Background & Aims: Cognitive load theory assumes that the higher the learner's prior knowledge (i.e., the more expert the learner), the lower the intrinsic cognitive load (complexity) experienced for a given problem. While this is the case in many scenarios, there can be cases in which the converse is also true, resulting in more expert…

Linear functions are an essential part of school and university education. Nevertheless, this topic is challenging for many students--especially in STEM topics. In this article, we contribute to the understanding of learning difficulties in the context of mathematical and physical problems. Here, we present the results of an eye-tracking study on…

Children with mathematical difficulties need to spend more time than typically achieving children on solving even simple equations. Since these tasks already require a larger share of their cognitive resources, additional demands imposed by the need to switch between tasks may lead to a greater decline of performance in children with mathematical…

In research practice, it is common to measure cognitive load after learning using self-report scales. This approach can be considered risky because it is unclear on what basis learners assess cognitive load, particularly when the learning material contains varying levels of complexity. This raises questions that have yet to be answered by…

Interleaved practice combined with comparison prompts can better foster students' adaptive use of subtraction strategies compared to blocked practice. It has not been previously investigated whether all students benefit equally from these teaching approaches. While interleaving subtraction tasks prompts students' attention to the different task…

Providing test questions after an initial study phase is a common instructional technique. In theory, questions that require higher-level (deep) processing should be more beneficial than those that require lower-level (shallow) processing. However, empirical evidence on the matter is inconsistent. To shed light on two potential reasons for these…

The architecture of sleep undergoes distinct changes during childhood and early adolescence. Slow wave sleep is involved in memory processing and may support active consolidation of newly encoded representations to support the formation of abstracted "gist" memories. Here, we examined sleep and overnight memory formation in German school…

Research on the multimedia effect in testing indicates that static representational pictures (RPs) and, potentially, dynamic RPs that further subdivide the picture into segments may support students' mental processing. This might be especially relevant for mathematical word problems that pose high mental demands in a multistage solution process.…

Context: Students with special educational needs in the area of learning (SEN-L) attend vocational trainings to be provided with qualifications for the labor market. Competences in arithmetic operations and comparing quantities such as weights and lengths are indispensable for obtaining a vocational qualification. Therefore, the study investigates…

The current study examined children's spontaneous private speech during the vertical and the horizontal Tube Task to shed light on the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying tool innovation. Tool innovation is defined as solving a novel problem by using or modifying objects in a new and useful way without prior instructions.…

Children with externalizing behavior problems are likely to show poor school achievements, problems in social interactions with teachers and peers and an elevated school-related stress. Though class climate is a meaningful variable to explain school achievements and aspects of emotional well-being, there are hardly any studies that consider class…

A previous study found that task shifting and fluid intelligence, but not working memory capacity (WMC) and prior knowledge, influenced the worked example effect (Schwaighofer, Bühner, & Fischer, 2016). To increase confidence in these findings, we report a preregistered extended replication study of Schwaighofer et al.'s investigation.…

Intuitive knowledge seems to influence human decision-making outside of consciousness and differs from deliberate cognitive and metacognitive processes. Intuitive knowledge can play an essential role in problem solving and may offer the initiation of subsequent learning processes. Scientific discovery learning with computer simulations leads to…

This article combines different conceptualizations of teachers' diagnostic competence in listening to students' mathematical thinking processes on the levels of general perspectives, noticed aspects and activated didactic categories. An empirical study of 159 prospective mathematics teachers' diagnostic judgments investigated how these levels are…

Worked examples have proven to be effective for knowledge acquisition compared with problem solving, particularly when prior knowledge is low (e.g., Kalyuga, 2007). However, in addition to prior knowledge, executive functions and fluid intelligence might be potential moderators of the effectiveness of worked examples. The present study examines…