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

Bite-sized structured learning: a preferred self-paced approach that enhanced learning of muscle physiology for allied health students

Muscle physiology is often perceived as a complex topic by students because of the hierarchical concepts and the need for integrative understanding. Breaking down content in a structured manner allows for segmented bite-sized learning that may enhance students' learning beyond conventional online lectures. We compared the effectiveness of 1) bite-sized structured learning (BSL) and 2) synchronous Zoom lecture (SZL) in teaching muscle physiology to first-year allied health undergraduates. For the same student cohort, the topic was divided into two lectures, with the first taught via BSL and the second via SZL. Pre and post quizzes were used to evaluate students' understanding of the topic. Mixed-methods online questionnaires were used to examine students' perceptions toward the two modes of learning, encompassing content coverage, delivery, engagement, effectiveness, preference, and convenience. A total of 223 and 215 students completed both pre and post quizzes for BSL and SZL, respectively. Student performances were improved via both modes (P < 0.001), with a higher median score improvement in BSL compared to SZL [3.0 (1.0-4.0) vs. 2.0 (1.0-3.0)]. Among students who completed the survey, 65% expressed strong preference toward BSL over SZL (17%), which could be attributed to the benefits of self-paced microlearning such as higher motivation and improved attention. BSL was perceived to be manageable and well structured to support learning. Our study suggests that BSL is equally effective as conventional lectures and is a learning approach favored by students. There could be merits in combining both instructional modes, as their complementary advantages may enhance students' learning.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Bite-sized structured learning (BSL) is aimed at dissecting learning content into manageable microlearning parts for students to learn at their own pace, and it involves the segmentation of information in an organized manner. We found that compared to online lectures, BSL promoted better attention and enhanced motivation for learning muscle physiology without compromising the effectiveness of learning in allied health students. BSL may be combined with conventional lectures to harness their complementary advantages.

The Differential Effects of Multisensory Attentional Cues on Task Performance in VR Depending on the Level of Cognitive Load and Cognitive Capacity

As the utilization of VR is expanding across diverse fields, research on devising attentional cues that could optimize users' task performance in VR has become crucial. Since the cognitive load imposed by the context and the individual's cognitive capacity are representative factors that are known to determine task performance, we aimed to examine how the effects of multisensory attentional cues on task performance are modulated by the two factors. For this purpose, we designed a new experimental paradigm in which participants engaged in dual (N-back, visual search) tasks under different levels of cognitive load while an attentional cue (visual, tactile, or visuotactile) was presented to facilitate search performance. The results showed that multi-sensory attentional cues are generally more effective than uni-sensory cues in enhancing task performance, but the benefit of multi-sensory cues changes according to the level of cognitive load and the individual's cognitive capacity; the amount of benefit increases as the cognitive load is higher and the cognitive capacity is lower. The findings of this study provide practical implications for designing attentional cues to enhance VR task performance, considering both the complexity of the VR context and users' internal characteristics.

A Schema-Based Instructional Design Model for Self-Paced Learning Environments

Although research on schema has been widely investigated for the past decades, little research has addressed the development of a systematic instructional design theory using schema principles and processes. This study proposes a systematic schema-based instructional design model, including general and schema analysis, schema-based design, and development processes and techniques for evaluating a learner’s acquired schema. By synthesizing empirical studies, this study comprehensively reviews literature on schema and foundational principles for learning. The goal of the study is to enrich the knowledge base of schema-based instructional design for different learning environments. Thus, the study is concluded by a discussion on how to utilize a schema-based instructional design for self-paced learning environments with additional implications and further recommendations.

Measuring discourse coherence in anomic aphasia using Rhetorical Structure Theory

PURPOSE

The existing body of work regarding discourse coherence in aphasia has provided mixed results, leaving the question of coherence being impaired or intact as a result of brain injury unanswered. In this study, discourse coherence in non-brain-damaged (NBD) speakers and speakers with anomic aphasia was investigated quantitatively and qualitatively.

METHOD

Fifteen native speakers of Cantonese with anomic aphasia and 15 NBD participants produced 60 language samples. Elicitation tasks included story-telling induced by a picture series and a procedural description. The samples were annotated for discourse structure in the framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) in order to analyse a number of structural parameters. After that 20 naïve listeners rated coherence of each sample.

RESULT

Disordered discourse was rated as significantly less coherent. The NBD group demonstrated a higher production fluency than the participants with aphasia and used a richer set of semantic relations to create discourse, particularly in the description of settings, expression of causality, and extent of elaboration. People with aphasia also tended to omit essential information content.

CONCLUSION

Reduced essential information content, lower degree of elaboration, and a larger amount of structural disruptions may have contributed to the reduced overall discourse coherence in speakers with anomic aphasia.

