Finger pointing to support learning from split-attention examples

Learning by Doing or Doing Without Learning? The Potentials and Challenges of Activity-Based Learning

“…In sum, judging from the available research, movement-based learning can be considered as promising if certain conditions are met. A number of studies have shown that movement-based learning has the lowest risk for cognitive costs if the motor activity involved in learning avoids cognitive load, for instance by making use of biologically primary knowledge, such as tracing (Agostinho et al, 2015) and pointing (Zhang et al, 2023b) behaviors. As the performance of motor activity encoded as biologically primary knowledge does not generate cognitive load (Paas & Sweller, 2012), these types of activities can be considered to pose only a small risk of cognitive overload.…”

“…Movement-related instructional interventions are usually based on the notion of embodied cognition, a perspective that emphasizes that cognitive processes are highly dependent upon sensory perception, bodily experience, and movementrelated knowledge (for an overview, see Wilson, 2002). The application of these cognitive factors to learning is referred to as embodied learning (Kontra et al, 2012;Skulmowski & Rey, 2018) and such interventions encourage learners to trace using their fingers (e.g., Agostinho et al, 2015), to point their fingers (e.g., Zhang et al, 2023b), to enact (Lindgren et al, 2016), and to use gestures (Yohannan et al, 2022) or full-body movement (Johnson-Glenberg et al, 2014). Thus, embodied learning invokes the motor system with the aim to make content easier to understand (e.g., Shvarts & van Helden, 2023).…”