Use Of Cognitive Capacity Research Articles

Reviewing the Role of Cognitive Load, Expertise Level, Motivation, and Unconscious Processing in Working Memory Performance

Human cognitive capacity is unavailable for conscious processing of every amount of instructional messages. Aligning an instructional design with learner expertise level would allow better use of available working memory capacity in a cognitive learning task. Motivating students to learn consciously is also an essential determinant of the capacity usage. However, motivational factors are often subject to unconscious rather than conscious emotional processing. This review sets out the need for further studies to elucidate the role of motivation and unconscious processing in the use of cognitive capacity.

Instructional Objectives in Text: Managing the Reader's Attention

It is well established that the provision of instructional objectives before reading a text increases the learning of objective-relevant material in the text. The purpose of the present study was to identify some of the mechanisms by which objectives affect learning. College students studied text under three conditions: with specific objectives, with a general objective, and with no objectives. The objective-relevant material was located either high or low in the content structure of the text. The dependent measures were secondary task reaction time—a measure of cognitive capacity use—reading time, and free recall for objective-relevant material. The results indicated that with specific objectives, the secondary-task reaction times while reading objective-relevant material were longer, reading times were longer, and recall was greater than with either a general objective or with no objectives. Reading times were significantly correlated with recall, but secondary task reaction times were not. In addition, more information was recalled when the objective-relevant material was located high in the text structure. The interpretation of these results is that, with specific objectives, students devote more cognitive capacity to objective-relevant material, spend more time reading it, and recall more of it than when they do not have specific objectives.

Use of cognitive capacity in reading: Effects of some content features of text∗

Use of cognitive capacity was measured during reading of text in six experiments. Content features of the texts were varied. A secondary task technique was used to measure use of capacity. In all experiments, capacity was filled more completely while reading narrative text than while reading expository text. The finding was generalized over two pools of passages, over two modalities of secondary task probes— auditory and tactile—and over two secondary tasks—simple reaction time and choice reaction time. Three hypotheses for the narrativity effect were investigated. Not supported were an hypothesis based on the interest value of the passages and the hypothesis that difficult to comprehend passages induced problem solving cognitive operations that filled capacity. The results were consistent with a comprehensibility hypothesis, which states that when more meaning is produced in the reader's cognitive system while reading a text, more cognitive capacity is filled by reading it. Narrative passages produce mor...

Effects of prior knowledge on use of cognitive capacity in three complex cognitive tasks

Prior knowledge was varied in problem solving, thinking, and reading tasks in three experiments. The hypothesis was that the prior knowledge used in a cognitive task uses capacity in the same limited capacity active processing system that is used to process the ongoing task. In a reading experiment, prior knowledge about a target page was manipulated by controlling the preceding pages. In an experiment dealing with problem solving in the context of a chess game, prior knowledge was controlled by comparing experts with novices. In a third study subjects thought about personality descriptions of persons and groups, and about women's fashions and football plays; it was assumed that persons have more prior knowledge concerning the personality of persons than the personality of groups, that women have more prior knowledge about women's fashions, and that men have more prior knowledge about football. In all experiments, use of cognitive capacity in task performance was observed with a secondary task technique. The results of all three experiments were consistent with the hypothesis that prior knowledge uses capacity in the active processing system. The prior knowledge hypothesis is consistent with some aspects of current cognitive theory but not consistent with others. The results also suggest a fundamental and unexpected limit on the cognitive processing of experts.

Effects of text structure on use of cognitive capacity during reading.

Effects of text structure on use of cognitive capacity during reading.

Effects of text structure on use of cognitive capacity during reading.

Effects of text structure on use of cognitive capacity during reading.

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading: A Performance Operating Characteristic

The cognitive capacity used in cognitive tasks can be measured with a secondary task technique (also called the dual task technique). Interpretation of results obtained with this technique depends on the assumption that the primary and secondary tasks require the same limited-capacity cognitive processing system. The present experiment tested this assumption by constructing a performance operating characteristic, in which the allocation of processing resources for the primary and secondary tasks was varied by instructions, and performance on the two tasks was observed. As the quality of performance on one task increased, performance on the other task decreased. It was concluded that the primary and secondary tasks shared processing resources. This means that performance on one task can be used as an indicator of processing resources allocated to the other. Implications of performance operating characteristics for secondary task methodology were discussed.

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading: Effects of Processing Information from Text for Immediate Recall and Retention

In two experiments, subjects read short passages and then took recall tests on them. One group expected and received a delayed test on each passage, and the other group expected and received an immediate test. In the delayed test condition, the delay was one minute long and was filled with a distracting task. Use of cognitive capacity during reading of the passages was measured with a secondary task technique. Inspection time and learning were also measured. Results showed that more cognitive capacity was used when subjects expected a delayed test than when they expected an immediate test, but no more time was spent reading and no more was recalled. It was concluded that subjects engaged in additional cognitive operations when they expected a delayed recall test, and these operations used cognitive capacity and were carried out in parallel with the cognitive operations associated with the other cognitive processes in reading.

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading Easy and Difficult Text: Two Tests of an Allocation of Attention Hypothesis

Use of cognitive capacity in reading easy and difficult text was observed with a secondary task technique in 2 experiments. Previous experiments had shown that easy text filled cognitive capacity more completely than difficult text. One hypothesis for this effect is that attention was allocated differentially to easy passages at the expense of difficult ones. Contrary to this hypothesis, in both of the present experiments, content tests showed that a large amount of detailed information was learned from both easy and difficult texts. When the memory load was reduced to reduce the motivation for differential allocation of attention, easy texts continued to fill cognitive capacity more completely than difficult texts. These results were not consistent with an allocation of attention hypothesis. Other hypotheses were considered.

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading Easy and Difficult Texts: Test of a Breakdown Hypothesis

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading Easy and Difficult Texts: Test of a Breakdown Hypothesis

Use of cognitive capacity in reading identical texts with different amounts of discourse level meaning.

Use of cognitive capacity in reading identical texts with different amounts of discourse level meaning.

Using Cognitive Capacity in Reading Text

Use of cognitive capacity in reading was measured with a secondary task. In this technique, reaction times to clicks which occur rarely and unpredictably during a primary task are used to measure the capacity demands of the primary task. As the primary task uses more capacity, less spare capacity is available and secondary task performance declines—reaction time to the clicks slows down. Results for 24 undergraduates showed that reaction times to clicks were slower while subjects were reading than in an otherwise equivalent condition in which they were not reading. This indicates that the reading task uses capacity even though it is very highly practiced.

Use of cognitive capacity in reading identical texts with different amounts of discourse level meaning.

Use of cognitive capacity in reading identical texts with different amounts of discourse level meaning.