THE PRESENCE OF IMAGES DOES NOT MODERATE THE DISFLUENCY EFFECT

Timofei Berezner () and Elena Gorbunova ()
Additional contact information
Timofei Berezner: National Research University Higher School of Economics
Elena Gorbunova: National Research University Higher School of Economics

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: The disfluency effect is an improvement in the retention of information if its processing is difficult. Disfluency is usually attained by changing perceptual characteristics, and in the case of texts, fonts are made less legible. The disfluency effect has been demonstrated in several studies, but the number of unsuccessful replications is significantly higher. Among the possible reasons why the disfluency effect often cannot be detected, we consider the influence of other factors acting as moderators. This study examines the presence of images accompanying text information as a moderator. Based on dual-coding theory, we assume that the disfluency effect will manifest itself only when there are no images, since their presence contributes to better memorization. Two experiments were conducted in which information written either in Arial (fluent condition) or Comic Sans (disfluent condition) was presented to participants. The information was also accompanied by images or not. In the first experiment, the participants were asked to memorize 40 short words, in the second 7 fictional facts about the Earth. In both cases, the hypotheses were not confirmed—the disfluency effect did not manifest under any conditions.

Keywords: disfluency effect; processing fluency; fonts; images; memory; learning; desirable difficulties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in WP BRP Series: Science, Psychology / PSY, November 2021, pages 1-25

Downloads: (external link)
https://wp.hse.ru/data/2021/11/10/1458461373/127PSY2021.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:127psy2021

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shamil Abdulaev () and Shamil Abdulaev ().