Taking a new look at seductive details

Mayer, Richard E.

doi:10.1002/acp.3503

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…As evidenced by the current study, and by the recent special issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology (Eitel & Kühl, 2019a ), many studies have found null or beneficial effects of seductive details. Although Mayer still asserts that “adding interesting but irrelevant material to a lesson hurts learning” (Mayer, 2019 , p. 141), we hold that this admonition needs to be qualified. The current study, recent publications in the special issue, and the meta‐analyses all highlight the fact that the seductive detail effect is mediated by a variety of factors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Inconsistent seduction: Addressing confounds and methodological issues in the study of the seductive detail effect

Tislar

Steelman

2021

Brain and Behavior

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Introduction:The inclusion of interesting but irrelevant details in instructional materials may interfere with recall and application of the core content. Although this seductive detail effect is well researched, recent research highlights factors that may influence the effect size. Objectives:The current study discusses confounds and methodological issues in the study of seductive details and outlines strategies for overcoming them. These practices were then applied in a study that examined the role of learning objectives on the seductive detail effect.Methods: Seductive details were selected on the basis of interest and importance level and matched for word count and reading level. The 3 × 2 between-subjects design presented 132 undergraduate students with a lesson on plate tectonics; participants completed tests on both recall and transfer.Results: Results did not reveal a consistent detrimental effect of high-interest details on core content recall and transfer. On the recall test, contrary to expectation, the seductive detail effect obtained only when objectives were provided. A similar pattern emerged on the transfer task. Conclusion:These findings highlight the difficulty of consistently eliciting the seductive detail effect. We discuss outstanding issues that must be addressed in order to develop practical guidelines on the inclusion of seductive details in educational materials. K E Y W O R D Sinstructional design, learning objectives, methods, multimedia learning, seductive detail effect INTRODUCTIONEducators have long struggled with how to engage learners who may not find lesson content inherently interesting. In an attempt to capture and hold learners' attention, some educators enhance possibly not-so-interesting educational materials with spiced-up details, jokes, cartoons, fun facts, videos, animations, and songs-even if the infor-This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Inconsistent seduction: Addressing confounds and methodological issues in the study of the seductive detail effect

Tislar

Steelman

2021

Brain and Behavior

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“…Being entertaining does not always interfere with learning, but it can. For example, adding interesting but irrelevant tidbits of information to a text or lecture can decrease learning (Fries, DeCaro, & Ramirez, 2019; Harp & Maslich, 2005; Mayer, Griffith, Jurkowitz, & Rothman, 2008; Mayer, 2019). The bottom line is, SET can cause professors to give students what they want rather than what they need.…”

Section: Three Shortcomings Of Setmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why and how you should read student evaluations of teaching.

Kornell

2020

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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If you think student evaluations of teaching (SET) tell you how much students learn from a teacher, get used to disappointment. SET scores are not correlated with learning (Uttl, White, & Gonzalez, 2017), they can create perverse incentives for teachers, and they are biased (Carpenter, Witherby, & Tauber, 2020). Criticisms like these have led some to suggest that SET should be abandoned. I argue that they should not. SET are biased, but most of this bias comes from the students, so there is no unbiased alternative. They do create bad incentives, but they create good incentives as well. Most important, SET measure student opinion. Knowing what the students think is not as good as knowing how good a teacher is, but student opinion does matter. SET are easy to misread, but useful if one knows how to use them. As Mike Tyson said, "It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading." 1 Why should you listen to me? I am a professor of cognitive psychology at Williams College, a liberal arts college that prides itself on good teaching. I recently helped design a new SET form for Williams and I have written about SET before (Kornell & Hausman, 2016). Also, defending SET goes against my own bias: I hate SET. My first year at Williams College, I was shattered by my low ratings. Ten years later, my ratings are average, but like a rat that has been shocked repeatedly, I still freeze when I think about students judging me. Three Shortcomings of SET"The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." -Winston Churchill 2Other articles have detailed the shortcomings of SET (

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“…The seductive details effect is one of the most popular research topics in multimedia learning (Li et al, 2019) and research has shown that seductive details can inhibit learning, but this is not always the case as a number of variables may moderate the effect (Mayer, 2019). It remains unclear whether ego depletion is one of the potential moderators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inconsistent interactions between the seductive details effect and ego depletion in multimedia learning

Wang

Schroeder

2022

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Multimedia learning often consists of a sequence of tasks, and research suggests that the sequence itself may influence learning outcomes. This study examines one theory related to task sequencing, known as ego depletion, and its interaction with a well‐established instructional design effect, the seductive details effect. To investigate the potential impact of ego depletion, a state of depleted self‐control strength, on learning with seductive details, which are interesting but irrelevant elements of the instruction, we conducted a randomized controlled experiment in which both ego depletion and seductive details were manipulated as two between‐subjects independent variables. Although manipulation checks confirmed the efficacy of the interventions, we found mixed results in learning outcome measures, particularly in the investigation of an interaction between the seductive details effect and ego depletion. Specifically, we found an amplified seductive details effect on transfer but not retention for depleted participants. These results suggest that ego depletion may not always occur to an extent that significantly influences learning in learner‐paced learning environments.

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Taking a new look at seductive details

Abstract: This is the author manuscript accepted for publication and has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

Cited by 10 publications

References 25 publications

Inconsistent seduction: Addressing confounds and methodological issues in the study of the seductive detail effect

Inconsistent seduction: Addressing confounds and methodological issues in the study of the seductive detail effect

Why and how you should read student evaluations of teaching.

Inconsistent interactions between the seductive details effect and ego depletion in multimedia learning

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