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Category: Project

Description: Why don’t learners choose ideal study strategies when learning? Past research (Kirk-Johnson, Galla, & Fraundorf, 2019) suggests that learners frequently misinterpret the effort affiliated with efficient strategies to be indicative of poor learning. Expanding upon these findings, we explored the integration of study habits into this model (Ariel, Al-Harthy, Was, & Dunlosky, 2011). We conducted two experiments where learners experienced two contrasting strategies – blocked and interleaving schedules – to learn to discriminate images of bird families. After experiencing each strategy, learners rated each for its perceived effort, learning, and familiarity. Next, learners were asked to choose which strategy they would use in the future. Mediation analyses revealed, for both experiments, the more mentally effortful interleaving felt, the less learners felt they learned from it, and the less likely learners were to use it in future learning, replicating Kirk-Johnson et al. (2019). Novel to this study, strategy familiarity predicted strategy choice, also mediated by learners’ perceived learning. Additionally, Study 2 verified that, in contrast to learners’ judg-ments, the less familiar interleaving schedule resulted in better learning. Consequently, learners are making ineffective judgments of learning based on their perceptions of effort and familiarity and therefore do not make use of optimal study strategies in self-regulated learning decisions.