Two groups of students were shown unnarrated versions of two different particulate-level computer animations of varying complexity depicting the oxidation–reduction reaction of aqueous silver nitrate and solid copper metal; one group saw the more simplified animation first and the more complex animation second while the other group saw these animations in the reverse order. The goal of this study is to determine how viewing one of the animations affects the participants' subsequent explanations of the other animation. Viewing the more complex animation before the more simplified animation did not affect the participants' explanations of the more simplified animation, but did lead to a slight improvement in their abilities to write a balanced chemical equation of the oxidation–reduction reaction. Viewing the more simplified animation before viewing the more complex animation improved the participants' explanations of the more complex animation with respect to the 1 : 1 ratio of the silver and nitrate ions, the 2 : 1 reacting ratio of the silver ions and the copper atoms, the electron transfer process, and writing a balanced equation for this reaction. This positive effect was attributed to the fact that the more simplified animation was easier to interpret since it depicted fewer objects on-screen moving around at the same time, and was therefore less confusing or distracting to the participants. Viewing the more simplified animation before the more complex animation negatively impacted their explanations of the source of the blue colour in the aqueous solution. This negative impact was attributed to the fact that the more simplified animation explicitly depicted the colour change and caused participants viewing the more complex animation to expect that animation to also explicitly depict this colour change.