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An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks
Open accessAbstract
Cognitive load theory is intended to provide instructional strategies derived from experimental, cognitive load effects. Each effect is based on our knowledge of human cognitive architecture, primarily the limited capacity and duration of a human working memory. These limitations are ameliorated by changes in long-term memory associated with learning. Initially, cognitive load theory's view of human cognitive architecture was assumed to apply to all categories of information. Based on Geary’s ( Educational Psychologist 43 , 179–195 2008 ; 2011 ) evolutionary account of educational psychology, this interpretation of human cognitive architecture requires amendment. Working memory limitations may be critical only when acquiring novel information based on culturally important knowledge that we have not specifically evolved to acquire. Cultural knowledge is known as biologically secondary information. Working memory limitations may have reduced significance when acquiring novel information that the human brain specifically has evolved to process, known as biologically primary information. If biologically primary information is less affected by working memory limitations than biologically secondary information, it may be advantageous to use primary information to assist in the acquisition of secondary information. In this article, we suggest that several cognitive load effects rely on biologically primary knowledge being used to facilitate the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge. We indicate how incorporating an evolutionary view of human cognitive architecture can provide cognitive load researchers with novel perspectives of their findings and discuss some of the practical implications of this view.
Overview
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Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
This theoretical article proposes an evolutionary upgrade to cognitive load theory: working memory limits mainly constrain biologically secondary knowledge, while biologically primary knowledge can be recruited to support learning of complex secondary tasks. It illustrates this via the collective working memory effect, the human movement effect, and embodied cognition through gesture and object manipulation.
Key findings
- Working memory is limited to 4±1 elements and about 20 s, but these limits are reduced or eliminated when dealing with familiar information organized as schemas in long-term memory.
- Biologically primary knowledge—such as face recognition, speech, face-to-face communication, gesture, object manipulation, and observation of human movement—is acquired without explicit instruction and with minimal working memory load, and can facilitate acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge such as reading and mathematics.
- The collective working memory effect: for high cognitive load tasks, collaborative learning is more efficient than individual learning; for low cognitive load tasks, individual learning is more efficient than collaborative learning, due to the trade-off between distributing load and communication/coordination costs.
- The human movement effect: dynamic visualizations can be superior to static graphics when learning human motor skills; the meta-analysis of Höffler and Leutner found the largest effect size when animations were highly realistic and involved procedural-motor knowledge. Embodied cognition findings show gesturing lowers cognitive load and improves recall, and object manipulation improves reading comprehension.
Methods
- Theoretical/conceptual article, not a new empirical study; it integrates Geary’s evolutionary educational psychology with cognitive load theory.
- Draws on prior empirical and neuroscience findings, including Kirschner et al. on collaborative learning, Wong et al. on origami, Ayres et al. on knot-tying and puzzle rings, Goldin-Meadow et al. on gesture, and Glenberg et al. on the Moved by Reading intervention.
- Main analysis is conceptual synthesis: reinterpreting cognitive load effects as cases where biologically primary knowledge assists the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge.
Limitations
- Stated: the primary/secondary distinction is well defined but it may not always be obvious into which category a skill falls; many skills may lie on a continuum rather than a dichotomy.
- Stated: collaborative learning evidence is mixed; object manipulation’s effect on working memory load during instruction has not yet been determined; future research is needed on computer-mediated communication, spoken versus written text, and non-motor knowledge.
- Stated: general cognitive and metacognitive skills may be biologically primary and unteachable, so studies claiming to teach them need far transfer tests. Evident: as a theoretical article, it presents no new empirical data and relies on selected prior studies rather than direct tests of the proposed evolutionary framework.
