Testing students on information that they do not know might seem like a fruitless endeavor. After all, why give anyone a test that they are guaranteed to fail because they have not yet learned the material? Remarkably, a growing body of research indicates that such testing--formally known as "prequestioning" or…

Gateway science courses are an ongoing obstacle to recruitment into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Students come into courses that have a high cognitive load, which makes success in the course challenging. Instructional design can be used to reduce cognitive load. The findings demonstrate that leveraging pre- and…

Relating mathematical concepts to graphical representations is a challenging task for students. In this paper, we introduce two visual strategies to qualitatively interpret the divergence of graphical vector field representations. One strategy is based on the graphical interpretation of partial derivatives, while the other is based on the flux…

In this study, we investigated whether incorporating eye tracking into cognitive interviewing is effective when pretesting survey questions. In the control condition, a cognitive interview was conducted using a standardized interview protocol that included pre-defined probing questions for about one-quarter of the questions in a 52-item…

While MOOCs undoubtedly provide valuable learning resources for students, little research in the MOOC context has sought to evaluate students' learning gains in the environment. It has been long acknowledged that conversation is a significant way for students to construct knowledge and learn. However, rather than studying learning in MOOC…

From the perspective of parallel mixed-methods research, this paper describes interactivity research that employed usability-testing technology to analyse cognitive learning processes; personal learning styles and times; and errors-and-recovery of learners using an interactive e-learning tutorial called "Relations." "Relations"…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore what it means to be able to move in different ways. What does it mean, from the perspective of the learners, to know how to carry out a specific movement? What is there to know and how could this insight contribute to the planning of developing learners' capability to move in different ways? As an…

Does a visual mask need to be perceptually present to disrupt processing? In the present research, we proposed to explore the link between perceptual and memory mechanisms by demonstrating that a typical sensory phenomenon (visual masking) can be replicated at a memory level. Experiment 1 highlighted an interference effect of a visual mask on the…

This study was designed to assess the impact of a decision-making curriculum (PEER-DM) on the social peer relationship knowledge and self-protective decision-making skills of adolescents with disabilities in hypothetical situations involving negative peer pressure. A randomized design was used to assign students with disabilities from…

The paper investigates the impact of learning effects on the study of life-like multimedia materials (LMMs) which are produced by the LMM tool. Teachers can readily utilize the tool to make the LMMs for their instructions in traditional classrooms. When students study the LMMs out of class, they can realistically recall teacher's teaching…

This research focuses on the associations between interactive processes of early childhood classrooms and gains in children's cognitive self-regulation (CSR) across the preschool year. Data from 803 children (45.8% female; "M" = 54 months; 39.1% Caucasian, 26.3% African American, 24.6% Hispanic, 9.9% Other) were collected at fall and…

Eight, ten, and twelve year old children were tested on a novel procedure involving the successive presentation of standard and comparision stimuli. Two hypotheses were evaluated: one dealing with memory effects, and the other with children's pretesting of choice responses in spatial information processing. (Editor/RK)

The purpose of this study was to determine whether familiarity was a significant factor in increased cognitive synthesis scores and to conduct a comparison of the training methods employed on the basis of the test score patterns. Previous studies had revealed that symbolic representation was important, but they had not clarified the ways in which…

A functional (as opposed to structural) theory of intellectual development is presented and used to generate specific performance models for Piagetian tasks involving the control of variables (cf. Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). On the basis of these models, it is concluded that intelligent, field independent 7- and 8-year-olds should be able to…