Nana Kanzaki

Use of a Cognitive Simulator to Enhance Students' Mental Simulation Activities

We developed a cognitive simulator of the dual storage model of the human memory system that simulates the serial position effect of a traditional memory recall experiment. In a cognitive science class, participants learned cognitive information processing while observing the memory processes visualized by the simulator. Through the practice, we confirmed that participants learned to predict experimental results in assumed situations implying that participants successfully constructed a mental model and performed mental simulations while running the mental model in various settings. We discuss the possibility that a cognitive model can be used as a learning tool and, more specifically, as a mediator tool connecting theory and empirical data.

Empirical investigation on self fading as adaptive behavior of hint seeking

We investigated whether students behave adaptively in hint-seeking from the viewpoint of self-fading. To let students effectively learn, scaffolding should be eliminated gradually with the progress of learning. We define self-fading as fading behavior lowing the levels of support by students themselves. We investigated the relation between such metacognitive behavior and learning effects through two experiments in a laboratory setting and in actual class activities. The results showed that our participants successfully faded help supports, and also confirmed that those who lowered the levels of support and learned with their own efforts gained larger learning effects.