L’objectif de ce travail est de mettre en évidence l’impact du mode d’organisation en résolution de problèmes au travers des travaux de la Théorie de la charge cognitive (Sweller, 2003Sweller J. Evolution of human cognitive architecture The psychology of learning and motivation: vol. 43 San Diego: Academic Press (2003).  215-266

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références). Nous présentons trois expériences qui comparent un mode d’organisation basé sur une hiérarchisation de la difficulté et un mode d’organisation aléatoire. Les résultats de la première expérience suggèrent qu’un mode d’organisation hiérarchisée compense l’augmentation de la difficulté et favorise une meilleure réussite des problèmes. D’après les résultats de la deuxième et de la troisième expérience, le mode d’organisation hiérarchisée favorise également l’élaboration de connaissances transférables. Ces deux expériences ne montrent pas de différence de mesures de la charge cognitive. L’impact sur la performance du mode d’organisation aléatoire ne semblant pas découler d’une charge cognitive trop importante une autre hypothèse est envisagée.

This research studies the impact of the instructional design in problems solving. Across several studies, Sweller, 1988Sweller J. Cognitive Load during problem solving: effects on learning Cognitive science 1988 ;  12 : 257-285 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références, Sweller, 2003Sweller J. Evolution of human cognitive architecture The psychology of learning and motivation: vol. 43 San Diego: Academic Press (2003).  215-266

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références, Sweller, 2004Sweller J. Instructional design consequence of an analogy between evolution by natural selection and human cognitive architecture Instructional science 2004 ;  32 : 9-31 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références develop the Cognitive Load Theory. In this theory, the interrelationships between instructional variable, problem solving and learning are supported. But, these researches are concentrated on the aspect of problem itself. Others studies, in instructional design, wonder about the organization of a complete task (Paas et al., 2003Paas F.G.W.C., Renkl A., Sweller J. Cognitive Load theory and instructional design: recent developments Educational psychologist 2003 ;  38 (1) : 1-4 [cross-ref]

Cliquez ici pour aller à la section Références). It seems of these researches that the mode of organization of a task influences the success of the task and more widely the quality of the knowledge, which can be elaborated during the realization of this task. The objective of our work is to bring to light all the importance of the design in a task with several problems. For that purpose, we compared a design based on a hierarchical organization of the difficulty of the problems (from the easiest to the most difficult) and a random presentation of the same problems. We present here three experiments using logical problems stemming from the minesweeper game. The results of the first experiment suggest that an organized mode of presentation compensates for the increase of the difficulty and facilitates a better success of the problems. The second experiment uses the same protocol, as the first one to which are added new problems as well as one paradigm of double task. The results show that the orderly mode of presentation also facilitates the elaboration of transferable knowledge with new problems. However, the distances from performances do not seem to be attributable in the cognitive load of the task. The third experiment brings more qualitative data, which come to support the first results. The verbalization of rules elaborated during the signing shows prevalence of the organized design. The subjective evaluation of the supplied mental effort confirms the insensitivity of the cognitive load in the mode of presentation of the task. So, the impact of the mode of presentation does not seem to ensue from a too important cognitive load during a random presentation but a lot of interest of an organized design.