10.

1177_1747021818781425
research-article2018
QJP0010.1177/1747021818781425The Quarterly Journal of Experimental PsychologyMiller et al.

Original Article

Quarterly Journal of Experimental

Does task-irrelevant colour information Psychology

1­–9
© Experimental Psychology Society 2018
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Evidence from a learning task DOI: 10.1177/1747021818781425
https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818781425
qjep.sagepub.com

Paul Miller1, Batel Hazan-Liran1 and Danielle Cohen2

Abstract
Previous studies have shown that task-irrelevant information impedes learning by creating extraneous cognitive load.
But still open is whether such intrusion reflects a purely semantic phenomenon or whether it also stands for sheer
perceptual interference. Using Cognitive Load Theory as a framework, this study aimed to answer this question by
examining whether and how task-irrelevant colour information modifies extraneous cognitive load in relation to a new
code-learning paradigm. For this purpose, university students were asked to learn, based on an example, associations
between colour-related and colour-unrelated words and digits presented in black or in a mismatched ink colour. Evident
costs in learning efficacy were found in learning the associations between words and digits for colour-related, but not
for colour-unrelated, word stimuli. This suggests that interference by task-irrelevant information in learning stands for
a mere semantic conflict. Implications of the findings for extraneous cognitive load on learning efficacy are discussed.

Keywords
Learning; cognitive load theory; extraneous cognitive load; task-irrelevant information

