What makes students and instructors choose, sustain their learning with, and learn meaningfully from instructional videos? I recently became the homeowner of a mid-80s colonial revival and have taken on several projects to bring it out of the 80s and into a more contemporary style. Levelling out a sunken dining room is much more challenging […]
Applied Cognition
Here’s a burning question: What strategies can actually improve classroom learning? One promising strategy—pretesting—may be the answer for both instructors and students. Certainly, the notion of “evidence-based teaching” is becoming entrenched in the education lexicon, as instructors search for answers. Institutions are spending lots of money, resources, labour, and time to develop websites, offer workshops, […]
Imagine you have a 4-year-old about to participate in the marshmallow test, a measure of their ability to delay gratification. In front of them is a treat, and they have the option to take the immediate, smaller reward (e.g., one marshmallow) or receive a delayed, larger reward (e.g., two marshmallows) by waiting until an experimenter […]
My young daughter plays computer games that allow her to learn a skill while playing and competing with other players. It’s probably a gift and a curse of the COVID-19 pandemic all at once — children getting more than enough screen time per day, but gaining a skill that they might otherwise not attain while […]
If you’re an educator, you’ve probably wondered how many of your students are paying attention as you deliver course content in class. Although most research on mind wandering has been conducted in the laboratory, understanding when and why students mind wander during class can have important implications for how we teach and design our learning […]
In cases where humans are tasked with jobs that have a lot of variability in workload, the aid of an automated system at the right times would undoubtedly come in handy. In this interview, Andrew Heathcote (pictured below) describes a recent paper by him and his co-authors published in the Psychonomic Society journal Cognitive Research: Principles […]
A few months ago, the department head sent me a short email asking whether I had a few minutes to spare. A bit odd – I thought – but I replied. The response email was utterly suspicious. It read, “Can you buy X amount of gift cards and send me the codes? We need them […]
Professor David Rapp is one of the Guest Editors for a special issue in Cognitive Research: Principles & Implications (aka CR:PI) on the Psychology of Fake News. The submission deadline has been extended, so if you think that you missed your chance to submit your work on this important topic in what is sure to […]
I talk with Lauren Williams about the announcement of an upcoming Special Issue. Transcription Intro Curley: You’re listening to All Things Cognition, a Psychonomic Society podcast. Interview Mickes: Hi Lauren. Thanks for talking to me. Williams: Hi Laura. Mickes: So you’re going to be a Guest Editor for a Special Issue in the journal Cognitive Research Principles and Implications […]
Each year around Thanksgiving I am faced with the same dilemma: nibble on a small amount of snacks as the food is being prepared, or delay gratification for the glorious full plate of edible treasures. Although this may seem trivial, allow me to set the stage: Imagine that it’s the morning of Thanksgiving. Your refrigerator […]