Complex Cognitive Skills Research Articles

Process-Oriented Worked Examples: Improving Transfer Performance Through Enhanced Understanding

The research on worked examples has shown thatfor novices, studying worked examples is oftena more effective and efficient way of learningthan solving conventional problems. Thistheoretical paper argues that addingprocess-oriented information to worked examplescan further enhance transfer performance,especially for complex cognitive skills withmultiple possible solution paths.Process-oriented information refers to theprincipled (``why'') and strategic (``how'')information that experts use when solvingproblems. From a cognitive load perspective,studying the expert's ``why'' and ``how''information can be seen as constituting agermane cognitive load, which can fosterstudents' understanding of the principles of adomain and the rationale behind the selectedoperators, and their knowledge about howexperts select a strategy, respectively. Issueswith regard to the design, implementation, andassessment of effects of process-orientedworked examples are discussed, as well as thequestions they raise for future research.

A design environment for downstream processes for Bioprocess-Engineering students

A bioprocess engineer should have at least a set of basic design skills. Bioprocess design is a complex cognitive skill, which should be trained in every year of an academic Bioprocess-Engineering curriculum. However, there is little existing learning material to support the initial training of design skills early in the curriculum. For this reason a web-based DownStream Process Design environment has been developed, called DSPD. This article describes the design criteria for the development of this design environment. It describes the design environment itself and it gives an impression of the use of the design environment in a course for first-year students.

Formative research on the Heuristic Task Analysis process

Corporate and educational settings increasingly address more decision-making, problem-solving and other complex cognitive skills to handle complex cognitive, or heuristic, tasks, but the ever-increasing need for heuristic knowledge has outpaced the refinement of task analysis methods for heuristic expertise. Utilizing the Heuristic Task Analysis (HTA) process, a method developed for eliciting, analyzing, and representing expertise in complex cognitive tasks, a formative research study was conducted on the task of group counseling to further improve the HTA process. Implications of the findings include the need for incorporating various interview strategies and techniques, developing strategies for working with multiple experts, and considering the level of task expertise of the analyst. A revised version of the HTA process is presented based on these implications.

Use of Paper-Based Support Tools to Aid the Acquisition of Cognitive Skills During Unsupervised Practice

This paper describes how graduate students used paper-based support tools to help them acquire a complex cognitive skill during unsupervised practice, and explains why the tools were able to support the practice. The paper also explains how to design such tools and describes a comparable computer-based performance support system. Ohlsson's (1996) theory of learning from performance errors states that people learn a skill by detecting and correcting errors while performing the skill. Learners must have sufficient initial competence and an informative task environment in order to detect and correct errors and make sound decisions. The support tools were successful because they supplied learners with initial competence and an informative task environment. Tools that support learner error-trapping are more likely to help learners eventually perform without support than systems that correct errors for the learners.

Systems thinking and systematic methodologya semi-empirical experience in support of the ISPI value proposition

Performance ImprovementVolume 42, Issue 1 p. 17-23 Article Systems thinking and systematic methodology a semi-empirical experience in support of the ISPI value proposition Abbas Darabi PhD, Abbas Darabi, PhD, currently teaches Program Evaluation and Performance Systems Analysis courses in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. He is also a Program Director at the Center for Performance Technology, a component of the Learning Systems Institute at FSU. He is an advocate of systems thinking and its application to learning and learning environments. His research interests are in the area of learning systems and training of complex cognitive skills. Dr. Darabi's current research projects include the development of an evaluation model and methodology for the United States Navy training programs. He is also in the process of transferring a trouble-shooting simulation software to PC environment and Windows platform for conducting research in the area of cognitive load and cognitive skills. He may be reached at adarabi@cpt.fsu.edu.Search for more papers by this author Abbas Darabi PhD, Abbas Darabi, PhD, currently teaches Program Evaluation and Performance Systems Analysis courses in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. He is also a Program Director at the Center for Performance Technology, a component of the Learning Systems Institute at FSU. He is an advocate of systems thinking and its application to learning and learning environments. His research interests are in the area of learning systems and training of complex cognitive skills. Dr. Darabi's current research projects include the development of an evaluation model and methodology for the United States Navy training programs. He is also in the process of transferring a trouble-shooting simulation software to PC environment and Windows platform for conducting research in the area of cognitive load and cognitive skills. He may be reached at adarabi@cpt.fsu.edu.Search for more papers by this author First published: 08 February 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4930420106Citations: 2 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume42, Issue1January 2003Pages 17-23 RelatedInformation