Received: 8 January 2018; revised: 14 May 2018; accepted: 14 May 2018

Literature review
Optimising learning processes requires a profound under- Merriënboer & Ayres, 2005). The suppression of such
standing of the mechanisms involved in the acquisition of information—information that in some cases directly
new knowledge. Cognitive load theory (CLT) seeks to obstructs the application of available schemas or the crea-
bring about a better understanding of how cognitive tion of new ones—eventually takes attentional resources
resources sustain our ability to process and learn informa- away from the learning process, resulting in less effective
tion for the completion of a specific task. According to learning.
CLT, learning efficacy is determined by several learner- In sum, according to CLT, next to load imposed by the
independent and learner-dependent factors. The first is degree of element interactivity—intrinsic cognitive load—
Intrinsic Cognitive Load which represents the interaction overall cognitive load is directly or indirectly determined
between task complexity and learner’s level of expertise by extraneous cognitive load linked to characteristics of
(Sweller, van Merriënboer & Paas, 1998; van Merriënboer the instructional design and is considered ineffective for
& Sweller, 2005). More specifically, intrinsic cognitive learning (Paaas & Van Gog, 2006). Note, however, that the
load is the degree of element interactivity reflected in the effect of such extraneous cognitive load on learning is
number of elements a learner has to process simultane-
ously in Working Memory (WM), modified by the availa-
1Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of
bility and automaticity of retrieval of permanently stored
Haifa, Haifa, Israel
schemas (Sweller, 2010). 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of
A second factor considered to influence overall cogni- Haifa, Haifa, Israel
tive load is Extraneous Cognitive Load, that is, the entry of
Corresponding author:
task-irrelevant information into cognitive processes Paul Miller, Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education,
applied to materials held in WM (Sweller, 2010; Sweller, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel.
Ayres, & Kalyuga, 2011; Sweller & Chandler, 1994; van Email: mpaul@edu.haifa.ac.il
2 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 00(0)
essentially determined by intrinsic cognitive load, with its
impact becoming increasingly prominent with an increase
in element interactivity and/or a decrease in learner’s
expertise (van Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005).
CLT has been conceptualised as a framework to reflect
on learning processes occurring under ecologically real
conditions, such as learning subject matters at school
(Sweller, 2016). The numerous approaches taken to con-
solidate the validity of CLT have focused on a wide range
of subject matters. Experimental manipulations typically
refer to variance in the instructions given to learners (e.g.,
instructional designs magnifying extraneous cognitive
load as opposed to instructional designs minimising extra-
neous cognitive load) and/or to their level of expertise in
the domain under investigation (see Kalyuga & Singh,
2016). However, in such endeavours, controlling the learn-
er’s expertise in the examined domains, hence the degree
of element interactivity, was limited—across experiments
as well as across subjects. Experimental designs holding
these factors constant are rare. Therefore, it becomes
extremely difficult to determine the unique variance con-
tributed to learning by extraneous cognitive load.
In an attempt to reveal how learning efficacy is modi-
fied by unique variance added by extraneous cognitive
load, Hazan-Liran and Miller (2017) designed an innova-
tive experimental paradigm that combines principles of the
Stroop colour paradigm (Stroop, 1935) and the symbol-
digit coding subtest (Wechsler, 1997). The paradigm asks
individuals to learn associations between eight colour
names or eight colour-related word concepts—the base-
code words—and specific digits as demonstrated in an
example section presented at the top of the test sheet (mod-
ified version of the symbol-digit coding subtest). Learned
associations were expected to accelerate the completion of
rows of base-code words with their corresponding digits in
a 2-min time span.
In this particular paradigm, element interactivity is con-
stantly low as there seem to be no available schemas learn-
ers can apply to reduce the retention of isolated colour
words in WM while completing the task. Moreover, as col-
our names or colour-related word concepts are not typi-
cally associated with specific digits, learners will not be
distinguishable on their initial level of expertise. Given
this to be true, the effect of task-irrelevant information in
the form of extraneous cognitive load on learning efficacy
should not be confounded with variance originating from
intrinsic cognitive load (Hazan-Liran & Miller, 2017).
To elucidate the impact of extraneous cognitive load on
learning efficacy Hazan-Liran and Miller (2017) developed
three conditions implemented in two experimental para-
digms. In the first of these conditions, they presented the
base-code words’ corresponding digits in the example sec-
tion in colours that were compatible or strongly associated
with their meanings (a colour-congruent condition). For
example, the digit associated with the base-code word
“blue” or “sky” was presented in blue ink. In the second
condition, the base-code words’ corresponding digits were
provided with ink colours incompatible with their mean-
ings (a colour-incongruent condition). For example, the
digit associated with “blue” or “sky” was presented in red
ink. Finally, in the colour-neutral control condition, both
base-code words and their corresponding digits were pre-
sented in black. Black ink—because it is typically used
with digits as well as other written materials—is assumed
to be treated by the brain as neutral (achromatic), therefore
is hypothesised to be unnoticed as part of their processing.
Findings from the above study indeed revealed strong
interference by the digits’ colour on learning efficacy.
More specifically, compared with the colour-neutral con-
trol condition, participants made markedly more comple-
tions in the colour-congruent condition and significantly
fewer in the colour-incongruent condition, with the magni-
tude of facilitation and inhibition being strikingly similar.
This was true whether the base-code words were colour
names or colour-related word concepts.
In sum, the evidence suggests the occurrence of extra-
neous cognitive load originating from task-irrelevant
peculiarities, namely, the digits’ ink colour. In other words,
although principally irrelevant with regard to the instruc-
tion to learn associations between digits and words, the
digits’ ink colour proved influential in task performance
