Articles on Information Processing Theory

Ally, M. (2004). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning (1-31). Athabasca : Athabasca University.

http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch1.html

This paper discusses behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist educational theories as the basis for designing effective online learning materials, and suggests a model for developing online instruction based on the appropriate educational theory. Although this article is nine years old, the information is still relevant and useful, and provides a strong instructional design foundation for developing online learning materials.

Willingham, D. T. (2008). Ask the cognitive scientist: what will improve a student’s memory? American Educator, Winter (2008-2009), 17-25.

http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/winter0809/willingham.pdf

The author discusses how memory works and provides examples and strategies for how to improve a student’s memory. This article is very interesting, as it includes anecdotes and various tips and strategies in graphic and outline format.

Oppenheimer, D. M., & Frank, M. C., A rose in any other font would not smell as sweet:  effects of perceptual fluency on categorization. Cognition, (2007), doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.05.010

http://www.stanford.edu/~mcfrank/papers/oppenheimer-inpress.pdf

This study proves that making something hard to read means it is more likely to be remembered. The article is not very useful to me, as it contains no application to teaching, or application to anything, for that matter, and I don’t think there was much point to this study. I can’t see educators and instructional designers deliberately making their learning materials difficult to read.