Test of Grocery Shopping Skills: Discrimination of People with and without Mental Illness

Abstract The Test of Grocery Shopping Skills (TOGSS) is a performance measure of shopping ability in a grocery store that requires complex cognitive skills. The present study examines the validity of the TOGSS by comparing performance of two groups with significant cognitive impairments i.e., individuals who have schizophrenia or bipolar disorders and meet the criteria for serious mental illness (SMI), with a normative population. Individuals in the normative group took less time and showed less redundancy in the completing the task than individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. There was no difference between groups on accuracy of finding items.

Information processing characteristics in subtypes of multiple sclerosis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate information processing characteristics in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We selected 53 patients with MS and 58 matched healthy controls. Using computerized tests, we investigated focused, divided, sustained attention, and executive function, and attempted to pinpoint deficits in attentional control to peripheral or central processing stages. The results substantiate the hypothesis that the slowing of attention-demanding (controlled) information processing underlying more complex cognitive skills is general, i.e. irrespective of type of controlled processing, with MS patients being 40% slower than controls. MS patients may suffer from focused, and divided and sustained attention deficits, as well as from compromised central processing stages, with secondary progressive (SP) patients showing the most extensive range of deficits, closely followed by primary progressive (PP) patients, while relapsing–remitting (RR) patients appear to be much less affected. General slowing appears to be highest in PP and SP type MS patients (50% slower) versus relapsing–remitting MS (24% slower). In contrast to most previous results, (complex) processing speed appeared to be robustly correlated with severity of MS as measured by the expanded disability status scale and with disease duration. Patients did much less differ in accuracy of processing from controls, suggesting the importance of using time strategies in planning everyday life and job activities to compensate for or alleviate MS-related speed handicaps.

Redirecting learners' attention during training: effects on cognitive load, transfer test performance and training efficiency

Cognitive load theory provides guidelines for improving the training of complex cognitive skills and their transfer to new situations. One guideline states that extraneous cognitive load that is irrelevant to the construction of cognitive schemata should be minimised. Experiment 1 ( N=26) compares completion problems, conventional problems, and a learner-controlled condition in which learners may choose between problem formats. Completion problems decrease cognitive load during training and have a zero or positive effect on transfer performance. A second guideline states that germane cognitive load that is directly relevant to schema construction should be optimised. In Experiment 2 ( N=69) practice schedules of either high or low contextual interference are compared (HCI and LCI). HCI increases cognitive load during training and shows a trend towards higher transfer performance. Experiment 3 ( N=87) combines both guidelines in a factorial experiment with the factors problem format (completion vs. conventional) and contextual interference (HCI vs. LCI). It is hypothesised that redirecting attention from extraneous to germane processes will improve training efficiency, i.e. positively affect the balance between cognitive load during training and transfer test performance. In support of this hypothesis, it is found that the completion-HCI group shows highest training efficiency. But transfer test performance for this group is disappointing. The results are discussed in relation to the operationalisation of HCI in combination with completion problems.

Cognitive load theory and aging: effects of worked examples on training efficiency

Cognitive load theory (CLT) is aimed at developing training material that efficiently makes use of the available cognitive processing capacity and stimulates the learner's ability to use acquired knowledge and skills in new situations. It is claimed that CLT-based training formats meet the cognitive abilities of elderly learners particularly well. That is, cognitive aging brings about several declines of working memory, which impede the acquisition of complex cognitive skills. By making an optimal use of the ‘remaining’ cognitive resources, learning can be enhanced. For that purpose, CLT provides a promising range of training formats that have proven their effectiveness relative to conventional formats in young adults. This article presents an experimental study ( N=54) aimed at the efficiency of worked examples as a substitute for conventional practice problems in training both elderly and young adults. According to CLT, studying worked examples is a more efficient means of training complex skills than solving conventional problems. As predicted, the results show that — with respect to the elderly — the efficiency of studying worked examples is higher than the efficiency of solving conventional problems in that less training time and cognitive load leads to a comparable level of performance.

