According to the personalization principle, addressing learners by means of a personalized compared to a nonpersonalized message can foster learning. Interestingly, though, a recent study found that the personalization principle can invert for aversive contents. The present study investigated whether the negative effect of a personalized message for an aversive content can be compensated when learners are in a happy mood. It was hypothesized that the negative effect of a personalized compared to a nonpersonalized message would only be observable for participants in a sad mood, while for participants in a happy mood a personalized message should be beneficial. A 2 × 2 between-subject design with mood (happy vs. sad) and personalization (personalized vs. nonpersonalized message) was used (N = 125 University students). Mood was experimentally varied prior to learning. Learning outcomes were measured by a retention and a transfer test. Results were essentially in line with the assumption: For participants in the sad mood condition, a negative effect of a personalized message was observable for retention and transfer. For participants in the happy mood condition, a positive effect of personalized message was observable for retention, but no effect for transfer. Note that the manipulation check measure for the mood induction procedure did not detect differences between conditions; this may be due to a shortcoming of the used measure (as indicated by an additional evaluation study). The study emphasizes the importance to consider the inherent emotional content of a topic, such as its aversive nature, since the emotional content of a topic can be a boundary condition for design principles in multimedia learning. The study also highlights the complex interplay of externally induced and inherently arising emotions.

中文翻译：

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了解严重疾病：当个性化信息有害时，除非您感到高兴

根据个性化原则，通过个性化而不是非个性化的信息来解决学习者问题可以促进学习。不过，有趣的是，最近的一项研究发现，个性化原则可以逆转令人厌恶的内容。本研究调查了当学习者心情愉快时，是否可以补偿个性化消息对厌恶内容的负面影响。据推测，与非个性化消息相比，个性化消息的负面影响只会对情绪低落的参与者观察到，而对于情绪愉快的参与者，个性化消息应该是有益的。使用了带有情绪（快乐与悲伤）和个性化（个性化与非个性化信息）的 2 × 2 主体间设计（N= 125 名大学生）。在学习之前，情绪在实验上是不同的。学习成果是通过保留和迁移测试来衡量的。结果基本上与假设一致：对于处于悲伤情绪状态的参与者，可以观察到个性化信息对保留和转移的负面影响。对于心情愉快的参与者，可以观察到个性化信息对保留的积极影响，但对转移没有影响。请注意，情绪诱导程序的操作检查措施未检测到条件之间的差异；这可能是由于所使用的措施存在缺陷（如附加评估研究所示）。该研究强调了考虑一个话题的内在情感内容的重要性，例如它的厌恶性质、因为主题的情感内容可能是多媒体学习中设计原则的边界条件。该研究还强调了外部诱发和固有情绪之间复杂的相互作用。