Related decorative pictures do not increase triggered or maintained situational interest; in Experiment 2 they reduced maintained interest¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In both experiments, triggered and maintained situational interest did not differ between the pictures and no-pictures conditions; in Experiment 2 maintained situational interest was significantly lower with pictures. → Demian Scherer 2023

Evidence¶

Demian Scherer 2023¶

Demian Scherer, Annika Verkühlen, Stephan Dutke. (2023). Effects of related decorative pictures on learning and metacognition. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-023-09618-8

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Experiment 2 ANCOVA (topic interest as covariate) on the behavioral take-home text choice measure showed reduced maintained interest with pictures, ηp2 = .095. The authors call this "a puzzling finding" and note it may reflect higher sensitivity of the measure or be incidental.

"Regarding maintained situational interest, participants in the group with related decorative pictures indicated to take less materials with them to read (M = 1.62, SD = 1.54) compared to the control group (M = 2.00, SD = 1.39), F(1, 53) = 5.56, p = .022, ηp2 = .095."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Interventions that trigger interest have larger effects on affirming motivations and reading comprehension than interventions that do not — related
• Interesting but irrelevant details can impair comprehension and transfer, with effects that vary with the material and the learner — a broader claim this one bears on
• Related decorative pictures do not enhance transfer performance in either experiment (null results for correctness and metacognitive monitoring) — related
• Sketching and viewing animations produced the best understanding of a geoscience text, while the photograph condition produced the worst — related
• Related decorative pictures improve metacognitive monitoring accuracy for knowledge items in eighth-graders (Experiment 2), but not for transfer items — related
• Reading a text with related decorative pictures yields more correct answers to knowledge items than reading the text without pictures (Experiment 1, university students) — related
• A WestEd research bulletin reports a curriculum revision that replaced a decorative photograph in a math problem with a problem-relevant sketch, on the developers' view that such photographs distract students — related
• GATs produced no reliable immediate learning-experience effects on frustration, cognitive load, or situational interest at either institution — related