Abstract: As one of the important indicators that reflect how learners adjust and control their study, study time allocation is an important issue in the field of meta-memory study. How people allocate study time? Agenda-Based Regulation proposed by Ariel, Dunlosky and Bailey(2009), assumes that learners construct and execute agendas which play a core role in study time allocation. According to the ABR (Agenda–Based Regulation) framework, “learners develop an agenda on how to allocate time to various study items and use this agenda when selecting items for study. Like many other theories of regulation, the ABR model assumes that study regulation is goal-oriented” A critical assumption is that when learners develop an agenda, they do so to maximize the likelihood of obtaining their goals efficiently. An agenda or plan—describes the criteria used to decide which items to select for study or how long to study a given item, and the criteria are chosen based on any number of learner characteristics and task constraints. Given that both agenda construction and execution occur within the focus of attention, capacity limitations can influence effective agenda use. Learners who have deficient central-executive processes may have difficulties constructing and executing agendas. Such difficulties would arise when learners do not inhibit task-irrelevant thoughts or when the number of relevant task constraints and agenda criteria exceeds their capacity. In either case, agenda-relevant information would not be maintained in the focus of attention, which in turn would compromise goal attainment. Even a relatively simple agenda may be difficult to execute when goal-irrelevant information arises internally or from the environment. When the limits of the central executive have been exceeded, habitual responses may gain control of Study time allocation. Habitual responses are triggered by the stimulus environment and are not voluntarily controlled. At present, the research on study time allocation focuses on two aspects: intrinsic mechanism and influencing factors of study time allocation. This study aims to reveal the effect of words position on study time allocation, that is, words position has effect on the study time allocation. It further explores the relationship between the effect of words position on study time allocation and ABR, so as to provide theory basis for the intervention and guidance of study time allocation. Using Metcalf’s paradigm, one experiment was conducted in present research to examine the effect of words position on study time allocation in condition of different learning goals. The result revealed that in condition of high learning targets, the words position effect on study time allocation was found. Learners tended to learn the items on the left firstly, then the items in the middle, finally the items on the right. However, in condition of low learning targets, there is no words position effect on study time allocation. Learners gave preference to easy items, followed by medium-difficulty items and finally difficult items. These and other outcomes have shown that the agenda-driven and habitual response are two cognitive mechanisms that affect the allocation of study time, and people will be use agenda-driven or habitual reaction to the allocation of study time, with minimal effort to achieve learning goals.

Key words: study-time allocation, learning goals, habitual response, eye movement

摘要： 采用眼动记录技术，探讨不同学习目标条件下词对位置对学习时间分配的影响。实验结果发现：在高学习目标条件下，词对位置对项目选择存在显著影响，对自定步调学习时间不存在显著影响；在低学习目标下，词对位置对项目选择和自定步调学习时间均不存在显著影响。表明议程驱动和习惯性反应是影响学习时间分配的两种认知机制，学习者会根据学习情境采用议程驱动或习惯性反应来有效地进行学习时间分配，以最小的努力实现学习目标。

关键词: 学习时间分配, 学习目标, 习惯性反应, 眼动