Seductive details are interesting but instructionally irrelevant material, text, animations, photographs, illustrations, sounds or music, added to textbooks, lectures, slideshows and other educational content to make it feel more interesting or engaging. The phenomenon was first named by John Dewey in 1913, who called such additions fictitious inducements to attention. Research since the late 1980s has generally found that adding seductive details reduces both retention of information and transfer of learning, an effect commonly called the seductive details effect, though the finding remains contested among some researchers.
Facts
Core ClaimSeductive details are interesting but instructionally irrelevant material, such as text, animations, photos, illustrations, sounds or music, added to textbooks, lectures, slideshows and other educational content to make it feel more interesting or engaging; studies since the late 1980s have generally found that adding them reduces both retention of information and transfer of learning. 2 Classification
Education Level Sources
1. Seductive details (Wikipedia)
often used in textbooks, lectures, slideshows, and other forms of educational contentView the Source 2. Wikipedia: Seductive Details
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia lead section, sentence naming Dewey's 1913 coinageQuote, Wikipedia lead section, sentence naming Dewey's 1913 coinage
John Dewey, in 1913, first referred to this as "fictitious inducements to attention".
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