Editing Pre-Training Principle (section)

=='''Evidence'''==
"Pretraining can help beginners to manage their processing of complex material by reducing the amount of essential processing they do at the time of the presentation" (Clark & Mayer, 2011, p. 215). In these situations involving complex material, it is helpful if some of the processing can be done in advance" (Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard E. Mayer, e-learning and the Science of instruction, P214).

Pre-training is beneficial for learners who are unfamiliar with the content of a lesson. It reduces the amount of information they must process as well as the level of effort required for thinking and reasoning, preventing cognitive overload.

The effects of using screencasting as a multimedia pre-training tool to manage the intrinsic cognitive load of chemical equilibrium instruction on high school chemistry students were studied at the University of San Francisco.

Chemistry is a complex knowledge domain. Chemical Equilibrium, in particular, presents more significant cognitive challenges than other topics in chemistry, according to research. The researchers randomly assigned students to two groups: pre-training and no pre-training. The pre-training group received a 10-minute and 52-second pre-training screencast that provided definitions, concepts, and an overview of chemical equilibrium. Following pre-training, both groups were given a 50-minute instructional lecture.

Because there were no significant differences in prior knowledge, it can be concluded that pre-training was effective in reducing intrinsic load.

''*'''Cognitive Load Theory''' describes the impact a subject, and the learning environment, have on working memory(Sweller, 2011).'' 

''*'''Intrinsic load''' is the facet of Cognitive Load Theory that explains the complexity innate to complex subjects.''