Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal on Comprehension and Assembly of Instructions Efeitos da Valência e Excitação Emocional na Compreensão e Montagem de Instruções Efectos de la valencia y la activación emocional en la comprensión y ejecución de instrucciones

IRRAZABAL, NATALIA; BURIN, DEBORA

Trends in Psychology

Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH

Año: 2021 vol. 29 p. 104 - 122

2358-1883

Research on multimedia comprehension from the emotional design perspective has suggested that including graphical elements enhances positive affect and learning. On the other hand, the seductive detail literature found that attractive but irrelevant images can hinder comprehension and learning. The present study has addressed the effect of decorative images with affective properties (valence and arousal) in procedural multimedia comprehension. First, a validation study determined the images? affective properties; stimuli high or low in both dimensions were systematically introduced in the second experiment, which tested the images? effect in mean study time when learning the instructions, and accuracy during object assembly. Low arousal images made participants study the instructions faster, and high arousal images led to more errors in performance. Valence did not have a differential effect. Overall, in line with the seductive detail effect, these findings argue against including irrelevant, highly arousing, emotional information in instructional materials.