Lasting Learning DFG FOR 5254

This research of our lasting learning research group is finally published 🎉

Schweppe et al. (2025) showed that interleaved practice—mixing similar grammar concepts like ser and estar—enhanced Spanish learning 📘, but only when feedback was provided.
psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

Retrieval Practice in Stepwise Worked Examples Improves Learning Prior research showed no benefits of including retrieval opportunities in example-based learning. However, these studies had students solve entire pra…

Van den Broek et al. (2025) found that integrating retrieval prompts into stepwise worked examples improved both recall of problem-solving steps and problem-solving performance after one week.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A Meta-analytic Review of the Effectiveness of Spacing and Retrieval Practice for Mathematics Learning - Educational Psychology Review Spaced retrieval practice harnesses two well-studied phenomena: the spacing effect, where spacing out practice over several sessions leads to a gain in retention compared to massed practice in one ses...

Murray et al. 2025 found that spacing math practice across multiple sessions improves retention, with stronger effects for isolated exercises than for course-embedded practice.
Ewan Murray, Aidan J. Horner, Silke Göbel

Check it out using the following access link:

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cognitive Load and Challenges in Self-regulation: An Introduction and Reflection on the Topical Collection - Educational Psychology Review The effort monitoring and regulation (EMR) model integrates self-regulated learning and cognitive load theory to examine how students monitor, regulate, and optimize effort during learning. Since its ...

De Bruin et al. (2025) provide an overview of research inspired by the Effort Monitoring and Regulation (EMR) model, showing how feedback, motivation, and metacognition influence learning strategies, calling for further research on how to regulate learners' effort.

doi.org/10.1007/s106...

Kim et al. (2025) investigated whether combining drawing ✍🏻with retrieval practice could improve lasting learning of expository texts. The results show this technique can facilitate lasting learning, but only if learners are given sufficient support.

doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

Beyond the “Wow” Factor: Using Generative AI for Increasing Generative Sense-Making - Educational Psychology Review Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has emerged as a transformative tool in education, offering scalable individualized learning. However, there is a lack of theoretically informed and methodol...

A recent study by Makransky (2025) examined the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) 🤖💡 to support students' learning and behavioural intentions in contrast to generic AI (e.g. ChatGPT). The study found GenAI significantly improved conceptual knowledge, trust and enjoyment.

Sibley et al. (2025) studied technology's impact on student outcomes. Results show technology improves lasting learning but not immediate learning. 💡🧐 No effects were found on self-efficacy, interest or monitoring accuracy. The impact depended on subject area and adaptivity.

doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

How teachers’ student voice practices affect student engagement and achievement: exploring choice, receptivity, and responsiveness to student voice as moderators - Journal of Educational Change Strategies that promote student voice have long been championed as effective ways to enhance student engagement and learning; however, little quantitative research has studied the relationship between...

Conner et al. (2024) explored the link between SVP 🗣️💬 and academic engagement, agency, attendance and grades. Results showed SVPs were linked to better results.

doi.org/10.1007/s108...

Excited to share that @marinaklimovich.bsky.social from our research group presented a poster at the Society for Text and Discourse conference in Padova on how interleaved practice can enhance concept learning. Thank you @textdiscourse.bsky.social! #textdiscourse2025 #FOR5254 #EduSky

Test preparation: the roles of expecting access to materials and test anxiety Three 2 × 2 between-participant experiments (Exp. 1, N = 286, Exp. 2, N = 408, Exp. 3, N = 439; Exp. 2 and 3 preregistered) examined how anticipated a…

Shumaker et al. (2025) found that expecting access to notes—but not the textbook—on a test led students to study longer and take more notes 📝, especially among those with higher state test anxiety.