Cognitive Capacity Usage in Responding to Test Items

Procedures for validating the complexity level of test items include empirical examinations of item characteristics and subjective judgments of expert raters. These methods have yielded mixed and inconsistent results. This study employs a technique derived from cognitive psychology research in the examination of levels of item complexity. Using a microcomputer to administer test items, response time to a secondary task was used as an index of the level of item complexity. A series of three studies are reported that (1) employ the technique on items of marked discrepancy in complexity level and (2) contrast the sensitivity of the technique to more traditional analyses of level of item complexity. The results suggest that the technique has promise as a mechanism for validating or establishing level of item complexity.

Schema-Consistent and Schema-Inconsistent Information

Processing effort for schema-consistent, inconsistent, and neutral information was assessed by a secondary task technique. Schema-consistent and inconsistent information received similar processing effort, and both of these received greater effort than schema-irrelevant (neutral) information. These results suggest that the amount of cognitive effort in processing a sentence is dependent on the relevance of the sentence to a particular schema, and not on whether or not it fits the schema.

Age differences in learning from text: The effects of content preexposure on reading

This study investigated age differences in the way in which attentional resources are allocated to expository text and whether these differences are moderated by content preexposure. The organization of the preexposure materials was manipulated to test the hypothesis that a change in organization across two presentations would evoke more processing effort (i.e., a “mismatch effect”). After preexposure, reading time was measured as younger and older adults read a target text to produce recall, answer comprehension questions, and solve a novel problem. Relative to the young, older readers allocated more time as they encountered new discourse entities and showed a stronger serial position effect, which are patterns of resource allocation that suggest more extensive processing of the discourse situation. Younger adults took advantage of repeated exposure to produce more extensive reproduction of text content, as well as more text-specific solutions to solve a problem. Older adults generated more elaborated inferences and were similar to young adults in terms of the dimensional complexity of problem solutions. Whereas younger readers showed weak evidence for a mismatch effect, older readers did not. These data are consistent with the proposal that older readers favor the situation model over textbase content in allocating resources to text, but this effect was not enhanced by introducing organizational difficulty in reprocessing.

Adult age differences in reading and rereading processes associated with problem solving

We investigated age differences in reading and rereading processes associated with problem solving and explored the extent to which prior information affects rereading processes. Participants' reading times were recorded as they read short mysteries, twice, at their own pace on a computer, with the goal of providing the solution to the mystery. We varied the amount of information provided prior to rereading the mysteries such that participants received: no new information, a hint (partial information), or the full solution. Reading times for trial 1 and for all three rereading conditions were decomposed to determine resource allocation to specific reading processes including conceptual integration, attention to critical regions, and instantiation of new characters in the narrative. We found that younger and older adults attended to critical regions of the problem similarly on trial 1 as well as when rereading with no information or a hint. Age differences were found, however, in the effects of rereading with prior information on conceptual integration. For older relative to younger adults, a hint was more effortful (as reflected in conceptual processing time) and was not as helpful (as reflected in problem-solving accuracy scores). However, older adults who increased time to conceptual integration when applying a hint had higher performance on the second trial, suggesting increased integration is an effective strategy when utilizing new information.

Aging and self-regulated language processing

An adult developmental model of self-regulated language processing (SRLP) is introduced, in which the allocation policy with which a reader engages text is driven by declines in processing capacity, growth in knowledge-based processes, and age-related shifts in reading goals. Evidence is presented to show that the individual reader's allocation policy is consistent across time and across different types of text, can serve a compensatory function in relation to abilities, and is predictive of subsequent memory performance. As such, it is an important facet of language understanding and learning from text through the adult life span.

The effect of feedback sign on task performance depends on self-concept discrepancies

Control theories claim that information about performance is often used by multiple goal systems. A proposition tested here was that performance information can create discrepancies in self-concept goals, directing cognitive resources away from the task goal system. To manipulate performance information, 160 undergraduates were given false positive or false negative normative feedback while working on a task that did or did not require substantial cognitive resources. Half of the participants were then given an opportunity to reaffirm their self-concepts following feedback, whereas half were not. Feedback sign positively related to performance only for those working on the cognitively intense task and not given a chance to reaffirm. Otherwise, feedback sign was negatively related to performance, albeit weakly.

Online cognitive engagement of boys with ADHD

The present study was designed to examine the role that attentional problems may play in accounting for difficulties in story comprehension experienced by children with ADHD. A secondary task methodology was used to examine whether or not online variations in cognitive engagement with a televised story were related to the continuity of central or incidental information. Twenty-two 9- to 11 -year-old boys with ADHD and 36 of their nonreferred peers watched a television program and responded to auditory probes presented at preselected points during continuous sequences of central or incidental information. The reaction times to the probes for nonreferred boys showed the expected linear increase in cognitive engagement (i.e., the RTs increased) as central, plot-relevant sequences continued. In contrast, boys with ADHD showed the expected increase in RTs relatively late in the central sequences. The results were discussed in terms of how delays in engaging with central information may contribute to the academic difficulties experienced by boys with ADHD.

