The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the instructional effects of various animation strategies. Three treatment groups involved include static graphic, animation used as an attention-gaining strategy, and animation used as an attention-gaining and elaboration strategy. Participants were 115 college student volunteers. Two-way multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data. Important findings indicate equivalent, non significant difference in performance between high and low prior knowledge participants. This was so regardless of animation strategies. The effects of the animation strategies on the achievement of students with low prior knowledge are discussed in detail.