Conference Paper 2022

Augmented learning contexts: Leveraging augmented technologies to foster self-regulation in everyday life

The omnipresence of distracting information constantly challenges our limited attentional resources. Consequently, approaching educational goals effectively and concentrating on them often becomes difficult for learners. Looking at existing training tools to strengthen executive functions, we often notice the use of artificial tasks and settings that limit the transferability of the acquired skills to everyday life situations. Addressing this gap, the talk introduces an example of how people can be supported to set goals, implement periods of focused work, and integrate a meaningful break management by using an attention training software during regular study and work activities. The computer-based intervention influences the entire lifecycle of self-regulated learning and can easily become part of daily computer use. It enables users to redefine their existing goals into training tasks and thus motivates them to achieve sustainable training results. As its core, the software has an intelligent feedback mechanism that visually discloses the value of staying focused against getting distracted, building on a model of the expected value of cognitive control. Results from field experiments already indicate the benefit of this approach over a control condition, in particular related to task-specific learning. The talk will take a more fine-grained look at patterns of distractibility across different task settings and discuss related benefits of embedding this novel approach to executive functions training across formal and informal learning contexts and workplace scenarios.

Author(s): Maria Wirzberger and Anastasia Lado and Caroline Scheiger and Adrian Stock and Francesca Zermiani
Year: 2022
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (conference)
Event Name: 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society
Electronic Archiving: grant_archive

BibTex

@conference{Wirzberger2022Contexts,
  title = {Augmented learning contexts: Leveraging augmented technologies to foster self-regulation in everyday life },
  abstract = {The omnipresence of distracting information constantly challenges our limited attentional resources. Consequently, approaching educational goals effectively and concentrating on them often becomes difficult for learners. Looking at existing training tools to strengthen executive functions, we often notice the use of artificial tasks and settings that limit the transferability of the acquired skills to everyday life situations. Addressing this gap, the talk introduces an example of how people can be supported to set goals, implement periods of focused work, and integrate a meaningful break management by using an attention training software during regular study and work activities. The computer-based intervention influences the entire lifecycle of self-regulated learning and can easily become part of daily computer use. It enables users to redefine their existing goals into training tasks and thus motivates them to achieve sustainable training results. As its core, the software has an intelligent feedback mechanism that visually discloses the value of staying focused against getting distracted, building on a model of the expected value of cognitive control. Results from field experiments already indicate the benefit of this approach over a control condition, in particular related to task-specific learning. The talk will take a more fine-grained look at patterns of distractibility across different task settings and discuss related benefits of embedding this novel approach to executive functions training across formal and informal learning contexts and workplace scenarios.},
  year = {2022},
  slug = {wirzberger2022contexts},
  author = {Wirzberger, Maria and Lado, Anastasia and Scheiger, Caroline and Stock, Adrian and Zermiani, Francesca}
}