The term ontology is defined as the explicit specification of a conceptualization. While much of the prior research has focused on technical aspects of ontology management, little attention has been paid to the investigation of issues that limit the widespread use of ontologies and the evaluation of the effectiveness of ontologies in improving task performance. This dissertation addresses this void through the development of approaches to ontology creation, refinement, and evaluation. This study follows a multi-paper model focusing on ontology creation, refinement, and its evaluation. The first study develops and evaluates a method for ontology creation using knowledge available on the Web. The second study develops a methodology for ontology refinement through pruning and empirically evaluates the effectiveness of this method. The third study investigates the impact of an ontology in use case modeling, which is a complex, knowledge intensive organizational task in the context of IS development. The three studies follow the design science research approach, and each builds and evaluates IT artifacts. These studies contribute to knowledge by developing solutions to three important issues in the effective development and use of ontologies.

Knowledge-based assets play a very important role in the Information Age. How to organize existing knowledge and present to the user properly are important research issue for decision support. Previous literature has indicated that multiple documents can be organized in different ways and different modes of knowledge presentation may result in different learning effects. Typical presentation modes include textual summarization and graphical presentation. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether textual and graphical presentations of a news event may result in different effects for the user. In particular, this study is focused on comparing the textual summary and ontology-base graphical presentation and use the Bloom Theory of Educational Objectives to measure the learning effect of the user An experiment was conducted to assess the knowledge and cognitive process dimension in the Bloom¡¦s theory. We also measured the learning time, system quality, content quality, and overall satisfaction. The result shows that the textual system performed better in learning factual knowledge, and the ontology-base system performed better in learning conceptual and procedural knowledge.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of imagery strategy in learning performance. According to imagery and memory theory and imagination effect, using imagery strategy can help students integrate different information, reduce cognitive loading and the capacity of working memory, enhance schema acquisition and encoding the information to long-term memory. A total of 181 undergraduates and graduates were randomly assigned in the imagery group, transcribe group, note group, and study group. We found that there was no difference between imagery and transcribe group; however, the learning performance of imagery group was better than note group and study group. One week later, there was no difference between four groups. In the feedback of this research, the participant in imagery group thought the imagery strategy was interesting and cost few time than transcribe group. Finally, the primary findings were discussed and educational implications were provided.

This dissertation is comprised of three articles that build on and support each other. The first article is an extensive literature review, and the other two are empirical studies. In this literature review, the author discussed major theories about human learning processes to guide instructional designers about effective integration of multiple modes in interactive learning environments and explored the knowledge base on representations and manipulatives in mathematics education. The first empirical study?s purpose was to investigate effects of affordances provided with virtual learning environments at different treatment durations. Students from multiple sixth-grade classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups differed by allocated session time (10-, 20-, and 30-minute). The online manipulative tool (OMT), which was designed to scaffold learning in operations with rational numbers, allowed students to use the following three components in any order: (a) audio, (b) audio-visual, and (c) manipulatives. Analyses showed that students who used manipulatives most achieved highest; whereas, students who used audio-visual most achieved the second highest. Additionally, the 30-minute group used each component of OMT the least. A meaningful increase in standard algorithm use over manipulatives suggested a transition from concrete to abstract thinking. The second empirical study's purpose was to compare OMT's different representational aspects and to estimate OMT's effects on achievement and technology acceptance when compared to those of traditional classroom activities. Elementary- and middle-grade students were randomly assigned to the control group or one of three treatment groups: (a) audio-visual, (b) virtual-kinesthetic, and (c) dual-mode (virtual-kinesthetic and audio-visual combined). When the control group was compared with experimental groups, pre- and post-test results suggested that OMT was more effective than traditional classroom activities in improving students' understanding of operations with rational numbers. When the students' achievement on pre- and post-tests among experimental groups was compared, no substantial difference was found. However, students in the dual-mode group scored the highest on the technology acceptance survey. Students' technology acceptances also differed among different SES levels but not genders. The results suggested that virtual manipulatives provided additional affordances for conceptual understanding. However, students' acceptances of technology should be considered when implementing new technologies.

