Learning and understanding science instructional material.

By Robert H. Carlson, Paul Chandler, John Sweller. 2003

147 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Learning and understanding of science instructional material was examined from a cognitive load perspective. It was suggested that instructions can be difficult to learn if multiple elements of information need to be simultaneously processed through limited working memory. Diagrams were expected to reduce cognitive load by allowing students to process information using fewer elements in working memory than an equivalent text-based format. However, if instructional information could be processed serially, then working-memory load should be light, and both diagrammatic and text-based instructions were hypothesized to be equally effective. Two experiments using different chemistry instructions confirmed these hypotheses and so highlight the role of cognitive load factors in instructional design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Education, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/afa01db842f4d399108c22c78f658c5e7b0deb1e

How researchers see this paper

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

In Artificial Intelligence

1. J. V. van Merriënboer
2. John Sweller
3. Fred Paas
4. O. ten Cate
5. Steven Durning
6. John Q. Young
7. Ulana A. Luciw-Dubas
8. Lindsey E. Snyder-Hogan

In Education

1. J. V. van Merriënboer
2. John Sweller
3. Ulana A. Luciw-Dubas
4. Lindsey E. Snyder-Hogan
5. Jennifer G. Cromley
6. Fred Paas
7. Tamara van Gog
8. Slava Kalyuga

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. J. V. van Merriënboer
2. John Sweller
3. Fred Paas
4. O. ten Cate
5. Steven Durning
6. John Q. Young
7. Tamara van Gog
8. Ulana A. Luciw-Dubas

Citations in the corpus

• Cognitive Load Theory: Implications for medical education: AMEE Guide No. 86 (2014, background): “If the task-associated intrinsic load is low, then the extraneous load may not harm learning as long as the total load remains within the learner’s WM limitations (Carlson et al. 2003).”
• Cognitive activities in complex science text and diagrams (2010, background): “These have been variously termed low-level, surface, shallow, or text-based strategies and include highlighting, re-reading, and single-sentence paraphrases (Alexander, Sperl, Buehl, Fives, & Chiu, 2004; Cerdan & Vidal-Abarca, 2008; Meece & Miller, 2001; Weinstein, Husman, & Dierking, 2000). In addi”
• Cognitive Load Theory and Complex Learning: Recent Developments and Future Directions (2005, background): “…effects on learning if element interactivity is low; however, such instruction positively affects learning and transfer performance for complex materials with a high level of element interactivity (Carlson et al., 2003; Marcus et al., 1996; Sweller and Chandler, 1994; Tindall-Ford et al., 1997).”