TY - JOUR
T1 - Training adult novices to use computers : effects of different types of illustrations
AU - Kehoe, E. James
AU - Bednall, Timothy C.
AU - Yin, Leon
AU - Olsen, Kirk N.
AU - Pitts, Claudia
AU - Henry, Julie D.
AU - Bailey, Phoebe E.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Two experiments examined the acquisition of word-processing skills (Experiment 1) and internet usage skills (Experiment 2) by novice adults using three types of illustration, specifically, full-screen illustrations with the text superimposed, icons embedded in the text, and a control, text-only condition. Training with the full-screen or embedded icons yielded significant improvements in performance relative to the text-only condition only in tests that simply required the participants to repeat the step-by-step directions. When tests required that the participants themselves retrieve and reproduce the sequence of steps, the training with illustrations" especially the full-screen illustrations" repeatedly had a negative effect on performance. The results suggest that the illustrations, by making it easy to execute each step of a procedure during training, encouraged superficial processing, which in turn yielded a set of stimulus response associations rather than a well-linked sequence of actions in long-term memory.
AB - Two experiments examined the acquisition of word-processing skills (Experiment 1) and internet usage skills (Experiment 2) by novice adults using three types of illustration, specifically, full-screen illustrations with the text superimposed, icons embedded in the text, and a control, text-only condition. Training with the full-screen or embedded icons yielded significant improvements in performance relative to the text-only condition only in tests that simply required the participants to repeat the step-by-step directions. When tests required that the participants themselves retrieve and reproduce the sequence of steps, the training with illustrations" especially the full-screen illustrations" repeatedly had a negative effect on performance. The results suggest that the illustrations, by making it easy to execute each step of a procedure during training, encouraged superficial processing, which in turn yielded a set of stimulus response associations rather than a well-linked sequence of actions in long-term memory.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:23175
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.005
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.005
M3 - Article
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 25
SP - 275
EP - 283
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
IS - 2
ER -