Addressing Mind Wandering in Video-Based Learning: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Interpolated Testing and Self-explanation

Abstract

Task-unrelated thoughts are a common experience for students that negatively impact learning outcomes. In the context of learning from videos, research has attempted to mitigate the impact by including interpolated testing at pauses in the video. The results of these studies are mixed and indicate that interpolated testing may not have a practical effect on reducing task-unrelated thoughts. In the present study, we aim to investigate whether writing self-explanations has a stronger effect than interpolated testing on reducing task-unrelated thoughts and improving learning outcomes. We recruited 138 participants distributed across three groups and presented them with the same video to review. The first group was the control group. The participants in the second group answered interpolated tests, and the participants in the third group wrote self-explanations at pauses in the video. All participants completed a knowledge test before and after watching the video to compare learning outcomes between groups. While previous studies have captured thought reports using probes at pre-determined intervals, we used self-caught thought reports in anticipation that participants expecting to write self-explanations would engage in metacognitive monitoring and thus become meta-aware. We found no significant difference between the groups regarding knowledge gain or meta-awareness. However, the number of thought reports written correlated positively with knowledge gain, indicating that learners who are meta-aware while learning from a video perform better on subsequent knowledge tests.

Daniel Ebbert

PhD candidate at the University of South Australia

I am a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia’s Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a Research Associate and Systems Administrator supporting university lecturers with educational technology in Germany. My doctoral research explores the intersection of self-regulated learning and mind wandering during video-based learning, specifically examining how learners adapt their learning processes after recognizing mind wandering episodes. This research aims to develop evidence-based recommendations for effective responses to mind wandering during learning. Following my PhD, I plan to expand my research beyond video-based contexts to investigate the conditions under which self-regulated learners engage in task-level, ad-hoc adaptation of their learning processes.