Just-in-time information presentation and the acquisition of complex cognitive skills

This paper describes a model for just-in-time (JIT) presentation of information. Learners receive the information needed to carry out a task precisely at the time it is needed. The model is twofold: supportive information is best presented before practising task clusters while prerequisite information is best presented during practice on learning tasks. JIT supportive information presentation promotes schema construction through meaningful learning or elaboration. JIT prerequisite information presentation promotes schema automation through proceduralization or restricted encoding while learning the recurrent aspects of a task. It leads to a reduction in extraneous cognitive load because temporal split attention is avoided. This frees up cognitive capacity for learning the non-recurrent aspects of a complex cognitive skill and so enhances transfer performance. An exploratory, empirical study is described that supports our model. Implications for teaching and teacher training are discussed.

Primary Strategies for Promoting Homework Performance

The study aimed at facilitating the homework performance of seventh graders with learning difficulties entering an integrated junior high school, by first identifying areas of difficulty and then designing and implementing an intervention. In Study 1, data concerning students' (N = 19) difficulties were obtained via nonparticipant classroom observations, open-ended student interviews, and teacher reports. Three major domains of difficulty were identified: recording homework assignments, subsequent access to and initial organization of tasks, and making sense of assignments. In Study 2, a curriculum unit targeting these domains was developed, comprising technical/management procedures and low order cognitive skills. Pre-seventh graders with learning problems (N = 56) were administered the unit during summer school. Pre- and post-unit performance was evaluated via a questionnaire comprising a technical and a cognitive scale and by a set of brief academic achievement tests. Performance was found to improve significantly, with no decline in students' scores at a 3-month follow-up. The students' pretest scores and, secondarily, their scores on several subscales of the academic achievement test were shown to predict their posttest success, suggesting the usefulness of this measure in detecting students of greater need. The novelty of the study lies in revealing the difficulties experienced by students even in technical skill areas, before an application of complex cognitive skills is needed, and in demonstrating the effectiveness of a summer school intervention targeting technical/management homework strategies in particular.

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.

Lip-reading ability and patterns of cortical activation studied using fMRI.

Lip-reading is a complex cognitive skill with large individual differences in performance. The basis of these individual differences remains poorly understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques allows brain activation accompanying complex cognitive activities to be studied noninvasively. In the present paper, fMRI was used to study the patterns of cortical activation that occur during the silent lip-reading of connected speech and to investigate whether there are detectable differences in activation between subjects with widely differing lip-reading abilities. From a cohort of 26 volunteers, nine subjects who fell into three distinct lip-reading ability groups were selected. Brain activation was measured in two conditions: an experimental condition where subjects attempted to lip-read sentences; and a baseline condition where subjects passively viewed a static image of a talker's face. Relative to the baseline condition, lip-reading induced activation in several cortical areas, including the auditory cortices, despite the lack of an auditory component to the task. In comparison to the better two groups of lip-readers, subjects in the poorest group displayed significantly less activation in superior and middle temporal gyrus, but not inferior temporal gyrus. These preliminary results justify more extensive investigations of the cortical basis of individual differences in lip-reading.

Advanced cardiac life support education: a self-directed, scenario-based approach.

The American Heart Association adopted new curriculum guidelines for Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) education. Requirements include the incorporation of case-based learning strategies in the course format. A self-directed, scenario-based course format was developed to incorporate principles of adult learning and to meet the newest curriculum guidelines of the American Heart Association. A post-course survey was used to evaluate the participants' perceptions of the course format and its effects on their learning. Twenty-seven participants completed the course. Analysis of the post-course survey responses indicated participants favored the self-directed, scenario-based design and felt the format contributed to their learning. Additionally, this format was more cost-effective than the traditional 2-day course design. The use of a self-directed, scenario-based format creates an optimal environment that fosters the complex cognitive and psychomotor skills learning required to perform ACLS. This format meets the expectations of the American Heart Association curriculum guidelines and should be considered a viable and valuable option for providing ACLS education.

