Biomedical subjects

Fred Paas

Publications and source records attributed to Fred Paas.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Effects of cueing and collaboration on the acquisition of complex legal skills.

BACKGROUND: To overcome the teacher bandwidth problem in supporting large groups of students, both automated process support (cueing) and face-to-face feedback by peers during small group work (collaboration) can be provided to students. AIM: The purpose of this experimental study was to examine whether a multimedia practical containing cueing could be effectively combined with peer feedback to support the acquisition of the complex skill of preparing a plea in court. SAMPLE: In the context of a regular court practical, 50 junior law students at a Dutch university individually studied a multimedia practical and participated in small group discussions about intermediate learning outcomes of the practical. METHOD: The study examined the effects of cueing and collaboration on training outcomes and transfer pleas, and on cognitive activity during collaboration, by combining the multimedia practical and small group collaboration to support the complex task of preparing a plea in court. RESULTS: Both cueing and collaboration positively influence training outcomes, with participants without cueing benefiting most from additional collaboration. Transfer plea scores reveal a positive effect of collaboration but a negative effect of cueing. Analysis of discussions during small group collaboration reveals a negative effect of cueing on the level of cognitive activity. CONCLUSION: Peer feedback during small group work indeed appears to be a feasible option to be combined with or (partially) substitute individualized cueing when training complex learning tasks.

Achievement↗

PubMed2005

Interactive and dynamic visualizations in teaching and learning of anatomy: a cognitive load perspective.

With the increasing use of computers in the classroom and the advancement of information technology, a requirement to investigate and evaluate different strategies for the presentation of verbal information in interactive and dynamic visualizations has risen to a high level of importance. There is a need for research efforts that apply cognitive load theory (CLT), cognitive learning strategies, and established principles of multimedia design to conduct empirical research that will add to our knowledge of designing and developing dynamic visualizations for teaching and learning anatomy. The impact of improved teaching and learning of anatomical sciences and the development of a set of guiding principles to facilitate the design and development of effective dynamic visualizations represent a significant achievement for medical education with wide application. This theoretical paper presents the foundations of CLT, cognitive learning strategies, and principles of multimedia design to guide the needed research on dynamic visualizations.

Anatomy↗

PubMed2005

Design of interactive and dynamic anatomical visualizations: the implication of cognitive load theory.

In improving the teaching and learning of anatomical sciences, empirical research is needed to develop a set of guiding principles that facilitate the design and development of effective dynamic visualizations. Based on cognitive load theory (CLT), effective learning from dynamic visualizations requires the alignment of instructional conditions with the cognitive architecture of learners and their levels of expertise. By improving the effectiveness and efficiency of dynamic visualizations, students will be able to be more successful in retaining visual information that mediates their understanding of complex and difficult aspects of anatomy. This theoretical paper presents instructional strategies generated by CLT and provides examples of some instructional implications of CLT on the design of dynamic visualizations for teaching and learning of anatomy.

Anatomy↗

PubMed2005

Uncovering the problem-solving process: cued retrospective reporting versus concurrent and retrospective reporting.

This study investigated the amounts of problem-solving process information ("action," "why," "how," and "metacognitive") elicited by means of concurrent, retrospective, and cued retrospective reporting. In a within-participants design, 26 participants completed electrical circuit troubleshooting tasks under different reporting conditions. The method of cued retrospective reporting used the original computer-based task and a superimposed record of the participant's eye fixations and mouse-keyboard operations as a cue for retrospection. Cued retrospective reporting (with the exception of why information) and concurrent reporting (with the exception of metacognitive information) resulted in a higher number of codes on the different types of information than did retrospective reporting.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Memory load and the cognitive pupillary response in aging.

The effect of memory load on the cognitive pupillary response among 16 young adults and 16 older adults was investigated. Mean pupil dilation and reaction time were measured during a Sternberg memory-search task, which involved six levels of memory load. A classic interaction pattern was obtained in which the reaction times of the elderly participants increased more as a function of memory load than the reaction times of the young participants. In the encoding phase of the experiment, mean dilation increased with memory load. No age differences were observed here. In the search phase of the experiment, however, mean pupil dilation was considerably greater in the young than in the elderly participants. Moreover, mean dilation of the older participants was not sensitive to memory load, whereas mean dilation increased as a function of memory load in the young participants. The results suggest that the usefulness of the pupillary response as a correlate of subtle fluctuations in memory load diminishes with old age.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

The efficiency of multimedia learning into old age.

BACKGROUND: On the basis of a multimodal model of working memory, cognitive load theory predicts that a multimedia-based instructional format leads to a better acquisition of complex subject matter than a purely visual instructional format. AIMS: This study investigated the extent to which age and instructional format had an impact on training efficiency among both young and old adults. It was hypothesised that studying worked examples that are presented as a narrated animation (multimedia condition) is a more efficient means of complex skill training than studying visually presented worked examples (unimodal condition) and solving conventional problems. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that multimedia-based worked examples are especially helpful for elderly learners, who have to deal with a general decline of working-memory resources, because they address both mode-specific working-memory stores. SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 60 young (mean age = 15.98 years) and 60 old adults (mean age = 64.48 years). METHODS: Participants of both age groups were trained in either a conventional, a unimodal, or a multimedia condition. Subsequently, they had to solve a series of test problems. Dependent variables were perceived cognitive load during the training, performance on the test, and efficiency in terms of the ratio between these two variables. RESULTS: Results showed that for both age groups multimedia-based worked examples were more efficient than the other training formats in that less cognitive load led to at least an equal performance level. CONCLUSION: Although no difference in the beneficial effect of multimedia learning was found between the age groups, multimedia-based instructions seem promising for the elderly.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Effects of distractor load and temporal target-distractor separation on numerical comparison performance: a stimulus-competition approach.

Effects of distractor load and temporal separation between target and distractor onset were studied in a selective attention task. Two experiments required 128 participants to decide as quickly and accurately as possible which of two spatially separated one-digit numerals was larger. Targets were either preceded or succeeded by distractors with intervals of 0, 33, 83, 133, 183, and 233 msec. In Exp. 1, the target digits could appear with 0, 1, 2, or 3 one-digit distractors numerals, representing four levels of distractor load. In Exp. 2, three asterisks were used as distractors. Interference effects of digit distractors varied with distractor load and temporal separation between target and distractor onsets. Moreover, the effects of distractors preceding the target differed from distractors succeeding the target. The pattern of results provided evidence that distractor-interference effects originated from stimulus competition for selection in visual short-term memory. The results were interpreted in terms of attentional engagement theory of Duncan and Humphreys.

Adolescent↗