EMI: Episodic Model Imprinting Framework

A key factor contributing to the effectiveness of instructional and interface design is understanding how mental representations (i.e., mental models) are created in users as they interact within systems to execute goals. If designers are better able to predict user cognitive processes in the creation of mental models during task interactions, and thus ascertain why certain design features are more effective than others, performance and retention can be enhanced. Episodic Model Imprinting (EMI) that merges core aspects of dual-process theory with cognitive load theory to describe three systems for processing episodic models in working memory: (1) System 1 consistency processing, facilitated by automatic associative domain-specific processes and subsystems; (2) System 2 availability processing, facilitated by controlled capacity-limited domain-general processes and subsystems; and (3) System 3 learnability processing facilitated by a domain-general chunking mechanism. A study is currently being planned to test for positive correlations between EMI based design treatments and Web-based navigation menus, as well as cognitive abilities required for the coordination of associations made into coherent structures, the primary mechanism conjectured for System 3 chunking.