Can your learners see the forest, or just the trees?
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This article states that interesting details disrupt learning as proved in a recent research study.
Have you ever heard the saying, “He can’t see the forest for the trees?”
The saying may be old and worn, but research actually proves its validity.
An intriguing experiment published by the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The research paper, Increased Interestingness of Extraneous Details in a Multimedia Science Presentation Leads to Decreased Learning, a research team including Richard E. Mayer , Emily Griffith, Liana T. N. Jurkowitz, and Daniel Rothman discovered that when trainers, teachers, and speakers present “highly interesting” details inter-mingled with core concepts, the core concepts get lost. As a result, students my remember details but not key points.
In one of the study experiments, students were presented with either a PowerPoint or a narrated animation explaining the six steps a cold virus follows to infect the human body.
One group was presented with six high-interest details while another was given six low-interest details. Both groups received the same conceptual information.
In subsequent testing, the group that received the low interest details successfully comprehended the larger conceptual issues while the group that received the high interest details remembered some of those details but did not successfully absorb the larger concept.
For trainers, teachers, and speakers – especially those who know a lot about their subject matter and want to share all of it – the implications are to keep it short and to the point.
Focus on that forest and let the individual trees be seen within the context of the whole. A tight focus on the main point is, after all, the main point.
Lenn Millbower, the Learnertainment® Trainer and former Disney training leader, helps trainers, teachers, and speakers keep their learners awake so the learning can take through one-on-one coaching, keynotes and seminars, open enrollment workshops, instructional design consulting, and his published works.
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