UC Santa Barbara

Learning in a multimedia environment puts many demands on a learner’s limited working memory, but this can become even more demanding as the level of distraction increases in a lesson. What has not been investigated much in previous literature is whether higher levels of distraction in lessons are more harmful to some learners than others. This series of studies investigates how individual differences in the ability to manage incoming information (i.e., executive function) and the ability to hold incoming information (i.e., working memory capacity) play a role in learning across lessons with various amounts and types of distractions. Experiment 1 investigated the role that individual differences in managing and holding incoming information play in learning from online multimedia lessons with various amounts of verbal and visual distracting elements. In Study 1a, learners watched a lesson with a high degree of distractions, in Study 1b learners watch a lesson with a moderate degree of distractions, and in Study 1c learners watched a lesson with a low degree of distractions. This set of studies found that as the degree of distraction increased, the correlation between executive function and posttest performance increased; there was no significant relationship at low levels of distraction but there was a significant relationship at moderate and high levels of distraction, suggesting that better executive function was related to better posttest performance only when a lesson was distracting. Working memory capacity was not significantly correlated with posttest performance in any version of thelesson. Experiment 2 further investigated this relationship to see if this finding would be extended into media with an increased possibility of distraction, specifically immersive virtual reality (IVR). In Experiment 2, learners watched a lesson presented via IVR or as a slideshow. This experiment found that, although there were no differences in learning between the two conditions, the relationship between executive function and posttest performance was only seen in the IVR lesson, not the slideshow lesson, such that learners with better executive function had better posttest scores when learning in the IVR lesson than learners with worse executive function. Once again, working memory capacity did not significant correlate with posttest performance. Lastly, Experiment 3 investigated whether the novelty of the IVR learning environment increased the distractibility of learning in IVR. Experiment 3 had learners either play a game in IVR prior to the lesson or had participants only watch the lesson. This experiment found that reducing the novelty of IVR for learners did not impact learning and so novelty may not be the reason for increased distractibility in IVR lessons. This series of experiments suggests that it is vital to think about the role that individual differences in learners’ skill at managing incoming information plays in learning, especially when using lessons with distracting information or distracting technology.