Task-Related Interference During Educational Activities: A Meta-Analysis of Its Occurrence and Relationship with Learning
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
While learning, students experience various kinds of thoughts. Some of these thoughts are fully on the task, but others might be about aspects of their private life or how they can apply what they are currently learning. These thoughts that are not fully on the task can be divided into task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs, also known as mind wandering) and task-related interference. Task-unrelated thoughts are independent of the task, while task-related interference thoughts may bear some relationship to the specific learning task. Prior research has largely focused on how often task-unrelated thoughts occur and how they relate to learning outcomes. There is a paucity of research on task-related interference leaving a gap in understanding of the prevalence of these thoughts and their influence on learning outcomes. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the frequency of task-related interference (TRI) and its correlation with learning outcomes. Results show that TRI occurs 20.54% of the time, yet no significant correlation with learning was observed. These findings suggest TRI should be accounted for alongside mind wandering, as the available evidence does not support a systematic relationship between TRI and learning performance, unlike for TUTs.
