It may seem self-evident that we remember funny things far better, and that whatever we remember better must serve learning. Instructional design experts are fond of using humour as a tool to increase engagement and motivation and to create a positive attitude towards the subject. But what about its role in conveying knowledge? That is the subject of this post.
A very interesting study from 2018 featured in the Learning Science Weekly newsletter, examining the effect of humour on the learning process. San Bolkan and his fellow researchers wanted to know how much this factor contributes to comprehension. There is already evidence for a number of its benefits: it motivates, it reduces tension, and it creates positive feelings towards the instructor or the material. Its positive effect on learning itself, however, has not yet been convincingly demonstrated.
Types of humour
We can speak of two ways of using humour:
- one is where it is not part of the subject matter itself but separate from it — for example a teacher with a highly entertaining delivery;
- the other is where humour appears as an integral part of the subject matter, for example material illustrated through funny examples.
The research by Bolkan and his colleagues focused on the latter.
The experiment
During the experiment the participants were divided into two groups. They had to read a printed text and then answer test questions based on what they had learned. The only difference between the two groups was that for one the example in the text was serious (it was about smoking), while the other group had the same text illustrated with a humorous story (you meet a bear in the forest). The group given the funny example performed measurably worse on the test. The experiment was later repeated with changes: a wider age range and a modified test that also included free-text questions. The result here too was that the group reading the funny example performed significantly worse.
What might cause this result, surprising as it is to many?
Most likely that the memorability of the story can come at the expense of learning, because learners concentrate on the humorous parts rather than on the underlying content being conveyed. It distracts them and knocks them out of the learning process. In other words, they really will remember the example better — but they will no longer know what it was meant to illustrate. The researchers drew a parallel with entertainment-style news programmes, where we likewise remember far less of the information and far more of the humour.
This research offers an important lesson for us e-learning professionals when we are thinking about the examples or the framing story of a course. In the light of the above, it is well worth weighing up when to reach for this tool.