An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks

Cognitive load theory is intended to provide instructional strategies derived from experimental, cognitive load effects. Each effect is based on our knowledge of human cognitive architecture, primarily the limited capacity and duration of a human working memory. These limitations are ameliorated by changes in long-term memory associated with learning. Initially, cognitive load theory's view of human cognitive architecture was assumed to apply to all categories of information. Based on Geary’s (Educational Psychologist 43, 179–195 2008; 2011) evolutionary account of educational psychology, this interpretation of human cognitive architecture requires amendment. Working memory limitations may be critical only when acquiring novel information based on culturally important knowledge that we have not specifically evolved to acquire. Cultural knowledge is known as biologically secondary information. Working memory limitations may have reduced significance when acquiring novel information that the human brain specifically has evolved to process, known as biologically primary information. If biologically primary information is less affected by working memory limitations than biologically secondary information, it may be advantageous to use primary information to assist in the acquisition of secondary information. In this article, we suggest that several cognitive load effects rely on biologically primary knowledge being used to facilitate the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge. We indicate how incorporating an evolutionary view of human cognitive architecture can provide cognitive load researchers with novel perspectives of their findings and discuss some of the practical implications of this view.     

A neuromathematical model of human information processing and its application to science content acquisition

The rate of information processing during science learning and the efficiency of the learner in mobilizing relevant information in long-term memory as an aid in transmitting newly acquired information to stable storage in long-term memory are fundamental aspects of science content acquisition. These cognitive processes, moreover, may be substantially related in tempo and quality of organization to the efficiency of higher thought processes such as divergent thinking and problem-solving ability that characterize scientific thought. As a contribution to our quantitative understanding of these fundamental information processes, a mathematical model of information acquisition is presented and empirically evaluated in comparison to evidence obtained from experimental studies of science content acquisition. Computer-based models are used to simulate variations in learning parameters and to generate the theoretical predictions to be empirically tested. The initial tests of the predictive accuracy of the model show close agreement between predicted and actual mean recall scores in short-term learning tasks. Implications of the model for human information acquisition and possible future research are discussed in the context of the unique theoretical framework of the model.     

Neuropsychology of Early-treated Phenylketonuria: Specific Executive Function Deficits

This study explored the hypothesis that children with early-treated phenylketonuria (PKU) are selectively impaired on executive function measures, even when still on diet. The rationale for this hypothesis is that even mild elevations in phenylalanine (Phe) can lead to lower central levels of biogenic amines, including dopamine (DA). We hypothesize that this mild DA depletion causes subtle prefrontal dysfunction, which in turn affects executive functions such as set maintenance, planning, and organized search. 11 preschool early-treated PKU children (M age = 4.64) and a sample of age- and IQ-matched unaffected peers (n = 11) were evaluated on a battery of executive function (EF) measures. In addition, a "non-executive function" task, recognition memory, was administered to all subjects. Group comparisons demonstrated that PKU children were significantly impaired on an executive function composite score; there were no group differences, however, in recognition memory. These results supported the hypothesized specific deficit in executive function. Furthermore, within the PKU group the executive function composite score was significantly negatively correlated with concurrent phenylalanine levels, even after controlling for the correlation between IQ and executive function skills. This second finding provides support for the proposed biochemical mechanism underlying the specific cognitive deficits.     

Intact and Impaired Memory Functions in Autism

This study examined memory functions in individuals with autism. Based on previous evidence of executive function (EF) deficits, we hypothesized that subjects with autism would demonstrate a pattern of intact and imparred memory functions similar to that found in other groups with EF deficits, such as patients with frontal lobe pathology. We compared the performance of high-functioning children and adolescents with autism (n = 19) and clinical comparison subjects (n = 19) matched on sex, CA, and VIQ on measures of memory and EF. The group with autism performed significantly worse than comparison subjects on measures of temporal order memory, source memory, supraspan free recall, working memory, and EF, but not on short- and long-term recognition, cued recall, or new learning ability, consistent with the predictions of the EF theory. The cognitive measures were significantly more intercorrelated in the autism group than the comparison group, consistent with a limit in central cognition.     

