Cognitive Load in Solving Mathematics Problems: Validating the Role of Motivation and the Interaction Among Prior Knowledge, Worked Examples, and Task Difficulty

Gupta, Zheng · European Journal of STEM Education · 2020 · psychology · 10.20897/ejsteme/9252 · record gupta2020-cognitive-load-in-solving-mathemat
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית
Where this record's text came from. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (pdftext); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. Replication status 'replicated' records the paper's own statement that its prior-knowledge findings confirm Kalyuga et al. and Pollock et al.; it is not an independent verdict on this study, which has not itself been replicated. What the facets cannot capture: the headline three-way interaction is small (ŋ2 = .04) and holds only for the posttest, not for any cognitive-load measure, and one half of the key prior-knowledge x worked-example contrast (higher-prior-knowledge learners doing better with completion examples) did not reach significance (p = .22) even though the abstract and conclusion state it without that qualification - the paper reports this openly in the results but does not list it under limitations, so it is not recorded there. The extraction joins some line-broken words ('threeway', 'lowprior'); quotes preserve them. 2026-08-14 and 2026-08-15 schema-0.3 passes: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node.
5 quotes on this page break a word across a line. The PDF this text was extracted from hyphenated those words at the end of a printed line — adversar- ial, repre- sentations — and the extractor kept the hyphen and the space. The quotes keep them because a quote is reproduced exactly or it proves nothing: the break is the typesetter’s, not the author’s. A search of this page will not find the affected words.
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Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
performance 5 fields · cognitive load 3 fields · standard deviation 3 fields · statistical-significance 2 fields

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 3 concept tags on this paper, all 3 are grounded in a quoted sentence.
cognitive load intrinsic cognitive load extraneous cognitive load When extraneous load is suppressed, working memory resources are freed and become available to the germane and intrinsic load involved in solving the problem High extraneous load consumes the limited working memory resources, leaving too few for germane load, which is why extraneous load lowers both germane load and the felt probability of success germane cognitive load expertise reversal effect task difficulty completion-worked example tri-split method production/solution step method worked example task difficulty (easy vs. difficult) domain prior knowledge (high vs. low) performance ANOVA correlation correlation analyses t-test Cronbach's alpha interrater reliability of Cronbach’s Alpha Wilks' Lambda Wilks’ Lambda effect size statistical-significance biserial correlation biserial correlations standard deviation one-standard deviation above the mean behavioural-experiment

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relation to other workclaim_relationshow this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim typeclaim_typethe shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept edgeconcept_edgesan asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it
conceptconceptsan idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tagcontent_tagsa finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
controlcontrolsan experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation
limitationlimitationswhat the paper says its evidence cannot support
mechanismmechanismshow the reported effect is said to come about
methodmethodhow the paper produced its evidence
phenomenonphenomenonthe effect or regularity under study
sensesensesa distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.20897/ejsteme/9252. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 2 · claim_type 1 · concept_edges 2 · concepts 3 · content_tags 38 · controls 1 · limitations 6 · mechanisms 2 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 3

Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 2 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.