because it tapped into semantic properties inherent to the
base-code words. The question is, “Does the mere pres-
ence of task-irrelevant colour information still influence
the efficiency of learning associations between words and
digits in instances where based-code words lack colour
semantics?” In short, does colour per se increase cognitive
load?
To provide satisfactory answers to this question, we
used a modified version of the original Hazan-Liran and
Miller paradigm, set up as two experiments with a mixed-
model design. In both experiments, university students
were asked to complete as fast as possible test sheets com-
prising rows of base-code words with corresponding dig-
its, as shown in an example presented above the test
section. The basic assumption was that the faster the par-
ticipants learn the provided associations between base-
code words and digits, the less would they have to rely on
time-consuming recourse to the example section, that is,
the more completions would they achieve in a 2-min time
span.
The first of the experiments used colour names versus
colour-unrelated adjectives, and the second used colour-
related word concepts versus colour-unrelated nouns for
stimulation. Each experiment comprised four conditions.
In two of the conditions, the base-code words were colour-
related (e.g., blue or sky); in one of them, the associated
digits were presented in colours not matching the base-
code words, and in the other, both base-code words and
digits were presented in black (achromatic colour). In the
Miller et al. 3
remaining two conditions, the base-code words were col-
our-unrelated (e.g., deep or sweet); in one of them, the
associated digits were presented in colour, and in the other,
both base-code words and digits were presented in black.
Experiment 1: colour names versus
adjectives
As already stated, the basic assumption of the current
experiment was that the encoding of a base-code stimulus
word on its initial encounter in the test section will lead to
the retrieval of its semantics—but at this point, an associa-
tion with a particular digit is still lacking. To create such an
association, participants were obliged to look it up in the
example section, holding the base-code word’s semantics
active in WM. In the first two conditions, the stimulus
words’ semantics were in essence colour, whereas in the
others their semantics did not bear colour as a property. In
instances where digits were presented in an ink colour
incongruent with the colour semantics triggered by encod-
ing their parallel colour names, the digits’ colours were
expected to create extraneous cognitive load which the
participant had to suppress, removing attentional resources
from the learning process. In instances where digits were
presented in colour, but the semantics of their associated
base-code stimulus words did not bear colour as a property
(colour-unrelated adjectives), the digit colour was not
expected to create extraneous cognitive load rooted in con-
flicting colour information (see MacLeod, 1991, p. 173).
However, its sheer presence may still produce extraneous
cognitive load because—due to its redundancy—the
learner has to ignore it. Going by this scenario, we tested
the following hypotheses:
Research hypotheses
1. Overall, learning of associations between words
and digits will be less effective with coloured digits
than with digits coloured in black ink.
We assume that the mere colouring of the digits leading to
increased extraneous cognitive load, regardless of the
base-code words’ semantics, consequently will leave par-
ticipants with fewer cognitive resources for the consolida-
tion of associations between words and digits.
2. The effect of digit colour information on the learn-
ing of associations between words and digits will
be more prominent in instances where digits’ col-
our interferes semantically with the base-code
words’ meaning, as is the case with colour names.
In addition to suppressing the sheer intrusion of colour
information into the process of learning associations
between words and digits, in the case of colour names,
participants will also have to suppress a semantic conflict
created by the digits’ task-irrelevant colour, leading to
even greater increase in extraneous cognitive load.
Method
Participants. Participants were 60 Haifa University stu-
dents (23 males, 37 females, age range: 20-41 years)
recruited via a flyer distributed around the campus. Half of
them (30) were tested with colour names as base-code
word stimuli and the others (30) with colour-unrelated
adjectives. Thirty-five of them studied social sciences such
as education, social work, and health care, whereas the
study domains of the remainder were computer sciences,
statistics, economy, and law. All were paid for participa-
tion. All had intact or corrected-to-intact vision and proper
hearing. Hebrew was their first spoken and read language.
Only students with no history of learning disabilities were
included.
Design and stimuli.  The experiment was implemented as a
paper and pencil test with four separate test sheets used for
assessing participants’ efficacy in learning associations
between base-code words and digits, reflected in the num-
ber of completions within 2 min. It was implemented as a
2 × 2 mixed-model design with word type (colour names
vs. colour-unrelated adjectives) as the between-subjects
variable and digit colour (coloured vs. uncoloured) as the
within-subjects variable.
The basic design was the same for each test sheet, the
associations between the eight base-code words and their
corresponding digits being displayed in a permanently pre-
sent example section at the top (see Supplementary
Material A). The test section below the example section
was 10 double rows, both having 12 rectangular fields.
Each of the 12 fields of every upper row was randomly
filled with 12 base-code words; the 12 fields of the lower
rows were empty, and the participants had to write the cor-
responding digits in them. The first four items of the top
row of the test section served for practice. Participants
were instructed to learn the associations and apply their
new knowledge by complementing the base-code words in
the test section with appropriate digits in the empty fields.
They could not focus on the example and test sections
simultaneously, that is, they were likely to rely on their
WM for task completion.
The digits 1 to 8 assigned to the base-code words were
randomised across conditions to prevent learning transfer.
The basic assumption was that the quicker participants
learned the association between a base-code word and its
corresponding digit, the more digits would they insert in a
given time. This is because once a particular association
was learned, the learner could insert the corresponding
digit without needing to spend time searching for the rela-
tion in the example section (Wechsler, 1997).
4 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 00(0)

