# How content complexity and sensory modality influence student satisfaction in art education

## TL;DR

This study shows that higher content complexity and less visual input in art education reduce student satisfaction, but the negative impact of complexity is lessened with lower visual emphasis.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel application of Construal Level Theory to explain how content complexity and sensory modality affect student satisfaction in art education.

## Key findings

- Higher content complexity significantly reduces student satisfaction in art education.
- A lower auditory–visual ratio decreases satisfaction but moderates the negative effect of content complexity.
- Cognitive-perceptual mechanisms are central to students' evaluative responses in art education.

## Abstract

Art education plays a vital role in preserving cultural heritage and promoting sustainable development. However, growing curricular complexity and abstraction present challenges to student satisfaction, a key metric in educational sustainability. This study investigates how perceived content complexity and modality structure affect student satisfaction in art-related programs, drawing on Construal Level Theory (CLT) to explain the psychological mechanisms involved. Based on aggregated data from 73,368 students across 1524 academic programs in China, the results indicate that higher content complexity significantly reduces satisfaction. Moreover, a lower auditory–visual (A/V) ratio—indicating reduced emphasis on visual input—also decreases satisfaction but moderates the negative effect of content complexity. The findings suggest that cognitive-perceptual mechanisms play a central role in shaping students’ evaluative responses and offer implications for improving curriculum design and institutional strategies in art education.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-08242-5.