The purpose of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of using multimedia as a means of teaching physical science to learners. The underlying theoretical assumption was that a multimedia presentation would help to reduce the cognitive load experienced by learners when they learn physical science content, compared to a traditional mode of presentation, and that this reduction may have a positive effect on the ease with which they master the content. Physical science learners in Grade 11 viewed a presentation consisting of multimedia screens and screens depicting the learning content in a traditional layout – in order to compare the level of knowledge gained as well as the cognitive load experienced for the multimedia and traditional instructions. Pre- and post-test questionnaires were used to determine the knowledge gained, while cognitive load was measured using a dual-task methodology. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to analyse the data. The results did not reveal a statistically significant increase in knowledge gained via the multimedia approach when compared to the traditional mode of instruction, but when focussing the analysis on learners with a lower-knowledge base in physical science though, statistically significant results were found. However, no significant results were found to support the hypothesis that multimedia would help to reduce learners’ cognitive load. It was concluded that the multimedia design principles are more effective in increasing knowledge for physical science learners of low-knowledge than traditional instructional designs. / Psychology / M.Sc. (Psychology)

<p>The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.</p>

In this study, factors affecting eye tracking measures and achievement in multimedia learning were explored. Familiarity, redundancy, and control are three important factors, which affect the levels of achievement in multimedia learning. In this study, three experiments were conducted in which the main effects and interactions of familiarity, redundancy, and pace investigated. In Experiment 1, a chemistry lesson with narration were studied twice as multimedia lesson. In Experiment 2, different group of participants studied two versions of chemistry lessons. Both versions had subtitles / however, in one version in Experiment 2, narration was removed from background during the experiment. In Experiment 3, different group of participants studied two versions of mechanism lessons. One of the mechanism lessons was system-paced. The other one was also self-paced / however, in this one, the learner decided to proceed to next slide as his or her own choice. After studying lessons, participants completed an achievement test, which consisted of recognition, recall, and transfer questions. The results showed that fixation count, fixation duration, total fixation duration, and total visit duration showed significant differences as well as interactions as per fragments, familiarity, areas of interest, and type of images, varying in accordance with the lesson type. The correlations among scores of achievement tests and eye tracking metrics were also reported. The results are discussed within the scope of cognitive theory of multimedia learning design principles and cognitive load theory in the conclusion chapter.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an instruction designed by the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) principles on 7th grade students

There is considerable evidence in the audit literature that even though auditors usually identify the relevant information needed to propose and select the correct cause of an unexpected fluctuation, they frequently do not propose the correct cause, and even when they do propose the correct cause, they often fail to select it. I suggest that working memory limitations might be a factor contributing to this analytical review paradox. Consequently, this study investigates whether two new decision aids, designed from Cognitive Load Theory, reduce auditors' cognitive load during analytical review, freeing cognitive resources for problem solving, and ultimately leading to improved auditor analytical review effectiveness. My first decision aid, an activity relationship diagram (ARD), gives the auditor a graphical depiction of common accounting relationships. My second decision aid, a pattern-consideration aid (PCA), automatically recalls and textually displays the auditor-identified relevant information cues. In an experimental setting, I find that auditors who rely on either decision aid significantly improve their analytical review effectiveness compared to auditors who conduct analytical review unaided. However, contrary to my predictions, auditors who rely on both decision aids do not outperform auditors who rely on only one decision aid. Although I find empirical evidence that cognitive load is negatively related to analytical review effectiveness, I do not find evidence that my decision aids reduce cognitive load.

My study is motivated by standard setters interest in better understanding (and the gap in research as to) the effects of item complexity and disaggregation across a financial statement on users' decision processes (Bonner 2008; Glaum 2009; FASB 2010b). I examine whether complexity of an item and the method used to present the item on a financial statement influences nonprofessional investors' judgments. Specifically, I examine two issues raised concerning IAS 19 Employee Benefits. The first is to examine whether there are differences in nonprofessional investors' judgments when individual components of a complex item (defined pension cost) are disaggregated across a financial statement (the statement of comprehensive income) versus when individual components of a complex item are aggregated on the face of the same statement. Differences may arise since disaggregation across a statement provides information about how an item relates to different economic events and this information could help nonprofessional investors to better interpret and use the information in judgments. A second objective is to examine whether increasing the complexity of an already complex item affects the usefulness of information. I find that nonprofessional investors weigh higher levels of item complexity in certain judgments. Additionally, I find that when a complex item (defined pension cost) is disaggregated across a financial statement (the statement of comprehensive income) nonprofessional investors are able to acquire more information about the item and are able to more accurately understand the function of the item. This, in turn, helps the nonprofessional investors decide whether the information is useful in certain judgments.