Word type Digit color Base-code word/digit associations

brown orange white black green red yellow blue
colored
Color names 7 1 8 6 4 2 5 3
(Group 1) brown orange white black green red yellow blue
uncolored
5 3 2 6 4 7 1 8
cheap locked pretty long kind deep humble sweet
colored
Color unrelated adjectives 7 1 8 6 4 2 5 3
(Group 2) cheap locked pretty long kind deep humble sweet
uncolored
3 6 8 5 1 4 7 2

Figure 1.  Study design and illustration of the example section of the four experimental conditions in English. The colour version of
this figure is available online.
Note: The digits’ colors in the example sections of the coloured condition are as follows: 7= blue, 1= black, 8= red, 6= brown, 4= yellow, 2=
orange, 5= white, 3= green.

pear soup song elephant bag salt pot bucket dition to prevent carry-over effects of previous informa-
tion stored in participants’ WM.
3 6 8 5 1 4 7 2 For task explanation, the experimenter placed a sepa-
rate sheet with an example and a practice sample on the
Figure 2.  Example of base-code words and corresponding table before the participants (see Figure 2).
digits, both in black ink. The participants received the following instructions:

Here is an example of eight Hebrew words presented one after

Eight Hebrew colour names (blue, yellow, red, green,
black, white, orange, brown) and eight colour-unrelated
adjectives (sweet, humble, deep, kind, long, pretty, looked,
cheap) were used as base-code words. All were presented
in black ink and in unpointed Hebrew, a primarily conso-
nantal orthography.
According to the word-frequency database for printed
Hebrew (Frost & Plaut, 2005), the colour names’ average
letter length was 3.75 letters, their average syllabic length
was 1.87 syllables, and their average raw frequency per
1 million words was 56.12. The adjectives’ average letter
length was 3.75 letters, their average syllabic length was 2
syllables, and their average raw frequency per 1 million
words was 58.37. Information regarding the letter length,
syllabic length, and word frequency of each of the Hebrew
stimuli is provided in Supplementary Material B. Figure 1
illustrates the experimental design with the example sec-
tions of the four experimental conditions.
Procedure. Participants were tested individually by a
trained experimenter in the authors’ lab. Prior to being
tested, they were asked to fill out a demographic form and
received a short explanation concerning the study purpose.
They were further informed that they could stop participa-
tion at any point without being penalised in any form. Test-
ing started only after they signed a written consent.
Administration order of the different conditions was
counterbalanced. A short computerised same/different
task—asking participants to determine as fast as possible
whether two simultaneously presented Hebrew words
were the same or not—was inserted in between each con-
another in rectangular fields and a digit from 1 to 8 below
each of them. Beneath this example you see another row of
these words but this time with an empty field below each
word (see Figure 3). Your task is to learn which digit belongs
to which word so you can fill the empty fields with the
appropriate digits.
The experimenter filled the first four empty fields with
corresponding digits.
Following task explanation, the experimenter placed the
first experimental sheet on the table before the participants
(e.g., Supplementary Material A), with all but the example
section and the first four words of the test section being cov-
ered by a blank piece of cardboard. She then asked them to
complete the four practice items with their corresponding
digits, as exemplified in Figure 3, in a time of about 15 s.
After the participants’ performance in the example sec-
tion demonstrated their proper understanding of the task
requirements, the experimenter informed them that they
would now be tested; they had to fill in the digits, word by
word, without skipping words. The goal was to achieve as
many completions as possible until they were asked to
stop. Moreover, they should beware of making mistakes,
but if they did they should move on without correcting
them. The experimenter did not mention that in some con-
ditions the digits were presented in different colours. The
moment they indicated their readiness, the experimenter
removed the coversheet and set a stopwatch. She termi-
nated each session after exactly 2 min, writing down the
total number of completions as well as the number of
erroneous completions—the two dependent variables
Miller et al. 5
song pot pear soup bucket bag elephant salt
8 7 3 6
Figure 3.  Demonstration of task requirements by the
experimenter.
Table 1.  Mean performancea for colour names and adjectives
with reference to the digits’ colour (standard deviations in
parentheses).
Digit colour Colour names Adjectives Total
Coloured 57.60 (13.03) 63.10 (10.27) 60.35 (11.96)
Uncoloured 70.57 (12.87) 63.90 (12.66) 67.23 (13.10)
Overall 64.08 (11.91) 63.50 (11.42) 63.79 (11.42)
aPerformance is the average number of correct completions in 2 min.
