This study investigates how task complexity shapes motivation and performance in second language (L2) pragmatics, a domain that remains underexplored within task-based learning research. To address this gap, 37 secondary school learners of English completed both simple and complex decision-making tasks at three intervals over an eight-week period.…

Creative problem-solving skills are essential for navigating complex, non-routine challenges, enabling individuals to create unique goals, execute innovative procedures and generate original outcomes. While the link between metacognitive skills and the creativity of outcomes was established only recently, further exploration is required to…

When young children evaluate their confidence, their monitoring is often overoptimistic, that is, inaccurate. The present study investigated a potential underlying mechanism for kindergarteners' and second graders' overconfidence within a paired associates learning paradigm. We implemented a pre-monitoring phase motivating children to…

Less-advantaged students are under-represented at prestigious universities, but can we infer that they actively avoid them? This research measured university applicants' knowledge of 115 UK universities. Using card-sort tasks within an interview format, 56 Year 13 students from different types of 16-19 education described how they chose five…

The use of technology and learner autonomy are two key issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs. This study aimed to investigate Iranian medical students' readiness to do ESP tasks based on five situations and discover their reasons for choosing each of the situations. Two of the situations (1 and 2) embodied a conventional…

The authors draw on resource allocation theory (Kanfer & Ackerman, 1989) to develop hypotheses regarding the conditions under which collective learning and performance orientation have interactive effects and the nature of those effects on teams' ability to adapt to a sudden and dramatic change in workload. Consistent with the theory, results…

"First-generation" college students, whose parents have not attended college, are an increasing presence at elite colleges and universities. Admitting these students, however, is not enough to ensure that they can take full advantage of the opportunities available to them in college and succeed there. Indeed, research indicates that…

Introduces the Cognitive-Motivational Model of Decision Satisfaction that extends work on closure and the motivational aspects of instruction and learning. Recognizes the importance of information processing in judgmental tasks and specifies confidence as a major contributing factor to learning satisfaction. Suggests potential applications to…