The present study investigates affective‐motivational, attention, and learning effects of unexplored emotional design manipulation: Contextual animation (animation of contextual elements) in multimedia learning game (MLGs) for children. Participants (N = 134; M_age = 9.25; Grades 3 and 4) learned either from an experimental version of the MLG with a high amount of contextual animation or from an identical MLG with no contextual animation (control). Children strongly preferred (χ² = 87.04, p < .001) and found the experimental version more attractive (p < .001, d = −1.11). No significant differences in overall enjoyment and learning outcomes were found. Attention differences, measured by dwell times and fixation durations, were small and reached only borderline significance (p = .035; d = −0.39). The implication is that contextual animation in MLG for children increases such instructional materials' attractiveness without compromising cognitive processes needed for learning; however, it does not lead to their higher instructional efficiency.

中文翻译：

---

儿童多媒体学习游戏中是否需要上下文动画？眼动仪研究

本研究调查未开发的情感设计操纵的情感动机，注意力和学习效果：儿童多媒体学习游戏（MLG）中的上下文动画（上下文元素动画）。参与者（N = 134；M_年龄= 9.25； 3和4级）从具有大量上下文动画的MLG实验版本或没有上下文动画（控件）的相同MLG中学习。儿童强烈优选（χ ² = 87.04，p  <0.001），并发现实验版更有吸引力（p  <0.001，d= −1.11）。在总体享受和学习成果方面没有发现显着差异。通过停留时间和注视时间测量的注意力差异很小，仅达到临界意义（p = .035；d = -0.39）。这意味着在MLG中为儿童提供的上下文动画可以在不影响学习所需的认知过程的情况下，提高此类教学材料的吸引力。但是，这并不能提高他们的教学效率。