Students’ achievement motivation moderates the effects of interpolated pre-questions on attention and learning from video lectures

The study tested achievement motivation as a moderator of the relationship between pre-interpolated questions and learning from video lectures. Participants were 63 university students who were selected from a group of 123 volunteers, based on having high (n = 31) or low (n = 32) scores on the Achievement Motivation Scale. The students in each group were randomly assigned to view an instructional video with or without interpolated pre-questions. Visual attention was assessed by eye tracking measures of fixation duration and first time to fixation, and learning performance was assessed by tests of retention and transfer. The results of ANCOVAs showed that after controlling for prior knowledge, students with high achievement motivation benefitted more from the pre-questions than students with low achievement motivation. Among students with high achievement motivation, there was longer fixation duration to the learning materials and better transfer in the pre-questions condition than in the no-questions condition, but these differences based on video type were not apparent among students with low achievement. The findings have practical implications: interpolated pre-questions in video learning appear to be helpful for highly motivated students, and the benefit is seen in transfer rather than retention. •Interpolated pre-questions enhance visual search efficiency.•Interpolated pre-questions promote attention and transfer for students with high achievement motivation but not for low achievement motivation students.•Interpolated pre-questions do not facilitate retention.