Although the seductive details effect, a phenomenon where interesting but irrelevant pictures impede comprehension, is well documented, studies examining ways of moderating its detrimental impact on learning remain few. The present study examined the effect of note‐taking on the seductive details effect. Chinese undergraduate participants (N = 91) were randomly assigned to three conditions that differed in terms of the presence of seductive details and learning strategy (presence or absence of note‐taking for the seductive details group). Mediation analyses results showed that seductive details undermined participants' performance on recall and transfer tasks as a result of increased cognitive load. Results from variance analyses indicated that participants in the seductive details and note‐taking condition outperformed those in the comparison group and that this effect differed depending on participants' prior knowledge and outcome measures (recall or transfer). Overall, our results suggest that note‐taking is an effective cognitive strategy that can help learners overcome the seductive details effect. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.