Search

Digital learning games are designed to foster both student learning and enjoyment. Given this goal, an interesting research topic is whether game mechanics that promote learning and those that promote enjoyment have different effects on students' experience and learning performance. We explored these questions in "Decimal Point," a digital learning game that teaches decimal numbers and operations to 5th and 6th graders, through a classroom study with 159 students and two versions of the game. One version encouraged playing and learning through an "open learner model" (OLM, N = 55), while one encouraged playing for enjoyment through an analogous "open enjoyment model" (OEM, N = 54). We compared these versions to a control version that is neutral with respect to learning and enjoyment (N = 50). While students learned in all three conditions, our results indicated no significant condition differences in learning outcomes, enjoyment, or engagement. However, the learning-oriented group engaged more in re-practicing, while the enjoyment-oriented group demonstrated more exploration of different mini-games. Further analyses of students' interactions with the open learner and enjoyment models revealed that students who followed the learner model demonstrated better in-game learning and test performance, while following the enjoyment model did not impact learning outcomes. These findings indicate that emphasizing learning or enjoyment can lead to distinctive game play behaviors, and that open learner models can be helpful in a learning game context. In turn, our analyses have led to preliminary ideas about how to use AI to provide recommendations that are more aligned with students' dynamic learning and enjoyment states and preferences.

There is an established gender gap in middle school math education, where female students report higher anxiety and lower engagement, which negatively impact their performance and even long-term career choices. This work investigates the role of digital learning games in addressing this issue by studying Decimal Point, a math game that teaches decimal numbers and operations to 5th and 6th graders. Through data from four published studies of Decimal Point, involving 624 students in total, the authors identified a consistent gender difference that was replicated across all studies -- male students tended to do better at pretest, while female students tended to learn more from the game. In addition, female students were more careful in answering self-explanation questions, which significantly mediated the relationship between gender and learning gains in two out of four studies. These findings show that learning games can be an effective tool for bridging the gender gap in middle school math education, which in turn contributes to the development of more personalized and inclusive learning platforms.

Children and adults with autism spectrum disorder are less accurate in facial emotion recognition, which is thought to contribute to impairment in social functioning. Although many interventions have been developed to improve facial emotion recognition, there is no consensus on how to best measure facial emotion recognition in people with autism spectrum disorder. This lack of agreement has led to wide variability in how facial emotion recognition is measured and, subsequently, inconsistent findings related to impact of intervention targeting facial emotion recognition impairment. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the extant research on measurement of facial emotion recognition in the context of treatment. We conducted an electronic database search to identify relevant, peer-reviewed articles published between January 1998 and November 2019 to identify studies evaluating change in facial emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorder. Sixty-five studies met inclusion criteria, utilizing a total of 36 different assessment measures for facial emotion recognition in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Only six of the measures were used in multiple studies conducted by different investigative teams. The outcomes of the studies are reported and summarized with the goal of informing future research.

