scholarly journals Spacing and Interleaving Effects Require Distinct Theoretical Bases: a Systematic Review Testing the Cognitive Load and Discriminative-Contrast Hypotheses

Author(s):  
Ouhao Chen ◽  
Fred Paas ◽  
John Sweller

AbstractSpaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated as distinct. Learning sessions in which studying information or practicing problems are spaced in time with rest-from-deliberate-learning periods between sessions generally result in better learning outcomes than massed practice without rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaved practice also consists of spaced sessions, but by interleaving topics rather than having rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaving is usually contrasted with blocking in which each learning topic is taught in a single block that provides an example of massed practice. The general finding that interleaved practice is more effective for learning than blocked practice is sometimes attributed to spacing. In the current paper, the presence of rest-from-deliberate-learning periods is used to distinguish between spaced and interleaved practice. We suggest that spaced practice is a cognitive load effect that can be explained by working memory resource depletion during cognitive effort with recovery during rest-from-deliberate-learning, while interleaved practice can be explained by the discriminative-contrast hypothesis positing that interleaving assists learners to discriminate between topic areas. A systematic review of the literature provides evidence for this suggestion.

Author(s):  
Ouhao Chen ◽  
Slava Kalyuga

In classroom, student learning is affected by multiple factors that influence information processing. Working memory with its limited capacity and duration plays a key role in learner ability to process information and, therefore, is critical for student performance. Cognitive load theory, based on human cognitive architecture, focuses on the instructional implications of relations between working memory and learner knowledge base in long-term memory. The ultimate goal of this theory is to generate effective instructional methods that allow managing students' working memory load to optimize their learning, indicating the relations between the form of instructional design and the function of instructional design. This chapter considers recent additions to the theory based on working memory resources depletion that occurs after exerting significant cognitive effort and reverses after a rest period. The discussed implications for instructional design include optimal sequencing of learning and assessment tasks using spaced and massed practice tasks, immediate and delayed tests.


2008 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Marie-Laure Barbier ◽  
Annie Piolat ◽  
Jean-Yves Roussey ◽  
Françoise Raby

This study analyzes the cognitive effort and linguistic procedures of sixty students using information taken from an experimental website in L1 (French) and in L2 (English). The students navigated on the website and took notes on paper or with a word processor. A triple-task paradigm was used to estimate the cognitive load of reading, notetaking, and writing processes in L2. The students had to perform two additional tasks while a main task (notetaking, for example) was being carried out. They had to react as fast as possible to sound signals sent out at random intervals. They also had to identify what they were doing at the time the sound signal was heard (reading, notetaking, or writing). The study focuses on the way the students managed their cognitive resources while exploring the website, selecting and writing down the ideas they considered useful, and reconstructing them later when producing their own text. Surprisingly, no difference in cognitive load was observed between L1 and L2. By relying almost exclusively on the copy and paste functions to retrieve information from the website, the participants using a word processor in L2 succeeded in making reading a less costly activity, and they performed similarly to the notetakers in L1. The students’ difficulties in L2 became apparent only in the paper condition. The strategies and linguistic procedures of the students are described and related to the ways teachers can approach the new dimensions of notetaking and writing with a computer.


2018 ◽  
Vol 227 (4) ◽  
pp. e211
Author(s):  
Marios Nicolaides ◽  
Luca Cardillo ◽  
Iakovos Theodoulou ◽  
John Hanrahan ◽  
Georgios Tsoulfas ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 708-720
Author(s):  
Steve Van Den Bulck ◽  
David Spitaels ◽  
Bert Vaes ◽  
Geert Goderis ◽  
Rosella Hermens ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose The aim of this systematic review was (i) to assess whether electronic audit and feedback (A&F) is effective in primary care and (ii) to evaluate important features concerning content and delivery of the feedback in primary care, including the use of benchmarks, the frequency of feedback, the cognitive load of feedback and the evidence-based aspects of the feedback. Data sources The MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and CENTRAL databases were searched for articles published since 2010 by replicating the search strategy used in the last Cochrane review on A&F. Study selection Two independent reviewers assessed the records for their eligibility, performed the data extraction and evaluated the risk of bias. Our search resulted in 8744 records, including the 140 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from the last Cochrane Review. The full texts of 431 articles were assessed to determine their eligibility. Finally, 29 articles were included. Data extraction Two independent reviewers extracted standard data, data on the effectiveness and outcomes of the interventions, data on the kind of electronic feedback (static versus interactive) and data on the aforementioned feedback features. Results of data synthesis Twenty-two studies (76%) showed that electronic A&F was effective. All interventions targeting medication safety, preventive medicine, cholesterol management and depression showed an effect. Approximately 70% of the included studies used benchmarks and high-quality evidence in the content of the feedback. In almost half of the studies, the cognitive load of feedback was not reported. Due to high heterogeneity in the results, no meta-analysis was performed. Conclusion This systematic review included 29 articles examining electronic A&F interventions in primary care, and 76% of the interventions were effective. Our findings suggest electronic A&F is effective in primary care for different conditions such as medication safety and preventive medicine. Some of the benefits of electronic A&F include its scalability and the potential to be cost effective. The use of benchmarks as comparators and feedback based on high-quality evidence are widely used and important features of electronic feedback in primary care. However, other important features such as the cognitive load of feedback and the frequency of feedback provision are poorly described in the design of many electronic A&F intervention, indicating that a better description or implementation of these features is needed. Developing a framework or methodology for automated A&F interventions in primary care could be useful for future research.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Christmann ◽  
Lena Wimmer ◽  
Norbert Groeben

