The seductive detail principle asserts that people learn more deeply from a multimedia presentation when interesting but irrelevant adjuncts are excluded rather than included. However, critics could argue that studies about this principle contain methodological problems. The recent experiment attempts to overcome these problems. Students (N = 108) used an introductory text to learn fundamental concepts about the development of stars and then took a retention and transfer test as dependent measures. Each learner was randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (with or without seductive text passages) x 2 (with or without seductive illustrations) between subjects factorial design. Students who did not receive seductive text passages spent less time with the multimedia presentation and performed better on retention, but not on transfer than did learners receiving seductive text passages. Seductive illustrations did not significantly influence learning performance or time spent with the instructional material. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 1 footnote.)