Background: Mindfulness practices enhance executive function skills and academic achievement, spurring interest in integrating mindfulness interventions into education. Embedding mindfulness practice into a digital math game may provide a low‐cost, scalable way to induce mindfulness and boost game‐based learning, yet this approach remains unexplored. Objectives: We investigated the learning benefits of integrating mindfulness exercises in a digital math learning game and examined how students' trait mindfulness might moderate the outcomes. Methods: Two classroom studies were conducted with 404 5th and 6th grade students from six public schools in the U.S. (nStudy 1 = 227, nStudy 2 = 177). The two randomized controlled experiments assigned students to one of the three conditions: passive control (playing the digital learning game Decimal Point), story‐enriched active control, or mindfulness‐enriched condition. Trait mindfulness, learning gains, and in‐game problem‐solving (including problem‐solving duration, error count and correctness after reminder) were assessed. Study 2 included a manipulation check to better understand the effects of the mindfulness intervention. Results: Findings showed no significant differences in learning gains, problem‐solving duration or error count among the conditions. Students' trait mindfulness did not moderate these outcomes. Mindfulness reminders in the mindfulness‐enriched game led to more correct answers after errors than jokes in the story‐enriched game. Study 2 revealed that we failed to induce higher state mindfulness through the mindfulness inductions. Conclusions: Mindfulness prompts could be especially beneficial for students experiencing frustration during gameplay, warranting more exploration for digital game‐based instruction. We highlight barriers and future directions for fostering mindfulness through computer‐based instruction in classrooms. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic?: Researchers focus on digital games as productive learning environments for math, with potential for higher learning gains compared with traditional methods. However, results are mixed, and not all games lead to improved math outcomes.Executive function (EF) skills are crucial for math learning, and mindfulness‐based interventions show promise in enhancing EF skills in school‐aged students.Embedding mindfulness practice into a digital math game may provide a low‐cost, scalable way to induce mindfulness and, in turn, boost EF skills and game‐based learning, yet this approach remains unexplored What does this paper add?: This paper presents the results of two randomized control trials investigating the feasibility and benefits of incorporating mindfulness exercises into a digital math game designed for middle school students. Benefits are compared to those of a story‐enriched and regular version of the same digital math learning game.The paper also explores variations in the effects of the mindfulness‐enriched game based on students' initial trait mindfulness levels.We observe that listening to mindfulness inductions at the beginning of game sessions do not induce mindfulness, and therefore does not benefit math learning.We find that mindfulness prompts received after recurrent errors can be beneficial for students' problem solving. Implications of study findings for practitioners: Our study provides important information on how digital learning game designers should attempt to induce mindfulness in a digital game to promote learning.Digital learning game designers should consider incorporating mindfulness exercises into their games strategically. Presenting mindfulness inductions in audio format at the beginning of game sessions may not induce mindfulness or benefit math learning. Instead, designers should focus on integrating mindfulness prompts at moments when students encounter frustration within the learning game.Beyond embedding audio mindfulness exercises in the game, learning designers should also consider alternative technological and game features to induce mindfulness within a learning game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of achievement goals suggest that different tasks and contexts influence the goals students adopt at a given time. However, many studies of achievement goals rely on measures assessed at the class level, analyze results with a variable-centered approach, and employ self-report questionnaires, which may reduce understanding of the contextual factors that arise as students interact with tasks. We compared a behavioral, task-level measure of middle school students' achievement goals to a self-reported, class-level measure and analyzed both measures' relations to task performance and quarterly grades using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches. Task-level goals predicted task performance but not quarterly grades, while class-level goals predicted grades but not task performance. The two measures of achievement goals were not related. This work demonstrates the importance of measuring goals at multiple levels and suggests opportunities for changing students' behaviors and achievement through motivation at the task level.

This study investigated the hypothesis that prompting students to self-assess their interest and understanding of science concepts and activities would increase their motivation in science classes. Students were randomly assigned to an experimental condition that wrote self-assessments of their competence and interest in science lessons or a control condition that wrote summaries of those same lessons. Writing activities were 10?min long and were given approximately once a week for eighteen weeks. Student motivation was assessed via self-report surveys for achievement goals and interest in science before and after the intervention. Students in the experimental condition showed higher endorsement of mastery goals and reported greater situational interest in science topics after the intervention compared to students who summarised the lessons. Increases in situational interest predicted higher individual interest in the domain. Results indicate an instructional practice requiring just 3?hours out of a semester of instruction was sufficient to achieve these effects on motivation in science classes.

