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Expert-Novice Differences and Adaptive Multimedia 213 Copyright 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Overall, it is possible to suggest that multimedia presentations could be more cognitively efficient if they continuously and dynamically tailor formats of information presentation to changing levels of user proficiency in a domain. Appropriately-constructed rapid diagnostic methods based on immediate traces of the content of long-term working memory while users approach a task or solve a problem, could be used to dynamically monitor levels of expertise in the domain. Rapid cognitive diagnosis in combination with principles for optimizing cognitive load derived from the expertise reversal effect could provide effective adaptive procedures. Developing appropriate rapid cognitive diagnostic techniques is the key task in implementing this adaptive multimedia methodology. As mentioned previously, long-term memory structures define the characteristics of our performance during knowledgebased cognitive activities. If a person is facing a task in a familiar domain, and her or his immediate approach to this task is based on available knowledge structures, these structures will be rapidly activated and brought into the person s working memory. A corresponding LTWM structure will be created. These LTWM structures are durable and interference-proof to allow sufficient time for a practically-usable diagnostic procedure. There is no need to capture the immediate content of memory strictly within a split-second of corresponding cognitive operations. The available time could be sufficient for recording or otherwise registering task responses in a suitable format. The general idea of this diagnostic approach is to determine the highest level of organized knowledge structures (if any) that a person is capable of retrieving and applying rapidly to a task or situation she or he encounters. The approach has been realized as the first-step diagnostic method. Learners were presented with a task for a limited time and asked to indicate their first step towards solution (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2004). The first step would involve different cognitive operations for individuals with different levels of expertise in a domain. An expert may immediately provide the final answer; a less knowledgeable person may indicate the very first operation according to a detailed step-by-step solution procedure; and a novice may start some search process, for example, using a trial-and-error technique. Therefore, different first-step responses would reflect different levels of acquisition of corresponding knowledge structures. Skipping some intermediate procedural operations when showing the first subjectively-significant solution step would indicate a higher level of proficiency: the expert may have corresponding operations automated or well-learned to be able to perform them mentally without exceeding working memory capacity. The first-step method was used (both in paper- and computer-based formats) to diagnose secondary and high-school students knowledge of procedures for solving linear algebraic equations, simple coordinate geometry tasks, and arithmetic word problems (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2004; Kalyuga, in press), and for testing reading comprehension skills (Kalyuga, 2006) Experimental results indicated significant correlations (.72 - .92) between performance on these tasks and traditional measures of knowledge that required complete solutions of corresponding tasks. Test times were reduced by factors of up to 4.9 in comparison with traditional test times. The first-step diagnostic method was not only less time-consuming but also more sensitive to underlying knowledge structures than traditional tests.

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