The influence of animated characters on comprehension and attention performance in a multimedia presentation.

摘要

Research has found that animated characters are capable of capturing users' attention, engaging them in active tasks, and entertaining them. Such capabilities are pedagogical techniques that might create an effective comprehensible multimedia presentation. Quality of voice has also been shown to be an important determinant of comprehension. The current study examines the effects of animated characters and voice types on comprehension and attention performance in learning from a multimedia presentation. Because animated characters rely on affective social responses to produce pedagogical benefits, there are likely to be significant individual differences. This study also investigates the effect of introversion/extraversion on the effectiveness of the presentations.; A 3 x 2 factorial between-subject design was employed sixty participants recruited from University of Pittsburgh. Prior knowledge of the presented material was collected by self-report. The degree of participants' extroversion was evaluated with an online Extroversion Inventory. The comprehension and recall performances for “pointed-to” and “non-pointed-to” visual objects were measured. The ratings of the presentation and animated characters were also surveyed.; Comprehension performance was affected by neither animated characters nor voice types. A two-way interaction between animated character and voice type was found in recall performance of “pointed-to” visual objects; there were no significant effects of animated characters and voice types on recall performance of “non-pointed-to” visual objects.; Comprehension performance was no different between low and high extroversion participants. A three-way interaction among animated character, voice type, and degree of extroversion was found in recall performance involving “pointed-to” visual objects. No significant effects on recall performance involving “non-pointed-to” were found between low and high extroversion participants. No significant effects of animated character and voice type on rating the multimedia presentation were found. However, animated characters were rated significantly differently, and their attributes were assessed significantly differently between participants with respect to the two levels of extroversion.; Results indicate that animated characters may have no impact on increasing learning performance in users; nevertheless, animated characters might be used as a peripheral tool in order to retain learners' attention on and entertain them with the learning material. Additionally, results regarding the degree of participants' extroversion suggest that personality should be taken into account in designing learning environments.