Paul Chandler

Who they are

Chandler appears in this site's material as the first author of the 1991 paper with Sweller and the third author of the 2003 review with Slava Kalyuga, Paul Ayres and Sweller. His affiliation and wider body of work have not been verified for this site, so this page does not describe them.

Key papers

Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (1991). Cognitive load theory and the format of instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 8(4), 293-332. doi:10.1207/s1532690xci0804_2

The paper argues that split-source instruction, in which related material such as text and diagrams is kept apart, forces the learner to integrate it mentally before learning can start, creating an unnecessary load. It reports six experiments using electrical engineering and biology materials. The first compared conventional and integrated instructions over several months in an industrial training setting, with materials that were unintelligible without mental integration, and favoured the integrated version.

Kalyuga, S., Ayres, P., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (2003). The expertise reversal effect. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 23-31. doi:10.1207/S15326985EP3801_4

The review reports that techniques which reduce working memory load can help learners build and automate schemas, but that methods which help novices can lose their value, or even hurt, with more experienced learners.

Key ideas

The 1991 paper is the source of the finding now called the split-attention effect, described on its own page on this site.

The 2003 review gave the expertise reversal effect its name and is also described on its own page.

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