Animation in Web Sites - Studies?

In the field of Web Dev, I've heard plenty of blogs and people say that users tend to ignore (or be irritated by) content which is flashy/unnecessarily animated, adversel开发者_开发百科y affecting usability, but are there any studies to support that statement?

I found a couple that seem to be along the lines you are looking for. Unfortunately if you are not associated with a research institute you will probably have to buy a subscription to the journal to get your hands on the papers. As a general note it doesn't seem to be a huge area of research, but those papers should at least give some keywords and references to guide guide further search.

Does animation in user interfaces improve decision making?

The Usability of Multimedia Interface Based on User's Mental Models

Evaluating the Effects of Animations on Mobile Application Learnability

Animations in user interface design

UPDATE:

This one might also be useful

Multiple Usability Evaluations of a Program Animation Tool

And on a somewhat unrelated note, but since you started talking about user interfaces and usability

http://www.parc.com/event/412/wired-for-interfaces.html