ERIC Number: EJ947491
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jan
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0360-1315
EISSN: N/A
VirSchool: The Effect of Background Music and Immersive Display Systems on Memory for Facts Learned in an Educational Virtual Environment
Fassbender, Eric; Richards, Deborah; Bilgin, Ayse; Thompson, William Forde; Heiden, Wolfgang
Computers & Education, v58 n1 p490-500 Jan 2012
Game technology has been widely used for educational applications, however, despite the common use of background music in games, its effect on learning has been largely unexplored. This paper discusses how music played in the background of a computer-animated history lesson affected participants' memory for facts. A virtual history lesson was presented to participants with different background stimuli (music or no-music) to test the effect of music on memory. To test the role of immersion on memory and its possible relationship to the music, two different display systems (3-monitor display system or immersive Reality Center) were used in the study. Overall, participants remembered a significantly higher number of facts using the 3-monitor display system, particularly if no background music was played in the second half of the history lesson. Conversely, for participants using the Reality Center, significantly higher recall of facts was found when participants listened to music in the second half of the history lesson. Cognitive load/overload and (un-)familiarity with the technology are offered as explanations. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)
Descriptors: Music, Familiarity, Recall (Psychology), History Instruction, Cognitive Processes, Difficulty Level, Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Computer Assisted Instruction, Learning Processes, Instructional Effectiveness, Virtual Classrooms, Computer Interfaces, Animation, Computer Simulation, Simulated Environment, Auditory Stimuli
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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