The effect of situational interest on academic achievement, transfer and cognitive load in multimedia learning

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of situational interest components presented in line with different situational interest approaches on situational interest, achievement, transfer and cognitive load in multimedia learning environments. This research was carried out with the posttest control group design, which is one of the real experimental designs. The study included 171 participants who were studying at Ege University Faculty of Education in the spring term of the 2018-2019 academic year and 257 participants who were registered in the Pedagogical Formation Certificate Program (PFSP) in the summer term of 2019. The research was carried out with a total of 428 participants. As data collection tools in this research; demographic information questionnaire, situational interest scale future and past tense form, achievement test, cognitive load scale and transfer test were used. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to reveal the relationship between variables, and comparisons between groups were made using analysis of variance. It has been observed that the situational interest triggers presented in the context of the research have no effect on achievement test, transfer and cognitive load. However, after the material presentation, a significant increase was observed in the situational interests of the participants. The situational interests that the participants developed after receiving the material; It was found that there was a significant positive correlation between achievement test results and transfer test results. Suggestions were made for the evaluation of seductive details within the context of situational interest in multimedia learning environments.