Task Experience as a Boundary Condition for the Negative Effects of Irrelevant Information on Learning

Abstract

Research on multimedia learning has shown that learning is hampered when a multimedia message includes extraneous information that is not relevant for the task, because processing the extraneous information uses up scarce attention and working memory resources. However, eye-tracking research suggests that task experience might be a boundary condition for this negative effect of extraneous information on learning, because people seem to learn to ignore task-irrelevant information over time. We therefore hypothesised that extraneous information might no longer hamper learning when it is present over a series of tasks, giving learners the chance to adapt their study strategy. This hypothesis was tested in three experiments. In experiments 1a/1b, participants learned the definitions of new words (from an artificial language) that denoted actions, with matching pictures (same action), mismatching pictures (another action), or without pictures. Mismatching pictures hampered learning compared with matching pictures. Experiment 2 showed that task experience may indeed be a boundary condition to this negative effect on learning: the initial negative effect was no longer present when learners gained experience with the task. This suggests that learners adapted their study strategy, ignoring the mismatching pictures. That hypothesis was tested in experiment 3, using eye tracking. Results showed that attention to the pictures waned with task experience, and that this decrease was stronger for mismatching than for matching pictures. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating multimedia effects over time and in relation to study strategies.

With task experience students learn to ignore the content, not just the location of irrelevant information

“…First, to check whether we could replicate prior findings by Rop et al (2016) that performance is initially hampered by mismatching pictures, we performed a mixed ANOVA on recall performance with Word Block (first or second) as within-subjects factor and Picture Match (matching or mismatching) as between-subjects factor. Then, to test our hypothesis concerning the effects of the location change on recall performance we conducted 2 × 2 ANOVAs with Picture Match (matching or mismatching) and Location Change (yes or no) as between-subjects factors on recall performance in Block 3.…”

“…Combined, these findings suggest that changing the location of matching pictures seemed to have a small negative effect on word learning. Eye-tracking data from the study by Rop et al (2016) showed that matching pictures continuously attracted a substantial amount of attention, from an average of 76% of fixation time in Block 1 to 60% in Block 3, over the course of the experiment. Thus, in the present study, when the location of these pictures suddenly changed in Block 3, participants might have wondered why the location of the pictures changed, which would distract from learning the definitions.…”

“…However, a recent study comparing the effect of matching and mismatching pictures on word learning, suggested that task experience might be a boundary condition to this effect (Rop et al, 2016). The negative effect on learning was present initially but no longer occurred once learners gained task experience, because they started to ignore the irrelevant information.…”

“…A recent study yielded evidence in line with this hypothesis (Rop, Van Wermeskerken, De Nooijer, Verkoeijen, & Van Gog, 2016). Participants learned the definitions of 15 words (from an artificial language called Vimmi; see Macedonia & Knösche, 2011) in 3 blocks of 5 words, with a recall test after each block.…”

“…In two conditions, the pictures were presented underneath the word during the whole experiment (these conditions replicate the conditions in Rop et al, 2016), while in the other two conditions the location of the pictures changed in Block 3, in which they were now presented above the word.…”