ECT Brownbag: Andrew MacNamara

Refining Emotional Design Research for Educational Multimedia

Tuesday, March 22, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm EST
Zoom Link: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/98187593671 

Research has found emotions to impact a wide variety of cognitive mechanisms, making the utilization of designs that elicit emotions an important consideration for educational multimedia. This is especially true considering that emotions can be affected through relatively simple design choices. However, due to research on emotion and learning often having a narrow focus on learning outcomes, creators of educational content are more so equipped to mimic past designs rather than to create novel means for inducing emotions to enhance learning.

In this talk, I will review the limited research that does measure the impact of emotion onto discrete aspects of the cognitive process, giving argument for why knowledge of this full range of effects is important both to effective emotional design and to accurate research concerning the use of emotion to enhance learning. I will then discuss some drawbacks in the way emotional design research is typically conducted and propose some suggestions for refining current methodology. The talk will then shift into a review of my current dissertation design which utilizes emotional design to enhance the outcomes of a cognitive training game.