Although collaboration is often considered a beneficial learning strategy, research examining the claim suggests a much more complex picture. Critically, the question is not whether collaboration is beneficial to learning, but instead how and when collaboration improves outcomes. In this paper, we first discuss the mechanisms hypothesized to support and hinder group learning. We then review insights and illustrative findings from research in cognitive, social, and educational psychology. We conclude by proposing areas for future research to expand theories of collaboration while identifying important features for educators to consider when deciding when and how to include collaboration in instructional activities.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by high rates of comorbid internalizing and externalizing disorders. One mechanistic account of these comorbidities is that ASD is characterized by impaired emotion regulation (ER) that results in deficits modulating emotional responses. We assessed neural activation during cognitive reappraisal of faces in high functioning adults with ASD. Groups did not differ in looking time, pupilometry, or subjective ratings of faces during reappraisal. However, instructions to increase positive and negative emotional responses resulted in less increase in nucleus accumbens and amygdala activations (respectively) in the ASD group, and both regulation instructions resulted in less change in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in the ASD group. Results suggest a potential mechanistic account of impaired ER in ASD.

Prior studies have not tested whether an instructional intervention aimed at improving metacognitive skills results in changes to student metacognition, motivation, learning, and future learning in the classroom. We examined whether a 6-hr intervention designed to teach the declarative and procedural components of planning, monitoring, and evaluation could increase students' metacognition, motivation, learning, and preparation for future learning for middle school science. Forty-six eighth-grade students were randomly assigned to either a control group, which received extensive problem-solving practice, or an experimental group, which received more limited problem-solving practice along with metacognitive instruction and training. Results revealed that those who received the metacognitive instruction and training were less biased when making metacognitive judgments, p = 0.03, d = 0.65, endorsed higher levels of motivation after instruction (e.g., there was a large effect on task value, p = 0.006, d = 0.87), performed better on a conceptual physics test, p = 0.03, d = 0.64, and performed better on a novel self-guided learning activity, p = 0.007, d = 0.87. This study demonstrates that metacognitive instruction can lead to better self-regulated learning outcomes during adolescence, a period in which students' academic achievement and motivation often decline.

Robust knowledge serves as a common instructional target in academic settings. Past research identifying characteristics of experts' knowledge across many domains can help clarify the features of robust knowledge as well as ways of assessing it. We review the expertise literature and identify three key features of robust knowledge (deep, connected, and coherent) and four means of assessing these features (perception, memory, problem solving, and transfer). Focusing on the domains of math and science learning, we examine how four instructional techniques--practice, worked examples, analogical comparison, and self-explanation--can promote key features of robust knowledge and how those features can be assessed. We conclude by discussing the implications of this framework for theory and practice.

A central goal of the learning sciences is to discover principles that determine the optimal amount of instructional assistance to support robust learning (Koedinger & Aleven, 2007). We examined learning outcomes from providing and withholding stepwise instructional explanations as students studied worked examples and solved physics problems. We hypothesized that students would acquire more conceptual knowledge from withholding instructional explanations because they would be more likely to engage in constructive cognitive activities to understand the problem-solving steps, whereas providing instructional explanations might suppress such activities. Furthermore, we examined the roles of prior knowledge and student motivation in determining learning outcomes. Across three experiments, students in the withholding conditions showed greater conceptual learning than students in the providing conditions. Additionally, achievement goal orientations were more predictive of learning for the withholding conditions than the providing conditions. We discuss how the interactions between prior knowledge, motivation, and instruction can support learning and transfer. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)

The aim of this study was to investigate reward circuitry responses in autism during reward anticipation and outcomes for monetary and social rewards. During monetary anticipation, participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) showed hypoactivation in right nucleus accumbens and hyperactivation in right hippocampus, whereas during monetary outcomes, participants with ASDs showed hyperactivation in left midfrontal and anterior cingulate gyrus. Groups did not differ in nucleus accumbens responses to faces. The ASD group demonstrated hyperactivation in bilateral amygdala during face anticipation that predicted social symptom severity and in bilateral insular cortex during face outcomes. These results add to the growing body of evidence that autism is characterized by altered functioning of reward circuitry. Additionally, atypical amygdala activation during the processing of social rewards may contribute to the development or expression of autistic features.