By the catholicity of Internet and the advances of information technology, more and more people use the e-Learning to do the teaching and learning activities. However, whether using the abundant multimedia learning content can really achieve better learning performance? This study tries to use the information processing theory to discuss the impact of fitness bwteeen learner¡¦s different information processing abilities and content¡¦s medium types on cognitive load and learning performance. That is if learner¡¦s information processing abilities can fit with content medium types would result better learning performance. We found that firstly, the diversity of learners¡¦ individual information processing abilities has no impact to the cognitive load. Secondly, the different content medium types with the same quantity of media content also have no impact to the cognitive load. Lastly, the wordy ability learners with wordy content medium type or the phonic ability learners with audio content medium type can lower learner¡¦s cognitive load. It is suggested that educators can apply the results for the adaptive learning. By using information processing ability analysis system to classify learners into wordy ability and phonic ability learners and then give them adaptive content materials according to their own information processing abilities.

ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE LOAD IN LEARNING FROM GOAL BASED SCENARIO DESIGNED MULTIMEDIA LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNERS HAVING DIFFERENT WORKING MEMORY CAPACITIES Kili&ccedil / , Eylem Ph.D., Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zahide Yildirim December 2009, 201 pages The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of principles aiming to reduce extraneous cognitive load in learning from goal based scenario designed multimedia learning environment for learners having different working memory capacities. In addition, the effects of goal based scenario and the principles of cognitive load theory on students&rsquo / perception, motivation and satisfaction has been explored. Two versions of the multimedia were developed for this study. In the first version (+CLT), the principles such as split attention, multimedia, modality, redundancy, coherence and signaling was applied. In the second version (-CLT), these principles were violated. Mixed method was used and two studies were conducted for this study. The first study was conducted with 82 ninth grade students from one of the Anatolian High School in Ankara. However, the participants&rsquo / working memory capacities were found very close to each other. Therefore, the second study was conducted with 54 11th grade students having different working memory capacity from the same school. The result of the first study showed that the cognitive load principles aim at reducing extraneous cognitive load increased learning gains, decreased invested mental effort and affected students&rsquo / motivation and satisfaction in positive ways. On the other hand, when cognitive load principles were not considered, this decreased learning gains, increased invested mental effort and affected students&rsquo / motivation and satisfaction in negative ways. The result of the second study showed that the only difference between high and low WMC students found on the number of errors made in sequencing meiosis sub phases in favor of the first version (+CLT). This might be explained by the task characteristics in that the difference between high and low WMC individuals can be observed when task demanded attention. It can be concluded that students benefited from the cognitive load principles reducing extraneous cognitive based on the findings of both studies.

Learners who are novice problem solvers often encounter difficulty when solving complex problems. One explanation for this difficulty is that the cognitive requirements of problem-solving are sufficiently high that learners easily become overwhelmed and frustrated, leading to a state known as cognitive overload in which learning is obstructed. Cognitive Load Theory is concerned with the design of instructional approaches intended to manage the cognitive load required for thinking and problem-solving tasks. Scaffolds are any kind of support that facilitates the accomplishment of a difficult task that a learner would not be able to accomplish on their own. They are potential mechanisms to support students in negotiating the potentially high cognitive load required by complex problem-solving. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of technology-based scaffolds within a problem-based learning environment known as Alien Rescue. The study investigated the impact of scaffolds on cognitive load, problem-solving behaviors, science knowledge, and student perceptions of the learning environment. Participants for this study included sixth grade students from a suburban middle school in the southwestern United States. Student classes were assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (a) a problem constraint condition in which students were guided through a problem-solving process similar to that of an expert, (b) a prompt condition in which students were provided with guiding messages during problem-solving, and (c) a control condition with no scaffolding. All conditions participated in the use of Alien Rescue for three weeks. Measures including a self-report measure of mental effort, calculated instructional efficiency scores, problem solution scores, student activity logs, and science knowledge test performance were used to evaluate students' cognitive load, problem-solving performance, problem-solving strategies, and learning gains. An open-ended questionnaire and student interviews were used to gather data on students' perceptions of the program. Results of the study indicate statistically significant differences between treatment conditions with respect to problem-solving efficiency, student problem-solving behaviors, and scientific knowledge gain. Additionally, qualitative findings highlight problematic aspects of the highly structured condition as implemented within the classroom context while also identifying components of the learning environment that were perceived as helpful and useful to participants. Teacher interviews also provided insight into classroom implementation of the program and opportunities to further enhance scaffolds to support student learning. Implications of the study from research, instructional design, and technology perspectives are discussed along with a treatment of study limitations and opportunities for further research in this area. / text

