Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design
Authors: Sweller J.1; van Merrienboer J.J.G.2; Paas F.G.W.C.3
Source: Educational Psychology Review, Volume 10, Number 3, September 1998 , pp. 251-296(46)
Publisher: Springer
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Abstract:
Cognitive load theory has been designed to provide guidelines intended to assist in the presentation of information in a manner that encourages learner activities that optimize intellectual performance. The theory assumes a limited capacity working memory that includes partially independent subcomponents to deal with auditory/verbal material and visual/2- or 3-dimensional information as well as an effectively unlimited long-term memory, holding schemas that vary in their degree of automation. These structures and functions of human cognitive architecture have been used to design a variety of novel instructional procedures based on the assumption that working memory load should be reduced and schema construction encouraged. This paper reviews the theory and the instructional designs generated by it.
Keywords: cognition; instructional design; learning; problem solving
Language: English
Document Type: Research article
Affiliations: 1: School of Education Studies, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia; j.sweller@unsw.edu.au 2: University of Twente, the Netherlands. Now at University of Maastricht, the Netherlands 3: University of Maastricht, the Netherlands
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