Successive relearning involves repeated retrieval practice of the same information (with feedback) over multiple, spaced sessions. We implemented successive relearning in an introductory psychology class to explore potential learning benefits. After each weekly lecture, students were sent links via e-mail to engage in three learning practice…

Collaboration enhances conceptual learning with multiple representations. However, learning with multiple representations also involves perceptual learning processes. These often-overlooked learning processes are the target of perceptual trainings, which expose students to short nonverbal tasks so that students can induce visual patterns across…

Retrieval practice typically benefits later memory more than restudy (i.e., the testing effect). The benefits of retrieval-based learning generalize across a range of materials and contexts, leading many cognitive scientists to advocate for broad educational implementation. However, educators and practitioners call for more research on factors…

Many large-scale, school-based interventions have attempted to improve academic performance through promoting students' growth mindset, defined as the belief that one's intellectual ability can increase with practice and time. However, most have shown weak to no effects. Thus, it is important to examine how growth mindset might affect retention…

Our civilization recognizes that errors can be valuable learning opportunities, but for decades, they have widely been avoided or, at best, allowed to occur as serendipitous accidents. The present research tested whether greater learning success could paradoxically be achieved through making errors by intentional design, relative to traditional…

Relational reasoning, or the ability to identify meaningful patterns within streams of information, has emerged as an important factor in a variety of complex tasks. One factor that has received relatively little research attention, however, is how relational reasoning may be influenced by the representational systems (i.e., verbal or nonverbal)…

Interim testing of studied information, compared with restudying or no treatment, facilitates subsequent learning and retention of new information--"the forward testing effect." Previous research exploring this effect has shown that interim testing of studied information from a given domain enhances subsequent learning and retention of…

Example-based learning often uses a design in which learners first receive basic instructional explanations of new principles and concepts and then examples thereof. In this sequence, it is crucial that learners self-explain by using the content of the basic instructional explanations to elaborate on the examples. Typically, learners are not…

Both generative learning tasks and retrieval practice tasks can serve as a beneficial follow-up to an initial study phase in which learners have studied new learning material. However, research that compares the effects of these 2 types of learning tasks is scarce. Therefore, it is widely unknown whether, and if so under which conditions, the one…

Learning processes that involve cognitive incongruity are closely tied to emotional experiences such as curiosity or confusion. The present study examined how discovering that a confidently held misconception is incorrect influences emotions and in turn the motivation to seek additional information. We asked 275 preservice teachers to judge if…

Whereas some evidence exists that math anxiety may interfere with math performance from the very beginning of primary school, no study to date has attempted to investigate whether math anxiety may also interfere with early math learning (i.e., the encoding of new math knowledge) and not only with recalling already mastered contents in test…

This study examined the impacts of 2 different graphic organizers (filled-in graphic organizers and interactive graphic organizers) on middle school students' learning processes, outcomes, experiences, and preferences. In Experiment 1, 60 students were assigned to read a short expository passage in 1 of 3 conditions: text-only, filled-in graphic…

Testing (having students recall material) and worked examples (having students study a completed problem) are both recommended as effective methods for improving learning. The two strategies rely on different underlying cognitive processes and thus may strengthen different types of learning in different ways. Across three experiments, we examine…

Decades of research indicate that peer interaction, where individuals discuss or work on a task collaboratively, may be beneficial for children's and adolescents' learning. Yet, we do not know which features of interaction may be related to learning from peer interaction. This meta-analysis examined results from 62 articles with 71 studies into…

The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom language contexts characterized by peer language skills and proportions of dual language learners (DLL) influenced English language development for DLL and non-DLL children. Participants were 2,131 children from 135 classrooms across preschool through Grade 3. Children were classified into…