measured in the experiment—for further analyses. None of
the participants managed to complete an entire test sheet in
the 2-min time span.
Results
Error rates were very low, therefore not analysed sepa-
rately. However, to account for their occurrence, we calcu-
lated performance averages of each condition as a function
of participants’ number of digits indicated in the test sec-
tion in 2 min minus the number of erroneous indications.
We used generalised linear model (GLM) analysis with
word type (colour names, adjectives) as a between-sub-
jects variable and digit colour (coloured, uncoloured) as a
within-subjects variable to reveal the impact of irrelevant
colour information on new code learning. Average number
of completions and standard deviations with reference to
word type and digit colour are presented in Table 1.
Word type, the between-subjects effect, was statisti-
cally nonsignificant, F(1, 58) = 0.04, p > .05, η2p = .00,
indicating that overall, word type did not determine the
number of completions participants performed in the given
time. The effect of digit colour was statistically significant,
F(1, 58) = 40.18, p < .001, η2p = .41, implying that overall,
presentation of digits in colours other than black reduced
participants’ completion rates. The word type effect sig-
nificantly interacted with the digit colour effect, F(1,
58) = 31.38, p < .001, η2p = .35, indicating that the impact of
digit colour on completion rate differed for colour names
and colour-unrelated adjectives.
We conducted several post hoc analyses to clarify the
final significance of the word type × digit colour interaction.
As a first step, we compared completion rates for colour
names and adjectives under coloured and uncoloured condi-
tions in two paired-sample t-tests (one-tailed). The effect of
digit colour in relation to colour names was statistically sig-
nificant, t(29) =−6.98, p < .001, d = 1.09. This suggests that
in contrast to presenting digits in black, presenting them in
colours incongruent with the colour names’ semantics
resulted in a significantly reduced completion rate. The
effect of digit colour in relation to colour-unrelated adjec-
tives was statistically nonsignificant, t(29) =−0.71, p > .05,
d = 0.00, indicating that digit colour did not bias participants’
completion rates for this word type.
Discussion
The general goal of Experiment 1 was to clarify whether
colour per se contributes independent variance to extrane-
ous cognitive load, biasing performance in learning the
association between base-code words and digits. We gen-
erally hypothesised that the colouring of the base-code
words’ corresponding digits—while principally being
irrelevant to task—would lead to increased extraneous
cognitive load reflected in the participants’ performance,
regardless of the base-code words’ semantics (Hypothesis
1). This is because it leaves them with fewer cognitive
resources for the consolidation of associations between
words and digits. We further estimated that the effect of
digit colour on participants’ performance would be more
prominent in instances where participants had to suppress
a semantic conflict created by the digits’ ink colour, as was
the case of colour names (Hypothesis 2).
Findings from Experiment 1 failed to support
Hypothesis 1 while fully corroborating Hypothesis 2.
More specifically, the close-to-identical completion rates
found for adjectives in the coloured and uncoloured con-
ditions indicate that digit ink colour per se did not lead to
decrease in performance due to increase in extraneous
cognitive load. For task-irrelevant information to yield
an increase in extraneous cognitive load that negatively
affects performance, it has to interact semantically with
to-be-processed information (see Hazan-Liran & Miller,
2017). This is evident from the participants’ rather mark-
edly reduced performance when asked to learn the asso-
ciations between colour names and digits presented in
colours incompatible with the colour names’ semantics.
As predicted by CLT (Sweller & Chandler, 1994; van
Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005), the above findings strongly
suggest that extraneous cognitive load originating from the
entry of task-irrelevant information is a significant factor
in determining individuals’ efficiency in integrating and
learning new information for proper task performance.
However, they expand such understanding by showing
that the presence of task-irrelevant information may not
automatically transform into increase in extraneous cogni-
tive load that removes attentional resources away from the
learning process. More specifically, it distinguishes seman-
tically intrusive task-irrelevant information from task-
irrelevant information which, despite its presence, may not
prove harmful to the learning process. Experiment 2 was
conducted to strengthen this conclusion by learning the
associations between base-code words and digits for dif-
ferent word types and with colour being a property rather
than the core meaning of the base-code words.
6 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 00(0)

