ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognition
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1559696
Spatial proximity effects on cognitive processing of multimedia learning among college students: evidence from functional nearinfrared spectroscopy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wisdom Education Research Institute of Chongqing Normal University, College of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China
- 2Wisdom Research Institute of Chongqing Normal University, chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aim: From a cognitive perspective, the spatial proximity effect suggests that during the process of the brain processing information, the degree of information processing and construction varies with spatial distance. However, most previous studies mainly relied on behavioral experiments.To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the spatial proximity effect, this study employed functional near-infrared spectroscopic imaging (fNIRS) to monitor and analyze the neural activity in the prefrontal cortex of 36 college students while they engaged in learning tasks with different graphic formats (proximity vs. separation). In addition, the study also explored how disciplinary differences affect the strength of spatial proximity effects and corresponding brain activation patterns.The findings revealed that activation levels in the middle temporal gyrus, frontal pole, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were significantly higher in the spatial proximity condition compared to the spatial separation condition, accompanied by an improved rate of correct answers. These results suggest that the spatial proximity of illustrations and text can significantly enhance learning outcomes. Furthermore, when the subjects were learning physics, the activation level of the superior temporal gyrus was significantly higher than that when they were learning English and geography. Moreover, under the adjacent condition, the accuracy rate of learning performance was higher, which reveals that the spatial proximity effect is significant under the conditions of learning English, Geography, and Physics and that the superior temporal gyrus may be related to the neural mechanism of the spatial proximity effect in different disciplines.This study provides evidence for the neural mechanisms behind the spatial proximity effect and verifies the influence of different disciplines on this effect. Provided a practical basis for media teaching design from the perspective of cognitive processing.
Keywords: spatial proximity effect1, cognitive processing2, fNIRS3, multimedia learning4, online learning5, Distraction effect6
Received: 27 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Peng and Long. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qiuyue Peng, Wisdom Education Research Institute of Chongqing Normal University, College of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.