Behavioral and fMRI evidence of the differing cognitive load of domain-specific assessments

S J Howard; H Burianová; J Ehrich; L Kervin; A Calleia; E Barkus; J Carmody; S Humphry

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.03.047

Behavioral and fMRI evidence of the differing cognitive load of domain-specific assessments

Neuroscience. 2015 Jun 25:297:38-46. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.03.047. Epub 2015 Mar 25.

Authors

S J Howard¹, H Burianová², J Ehrich³, L Kervin⁴, A Calleia⁵, E Barkus⁶, J Carmody⁷, S Humphry⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Education, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. Electronic address: stevenh@uow.edu.au.
² Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia. Electronic address: hana.burianova@cai.uq.edu.au.
³ Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia. Electronic address: john.ehrich@monash.edu.au.
⁴ School of Education, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. Electronic address: lkervin@uow.edu.au.
⁵ School of Education, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. Electronic address: amc998@uowmail.edu.au.
⁶ School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. Electronic address: ebarkus@uow.edu.au.
⁷ Neurology Department, Wollongong Hospital, New South Wales 2500, Australia. Electronic address: john.carmody@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au.
⁸ Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia, Western Australia 6009, Australia. Electronic address: stephen.humphry@uwa.edu.au.

PMID: 25818553
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.03.047

Abstract

Standards-referenced educational reform has increased the prevalence of standardized testing; however, whether these tests accurately measure students' competencies has been questioned. This may be due to domain-specific assessments placing a differing domain-general cognitive load on test-takers. To investigate this possibility, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to identify and quantify the neural correlates of performance on current, international standardized methods of spelling assessment. Out-of-scanner testing was used to further examine differences in assessment results. Results provide converging evidence that: (a) the spelling assessments differed in the cognitive load placed on test-takers; (b) performance decreased with increasing cognitive load of the assessment; and (c) brain regions associated with working memory were more highly activated during performance of assessments that were higher in cognitive load. These findings suggest that assessment design should optimize the cognitive load placed on test-takers, to ensure students' results are an accurate reflection of their true levels of competency.

Keywords: assessment; cognitive load; educational neuroscience; fMRI; spelling; standardized testing.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Brain / blood supply*
Brain / physiology*
Brain Mapping*
Cognition / physiology*
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxygen / blood
Verbal Behavior / physiology*
Young Adult

Substances

Oxygen