Research On The Effect Of Emotional Design In Multimedia Learning

The rapid development of science and technology has brought education into the information age.In this context,educators are encouraged to explore the deep integration of modern technology and education,in order to give full play to the important role of education informatization in educational reform and development.At present,computer-based multimedia learning has become an important learning environment for primary and secondary school students in their daily lives,thus giving educators more opportunities to adapt and design learning materials to influence students’ emotion and enhance learning.However,simply taking an emotional tone of in the learning content does not automatically lead to the improvement of learning effectiveness,so it is important to explore how to implement effective emotional design in multimedia learning.Therefore,the purpose of this study is to explore the effects of emotional design on cognitive load,learning motivation,memory retention and knowledge comprehension of junior high school students through quasi-experimental methods,based on a range of underlying theories related to cognitive and affective aspects in multimedia learning.The experimental design was a 2(valence: positive vs.negative)x2(arousal: high vs.low)factorial design,carried out in different learning modes(learner-paced vs.system-paced)so as to explore emotional design effects depending on if participants were able to exert control over the multimedia instruction.The participants were 216 seventh-grade students from a junior high school in Fujian Province.The results showed significant effects of emotional design,while revealing different patterns in these two learning pace modes.In general,using pictures with negative valence was better for leaning outcomes than that with positive valence,which promoted memory retention and knowledge comprehension,but it was also more likely to trigger a high level of cognitive load.Using pictures with high arousal was easier to improve learning motivation than using pictures with low arousal.In addition,the interaction effect of emotional valence and emotional arousal was only reflected in the system-paced learning mode.According to the research results,this paper shed some important light on the emotional design in multimedia learning.First,consider both valence and arousal to make emotional design effective.Second,face up to the role of negative emotions and make reasonable use of negative-valence pictures.Third,select moderately high arousal pictures to improve students’ learning motivation.Fourth,for emotions from pictures and words,keep them consistent to reduce cognitive and emotional conflicts.Fifth,flexibly adjust the emotional design content according to the learning pace mode.