Understanding the role of cognitive effort within contextual interference paradigms: Theory, measurement, and tutorial

Abstract

BACKGROUND: “Contextual interference” (CI) describes a counterintuitive phenomenon related to practice organization when learning multiple tasks that are presented in a non-repetitive order. In CI, the lack of repetitiveness introduces a high level of interference (e.g., random practice) within the learning context such that task performance during initial skill acquisition is frequently poorer than if tasks are practiced in a repetitive fashion. However, these learners often perform better on retention and transfer tasks than individuals who learn within a low CI environment (e.g., blocked practice). High CI acquisition settings require large amounts of cognitive effort; however, the majority of research has focused on measuring behavioral outcomes rather than directly investigating cognitive load and its relationship to performance. AIM: In this paper, we provide a tutorial on several novel ways in which researchers can investigate brain activity in a CI paradigm using functional near infrared spectroscopy: Relative neural efficiency (RNE), relative neural involvement (RNI), and laterality index (LI). METHOD: RNE integrates measures of cognitive effort and behavioral performance; in high CI learning environments, RNE should initially be poor (high cognitive effort, low behavioral performance), then improve during retention and transfer. RNI provides an index of the relationship among motivation, mental effort, and performance. Finally, LI allows for the exploration of lateralization between the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. We provide data-based examples of RNE, RNI, and LI to demonstrate their usefulness in understanding the effects of CI on cognitive load. RESULTS: Significant differences were found for total hemoglobin (µmolar), RNE and LI for the right and left prefrontal cortex regions (p<0.05). The differences were accompanied by moderate-to-large effect size (Hedge’s g>0.666) with random using less effort, better performance and was more oriented to goal orientation and learning processes than blocked who focused more on visuomotor attentional components and used more effort with lower behavioral performance scores. CONCLUSION: RNE, RNI, and LI provide innovative methods to better understand cognitive effort within CI paradigms.