Mood-affect congruency. Exploring the relation between learners' mood and the affective charge of educational videos

In the educational context, the influences of the emotional charge of audiovisual media are rarely investigated. Additionally, the mood of the learner influences learning with multimedia. This study aims to investigate the influence of both variables on learning with videos. Therefore, 162 school students watched educational videos which were manipulated in terms of emotional charge. The participants were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (learners mood: positive vs. negative) × 2 (emotional charge of the educational video: positive vs. negative) between-subjects factorial design. Retention and transfer performance were measured in order to examine learning effects. Furthermore, mental load, mental effort, and affective variables were collected. Results revealed that the mood of the learner did not influence learning outcomes and cognitive assessments. The positive emotional charge of the video fostered retention performance and led to a reduced mental load. Transfer performance was fostered in the conditions with congruence between learners mood and the emotional charge of the video. Results are discussed by considering the emotion-as-facilitator hypothesis and the mood congruency effect.