Emotional Design of Educational Animations: Effects on Emotion, Learning, Motivation and Interest

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of different formats of emotionally designed educational animations in terms of the emotional worthiness of the material, retention and transfer, intrinsic motivation, subject interest and cognitive load. In this direction, an experimental research approach was adopted. Five emotionally diverged animations were developed for the study, one of which was designed without adding any appealing illustrations. Animations were about the life cycle of low mass stars and was developed by researchers under the supervision of an animation expert. With one control and four treatment groups, experiment was carried out with the participation of 256 students at a state university in Turkey. Data were gathered using Turkish adaptation of Subject Interest Scale, Intrinsic Motivation Scale, one-item Subjective Cognitive Load Scale, and a retention test, a transfer tests and an emotional experience survey which were developed by the researchers. Turkish adaptation process of Subject Interest Scale and Intrinsic Motivation Scale were also conducted by the researchers. Findings showed that two of the animations, both of which included character animations and one of which was enhanced by an introduction music and emotionally complementary sound effects, were emotionally effective. According to the results, emotionally effective animations had positive effects on transfer, intrinsic motivation and subject interest while no effect was found in terms of retention and cognitive load.

Emotional design pictures: Pleasant but too weak to evoke arousal and attract attention?

“…An emotional design apparently needs a certain intensity to induce arousal, but should not be too strong, otherwise the stimulus could have a distracting effect (see seductive detail effect; Park et al, 2011). Supporting this, Bülbül and Abdullah (2021) achieved convincing effects on emotions and educational variables such as transfer, interest, and intrinsic motivation for a complex, intense emotional design animation. Static pictures based on the emotional design criteria of Um et al (2012), however lead to conflicting results regarding their influence on emotions and educational variables and is suspected to be not intense enough to induce emotions and attract attention (e.g., Stárková et al, 2019;Bülbül and Abdullah, 2021).…”

“…In contrast to the results of the two meta-analyses, the effects reported in individual studies appear to be quite inconsistent. While some studies found the emotional design to change the affective state (e.g., Um et al, 2012 ; Uzun and Yıldırım, 2018 ; Shangguan et al, 2020 ; Bülbül and Abdullah, 2021 ), other studies found no effects (e.g., Münchow et al, 2017 ; Münchow and Bannert, 2019 ; Stárková et al, 2019 ; Peng et al, 2021 ). The effect on learning also varies and different factors can cause inconsistent findings.…”

“…For younger students, Valsiner and Connolly (2003) assume that they are less able to perceive and communicate their affective state. Consequently, several authors call for more objective measures in studying the affective state (e.g., Brom et al, 2016 ; Bülbül and Abdullah, 2021 ; Irrazabal and Burin, 2021 ; Peng et al, 2021 ). Moreover, previous research (e.g., Moreno, 2006 ; Moreno and Mayer, 2007 ; Park et al, 2015 ) allows the conclusion that the affective state influences attention, and attention, in turn, influences learning.…”

Emotional Design in Concept Maps – No Support but Also No Burden

“…Varying intensity of emotional design could be one possible cause (Park et al, 2015) as features of emotional design could include variations in shape, color, and sound, as well as the use of anthropomorphic graphics. So far, studies that incorporate only one design feature (e.g., color; Heidig et al, 2015) and those applying various, potentially more intensive manipulations such as sounds, animations, and anthropomorphisms (Uzun and Yıldırım, 2018;Bülbül and Abdullah, 2021) are summarized under the umbrella term emotional design. Furthermore, the different ways in which the learning material is presented (e.g., paper-based or computer-based) must be considered.…”

“…Since our study was conducted in an authentic learning environment, the paper-based study books could not include sounds or animations. The resulting emotional design might, therefore, be "weaker" compared to computer-based (animated) designs [see the emotional designs applied in Uzun and Yıldırım (2018) or Bülbül and Abdullah (2021)]. Another aspect could be the learning topic.…”