Wayne Leahy

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects

Interactions among the imagination, expertise reversal, and element interactivity effects were investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, less knowledgeable primary school students learning to use a bus timetable produced better performance under study than imagination conditions, but an increase in their experience reversed the result, producing the imagination effect. Experiment 2, in which students were taught to use a temperature line graph, replicated these results and demonstrated that the effects were more likely to be obtained using complex material. It was concluded that learners can engage more successfully in imagination procedures when learning has proceeded sufficiently to permit the information to be processed in working memory and that working memory limitations are of little consequence except when dealing with complex information.

Interactivity and the constraints of cognitive load theory

Over the last 30 years there has been considerable interest in the functions and processes of the human mind. This interest has stemmed particularly from the field of cognitive psychology that explores human thought, consciousness, memory and problem-solving abilities. Figure 7.1 illustrates the characteristic way contemporary cognitive psychology views the human mind as an information-processing system. This figure conceptualizes the model developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and provides the foundations for human cognitive architecture. Very broadly speaking, processing of information advances from left to right and is composed of three interdependent components; sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory.