An In Vivo Study of Self-Regulated Study Sequencing in Introductory Psychology Courses.

Paulo F. Carvalho,David W. Braithwaite,Joshua R. de Leeuw,Robert L. Goldstone,Benjamin A. Motz,Eldad Yechiam

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152115

Paulo F. Carvalho, David W. Braithwaite + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152115

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Abstract

Study sequence can have a profound influence on learning. In this study we investigated how students decide to sequence their study in a naturalistic context and whether their choices result in improved learning. In the study reported here, 2061 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course completed an online homework tutorial on measures of central tendency, a topic relevant to an exam that counted towards their grades. One group of students was enabled to choose their own study sequence during the tutorial (Self-Regulated group), while the other group of students studied the same materials in sequences chosen by other students (Yoked group). Students who chose their sequence of study showed a clear tendency to block their study by concept, and this tendency was positively associated with subsequent exam performance. In the Yoked group, study sequence had no effect on exam performance. These results suggest that despite findings that blocked study is maladaptive when assigned by an experimenter, it may actually be adaptive when chosen by the learner in a naturalistic context.

Highlights

Changes in educational approaches and technologies have created new opportunities for learners to study in unsupervised situations where they must make active decisions about their own study
Interleaved study may constitute a “desirable difficulty” [12] in the sense of eliciting greater effort during study, and improve long-term retention. All of these factors are potentially in play, in the current study we focus on the opportunity to compare successive examples from different concepts as mediating the effectiveness of interleaving [7,11,13,14,15,16,17]
As we described in the previous sections, while existing research has provided considerable insight regarding the relative effectiveness of different study sequences in the laboratory, little is known about how learners behave in more ecologically valid contexts

Summary

Introduction

Changes in educational approaches and technologies have created new opportunities for learners to study in unsupervised situations where they must make active decisions about their own study. This introduces new interesting possibilities such as online and intelligent tutoring systems, and new challenges. On the one hand, increased opportunity for self-regulated study might lead to improved engagement and better allocation of study time [1,2]. Self-regulated learning might not lead to improvement because of deficiencies in learners’ knowledge about the efficacy of different study methods [3]. Are students able to take advantage of self-regulated study by organizing their study in the optimal way? In the present work we investigate how students decide to sequence their study and how these decisions affect their learning outcomes in an exam context.

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