Infant Attention and Early Childhood Executive Function

Individual differences in infant attention are theorized to reflect the speed of information processing and are related to later cognitive abilities (i.e., memory, language, and intelligence). This study provides the first systematic longitudinal analysis of infant attention and early childhood executive function (EF; e.g., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility). A group of 5‐month‐olds (n = 201) were classified as short or long lookers. At 24, 36, and 48 months of age, children completed age‐appropriate EF tasks. Infant short lookers (i.e., more efficient information processors) exhibited higher EF throughout early childhood as compared to infant long lookers, even after controlling for verbal ability (a potential indicator of intelligence). These findings are discussed in relation to the emergence of executive attention.     

The development of forgetting and reminiscence

Many theoretical positions on memory development anticipate that forgetting rates should vary substantially with age. The nature of these age variations is also relevant to many applied questions about child development that have major social policy implications, such as the veracity of children's eyewitness testimony and the long-term effectiveness of classroom instruction. Surprisingly, developmental studies of long-term retention have repeatedly produced the puzzling finding that forgetting rates are age invariant. It now seems, however, that these null age trends may have been artifacts of variables such as measurement insensitivity, floor effects, and stages-of-learning confounds. Assuming, as some later studies suggest, that forgetting rates vary with age when these factors are controlled, there are three overriding questions that must be dealt with in the developmental analysis of forgetting: the relative importance of storage failure versus retrieval failure, the relative importance of true forgetting processes versus test-induced processes, and the relative importance of storage-based reminiscence versus retrieval-based reminiscence. We describe a framework (disintegration/redintegation theory) that provides a conceptual environment within which research on these questions can progress. This framework, which evolved from fuzzy-trace theory, reinterprets processes such as storage failure, retrieval failure, restorage, and retrieval relearning in terms of levels of featural integration in traces (i.e., the extent to which contextual information is integrated with core semantic gist to produce a coherent representation). The theory is implemented in a mathematical model (the trace-integrity model) whose parameters deliver measurements of relevant memory processes on a common ratio scale. In a series of experiments, the model was used to study the theory's predictions about the contributions of these memory processes to long-term retention in subjects between the ages of 7 and 70. All the experiments were standard long-term retention designs (an initial acquisition session, followed by a 1-2-week forgetting interval, followed by a series of retention tests).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design

Cognitive load theory has been designed to provide guidelines intended to assist in the presentation of information in a manner that encourages learner activities that optimize intellectual performance. The theory assumes a limited capacity working memory that includes partially independent subcomponents to deal with auditory/verbal material and visual/2- or 3-dimensional information as well as an effectively unlimited long-term memory, holding schemas that vary in their degree of automation. These structures and functions of human cognitive architecture have been used to design a variety of novel instructional procedures based on the assumption that working memory load should be reduced and schema construction encouraged. This paper reviews the theory and the instructional designs generated by it.     

A dynamic model of memory for research on human information processing

This article outlines a broad theoretical framework for understanding the human information processing system as a whole. It represents one attempt to integrate the relatively static models of memory structures with the more dynamic conceptions underlying research on control and processing mechanisms. The framework embodies the synthesis of a number of conceptual orientations, including contemporary emphases on working memory, item-specific and relational information, metacognition and schema abstraction. This synthesis rests on the basic assumption that the nature of knowledge structures in human long-term memory depends on the type of information processing whereby these cognitive structures were generated.     

Knowledge elaboration: A cognitive load perspective

The process of knowledge elaboration is considered from the perspective of cognitive load theory. This theory assumes that the available knowledge structures in long-term memory (LTM) are used to organize and guide cognitive processing in complex learning. Accordingly, the role of external instructional guidance in the process of knowledge elaboration could be described as providing a substitute for knowledge structures missing from LTM. Thus, the executive guidance in complex learning environments is shared between the person (based on his/her LTM knowledge structures) and another expert or instructional means. This article analyzes instructional implications of this assumption. Adaptive learning environments are suggested for tailoring knowledge elaboration processes to changing characteristics of individual learners. Means for identifying and predicting the learner's LTM-based executive guidance are proposed so that they can be utilized in the building of adaptive learning environments.     

