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Abstract

When text passages include seductive details (i.e., interesting, tangentially related adjuncts that are irrelevant to the lesson), students perform worse on recall (Garner, Gillingham, & White, 1989) and problem-solving tests (Harp & Mayer, 1997, 1998) than students reading the same material without seductive details. To determine whether including seductive details during lecture had a similar effect, students listened to a recorded lecture that either contained or did not contain seductive details and took a test on the material. As predicted, students who heard a lecture containing seductive details recalled significantly fewer main points and provided significantly fewer acceptable problem-solving solutions than students who heard the lecture without seductive details. These results suggest that lectures should not include seductive details.

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The Consequences of Including Seductive Details during Lecture

Abstract

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References