This dissertation presents three studies consisting of seven experiments that investigate the relationship between human-computer interaction (HCI) behavior and changes in cognitive states by using keystroke dynamics (KD) and mouse dynamics (MD) as physiological indicators of cognitive change. The first two chapters discuss the importance of being able to detect changes in affect, cognitive load, and deception and provide a theoretical base for this research, pulling heavily from cognitive science, psychology and communication literature. We also discuss the current state of the art in keystroke and mouse dynamics and what makes the techniques presented here different. Chapters three and four present five experiments that explore the influence of affect and cognitive load on KD and MD. The results of these experiments suggest that many features of typing and mouse movement behavior including transition time, rollovers, duration, number of direction changes, and distance traveled are influenced by changes in affect and cognitive load. In chapter five we operationalize these findings in a credibility assessment context and describe two experiments in which participants behave deceptively in computer mediated interactions. In both experiments, we find significant differences in typing behavior, in line with the findings of the first two studies. Chapter six summarizes the results and provides a way forward for future research in human computer interaction. The work presented in this dissertation describes a novel approach to inferring cognitive changes using low cost, non-invasive, and transparent monitoring of HCI behavior with important implications for both research and practice.

This thesis undertakes two main tasks; to explore, within the authentic educational context, variables that influence the quality and outcomes of the knowledge-constructing activity during the simulation exercise; and to find appropriate instruments and methods to measure these variables, processes and outcomes. Closed-ended tasks that provided a high degree of structure, i.e., supported students’ regulation of learning during the simulation exercise, were more beneficial for perceived improvement of declarative knowledge and students’ motivation than open-ended tasks. Open-ended tasks did however lead to substantial shifts in students’ cognitive focus in subsequent laboratory exercises and improvement of students’ level of chemistry reasoning in interviews. Student attitudes toward learning proved important in the first paper where significantly higher ability to apply chemistry knowledge in interviews could be found for students with relativistic attitudes compared to those with more dualistic perspectives on learning. In the subsequent papers, the effects of attitudes were not as clear, possibly due to too small differences in the learning situations that were compared. Quality of the learning discourse during simulation was measured with three qualitatively different methods, focusing on partly different aspects. The different methods gave very similar results regarding the relative quality of the discourses. Thus, “quality” as such seems to be an underlying feature that permeates many aspects of the discourse and consequently could be targeted in different ways, e.g., focusing on quantitative as well as qualitative aspects. The analyses revealed several components of quality; co-operative activity, correctness and complexity of chemistry reasoning, discussion length and intensity, ability to realize cognitive conflict, and reference to theory while reasoning. Doing the simulation exercise in a distributed learning setting (written e-communication), supported discussions with higher accuracy and complexity of chemistry reasoning and frequent references to theory while the face-to-face situation allowed for longer and more intense discussions and a higher degree of co-operative activity. Not very surprisingly, high-quality discussions were characterized by high scores in all these components. There were indications that relatively good pre-knowledge might be required to benefit fully from face-to-face discussions. The validity of instruments and methods, used to measure flow experiences, attitudes (i.e., epistemological beliefs), knowledge accessibility (intuitive knowledge) and discourse quality are discussed thoroughly. Special interest has been devoted to whether qualitative data should be quantified or not, providing arguments in favor of quantitative methods for analyzing and reporting qualitative data.

Most events that we encounter in everyday life provide our different senses with correlated information, and audiovisual speech perception is a familiar instance of multisensory integration. Several approaches will be used to further examine the role of cognitive factors on audiovisual speech perception. The main focuses of this thesis will be to examine the influences of cognitive load and selective attention on audiovisual speech perception, as well as the integration of auditory and visual information in talking distractor faces. The influence of cognitive factors on the temporal integration of auditory and visual speech, and gaze behaviour during audiovisual speech will also be addressed. The overall results of the experiments presented here suggest that the integration of auditory and visual speech information is quite robust to various attempts to modulate the integration. Adding a cognitive load task shows minimal disruption of the integration of auditory and visual speech information. Changing attentional instructions to get subjects to selectively attend to either the auditory or visual speech information also has a rather modest influence on the observed integration of auditory and visual speech information. Generally, the integration of temporally offset auditory and visual information seems rather insensitive to cognitive load or selective attentional manipulations. The processing of visual information from distractor faces seems to be limited. The language of the visually articulating distractors doesn't appear to provide information that is helpful for matching together the auditory and visual speech streams. Audiovisual speech distractors are not really any more distracting than auditory distractor speech paired with a still image, suggesting a limited processing or integration of the visual and auditory distractor information. The gaze behaviour during audiovisual speech perception appears to be relatively unaffected by an increase in cognitive load, but is somewhat influenced by attentional instructions to selectively attend to the auditory and visual information. Additionally, both the congruency of the consonant, and the temporal offset of the auditory and visual stimuli have small but rather robust influences on gaze. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-30 23:31:07.754