The impact of Co-actors on cognitive load: When the mere presence of others makes learning more difficult

Co-learning companionship benefits word learning in a new language: Evidence from a dual-brain EEG examination

Companionship refers to one's being in the presence of another individual. For adults, acquiring a new language is a highly social activity that often involves learning in the context of companionship. However, the effects of companionship on new language learning have gone relatively underexplored, particularly with respect to word learning. Using a within-subject design, the current study employs electroencephalography to examine how two types of companionship (monitored and co-learning) affect word learning (semantic and lexical) in a new language. Dyads of Chinese speakers of English as a second language participated in a pseudo-word-learning task during which they were placed in monitored and co-learning companionship contexts. The results showed that exposure to co-learning companionship affected the early attention stage of word learning. Moreover, in this early stage, evidence of a higher representation similarity between co-learners showed additional support that co-learning companionship influenced attention. Observed increases in delta and theta interbrain synchronization further revealed that co-learning companionship facilitated semantic access. In all, the similar neural representations and interbrain synchronization between co-learners suggest that co-learning companionship offers important benefits for learning words in a new language.

Alone but not isolated: social presence and cognitive load in learning with 360 virtual reality videos

Introduction

This study aimed to identify any differences in social presence and cognitive load among three types of 360 virtual reality (VR)-based videos lectures. We hypothesized that social presence would be higher when interactions among peers are visible in a 360 VR video lectures while the cognitive load would be also increased.

Methods

A total of 48 college students were randomly assigned to one of the three study groups to view an assigned 360 VR video lecture. The three groups were: (1) an instructor-only video viewing group, (2) a classroom lecture video viewing group, and (3) a classroom lecture and activity video viewing group. The video lectures were differently designed depending on the levels of peer visibility and the interactions between the instructor and peers. The participants watched one of the three types of assigned video lecture and subsequently completed two sets of questionnaires regarding social presence and cognitive load. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted with a planned contrast analysis for the type of video lectures.

Results

We found that, contrary to the hypotheses, students in the group 1 (instructor-only video) showed higher social presence scores than students in the groups 2 and 3. However, no significant differences were found in the cognitive load scores.

Discussion

The results show that 360 VR video lectures with an instructor-only are more effective at enhancing users' social presence than 360 VR video lectures with both the instructor and class-peers. We suggest creating 360 VR video lectures with the presence of the course instructor to offer learners the sense of actually participating in a lecture.

Interaction matters: Co-viewing facilitates learning from live video streaming for elementary students

With the development of information technology, co-viewing of live video streaming (LVS) has become a popular online learning method. However, existing studies have found inconsistent results regarding the effects of co-viewing, which could be due to the impact of learner-learner interactions. The present study tested the effects of co-viewing LVS on learning in elementary students, and whether learner-learner interaction moderated students' attention allocation, learning performance (i.e., retention and transfer), learning efficiency, and metacognition. The study used a one-way between-subjects design, with 86 participants assigned randomly to one of three groups: learning alone group, merely co-viewing group, or co-viewing with interaction group. Kruskal-Wallis H tests showed that students in the co-viewing with interaction group allocated more attention to their co-viewer and less to the LVS. However, ANOVA results indicated that they had the best learning performance and metacognition, and demonstrated the highest learning efficiency. Meanwhile, those co-viewing without interaction did not show significantly positive effects compared to those learning alone. The results of informal interviews were largely consistent with the above findings. The findings of the present study suggest the benefits of co-viewing with interaction, providing practical implications for the social context of learning from LVS for elementary students in particular.

Co-learner presence and praise alters the effects of learner-generated explanation on learning from video lectures

Learning from video lectures is becoming a prevalent learning activity in formal and informal settings. However, relatively little research has been carried out on the interactions of learning strategies and social environment in learning from video lectures. The present study addresses this gap by examining whether learner-generated explanations and co-learner presence with or without nonverbal praise independently and interactively affected learning from a self-paced video lecture about infectious diseases. University students were randomized into viewing either the video with instructor-generated explanations or the same video but generating explanations themselves. Outcomes were assessed by the quality of explanations, learning performance, mental effort, attention allocation, and behavioral patterns. Between-group comparisons showed that, in the absence of a peer co-learner, learning performance was similar in both the instructor-generated and learner-generated explanation groups. However, in the presence of a peer, learner-generated explanation facilitated learning performance. Furthermore, learner-generated explanation in the presence of a co-learner also reduced learners' mental effort and primed more behaviors related to self-regulation and monitoring. The results lead to the following strong recommendation for educational practice when using video lectures: if students learn by generating their own explanations in the presence of a co-learner, they will show better learning performance even though the learning is not necessarily more demanding, and will engage in more behaviors related to explanation adjustment and self-regulation.

