This paper uses Vygotsky's cultural-historical development theory to examine the theoretical lineages that influenced Marsick and Watkins' (1990) model of informal and incidental learning. After discussing the context of each influence, the paper applies cultural-historical development theory to the many updates that Marsick, Watkins, and…

Increases in technology use, among youth and adults, are concerning given the volume of information produced and disseminated in the modern world. Conceptual models have been developed to understand how people manage the large volume of information encountered during intentional learning activities with technology. What, if anything, do people…

The DeGroot model has emerged as a credible alternative to the standard Bayesian model for studying learning on networks, offering a natural way to model naive learning in a complex setting. One unattractive aspect of this model is the assumption that the process starts with every node in the network having a signal. We study a natural extension…

The present meta-analysis aimed to improve on Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) by incorporating it into a broader framework that predicts incidental vocabulary learning. Studies testing the ILH were systematically collected and 42 studies meeting our inclusion criteria were analyzed. The model-selection approach was used to determine the optimal…

In this final chapter, we identify and elaborate the connections throughout the volume. We explore the philosophical underpinnings of the original model and analyze how the different lenses in these chapters lead the authors to new understandings of informal and incidental learning that trouble some of the features of the original model. We…

Examples of informal and incidental learning, including an extended discussion of informal learning in flight instruction, are used to illustrate the model of informal and incidental learning in practice, as well as the nonlinear nature of this learning.

High school graduates with language deficits often have poor emotion regulation (ER), enter the workforce unprepared to meet the emotional demands, and experience workforce outcomes that lead to a poor quality of life. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) teach ER, but little is known about ER-targeted speech-language therapy (ERSLT) for high…

Stimuli that capture the central tendency of presented exemplars are often preferred--a phenomenon also known as the classic beauty-in-averageness effect. However, recent studies have shown that this effect can reverse under certain conditions. We propose that a key variable for such ugliness-in-averageness effects is the category structure of the…

Tagging systems represent the conceptual knowledge of a community. We experimentally tested whether people harness this collective knowledge when navigating through the Web. As a within-factor we manipulated people's prior knowledge (no knowledge vs. prior knowledge that was congruent/incongruent to the collective knowledge inherent in the tags).…

Although the motivating role of feedback and progress indicators is understood in formal learning, their role in supporting incidental mobile learning is less well understood. In this paper we argue that well-designed feedback and progress indicators (FPIs) offer guidance and structure that may encourage mobile app users to move from fragmented…

A key challenge in formative evaluation is to gather appropriate evidence to inform the continuous improvement of initiatives. In the absence of outcome data, the programme evaluator often must rely on the perceptions of beneficiaries and staff in generating insight into what is making a difference. The article describes the approach adopted in an…

Complex productivity applications that integrate tasks in the workplace are becoming more common. Usability typically focuses on short-term, immediate measures of task performance. This study incorporates a long-term goal of more durable learning, focusing on implicit learning (spontaneous, unplanned, usually unconscious learning as a result of…

Three experiments examine whether a naturalistic reading task can induce long-lasting changes of syntactic patterns in memory. Judgment of grammatical acceptability is used as an indirect test of memory for sentences that are identical or only syntactically similar to those read earlier. In previous research (Luka & Barsalou, 2005) both sorts of…

Memory improves when encoding and retrieval processes overlap. Here, we investigated how the neural bases of long-term memory encoding vary as a function of the degree to which functional processes engaged at study are engaged again at test. In an incidental learning paradigm, electrical brain activity was recorded from the scalps of healthy…

Tag clouds generated in social tagging systems can capture the collective knowledge of communities. Using as a basis spreading activation theories, information foraging theory, and the co-evolution model of cognitive and social systems, we present here a model for an "extended information scent," which proposes that both collective and individual…