Simple calls to increase effort influence attention, mind wandering, and learning during online lectures

Mind wandering is a prevalent contributor to poor retention of lecture content. This study examined whether simply directing students to “try harder” can enhance attention and learning in recorded lectures. In two experiments (N = 113 and N = 100), participants watched a 45 min recorded lecture while periodically responding to probes measuring attention (Experiment 1) or intentional and unintentional mind wandering (Experiment 2).

Two-thirds through the lecture, half of participants received a prompt directing them to “try harder” to learn from the remaining portion of the lecture (experimental, try harder condition), while the other half received a neutral prompt (control condition). The try harder prompt significantly increased self-reported attention (Experiment 1) as well as decreased intentional and unintentional mind wandering (Experiment 2). In Experiment 2 (but not in Experiment 1), the try harder prompt also led to a nominal improvement in retention of post-prompt lecture content, a change that was statistically different from the corresponding change for controls, which was nominally in the opposite direction.

These effects occurred without explicit incentives or between-group differences in motivation, suggesting that directly targeting effort mobilization may be sufficient to enhance learning outcomes. These findings endorse directing students to try harder as a practical technique for improving attention and retention in recorded lectures. This study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-04071).

D.A.A. was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Lupina Foundation. None of these funders were involved in: designing the study; collecting, analyzing, or interpreting the data; writing the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication. Albert and Jackie Heitzner contributed as co-first authors.

Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada Derek A. Albert, Jackie Heitzner & Daniel Smilek The authors declare no competing interests. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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