Schraw, G. (1998). Processing and recall differences among seductive details. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(1), 3-12.

Schraw, G.

1998

Schraw, G. (1998). Processing and recall differences among seductive details. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90(1), 3-12.

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Three experiments examined processing and recall differences associated with 2 different types of seductive details (i.e., highly interesting, but unimportant, text segments). Experiment 1 provided evidence of 2 different types of seductive details: those that are less interesting when read in isolation (context dependent) and those that are equally interesting in context or isolation (context independent). Experiment 2 found that context-dependent seductive details took longer to read and were recalled better than main ideas. Context-independent seductive details were recalled as well as context-dependent seductive details, but did not require more reading time than main ideas. Experiment 3 found that including seductive details did not interfere with overall story recall or recall of main ideas. Suggestions are made for future research that would enhance a theory of seductive details.

Context-dependent seductive details took significantly longer to read than context-independent seductive details and main idea segments. Context-dependent and context-independent seductive details were recalled better than main ideas but did not differ from one another. Seductive details were significantly and positively correlated with story recall.

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