Participants watched an educational video about the cardiac conduction system, which consisted of a five slide, PowerPoint presentation with a voice-over. The video was divided into two sections, with the first section containing slides 1–3 and the second section containing slides 4–5.
To create the seductive details version of the slides, animations, sound effects, and memes were added to the original slides. None of the seductive details added any new information to the slides. The two sections of the video could either have seductive details or not, resulting in a total of four conditions.
During the video, learner engagement was assessed using four probe questions: task-unrelated thought, difficulty disengaging, valence, and boredom. Probes occurred every 50–60 seconds. After viewing the video, participants completed a 12-item multiple-choice comprehension test and reported their demographics.
Seductive details did not influence test performance, conflicting with prior research examining the seductive detail effect with texts. The simple presence of a seductive component in the video did not increase task-unrelated thought (TUT). Rather, conditions that combined both seductive and non-seductive elements produced lower overall TUT than conditions containing seductive details in both or neither section.
Across all groups, task-unrelated thoughts and boredom increased, while valence declined from section 1 to section 2. The increase in TUT and boredom from section 1 to section 2 was smaller in mixed conditions compared to the no seductive details condition. However, it remains unclear if the location of seductive details attenuated learner engagement from section 1 to section 2.
