The ability to learn in a self-regulated way is important for adolescents' academic achievements. Monitoring one's own learning is a prerequisite skill for successful self-regulated learning. However, accurate monitoring has been found to be difficult for adolescents, especially for learning problem-solving tasks such as can be found in math and…

An adequate level of linguistic complexity in learning materials is believed to be of crucial importance for learning. The implication for school textbooks is that reading complexity should differ systematically between grade levels and between higher and lower tracks in line with what can be called the systematic complexification assumption.…

Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about the extent to which the role of linguistic skills such as phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA) in reading is universal. In this meta-analysis, the authors examined the relationship between PA, MA, and reading (accuracy, fluency, and…

Does correctly answering a test question about a multiterm fact enhance memory for the entire fact? We explored that issue in 4 experiments. Subjects first studied Advanced Placement History or Biology facts. Half of those facts were then restudied, whereas the remainder were tested using "5 W" (i.e., "who, what, when, where",…

We investigated how the updating function supports the integration process in solving arithmetic word problems. In Experiment 1, we measured reading time, that is, translation and integration times, when undergraduate and graduate students (n = 78) were asked to solve 2 types of problems: those containing only necessary information and those…

Writing development seems heavily dependent upon the automatization of transcription. This study aimed to further investigate the link between transcription and writing by examining the effects of promoting handwriting and spelling skills on a comprehensive set of writing measures (viz., bursts and pauses, levels of written language, and writing…

In the course of tutoring, tutors have the opportunity to formatively assess a tutee's understanding. The information gathered by engaging in formative assessment can be used by tutors not only to adapt instruction in order to enhance learning but also to form a summative judgment in order to document a tutee's learning after tutoring.…

Understanding an arithmetic operation implies, at minimum, knowing the direction of effects that the operation produces. However, many children and adults, even those who execute arithmetic procedures correctly, may lack this knowledge on some operations and types of numbers. To test this hypothesis, we presented preservice teachers (Study 1),…

We compared 5 different statistics (i.e., G index, gamma, "d'", sensitivity, specificity) used in the social sciences and medical diagnosis literatures to assess calibration accuracy in order to examine the relationship among them and to explore whether one statistic provided a best fitting general measure of accuracy. College…

Three experiments examined conceptual change from reading refutational texts and how such learning interacted with prior knowledge organization. Prior to reading, 3 groups of learners were identified on the basis of their prior knowledge of the targeted concept: 2 groups held misconceptions; 1 group was generally accurate. Experiment 1 tested…

This study followed the development of reading speed, reading accuracy, and spelling in transparent Finnish orthography in children through Grades 2, 3, and 8. We compared 2 groups of children with familial risk for dyslexia--1 group with dyslexia (Dys _FR, n = 35) and 1 group without (NoDys_FR, n = 66) in Grade 2--with a group of children without…

This study investigated the development of representational competence among organic chemistry students by using 3D (concrete and virtual) models as aids for teaching students to translate between multiple 2D diagrams. In 2 experiments, students translated between different diagrams of molecules and received verbal feedback in 1 of the following 3…

Using a cognitive load theory approach, we investigated the effects of speaker variability when individuals are learning to understand English as a foreign language (EFL) spoken by foreign-accented speakers. The use of multiple, Indian-accented speakers was compared to that of a single speaker for Chinese EFL learners with a higher or lower…