Check it out using the following access link:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Learning from educational texts: is reduction in global text cohesion a desirable difficulty as structure building skill increases? One possibility for improving learning from text is to introduce “desirable difficulties” into the text. To do so, we manipulated the global cohesion …

Gouravajhala and McDaniel (2025) found that reducing global text cohesion did not benefit comprehension overall, but impaired learning for less-skilled structure builders 🧠, who struggled to form coherent mental models without textual support.
Check it out:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Learning by Explaining Through Digital Devices: The Role of the Modality of Oral Explaining and Extraversion Recent meta-analytical evidence shows that learning by explaining through digital devices (e.g., computers or tablets) is effective, but also reveals …

Waldeyer et al. (2025) found that learning by explaining through digital devices supports deep-level learning 📘, especially for less extraverted students.

Check it out using the following access link:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Do Explanatory Prompts Enhance Retrieval Quality of Science Text Content? The benefits of retrieval practice are highly dependent on the quality of the retrieval. This study examined how two explanatory activities (self-explanation; explanatory retrieval) might serve to ...

McCarthy et al. (2025) studied how self-explanation 🧐 and explanatory retrieval affect science text retrieval and comprehension 🧠💡. Reading self-explanations improved retrieval quality and comprehension, while there were no benefits from explanatory retrieval.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0022...

A recent study by Kriswantoro et al. (2025) investigated how inquiry-based learning affects students' science 🧪✨ process skills. Both inquiry models significantly improved students' SPS and increased engagement.

🔗 doi.org/10.29303/jpp...

Mägdefrau et al. (2025) studied how student 👨‍🎓 and task characteristics influence situational interest and learning strategy use in learning. 💡✨ The results show that high situational interest leads to better strategy use. However, this depends on the learner and the task.
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

The Effective Design of Tasks Involving Learning by Drawing: Current Trends and Methodological Progress in Research on Drawing to Learn - Educational Psychology Review The generative learning strategy of learning by drawing has received increased attention in recent years. Although this strategy is regularly used by educators, the literature suggests that the effect...

The review paper by Dechamps et al. (2025) focuses on the learning strategy of learning by drawing. ✍🏻🗒️ It shows that drawing supports learning, but its effectiveness varies. The authors postulate that clearer definitions and standards for drawings are needed.

🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s106...

Does Retrieval Demand Moderate the Effectiveness of Covert Retrieval Practice? Comparing Covert and Overt Retrieval Practice for Learning Key Terms and Definitions - Educational Psychology Review Abstract Prior research suggests that the effectiveness of retrieval practice may be moderated by response format: overt retrieval (e.g., typing a response) outperforms covert retrieval (e.g., mentall...

In a recent study by Rivers et al. (2025), the effectiveness of overt (written) 📖 versus covert (mental) 🧠 retrieval for simple versus complex material was examined. The results indicate that overt retrieval was more effective, particularly for complex content. 📈💡

🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s106...

Is Covert Retrieval an Effective Learning Strategy? Is It as Effective as Overt Retrieval? Answers from a Meta-Analytic Review - Educational Psychology Review Retrieval practice is well-established as a powerful tool for reinforcing long-term learning. Most previous research has concentrated on the effectiveness of overt retrieval, involving recalling infor...

New Study about Covert Retrieval
Yu et al. (2025) found that covert retrieval modestly enhances learning 🧠, especially over longer intervals and when corrective feedback is provided.

Check it out using the following access link:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Virtual reality and affective learning in commemorative history teaching: effects of immersive technology and generative learning activities Learning with virtual reality (VR) can be highly motivating and conducive for cognitive and affective learning outcomes. For commemorative history education, VR enables novel experiences of testimo...

New study
Mulders et al. (2025) found that immersive VR alone significantly boosted affective learning while adding generative tasks like drawing or self-explaining after VR did not further improve learning outcomes.
Check it out using the following access link:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Enhancing Scientific Competency in Middle School Students Through Inquiry-Based Learning: A Case Study on Water in Life - Journal of Science Education and Technology This study examines the implementation of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in science education to develop scientific competency among middle school students based on the data processing and basic composi...

The study by Thuan et al. (2025) shows that inquiry-based learning effectively promotes science education 📚 and increases interest in the subject among young students 👧🧒.

➡️ doi.org/10.1007/s109...