Social interaction is a catalyst for adult human learning in online contexts

Human learning is highly social.^1-3 Advances in technology have increasingly moved learning online, and the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated this trend. Online learning can vary in terms of how "socially" the material is presented (e.g., live or recorded), but there are limited data on which is most effective, with the majority of studies conducted on children^4-8 and inconclusive results on adults.^9,10 Here, we examine how young adults (aged 18-35) learn information about unknown objects, systematically varying the social contingency (live versus recorded lecture) and social richness (viewing the teacher's face, hands, or slides) of the learning episodes. Recall was tested immediately and after 1 week. Experiment 1 (n = 24) showed better learning for live presentation and a full view of the teacher (hands and face). Experiment 2 (n = 27; pre-registered) replicated the live-presentation advantage. Both experiments showed an interaction between social contingency and social richness: the presence of social cues affected learning differently depending on whether teaching was interactive or not. Live social interaction with a full view of the teacher's face provided the optimal setting for learning new factual information. However, during observational learning, social cues may be more cognitively demanding¹¹ and/or distracting,^12-14 resulting in less learning from rich social information if there is no interactivity. We suggest that being part of a genuine social interaction catalyzes learning, possibly via mechanisms of joint attention,¹⁵ common ground,¹⁶ or (inter-)active discussion, and as such, interactive learning benefits from rich social settings.^17,18.

Validation of Cognitive Load During Inquiry-Based Learning With Multimedia Scaffolds Using Subjective Measurement and Eye Movements

Subject-method barriers and cognitive load (CL) of students have a particular importance in the complex learning process of scientific inquiry. In this work, we investigate the valid measurement of CL as well as different scaffolds to reduce it during experimentation. Specifically, we examine the validity of a subjective measurement instrument to assess CL [in extraneous cognitive load (ECL), intrinsic cognitive load, and germane cognitive load (GCL)] during the use of multimedia scaffolds in the planning phase of the scientific inquiry process based on a theoretical framework of the CL theory. The validity is analyzed by investigating possible relationships between causal (e.g., cognitive abilities) and assessment (e.g., eye-tracking metrics) factors in relation to the obtained test scores of the adapted subjective measurement instrument. The study aims to elucidate possible relationships of causal factors that have not yet been adequately investigated in relation to CL. Furthermore, a possible, still inconclusive convergence between subjective test scores on CL and objectively measured indicators will be tested using different eye-tracking metrics. In two studies (n=250), 9th and 11th grade students experimentally investigated a biological phenomenon. At the beginning of the planning phase, students selected one of four multimedia scaffolds using a tablet (Study I: n=181) or a computer with a stationary eye-tracking device (Study II: n=69). The subjective cognitive load was measured via self-reports using a standardized questionnaire. Additionally, we recorded students’ gaze data during learning with the scaffolds as objective measurements. Besides the causal factors of cognitive-visual and verbal abilities, reading skills and spatial abilities were quantified using established test instruments and the learners indicated their representation preference by selecting the scaffolds. The results show that CL decreases substantially with higher grade level. Regarding the causal factors, we observed that cognitive-visual and verbal abilities have a significant influence on the ECL and GCL in contrast to reading skills. Additionally, there is a correlation between the representation preference and different types of CL. Concerning the objective measurement data, we found that the absolute fixation number is predictive for the ECL. The results are discussed in the context of the overall methodological research goal and the theoretical framework of CL.

Eye-Tracking in Educational Practice: Investigating Visual Perception Underlying Teaching and Learning in the Classroom

Classrooms full of pupils can be very overwhelming, both for teachers and students, as well as for their joint interactions. It is thus crucial that both can distil the relevant information in this complex scenario and interpret it appropriately. This distilling and interpreting happen to a large extent via visual perception, which is the core focus of the current Special Issue. Six empirical studies present examples of how to capture visual perception in the complexity of a classroom lesson. These examples open up new avenues that go beyond studying perception in restricted and artificial laboratory scenarios: some using video recordings from authentic lessons to others studying actual classrooms. This movement towards more realistic scenarios allows to study the visual perception in classrooms from new perspectives, namely that of the teachers, the learners, and their interactions. This in turn enables to shed novel light onto well-established theoretical concepts, namely students’ engagement during actual lessons, teachers’ professional vision while teaching, and establishment of joint attention between teachers and students in a lesson. Additionally, one theoretical contribution provides the very first model of teachers’ cognitions during teaching in relation to their visual perception, which in turn will allow future research to move beyond explorations towards hypothesis testing. However, to fully thrive, this field of research has to address two crucial challenges: (i) the heterogeneity of its methodological approaches (e.g., varying age groups, subjects taught, lesson formats) and (ii) the recording and processing of personal data of many people (often minors). Hence, these new approaches bear not only new chances for insights but also new responsibilities for the researchers.