We examined the role of epistemic cognition in calibration to task complexity before and during learning. Sixty-six undergraduate students were presented with two learning tasks--a simple task and a more complex task--in random order. Prior to learning, offline measures of learners' epistemic beliefs about climate change were taken. An open-ended…

In a study investigating different ways to engage students in an individual preparation activity, we assessed learning from collaboration with a peer. Learning was measured at pretest, individual preparation, collaboration, and posttest. Two conditions were compared: generative preparation and nongenerative preparation. With no differences in…

Relations between epistemic perspective and online epistemic processing of evidence when reading a text were examined. Thirty-seven young adolescents and 24 graduate university students were asked to read and think aloud with two texts, one in the history domain and the other in the science domain. Participants also completed a prior-knowledge…

Instruction can be made relevant to students when it draws upon and utilizes their interests, experiences, and "funds of knowledge" in productive ways to support classroom learning. This approach has been referred to as "context personalization." In this paper, we discuss the cognitive basis of personalization interventions,…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of imagination and learner-generated drawing on comprehension, reading time, cognitive load, and eye movements, and whether prior knowledge moderated the effects of these two strategies. Sixty-three undergraduate students participated in a pretest-posttest between-subjects study with the…

This study investigates secondary-task interference on eye movements through learning with multimedia. We focus on the relationship between the influence of the secondary task on the eye movements of learners, and the learning outcomes as measured by retention, matching, and transfer. Half of the participants performed a spatial tapping task while…

Effects of prior knowledge and elaborate processing on retention of connected discourse were studied. Using the mean scores of the control group from each condition, derived scores were calculated for experimental groups. Results indicate prior knowledge and elaborative processing operate to diminish retroactive interference generated by reading a…