ON THE DERIVATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL APPLICATIONS FROM COGNITIVE THEORIES - COMMENTARY ON CHANDLER AND SWELLER

In “Cognitive Load Theory and the Format of Instruction, ” Chandler and Sweller (1991) report a series of experiments that focus on presentation formats that optimize learning from diagrams accompanied by ancillary text. This series of studies continues a line of work in which Sweller and his colleagues (Cooper & Sweller, 1987; Sweller, 1988; Sweller & Cooper, 1985; Tarmizi & Sweller, 1988; Ward & Sweller, 1990) have shown that students who study worked examples perform better than students who actually work the problems. Sweller (1988) proposed cognitive load theory as an explanation of these results, indicating that the critical feature of worked examples is that they appropriately direct attention and impose a relatively light cognitive load. Similarly, other presentation formats that accomplish these goals should also facilitate learning. In the present article, Chandler and Sweller argue that a presentation format that integrates diagram and text information should lighten cognitive load and direct attention appropriately. As in the case of worked examples, the integrated text and diagram presentation format reduces the amount of work that learners have to do for themselves. Hence, the integrated format should facilitate learning over formats in which the text and diagram are physically separated, provided that the text and diagram both need to be processed to achieve understanding. Chandler and Sweller contend that cognitive load theory is useful and interesting—and unique among theories—because it differentiates among situations in which a particular instructional design (i.e., the integrated format) will be helpful and those in which it will make no difference to learning. They are careful to indicate that, although the predictions regarding format are derived from cognitive load theory, the experiments are not tests of cognitive load theory. Rather, because the results are consistent with predictions, the work supports the usefulness of the theory for instructional applications. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.