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Claims the paper makes
65 Own interpretation · 48 Not checked yet · 2 Own method · 2 No basis given
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Working memory limitations may have reduced significance when acquiring novel information that the human brain specifically has evolved to process, known as biologically primary information.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Geary 2008 source
- Not checked yetcites Geary 2011
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Working memory limitations may be critical only when acquiring novel information based on culturally important knowledge that we have not specifically evolved to acquire.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Geary 2008 source
- Not checked yetcites Geary 2011
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In this article, we suggest that several cognitive load effects rely on biologically primary knowledge being used to facilitate the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“They indicate the critical importance of long-term memory to cognitive functioning, including problem solving.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“The capacity and duration limits of working memory are eliminated when working memory deals with familiar information organized in long-term memory rather than unfamiliar information from the environment.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Ericsson and Kintsch 1995 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The collective working memory effect reflects the finding that collaborating learners can gain from each other's working memory capacity during learning.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Kirschner et al. 2011a, b
- Not checked yetcites Janssen et al. 2010 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“This principle states that long-term memory is built primarily by observing and imitating other people, listening to what they say and reading what they write.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Sweller 2003
- Not checked yetcites Sweller 2004 source
- Not checked yetcites Sweller et al. 2011
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Face-to-face communication with others is a biologically primary task.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Working memory limitations are directly relevant to the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge because we have not evolved to know how secondary information should be processed.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Humans are easily able to acquire huge amounts of biologically primary knowledge outside of educational contexts and without a discernible working memory load.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- It may state two separate claims as one. 26
- Probably not a substantial claim. 27
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Because a schema can be treated by working memory as a single element or used unconsciously after automation, the limitations of working memory disappear for more knowledgeable learners when dealing with previously learned information stored in long-term memory.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“That novel information is processed by a working memory that is limited in capacity to 4±1 elements of information (Cowan 2001;Baddeley 1986;Miller 1956) and duration to about 20 s (Peterson and Peterson 1959).”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Abstract
What the sources say
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Interestingly, under some instructional conditions, such as the use of dynamic visualizations to teach human motor skills, this tension between a limited working memory capacity and transient information seems to be non-existent, with animations being more effective than equivalent static graphics.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Höffler and Leutner 2007 source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, the principle also applies to any information obtained from another human, resulting in collaborative learning environments providing us with an ideal example of the principle at work.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Since we have evolved to communicate and coordinate information between each other, general communication and coordination processes are biologically primary.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“For example, people learn more deeply when the words in a multimedia presentation are in conversational style rather than formal style (the personalization principle: e.g., Mayer et al. 2004;Moreno and Mayer 2004)”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Another important characteristic of the studies on the collective working memory effect is that they were conducted in a traditional face-to-face collaborative learning context.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As a consequence, while communicating is likely to require some working memory resources, particularly for the task-related aspects of the communication process, there may be considerable advantages to being able to communicate when faced with acquiring complex, biologically secondary information.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“An important characteristic of the cognitive load theory motivated studies on the collective working memory effect is that they were conducted under carefully structured and randomized learning conditions to isolate the cognitive effects of task complexity and minimize the effects of social and motivational factors on collaborative learning.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Cognitive load theorists have argued that dynamic visualizations can be ineffective if they create high extraneous cognitive loads (Ayres and Paas 2007a, b) defined as a cognitive load that can be avoided by changing an instructional design.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Ayres and Paas 2007a, b
plainconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“According to Reeves and Nass's (1996) media equation, people tend to treat new technologies as real people and places because the human brain has not evolved quickly enough to assimilate these technologies.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Reeves and Nass 1996
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“In general, the results of Kirschner et al. experiments confirmed this interaction hypothesis.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Kirschner et al.