Word type Digit color Base-code word/digit associations

sky banana strawberry grass darkness whipped Orange(a) mud
colored cream
Color-related 6 2 5 1 3 8 4 7
word concepts
(Group 1) sky banana strawberry grass darkness whipped orange mud
uncolored cream
5 3 2 6 4 7 1 8
bell towel pocket shoulder helicopter carriage oven string
Color-unrelated colored
7 1 8 6 4 2 5 3
nouns
(Group 2) bell towel pocket shoulder helicopter carriage oven string
uncolored
3 6 8 5 1 4 7 2

Figure 4.  Study design and illustration of the example section of the four experimental conditions in English. The colour version of
this figure is available online.
Note: For Group 1, the digits’ colors in the example section of the colored condition are as follows: 6= brawn, 2= orange, 5= white, 1= black, 3=
green, 8= red, 4= yellow, 7= blue. For Group 2, the digits’ colors in the example section of the colored condition are as follows: 7= blue, 1= black,
8= red, 6= brown, 4= yellow, 2= orange, 5= white, 3= green.

Experiment 2: colour-related word as those who participated in Experiment 1. Half of them

concepts and nouns
Experiment 1 suggests that when learning associations
between colour names and digits, participants not only
process their letter strings down to their meaning but
also—although not required to do so for proper task per-
formance—seem to process the semantics of the digits’ ink
colour. Digit ink colour was found to impose extraneous
cognitive load on learning new information (see also
Hazan-Liran & Miller, 2017), yet did so only in instances
it interacted—created a conflict—with the semantics of
the base-code words, that is, the colour names. More spe-
cifically, the observed decrease in performance was not in
essence a colour effect but the result of a semantic conflict.
Given this to be true, learning associations between word
concepts of which colour is only an attribute, and digits
that are incongruently coloured with respect to these attrib-
utes, would presumably lead to decreased performance,
albeit in more moderate form. On the contrary, digit colour
should not bias performance in relation to colour-unrelated
nouns as it did not influence performance in relation to
colour-unrelated adjectives (see Experiment 1). Experiment
2 was designed as a quasi-replication of Experiment 1.
Research hypothesis
The research hypotheses tested in Experiment 2 were gen-
erally identical to those formulated for Experiment 1, with
the occurrence of a marked digit colour–related decrease
in performance predicted in relation to colour-related word
concepts and a less pronounced decrease in this regard in
relation to colour-unrelated nouns.
Method
Participants. Participants were a new group of 60 Haifa
University students recruited according to identical criteria
tested with colour-related word concepts as base-code
word stimuli and the others with colour-unrelated nouns.
Design, stimuli, and procedure.  The design and procedure of
Experiment 2 were identical to those of Experiment 1,
except that stimulus materials were colour-related word
concepts and not colour names, and colour-unrelated nouns
instead of colour-unrelated adjectives. The English transla-
tions of the eight colour-related word concepts are sky
(blue), banana (yellow), strawberry (red), grass (green),
darkness (black), whipped cream (white), orange (orange),
and mud (brown) and those of the colour-unrelated nouns
are bell, towel, pocket, shoulder, helicopter, carriage, oven,
and string. For a detailed description of the colour-related
word concept and the colour-unrelated noun lists, see Sup-
plementary Material B. According to the word-frequency
database for printed Hebrew (Frost & Plaut, 2005), the col-
our-related word concepts’ average letter length was 3.75
letters, their average syllabic length was 2.12 syllables, and
their average raw frequency per 1 million words was 8.12.
The colour-unrelated nouns’ average letter length was 3.75
letters, their average syllabic length was 2.12 syllables, and
their average raw frequency per 1 million words was 7.50.
Information regarding the letter length, syllabic length, and
word frequency of each of the Hebrew stimuli is provided in
Supplementary Material B. Figure 4 illustrates the experi-
mental design with the example sections of the four experi-
mental conditions.
Results
As in Experiment 1, error rates were very low, therefore
were not analysed. However, to account for their occur-
rence, we calculated performance averages of each condi-
tion again as a function of participants’ number of digits
indicated in the test section within 2 min minus the number
of erroneous indications.
Miller et al. 7
Table 2.  Mean performancea for colour-related word concepts and nouns with reference to the digits’ colour (standard deviations
in parentheses).
Digit colour Colour-related Word concepts
Coloured 63.70 (12.44)
Uncoloured 70.37 (14.47)
Overall 67.03 (12.57)
aPerformance is the average number of correct completions in 2 min.
We used GLM analysis with word type (colour-related
word concepts, colour-unrelated nouns) as a between-sub-
jects variable and digit colour (coloured, uncoloured) as a
within-subjects variable. Average number of completions
and standard deviations with reference to word type and
digit colour are presented in Table 2.
Word type, the between-subjects effect, was statistically
significant, F(1, 58) = 4.69, p < .05, η2p = .07 , indicating that
overall, the number of completions participants performed in
the 2-min time span was biased by the word type used as
base-code words. The effect of digit colour was statistically
significant, F(1, 58) = 15.20, p < .001, η2p = .21, implying that
overall, presenting digits in colours other than black reduced
participants’ completion rates. The interaction of the word
