Visualisation and Instructional Design

Human cognitive architecture includes a working memory of limited capacity and duration with partially separate visual and auditory channels, and an effectively infinite long-term memory holding many schemas that can vary in their degree of automation. These cognitive structures have evolved to handle information that varies in the extent to which elements can be processed successively in working memory or, because they interact, must be processed simultaneously imposing a heavy load on working memory. Cognitive load theory uses this combination of information and cognitive structures to guide instructional design. Several designs that rely heavily on visual working memory and its characteristics are discussed in this paper. Knowledge of human cognitive architecture is essential for instructional design, and visual cognition is a central aspect of human cognition. Not surprisingly, there are several instructional design effects that rely heavily on the manner in which humans visually process information. This paper discusses some relevant information structures, cognitive structures and instructional designs that rely on our knowledge of visual information processing. A. Information structures While considerable work by many researchers over several decades has been devoted to the organization of human cognitive architecture, far less effort has gone into investigating the information structures that must have driven the evolution of that architecture. Some work has been carried out by Sweller (1994) and Halford, Wilson and Phillips (1998). Sweller (1994) suggested that all information can be placed on a continuum according to the extent to which the elements that constitute the information interact. At one extreme, there is no interaction between the elements that need to be learned. They are independent. Element interactivity is low, or indeed, non-existent, and that means each element can be considered and learned serially without reference to any other element. Because elements at the low element interactivity end of the continuum do not interact with each other, there is no loss of understanding despite each element being learned individually and in isolation. Understanding is defined as the ability to process all elements that necessarily interact, simultaneously in working memory. Learning such material