How does interactivity in videos affect task performance?

Computer-based video environments allow for the implementation of features such as stop, browsing, table of contents, and index that enable the recipients to engage in activities comparable to activities that were shown to be associated with superior performance with text-based learning materials. Whereas the availability of features such as stop and browsing has frequently been shown to result in superior learning outcomes with videos and animations, no benefits of a table of contents and an index in videos were observed to date. However, the tasks used in these rare studies could be considered too complex and did not allow for explicit semantic mapping between the wording of the task and the items included in the interactive features. In the current laboratory study with 81 university students, we addressed both of these points. It was observed that the availability of a table of contents and an index resulted in superior performance in a search task. However, in a more comprehensive essay task that allowed for semantic mapping between the task and the video's index, the availability of interactivity only had positive effects on the frequency of naming the signaled information. Implications of these results are discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.