Memory is expressed in multiple functionally and anatomically distinct systems that interact over the course of learning and during the retrieval of information about the world. One method to determine the kind of memory representation (episodic and/or procedural) guiding behavior is to look at the expression of expectations (i.e., predictions) in…

Vision and language are the primary modalities of our human perception and learning. Recent years have witnessed fast development of methods that connect vision and language. Current deep learning methods are data-hungry, thus pre-training on large-scale data helps warm up the model and shows better fine-tuning results on downstream tasks.…

This study was an attempt to better understand how law faculty search for and create "linkages between subject matter being taught and law students' existing (that is, prior) knowledge and experience." For faculty who do search for and create these linkages, the study can help them understand, and potentially give them access to,…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to investigate the potential effect that blended learning has on student achievement in high school math. The theoretical framework used for this study was constructivism theory. The constructivism theory focuses on the idea that learning is a process where students build new knowledge…

History museum professionals make many assumptions about how visitors learn at their sites but, for various reasons, they rarely do research to test those assumptions. The primary purpose of this study was to explore how adults learn in history museums to fill that gap in understanding. This research utilized a conceptual framework that combined…

This research delves into the attitudes, perceptions, and motivations of student-athletes enrolled in Intermediate Algebra courses. It focuses on the distinct challenges they encounter in juggling academic and athletic responsibilities at a southeastern university in the United States. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study gathered…

An increasing number of people are going online to learn in their everyday lives. Learning and integrating new information from online sources can be difficult because it takes time and taxes human memory (Greene et al., 2018b). People must self-regulate while learning online to accurately and aptly learn new information (Azevedo, 2005).…

Phonotactic patterns are generalizations that govern the order of consonants and vowels, within words and syllables. Certain second-order phonotactic patterns--those that relate multiple sounds within a syllable, such as "if the vowel is [near-close near-front unrounded vowel], then [s] can only appear at the end of the…

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) presents postsecondary educators with a conundrum: how to design and support small-group activities without stifling deep and meaningful learning. The literature indicates that students are not consistently practicing higher-order cognitive activities, educators are not reliably designing or…

This dissertation describes an experiment to investigate how learners with different levels of background in computer science learn core concepts of computer science, in particular, algorithms. We designed a study to focus on cognitive task analysis for eliciting the empirical mental elements of learning two graph algorithms. Cognitive workload…

Executive function (EF) predicts children's academic achievement; however, less is known about the relation between EF and the actual learning process. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand how different aspects of the learning environment interact with EF to influence learning. The current dissertation includes two studies to…

This dissertation investigates the longitudinal development of Chinese language proficiency among students in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) Flagship Program at an American public university from 2014 to 2024. Using Bayesian multilevel regression models, this study assesses the trajectories of listening, speaking, and reading proficiency…

This dissertation examines the thesis that implicit learning plays a role in learning about scientific phenomena, and subsequently, in conceptual change. Decades of research in learning science demonstrate that a primary challenge of science education is overcoming prior, naive knowledge of natural phenomena in order to gain scientific…

This dissertation explores the processes that drive perceptual adaptation to variation in speech by examining how sources of prediction and uncertainty modulate perceptual learning processes. In particular, we examined how the perceptual system leverages different types of information during adaptation, varying in the degree to which they predict…

The field of Physics Education Research (PER) seeks to investigate how students learn physics and how instructors can help students learn more effectively. The process by which learners create understanding about a complex physics concept is an active area of research. My study explores this process, using solar cells as the context. To understand…