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“One of the important research lines providing evidence for their claim is related to Mayer's (2005) social agency theory, which refers to the idea that social cues in multimedia instructional messages can prime a social response that leads to deeper cognitive processing and better learning outcomes.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Mayer 2005 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“or when the words in a multimedia message are spoken in a standard accented human voice rather than in a machine voice or foreign-accented human voice (voice principle, e.g., Atkinson et al. 2005;Mayer et al. 2003).”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > The Collective Working Memory Effect
What the sources say
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These instructional manipulations reduce transient information and consequently the demands on working memory are reduced.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Frequently, the precise skills are not specified in empirical work and so it is not clear whether any documented improvements are due to the acquisition of an unspecified general skill or due to an improvement in biologically secondary, domain-specific knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Where a skill is placed on that continuum may depend on the relative ratios of primary and secondary knowledge required.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Moreover, this process seems to prime the execution of similar actions, which suggests that the mirror-neuron system mediates imitation, by priming (i.e., preparing the brain for) execution of the same action (e.g., Iacoboni et al. 1999).”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Iacoboni et al. 1999 source
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“At present, the clearest marker is whether most members of a population will acquire the skill without tuition.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“That increase may be due to biologically primary knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We are able to acquire biologically secondary knowledge and may need to for cultural reasons but we have not specifically evolved to acquire that knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The use of gestures and object manipulation are primary skills that do not need to be explicitly taught but can be used to acquire the secondary skills associated with instructional content.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The effect has been explained within a cognitive load theory context by suggesting that effective working memory capacity is increased by using both auditory and visual processors.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“Van Gog et al. argued, based on Geary's (2008) biologically primary knowledge concept, that humans have evolved the ability to acquire certain types of knowledge effortlessly.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Geary 2008 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is possible that some of the skills currently the subject of extensive research programs consist largely of biologically primary knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“They also found that the cognitive load benefits of gesturing were even higher when the gestures added information to the information conveyed by speech than when the gestures conveyed the same information as speech, while both resulted in a lower cognitive load than not gesturing.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Ping and Goldin-Meadow 2010 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Gesture and object manipulation are sensorimotor experiences that could be considered as sources of biologically primary information and have been shown to assist in the acquisition of biologically secondary information.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the case of gestures and oral communication in a social context, we do not have to explicitly teach the required skills-they are unlikely to appear in any syllabus documents.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Reading is a biologically secondary activity while listening is biologically primary so the cognitive load associated with decoding written text may be relevant.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is interesting to note that with regard to object manipulation, children need to manipulate objects to understand written text that they may be perfectly capable of understanding if the same information is presented in spoken form.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Both gesturing and object manipulation may be very old, very well-developed skills that are acquired easily and can be used with a minimal working memory load.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Biologically primary information is modular with most primary skills probably evolving independently of each other and indeed, probably at different evolutionary epochs.
- Rests on an assumption: We may have evolved the use of gestures before the use of speech and almost certainly evolved the use of object manipulation prior to speech.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We suspect the same can be said for most general cognitive and metacognitive strategies.We may automatically acquire them at a very young age because they are biologically primary skills essential for human survival.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Cognitive representa-tions of symbols like numbers and letters are ultimately based on sensorimotor codes within a generalized system that was originally developed to control an organism's motor behavior and perceive the world around it, which has resulted in automaticity of perceptual and motor resonance mechanisms in cognitive tasks.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Goldin-Meadow et al. found that children and adults, who were allowed to gesture while explaining how they solved the mathematics problem, experienced a lower cognitive load because they could remember more items than when they were not allowed to gesture.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Goldin-Meadow et al. 2001 source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We have evolved to acquire biologically primary knowledge in modular form.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: Biologically primary information is modular with most primary skills probably evolving independently of each other and indeed, probably at different evolutionary epochs.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Both studies found superior performance when learners observed a dynamic representation rather than a static representation and when they manually had to complete the tasks (observe and imitate).”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Human Movement Effect
What the sources say
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Such biologically secondary skills may not exist if we have evolved to acquire important, general skills.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Under those circumstances, the modality effect may disappear or even reverse, with written text being superior to spoken text (Leahy and Sweller 2011).”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Leahy and Sweller 2011
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Decoding biologically primary spoken text may impose a minimal cognitive load compared with decoding biologically secondary written text and so the assistance of object manipulation may be unnecessary when dealing with spoken text.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“All explanations can be interpreted as examples of biologically primary knowledge associated with gesturing assisting in the acquisition of biologically secondary knowledge.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“An alternative explanation is that gesturing shifts some of the load from verbal working memory to other cognitive systems.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Embodied Cognition
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It also should be noted that many skills may consist of a combination of primary and secondary knowledge and so we may be dealing more with a continuum than a dichotomy.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The human movement effect demonstrates that we are able to overcome transience and the resultant cognitive load of animations if those animations deal with human motor movement because we may have evolved to readily acquire motor movement knowledge as a primary skill.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“If means-ends analysis is a biologically primary skill and we have evolved to use the strategy without explicit tuition, attempting to teach it is likely to be ineffective.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: We are likely to have evolved general skills such as, for example, general problem solving.
