Abstract
Recent issues in education have given rise to a desire for developing more interesting and engaging learning experiences. However, there is disagreement in the scientific literature over the role of interesting details provided in learning materials (Rey, 2012). Some studies show that highly interesting information can be highly motivating, thus leading to enhanced learning. Other studies find that interesting information that incites high levels of emotional engagement hinders learning. There is some limited evidence that this seductive detail effect is due to additional cognitive load or the priming of inappropriate schema, and therefore, this effect could be weakened if the emotionally interesting information is relevant to the main idea. This study considers whether performance on both recall and transfer tests can be negatively or positively impacted by interesting learning material, depending on the relevance to the main idea.
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