Top-down and bottom-up guidance in comprehension of schematic football diagrams

Comprehension of a narrated diagram entail complex cognitive processing as learner is challenged to extract the orally evoked information. The present experiment examined the effects of 2 different forms of attention guidance – bottom-up and top-down – on comprehension performance, cognitive load investment, and motivation to learn, using a 2 × 2 mixed design with factors “Expertise” (Expert vs. Novice) and “Condition” (no-signal, circle, segment). The results revealed an expertise reversal effect indicating that the incorporation of visual signals in diagram is effective for novice learners but partially reverses and becomes ineffective for more experienced learners (even though they invested less mental effort and reported higher level of motivation in the segmented condition). The findings suggested that the effectiveness of instructional guidance depends heavily on levels of prior knowledge.