Individuals often have difficulties completing tasks in a timely manner. Whether it be scheduling a doctor's appointment, purchasing a birthday gift, or booking an airline ticket, waiting until the very last minute can carry serious consequences. In two experimental studies, we explore how individuals can be encouraged to finish tasks promptly. We…

Recent research has shown that enhancing instructional videos with questions, such as self-explanation prompts, and thus shifting the process from receptive to constructive learning, is beneficial to learning. However, the inclusion of questions is often confounded with the implementation of learner pacing through navigation features. Furthermore,…

The adoption of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in education has grown significantly due to their potential to enhance learning. Effective learning in VLEs depends on managing cognitive load and sustaining motivation, particularly for complex tasks like developing teachers' professional vision -- the ability to notice and interpret classroom…

Accurate metacognitive monitoring improves performance in a variety of naturalistic contexts. However, the laboratory contexts used to study metacognition differ from naturalistic environments in important ways. Specifically, laboratory experiments require learners to make repeated, overt judgments that are thought to reflect underlying…

Example-based learning is a well-known instructional method for effective cognitive skill acquisition in complex domains. "(Contrasting) erroneous examples" are a promising extension that embed errors in instructional material, potentially fostering not only positive but negative knowledge. However, the mechanisms and conditions for…

Self-explanation prompts in example-based learning are usually directed backwards: Learners are required to self-explain problem-solving steps just presented ("retrospective" prompts). However, it might also help to self-explain upcoming steps ("anticipatory" prompts). The effects of the prompt type may differ for learners with…

Previous research often revealed detrimental effects of seductive details on learning with multimedia instruction, but there are mixed findings regarding how to best explain these detrimental effects. We investigated whether the detrimental effects of seductive details are mainly mediated by the cognitive processes of diversion (deeper processing…

In professional training, developing critical thinking is essential for professionals to analyse problem situations and respond effectively to emergencies. Conventional professional training typically employs multimedia materials combined with progressive prompting (PP) to support trainees in constructing knowledge and solving problems on their…

Functional fixedness involves difficulty with conceptualizing creative object uses. When it obstructs problem-solving, individuals must reframe their approach. We examined how different training techniques--chunk decomposition (i.e., considering an object's basic parts and physical properties) and constraint relaxation (i.e., considering an…

Previous studies have shown that encouraging students to use self-explanation strategies has proven effective in text-focused learning contexts. However, no study to date has focused on how students' strategy preference moderates the effect of self-explanation strategies on learning from video lectures. The current study investigated how students'…

This study investigated multimodal multiple text comprehension (MMTC) among forty-eight Taiwanese university students, considering their cognitive and affective characteristics. A randomized trial with pre- and post-tests design was applied. The experiment group received a browser-embedded note-taking device along with epistemic prompting. The…

Use of online video lectures is increasingly common. However, students may struggle to self-regulate their attention and passively process the content. This study examined whether, and for whom, different types of embedded learning prompts improve student learning from video lectures. Undergraduate physics students (N = 253) watched an online,…

This study examined the effects of worked examples with different explanation types and novices' motivation on cognitive load, and how this subsequently influenced their programming problem-solving performance. Given the study's emphasis on both instructional approaches and learner motivation, the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning served as…

Purpose: The National Academy of Medicine has called for "identifying opportunities to improve the diagnostic process". We studied the association between problem representation and diagnostic accuracy during an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). Materials and methods: We conducted a non-randomized controlled trial during a…

This study investigated how and how often to present prompts to enhance students' source evaluation and multiple-text comprehension. Participants were 72 undergraduates who read a set of digital texts on a controversial topic of smartphone use and mental health, wrote a justification statement for their selection of trustworthy texts, and answered…