facettagfieldconf.whose words
claim_typemechanism
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claim_typethe paper's words
phenomenoncognitive load in mathematical problem solving
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phenomenonthe paper's words
methodbehavioural-experiment
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methodthe paper's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[0]the tagger's words
mechanismsmechanisms
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mechanisms[1]the tagger's words
limitationsNo significant three-way interaction was obtained for cognitive load, which the authors attribute to participants' unfamiliarity with the cognitive-load categories on the self-report questionnaire.
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what this limits: the cognitive-load analysis specifically: THE FAILURE TO OBTAIN A SIGNIFICANT THREE-WAY INTERACTION BY COGNITIVE LOAD INDICATES THAT MORE WORK IS NEEDED
limitations[0]the tagger's words
limitationsThe study is underpowered.
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what this limits: every null in the paper: ANOTHER LIMITATION IS THE POWER OF THE STUDY
limitations[1]the tagger's words
limitationsUsing the tri-split method to define high- and low-prior-knowledge groups discarded the middle third and may have weakened statistical power; a larger sample is needed.
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what this limits: the prior-knowledge grouping: THE CURRENT STUDY USED THE TRI-SPLIT METHODS IN DEFINING HIGH- AND LOW PRIOR KNOWLEDGE LEARNERS WHICH COULD WEAKEN THE POWER - the middle third is discarded and the groups are constructed
limitations[2]the tagger's words
limitationsThe construct does not order the outcome it is used to explain, and the paper says so in both directions.
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what this limits: reading a cognitive-load score as a predictor of performance: the paper states high load does not necessarily produce low performance and low load does not guarantee good performance
limitations[3]1.0the tagger's words
limitationsThe whole construct is measured by asking learners, on a single ten-item self-report instrument.
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what this limits: the cognitive-load values in this study: all three types are scored from one 10-item self-report questionnaire on a 0-10 Likert scale
limitations[4]1.0the tagger's words
limitationsThe design compares immediate effects only, and the authors name retention and transfer as what was not examined.
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what this limits: these results as evidence about learning: the study explored immediate effects, with retention and transfer named as future work
limitations[5]1.0the tagger's words
controlsa control condition whose learners studied the same problems WITHOUT worked examples, against a group shown half the examples first
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eliminates: time on the problems, and exposure to the problem material, as the explanation of the difference - both groups meet the same problems, and only the worked examples differ · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held
controls[0]0.9the tagger's words
conceptscognitive load
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concepts[0]the paper's words
conceptsintrinsic cognitive load
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concepts[1]the paper's words
conceptsextraneous cognitive load
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concepts[2]the paper's words
sensescognitive load - AS MEASURED: three subscales of one ten-item self-report questionnaire, intrinsic on items 1-3, extraneous on 4-6, germane on 7-10
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senses[0]1.0the tagger's words
sensesintrinsic cognitive load - defined by the difficulty of the material itself, which the paper says CANNOT be changed or altered
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senses[1]1.0the tagger's words
sensesextraneous cognitive load - defined by the instructional design rather than by the material: load caused by improper design such as redundant information
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senses[2]1.0the tagger's words
claim_relationsreplicates → expertise reversal effect findings of Kalyuga (2007), Kalyuga et al. (1998) and Pollock et al. (2002)
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claim_relations[0]the tagger's words
claim_relationsbuilds-on → Sweller, Van Merriënboer and Paas (1998) hypothesis of a negative relationship between extraneous and germane cognitive load
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claim_relations[1]the tagger's words
concept_edgesintrinsic cognitive load —is-a→ cognitive load
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strength of the relation: 1
concept_edges[0]the tagger's words
concept_edgesextraneous cognitive load —is-a→ cognitive load
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strength of the relation: 1
concept_edges[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsANOVA
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also in: ANOVA
content_tags.statistics[0]the tagger's words
content_tagscorrelation
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also in: correlation
content_tags.statistics[1]the tagger's words
content_tagst-test
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also in: t-test
content_tags.statistics[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsCronbach's alpha
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content_tags.statistics[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsWilks' Lambda
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also in: Wilks' Lambda
content_tags.statistics[4]the tagger's words
content_tagseffect size
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also in: effect size
content_tags.statistics[5]the tagger's words
content_tagsstatistical-significance
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content_tags.statistics[6]the tagger's words
content_tagsbiserial correlation
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content_tags.statistics[7]the tagger's words
content_tagsstandard deviation
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content_tags.statistics[8]the tagger's words
content_tagsA significant three-way interaction between prior knowledge, worked example and task difficulty was found on posttest performance, but none was found on any type of cognitive load.
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content_tags.findings[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsLow-prior-knowledge learners scored higher with full-worked examples while high-prior-knowledge learners scored higher with completion-worked examples, an expertise reversal pattern.
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content_tags.findings[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsGermane cognitive load was significantly positively correlated with learners' interest in the task.
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content_tags.findings[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsExtraneous and germane cognitive load were negatively correlated, confirming the predicted trade-off between them.
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content_tags.findings[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsTask difficulty produced significant differences in intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load but not in germane cognitive load.
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content_tags.findings[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsHigh- and low-prior-knowledge learners differed significantly in intrinsic and germane cognitive load but not at all in extraneous cognitive load.
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content_tags.findings[5]the tagger's words
content_tagsIntrinsic cognitive load correlated positively with anxiety and with perceived challenge, and negatively with perceived probability of success.
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content_tags.findings[6]the tagger's words
content_tagsPrior knowledge and worked-example type interacted significantly on germane cognitive load.
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content_tags.findings[7]the tagger's words
content_tagsintrinsic cognitive load
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content_tags.definitions[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsextraneous cognitive load
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content_tags.definitions[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsgermane cognitive load
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content_tags.definitions[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsexpertise reversal effect
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content_tags.definitions[3]the tagger's words
content_tagstask difficulty
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content_tags.definitions[4]the tagger's words
content_tagscompletion-worked example
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content_tags.definitions[5]the tagger's words
content_tagstri-split method
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WHOSE RESULT THIS IS: Liu and Reed (1994) proposed - THE EVIDENCE FOR THIS ROW ATTRIBUTES THE WORK TO SOMEBODY ELSE. The cited name is the subject of a result verb and the sentence carries no first-person marker, so the finding, quantity or definition is the CITED author's rather than this record's. The claim is true and the quote is verbatim - what is wrong is whose result the corpus says it is. Nothing edited, nothing withdrawn: the row is marked so a page can name the source. Where the record is a commentary or review, its claim relations layer usually already names the paper being discussed - the record knows at one layer and forgets at another.
content_tags.definitions[6]the tagger's words
content_tagsproduction/solution step method
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content_tags.definitions[7]the tagger's words
content_tagsworked example
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content_tags.variables[0]the tagger's words
content_tagstask difficulty (easy vs. difficult)
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content_tags.variables[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsdomain prior knowledge (high vs. low)
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content_tags.variables[2]the tagger's words
content_tagscognitive load
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content_tags.variables[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsperformance
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also in: performance
content_tags.variables[4]the tagger's words
content_tagsOne hundred and sixty — Number of participants recruited for the study
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content_tags.quantities[0]the tagger's words
content_tagsF1, 107 = 4.61, p < .05, ŋ2 = .04 — F-statistic, p-value and effect size for the three-way interaction on posttest performance
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content_tags.quantities[1]the tagger's words
content_tagsr = .264, p < .01 — Correlation between germane cognitive load and interest
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content_tags.quantities[2]the tagger's words
content_tagsr = -.264, p < .01 — Correlation between extraneous and germane cognitive load
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content_tags.quantities[3]the tagger's words
content_tagsn = 55, m = 10.564, SD = 1.808 — Size and pretest mean/SD of the high-prior-knowledge group after the split (low group was n = 60, m = 3.458)
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content_tags.quantities[4]the tagger's words
content_tagst(1,26) = 1.98, p = .05, 2-tailed — Test statistic for low-prior-knowledge learners doing better on the posttest with full- than completion-worked examples
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content_tags.quantities[5]the tagger's words
content_tagsCronbach’s Alpha = .89 — Item reliability of the final algebra problem set in the pilot study
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content_tags.quantities[6]the tagger's words
content_tags23.25 — Mean age of the participants, with a standard deviation of 6.01
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content_tags.quantities[7]the tagger's words

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