Effects of Seductive Details on Learning and Memory

Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel

(Lecturer in Psychology |University of Glasgow, UK)

 

Thursday, 20 February 2020 @ 4pm |
Seminar room (5th floor) |
62 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB

Abstract: 

One common approach to make topics more interesting to students is to add entertaining, but irrelevant information during teaching. This could be in form of enriching explanations of the target topic with funny anecdotes or engaging pictures. The effects of adding such seductive details during instruction has been intensively researched in cognitive psychology – painting a rather negative picture of them. Many studies show a detrimental effect of seductive details on memory and transfer performance. Important learner and context variables have been revealed that moderate the effect and that should be taken into consideration before adding seductive details. This talk will present an overview of the current findings on seductive details and provide practical recommendations for teaching practice

About the speaker:

Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel is an expert in applying findings from Cognitive Science to education and an enthusiastic science communicator. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Mannheim and pursued postdoc positions at York University in Toronto and the Center for Integrative Research in Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) at Washington University in St. Louis. She was a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Dundee for four years before starting as a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Glasgow in January 2020. Her expertise focuses on learning and memory phenomena that allow implementation to educational settings to offer teachers and students a wide range of strategies that promote long-term retention. Carolina is convinced that psychological research should serve the public and, to that end, engages heavily in scholarly outreach and science communication. She is a member of the Learning Scientists and founded the Teaching Innovation & Learning Enhancement (TILE) network. Carolina was awarded Senior Fellow of HEA. She is passionate about teaching and aims at providing her students with the best learning experience possible. You can follow her on Twitter: @pimpmymemory