Franck Amadieu

The attention-guiding effect and cognitive load in the comprehension of animations

To be effective, instructional animations should avoid causing high extraneous cognitive load imposed by the high attentional requirements of selecting and processing relevant elements. In accordance with the attention-guiding principle (Betrancourt, 2005), a study was carried out concerning the impact of cueing on cognitive load and comprehension of animations which depicted a dynamic process in a neurobiology domain. Cueing consisted of zooming in important information at each step of the process. Thirty-six undergraduate psychology students were exposed to an animation three times. Half of the participants received an animation without cueing while the other half received the same animation with cueing. Measures of cognitive load and comprehension performance (questions on isolated elements and on high-element interactivity material) were administered twice, after one and three exposures to the animation. The analyses revealed two main results. First, extraneous cognitive load was reduced by cueing after three exposures. Second, retention of the isolated elements was improved in both animation groups, whereas comprehension of high-element interactive material (i.e., the causal relations between elements) increased only in the cueing condition. Furthermore, a problem solving task showed that cueing supported the development of a more elaborate mental model.

Prior knowledge in learning from a non-linear electronic document: Disorientation and coherence of the reading sequences

Abstract A study was carried out to investigate the effects of prior knowledge on learning with a non-linear electronic document including an interactive conceptual map. Cognitive Load Theory was used as theoretical framework to investigate effects on cognitive load and disorientation in learning from non-linear documents. Forty-four future high school biology teachers were required to learn the multiplication cycle of a virus from either a hierarchical structure (organisational links) or a network structure (relational links). For the low prior knowledge learners, the results showed that the hierarchical structure supported better free recall performance and reduced feelings of disorientation. In contrast, the high prior knowledge learners performed better and followed more coherent reading sequences in the network structure. However, no interaction effect between prior knowledge and the type of structure was observed on mental effort and disorientation ratings. The results and the construct of disorientation are discussed in light of the processing demands in non-linear documents.

Interaction between prior knowledge and concept-map structure on hypertext comprehension, coherence of reading orders and disorientation

The study examined the interaction effects of prior knowledge and hypertexts structure (network vs. hierarchy) on comprehension. Comprehension was investigated analyzing jointly three dependent variables: comprehension outcomes, coherence of the reading sequences and feelings of disorientation. The results supported most of the assumptions showing an interaction effect on each measure. For low prior knowledge readers, a hierarchical structure improved comprehension performance, helped them to follow coherent reading sequences and reduced their feelings of disorientation. For high prior knowledge readers, comprehension performance and feelings of disorientation were not affected by the type of structure. Moreover, prior knowledge was a relevant resource to cope with the cognitive requirements of reading non-linear texts. In the network condition, prior knowledge supported better comprehension, led the readers to follow more coherent reading sequences and limited their feelings of disorientation. The discussion dealt with processes based on prior knowledge involved in hypertext comprehension, and stressed the need for conducting further investigations on the nature of the on-line inferences and on relations between performance, navigation and disorientation.

Query strategies during information searching

Three complexity levels of information problems are defined related to psychology domain.40 students in psychology and in other domains performed information problems with an online encyclopedia.Students in psychology performed better than the others, especially for complex problems.Students in psychologies used more relevant strategies than the others.These expertise-related differences are stronger for the complex problems. This study addresses the impact of domain expertise (i.e. of prior knowledge of the domain) on the performance and query strategies used by users while searching for information. Twenty-four experts (psychology students) and 24 non-experts (students from other disciplines) had to search for psychology information from the Universalis website in order to perform six information problems of varying complexity: two simple problems (the keywords required to complete the task were provided in the problem statement), two more difficult problems (the keywords required had to be inferred) and two impossible problems (no answer was provided by the website). The results showed that participants with prior knowledge in the domain (experts in psychology) performed better (i.e. reached more correct answers after shorter search times) than non-experts. This difference was stronger as the complexity of the problems increased. This study also showed that experts and non-experts displayed different query strategies. Experts reformulated the impossible problems more often than non-experts, because they produced new queries with psychology-related keywords. The participants rarely used thematic category tool and when they did so this did not enhance their performance.

Concept Maps for Comprehension and Navigation of Hypertexts

Comprehension and learning with hypertexts are challenging due to the nonlinearity of such digital documents. Processing hypertexts may involve navigation and comprehension problems, leading learners to cognitive overhead. Concept maps have been added to hypertexts to reduce the cognitive requirements of navigation and comprehension. This chapter explores the literature to examine the effects of concept maps on navigation, comprehension, and learning from hypertexts. The literature review aims to elucidate how concept maps may contribute to processing hypertexts and under which conditions. In spite of the variability of concept maps used in hypertexts, some findings converge. Concept maps reduce the cognitive requirements for processing hypertexts. They support outcomes as well as guiding learner navigation. They convey a macrostructure of the semantic relationships between content that supports more coherent navigation and promotes the construction of a mental representation of the information structure of hypertexts. In practice, concept maps are only beneficial for learners with low skills or low prior domain knowledge. Studies have shown that different strategies in processing concept maps may explain a part of the variance in the benefits provided by the concept maps. Processing that occurs early in the learning task yields better comprehension performance. The conclusions lead to recommendations for designing effective concept maps for learning from hypertexts. Further research could be conducted on the online processes by using eye movement recording in order to analyze dynamic processes during learning.

