On Line Elaboration of a Mental Model During the Understanding of an Animation

This experiment examines how, high and low mechanical and spatial abilities, learners understand an animation. Two variables were manipulated: the controllability of the animations and the task type of the learners to study the device. The comprehension test results indicated a positive effect of a fully controllable animation and also a positive effect of task type, when the attention of the learner is focused on the functional model and on local kinematics. The eye tracking data indicated that the learners attend more to the areas of the animations where a great amount of motion is involved along the causal chain of events. We show an effect of the controllability of the system and of the task type of the learner on the amount of eye fixations and on the number of transitions between areas that included the causal chain.