Expertise reversal effect in a pen-tablet-based learning environment: The role of learningcentered emotions in the interplay between learner expertise and task complexity.

The study investigated interactions between learner expertise and task complexity evaluated from both cognitive and affective perspectives. One hundred and seventy-three students, both novices and advanced learners, were asked to learn Japanese writing in a pen-tablet-based digital learning environment with varying task complexity levels. Cognitive load and learning-centred emotions were measured at intervals during learning, while writing performance was monitored by runtime tracking. Results indicated that while advanced learners performed better than novices across the range of task complexity, the moderate task complexity was shown to be superior in enhancing performance for both levels of expertise. Results for learning-centred emotions showed that advanced learners reported lower enjoyment and higher frustration when completing the low complexity task, whereas the moderately complex task was reported to be the most enjoyable and less frustrating for these learners. No significant difference in emotions was found across levels of task complexity for novices. Finally, a constructed composite indicator of cognitive-affective efficiency of instructional conditions showed a significant interaction between levels of learner expertise and task complexity primarily caused by affective factors.

Learning From Instructional Videos: Learner Gender Does Matter; Speaker Gender Does Not.

One crucial design characteristic of auditory texts embedded in instructional videos is the speaker gender, which has received some attention from empirical researcher in the recent years. Contrary to the theoretical assumption that similarity between the speaker's and the learner's gender might positively affect learning outcomes, the findings have often been mixed, showing null to contrary effects. Notwithstanding the effect on the outcomes, a closer look at how the speaker's gender and speaker-learner similarities further determine cognitive variables, such as different cognitive load types, is overdue. Moreover, on the part of the learner, the role of situational interest in the learning topic that might be gender related has been neglected so far. Therefore, this study explored the role of speaker and learner gender and their interaction regarding learning outcomes. We broaden our perspective by investigating the effects of gender-related differences concerning situational interest in the topic being taught and by determining different types of cognitive load. In a 2 (female/male speaker) × 2 (female/male learner) within- and between-subject design, 95 students learned about female and male human sexual maturity with an instructional video containing auditory explanations. Analysis results indicate that speaker gender and speaker-learner gender similarity had no impact on learning gains, situational interest, and cognitive load types. However, the results demonstrate that learner's gender, especially for the topic of female sexual maturity, matters the most in line with the assessed variables. Compared with males, females had higher learning gains, reported higher interest in the topic, and invested more germane cognitive resources. Thus, instructional designers may want to consider learner gender-dependent interest and how it can be triggered when creating videos with auditory explanations.

Corrigendum: Mental Model Development in Multimedia Learning: Interrelated Effects of Emotions and Self-Monitoring.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00899.].

Mental Model Development in Multimedia Learning: Interrelated Effects of Emotions and Self-Monitoring.

Learners' emotions and metacognitive self-monitoring play a crucial role in mental model development, particularly in the context of multimedia learning. However, learning-centered emotions and self-monitoring have been investigated largely without accounting for their dynamic interrelations. In this study, the effects of both learner-state variables on mental model development were investigated, by modeling their interrelations over time during a multimedia learning episode. For this, 108 undergraduate students (M age = 22.79, SD age = 3.42) were engaged in a multimedia learning environment to learn practical money skills. Learning-centered emotions of enjoyment, boredom, and frustration were repeatedly collected using self-reports. Learners' self-monitoring was assessed using behavioral data in terms of time spent on accessing specific information in the multimedia environment. Mental model development was operationalized by assessing learners' mental model accuracy (MMA) in pre- and post-tests, by using assessments of structural knowledge. Regarding the dynamic interrelations, panel models with the repeated measures revealed positive direct and indirect paths from earlier stages of self-monitoring to later stages of enjoyment. Conversely, negative direct and indirect paths emerged from earlier stages of boredom and frustration to later stages of self-monitoring. Regarding the effects of all variables on mental model development, a path model analysis with aggregated values revealed that enjoyment was unrelated to post-test MMA, whereas boredom negatively predicted post-test MMA. Additionally, frustration negatively predicted self-monitoring, which positively predicted post-test MMA. Finally, pre-test MMA was a negative predictor of boredom and positively predicted post-test MMA. The results demonstrate that the dynamic interrelations between different learning-centered emotions and self-monitoring can diverge in multimedia learning. In addition, this study provides insights into the joint effects and the relative importance of emotions and self-monitoring for mental model development in multimedia learning.

