Abstract
Although Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has been researched for many years, it has been criticised for its theoretical clarity and its methodological approach. A crucial issue is the measurement of three types of cognitive load conceived in the theory, and the assessment of overall human cognitive load during learning tasks. This research study is motivated by these issues and it aims to investigate the reliability, validity and sensitivity of three existing self-reporting mental workload instruments, mainly used in Ergonomics, when applied to Education and in particular to the field of Teaching and Learning. A primary research study has been designed and performed in a typical third-level classroom in Computer Science, and the self-reporting mental workload instruments employed are the NASA Task Load Index, the Workload Profile and the Rating Scale Mental Effort. Three instructional design conditions have been designed and employed for the above purposes. The first design condition followed the traditional explicit instruction paradigm whereby a lecturer delivers instructional material mainly using a one-way approach with almost no interactions with students. The second design condition was inspired by the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning whereby the same content, delivered under the first condition, was converted in a multimedia video by following a set of its design principles. The third design condition was an extension of the second condition whereby an inquiry activity was executed after the delivery of the second condition. The empirical evidence gathered in this study suggests that the three selected mental workload measures are highly reliable. Their moderate face validity is in line with the results obtained so far within Ergonomics emphasising and confirming the difficulty in creating optimally valid measures of mental workload. However, the sensitivity of these measures, as achieved in this study, is low, indicating how the three instructional design conditions, as conceived and implemented, do not impose significantly different mental workload levels on learners.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Artino Jr., A.R.: Cognitive load theory and the role of learner experience: an abbreviated review for educational practitioners. AACE J. 16(4), 425–439 (2008)
Ayres, P.: Using subjective measures to detect variations of intrinsic cognitive load within problems. Learn. Instr. 16(5), 389–400 (2006)
Baddeley, A., Hitch, G.: Working Memory, vol. 8, pp. 47–90. Academic Press, Cambridge (1974)
Bleazby, J.: Autonomy, democratic community, and citizenship in philosophy for children: dewey and philosophy for children’s rejection of the individual/community dualism. Anal. Teach. 26(1), 30–52 (2006)
Brookhuis, K.A., de Waard, D.: Monitoring drivers’ mental workload in driving simulators using physiological measures. Accid. Anal. Prev. 42(3), 898–903 (2010)
Brunken, R., Plass, J.L., Leutner, D.: Direct measurement of cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educ. Psychol. 38(1), 53–61 (2003)
Cain, B.: A review of the mental workload literature. Technical report. Defence Research and Development Canada Toronto (2007)
Chandler, P., Sweller, J.: Cognitive load theory and the format of instruction. Cogn. Instr. 8(4), 293–332 (1991)
Cierniak, G., Scheiter, K., Gerjets, P.: Explaining the split-attention effect: is the reduction of extraneous cognitive load accompanied by an increase in germane cognitive load? Comput. Hum. Behav. 25(2), 315–324 (2009)
De Jong, T.: Cognitive load theory, educational research, and instructional design: some food for thought. Instr. Sci. 38(2), 105–134 (2010)
Debue, N., van de Leemput, C.: What does germane load mean? An empirical contribution to the cognitive load theory. Front. Psychol. 5, 1099 (2014)
DeLeeuw, K.E., Mayer, R.E.: A comparison of three measures of cognitive load: evidence for separable measures of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load. J. Educ. Psychol. 100(1), 223 (2008)
Dewey, J.: The Child and the Curriculum. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1902). No. 5
Dixon, P.: From research to theory to practice: commentary on Chandler and Sweller. Cogn. Instr. 8(4), 343–350 (1991)
Gerjets, P., Scheiter, K., Cierniak, G.: The scientific value of cognitive load theory: a research agenda based on the structuralist view of theories. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 21(1), 43–54 (2009)
Goldman, S.R.: On the derivation of instructional applications from cognitive theories: commentary on Chandler and Sweller. Cogn. Instr. 8(4), 333–342 (1991)
Gwizdka, J.: Distribution of cognitive load in web search. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 61(11), 2167–2187 (2010)
