The presence of images does not moderate the disfluency effect

Психологические исследования: электронный научный журнал. 2023. Vol. 16. No. 92. Article 2.

Berezner T., Gorbunova E. S.

The disfluency effect is an improvement in the retention of information if its processing is difficult. Disfluency is usually attained by changing perceptual characteristics. The disfluency effect has been demonstrated in several studies, but the number of unsuccessful replications is higher. Among the possible reasons why the disfluency effect often cannot be detected, we consider the presence of images accompanying text information as a possible moderator. We assume that the disfluency effect will manifest only when there are no images.

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 (n = 144) were asked to memorize 40 words, in the second (n = 142) 7 fictional facts about the Earth. In both cases, the hypotheses were not confirmed — the disfluency effect did not manifest under any conditions.

Keywords: обучение, learning, память, memory, images, желательные трудности, шрифты, fonts, desirable difficulties, эффект не-беглости, изображения, disfluency effect

Publication based on the results of: Cognitive-Psychological Mechanisms of User Interaction with the Digital Environment (2023)