Effects of emotional visual and auditory cues on Chinese poetry learning: An eye-tracking study

Background Chinese classical poetry, known for its concise and evocative language, often challenges learners due to its subtle emotional expressions. Affective scaffolds, such as emotional visual and auditory cues, may enhance emotional engagement and comprehension. Aim This study investigated whether emotional visual and auditory cues facilitate learners’ emotional engagement and understanding of Chinese classical poetry. Method Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, a between-subjects design with 139 high school students examined the effects of emotional visual cues (no cues, emotion label words, emotion laden words, and combined cues). In Experiment 2, a single-factor between-subjects design with 67 undergraduates explored emotional narration versus neutral narration, using eye-tracking to measure emotional engagement via pupil dilation and blink rate. Results In Experiment 1, emotion laden word cues increased negative emotional valence ( d  = 0.49) but did not affect comprehension. In Experiment 2, emotional narration improved poetic comprehension ( d  = 0.56) and motivation ( d  = 2.32), with greater pupil dilation ( d  = 2.10) and reduced blink rate ( d  = 0.70) indicating enhanced emotional engagement. Conclusion Emotional visual cues alone foster emotional engagement without improving comprehension, while combining them with emotional narration significantly enhances both motivation and understanding. These findings extend the cueing principle by demonstrating that emotional visual and auditory cues enhance engagement with affective content and support the emotional design hypothesis by showing that cues aligned with inherent emotional content improve comprehension and motivation in literary learning.