I dagens samhälle blir vi ständigt distraherade i vår vardag i form av notiser och dylikt, det är ett fenomen som refereras till som informationsöverflöd. På arbetsplatser blir detta ett problem då överflödet av information distraherar oss från arbetet och därav kan vi inte vara effektiva. Informationsöverflödet belastar då vår mentala kapacitet med irrelavant information, syftet med denna studie var därför hur etablerade designprinciper påverkar uppmärksamhet och mental belastning vid just inlärning av ett gränssnitt. I denna uppsats undersöks därmed områden som mental belastning, uppmärksamhet, arbetsminne, informationsarkitektur och användbarhet med teorin Cognitive Load Theory som teoretiskt ramverk. Två empiriska datainsamlingar genomfördes i studien för att undersöka valda forskningsområden. Den första empiriska datainsamlingsmetoden var en skissworkshop där målet med denna var att, tillsammans med användarna, diskutera informanternas skisser i relation till mental belastning och uppmärksamhet. Datan från workshopen lade grunden för utveckling av en prototyp över ett gränssnitt. Den senare empiriska datainsamlingen bestod av ett “think aloud” användartest och en SUS-utvärdering av prototypen. Resultatet från denna studie har visat att designprinciper som ämnar att förbättra användbarhet med fördel kan appliceras för att hjälpa användaren att behålla uppmärksamheten vid användning av ett gränssnitt samt minska den irrelevanta mentala belastningen. Enligt Cognitive Load Theory kan en lägre total mental belastning bidra till effektivare bearbetning av information och därmed även till effektivare inlärning.

The role of attention and perceptual resources were studied in a one-back task and a letter-search task, both using the same stimuli. In the letter task, pictures were used as task-irrelevant and distracting emotional stimuli. The emotional processing of the pictures was measured through the Late Positive Potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) recorded with EEG. LPP activity was significantly greater to emotional than neutral stimuli during the one-back task; this shows that emotional stimuli were processed during an easy task (low load). However, LPP activity dropped for all stimuli during the difficult perceptual task (high load). Selective processes of attention are discussed, in relation to Load Theory and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, but emotionally significant, stimuli.

English has been taught as a core and compulsory subject in China for decades. Recently, the demand for English in China has increased dramatically. China now has the world’s largest English-learning population. The traditional English-teaching method cannot continue to be the only approach because it merely focuses on reading, grammar and translation, which cannot meet English learners and users’ needs (i.e., communicative competence and skills in speaking and writing). This study was conducted to investigate if the Picture-Word Inductive Model (PWIM), a new pedagogical method using pictures and inductive thinking, would benefit English learners in China in terms of potential higher output in speaking and writing. With the gauge of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), specifically, its redundancy effect, I investigated whether processing words and a picture concurrently would present a cognitive overload for English learners in China. I conducted a mixed methods research study. A quasi-experiment (pretest, intervention for seven weeks, and posttest) was conducted using 234 students in four groups in Lianyungang, China (58 fourth graders and 57 seventh graders as an experimental group with PWIM and 59 fourth graders and 60 seventh graders as a control group with the traditional method). No significant difference in the effects of PWIM was found on vocabulary acquisition based on grade levels. Observations, questionnaires with open-ended questions, and interviews were deployed to answer the three remaining research questions. A few students felt cognitively overloaded when they encountered too many writing samples, too many new words at one time, repeated words, mismatches between words and pictures, and so on. Many students listed and exemplified numerous strengths of PWIM, but a few mentioned weaknesses of PWIM. The students expressed the idea that PWIM had a positive effect on their English teaching. As integrated inferences, qualitative findings were used to explain the quantitative results that there were no significant differences of the effects of the PWIM between the experimental and control groups in both grade levels, from four contextual aspects: time constraints on PWIM implementation, teachers’ resistance, how to use PWIM and PWIM implemented in a classroom over 55 students.

