Potentials of neurophysiological measures for research on instructional design: The case of decorative pictures.

装饰图片（DP）经常被添加到教学材料中，如文本，以提高学生对任务的兴趣。然而，DP对学习成果的影响好坏参半，其潜在原因仍有争议。认知负荷增加和注意力分散被认为是DP不利影响的原因。本研究旨在系统研究DP如何影响学习过程中的认知负荷和注意力的因素，从而确定DP何时以及如何对任务绩效和学习产生有益或有害的影响。适当的（神经）生理过程测量，如额叶EEG θ和顶叶α频带功率、额叶α不对称性和瞳孔扩张，将用于评估任务执行和学习期间DP的影响。在一系列的四项研究（S1-S4）中，DP的不同特征将在学习任务的背景下进行实验操作（阅读理解）和工作记忆（WM）任务（n-back WM任务）。潜在地，DP的情感内容，DP和核心任务材料之间的内容一致性的量，核心任务材料的难度（即内在CL）可能是DP结果好坏参半的原因。在研究S1中，将研究存在、部分存在或不存在DP对CL（通过生理测量评估）和任务表现的一般影响。在DP积极改变被试的动机的情况下，CL和任务绩效之间的分离是预期的。在S2和S3中，DP的情感内容将被操纵（负、中性、正效价），从而允许研究DP的情感方面对注意力捕获（即分心）以及对动机的影响。最后，S4解决了这个问题，DP和核心任务材料之间的内容一致性如何影响CL和任务结果。在所有研究中，任务难度将被操纵（即内在CL），从而允许系统地评估核心任务材料诱导的内在CL和DP诱导的外源CL的潜在相互作用。由于所有的DP操作都是在复杂的学习任务以及基本的、高度控制的WM任务中进行的，因此可以排除生理测量上的潜在混杂因素，并且可以将结果概括并具体归因于WM表现。我们希望，拟议中的研究将大大增加对DP对任务绩效和学习的不同影响的理解，并将强调（神经）生理测量在教学设计研究中的潜力。

Decorative pictures (DP) are often added to instructional materials like texts to increase students' interest in the task. However, DP have resulted in mixed effects on learning outcomes with potential reasons still matter of debate. Increased cognitive load (CL) and attentional distraction have been hypothesized as reasons for detrimental effects of DP.The current research proposal aims at systematically studying factors of how DP influence CL and attention during learning, thus identifying when and how DP result in beneficial or detrimental effects on task performance and learning. Suitable (neuro-) physiological process measures like the frontal EEG theta and parietal alpha frequency band power, the frontal alpha asymmetry, and pupil dilation will be used to assess effects of DP during task performance and learning. In a series of four studies (S1-S4) different features of DP will be experimentally manipulated in the context of learning tasks (reading comprehension) and working memory (WM) tasks (n-back WM tasks).Potentially, the emotional content of the DP, the amount of content-congruity between DP and core task materials, and the difficulty of the core task materials (i.e. the intrinsic CL) may be reasons for the mixed results of DP that have been reported. In Study S1 the general effects of present, partly present or absent DP on CL (as assessed by the physiological measures) and task performance will be studied. A dissociation between CL and task performance is expected in case of DP positively altering subjects' motivation. In S2 and S3 the emotional content of the DP will be manipulated (negative, neutral, positive valence), thus allowing to study the effects of emotional aspects of DP on attentional capturing (i.e. distraction) but also on motivation. Finally S4 addresses the question, how the content-congruity between DP and core task materials affects CL and task outcomes. In all studies the task difficulty will be manipulated (i.e. intrinsic CL), thus allowing to systematically assess the potential mutual effects of intrinsic CL induced by the core task materials and extraneous CL induced by DP. As all DP-manipulations are conducted in complex learning tasks as well as in basic, highly controlled WM tasks, potentially confounding factors on the physiological measures can be ruled out and the results may be generalized and attributed specifically to WM performance.Taken together, we expect that the proposed studies will substantially increase the understanding of the disparate effects of DP on task performance and learning and will underline the potentials of (neuro-) physiological measures for research on instructional design.