Effects of Mental Models of a Computer-Aided Instruction System on the Acquisition of Cognitive Skills

Abstract

The human-computer interface of a computer-aided instruction (CAI) system can affect the learning of knowledge and skills. This study investigated the relative effectiveness of various mental models (i.e., metaphor, surrogate, and network) of a CAI system on the acquisition of intellectual skills and verbal information. Before the learning session started, subjects from each mental model group were given instructions about a representation of the system. Immediately after completion of the learning session, subjects were tested for their problem-solving performance. Time spent to solve each problem along with its accuracy was recorded.

Results showed that there was an effect of mental models on the acquisition of intellectual skills. In terms of response speed and accuracy in problems requiring high complexity reasoning tasks, the Network model was most effective among the three. The Metaphor model, however, was best for problems requiring low complexity reasoning tasks.

Mental models showed no effect on speed of the recall in verbal information. The metaphor model, however, was the best in terms of recall accuracy. These results suggested that CAI systems would require different human-computer interfaces depending on types of content knowledge and task requirements.