This study focuses on the relationship between cognitive effort and aesthetic-emotional evaluation in the processing of conventional and non-conventional metaphors. We postulate that an increased cognitive load — which is normally perceived as stressful — is evaluated positively when processing non-conventional metaphors. We have called this contradictory suspense ‘aesthetic paradox’. The aesthetic paradox was tested in two studies that differed in degree of processing demand. In study 1 (low processing demand) participants (N = 40) read (non-)conventional metaphors, judged the adequacy of two metaphor paraphrases and assessed their own interpretation process. In study 2 (high processing demand) the same procedure was applied with the exception that participants (N = 40) evaluated the appropriateness of one metaphor paraphrase. The results of both experiments confirm that non-conventional metaphors require longer reading and longer processing times than conventional metaphors, and they confirm the postulated paradoxical effect: the increase of cognitive effort in processing non-conventional metaphors is evaluated positively, provided that a satisfactory interpretation is found.


1995 ◽  
Vol 81 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1219-1229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Ohdra

This study was designed to assess characteristics of self-referent information processing in mildly depressed persons using the eyeblink response measured in a discrete-trial paradigm. 7 mildly depressed and 9 nondepressed subjects (classified by scores on Beck's inventory) performed a self-reference task for positive and negative trait adjectives. The eyeblink was suppressed before and during presentation of stimuli and a burst pattern of the eyeblink was observed just after exposure. The pattern of the eyeblink burst after trait adjectives could be interpreted to reflect cognitive effort, cognitive load, or amount of attentional resource. Present results suggested that depressed individuals should have less cognitive load or allocate less attentional resource to negative stimuli than to positive ones during self-referent information processing.


Perspektif ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
Iffa Ichwani Putri ◽  
Sepita Ferazona

This study aims to determine the level of Extranous Cognitive Load (ECL) of students through mental effort in learning activities. Mental effort can be known and analyzed from external or foreign aspects, such as learning design and learning strategies undertaken. The source of the burden obtained in the learning process is known as ECL. The effectiveness of ECL is influenced by information and learning activities that contribute to the process of constructing students' cognitive schemes in learning process received. Good learning process happen if the ECL owned by student is in low category. ECL is measured by the mental effort of students in attending lecture activities. This research is a descriptive study, which was carried out on the fourth semester students of biology education who took part in the ethics and professional education classes. ECL measurements were measured using a mental effort questionnaire during the lecture. The data acquired is analyzed on the conversion of values in the low to high categories. The results showed that in the lecturing activities the student’s mental effort average was in the low category at 32.45. A low mental effort represents a low extranous cognitive load (ECL). It can be concluded that the learning strategies carried out in the ethics and education professional lectures can suppress ECL biology education students. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 780-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabet Tiselius ◽  
Kayle Sneed

AbstractPrevious studies have investigated the cognitive processes of simultaneous interpreting and translation using eye-tracking. No study has yet utilized eye-tracking to investigate cognitive load and cognitive effort in dialogue interpreting. An eye-tracking study was conducted on two groups of interpreters (experienced and inexperienced) with varying language backgrounds during a staged dialogue interpreting session. The aim of the study was to explore gaze patterns in dialogue interpreting in relation to the interpreters’ action and translation direction. The results indicated there were differences in gaze patterns depending on the action and the language used. Participants averted gaze more when interpreting into the allophone language (the L2 for a majority of the participants in this study). This may indicate that interpreting into L2 in a dialogue may involve more cognitive effort than interpreting into L1. Finally, gaze patterns did not differ significantly between inexperienced and experienced dialogue interpreters.


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