Learning desire is predicted by similar neural processing of naturalistic educational materials

Abstract Naturalistic stimuli can elicit highly similar brain activity across viewers. How do naturalistic educational materials engage human brains and evoke learning desire? Here, we presented 15 audiovisual course clips (each lasting about 120 s) to university students and recorded their neural activity through electroencephalography (EEG). Upon finishing all the video viewings, subjects ranked 15 courses in order of learning desire and reported the reasons of high learning desire (i.e., “value” and “interest”). The brain activity during the video viewing was measured as the neural similarity via inter-subject correlation (ISC), that is, correlation between each subject’s neural responses and others’. Based on averaged learning desire rankings across subjects, course clips were classified with high vs. medium vs. low motivational effectiveness. We found that ISC of high effective course clips was larger than that of low effective ones. The ISC difference (high vs. low) was positively associated with subjects’ learning desire difference (high vs. low). Such an association occurred when viewing time accumulated to about 80 s. Moreover, ISC was correlated with “interest-based” rather than “value-based” learning desire. These findings advance our understanding of learning motivation via the neural similarity in the context of online education and provide potential neurophysiological suggestions for pedagogical practices. Significance Statement This study shows that naturalistic educational materials with high motivational effectiveness elicit larger neural similarity across learners than less effective ones. Importantly, the neural similarity serves as a sensitive predictor of learners’ course-learning desire. It is suggested that the use of emerging electroencephalography-derived inter-subject correlation approach works with evaluating the quality of audiovisual educational materials. Hence, such a novel approach is promising to provide neurophysiological information for pedagogical practices.