Discussion of the special issue on cognitive load theory.

BACKGROUND: The present Special Issue contains 9 papers exploring novel cognitive load theory research questions. AIM: To provide a discussion of the 9 articles in this Special Issue of the Journal and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the papers and indicate opportunities for future studies. PROCEDURE: Briefly summarizes cognitive load theory in its current version followed by the discussion of the 9 individual papers.

Effect of task-based group experience on collaborative learning: Exploring the transaction activities.

BACKGROUND: Collaborative learning is a widely used approach where students gather in small groups to solve problems and develop skills. However, grouping students is not always effective, and it may be necessary to provide task-specific collaborative experiences to optimize their interactions for subsequent learning tasks. AIMS: To test this hypothesis, we conducted an experiment with 90 Ecuadorian students in their mathematics class. SAMPLE: Participants were 90 Ecuadorian students (average age = 13.80 years, SD = .70; 48.89% female) from a private school in Sangolquí, who participated as part of their mathematics class. METHOD: The experiment consisted of four phases: preparation, learning, retention one-day testing, and delayed seven-day testing. In the preparation phase, 15 triads received guidance on working collaboratively with quadratic equations (i.e., experienced groups), while 45 other individual learners worked independently. In the learning phase, 15 experienced triads and 45 individual learners (who were later divided into 15 non-experienced triads) received a new learning task in the domain of economics, precisely the break-even point. RESULTS: The experienced group outperformed the non-experienced group in the retention one-day test, investing less mental effort and demonstrating greater efficiency. However, there was no significant difference in the delayed one-week test. We analysed the interactions of the groups and found that experienced groups exhibited more cognitive, fewer regulatory, an equal number of emotional interactions, and fewer task-unrelated interactions than the non-experienced groups. CONCLUSIONS: Providing task-specific collaborative experiences can reduce the cognitive load associated with transactional activities and increase learning in new tasks.

Biological evolution and human cognition are analogous information processing systems.

The mechanisms that govern biological evolution and human cognition are analogous, as both follow the same principles of natural information processing systems. In this article, we describe the following five principles that provide an analogy between biological evolution and human cognition: (a) Randomness as Genesis Principle and (b) Borrowing and Reorganizing Principle, which indicate how natural information processing systems obtain information; (c) Narrow Limits of Change Principle and (d) Information Store Principle, which indicate how information is processed and stored; and (e) Environmental Organizing and Linking Principle, which indicate how stored information is used to generate actions appropriate to an environment. In human cognition, these analogs only apply to cognitive processes associated with biologically secondary knowledge, the knowledge typically taught in educational institutions. Based on these five principles, cognitive load theory researchers have provided diverse prescriptions to optimize instructional activities and materials. We conclude by discussing general instructional implications and future research directions based on this analogy.

The advantages of listening to academic content in a second language may be outweighed by disadvantages: A cognitive load theory approach.

BACKGROUND: It is frequently implicitly assumed that advantages in language acquisition when learning content through a second language exceed the disadvantages of reduced content acquisition. AIMS: Based on cognitive load theory, that assumption was tested experimentally. The theory is concerned with techniques for reducing extraneous working memory load in order to facilitate learning. MATERIALS: This study used a listening task. METHODS: French students of Law and Political Science listened to an audio document about the European Court of Humans Rights under one of four experimental conditions: in their native language (French) twice; in a second language (German) twice; first in French, then in German; or first in German then in French. After the listening task, we tested students' understanding of both the German language and of the academic content. RESULTS: Our results indicated that listening to the content in French before listening to it in a second language was beneficial for both content and language learning. In contrast, listening to content in a second language not only depressed content acquisition as is to be expected, but also depressed language acquisition. We discuss the relevance of cognitive load theory to frame learning tasks aimed at teaching content through a second language.

From Theory to Practice: The Application of Cognitive Load Theory to the Practice of Medicine.