Hart, S.G.: NASA-task load index (NASA-TLX); 20 years later. In: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, vol. 50, pp. 904–908. Sage Journals, San Francisco (2006)
Kirschner, P.A.: Cognitive load theory: implications of cognitive load theory on the design of learning. Learn. Instr. 12(1), 1–10 (2002)
Lipman, M., Sharp, A.M., Oscanyan, F.S.: Philosophy in the Classroom. Temple University Press, Philadelphia (1980)
Lipman, M.: Thinking in Education. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)
Longo, L.: Human-computer interaction and human mental workload: assessing cognitive engagement in the world wide web. In: Campos, P., Graham, N., Jorge, J., Nunes, N., Palanque, P., Winckler, M. (eds.) INTERACT 2011. LNCS, vol. 6949, pp. 402–405. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23768-3_43
Longo, L.: Formalising human mental workload as non-monotonic concept for adaptive and personalised web-design. In: Masthoff, J., Mobasher, B., Desmarais, M.C., Nkambou, R. (eds.) UMAP 2012. LNCS, vol. 7379, pp. 369–373. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31454-4_38
Longo, L.: Formalising human mental workload as a defeasible computational concept. Ph.D. thesis. Trinity College Dublin (2014)
Longo, L.: A defeasible reasoning framework for human mental workload representation and assessment. Behav. Inf. Technol. 34(8), 758–786 (2015)
Longo, L.: Designing medical interactive systems via assessment of human mental workload. In: International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, pp. 364–365 (2015)
Longo, L.: Mental workload in medicine: foundations, applications, open problems, challenges and future perspectives. In: 2016 IEEE 29th International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS), pp. 106–111, June 2016
Longo, L.: Subjective usability, mental workload assessments and their impact on objective human performance. In: Bernhaupt, R., Dalvi, G., Joshi, A., Balkrishan, D.K., O’Neill, J., Winckler, M. (eds.) INTERACT 2017. LNCS, vol. 10514, pp. 202–223. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67684-5_13
Longo, L.: On the reliability, validity and sensitivity of three mental workload assessment techniques for the evaluation of instructional designs: a case study in a third-level course. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2018, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 15–17 March 2018, vol. 2, pp. 166–178 (2018)
Longo, L., Barrett, S.: Cognitive effort for multi-agent systems. In: Yao, Y., Sun, R., Poggio, T., Liu, J., Zhong, N., Huang, J. (eds.) BI 2010. LNCS, vol. 6334, pp. 55–66. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15314-3_6
Longo, L., Barrett, S.: A computational analysis of cognitive effort. In: Nguyen, N.T., Le, M.T., Świątek, J. (eds.) ACIIDS 2010. LNCS, vol. 5991, pp. 65–74. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12101-2_8
Longo, L., Dondio, P.: On the relationship between perception of usability and subjective mental workload of web interfaces. In: IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, WI-IAT 2015, Singapore, 6–9 December, vol. I, pp. 345–352 (2015)
Longo, L., Kane, B., Hederman, L.: Argumentation theory in health care. In: 25th International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, Rome, Italy, pp. 1–6. IEEE (2012)
Longo, L., Rusconi, F., Noce, L., Barrett, S.: The importance of human mental workload in web-design. In: 8th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, Porto, Portugal, pp. 403–409. SciTePress, April 2012
Mayer, R.: Using multimedia for e-learning. J. Comput. Assist. Learn. 33(5), 403–423 (2017). jCAL-16-266.R1
Mayer, R.E.: Multimedia learning. Psychol. Learn. Motiv. 41, 85–139 (2002)
Mayer, R.E.: The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)
Mayer, R.E.: Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2009)
Miller, G.A.: The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol. Rev. 63(2), 81–97 (1956)
Mousavi, S., Low, R., Sweller, J.: Reducing cognitive load by mixing auditory and visual presentation modes. J. Educ. Psychol. 87(2), 319–334 (1995)
Moustafa, K., Luz, S., Longo, L.: Assessment of mental workload: a comparison of machine learning methods and subjective assessment techniques. In: Longo, L., Leva, M.C. (eds.) H-WORKLOAD 2017. CCIS, vol. 726, pp. 30–50. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61061-0_3
Orru, G., Gobbo, F., O’Sullivan, D., Longo, L.: An investigation of the impact of a social constructivist teaching approach, based on trigger questions, through measures of mental workload and efficiency. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2018, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 15–17 March 2018, vol. 2, pp. 292–302 (2018)
