Cognitive load theory and music instruction

Abstract

Cognitive load theory assumes that effective instructional design is subject to the mechanisms that underpin our cognitive architecture and that understanding is constrained by the processing capacity of a limited working memory. This thesis reports the results of six experiments that applied the principles of cognitive load theory to the investigation of instructional design in music. Across the six experiments conditions differed by modality (uni or dual) and/or the nature of presentation (integrated or adjacent; simultaneous or successive). In addition, instructional formats were comprised of either two or three sources of information (text, auditory musical excerpts, musical notation). Participants were academically able Year 7 students with some previous musical experience. Following instructional interventions, students were tested using auditory and/or written problems; in addition, subjective ratings and efficiency measures were used as indicators of mental load. Together, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated the benefits of both dual-modal (dual-modality effect) and physically integrated formats over the same materials presented as adjacent and discrete information sources (split-attention effect), confirming the application of established cognitive load effects within the domain of music. Experiment 3 compared uni-modal formats, consisting of auditory rather than visual materials, with their dual-modal counterparts. Although some evidence for a modality effect was associated with simultaneous presentations, the uni-modal format was clearly superior when the same materials were delivered successively. Experiment 4 compared three cognitively efficient instructional formats in which either two or three information sources were

Differential effects of cognitive load on university wind students’ practice

“…The combination of the more demanding random practice structure with higher intrinsic cognitive load may have led to the random practice condition to be less effective than the blocked practice condition for brass players. This result is consistent with Sweller's (1988) guideline that cognitive overload inhibits schema formation, and with Owen and Sweller (2008) who examined cognitive load theory in learning time signatures. They suggested the effects of cognitive load are additive, in that the increased demands on working memory diminish the learning process.…”

Story of a Research Program

“…Rohani Tarmizi, a Malaysian mathematics teacher enrolled in a PhD demonstrated the split-attention effect using geometry problems (Tarmizi & Sweller, 1988) while Mark Ward demonstrated the effect using physics problems as part of his PhD (Ward & Sweller, 1990). Paul Owens demonstrated similar effects in his PhD on music education (Owens & Sweller, 2008) as did Narciso Cerpa studying computer education for his PhD (Cerpa, Chandler, & Sweller, 1996). Physically integrating disparate sources of information so that they no longer have to be mentally integrated reduces extraneous cognitive load and facilitates learning.…”

What contributes to the split-attention effect? The role of text segmentation, picture labelling, and spatial proximity

“…The split-attention effect is frequently observed when comparing learning from spatially integrated texts and pictures with learning from spatially separated texts and pictures (Chandler & Sweller, 1991, 1992Owens & Sweller, 2008;Sweller & Chandler, 1994). Very often, however, the transition from a spatially separated to a spatially integrated format involves not only a change in terms of spatial proximity; it also involves text segmentation and picture labelling.…”

“…A well-known phenomenon in multimedia learning, that is, learning from multiple sources of information, is the so-called ''split-attention effect'' (Chandler & Sweller, 1991, 1992Ginns, 2006;Kalyuga, Chander, & Sweller, 1999;Kester, Kirschner, & van Merriënboer, 2005;Owens & Sweller, 2008;Sweller & Chandler, 1994). When each source of information is essential for understanding the represented subject matter, learning improves when multiple sources of information are presented in a spatially and temporally integrated rather than separated format.…”