Cognitive load theory has become a leading model in educational psychology and has started to gain traction in the medical education community over the last decade. The theory is rooted in our current understanding of human cognitive architecture in which an individual's limited working memory and unlimited long-term memory interact during the process of learning. Though initially described as primarily a theory of learning, parallels between cognitive load theory and broader aspects of medical education as well as clinical practice are now becoming clear. These parallels are particularly relevant and evident in complex clinical environments, like resuscitation medicine. The authors have built on these connections to develop a recontextualized version of cognitive load theory that applies to complex professional domains and in which the connections between the theory and clinical practice are made explicit, with resuscitation medicine as a case study. Implications of the new model for medical education are also presented along with suggested applications.

Undesirable Difficulty Effects in the Learning of High-Element Interactivity Materials.

According to the concept of desirable difficulties, introducing difficulties in learning may sacrifice short-term performance in order to benefit long-term retention of learning. We describe three types of desirable difficulty effects: testing, generation, and varied conditions of practice. The empirical literature indicates that desirable difficulty effects are not always obtained and we suggest that cognitive load theory may be used to explain many of these contradictory results. Many failures to obtain desirable difficulty effects may occur under conditions where working memory is already stressed due to the use of high element interactivity information. Under such conditions, the introduction of additional difficulties may be undesirable rather than desirable. Empirical evidence from diverse experiments is used to support this hypothesis.

From Cognitive Load Theory to Collaborative Cognitive Load Theory.

Cognitive load theory has traditionally been associated with individual learning. Based on evolutionary educational psychology and our knowledge of human cognition, particularly the relations between working memory and long-term memory, the theory has been used to generate a variety of instructional effects. Though these instructional effects also influence the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative learning, be it computer supported or face-to-face, they are often not considered either when designing collaborative learning situations/environments or researching collaborative learning. One reason for this omission is that cognitive load theory has only sporadically concerned itself with certain particulars of collaborative learning such as the concept of a collective working memory when collaborating along with issues associated with transactive activities and their concomitant costs which are inherent to collaboration. We illustrate how and why cognitive load theory, by adding these concepts, can throw light on collaborative learning and generate principles specific to the design and study of collaborative learning.

Cognitive Load Theory for the Design of Medical Simulations.

STATEMENT: Simulation-based education (SBE) has emerged as an effective and important tool for medical educators, but research about how to optimize training with simulators is in its infancy. It is often difficult to generalize results from experiments on instructional design issues in simulation because of the heterogeneity of learner groups, teaching methods, and rapidly changing technologies. We have found that cognitive load theory is highly relevant to teaching in the simulation laboratory and a useful conceptual framework to reference when designing or researching simulation-based education. Herein, we briefly describe cognitive load theory, its grounding in our current understanding of cognitive architecture, and the evidence supporting it. We focus our discussion on a few well-established cognitive load effects with examples from simulation training and recommend some instructional applications with theoretical potential to improve learning outcomes.

Using a general problem-solving strategy to promote transfer.

Cognitive load theory was used to hypothesize that a general problem-solving strategy based on a make-as-many-moves-as-possible heuristic could facilitate problem solutions for transfer problems. In four experiments, school students were required to learn about a topic through practice with a general problem-solving strategy, through a conventional problem solving strategy or by studying worked examples. In Experiments 1 and 2 using junior high school students learning geometry, low knowledge students in the general problem-solving group scored significantly higher on near or far transfer tests than the conventional problem-solving group. In Experiment 3, an advantage for a general problem-solving group over a group presented worked examples was obtained on far transfer tests using the same curriculum materials, again presented to junior high school students. No differences between conditions were found in Experiments 1, 2, or 3 using test problems similar to the acquisition problems. Experiment 4 used senior high school students studying economics and found the general problem-solving group scored significantly higher than the conventional problem-solving group on both similar and transfer tests. It was concluded that the general problem-solving strategy was helpful for novices, but not for students that had access to domain-specific knowledge.

Levels of knowledge and deliberate practice.

