The effects of cognitive load on decision aid users

This study employs multiple measures of schema acquisition and analyzes subjects' problem-solving error patterns in order to investigate schema acquisition by decision aid users. Results of both the error analysis and multiple schema acquisition measures indicate that: (1) problems of ordered complexity can effectively capture differences in schema acquisition of decision aid users; and (2) problem solvers rely on incorrect simple schemata to solve problems when they have not acquired the complex schemata necessary to solve a problem. The results also provide additional support for prior findings that problem-solving schemata are acquired in a linear order flowing from computationally simple problems to more complex problems, and that cognitive load interferes with the acquisition of schemata from decision aids.