Study Enhancement Based on Principles of Cognitive Science

The team first collected a set of empirical data designed to further our understanding of the effect of errors on learning and the optimal allocation and spacing of study time, and then second, developed and evaluated a computer-assisted program based on principles of cognitive science and designed to support the learning strategies of at-risk middle school children. The focus of the program was on providing support for learning science, social science, and advanced English vocabulary terms these children need to know for their classroom subjects. The goal was to complete eight laboratory-based experiments, and one evaluation of the computer-assisted program within the middle school context.

In the first two studies, the researchers varied the students' learning experiences to investigate whether student learning is adversely affected when students make mistakes and whether those effects vary with the learners' degree of confidence in their own answers. In the third study, the researchers explored whether there are differing effects on learning when students make their own errors as compared to when they observe someone else making errors. In the fourth study, the researchers compared the role of the timing of feedback and errors on learning. The fifth and sixth studies focused on learning in instances in which students give erroneous answers that they are highly confident are correct and on the students' level of attention in these instances. In the seventh study the researchers examined the effects of different spacing patterns on learning. In the eighth study they investigated how excluding items the students have already learned influences their long-term knowledge of those items.