The effects of age and domain knowledge on text processing

The author investigated age differences in the effects of knowledge during encoding by comparing time allocated to naturalistic domain-related (cooking) and general texts among young and older adults with varying levels of (cooking) knowledge. High-knowledge individuals increased time allocated to conceptual integration when reading domain-related texts but not general texts and showed relatively greater recall for domain-related texts. These findings suggest that knowledge application can be effortful during encoding and that this effort pays off in terms of a more elaborated and integrated text representation that engenders better memory performance. There were no age differences in effects of knowledge on either resource allocation at encoding or on memory performance. These results suggest that knowledge-based processing is preserved in later life.

SCRIPTKELL: a tool for measuring cognitive effort and time processing in writing and other complex cognitive activities

We present SCRIPTKELL, a computer-assisted experimental tool that makes it possible to measure the time and cognitive effort allocated to the subprocesses of writing and other cognitive activities. SCRIPTKELL was designed to easily use and modulate Kellogg's (1986) triple-task procedure, which consists of a combination of three tasks: a writing task (or another task), a reaction time task (auditory signal detection), and a directed retrospection task (after each signal detection during writing). We demonstrate how this tool can be used to address several novel empirical and theoretical issues. In sum, SCRIPTKELL should facilitate the flexible realization of experimental designs and the investigation of critical issues concerning the functional characteristics of complex cognitive activities.

Is writing as difficult as it seems?

Experiment 1 assessed the time and effort allocated to writing subprocesses while generating written and verbal protocols over 10 weekly writing sessions. Within a 40-min session, planning time consumed about 45% in the first 5 min, but stabilized at near 30% thereafter. Generating text initially consumed 40% of the writers' time, peaked at 50% midway, and then declined to its original level. The time spent revising and reviewing was negligible early in writing sessions, but increased substantially late in the sessions. The highest and lowest quality documents could be differentiated on the basis of the amount of time the writers devoted to revising and to the magnitude of their RTs in a secondary interference task. Writers showed consistent, distinctive patterns of transitional probabilities between writing subprocesses both within and across sessions, yielding quantitative representations of their writing styles. In Experiment 2, writers overestimated the amount of time they devote to revising and overestimated the amount of effort they allocate to planning and text generation. Their estimations did not improve after 10 weeks of composing. A time-and-effort-based analysis of writing is proposed to account for these data.

The effects of topic and listener familiarity on discourse variables in procedural and narrative discourse tasks

This study investigated the effects of listener and topic familiarity on procedural and narrative discourse variables. Twenty-two aphasic patients (5 Broca's, 7 conduction, and 10 anomic aphasics) and 10 normal speakers served as subjects. Topic familiarity influenced discourse production in both procedural discourse and story retell situations. In procedural discourse, a greater number of optional steps were provided with familiar topics. During retelling of familiar topic stories, a greater proportion of action and resolution clauses were included. Listener familiarity affected the story retell task only. A greater percentage of subjects provided the setting when the listener was familiar.

The influence of topic and listener familiarity on aphasic discourse

This study investigated the effects of listener and topic familiarity on verbal output. A total of 32 subjects were included: 5 Broca's, 7 conduction, and 10 anomic aphasics; and 10 normal controls. Subjects performed story retell and procedural discourse tasks containing familiar and unfamiliar topics. Tasks were completed with a familiar listener (spouse) and an unfamiliar listener (examiner). Results indicated that topic familiarity significantly influenced verbal output, however specific findings were dependent on task. In procedural discourse, the amount of verbal output (number of T-units) was significantly greater on familiar topics. In contrast, the complexity (number of words and clauses per T-unit) was significantly greater on unfamiliar topics. On story retell, verbal output (number of T-units) was also greater on familiar topics. However, grammatic complexity did not increase with unfamiliar topics. Words per T-unit remained higher on familiar topics. The variable of listener familiarity was not found to be significant.

The effects of central processing strategies on learning disabled, mildly retarded, average, and gifted children's elaborative encoding abilities

The purpose of these studies was to examine potential central processing strategy differences among subgroups of children on a series of elaborative encoding tasks. To this end, two experiments included four ability groups (slow learners, learning disabled, average, and intellectually gifted children) who recalled words embedded in sentences. In general, the results suggest that lower verbal and learning ability subgroups recalled less information during elaboratorive encoding conditions than higher ability groups. More importantly, however, the results indicated that lower ability groups differed from higher ability groups in how they shared, discriminated, and selectively allocated resources between the central and secondary recall tasks. The results were discussed within a framework that views individual differences in encoding as reflecting central processing (i.e., resource monitoring) deficiencies.