The viewing perspective effect in learning from instructional videos: A replication and neuroimaging extension

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BackgroundThe viewing perspective effect refers to the finding that students learn better from instructional videos recorded from first-person perspective than third-person perspective, but little is known about the neural mechanism underlying this effect. AimsThis study investigates the underlying neural mechanism of the viewing perspective effect. SamplesParticipants were 60 university students in Experiment 1, and 65 university students in Experiment 2. MethodsExperiment 1 replicated previous studies by using paper folding tasks (i.e., butterfly and four-leaf clover). Participants were randomly assigned to the first-person view group (i.e., watching videos recorded from a first-person view) or the third-person view group (i.e., watching videos recorded from a third-person view). Experiment 2 extended viewing perspective research by using neuroimaging methodology. Participants were randomly assigned to the two groups as in Experiment 1, but with fNIRS probes placed on each student's head. Participants watched the butterfly video (watching phase) and then performed the task (imitation phase). ResultsThere was superior performance on the butterfly task with a first-person view over a third-person view in both experiments, replicating the viewing perspective effect. There was higher cortical activation in the first-person view group in the right dlPFC during the watching phase, and higher cortical activation in third-person view group in the left IPC during the imitation phase. ConclusionsThis study replicates viewing perspective effect and investigates the underlying neural mechanism of the viewing perspective effect.