Categorization and memory retrieval by three-month-olds

84 3-month-olds were tested in 3 studies of the acquisition and long-term retention of category-specific information. Infants who were trained with a perceptibly different member of an alphanumeric category on each of 3 days generalized responding to a novel instance of the original training category but not a novel member of a novel category during a 24-hour novelty test. 2 weeks later, when infants displayed no evidence of remembering their prior training experience, categorization was reinstated if a novel exemplar from the original training category was used as the retrieval cue in a memory reactivation procedure. A novel exemplar from a novel category was not an effective retrieval cue. The effectiveness of the category-specific retrieval cue was a function of its physical similarity to the individual exemplars encountered during training, not testing. The background against which the alphanumeric exemplars were displayed during training was not an effective retrieval cue in either the 24-hour novelty test or the memory reactivation procedure, indicating that all invariant stimulus attributes do not contribute equally as category cues. These data are the first to document retention of category-specific information after extended intervals. A popular account of categorization holds that infants abstract invariant features from individual exemplars and form a schema or distinctive memory representation of these shared features against which subsequent exemplars are compared. The present data provide support for a more parsimonious account of categorization, based on the retrieval of information about individual exemplars, that does not require an assumption of prototype formation.     

工作记忆与算术认知的研究现状与前瞻

工作记忆是当今认知心理学研究的一个重要领域。它是一种记忆系统,用于有限容量信息的暂时性储存和加工,在许多复杂的认知活动中起作用,如算术认知等。工作记忆的各成分对个体的算术认知所起的作用不同。目前工作记忆与算术认知研究的新趋势主要集中在采用“纯”干扰中央执行功能的任务研究工作记忆与算术认知的关系、工作记忆在各种算术运算中的作用、工作记忆与算术认知策略的关系等方面。     

COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY AND THE ACQUISITION OF COMPLEX COGNITIVE SKILLS IN THE ELDERLY: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK

The purpose of this article is to explore the advantages of instructional formats based on cognitive load theory for elderly learners engaged in the acquisition of complex cognitive skills. A great body of research has demonstrated that cognitive aging is accompanied by a reduction of working - memory capacity, a general slowing of mental processes, and a decline of the ability to repress irrelevant information. The core idea of cognitive load theory is that working - memory capacity is limited and should therefore be managed with great care and discretion. Cognitive load theory claims that this can be achieved by minimizing the level of extraneous cognitive load, which is the portion of load that does not contribute to schema acquisition, and by maximizing the level of germane cognitive load, which directly contributes to the construction of cognitive schemata. Since instructions based on cognitive load theory deal with cognitive limitations, in that they lead to an efficient use of the available resources, it was hypothesized that they are especially effective when elderly people are involved. This idea was analyzed by means of a framework merging cognitive load theory with the aforementioned research findings concerning cognitive aging. It was concluded that cognitive load theory, enabling elderly people to acquire new complex skills, can be regarded as an essential guide for educational gerontology.     

基于认知神经科学视角的多媒体学习认知理论创新

Mayer多媒体学习的认知理论模型涉及感觉记忆、工作记忆、长时记忆三大基本部件和五大认知加工过程,但其科学基础仍有待深入考察。认知神经科学对感觉记忆、工作记忆和长时记忆的探索成果为多媒体学习认知理论奠定了更为深层的科学基础。认知神经科学认为,感觉记忆中的视觉记忆和声觉记忆在信息存储量、表征与编码、保持时间等方面存在互补,为多媒体学习认知理论中＂双重通道假设＂提供了更深层次的科学基础。工作记忆是多媒体学习认知加工过程的主要处理单元,认知神经科学基于脑成像技术提出的工作记忆加工成分结构及其功能定位模型和语音短时记忆功能模型,揭示了工作记忆中的信息处理机制,进一步推进了对工作记忆的基础研究。认知神经科学将长时记忆分为陈述性记忆和程序性记忆,长时记忆中信息存储的层次网络模型、激活扩散模型、集理论模型等更深入地推进了多媒体学习认知加工过程的科学基础。德国心理学家Schnotz从描述性表征和描绘性表征两个方面提出了多媒体学习＂图文理解整合模型＂（ITPC）,这一模型揭示了图文理解的过程机制,是当前多媒体学习认知理论模型的最新发展成果。     

多媒体教学中的知识建构

多媒体教学中的知识建构观,主要采纳了建构主义的主动加工信息理论,而主动加工信息的认知机制则是认知的反思或监控。在有效的多媒体教学中,学习者的认知的机制涉及五种基本的认知活动,对教材的直观、概括、具体化以及工作记忆和长时记忆。皮亚杰的建构思想、维果斯基的社会文化理论、布鲁纳的建构观念和激进建构主义等等,都为多媒体教学中知识建构的设计提供了理论依据。     

A Cognitive Load Approach to Collaborative Learning: United Brains for Complex Tasks

