Animations and static pictures: The influence of prompting and time of testing

Static pictures have an informational disadvantage for dynamic processes compared to animations. It was investigated whether this disadvantage can be compensated by prompting learners to process the specific dynamic information. It was assumed that this processing would lead to a longer lasting knowledge representation. A 2 x 2 x 2 between-subject design with visualization format (static picture vs. animation), prompt (present vs. absent) and time of testing (immediate vs. after one week) was utilized (N = 263). Participants performed better on test questions about the dynamic information after learning with the animation compared to the static picture. Prompting learners led to higher perceived difficulty, less overconfidence and better performance in a factual knowledge test addressing the prompted information. The quality of the answers to the prompts mediated the knowledge differences between visualization conditions. However, prompts did not compensate for the informational disadvantage of static pictures, irrespective of time of testing.