type effect with the digit-colour effect was statistically not
significant, F(1, 58) = 3.21, p = .08, η2p = .05, indicating that
the impact of digit colour on completion rate did not differ
for colour-related word concepts and colour-unrelated nouns.
The word type × digit colour interaction—although sta-
tistically not marked—was found to be of borderline sig-
nificance. Therefore, to reveal more fine-tuned differences
between the different experimental conditions, we decided
to conduct post hoc analyses that paralleled those con-
ducted in Experiment 1. As a first step, we compared com-
pletion rates for colour-related word concepts and
colour-unrelated nouns under coloured and uncoloured
conditions in two paired-sample t-tests (one-tailed). The
effect of digit colour in relation to colour-related word
concepts was statistically significant, t(29) =−3.73,
p = .001, d = 0.53. This suggests that—in contrast to pre-
senting digits in black—presenting them in colours incon-
gruent with the colour-related word concepts’ semantic
attributes resulted in a significantly reduced completion
rate. The effect of digit colour in relation to colour-unre-
lated nouns was statistically nonsignificant, t(29) =−1.63,
p > .05, d = 0.18, suggesting that for this word type digit
colour did not bias the participants’ completion rates.
Discussion
Overall, analyses applied to Experiment 2 data replicated
evidence found in relation to Experiment 1, with marked
completion rate differences found between the two colour-
related word concept conditions, in contrast to nonsignifi-
cant differences found between the two colour-unrelated
noun conditions. This further supports a notion that task-
irrelevant digit colour information hampers the learning
Nouns Total
72.97 (15.08) 68.33 (14.48)
75.43 (12.15) 72.90 (13.49)
74.20 (13.05) 70.61 (13.21)
process only in instances where it triggers a conflict with
the semantic properties of the base-code words, in the pre-
sent case the colour attributes (Hypothesis 2). Where there
is no such semantic conflict—in our study in the case of the
colour-attribute-lacking nouns, digit colour, albeit irrele-
vant, does not seem to hinder learning by creating extrane-
ous cognitive load (Hypothesis 1 not confirmed).
The impact of the digit colour in the colour-related word
concept condition is proof that the participants processed
the base-code word stimuli down to their semantics, yet
could not inhibit processing the semantics of the digits’ ink
colour (see Dalrymple-Alford, 1972). The latter was likely
to be true also with regard to the digit ink colour in the
colour-unrelated noun condition, but in this case it did not
tap into semantic properties retrieved by the processing of
the nouns. Given this scenario to be true, the conclusion
seems tenable that performance differences found between
the colour and uncoloured conditions for colour-related
word concepts was purely semantic in nature.
Experiment 2 shows that extraneous cognitive load
occurs due to a conflict between task-irrelevant informa-
tion and words’ semantic attributes even in instances where
it does not tap into the words’ core meaning per se (van
Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005). Whereas this conclusion is
unequivocally supported by findings revealed from the
analysis of Experiment 1, the lack of a statistically signifi-
cant interaction between word type and digit colour sug-
gests that the magnitude of the impact of task-irrelevant
information on basic learning processes may be mediated
by particularities of the to-be-processed information. For
example, in Experiment 2, the colour-unrelated nouns used
for stimulation may indeed not be conventionally associ-
ated with a specific colour, yet for some of the participants,
some of them may still have had associations with colours
due to their personal experience. For example, the colour
of an oven may not be conventionally determined, yet for
a person with an oven at home it has a colour that is likely
to be retrieved and, consequently, bears the potential to
modify the efficacy of learning its association with a col-
oured digit. This would reasonably explain why learning
associations in relation to coloured nouns in Experiment 2
was less effective than in relation to uncoloured nouns (see
Table 2). It also would make sense that in Experiment 1 the
base-code word-digit completion rates found for coloured
and uncoloured adjectives were virtually the same, given
that the semantics of these stimuli did not bear colour as a
property.
8 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 00(0)
General discussion
The principal objective of this study was to expand our
understanding of the impact of task-irrelevant information
on learning efficacy, using CLT as a theoretical platform
(Sweller, 2010; Sweller et al., 2011; Sweller & Chandler,
1994; Sweller et al., 1998; van Merriënboer & Ayres,
2005; van Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005). Specifically, we
were interested in clarifying whether and under which con-
ditions extraneous cognitive load modifies learning effi-
cacy when intrinsic cognitive load is held constant. In a
previous study, Hazan-Liran and Miller (2017) showed
that task-irrelevant ink colour assigned to digits modifies
efficacy in learning associations between colour names
and colour-related word concepts and corresponding dig-
its. Whereas this study has been fruitful in demonstrating
the occurrence of ink colour–related semantic interference
in learning, in the form of extraneous cognitive load, the
question whether ink colour per se creates independent
extraneous cognitive load in instances where the base-
code words lack colour semantics has not received
attention.
The two experiments of this study were designed to fill
