I used 'goodness gracious' in a sentence!!
I like the Mayer and Moreno article when I finally got into it, but goodness gracious oh my how they overlook cognitive load in the written format. Why do authors, or maybe it is their editors, insist on putting tables and figures where it is most difficult to make the connections with the written words. For example, Table 2 is not within the heading that it relates to, it is within the heading after it. For those of with ADD, and if we are going to work for a screen reader we should work for all disabilities, it is distracting to have to skip a section – it makes it difficult to concentrate on the end of the section it should be in as well as the first part of the second.
The other problem I had getting into the reading was at the end of the first paragraph under the heading ‘The Case of Cognitive Overload’ it says: …”meaningful learning often requires substantial cognitive processing using a cognitive system that has sever limits on cognitive processing.” If the first time the reader is introduced to these topics is in this paper, a sentence like this causes SEVERE cognitive overload through just one of the cognitive systems: visual.
The information presented was useful, and although I understood the concept behind the studies before I read the article, I understand in a different and more concrete way the causes and fixes of cognitive overload. I also liked their explanation at the end of the second paragraph in the same heading about how a learner may select only some information when the material is fast paced and unfamiliar. I know that I do that when I am reading quickly and there are a lot of unfamiliar words, I see the shape of the word and move on. This works minimally until I come across a different name with the same shape. Then I am screwed.
The other problem I had getting into the reading was at the end of the first paragraph under the heading ‘The Case of Cognitive Overload’ it says: …”meaningful learning often requires substantial cognitive processing using a cognitive system that has sever limits on cognitive processing.” If the first time the reader is introduced to these topics is in this paper, a sentence like this causes SEVERE cognitive overload through just one of the cognitive systems: visual.
The information presented was useful, and although I understood the concept behind the studies before I read the article, I understand in a different and more concrete way the causes and fixes of cognitive overload. I also liked their explanation at the end of the second paragraph in the same heading about how a learner may select only some information when the material is fast paced and unfamiliar. I know that I do that when I am reading quickly and there are a lot of unfamiliar words, I see the shape of the word and move on. This works minimally until I come across a different name with the same shape. Then I am screwed.
posted by evelynne at 1:59 PM
1 Comments:
Evelynne--
you're right about poor design in articles! It's true--I hate books in which I have to flip pages to see accompanying diagrams and images--a big no no, according to Mayer.
I'm glad that you appreciate the Mayer & Moreno article, as I think that it's particularly important when makinjg very basic decisions about design and layout. First, we know that the combination of words and images typically leads to greater retention of content (Mayer bases some of his theoretical work here on the Dual Coding Theory of Alan Paivio). Mayer and Moreno also give us indication as to what we should avoid when we are using multimedie to educate: redundancy, discontiguity, and extraneous materials.
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