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In-Depth Information
Model Elements
F:
Relations between
Elements
O:
Item Type
Cognitive Difficulty
• Order
• Concurrency
• Exclusiveness
F
: Objective Cognitive
Difficulty
O
: Item Difficulty
O
: Item Difficulty
• Repetition
F:
Element Interactivity
F
: Subjective Cognitive
F
: Subjective Cognitive
Difficulty
O
: Subjective Rating of
Cognitive Load
O:
Process-Structure-
Tree Distance
F:
Element
Separateness
O:
Cut-Vertex
g
KEY
KEY
F: Theoretical Factor O: Operationalisation of Factor
Fig. 3.
Research Model
three factors: the type of relation between elements that has to be understood,
the interactivity and the separateness of elements.
Following the research model, we now discuss three expected effects. As we
anticipate similar effects on both objective as well as subjective side of the de-
pendent variable 'cognitive diculty', we formulate hypotheses for cognitive dif-
ficulty in general. First, we turn to different relations between elements. We
state:
H1.
The type of relation between elements that has to be understood (or-
der, concurrency, repetition, exclusiveness) will have an influence on cognitive
diculty of understanding.
Second, we turn to the interactivity between elements. We expect that it
is more dicult to understand relations between elements with a large PST-
distance between them. Therefore, we have:
H2.
The interactivity between elements (high PST-distance) will be posi-
tively associated with the cognitive diculty of understanding the relation be-
tween them.
Additionally we hypothesize if separateness of elements is low, understanding
their relation gets easier:
H3.
High separateness between elements (existence of a cut-vertex between
those elements) will be negatively associated with the cognitive diculty of
understanding the relations between them.
