Cognitive architecture and instructional design in a multimedia context (Chapter I)

Abstract

Abstract Our knowledge of human cognitive architecture has advanced dramatically in the last few decades. In turn, that knowledge has implications for instructional design in multimedia contexts. In this chapter, we will analyse human cognitive architecture within an evolutionary framework. That framework can be used as a base for cognitive load theory that uses human cognitive architecture to provide testable hypotheses concerning instructional design issues. Human cognition can be characterised as a natural information processing systems. The core of such systems can be described using five principles: a) Information store principle, b) Borrowing principle and reorganizing principle, c) Randomness as genesis principle, d) Narrow limits of change principle, and e) Environment organizing and linking principle. These five principles lead directly to the instructional effects generated by cognitive load theory. Some of these effects are concerned with multimedia learning.