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ERIC Number: EJ1474777
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-May
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0888-4080
EISSN: EISSN-1099-0720
Available Date: 2025-05-08
Seductive Details in Learning Text--Less Harmful if They Are Grouped Together Instead of Interspersed?
Lukas Wesenberg1; Felix Krieglstein1; Sascha Schneider2; Günter Daniel Rey1
Applied Cognitive Psychology, v39 n3 e70065 2025
This study examined if the number of interruptions caused by interesting side notes in learning text is critical for the detrimental effect that is generally found when such seductive details are included, and consequently, if this effect can be mitigated by grouping these details together instead of interspersing them. Results confirmed that extraneous cognitive load was increased and transfer performance impaired in conditions with seductive details. However, no significant differences were found between the grouped condition with five seductive details placed directly one after another (one interruption), and the interspersed condition with five seductive details placed at different positions (several interruptions). It is recommended to avoid interesting digressions in teaching, regardless of whether they are spread across the learning material or grouped together in one place. The extent of the seductive detail effect might rather depend on the amount of seductive details presented than the number of interruptions caused.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Psychology of Learning With Digital Media, Institute for Media Research, Faculty of Humanities, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany; 2Educational Technology, Institute of Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland