The effect of humor on learning in a planetarium

Abstract

The effect of humor on retention of information was examined. The planetarium at COSI, Ohio's Center of Science & Industry in Columbus, was the source of the study. General public museum visitors were the subjects. A total of 495 adult subjects, ages 18 and older, were involved. Subjects were presented with one of two versions of a 15‐minute taped general astronomy show. The two versions were identical except that one had humorous inserts. The humor in the humorous version was related to and integrated with the educational material and was presented at a fast pace. Humor was placed every 90 seconds in the middle of the concept being explained. A total of 20 concepts were described in the show, 10 of which had humorous inserts and which alternated with the 10 nonhumorous concepts. After the show visitors received a 20‐question test to determine their short‐term retention of the information. The questions were taken directly from the show's script. The test was of a fill‐in‐the‐blank format. Results indicated that the visitors who saw a humorous show had less retention of the instructional material and scored lower on the test than visitors who saw a nonhumorous show. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 81:703–713, 1997.

Impacts of humor and relevance on the remembering of lecture details

“…In contrast, Fisher (1997) reported results counter to the previous studies. He presented humorous and non-humorous astronomical shows and tested recall of the content among public visitors in a planetarium.…”

“…His contradictory evidence might result from the fact that subjects (i.e., public visitors) were sampled from a diverse population in terms of age and prior familiarity of astronomy, whereas the majority of other studies sampled relatively homogeneous characteristics of subjects (e.g., college students). Additionally, Fisher (1997) assessed only recall performance, while the other studies used a recognition test (Kaplan and Pascoe 1977) or an in-class exam (Ziv 1988) as an outcome variable. The difference in the type of memory assessments might explain the inconsistent findings among previous studies.…”

“…Previous studies have assessed only either recall (Garner 2006;Fisher 1997) or recognition (Kaplan and Pascoe 1977). As discussed earlier, humor effect may depend on whether an outcome variable is recall or recognition.…”

“…In educational settings, memory performance was improved by humorous narratives (Garner 2006;Ziv 1988) and verbal comments and speeches (Fisher 1997;Kaplan and Pascoe 1977). Moreover, Carlson (2011) and Takahashi and Inoue (2009) have found that visual stimuli were recalled better when they were labeled in a humorous manner than when they were not.…”

Investigation of the Preservice Science Teachers’ Astronomy Conceptions via Planetarium Trip

“…Having a structure that can be used effectively in science education when it is considered from the point of view of disciplines, planetariums help to present an effective and fun learning environment to students by attracting their attention (Adams & Slater, 2000;Ertaş & Şen, 2011;Fisher, 1997;Plummer, 2009). …”