Procedural fidelity is defined as the extent to which the independent variable is implemented as prescribed. Research using computerized tasks has shown that fidelity errors involving consequences for behavior can hinder skill acquisition. However, studies examining the effects of these errors once skills have been mastered are lacking. Thus, this…

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…

Eye movement modeling examples (EMMEs) are instructional videos (e.g., tutorials) that visualize another person's gaze location while they demonstrate how to perform a task. This systematic literature review provides a detailed overview of studies on the effects of EMME to foster observers' performance and learning and highlights their differences…

The effect of time pressure on metacognitive control is of theoretical and empirical relevance and is likely to allow us to tap into developmental differences in performances which do not become apparent otherwise, as previous studies suggest. In the present study, we investigated the effect of time pressure on metacognitive control in three age…

An extended (and probably unnecessary) parallel is drawn between engagement in mathematics and engagement in musical performance. Key facets of engagement are described and a model of how mathematics engagement plays out in task-level activities is discussed in light of new findings related to its social and emotional facets. Implications for…

This study examined the effect of a "ghost" demonstration on toddlers' imitation. In the "ghost" condition, virtual pieces moved to make a fish or boat puzzle. Fifty-two 2.5- and 3-year-olds were tested on a touchscreen (no transfer) or with 3D pieces (transfer); children tested with 3D pieces scored above a no demonstration…

While researchers have often sought to understand the learning curve in terms of multiple component processes, few studies have measured and mathematically modeled these processes on a complex task. In particular, there remains a need to reconcile how abrupt changes in strategy use can co-occur with gradual changes in task completion time. Thus,…

Sensory judgments improve with practice. Such perceptual learning is often thought to reflect an increase in perceptual sensitivity. However, it may also represent a decrease in response bias, with unpracticed observers acting in part on a priori hunches rather than sensory evidence. To examine whether this is the case, 55 observers practiced…

Studies of the "testing effect" have shown that retrieval significantly improves learning. However, most of these studies have been restricted to simple types of declarative verbal knowledge. Five experiments were designed to explore whether testing improves acquisition of route knowledge, which has a procedural component consisting of…

Interacting with a system is key to uncovering its causal structure. A computational framework for interventional causal learning has been developed over the last decade, but how real causal learners might achieve or approximate the computations entailed by this framework is still poorly understood. Here we describe an interactive computer task in…

This study investigated how to teach perceptual tasks, that is, classifying fish locomotion, through eye movement modeling examples (EMME). EMME consisted of a replay of eye movements of a didactically behaving domain expert (model), which had been recorded while he executed the task, superimposed onto the video stimulus. Seventy-five students…

Rats were able to search multiple food cups in a foraging task and successfully return to a fixed, but not a variable, start location. Reducing the number of food cups to be searched resulted in an improvement in performance in the variable start condition. Performance was better when only one or two food cups had to be visited but was still…

Monitoring refers to online awareness and self-evaluation of one's goal-directed actions, while Control refers to the generation and selection of goal-directed actions (Osman, 2010a). The present study examines the extent to which external estimations of performance influence monitoring and control behaviors. To achieve this, a complex dynamic…

Children's acquisition of tool use abilities is an important part of development but is not yet well understood. This study compares two modes of tool-use learning, observation and individual haptic experience. Two- and 3-year-olds had haptic experience with tools, observed tool use by others, had both haptic and observational experience, or no…

Past studies have suggested that study time allocation partially mediates age relations on memory performance in a verbal task. To identify whether this applied to a different material modality, participants ages 20-87 completed a spatial task in addition to a traditional verbal task. In both the verbal and the spatial task, increased age was…