The Expertise Reversal Effect

By Slava Kalyuga, Paul Ayres, Paul Chandler, John Sweller. 2003

1,912 citations recorded by the source corpus.

When new information is presented to learners, it must be processed in a severely limited working memory. Learning reduces working memory limitations by enabling the use of schemas, stored in long-term memory, to process information more efficiently. Several instructional techniques have been designed to facilitate schema construction and automation by reducing working memory load. Recently, however, strong evidence has emerged that the effectiveness of these techniques depends very much on levels of learner expertise. Instructional techniques that are highly effective with inexperienced learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences when used with more experienced learners. We call this phenomenon the expertise reversal effect. In this article, we review the empirical literature on the interaction between instructional techniques and levels of learner experience that led to the identification of the expertise reversal effect.

Subfields: Education, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/533865d1561fc50b4288c626f796ae8fafee9d6e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

1. Fred Paas
2. John Sweller
3. J. V. van Merriënboer
4. Tamara van Gog
5. Alexander Renkl
6. Roxana Moreno
7. Richard E. Mayer
8. Slava Kalyuga

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. Fred Paas
2. John Sweller
3. Tamara van Gog
4. J. V. van Merriënboer
5. Richard E. Mayer
6. Alexander Renkl
7. Slava Kalyuga
8. Roxana Moreno

Citations in the corpus

• The effects of part-task and whole-task instructional approaches on acquisition and transfer of a complex cognitive skill (2009, background): “This effect is called the expertise reversal effect, that is, the positive effects of various instructional strategies observed with novice learners disappear and may even hinder learning as learners further develop their skills (Kalyuga et al. 2003).”
• Learning with desktop virtual reality: Low spatial ability learners are more positively affected (2014, background): “Moreover, experts can categorize multiple elements or related information as single higher level of element which requires considerably less working memory capacity for processing (Kalyuga et al., 2003).”
• Element Interactivity and Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane Cognitive Load (2010, background): “This effect occurs when an instructional procedure “X” that is effective for novices in comparison to an alternative procedure “Y” becomes less effective as expertise increases ( Kalyuga et al. 2003 ).”
• Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems (2009, background): “Previous research has shown a trade-off between these two goals in students with different levels of knowledge (the expertise reversal effect, Kalyuga et al., 2003).”
• The Effects of Feedback During Exploratory Mathematics Problem Solving: Prior Knowledge Matters (2012, background): “To be clear, the expertise reversal effect involves interactions between instructional methods and learners’ knowledge, and need not involve experts (e.g., Ayres, 2006; Homer & Plaas, 2009; Kalyuga et al., 2003).”