Examining Increasing Playback Speed in Recorded Lectures on Memory, Attention, and Experience

Abstract

Recorded lectures represent a popular means of delivering educational content. These lectures afford increasing the playback speed which could be used to reduce time demands and increase the likelihood that a lecture is consumed. In two experiments (N = 320), we examined the impact of increasing the playback speed of lectures across a range of speeds on memory for the lecture material, mind wandering, and the learner’s experience of the lecture. For speeds up until 2x, findings revealed no significant differences in memory for the material, mind wandering, and learner’s subjective experience of the lecture, with the exception that “enjoyment of speed” decreased as speed increased. Beyond a speed of 2x, however, significant impairments in memory for the lecture material and decreases in liking toward both the video lecture and the speed were observed. Moreover, the increase in mind wandering with time on task often observed in recorded lectures was not modulated by lecture playback speed. These results reinforce extant results in the literature on the effects of increasing playback speed on memory for lecture material and add new insights in terms of this strategy’s influence on mind wandering and learner’s subjective experience of the lecture.