The main objective of this methodological article is to discuss the contribution of response times as a tool in education research. The use of response times in research is largely a legacy of the work carried out in cognitive psychology, which has made it possible to describe the cognitive processes involved in information processing. In…

Two metacognitive knowledge types in deductive domains are procedural and conditional. This work presents a preliminary study on the impact of metacognitive knowledge and motivation on transfer across two Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), then two experiments on metacognitive knowledge instruction. Throughout this work, we trained students on a…

Self-explanation prompts in example-based learning are usually directed backwards: Learners are required to self-explain problem-solving steps just presented ("retrospective" prompts). However, it might also help to self-explain upcoming steps ("anticipatory" prompts). The effects of the prompt type may differ for learners with…

The ubiquity of formal education in modern nations is often accompanied by an assumption that students' motivation for learning is innate and self-sustaining. The latter is true for most children in domains (e.g., language) that are universal and have a deep evolutionary history, but this does not extend to learning in evolutionarily novel domains…

Background: Spatial problem-solving is an essential skill for success in many engineering disciplines; thus, understanding the cognitive processes involved could help inform the design of training interventions for students trying to improve this skill. Prior research has yet to investigate the differences in cognitive processes between spatial…

Students process qualitatively and quantitatively different information during the dynamic self-regulated learning (SRL) process, and thus they may experience varying cognitive load in different SRL behaviors. However, there is limited research on the role of cognitive load in SRL. This study examined students' cognitive load in micro-level SRL…

The benefits of retrieval practice (practice testing) are pervasive across various materials, learning conditions, and criterial tasks, and consequently researchers and educators have enthusiastically recommended retrieval practice for educational applications. Less research has been devoted to examining the effect of combining retrieval practice…

The study investigated the joint contribution of the self-regulated learning (SRL) and individual differences approaches to the prediction of university students' grade point average (GPA) obtained at three separate time points throughout their degree (3 years). We assessed cognitive (i.e., previous academic performance, cognitive ability, and…

Testing can potentiate new learning, which is often called the "forward testing effect." One potential explanation for this benefit is that testing might enable participants to use more effective learning strategies subsequently. We investigated this possibility by asking participants to report their encoding strategies in a multi-list…

Students tend to avoid effective but effortful study strategies. One potential explanation could be that high-effort experiences may not give students an immediate feeling of learning, which may affect their perceptions of the strategy's effectiveness and their willingness to use it. In two experiments, we investigated the role of mental effort in…

This article aims to present learning strategies that can be applied to OpenWHO online courses to primarily increase learning retention and nudge behavior change where applicable. This paper draws on existing research on learning strategies and takes an innovative approach to recommend how these strategies could be applied to learning design to…

Recent literature emphasises the role of exploration, designerly play, creative thinking, and handling of materials in the beginning years of learning. This paper reports findings from a study involving 24 children (aged 4 to 10 years), where the researchers engaged with four-story contexts (tasks) that had embedded problem scenarios. In response…

Background: Despite the numerous positive effects of augmented reality (AR) on learning, previous research has shown ambiguous results regarding the cognitive demand on the learner arising from, for example, the overlay of virtual elements or novel interaction techniques. At the same time, the number of evidence-based guidelines on designing AR is…

The relationship between digital games and the mobilization of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies deserves attention and needs research that contributes to the understanding of how these strategies can favor the teaching and learning processes. This study describes how university students over 18 years of age mobilize cognitive and…

Background: Online collaborative learning has been widely adopted in the field of education. However, learners often find it difficult to engage in collaboratively building knowledge and jointly regulating online collaborative learning. Objectives: The study compared the impacts of the three learning approaches on collaborative knowledge building,…