Each game within the Ignite by Hatch™ gaming environment belongs to an overall developmental domain and skills-based subdomain and is intended to meet the developmental needs of children at specific skill levels. These skill levels (Beginning, Emerging, Intermediate, Accomplishing, and Proficient+) form an intended developmental pathway. Children…

In some cases difficult-to-read learning materials lead to better performance than easy to-read materials. This phenomenon is called the disfluency effect and is attributed to a subjective feeling of task difficulty resulting in a deeper learning approach. In two studies (n[subscript 1] = 67, n[subscript 2] = 73) we investigated the impact of…

Previous research has indicated the disconnect between example-based research focusing on worked examples (WEs) and that focusing on modeling examples. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effect of four different types of examples from the two separate lines of research, including standard WEs, erroneous WEs, expert (masterly)…

Taking a psycholinguistic orientation within task-based language teaching scholarship, this study investigated the effects of mode (oral vs. written) and task complexity on second language (L2) performance. The participants were 78 Catalan/Spanish learners of English as a foreign language. Half of the participants performed the simple and complex…

This study investigated metacognitive monitoring abilities in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in two experiments using the judgment-of-learning paradigm. Participants were asked to predict their future recall of unrelated word pairs during the learning phase. Experiment 1 compared judgments-of-learning made immediately after learning and…

Understanding how students translate between mathematical representations is of both practical and theoretical importance. This study examined students' processes in their generation of symbolic and graphic representations of given polynomial functions. The purpose was to investigate how students perform these translations. The result of the study…

This study investigates problem-solving difficulties of novices in a classroom setting, using a German instructional tool, the Fischertechnik kit of approximately 400 parts. In order to analyse the students' thinking processes as they solved the problems, verbal protocol analysis (VPA) was used to record the students'' thinking processes and…

Cognitive load theorists claim that problem-centered instruction is not an effective instruction because it is not compatible with human cognitive structure. They argue that the nature of problem-centered instruction tends to over-load learner working memory capacity. That is why many problem-centered practices fail. To better support students and…

The "interactivity principle" in multimedia learning states that giving learners control over pace and order of instructions decreases cognitive load and increases transfer performance. We tested this guideline by comparing a learner-paced instruction with a system-paced instruction. Time-on-task and interactive behavior were logged, and were also…

We conducted 2 studies to investigate undergraduate performance, perceptions, and time required in completing sequentially ordered, randomly ordered, or reverse ordered exams in introductory psychology classes. Study 1 compared the outcomes and perceptions of students (N = 66) on 3 non-comprehensive multiple-choice exams which were sequentially,…

Using the cognitive fit paradigm as a theoretical framework, this study compared the problem-solving performance of users of a hypertext-based learning aid to the performance of users of a computer-based linear text learning aid. Subjects were 103 undergraduate MIS (Management Information Systems) majors enrolled in an information systems analysis…