<p>In multimedia learning, different visual emotional designs can affect learners’ emotions, increase internal motivation and enhance learning effects, which are important ways for learners to acquire information. Previous studies have focused more on the emotional dimension and overall information transfer characteristics of visual emotional design, but failed to examine the role of specific visual elements in the whole learning process. In addition, the pace of the presentation of learning materials is an emerging media learning mode of interaction between learners and learning materials, which can have different effects on learners’ emotions, subjective experiences and learning effects. Therefore, in this paper, we use eye-tracking technology to verify the effectiveness of visual emotion design in multimedia learning, and further explore the effects of visual element salience on learning effectiveness and visual cognitive processing, as well as the moderating role of the pace of presentation of learning materials. The results of this study confirm the important role of positive emotions in multimedia learning, the ability of salient learning materials to enhance visual processing, and the moderating role of presentation pace in the effect of visual element salience on multimedia learning. The results of this study not only provide a design basis and guidance for the design of instructional materials in multimedia learning, but also provide a reference for the interaction mode between learners and instructional materials, which ultimately promotes visual cognitive processing and improves the effectiveness of multimedia learning in a more precise way.</p>