this gap. Evidence from both suggests that for task-irrele-
vant information to add to overall cognitive load, leading to
a decrease in learning efficacy, its semantics must interact
with semantic properties inherent to the to-be-learned/pro-
cessed information. Where this is not the case, the human
information-processing system seems able to prevent task-
irrelevant information entering into the learning process
seemingly without effort (for a review, see Cohen, Dunbar,
& McClelland, 1990). This becomes evident from the
finding that in both experiments digit ink colour had no
detrimental impact on learning associations between
words and digits when the word stimuli were colour-
unrelated. It also is in line with evidence from variations of
Stroop studies that manipulated the semantic overlap of the
irrelevant verbal stimuli (colour-related vs. colour-unre-
lated words) with their ink colour. As in this study, evidence
from such research leads to the conclusion that interference
from the task-irrelevant verbal stimuli in naming their ink
colour is contingent on the degree of their semantic overlap
(for a comprehensive review, see MacLeood, 1991).
Findings from both experiments seem to suggest that
extraneous cognitive load is the by-product of semantic
processes applied to the to-be-learned information rather
than a result of more basic cognitive operations such as its
perceptual or lexical processing. It is noteworthy that in this
study neither the experimental paradigm nor the instruc-
tions asked participants to create meaning-based associa-
tions; they principally could have accomplished the task
without accessing the word stimuli’s semantics. The find-
ing that they nevertheless did so may indicate that learning
is principally a cognitive process that operates on meaning
and its efficacy, consequently, is primarily modified by the
intrusion of competing meaning. This line of reasoning
complies with conclusions from Stroop (Dalrymple-Alford,
1972; MacLeod, 1991; Stroop, 1935) and Stroop-like
research (Hazan-Liran & Miller, 2017; Kaufmann & Nuerk,
2006; Kimble, Frueh, & Marks, 2009; Konkle & Oliva,
2012), suggesting that interference in the processing of
information seems to be rooted in the presence of semanti-
cally identified task-irrelevant information.
Finally, most cognitive load theory effects have been
obtained under conditions in which element interactiv-
ity associated with intrinsic cognitive load was high
(e.g., Chen, Kalyuga, & Sweller, 2015, 2016; Sweller &
Chandler, 1994; Tindall-Ford, Chandler, & Sweller,
1997). The finding that in this study extraneous cogni-
tive load interfered with learning efficacy, despite the
information processed being low in element interactiv-
ity, implies that its impact on learning outcomes can
hardly be overstated and should therefore be of constant
concern to teachers and designers of curriculum
materials.
Implications
This study bears several implications with respect to CLT.
First, it provides a more detailed understanding of the ori-
gins of extraneous cognitive load by demonstrating that its
origin is a semantic conflict. It further shows that the mag-
nitude of extraneous cognitive load is intrinsically deter-
mined by the degree to which task-irrelevant information
is central to the core meaning of the to-be-learned informa-
tion. Optimising students’ learning outcomes therefore
seems to require teachers’ awareness of task-irrelevant
constituents in the learning environment whose semantics
conflict with those of the to-be-learned information.
However, as has been shown elsewhere (e.g., Hazan-Liran
& Miller, 2017), task extraneous constituents eventually
bear the potential to facilitate the learning process in pro-
viding the learner with a task-relevant semantic context.
To create optimal learning conditions, the presence of the
first has to be minimised as much as possible, whereas the
second should be exploited to its full potential to strengthen
the learning process.
Limitations
This study used a rather simplistic learning paradigm, with
factors such as element interactivity and learner experi-
ence held constant. Such control facilitated observing how
extraneous cognitive load in the form of task-irrelevant
information modifies learning associations, but it obvi-
ously did so in respect of a not very ecological learning
context. In more ecological learning environments, overall
cognitive load determining learning efficacy typically
reflects variance from element interactivity and learner
expertise as well. Therefore, conclusions drawn from this
Miller et al. 9
study should be applied to such environments with appro-
priate caution.
Evidence from this study suggests that task-irrelevant
information that does not semantically interact with the
semantics of the to-be-learned information does not seem
to lead to increased extraneous cognitive load which
impedes the learning process. However, whereas this may
be true for typically developing adult individuals, things
may be different in respect of younger learners who have
not yet developed a fully automatised information-process-
ing system. The same may also be true for individuals with
marked attention-deficit disorders or for individuals who—
due to prolonged sensory deprivation—have become
highly sensitised to the processing of specific types of
information to compensate for the deficient functioning of
one or more of their senses. Accordingly, future research
aimed to further corroborate conclusions drawn from this
study should include not only typically developing younger
learners but also representatives from exceptional groups.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material is available at: qjep.sagepub.com
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