Processing Fluency in Education: How Metacognitive Feelings Shape Learning, Belief Formation, and Affect

Processing fluency—the experienced ease with which a mental operation is performed has attracted little attention in educational psychology, despite its relevance. The present article reviews and integrates empirical evidence on processing fluency that is relevant to school education. Fluency is important, for instance, in learning, self-assessment of knowledge, testing, grading, teacher–student communication, social interaction in the multicultural classroom, and emergence of interest. After a brief overview of basic fluency research we review effects of processing fluency in three broad areas: metacognition in learning, belief formation, and affect. Within each area, we provide evidence-based implications for education. Along the way, we offer fluency-based insights into phenomena that were long known but not yet sufficiently explained (e.g., the effect of handwriting on grading). Bringing fluency (back) to education may contribute to research and school practice alike

Alone or together: The role of gender and social context prior to Aha-experiences

Prior research indicates that boys show more interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) than girls do. Given that Aha-experiences yield positive affect and increase interest, the question arises whether there are gender differences in Aha-experiences that could help explainthe gender differences in interest. Derived from social role theory, we hypothesized that men report having Aha-experiences alone, whereas women reporthaving Aha-experiences together with others. In a retrospective survey study comprising three independent samples (N=899), we conducted chi- squareanalyses to explore the relationship of gender, social context (alone; not alone), domain, and situational interest. Across all participants, we found that menwere more probably alone and women more probably together with others when they had an Aha-experience. Morefine-grained analyses revealed that theeffect was especially pronounced when the Aha-experience increased situational interest within STEM or the personal domain. The study suggests thatsocial context played a different role in the occurrence of Aha-experiences in men and women. We discuss the implications of ourfindings for STEMinstruction at school.publishedVersio

The Role of Affect in Late Perceptual Processes: Evidence from Bi-stable Illusions, Object Identification, and Mental Rotation

Computational views of perception do not consider affect to be required to solve a perceptual task. Previous research provided evidence for an affective component in early perceptual processes but it is unclear whether late perceptual processes yield concomitant affect. Three studies using three different tasks explored changes in affect related to late perceptual processes by exposing participants to a visual object and measuring activity in facial muscles (zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii) using facial EMG as indicators for affect. In the first task, change of muscle activity was measured before and after participants indicated that the perspective of bi-stable illusions shifted. In the second task, change of muscle activity was measured before and after participants indicated that they identified an object that emerged from a pattern mask. The third task examined the affective consequences, as measured by facial EMG, of solving mental rotation tasks. The three studies found that shifts in bi-stable illusions, identification of objects, and solving mental rotation problems yielded increasing zygomaticus major activity, indicating increased positive affect after task completion. Simultaneously, corrugator supercilii activity decreased after successful perception. These studies suggest that success in perception is inherently affective, even when memory, comparison, and decision processes are involved.This research has been supported by the Finnut-program of the Norwegian Research Council (#283540).acceptedVersio

The utility of implicit learning in the teaching of rules

Abstract The potential impact of implicit learning on education has been repeatedly stressed, though little research has examined this connection directly. The current paper describes two experiments that, inspired by artificial grammar learning experiments, examine the utility of implicit learning as a method for teaching atomic bonding rules to 11e12 year old school children. Two groups were given tasks that led to explicit rule learning; two other groups were given tasks that did not lead to rule learning; and a control group was trained on irrelevant stimuli. We observed an implicit learning effect, but learning was much more effective when more explicit ways of teaching were employed. These findings suggest that mere exposure to regular material is not sufficient for effective learning of rules, and that an explicit approach to instruction is advisable

Perceptual fluency effects in judgments of creativity and beauty: creative objects are perceived fluently yet they are visually complex

Perceptual fluency typically has a positive influence on aesthetic evaluations of beauty, but few studies have examined its influence on creativity evaluations. Creativity has two facets, originality and quality. If creativity judgments involve estimating product originality, such judgments may be associated with perceptual disfluency, while product quality may be associated with perceptual fluency. We examined the relationship between perceptual fluency and judgments of creativity and beauty across seven experiments. Creativity judgments were affected by most perceptual fluencysources. We observed a highly-fluent-is-beautiful-and-creative relation when testing repeated exposure and figure-ground contrast. Prototypicality displayed a high-fluency–is-beautiful relation, with creativity judgments unaffected. Visual complexity displayed a consistent disfluent-is-creative effect, with mixed results for beauty. For creativity (but not beauty) evaluations, increased saliency of visual complexity led to discounting fluent-is-creative effects, supporting the hypothesis that there are at least two fluency pathways to creativity judgments that take both originality and quality into account

