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Age Differences in Learning from Instructional Animations
Author(s) -
Boucheix JeanMichel,
Lowe Richard K.,
Bugaiska Aurélia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.3131
Subject(s) - animation , psychology , comprehension , spatial ability , test (biology) , cognition , presentation (obstetrics) , executive functions , eye movement , aptitude , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , differential effects , computer science , neuroscience , medicine , paleontology , computer graphics (images) , radiology , biology , programming language
Summary The present study tests the effects of the decline of executive functions and spatial abilities with aging on the comprehension of a complex instructional animation. An animation of a piano mechanism was presented individually to 33 young adults and 31 elderly participants. Two presentation speeds of the animation (normal and slow) were compared in a 2 × 2 experimental design. Eye movements were recorded during the learning time. Then, four executive function tests (inhibition, shifting, updating, and processing speed) and a spatial ability test (differential aptitude test) were undertaken by each participant. Results showed that the comprehension of animations was significantly affected by aging. Significant differences between young and old groups were found for executive functions and spatial abilities. Regressions on comprehension scores showed a strong significant effect of spatial ability. Like in previous research, presentation speed had no effect. Eye movement data showed this result was due to application of a compensation strategy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.