Learning by imagining.
Abstract
Five experiments were conducted to investigate the relative effectiveness of 2 alternative instructional strategies. Students who were engaged in studying worked examples that emphasized understanding and remembering procedures and concepts were compared with students who were engaged in imagining worked examples that emphasized imagining procedures and concepts. It was hypothesized that students who held prerequisite schemas would find imagining to have a beneficial effect on learning, compared with studying the material, whereas students who were less knowledgeable would find imagining to have a negative effect on learning, compared with studying. Experimental results were in accord with our hypotheses. It was concluded that, under specific circumstances, encouraging students to imagine procedures and concepts can substantially facilitate learning.
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Once information can be adequately imagined, imagination instructions are superior to study instructions.
“Once information can be adequately imagined, imagination instructions are superior to study instructions (Cooper et al. 2001).”
From Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later (2019) · cites this paper as Cooper et al. 2001
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- Authors
- Cooper, G., Tindall-Ford, S., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
- Published
- 2001
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 68-82
- ISSN
- 1076-898X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2192
- OpenAlex
- W2033679763
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 5.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Online (University of Wollongong) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Keywords
- imagination, worked examples, teaching methods, schema theory, prior knowledge, learning from examples, procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge, learning facilitation
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Computer Literacy, Concept Formation, Female, Humans, Imagination, Male, Practice, Psychological, Problem Solving, Mental Recall
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