L’étude que nous présentons concerne le rôle du guidage dans l’apprentissage de connaissances scientifiques. En sciences, comme dans d’autres domaines, deux types de connaissances peuvent être distingués (Geary, 2007). D’un côté, les connaissances primaires qui sont des connaissances pour lesquelles l’être humain a évolué ; de l’autre, les connaissances secondaires qui dépendent de la culture et qui évoluent en fonction des changements successifs de cette culture. Selon Geary (2008), alors que les connaissances primaires peuvent être acquises de manière implicite, l’acquisition des connaissances secondaires par les apprenants débutants nécessite un apprentissage explicite et bien souvent, une instruction formelle. Ces deux types de connaissances diffèrent aussi en fonction du coût cognitif qu’ils génèrent. La théorie de la charge cognitive de Sweller (1988) montre que les processus d’apprentissage dépendent de la quantité de ressources attentionnelles en mémoire de travail, requises par l’activité et de la structuration de ces informations dans la mémoire à long terme. Alors que les connaissances primaires peuvent être apprises avec une faible charge cognitive, apprendre les connaissances secondaires va requérir une très grande charge cognitive.Il existe plusieurs formes d’instruction explicite qui ont montré leur efficacité dans les processus d’apprentissage (Renkl, 1997) et notamment le guidage (à partir de l’étude d’exemples travaillés). En effet, le guidage faciliterait l’acquisition des connaissances car il réduirait la quantité de ressources cognitives engagée dans le processus d’apprentissage. Ainsi, le guidage serait inefficace dans le traitement des connaissances primaires et efficace avec celui des connaissances secondaires. Cette recherche a pour but de tester empiriquement cette hypothèse dans le domaine de la biologie. Cinq études ont donc été réalisées auprès de 420 élèves de 6ème de collège. Il s’agissait de comparer trois modalités de guidage : un guidage fort, un guidage adaptatif et une absence de guidage. Les trois premières études concernaient la connaissance primaire de catégorisation impliquée dans la catégorisation du vivant (Etude I), la catégorisation des végétaux (Etude II) et la catégorisation des animaux (Etude III). Ces études, de difficulté croissante, ont montré que le guidage n’était pas efficace dans l’apprentissage de cette connaissance. Les deux autres études concernaient la connaissance secondaire de classification phylogénétique des végétaux (Etude IV) et des animaux (Etude V). Ces études ont montré que, dans ce cas, le guidage était indispensable pour aider les apprenants débutants / This study deals with the role of instruction in learning scientific knowledge. In science as in other fields, two types of knowledge can be distinguished (Geary, 2007): on the one hand, primary knowledge, which is adaptative knowledge; on the other hand, secondary knowledge which depends on culture and which evolves according to this culture’s successive changes. For Geary (2007), primary knowledge can be acquired incidentally or from implicit learning whereas secondary knowledge requires some explicit learning, and often formal instruction.These two knowledge types also differ in terms of cognitive cost. Sweller’s load theory (2008) shows that the learning process depends on the amount of attentional resources of working memory required by the activity and on the structuring of this information in the long-term memory. While primary knowledge can be learnt with a low cognitive load, learning secondary knowledge will require a high cognitive load. Some types of explicit instruction, such as guidance (e.g., worked examples) have proven effective in the learning process (Renkl, 1997). Indeed, instructional guidance would facilitate knowledge acquisition as it would reduce the amount of cognitive resources involved in the learning process. Thus, instructional guidance to help young learners would be ineffective for primary knowledge and necessary for secondary knowledge. This study also aims at examining the effect of instructional guidance in Biology. Five experiments have been conducted with 420 students in 6th grade. Three guidance methods have been compared: strong guidance, adaptative guidance and no guidance. The first three experiments dealt with the primary knowledge of categorization of living species: living beings (Study I), plants (Study II) and animals (Study III). These experiments, of increasing difficulty, have shown that explicit instruction was not effective in learning this type of knowledge.. The other two experiments dealt with the secondary knowledge of the phylogenetic categorization of plants (Study IV) and animals (Study V). These studies have shown that secondary knowledge needs to be taught.