Identifying Features of Bodily Expression As Indicators of Emotional Experience during Multimedia Learning.

The importance of emotions experienced by learners during their interaction with multimedia learning systems, such as serious games, underscores the need to identify sources of information that allow the recognition of learners' emotional experience without interrupting the learning process. Bodily expression is gaining in attention as one of these sources of information. However, to date, the question of how bodily expression can convey different emotions has largely been addressed in research relying on acted emotion displays. Following a more contextualized approach, the present study aims to identify features of bodily expression (i.e., posture and activity of the upper body and the head) that relate to genuine emotional experience during interaction with a serious game. In a multimethod approach, 70 undergraduates played a serious game relating to financial education while their bodily expression was captured using an off-the-shelf depth-image sensor (Microsoft Kinect). In addition, self-reports of experienced enjoyment, boredom, and frustration were collected repeatedly during gameplay, to address the dynamic changes in emotions occurring in educational tasks. Results showed that, firstly, the intensities of all emotions indeed changed significantly over the course of the game. Secondly, by using generalized estimating equations, distinct features of bodily expression could be identified as significant indicators for each emotion under investigation. A participant keeping their head more turned to the right was positively related to frustration being experienced, whereas keeping their head more turned to the left was positively related to enjoyment. Furthermore, having their upper body positioned more closely to the gaming screen was also positively related to frustration. Finally, increased activity of a participant's head emerged as a significant indicator of boredom being experienced. These results confirm the value of bodily expression as an indicator of emotional experience in multimedia learning systems. Furthermore, the findings may guide developers of emotion recognition procedures by focusing on the identified features of bodily expression.

Educational games for brain health: revealing their unexplored potential through a neurocognitive approach.

Educational games link the motivational nature of games with learning of knowledge and skills. Here, we go beyond effects on these learning outcomes. We review two lines of evidence which indicate the currently unexplored potential of educational games to promote brain health: First, gaming with specific neurocognitive demands (e.g., executive control), and second, educational learning experiences (e.g., studying foreign languages) improve brain health markers. These markers include cognitive ability, brain function, and brain structure. As educational games allow the combination of specific neurocognitive demands with educational learning experiences, they seem to be optimally suited for promoting brain health. We propose a neurocognitive approach to reveal this unexplored potential of educational games in future research.

The human brain is a detector of chemosensorily transmitted HLA-class I-similarity in same- and opposite-sex relations.

Studies on subjective body odour ratings suggest that humans exhibit preferences for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-dissimilar persons. However, with regard to the extreme polymorphism of the HLA gene loci, the behavioural impact of the proposed HLA-related attracting signals seems to be minimal. Furthermore, the role of HLA-related chemosignals in same- and opposite-sex relations in humans has not been specified so far. Here, we investigate subjective preferences and brain evoked responses to body odours in males and females as a function of HLA similarity between odour donor and smeller. We show that pre-attentive processing of body odours of HLA-similar donors is faster and that late evaluative processing of these chemosignals activates more neuronal resources than the processing of body odours of HLA-dissimilar donors. In same-sex smelling conditions, HLA-associated brain responses show a different local distribution in male (frontal) and female subjects (parietal). The electrophysiological results are supported by significant correlations between the odour ratings and the amplitudes of the brain potentials. We conclude that odours of HLA-similar persons function as important social warning signals in inter- and intrasexual human relations. Such HLA-related chemosignals may contribute to female and male mate choice as well as to male competitive behaviour.