Abstract
Cognitive load theory assumes that effective instructional design is subject to the
mechanisms that underpin our cognitive architecture and that understanding is
constrained by the processing capacity of a limited working memory. This thesis reports
the results of six experiments that applied the principles of cognitive load theory to the
investigation of instructional design in music. Across the six experiments conditions
differed by modality (uni or dual) and/or the nature of presentation (integrated or
adjacent; simultaneous or successive). In addition, instructional formats were comprised
of either two or three sources of information (text, auditory musical excerpts, musical
notation). Participants were academically able Year 7 students with some previous
musical experience. Following instructional interventions, students were tested using
auditory and/or written problems; in addition, subjective ratings and efficiency
measures were used as indicators of mental load. Together, Experiments 1 and 2
demonstrated the benefits of both dual-modal (dual-modality effect) and physically
integrated formats over the same materials presented as adjacent and discrete
information sources (split-attention effect), confirming the application of established
cognitive load effects within the domain of music. Experiment 3 compared uni-modal
formats, consisting of auditory rather than visual materials, with their dual-modal
counterparts. Although some evidence for a modality effect was associated with
simultaneous presentations, the uni-modal format was clearly superior when the same
materials were delivered successively. Experiment 4 compared three cognitively
efficient instructional formats in which either two or three information sources were
studied. There was evidence that simultaneously processing all three sources
overwhelmed working memory, whereas an overlapping design that delayed the
introduction of the third source facilitated understanding. Experiments 5 and 6 varied
the element interactivity of either two- or three- source formats and demonstrated the
negative effects of splitting attention between successively presented instructional
materials. Theoretical implications extend cognitive load principles to both the domain
of music and across a range of novel instructional formats; future research into auditory
only formats and the modality effect is suggested. Recommendations for instructional
design highlight the need to facilitate necessary interactions between mutually referring
musical elements and to maintain intrinsic cognitive load within working memory capacity.