Be happy and effective? Incorporating emotional design into multimedia learning in elementary science education

Abstract Background In recent years, the endeavour to stimulate positive emotions, regulate negative emotions, and facilitate the learning of elementary school students through emotional design has attracted a lot of attention. Aims The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of warm colours and anthropomorphism as emotional design elements on multimedia learning, and whether combining a positive pedagogical agent with positive learning materials would be better. Samples Experiment 1 recruited 203 elementary school students. Experiment 2 recruited 140 elementary school students. Methods Experiment 1 employed a 2 (Colours: warm vs. grayscale) × 2 (Anthropomorphism: with vs. without) between‐subjects design. Experiment 2 employed a 2 (Learning materials: positive vs. neutral) × 2 (Pedagogical agent: positive vs. neutral) between‐subjects design. Results Results of Experiment 1 showed that warm colours reduced boredom and anxiety; anthropomorphism increased enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, and mental effort, and reduced boredom; their combination facilitated retention and transfer performance. Results of Experiment 2 revealed that combining a positive pedagogical agent with positive learning materials ameliorated learners' overall emotional experiences, but did not significantly affect retention and transfer performance. Conclusions Incorporating both warm colours and anthropomorphism as emotional design elements yielded the most favourable impact in designing positive learning materials. Integrating emotional design approaches to both learning materials and pedagogical agents could be conducive to happy and effective learning, showing the importance of holistic approaches to emotional design in educational settings.