This article presents a review of research comparing the effectiveness of individual learning environments with collaborative learning environments. In reviewing the literature, it was determined that there is no clear and unequivocal picture of how, when, and why the effectiveness of these two approaches to learning differ, a result which may be due to differing complexities of the learning tasks used in the research and the concomitant load imposed on the learner’s cognitive system. Based upon cognitive load theory, it is argued that learning by an individual becomes less effective and efficient than learning by a group of individuals as task complexity increases. Dividing the processing of information across individuals is useful when the cognitive load is high because it allows information to be divided across a larger reservoir of cognitive capacity. Although such division requires that information be recombined and that processing be coordinated, under high load conditions, these costs are minimal compared to the gain achieved by this division of labor. In contrast, under low load conditions, an individual can adequately carry out the required processing activities, and the costs of recombination and coordination are relatively more substantial. Implications of these ideas for research and practice of collaborative learning are discussed.     

Circadian Rhythms in Cognitive Processes: Implications for School Learning

Circadian variations have been found in cognitive processes, such as attention, working memory, and executive functions, which may explain oscillations in the performance of many tasks. These cognitive processes improve during the day and decrease during the night and early hours of the morning. Sleep deprivation further decreases these cognitive processes during daytime hours. This review analyses the recent findings on circadian rhythms in cognitive processes, as well as the implications of these rhythms for school learning.     

商标本质的心理学分析

人与动物的本质区别在于人能够接受、存储、加工各类信息,构建和发展自身的认知网络。从认知心理学角度观察,商标是由人类感觉器官可感知的外在刺激即商标标识与消费者大脑长时记忆中存储的该商标标识代表的商品信息组成。商标的本质是人类感觉器官可感知的,以特定公共性形式存在的信息。商标的心理学本质有助于加深对商标的功能、商标权以及商标侵权的理解。商标的功能在于降低消费者的心理认知成本,商标权在于维护消费者正常的心理认知网络,而商标侵权则不当干扰了消费者正常的心理认知网络。     

Is There a Role for Executive Functions in the Development of Mathematics Ability?

ABSTRACT— This article examines the role of working memory, attention shifting, and inhibitory control executive cognitive functions in the development of mathematics knowledge and ability in children. It suggests that an examination of the executive cognitive demand of mathematical thinking can complement procedural and conceptual knowledge-based approaches to understanding the ways in which children become proficient in mathematics. Task analysis indicates that executive cognitive functions likely operate in concert with procedural and conceptual knowledge and in some instances might act as a unique influence on mathematics problem-solving ability. It is concluded that consideration of the executive cognitive demand of mathematics can contribute to research on best practices in mathematics education.     

A method for sequencing instructional objectives which minimizes memory load

A Gagné-style learning hierarchy often permits a large number of alternate linear arrangements (sequences) of instructional objectives. An alternative is described here to traditional methods of choosing between sequences. Its premise is that, for every sequence, a value temed thememory load can be calculated which is theoretically related to the probability that students will fail to recall prerequisite objectives. A graph theoretic approach is taken in presenting an algorithm which generates a minimal memory load sequence from a learning tree, a restricted but frequently encountered type of learning hierarchy. In order to assess the effectiveness of the algorithm in generating low memory load sequences when given hierarchies which are not trees, it was applied to several published examples of learning hierarchies. The results indicated that the algorithm is effective as an heuristic, especially when combined with a hill-descending procedure which attempts to incrementally improve the generated sequence.     

State anxiety and working memory in children: A test of processing efficiency theory

This study investigated the effect of individual differences in state anxiety on tasks tapping the central executive, phonological, and visuo‐spatial components of working memory (WM). It was designed to test Eysenck and Calvo’s processing efficiency theory (PET) which suggests that the phonological and executive components of WM may be important in understanding learning outcomes in anxiety. Typically‐developing children aged 9–10 years were split into high and low state anxiety groups. They performed three WM tasks – forward and backward digit span (assumed to measure phonological and central executive components of WM respectively) and a spatial working memory task (measuring the visuo‐spatial component of WM). Measurements of task accuracy were taken as an indicator of performance outcome or effectiveness. Time taken to complete tasks and a subjective rating of mental effort were taken as measurements of performance efficiency. No differences were found between high and low state anxiety groups in task accuracy for any measure. Children in the high state anxiety group, however, took longer to complete the backward digit span task and reported increased mental effort in the forward digit span task, indicating some effect of anxiety on measures of performance efficiency.