Direct Measurement of Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning

Brünken, Roland; Plass, Jan L.; Leutner, Detlev

doi:10.1207/s15326985ep3801_7

Cited by 635 publications

(491 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Previous research has shown that reaction time [RT] data to probing secondary tasks is a suitable measurement of mental workload (Verwey & Veltman, 1996;Wickens, 1984). The rationale behind using RTs as a measure of mental workload is that the amount of capacity demanded by the primary task will determine the reaction time to the occurrence of the secondary task (Brunken, Plass, & Leutner, 2003). Thus, by increasing the mental workload of the primary task, the reaction times to the secondary task ought to increase accordingly.…”

Section: Notes On Methods 131 Dual-task Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors

Wästlund

Reinikka

Norlander

et al. 2005

Computers in Human Behavior

123

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Section: Notes On Methods 131 Dual-task Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors

Wästlund

Reinikka

Norlander

et al. 2005

Computers in Human Behavior

123

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“…Measuring cognitive load by means of a secondary task, that is with dual task methodologies, is one of the frequently used methods (see for instance Brünken et al 2003Brünken et al , 2004Chandler and Sweller 1996;Park et al 2011;Sweller, 1988). As a main advantage, Sweller et al (2011) mention the possibility to receive continuous measures of cognitive load during task performance, which gives insight into the fluctuation of cognitive load over time.…”

Section: Measurement Of Cognitive Loadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring cognitive load with subjective rating scales during problem solving: differences between immediate and delayed ratings

et al. 2014

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Subjective cognitive load (CL) rating scales are widely used in educational research. However, there are still some open questions regarding the point of time at which such scales should be applied. Whereas some studies apply rating scales directly after each step or task and use an average of these ratings, others assess CL only once after the whole learning or problem-solving phase. To investigate if these two approaches are comparable indicators of experienced CL, two experiments were conducted, in which 168 and 107 teacher education university students, respectively, worked through a sequence of six problems. CL was assessed by means of subjective ratings of mental effort and perceived task difficulty after each problem and after the whole process. Results showed that the delayed ratings of both effort and difficulty were significantly higher than the average of the six ratings made during problem solving. In addition, the problems we assumed to be of higher complexity seemed to be the best predictors for the delayed ratings. Interestingly, for ratings of affective variables, such as interest and motivation, the delayed rating did not differ from the average of immediate ratings.

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“…In this procedure, performance on a secondary task is supposed to reflect the level of cognitive load imposed by a primary task. Commonly, the secondary task involves simple activities such as remembering a list of letters or words or activities requiring sustained attention, such as detecting a visual or auditory signal (e.g., Brünken et al 2003;Goldin-Meadow et al 2001). Typical performance variables for sustained attention tasks are reaction time, accuracy, and error rate and in the case of a memory task the number of words remembered.…”

Section: Cognitive and Affective Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watch Your Step Children! Learning Two-Digit Numbers Through Mirror-Based Observation of Self-Initiated Body Movements

2015

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It was investigated whether task-related body movements yield beneficial effects on children's learning of two-digit numbers and whether these learning effects are affected by mirror-based self-observation of those movements. Participants were 118 first-graders, who were randomly assigned to two movement conditions and two nonmovement control conditions. In the movement conditions, children were instructed to build two-digit numbers by making and simultaneously verbalizing out loud different sized steps representing the smaller units the numbers consisted of (e.g., the number B36^was construed by saying out loud B10,^B20,^B30,^B35,^B36,^while making three big steps, one medium, and one small step) on a ruler across the floor. In one of the movement conditions, the children were additionally asked to observe their steps in a mirror. In the first conventionally taught control condition, the children were asked to verbally build and mark the two-digit numbers on a ruler depicted on a sheet of paper. In the second control condition, children were seated before the ruler across the floor, and after verbally constructing the two-digit number, they had to walk to the appropriate position of the number on the ruler across the floor. In the subsequent test phase, children's knowledge of two-digit numbers was assessed by a final math test. The results confirmed the hypothesis that the movement conditions lead to higher test performance than the non-movement condition and revealed that test performance was not differentially affected by mirror-based self-observation.

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Direct Measurement of Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning

Cited by 635 publications

References 57 publications

Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors

Effects of VDT and paper presentation on consumption and production of information: Psychological and physiological factors

Measuring cognitive load with subjective rating scales during problem solving: differences between immediate and delayed ratings

Watch Your Step Children! Learning Two-Digit Numbers Through Mirror-Based Observation of Self-Initiated Body Movements

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