Psychological Science ›› 2014, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 907-911.

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The Effect of Item Reward on the Allocation of Study Time: A Changing Process

  

  • Received:2013-07-09 Revised:2014-05-10 Online:2014-07-20 Published:2014-07-20

项目分值对学习时间分配的影响:一种动态的过程

任洁1,李伟健2,谢瑞波1,李平1,陈海德3,4   

  1. 1. 浙江师范大学,教师教育学院
    2. 浙江师范大学教务处
    3. 浙江师范大学心理研究所
    4. 北京师范大学发展心理研究所
  • 通讯作者: 李伟健

Abstract: Abstract Knowing how to manage one’s own learning has become increasingly important in recent years. Allocation of study time is one of the important indicators that reflect how learners adjust and control their study and the decisions on study time allocation will influence the individual's learning efficiency and final performance directly. When we are trying to learn new materials, how do we allocate study time? And how do we decide the order in which to study the materials? Agenda-Based Regulation proposed by Ariel, Dunlosky and Bailey(2009), assumes that Learners develop an agenda on how to allocate time and use this agenda when selecting items for study. According to the ABR framework, learners’ allocation of study time is flexible, depending on their goals, task constraints, and any number of agendas could be constructed. The present study built a complex learning situation to explore the changing process of allocation of study time and the internal mechanism of the construction of agendas.   The purpose of the Experiment was to investigate the effect of item reward on item selection and self-paced study time in different learning stage under a certain time limit, and whether there existed a a process of weighing decision-making during the learning process. There were 40 college students taking part in the Experiment. They were asked to learn 30 noun-noun paired associates in Chinese. These items awarded different points ranging from 1 to 30 were present on one screen. All instructions were displayed on the computer screens. Participants were informed that each item was paired with a number (a point value), and that this number indicated how much the item was“worth”. They were told that the goal was trying to get as many points as possible, and were encouraged to maximize their score. Once the experiment began, participants could choose which values to study, and the associated word pair was then shown. Study time, and the choice to restudy words, was under the participant’s control during the 270 seconds study session. A timer indicating the amount of time remaining was displayed at the top of the screen during the task. At the end of the 270 seconds, participants would finish the associated recall test and they would recall as many words as they could from the list. Immediately following this recall period, participants were informed of their score for the list. Scores were calculated by summing the points associated with the word pairs participants successfully recalled.   This Experiment was conducted with a 3 (item reward: 1-10 point, 11-20 point, 21-30 point) ×9 (time range: a total of 270 seconds, every 30 seconds for a period of time) within subjects design. The experiment found: (1) study time increased with the points awarded for each item; (2) allocation of study time is a changing process, which can be divided into three learning stages. In the first stage, participants tended to select more high-value (21-30 point) items and devoted more of their study time to these items. In the second stage, participants transferred their attention to study the medium-value (11-20 point) items; in the last stage, participants selected more high-value items to review. In the experiment, selecting high-reward items would help participants to facilitate earning and meet their goal, so they tended to select the high-value items to study and allocate more time to these item. However, participants transferred their attention to study the medium-value items in the second learning stage when they had already known well about the high-value item through the previous study in the first stage, by which they could learn more items and erning as many points as possible. The results indicated that there existed a trade-off process in allocation of study time for learners and metacognitive monitoring has an impact on it during the whole process. When learners are in a complex learning situations, they need to face the difficulty of items, item reward and limitation of study time.They should weigh the importance of these factors and adjust the agenda that they have constructed to achieving task goals as efficiently as possible. The paper discussed around the changing process of allocation of study time and the internal mechanism of the construction of agendas. The findings of the study were in accordance with the agenda-based regulation model regarding the study time allocation. Study regulation is goal-oriented and learners will adjust their agenda to maximize the likelihood of obtaining their goals efficiently during the learning process. In addition, these results clarified the process of weighing decision-making and provided more evidence for the internal mechanism of the agenda construction of ABR framework. When the learning situation was complex, allocation of study time is a process of weighing decision-making and there existed a trade-off process for learners. The internal mechanism of agenda is the process of weighing, and decision-making are weighed in terms of the principle of achieving task goals as efficiently as possible.

Key words: item reward, allocation of study time, dynamic changes, Agenda-Based Regulation, tradeoff

摘要: 摘 要 研究考察了不同学习时段上,项目分值对学习时间分配的影响。结果发现: (1)分值的主效应显著,被试会选择更多的高分值项目学习, 且在高分值项目上分配更多的学习时间; (2)分值与学习时段存在交互作用,被试首先学习高分值项目,随后逐渐将学习重心转向中等分值项目,最后在临近测试前重点重学高分值项目。结果表明:学习时间分配是动态变化的,个体为了尽可能实现学习目标会在学习过程中不断调整所建构的议程。

关键词: 项目分值, 学习时间分配, 动态变化过程, 议程调节模型, 权衡决策