Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of open-book examinations (OBE) in higher education has increased compared to closed-book examinations (CBE), raising questions about the relative efficacy of these two major examination formats. We review the effects of CBE and OBE on learning and examine potential moderating variables related to study,…

The current study examined how individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders navigate the complexities of learning within multidimensional environments marked by uncertain dimension values and without explicit guidance. Participants engaged in a game-like complex reinforcement learning task in which the stimuli dimension determining reward…

Background: Undergraduate students consistently struggle with mastering concepts related to thermodynamics. Prior work has shown that haptic technology and intensive hands-on workshops help improve learning outcomes relative to traditional lecture-based thermodynamics instruction. The current study takes a more feasible approach to improving…

Healthy aging is associated with changes in motor sequence learning, with some studies indicating decline in motor skill learning in older age. Acute cardiorespiratory exercise has emerged as a potential intervention to improve motor learning, however research in healthy older adults is limited. The current study investigated the impact of…

Interventions that match demands to ability can enhance both academic performance and behavioral performance. However, it is unknown whether the instructional match or subsequent increases in engagement with the instructional material differentially impacts learning. The current study evaluated the effect of task difficulty on on-task behavior and…

In rule-based (RB) category-learning tasks, the optimal strategy is a simple explicit rule, whereas in information-integration (II) tasks, the optimal strategy is impossible to describe verbally. This study investigates the effects of two different category properties on learning difficulty in category learning tasks--namely, linear separability…

Against intuition, a set of "desirable difficulties" has been touted as a way in which to improve learning and lengthen retention. This includes, for instance, varying the conditions of learning to allow for more active, effortful, or challenging, contexts. In the current paper, we introduce data that show that, on the contrary, learning…

Making judgments of learning (JOLs) can sometimes modify subsequent memory performance, which is referred to as JOL reactivity. We evaluated two major theoretical explanations of JOL reactivity and used the dual-retrieval model to pinpoint the retrieval processes that are modified by JOLs. The changed-goal hypothesis assumes that JOLs highlight…

When faced with challenging thinking tasks accompanied by a feeling of uncertainty, people often prefer to opt out (e.g., replying "I don't know", seeking advice) over giving low-confidence responses. In professions with high-stakes decisions (e.g., judges, medical practitioners), opting out is generally seen as preferable to making…

Purpose: The study investigated the complex dynamics of employees balancing professional responsibilities with academic pursuits and its impact on the qualities of their work-life balance as well as their acquisition of academic knowledge and skills. Design/methodology/approach: Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 575 workers…

This study explored how self-control and eudaimonic orientation are associated with learning burnout and internet addiction risk (IAR). Our results demonstrate that learning burnout has a significant and positive impact on IAR. The impulse system and control system play parallel mediating roles in the relationship between learning burnout and IAR.…

The purposes of the present investigation were to attempt to replicate the negative effects for learning prompts in older adults reported by Cavanagh, Kraiger and Peters (2016), determine if the impact of learning prompts depends on type of prompt, and investigate the two possible explanations of the negative impact of prompts -- increased…

Transforming educational technologies through the integration of large language models (LLMs) and virtual reality (VR) offers the potential for immersive and interactive learning experiences. However, the effects of LLMs on user engagement and attention in educational environments remain open questions. In this study, we utilized a fully…

We propose a new item response theory growth model with item-specific learning parameters, or ISLP, and two variations of this model. In the ISLP model, either items or blocks of items have their own learning parameters. This model may be used to improve the efficiency of learning in a formative assessment. We show ways that the ISLP model's…

The present study proposes a Bayesian approach for estimating and testing the operation-specific learning model, a variant of the linear logistic test model that allows for the measurement of the learning that occurs during a test as a result of the repeated use of the operations involved in the items. The advantages of using a Bayesian framework…