How cognitive elaboration fosters knowledge acquisition
on social media—a field experiment
Dublin Core
Title
How cognitive elaboration fosters knowledge acquisition
on social media—a field experiment
on social media—a field experiment
Subject
social media, learning, science communication, subjective knowledge, cognitive elaboration
Description
Social media technologies have been criticized as ineffective sources of information because users seem to increase their subjective but not
their objective knowledge. While different factors such as multitasking have been brought up as explanations, direct and fair comparisons of
learning outcomes between social and traditional news media are missing. This two-wave field experiment (N1 ¼ 902, N2 ¼ 663) shows that
whereas participants receiving information on social media did learn less than participants receiving the same information through an email
newsletter, this difference disappeared when cognitive elaboration on social media was triggered through elaboration questions. Correlational
analyses further suggest that multitasking is one factor which hinders successful knowledge acquisition on social media. Our findings suggest
that learning through social media is possible if social media contents invite cognitively elaborate processing
their objective knowledge. While different factors such as multitasking have been brought up as explanations, direct and fair comparisons of
learning outcomes between social and traditional news media are missing. This two-wave field experiment (N1 ¼ 902, N2 ¼ 663) shows that
whereas participants receiving information on social media did learn less than participants receiving the same information through an email
newsletter, this difference disappeared when cognitive elaboration on social media was triggered through elaboration questions. Correlational
analyses further suggest that multitasking is one factor which hinders successful knowledge acquisition on social media. Our findings suggest
that learning through social media is possible if social media contents invite cognitively elaborate processing
Creator
Luna T. Frauhammer1 and Jana H. Dreston�,1
Source
https://watermark02.silverchair.com/zmaf014.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAA1MwggNPBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggNAMIIDPAIBADCCAzUGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMf3OZDg8YR0wE2ALnAgEQgIIDBjGE9Z-UicaQC49tSUCyjrqZLTP1_Ync8HIJxDwJg5PsYpLMH9IHpGq_NsCyN9T_T2fCmtFaMZ05nPheV8MP3F8VTvSEPDm6EpcG8Uioa4akInP5J6a7mszYTF7e6ScyQhHHuA5hvT16Pe0hjA9OyQ17QjTcUY8wxBQe_ISspkMx-bcbwTfGVCr7ejq_2ZlroH_w1IWaG_t279u7v6ygz_qBjivo7U5cc1cB-rNs3k_Jvs9AwgMa7ya29z9UZ4pnW9MgtVFBbQDd8FshhpRlQuPxk1rLgCTL536UJjRrzhgxzfebd7TLr8PVpCFPTcF9FUrgESz_wxdWjoC-t3x-3gGOZvFSAZjybArum-B0FhEQFCv1KGexGq8P7KEyK696Fd8o7NPUFK11DLZaTFIa4_iV0QLq6U06_Aqimr9JDnh98B0r1d3EKLuR5uItrRdk3Vxuvs4NXPg9KTmIfyVpZTu0Gnj8QYPgw4hlggj74aXQzfLLku8PZtmg8hcvqAG3eCHpzCXoKBS8WpQhhoWpl8dcBjW2eoTQ5LwvWxivWzbY1YbBUlch_pp06bOSmqcymBHfuXmIGKNJvDT35tgrS7sJAlKpDwLynzzY__f7UbLQR5wW7hnMqEf3Hj3EZHCGLUNylp0UTihupe1fdcVoNledRryDYn5qBiiI94wZVuB0hdkPqdTKI_dEqD2WRWamEvS4-uxuylfHH1e0hhJsSTwNMny6F4ne9UXEqujJxeIY0kpQU6CMIgzedUqsG1SYmNJMkqKvnb4dQURjAcBuj-yxABGt_ruAr0v5J6h1Apq6__mYRcmkCYqkZDvoKqqxnOT486hpZ0ZJlla3V4IEPUe64EYEYDBPRa_31CjxVjQufsdlvBlxT1sCVvWU8TPwOd9SdgrWm4VvZ98hu_rsTHun-IGPNvqcQpyHEesIEwdNkQY_p8EvIWk0nPIiE9gscvwQDguAELZpl-SnK7dP38ZEVKlKcd9ur897fyLEGabwaGDZp8zuKKmTACqRZNdkVDN1G73UoA
Publisher
OXFORD ACADEMIC
Date
5 JUNE 2025
Contributor
FAJAR BAGUS W
Format
PDF
Language
ENGLISH
Type
TEXT
Files
Collection
Citation
Luna T. Frauhammer1 and Jana H. Dreston�,1, “How cognitive elaboration fosters knowledge acquisition
on social media—a field experiment,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed January 11, 2026, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/9813.
on social media—a field experiment,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed January 11, 2026, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/9813.