The Effect Of Element Interactivity On Worked Example And Problem Solving And Its Mechanism

The worked example effect indicates that worked example which provide more guidance result in better test performance than a problem-solving condition,the generation effect and test effect occurs when learners solving problems with less guidance demonstrate better test performance than worked example condition.To explain the contradiction,some researchers suggest that Element interactivity might play a key role in this contradiction,Element interactivity is an index of material complexity,researchers suggest that the worked example effect only occurs for high element interactivity materials,however the generation or test effect are only applicable for low element interactivity.Although the effect of element interactivity was found,the mechanism is still not known.To understand the mechanism and the role of cognitive load,one experiment using students with different levels of prior knowledge was conducted.The main findings of this study are as follows:(1)In low element interactivity condition,the performance of worked example and problem solving group have no difference;However,in high element interactivity condition,the performance of worked example group was better than problem solving,so the worked example effect was found only in high element interactivity condition.(2)In low element interactivity condition,the intrinsic cognitive load was low,In high element interactivity condition,the intrinsic cognitive load was high.The cognitive mechanism is that element interactivity rise result in high intrinsic cognitive load,so the worked example effect occurs.