Abstract
Existing general studies of educational materials are intended to improve understanding through careful reading. In contrast, the present study focuses on motivational effects in the first few seconds of reading. Disaster prevention materials were prepared that contained components that had typically been manipulated in educational materials, including the presence or absence of a title or subtitle, an illustration or picture, and color graphics. Participants (6 male, 14 female undergraduates; age range 20 to 24 years) were instructed to glance over a page of the material for 2 seconds, after which they answered questions as to motivation and subjective understandability, responding on a 5-point scale. The findings suggested that all the manipulated components enhanced motivation and subjective understandability, and that the illustrations, pictures, and color graphics produced greater effects than the titles and subtitles did. The results of structural equation modeling analysis for investigating the process of enhancing motivation revealed that the illustrations, pictures, and color graphics enhanced motivation based on an emotional factor, which was not through subjective understandability, rather than a cognitive factor, which was through subjective understandability. Subtitles enhanced motivation based on a cognitive factor rather than an emotional factor, and titles enhanced motivation based on both factors equally.