Rule-Learning Events in the Acquisition of a Complex Skill: An Evaluation of Cascade

Acquiring a complex cognitive skill often involves learning principles of the task domain in the midst of solving problems or studying examples. Cascade is a model of such learning. It includes both rule-based reasoning and several kinds of analogical, case-based reasoning. Task domain principles are represented as rules, and Cascade learns new rules at rule-learning events, which are initiated by an impasse and utilize multiple kinds of reasoning. In this article, I evaluate Cascade's model of rule-learning events by analyzing ones gleaned from protocols of physics students solving problems and studying examples. As expected, Cascade's model is overly simple, but it appears feasible to extend it to cover all the observed learning events. The data themselves were surprising in that there are few learning events relative to the number that could have occurred, and those that did occur often involved forms of reasoning that are considerably shallower than expected. The data suggest ways that instruction can be improved to increase both the quantity and depth of learning events.

The Transfer Paradox: Effects of Contextual Interference on Retention and Transfer Performance of a Complex Cognitive Skill

In an exploratory study, the effects of contextual interference on retention and transfer performance were studied for learning a complex cognitive skill, namely, troubleshooting a computer-based simulation of a chemical process plant. Support was found for the “transfer paradox”: high contextual interference had negative effects on performance during practice and none on number of retention problems solved after the training but positive effects on number of new problems solved (transfer). Implications for the design of training are discussed.

Classroom instruction versus roadside training in traffic safety education

This study compares the effectiveness of different approaches to training complex cognitive and psychomotor skills within the framework of road safety education for primary school children. A method involving roadside behavioral training, a classroom instruction method and a method combining these two approaches were developed to teach basic skills critical to the safe crossing of intersections. These three methods were presented to pupils of the first grade of primary schools (6–7 -year-olds) and both the knowledge of the necessary crossing skills and the ability to perform these skills under normal traffic conditions was measured using a before/after treatment design. The results indicate that knowledge and behavioural improvements can be achieved by both classroom instruction and the behavioral training, even though the latter approach appeared to be slightly superior. This suggests that instruction carried out in the classroom can be beneficial in acquiring complex psychomotor skills, which is in contrast to earlier findings indicating that classroom instruction can only affect knowledge and does not improve road crossing skills. The conclusion is reached that precise formulation of the educational objectives and use of audiovisual media are essential factors determining the effectiveness of cognitive instruction of road crossing skills in the classroom.

A psycholinguistic perspective on Simultaneous Interpretation

Experimental psycholinguistics investigates the cognitive processes underlying our ability to comprehend and produce language using empirical tools similar to those used in experimental psychology. In so doing, it adopts the strategy of cognitive decomposition (see also Massaro & Shlesinger, this volume). It first studies the component language processes in isolation, and only later are these processes investigated in the larger context of other component processes. In the present paper, we attempt to illustrate how the complex cognitive skill of simultaneous translation can fruitfully be examined from this psycholinguistic perspective, despite the scepticism from some of the SI community towards such an experimental enterprise. Inversely, we will also show that studies of the processes underlying simultaneous translation promise to provide us with important insights in psycholinguistics.

Sex differences in mathematical abllity: Genes, environment, and evolution

AbstractGeary proposes a sociobiological hypothesis of how (and why) sex differences in math and spatial skills might have jointly arisen. His distinction between primary and secondary math skills is noteworthy, and in some ways analogous to the closed versus open systems postulated to exist for language. In this commentary issues concerning how genes might affect complex cognitive skills, the interpretation of heritability estimates, and prior research abilites are discussed.

Infants remember the order of words in a spoken sentence

The ability to remember sequential order information is an important component in the learning and mastery of many complex cognitive skills. Notably, it is critical for learning language. This study investigated whether infants are capable of remembering the order of words in an English sentence and, especially, whether the structure afforded by natural sentential prosody enhances their ability to do so. This study compares 2-montholds' abilities to detect changes in word order, after a 2-min delay, for sequences spoken as a well-formed sentence versus as two unrelated, but well-formed, sentential fragments. The results indicate that infants exposed to the single sentences were able to detect changes in word order. By comparison, infants exposed to the sentential fragments showed no tendency to detect the same word order changes. Thus, even at two months of age, infants are able to remember the order of spoken words when they are embedded within the coherent prosodic structure of a single well-formed sentence.