Training and Transfer of Complex Cognitive Skills: Effects of Worked Examples and Conventional Problem-Solving

Y

5

Prior Learning; Troubleshooting; Teaching Methods; Chemical Engineering; Problem Solving; Transfer of Training; Computer Simulation; Cognitive Ability; Engineering Education; Task Analysis

Thirty six senior students in chemical engineering were randomly assigned to three treatment groups in an experimental study that examined the impact of different instructional strategies for troubleshooting malfunctions in a computer-based simulation of a chemical processing plant. In two groups, different types of worked examples, process-oriented and product-oriented, were given to participants as instructional strategies for troubleshooting four plant malfunctions. The third group was given a conventional problem solving strategy for the same four problems. The results of participants' performance on solving a set of eight near-transfer problems indicated no significant transfer differences among the treatments. Neither did a far transfer task result in any significant differences. The findings of the current study supported the notion of the "expertise reversal effect" (Kalyuga, Ayres, Chandler, & Sweller, 2003), which argues that presenting new information to learners with pre-existing schemata in a given domain does not improve transfer and may induce extraneous cognitive load. Given the prior knowledge of the participants, these findings were also consistent with Sweller's (2004) thesis on the "central executive function" and his description of the "redundancy effect."

Author

11

2005

ED485099