This study examined the influence of deliberate practice, defined as practice specifically aimed at learners' weak areas and only their weak areas, on 8th graders performance in geometry. A control group had a choice over practice problems and their sequencing. Experiment 1 indicated a disordinal practice schedule by knowledge interaction. Simple effects tests indicated that the interaction was primarily caused by less knowledgeable learners benefiting more from a self-selected practice schedule than deliberate practice. Two subsequent experiments explored the cognitive mechanisms behind this effect by using learners with different levels of prior knowledge. Whereas the relatively more knowledgeable learners in Experiment 2 benefited by concentrating only on their weak areas during practice, the less knowledgeable learners in Experiment 3 improved their skills when they practiced on problem sets combining some of their weak and some of their strong areas or by concentrating on only a limited number of weak areas for a given problem area. These findings have important implications for the design of curriculum materials and implementation of deliberate practice techniques in secondary classrooms. Prior to attaining a sufficient level of familiarity with the subject matter, learners should be encouraged to continue practicing in areas in which they have some degree of competence. Only after competence is attained in several related areas should an exclusive emphasis be placed on practice in weak areas only. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive load theory in health professional education: design principles and strategies.

CONTEXT: Cognitive load theory aims to develop instructional design guidelines based on a model of human cognitive architecture. The architecture assumes a limited working memory and an unlimited long-term memory holding cognitive schemas; expertise exclusively comes from knowledge stored as schemas in long-term memory. Learning is described as the construction and automation of such schemas. Three types of cognitive load are distinguished: intrinsic load is a direct function of the complexity of the performed task and the expertise of the learner; extraneous load is a result of superfluous processes that do not directly contribute to learning, and germane load is caused by learning processes that deal with intrinsic cognitive load. OBJECTIVES: This paper discusses design guidelines that will decrease extraneous load, manage intrinsic load and optimise germane load. DISCUSSION: Fifteen design guidelines are discussed. Extraneous load can be reduced by the use of goal-free tasks, worked examples and completion tasks, by integrating different sources of information, using multiple modalities, and by reducing redundancy. Intrinsic load can be managed by simple-to-complex ordering of learning tasks and working from low- to high-fidelity environments. Germane load can be optimised by increasing variability over tasks, applying contextual interference, and evoking self-explanation. The guidelines are also related to the expertise reversal effect, indicating that design guidelines for novice learners are different from guidelines for more experienced learners. Thus, well-designed instruction for novice learners is different from instruction for more experienced learners. Applications in health professional education and current research lines are discussed.

The effect of written text on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language.

Based on cognitive load theory, this study investigated the effect of simultaneous written presentations on comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language. Learners' language comprehension was compared while they used 3 instructional formats: listening with auditory materials only, listening with a full, written script, and listening with simultaneous subtitled text. Listening with the presence of a script and subtitles led to better understanding of the scripted and subtitled passage but poorer performance on a subsequent auditory passage than listening with the auditory materials only. These findings indicated that where the intention was learning to listen, the use of a full script or subtitles had detrimental effects on the construction and automation of listening comprehension schemas.

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects.

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects were investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, less knowledgeable primary school students learning to use a bus timetable produced better performance under study than imagination conditions, but an increase in their experience reversed the result, producing the imagination effect. Experiment 2, in which students were taught to use a temperature line graph, replicated these results and demonstrated that the effects were more likely to be obtained using complex material. It was concluded that learners can engage more successfully in imagination procedures when learning has proceeded sufficiently to permit the information to be processed in working memory and that working memory limitations are of little consequence except when dealing with complex information.

When redundant on-screen text in multimedia technical instruction can interfere with learning.

It is frequently assumed that presenting the same material in written and spoken form benefits learning and understanding. The present work provides a theoretical justification based on cognitive load theory, and empirical evidence based on controlled experiments, that this assumption can be incorrect. From a theoretical perspective, it is suggested that if learners are required to coordinate and simultaneously process redundant material such as written and spoken text, an excessive working memory load is generated. Three experiments involving a group of 25 technical apprentices compared the effects of simultaneously presenting the same written and auditory textual information as opposed to either temporally separating the two modes or eliminating one of the modes. The first two experiments demonstrated that nonconcurrent presentation of auditory and visual explanations of a diagram proved superior, in terms of ratings of mental load and test scores, to a concurrent presentation of the same explanations when instruction time was constrained. The 3rd experiment demonstrated that a concurrent presentation of identical auditory and visual technical text (without the presence of diagrams) was significantly less efficient in comparison with an auditory-only text. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design and evaluation of multimedia instructional systems and audiovisual displays.