Mind wandering during learning with an intelligent tutoring system

Caitlin Mills, Sidney D’Mello, Nigel Bosch, Andrew M. Olney

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mind wandering (zoning out) can be detrimental to learning outcomes in a host of educational activities, from reading to watching video lectures, yet it has received little attention in the field of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). In the current study, participants self-reported mind wandering during a learning session with Guru, a dialogue-based ITS for biology. On average, participants interacted with Guru for 22 minutes and reported an average of 11.5 instances of mind wandering, or one instance every two minutes. The frequency of mind wandering was compared across five different phases of Guru (Common-Ground-Building Instruction, Intermittent Summary, Concept Map, Scaffolded Dialogue, and Cloze task), each requiring different learning strategies. The rate of mind wandering per minute was highest during the Common-Ground-Building Instruction and Scaffolded Dialogue phases of Guru. Importantly, there was significant negative correlation between mind wandering and learning, highlighting the need to address this phenomena during learning with ITSs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationArtificial Intelligence in Education - 17th International Conference, AIED 2015, Proceedings
EditorsCristina Conati, Neil Heffernan, Antonija Mitrovic, M. Felisa Verdejo
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages267-276
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)9783319197722
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event17th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, AIED 2015 - Madrid, Spain
Duration: Jun 22 2015Jun 26 2015

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume9112
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference17th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, AIED 2015
Country/TerritorySpain
CityMadrid
Period6/22/156/26/15

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.

Keywords

  • Attention
  • Engagement
  • Intelligent tutoring
  • Mind wandering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Mind wandering during learning with an intelligent tutoring system'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this