Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
predictions of their own memory performance (JOLs) were only sensitive to the
detriments of part-list cuing after experience with the task.
Role of Information Technology
Implementing Metacognitive Control
Actually executing what is good for learning can be onerous. Thus, informa-
tion technology can be used to implement effective metacognitive control on
behalf of the learner. A cornucopia of software programs, sometimes termed
“computer-based learning environments,” have been developed with the aim of
assisting learning by, among other strategies, automating metacognitive control
processes (Clark & Mayer, 2008; Lajoie, 2000; Linn, Davis, & Bell, 2004). We
summarize here two examples that have been inspired by research in cognitive
psychology.
SuperMemo (
http://www.supermemo.com
) is a program that automates schedul-
ing of review for pieces of information (e.g., foreign language vocabulary) that the
learner wants to remember indefinitely (cf. Wolf, 2008). The review trials adminis-
tered by the program are similar to flashcards: cued recall followed by feedback plus
the learner's self-assessment of his or her answer. SuperMemo leverages the benefits
of spaced rehearsal to not only enhance learning but also to make it more efficient.
It implements a schedule of expanding retrieval practice (Landauer & Bjork, 1978;
cf. Balota, Duchek, & Logan, 2007) by which review is scheduled at short inter-
vals soon after an item is first encoded and successively longer intervals as the
item becomes better learned. By adaptively adjusting intervals based on a learner's
performance, the program seeks to help learners retrieve information just before it
is forgotten, when such retrieval should afford the most benefit (Bjork & Bjork,
1992; Wozniak & Gorzelañczyk, 1994). Managing, let alone optimizing, such a
complex schedule of study without the aid of a computer would be daunting if not
impossible.
A second example of efforts to offload metacognitive control onto software is
the Cognitive Tutor program (
http://www.carnegielearning.com
). This program is
one of a class of “intelligent tutoring systems” (for another such example, ALEKS,
see Falmagne, Cosyn, Doignon, & Thiéry, 2003). The Cognitive Tutor maintains a
cognitive model of the learner's present knowledge and skills, rooted in the ACT-
R theory of how knowledge is represented and acquired (Anderson et al., 2004),
and updates the state of the model based on the learner's interactions with the pro-
gram. The program then tailors instruction to move the learner from his or her
current state toward a goal state, which is defined by the curriculum designers for
a particular domain (e.g., algebra). Among other pedagogical design features, the
Cognitive Tutor selects material for display and problems for practice that are most
appropriate based on its model of the learners' current understanding. It focuses
the instruction on the learner's least developed skills, moving on to new material