Does Instruction-First or Problem-Solving-First Depend on Learners’ Prior Knowledge? - Educational Psychology Review This study tested competing theories about the effectiveness of different instructional sequences for learners with different levels of prior knowledge. Across two classroom experiments, undergraduate...

The study by He et al. (2025) shows that the effectiveness 📈 of instructional sequence depends on prior knowledge 🧠, with PS-I (problem-solving first) being best for low prior knowledge and I-PS (instruction first) for high prior knowledge.

➡️ doi.org/10.1007/s106...

The study by Theobald et al. (2025) shows that feedback 🗣️ is an effective tool for supporting children's self-regulation, especially in helping them realistically assess 🎯 and adjust their learning goals 📝. Children with weaker working memory benefit the most 💡.

➡️ doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

Wesenberg et al. (2024) demonstrate that seductive details are not inherently negative ❌ and can be useful in stimulating interest and improving learning outcomes 📈 in environments where extrinsic motivation is low 😕 (e.g. informal learning in everyday life ).

➡️ doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

New from our research group by @marinaklimovich.bsky.social & tobiasrichter.bsky.social : A prereg. study with 3rd graders shows that interleaved practice improves learning of German spelling rules over blocked practice—both immediately and after 8 weeks. #EduSky #FOR5254 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.le...

Can the effects of generative drawing on lasting learning be optimized through integration of retrieval practice? Creating drawings to depict the content of an expository text triggers generative processes that contribute to the construction of coherent mental mod…

New study
Kim et al. (2025) found that integrating retrieval practice into generative drawing did not improve lasting learning compared to open-book drawing, as retrieval boosted memory consolidation but lowered mental model quality, balancing out the benefits.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New study about Combining Generative Tasks and Retrieval Tasks

Obergassel et al. (2025) found that combining generative tasks and retrieval tasks boosted both comprehension and retention 🧠 more than either approach alone.

Check it out using this open access link:
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

<em>British Journal of Educational Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library Background Although it is well established that students' adaptive reactions towards errors promote learning outcomes, little is still known about the role of error feedback in promoting these react.....

The study by Soncini et al. (2024) examined the effects of error feedback ❌🗣️ on learning outcomes in female students 👩‍🎓. Positive feedback 👍 fosters a constructive attitude towards mistakes 💡, but whether this directly improves performance 📈 remains unclear 🤔.

➡️ doi.org/10.1111/bjep...

Learning from interactive video: the influence of self-explanations, navigation, and cognitive load - Instructional Science Recent research has shown that enhancing instructional videos with questions, such as self-explanation prompts, and thus shifting the process from receptive to constructive learning, is beneficial to ...

This study by Beege et al. (2025) investigated whether self-explanatory prompts 🗣️ and navigation features 🧭 in instructional videos improve learning. Neither the prompts nor the navigation had any effect on learning performance ❌📉, which depends on boundary conditions ⚙️🧠.

➡️ doi.org/10.1007/s112...

Improving the Use of Retrieval Practice for Both Easy and Difficult Materials: The Effect of an Instructional Intervention - Educational Psychology Review Recent research has suggested that students prefer restudying over retrieval practice when learning difficult materials, despite the latter being a more effective learning strategy. The current study ...

Fan et al.’s (2024) study investigated why learners choose repetition 🔁 over retrieval practice for difficult content. Retrieval practice is perceived as more tiring and less effective 📉. Providing specific instruction can change this behavior and encourage the use of effective learning strategies.

Enhancing Academic Performance Through Self-Explanation in Digital Learning Environments (DLEs): A Three-Level Meta-Analysis - Educational Psychology Review Self-explanation serves as a constructive learning scaffold in education, actively engaging learners in the identification of knowledge gaps and the rectification of erroneous mental models. This stud...

In this meta-analysis 📊, Tan et al. (2025) explored how self-explanation 🤔 affects performance in digital learning environments 💻 and the factors that moderate this effect 🔍. Self-explanation had a moderately positive effect ➕📈 on learning outcomes 🎯.

➡️ doi.org/10.1007/s106...