Cognitive load

[Richard Gaskin]

Since cognitive load came up in the other thread about numberFormat, 
some of you may find this paper very interesting:


Using Cognitive Load Theory to select an Environment for Teaching
Mobile Apps Development

Raina Mason, Southern Cross University
Graham Cooper, Southern Cross University
Simon, University of Newcastle
Barry Wilks, Southern Cross University

Abstract
--------
After considering a number of environments for the development of apps 
for mobile devices, we have evaluated five in terms of their suitability 
for students early in their programing study. For some of the evaluation 
we devised an evaluation scheme based on the  principles of cognitive 
load theory to assess the relative ease or difficulty of learning and 
using each environment. After briefly presenting the scheme, we discuss 
our results, including our findings about which mobile apps development 
environments appear to show most promise for early-level programming 
students.


Excerpt
-------
The computed averages are as follows:

TouchDevelop: 16%
LiveCode: 17%
App Inventor: 33%
Xamarin: 59%
Visual Studio: 65%
...
The mobile development environments that we evaluated fell clearly into 
three groups. TouchDevelop and LiveCode, with threshold scores of less 
than 20%,  permitted the development of code with the least relative 
cognitive load. Despite the fact that it was designed for, and is 
typically used for, novice programmers, App Inventor had double the 
threshold score of these two environments, indicating a substantially 
higher relative cognitive load. Both Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio 
had threshold scores of around 60%, nearly double again, indicating 
another substantial leap in the relative cognitive load required to 
develop mobile apps in these environments.


<https://www.academia.edu/21401775/Using_Cognitive_Load_Theory_to_select_an_Environment_for_Teaching_Mobile_Apps_Development>


-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com