Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design

Sweller, John

doi:10.1016/0959-4752(94)90003-5

Cited by 2,525 publications

(1,871 citation statements)

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“…For example, discovery-based multimedia math games can provide a medium to access and process information, model and explore mathematics, and conduct mathematical investigations at a student's own pace (Wiest, 2001). However, learning a new arithmetic procedure with multiple representations may be overwhelming to the novice learner (Moreno, 2004), especially when asked to select, organize, and integrate the multiple representations with prior knowledge and without guidance (Sweller, 1994). Does verbal guidance help students learn mathematics from a multiplerepresentation multimedia game?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Multiple Representations Need Explanations? The Role of Verbal Guidance and Individual Differences in Multimedia Mathematics Learning.

Moreno

Durán

2004

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Elementary school children, some of whom were nonnative speakers of English, learned to add and subtract integers in a discovery-based multimedia game either with or without verbal guidance in English or optionally in Spanish (Groups G-verbal guidance and No-G-no verbal guidance, respectively). Group G members chose to listen to verbal explanations in their first language and showed larger posttest scores than Group No-G. High-computer-experience students in Group G outperformed the rest of the students on training session scores and a transfer test. Longer latencies to respond to practice problems affected all learning measures positively. Results support the use of verbal guidance for discovery-based multimedia games and show that multimedia games may not be equally effective for all learners.What is the role of verbal guidance in promoting mathematics learning from a discovery-based multimedia game? Are there important individual differences for which a multimedia game helps some kinds of learners more than others? These are important questions both for research and for the application of research, to improve instruction and learning outcomes in learning mathematics with multimedia programs. Our first question is concerned with the issue of how one should design multimedia games to enhance student learning and focuses on the role of verbal guidance as an aid to meaning making. To answer this question, we examined the cognitive consequences of learning how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers within a discovery-based multimedia game either with or without verbal guidance. Our second question is concerned with the issue of how individual differences influence learning from interactive multimedia games. More specifically, we were interested in examining the role that students' computer experience and latency to solve problems had when students were asked to learn from a discovery-based computer game that presented multiple representations (symbolic and visual) of the arithmetic procedure.The main goal of this study was to investigate if the benefits of guidance that had been documented in past research on discoverybased strategies in the classroom extended into the realm of multimedia learning. In our study, elementary students studied 16 addition and subtraction problems involving positive and negative numbers in each of four training sessions with two representations of the arithmetic procedure: a symbolic representation consisting of the number sentence (i.e., 2 Ϫ Ϫ5 ϭ ___) and a visual representation using a number line and a computer animation to show how the symbolic number sentence relates to a bunny's movements along the number line. One group of students learned without verbal guidance and was presented with the symbolic and visual representations alone (Group No-G). Another group of students learned with identical symbolic and visual representations but was presented, additionally, with a verbal description (in English or optionally in Spanish) explaining how the symbols related to the bun...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Multiple Representations Need Explanations? The Role of Verbal Guidance and Individual Differences in Multimedia Mathematics Learning.

Moreno

Durán

2004

Journal of Educational Psychology

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“…Such material is high in element interactivity (Sweller 1994). If the nature of the material is such that the number of interacting elements exceeds the number that can be processed by working memory, learning with understanding cannot occur.…”

Section: Cognitive Load Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Instructional Design Consequences of an Analogy between Evolution by Natural Selection and Human Cognitive Architecture

Sweller

2004

Instructional Science

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331

248

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Abstract. Evolution by natural selection may be characterized as a system in which a large store of genetic information will persist indefinitely while it remains coordinated with its environment but will continuously produce small random variations that are tested for environmental effectiveness. In any environment, effective variations will persist while ineffective variations will disappear. Similarly, human cognitive architecture includes a large store of information held in long-term memory that coordinates our cognitive activities. A very limited working memory tests the effectiveness of small variations to long-term memory with effective variations altering long-term memory while ineffective variations are lost. Both an existing genetic code and information in long-term memory provide a central executive that guides behaviour. Such a central executive is unavailable when an environment alters or when working memory must be used to deal with novel information. A major function of instructional design is to provide the otherwise missing structure of a central executive when dealing with novel information and to reduce that structural support as knowledge accumulates in longterm memory. Cognitive load theory both provides instructional design principles that would be difficult to devise without its particular view of human cognitive architecture and throws further light on that architecture.

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“…CL has been shown to have important implications for learning [13], safety in driving [4], aviation [16], and user interface design [10]. Being able to accurately monitor CL in real world environment would have important and far-reaching implications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Stress on Cognitive Load Measurement

Conway

Dick

et al. 2013

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Abstract.Human physiological signals have been widely used to non-invasively measure cognitive load (CL) during task execution. A major challenge for CL detection is the presence of stress, which may affect physiological measurements in ways that confound reliable detection of CL. In this experiment we investigated the effect of stress on cognitive load measurement using galvanic skin response (GSR) as a physiological index of CL. The experiment utilized feelings of lack of control, task failure and social-evaluation to induce stress. Mean GSR values were shown to be significantly different between CL levels in the 'no-stress' condition, but not when including the 'stress' condition. On the other hand, features extracted from GSR signals based on peak detection exhibited consistent behaviour under both conditions, demonstrating the usefulness of the features as cognitive load index even when a person's stress level is fluctuating.

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Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design

Cited by 2,525 publications

References 30 publications

Do Multiple Representations Need Explanations? The Role of Verbal Guidance and Individual Differences in Multimedia Mathematics Learning.

Do Multiple Representations Need Explanations? The Role of Verbal Guidance and Individual Differences in Multimedia Mathematics Learning.

Instructional Design Consequences of an Analogy between Evolution by Natural Selection and Human Cognitive Architecture

The Effect of Stress on Cognitive Load Measurement

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