Although the latent structure of various eating disorders has been explored in previous studies, no published studies have examined the latent structure of theoretically relevant variables that have been shown to cut across eating disorder diagnoses. The current study examined 3 such variables (dietary restraint, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness) among undergraduate women using the taxometric method. The 5 items from the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire's Dietary Restraint subscale were used as dietary restraint indicators, whereas items from the Eating Disorders Inventory Body Dissatisfaction and Drive for Thinness subscales were used as indicators of body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness, respectively. As hypothesized, MAXCOV (maximum covariance) and MAMBAC (mean above minus below a cut) analyses suggested that all 3 variables are dimensional; therefore, individuals with high levels of reported dietary restraint, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness appear to differ in degree, but not in kind, from those with lower levels. Implications for prevention, assessment, classification, and treatment are discussed. (Contains 6 figures and 2 tables.)

Background: The current study examined the categorical versus continuous nature of child and adolescent depression among three samples of children and adolescents ranging from 5 to 19 years. Methods: Depression was measured using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Indicators derived from the CDI were based on factor analytic research on the CDI and included indices of: 1) social withdrawal, 2) anhedonia, 3) incompetence/maladjustment and 4) negative self-esteem. Results: Taxometric procedures provided convergent support for the existence of a latent taxon across three independent samples. Internal and external consistency tests as well as Monte Carlo simulations supported the validity of the results. Conclusions: Multiple nonredundant procedures and samples were all consistently indicative of taxonicity in child depression.

Discomfort intolerance, defined as an individual difference in the capacity to tolerate unpleasant bodily sensations, is a construct recently posited as a risk factor for panic and anxiety psychopathology. The present report used a biological challenge procedure to evaluate whether discomfort intolerance predicts fearful responding beyond the effects of trait anxiety and a well-established psychological vulnerability factor (i.e., anxiety sensitivity). Nonclinical community participants (N=44) with no history of panic attacks or any Axis I condition completed a 35% CO[subscript 2] challenge. Results are consistent with our hypothesis suggesting that discomfort intolerance incrementally predicts increased subjective reactivity to the challenge. Moreover, there was some suggestion that discomfort intolerance interacted synergistically with anxiety sensitivity to increase anxiety-related symptoms. These findings add to a small but growing literature suggesting that discomfort intolerance may play a role in the development of anxiety problems.

The rise in suicide by African Americans in the United States is directly attributable to the dramatic, nearly three-fold increase in suicide rates of African American males. Gibbs (1997) hypothesized high social support, religiosity, and southern residence are protective factors against suicidality for Black people. This hypothesis was tested among 5,125 participants from the National Comorbidity Survey; 299 were African American males. In this study we hypothesized that there would be significantly lower suicidality in the South, and social support and religiosity would mediate this relationship. Our results indicate that Southern region is indeed a significant predictor of suicidal symptoms in African American men, such that suicidal symptoms were lower in the South, but religiosity and social support did not account for this effect. Other potential mediators were also examined.

Attentional bias toward negative social cues is thought to serve an etiological and/or maintaining role in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The current study tested whether training patients to disengage from negative social cues may ameliorate social anxiety in patients (N = 36) with a primary diagnosis of generalized SAD. Patients were randomly assigned to either an attention training condition (n = 18), in which patients completed a modified dot-probe task designed to facilitate attentional disengagement from disgusted faces, or a control dot-probe task condition (n = 18). As predicted, patients in the attention training condition exhibited significantly greater reductions in social anxiety and trait anxiety, compared with patients in the control condition. At termination, 72% of patients in the active treatment condition, relative to 11% of patients in the control condition, no longer met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for SAD. At 4-month follow-up, patients in the attention training condition continued to maintain their clinical improvement, and diagnostic differences across conditions were also maintained. Results support attention-based models of anxiety and suggest that attention training is a promising alternative or complementary intervention. Keywords: social anxiety, attention, treatment, intervention