Control Over Spatial Representation Format Enhances Information Extraction but Prevents Long-Term Learning

Previous research has demonstrated that cognitive offloading (i.e., externalizing mental processes) is useful for immediate problem solving. However, long-term effects of cognitive offloading on subsequent problem solving without offloading are remarkably understudied. Our main goal was to investigate the effects of representation control (i.e., adjusting the format of the representation to task requirements) on incidental procedural learning in an information extraction task with interactive visualizations. More specifically, we tested how the availability of representation control for solving tasks in a practice phase affects procedural learning measured in a testing phase in which representation control is no longer available. In both phases, we explored time on task as well as proportion correct as proxies of task performance and analyzed how often participants used representation control. We conducted three experiments in which participants could modify and reorganize information displays in the practice phase, whereas in the testing phase, they had to solve equivalent and near transfer problems without this offloading opportunity. We show that representation control is beneficial for immediate task solution, particularly for problems that require a spatial transformation. This benefit was more pronounced for automated (i.e., system-controlled) types of control (Experiment 3). In contrast, in subsequent problem solving without representation control (up to 24 hr later), participants who had been using representation control previously fell back to the level of an untrained baseline condition (Experiments 1 and 2). However, the detrimental effect of representation control was confined to equivalent tasks and did not generalize to a near transfer task. Educational Impact and Implications Statement Interactive types of visualizations have become an important form of learning material, both in schools and in higher education. Although previous studies of interactive control of visual representations have focused mainly on their immediate effects on acquisition of learning contents (effects with representation control), the present demonstrates the detrimental long-term effects of the use of representation control on learning procedural tasks (effects of representation control) if this control feature is no longer available to the learner. We further show that reducing active representation control while still visually demonstrating the required procedural