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Effects Of Background Context And Signaling On Comprehension Recall And Cognitive Load: The Perspective Of Cognitive Load Theory, Minjung Song

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study was designed to examine the effects of different geographical background contexts for information on comprehension, recall, and cognitive load. Two different contexts, American geographical background and Korean geographical background, were employed to frame explanations of global warming phenomena. Students’ comprehension was calibrated by two different levels of measurement, which were fact-level learning (shallow understanding) and inference-making (deep understanding). Cognitive load was gauged by self-reported levels of motivation, difficulty, and mental effort. It was hypothesized that an American context would be more familiar and Korean context less familiar for American students. It was also hypothesized that unfamiliar contexts would …