the psychology of learning and motivation - Percepts and Concepts ...

Cognitive Load Theory 71have difficulty in processing all the required interacting elements inworking memory and so imagining concepts or procedures may bedifficult or even impossible. More knowledgeable learners may be ableto imagine information more readily because many of the interactingelements are already incorporated into schemas via the environmentalorganizing and linking principle. As a consequence, the effect can bedemonstrated only if levels of expertise are sufficiently high. For novices,studying the information tends to be superior to imagining it becauseimagining all the necessary interacting elements may overload workingmemory.3.3.9. The Transient Information EffectThis effect is a new cognitive load effect. The use of educational technologysometimes has unintended cognitive load consequences. Forexample, a frequent side effect of using technology is that previouslypermanent information that can be repeatedly and easily accessedbecomes transient and can only be reaccessed with difficulty or cannotbe accessed at all. Information is transient if it disappears with the passageof time. Shifting from permanent written text to transitory auditory textor from permanent sets of diagrams to animation provides examples.Auditory information or most animated information disappears as newinformation is presented and so is transitory. If the information beingconveyed is high in element interactivity, presenting it in transient formcan have negative consequences. Having to remember previous, highelement interactivity information that is no longer available and integrateit with currently appearing information can severely overload workingmemory.Evidence for this hypothesis was obtained by Leahy and Sweller (inpress) when testing for the modality effect. They ran two experimentscomparing dual modality with visual only presentations. Primary schoolstudents were taught how to interpret time/temperature graphs showingthe variations in temperature during the day. The first experimentincluded relatively lengthy, complex spoken statements such as ‘‘Find35C on the temperature axis and follow across to a dot’’ while referringto a graph. The second experiment provided exactly the same informationexcept that the statements were divided into smaller segments. Theabove statement, for example, was divided into ‘‘Find 35C on the temperatureaxis’’ and ‘‘Follow across to a dot.’’ The first experiment with thelonger statements demonstrated a reverse modality effect with the visualonly material that included written statements proving superior to theaudiovisual presentation. The second experiment with the shorter statementsindicated a conventional modality effect.The Leahy and Sweller work was not the first to obtain a reversemodality effect. Tabbers, Martens, and van Merri€enboer (2004) also