The effects of ease of processing on the use and perception of strategies

Abstract

In this experiment, the interaction between access to knowledge and strategy use was investigated. Participants were taught how to use the link mnemonic and then given a list of words to remember. The link mnemonic involves the construction of interactive images that connects pairs of successive words. Access to knowledge was varied in a between-subject fashion on the basis of a norming study that asked people to judge how easy it was to construct interactive images for pairs of words. Of interest was how this manipulation affected the efficacy and participants' perceptions of the strategy. After the participants recalled the items and their perceptions of the strategy were assessed, a second list of words was then presented and maintenance of strategy use was assessed. The data showed that variations in accessibility to relevant knowledge had a significant effect on the efficacy of the strategy and on participants' perceptions of effort and usefulness. It also affected participants' maintenance of strategy use – participants who first received the list where accessibility to relevant knowledge was more challenging were less likely to use the strategy again. We conclude by discussing how ease of accessibility might conflict with the design principles of desirable difficulties in that tasks that increase the difficulty of the utilisation of cognitive strategies might lead to negative perceptions about the strategy itself and thus, less use of the strategy in the future.