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The Impact of Internal Attention on Learning from Online Lectures

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Vishal Easwar1 (easwarv@bc.edu), Ido Davidesco1, Jason Geller1, Sarah Gilmore2; 1Boston College, 2University of Connecticut

Students often find it challenging to remain engaged during online lectures because attention, by its nature, tends to fluctuate between perceptually guided and self-generated thoughts (external and internal attention, respectively). However, little is known about how internal attention may promote or hinder student learning. This in-progress study explores this question by manipulating the frequency and duration of internal attention ("thinking") periods, inserted into an online lecture. In a large scale online study, undergraduate students (N = 640) are being asked to watch a pre-recorded biology lecture divided into five 5-minute segments. In the experimental condition, thinking periods are inserted between either three or all five of these segments, guiding students to quietly think about a lecture-related prompt for 15, 30, or 60 seconds before typing their answer. In the comparison condition, students press a button to advance to the next lecture segment. To measure student learning, they complete a pre- and post-test. A webcam-based eye-tracking system is used to assess student attention during the lecture. We hypothesize that students learn better with thinking periods, and particularly when they are at intermediate levels of frequency and duration. This study has implications for better designing structured opportunities for students to direct their attention internally to improve learning.

Topic Area: METHODS: Neuroimaging

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March 29–April 1  |  2025

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