concept. The effects of the two types of animations on children’s attentional perception on snakes were compared by an inattentional blindness (IB) task. Three groups of children undertook the IB task with one control group who did not watch the animation and the other two groups who watched the MG and the traditional styled animation, respectively in advance. The results showed that: (1) Children who watched the animation were significantly more likely to detect the unexpected snake images in the IB task than those who did not watch the animation; (2) Children who watched the MG animation showed a higher detection rate on the snake images than those who watched the traditional animation. The findings indicate that the intervention of animation would increase children’s attentional perception on the key concepts significantly. The MG animation has more impact than the traditional animation on children’s attentional perception on the key information. This study demonstrates that MG animation may have a significant value in promoting science education for young children that merits further explorations in depth.

Attentional development can help us understand the inattentional blindness effect in visual search

“…With these effects in mind, it might be that a dynamic attentional task, together with a moving IB stimulus could produce lower levels of IB in the younger children, at least compared to the high IB levels we have found using our static visual search paradigm with letter/word stimuli. A recent study has found results supporting this possibility, showing that young children (4-6 yearsold) are more able to detect unexpected stimuli under dynamic conditions (Fang et al, 2021). We are also testing this motionstatic difference in IB in our new study with non-linguistic stimuli.…”

“…The effect on the youngest children might also be influenced by the use of letters/words. Although children of 4-5 years old are able to distinguish letters and words from images (Evans et al, 2009), it would be useful to replicate the IB results with non-linguistic stimuli. For the present, the development of reading skills at those ages may have complicated the detection of IB, particularly in the word IB task.…”

Motion Graphics, un recurso audiovisual en el modelo del flipped classroom

“…En Australia, Fang et al (2021) proponen aplicar el motion graphics como herramienta para enseñar sobre el peligro de las serpientes en matorrales, utilizando una estructura de storytelling, con el objetivo de examinar si este tipo de animación es más eficaz que la animación tradicional a la hora de dar significado a los conceptos claves para los niños cuando ambas transmiten la misma información con una estructura narrativa similar. Para este estudio se produjeron dos animaciones educativas cortas, una con motion graphics y otra con animación de estilo tradicional con un lenguaje más explicativo.…”