Antecedents and consequences of creativity and beauty judgements in consumer products

The literature in consumer psychology has tended to lack a clear separation between theoretical models of creativity and beauty evaluations of products. The present study examined whether creativity and beauty affected willingness to pay jointly or separately. In three experiments using paintings, wrist watches and designer lamps as stimuli, the present study shows how creativity and beauty both positively influence consumer willingness-to-pay for the product, but each explains different parts of the variance. Further, product complexity differentially affects consumer judgments of creativity and beauty. The results show that it is essential to develop separate models of creativity and beauty evaluations in consumer psychology, in that they seem to be distinct factors, explaining different parts of the variance in their consequences on willingness to pay, and are affected differentially by antecedent factors, such as complexity

Integrating biodiversity: a longitudinal and cross-sectoral analysis of Swiss politics

The effective conservation and promotion of biodiversity requires its integration into a wide range of sectoral policies. For this to happen, the issue must receive attention across policy sectors. Yet, we know little about how attention to the issue evolves over time and across sectors. Drawing from the literature on environmental policy integration/mainstreaming and policy process theories, we develop competing hypotheses, expecting either increasing or fluctuating attention to the biodiversity issue. We tested the hypotheses using the case of Swiss politics between 1999 and 2018. Applying a combination of computational methods, we analyze the content of a comprehensive collection of policy documents (n ≈ 440,000) attributed to 20 policy sectors. Comparing the sectors, we find that (1) a persistent increase in attention is the exception, (2) if there is an increase in attention, it is likely to be temporary, and (3) the most common pattern is that of invariant attention over time. Biodiversity integration—if it does happen at all—tends to occur in cycles rather than in steady long-term shifts. This implies that the conservation of biodiversity does not follow the cross-sectoral nature of the problem, but is subject to the dynamics of "politics," where actors, because of limited resources, engage with (aspects of) an issue only for a certain amount of time

Accuracy, confidence and motivation in children’s insight problem-solving

Moments of insight are associated with accuracy, confidence and motivation in research with adults (Wiley & Danek, 2024). However, little is known about children’s insights. We presented 160 children (age: 4–8 years, 47% girls) with a new insight problem-solving task. Across 8 trials, children saw three clues and were asked to find a solution word associated with all three clues. Self-reported and observed aha-experiences were recorded, along with children’s solution accuracy and confidence. We found that aha-experiences were associated with accuracy (observed: OR = 11.76, p <.001, N trials = 1280; self-reported: OR = 2.26, p =.003, N trials = 560). However, there was no association between aha-experiences and confidence (observed: OR = 1.46, p =.138, N trials = 1063; self-reported: OR = 0.67, p =.287, N trials = 471). To assess children’s motivation, they could choose between two bonus tasks after completing a set of the insight task. We found that observed aha-experiences (OR = 1.5, p =.003, N participants = 160), but not self-reported aha experiences (OR = 1.1, p =.644, N participants = 70), were associated with higher likelihood that a child would choose to continue with the same type of task, rather than switching to a new kind of task

The Epistemic Status of Processing Fluency as Source for Judgments of Truth

This article combines findings from cognitive psychology on the role of processing fluency in truth judgments with epistemological theory on justification of belief. We first review evidence that repeated exposure to a statement increases the subjective ease with which that statement is processed. This increased processing fluency, in turn, increases the probability that the statement is judged to be true. The basic question discussed here is whether the use of processing fluency as a cue to truth is epistemically justified. In the present analysis, based on Bayes’ Theorem, we adopt the reliable-process account of justification presented by Goldman (1986) and show that fluency is a reliable cue to truth, under the assumption that the majority of statements one has been exposed to are true. In the final section, we broaden the scope of this analysis and discuss how processing fluency as a potentially universal cue to judged truth may contribute to cultural differences in commonsense beliefs