Module 6
Cognitive Task Analysis

Reflect

The Content Performance matrix and Conceptual Graph Structures: Identifying the content to be taught

This part of the module provides you with another chance to practice identifying the content in a CGS. Look at the Mouse Moves CGS. Think about what content the Mouse Moves CGS represents. Refer to the Content Performance Matrix as a guide to help you classify the content.  Describe the concepts and procedures in the Mouse Moves CGS.  Write your thoughts in the form below the CGS.  Highlight below feedback with your cursor for feedback.

Feedback: For feedback, triple click the white area below:

Concepts:  highlight, icon, activate, icon, menu item, GUI objects, button

Procedures: activate object, move object

Layouts for Conceptual Graph Structures

Readability
Conventions for CGS Flow
Procedural relationships
Taxonomic relationships
Causal relationships
Compromising the conventions

Readability

Conceptual Graph Structures (CGS) challenge the limited possibilities of two-dimensional representation imposed by paper and computer screens. We can make CGSs easier to understand by following a few simple conventions for layouts.

Which CGS is easier to follow? They are exactly the same in terms of "link logic."

Layout B is more readable because you can see the major structures and ideas quite easily. Notice, for example, the green trapezoids marching along to represent a sequence of goals and actions, and the hierarchical tree of cloud-like concepts descending from a topmost cloud.

Conventions on direction of flow
 

Here are the rules we're using to avoid traffic jams in CGS layouts.

Procedural Relationships
 

Procedural relations reflect sequences of actions, including means and outcome. They are ordered horizontally, from left to right because this is the direction people read English, Spanish, and other western languages. The conventions start with the goal, because people usually formulate a goal and then plan how to achieve that goal. This may seem counter-intuitive, because in a real-time sequence of events, the goal state is achieved after the learner executes the procedure.

But, we're concerned with mapping the way people think, or the way they need to think. So our map reads: "Hmmm, I want to make this facility accessible. What's the means for doing that? Oh, I need to unlock it with a key. What's the means for unlocking it? Oh, I need to insert the key?  Yada, yada, yada.

The means link indicates that an action is the "way" to accomplish a higher-level goal or goal/action.

The before link means that one action is performed before another.  This is a way of indicating that particular action must be performed before another action.

Often a goal can be achieved by multiple paths of action.  In the layout below, we can see that there are three "ways" to get to the goal state.

Note the small branch detailing the "means" for swiping the card. This demonstrates how easy it is to add additional detail to a CGS. Essentially any node can be "unpacked" in this way, depending on the need of the designer to establish, verify, or communicate additional assumptions about how the learner might need to think in order to accomplish the goal.

Taxonomic relationships

Taxonomic structures depict hierarchical classification systems or levels of abstraction, including "has property", "has part," and "instance." The ET544 conventions order these relations vertically with the broader or more abstract categories at the top.

Hierarchy: Concept--instance-->Concept

Hierarchy: Concept--has part-->Concept

Causal relationships

Causal structures represent cause and effect relationships. The ET544 conventions represent these relations diagonally between the procedural and taxonomic axes.

Compromising the conventions

Although the conventions for direction of flow make CGSs more readable at a glance, these conventions often require extra room. If it's important to conserve space to fit a CGS in a smaller space, you may decide to judiciously "bend" the conventions on flow to make for a more compact layout.