Searching for information on the web

Prior domain knowledge improves older adults query and navigation strategies and copes with the age-related decline of cognitive flexibility.Unlike prior results, older adults were outperformed by young ones in open-ended information problems.In open-ended information problems, older adults did not benefit from their prior knowledge and produced semantically less relevant queries as compared to fact-finding problems. This study focuses on the impact of age, prior domain knowledge and cognitive abilities on performance, query production and navigation strategies during information searching. Twenty older adults and nineteen young adults had to answer 12 information search problems of varying nature within two domain knowledge: health and manga. In each domain, participants had to perform two simple fact-finding problems (keywords provided and answer directly accessible on the search engine results page), two difficult fact-finding problems (keywords had to be inferred) and two open-ended information search problems (multiple answers possible and navigation necessary). Results showed that prior domain knowledge helped older adults improve navigation (i.e. reduced the number of webpages visited and thus decreased the feeling of disorientation), query production and reformulation (i.e. they formulated semantically more specific queries, and they inferred a greater number of new keywords).

Apprendre avec le numérique

Le premier ouvrage qui examine les attentes et les croyances associees a l’usage des nouvelles technologies en classe. « On est plus motive quand on apprend avec le numerique », « Les videos et informations dynamiques favorisent l’apprentissage », « Le numerique permet d’adapter les enseignements aux eleves »… Autant d’affirmations que l’on entend regulierement. Mais s’appuient-elles sur des resultats d’etudes serieuses ? L’ouvrage est organise en onze chapitres traitant chacun d’une attente, ou d’un mythe, autour des technologies de l’information et de la communication pour l’enseignement. Chaque chapitre : • presente le mythe : developpement des attentes et des arguments generalement avances justifiant ces attentes ; • dresse un rapide bilan des travaux scientifiques examinant ce mythe ou permettant d’evaluer la validite des attentes : presentation des derniers travaux et revues de questions dans la litterature scientifique ; • decrit concretement plusieurs etudes pertinentes illustrant la realite des TICE en lien avec le mythe, pour aider a la comprehension des apports et des limites du numerique ; • presente une conclusion sous forme de reponse au mythe et de propositions pour la mise en œuvre dans la classe.

Comprendre des documents non-linéaires : quelles ressources apportées par les connaissances antérieures ?

EnglishThe current paper exposes a state of the art about works dealing with effects of learners� prior domain knowledge on comprehension and learning from non-linear documents (e.g. hypertexts). The inventory of results which is organized according to three dimensions (performance, navigation, disorientation) leads to a set of convergent conclusions as well as to divergent conclusions. Prior knowledge provides resources to process non-linearity of documents. That is reflected by higher performance and navigation behaviors characterized by a higher level of elaboration. Nevertheless, studies focusing on nature of mental representations or constructed knowledge indicated a set of inconsistent results like results about disorientation. From this observation, limits, methodological and theoretical requirements are discussed. In conclusion, the necessity to conduct further research on relations between navigation, comprehension and dynamic of processes is stressed. francaisL�article presente un etat de l�art des travaux etudiant les effets des connaissances anterieures du domaine des apprenants sur la comprehension et l�apprentissage avec des documents non-lineaires (ex. hypertexte). Le recensement des resultats organise selon trois dimensions (performance, navigation, desorientation) permet d�aboutir a un ensemble de conclusions convergentes mais aussi divergentes. Les connaissances anterieures offrent des ressources importantes pour le traitement de la non-linearite des documents se traduisant par de meilleures performances ainsi que des comportements de navigation caracterises par un certain niveau d�elaboration. En revanche, l�etude de la nature des representations ou connaissances construites aboutit a un ensemble de resultats inconsistants au meme titre que les resultats sur la desorientation des apprenants. Sur la base de ce constat, les limites et besoins methodologiques comme theoriques sont discutes. En conclusion l�accent est mis sur la necessite d�approfondir l�analyse des liens existants entre navigation, comprehension et la dynamique des processus.

Relationships between Age, Domain Knowledge and Prior Knowledge Pre-activation on Information Searching

This study investigated the effects of age, prior domain knowledge and prior knowledge semantic pre-activation task on information searching. Results showed that the age-related differences were observed for the fantastic movies domain (for which older adults had significantly lower prior knowledge), whereas the effects of age were not replicated in the health domain (for which older adults had equal knowledge with young adults?). Semantic pre-activation of prior knowledge in the health domain was correlated to more analytic strategies when processing the search engine pages and when navigating.

What Was my Search Goal Again? Supporting Web Exploration in Information Search for Older Users

This study investigated how supporting search goal refreshing in working memory could cope with older adults’ lower fluid abilities and helped them search for information with a search engine. 18 older and 30 young adults searched for information to four complex search problems with a classic search interface or with a search interface that displayed at all time their ultimate query. Results showed that the support tool improved older adults search strategies when navigating (i.e. reduced the amount of content webpages visited multiple times and the exploitation of the queries produced) and when reformulating (i.e. reduced the time required to reformulate their query).