Paas, F., Tuovinen, J.E., Tabbers, H., Van Gerven, P.W.: Cognitive load measurement as a means to advance cognitive load theory. Educ. Psychol. 38(1), 63–71 (2003)
Paas, F., Van Merrienboer, J.J.G.: The efficiency of instructional conditions: an approach to combine mental effort and performance measures. Hum. Factors: J. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. 35(4), 737–743 (1993)
Paas, F.G., Van Merriënboer, J.J., Adam, J.J.: Measurement of cognitive load in instructional research. Percept. Mot. Skills 79(1), 419–430 (1994)
Paivio, A.: Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. Oxford Psychology Series. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1990)
Popper, K.: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Routledge, Abingdon (2014)
Reid, G.B., Nygren, T.E.: The subjective workload assessment technique: a scaling procedure for measuring mental workload, Chap. 8. In: Hancock, P.A., Meshkati, N. (eds.) Human Mental Workload, Advances in Psychology, vol. 52, pp. 185–218. North-Holland (1988)
Rizzo, L., Dondio, P., Delany, S.J., Longo, L.: Modeling mental workload via rule-based expert system: a comparison with NASA-TLX and workload profile. In: Iliadis, L., Maglogiannis, I. (eds.) AIAI 2016. IAICT, vol. 475, pp. 215–229. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44944-9_19
Rizzo, L., Longo, L.: Representing and inferring mental workload via defeasible reasoning: a comparison with the NASA task load index and the workload profile. In: Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Advances in Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence Co-Located with XVI International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA 2017), Bari, Italy, 16–17 November 2017, pp. 126–140 (2017)
Roscoe, A.H., Ellis, G.A.: A subjective rating scale for assessing pilot workload in flight: a decade of practical use. Technical report TR 90019. Royal Aerospace Establishment, March 1990
Rubio, S., Diaz, E., Martin, J., Puente, J.M.: Evaluation of subjective mental workload: a comparison of SWAT, NASA-TLX, and workload profile methods. Appl. Psychol. 53(1), 61–86 (2004)
Satiro, A.: Jugar a pensar con mitos: este libro forma parte del Proyecto Noria y acompaña al libro para niños de 8–9 anos: Juanita y los mitos. Octaedro (2006)
Schnotz, W., Kürschner, C.: A reconsideration of cognitive load theory. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 19(4), 469–508 (2007)
Seufert, T., Jänen, I., Brünken, R.: The impact of intrinsic cognitive load on the effectiveness of graphical help for coherence formation. Comput. Hum. Behav. 23(3), 1055–1071 (2007)
Sweller, J., Van Merrienboer, J., Paas, F.: Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 10(3), 251–296 (1998)
Sweller, J.: Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learn. Instruct. 4(4), 295–312 (1994)
Sweller, J.: Element interactivity and intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 22(2), 123–138 (2010)
Tsang, P.S., Velazquez, V.L.: Diagnosticity and multidimensional subjective workload ratings. Ergonomics 39(3), 358–381 (1996)
Vidulich, M.A., Ward, G.F., Schueren, J.: Using the subjective workload dominance (SWORD) technique for projective workload assessment. Hum. Factors Soc. 33(6), 677–691 (1991)
Wickens, C.D.: Multiple resources and mental workload. Hum. Factors 50(2), 449–454 (2008)
Wilson, G.F., Eggemeier, T.F.: Mental workload measurement, Chap. 167. In: Karwowski, W. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors, 2nd edn, vol. 1. Taylor and Francis (2006)
Xie, B., Salvendy, G.: Review and reappraisal of modelling and predicting mental workload in single and multi-task environments. Work Stress 14(1), 74–99 (2000)
Young, M.S., Brookhuis, K.A., Wickens, C.D., Hancock, P.A.: State of science: mental workload in ergonomics. Ergonomics 58(1), 1–17 (2015)
Young, M.S., Stanton, N.A.: Mental workload: theory, measurement, and application. In: Karwowski, W. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors, 2nd edn, vol. 1, pp. 818–821. Taylor & Francis (2006)
Zijlstra, F.R.H.: Efficiency in work behaviour. Doctoral thesis. Delft University, The Netherlands (1993)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Longo, L., Orru, G. (2019). An Evaluation of the Reliability, Validity and Sensitivity of Three Human Mental Workload Measures Under Different Instructional Conditions in Third-Level Education. In: McLaren, B., Reilly, R., Zvacek, S., Uhomoibhi, J. (eds) Computer Supported Education. CSEDU 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1022. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21151-6_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21151-6_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-21150-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-21151-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)