In the paper
“The act of demonstrating physical manipulation is a complex act but we do not need to make it part of any formal curriculum because we engage in that natural pedagogy automatically.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Csibra and Gergely (2009) source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Organizing general skills to assist in the acquisition of subject matter knowledge may be more productive than attempting to teach skills that we have evolved to acquire automatically.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“While general skills may be primary in nature and so essentially unteachable because they are acquired automatically, it does not follow that they are instructionally unimportant.”
§ An Evolutionary Upgrade of Cognitive Load Theory: Using the Human Motor System and Collaboration to Support the Learning of Complex Cognitive Tasks > Discussion and Conclusions
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper relies on this without support.
Collaboration can increase the fitness of collaborators when together they can access more resources than when working individually.
“Although this seems to predispose individuals to selfishness, collaboration can increase the fitness of the collaborators when together they can access more resources than when working individually.”
The paper relies on this without support.
For individuals, the best strategy is to let other learners devote their cognitive resources to solving the problem and then gain an advantage from the solution.
“Yet for individuals, the best strategy seems to consist in allowing the other learners to devote their cognitive resources to solving the problem and then to gain an advantage from the solution.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Biologically primary information is modular with most primary skills probably evolving independently of each other and indeed, probably at different evolutionary epochs.
“Biologically primary information is modular with most primary skills probably evolving independently of each other and indeed, probably at different evolutionary epochs.”
The paper relies on this without support.
We may have evolved the use of gestures before the use of speech and almost certainly evolved the use of object manipulation prior to speech.
“We may have evolved the use of gestures before the use of speech and almost certainly evolved the use of object manipulation prior to speech.”
The paper relies on this without support.
We may have evolved to listen to someone discussing an object while looking at it.
“We may have evolved to listen to someone discussing an object while looking at it.”
The paper relies on this without support.
We are likely to have evolved general skills such as, for example, general problem solving.
“We are likely to have evolved general skills such as, for example, general problem solving.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Paas and Sweller (2012) used Geary ' s (2008) concept of biologically primary knowledge to explain that humans have evolved the ability to learn from observing others engage in action and copy it effortlessly.”
From Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later (2019) · cites this paper as Paas and Sweller (2012)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“While we doubt that attempts to teach biologically primary, generic-cognitive skills will be successful, they can be used to assist in teaching biologically secondary, domain-specific skills (Paas and Sweller 2012).”
From Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later (2019) · cites this paper as Paas and Sweller 2012
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Together with the cognitive load theory view that biologically primary information, such as human movement, is at most marginally affected by working memory limitations (Paas and Sweller 2012)”
From Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later (2019) · cites this paper as Paas and Sweller 2012
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“These faculties are thought to be modular”
From The Cognitive Architecture of Digital Externalization (2023) · cites this paper as Paas & Sweller, 2012
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“humans have a set of certain innate capabilities, such as being able to speak or to recognize faces, that do not require explicit instruction”
From The Cognitive Architecture of Digital Externalization (2023) · cites this paper as Paas & Sweller, 2012
Citations
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Cited by
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Metadata
- Authors
- Paas, F., & Sweller, J.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Paas, Fred
- Venue
- Educational Psychology Review
- Published
- 2011-09-06
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-45
- ISSN
- 1040-726X (ISSN-L)
- 1573-336X
- OpenAlex
- W2046966022
- Cited by
- 502
- References
- 138
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 15.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Educational Psychology Review (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function
- Keywords
- cognitive load theory, evolutionary psychology, human cognitive architecture, working memory limitations, cultural knowledge, motor system, collaboration, complex cognitive tasks, teaching methods
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