Andrew Tolmie

Adults have a semantically discretised, event-based perception of reality – such that events and goals are both hierarchically structured and have a beginning, middle and end. Here, we consider how we first develop the ability to parse reality hierarchically - as we learn, to use Plato’s phrase, to ‘carve nature at its joints’. Central to this process is the ability to make predictions on hierarchical timescales. We consider two aspects of predictability: first, the child’s passive capacity to use predictability to inform how they passively observe things as they happen; and second, children’s active capacity to generate predictable sequences of behaviour. We highlight two themes that are, we argue, common across both passive observation and active behaviour. First, flat (i.e. non-hierarchical) predictability initially increases over development – as shown for example by increases in perseveration – before decreasing as hierarchical predictability (i.e. nested, multi-level goals) increase. Second, for both observing and acting, learnt regularities in low-level environmental data (e.g., movement, contrast, over fine-grained timescales) feed into our internal predictions of higher-order events (e.g., goals, over more coarse-grained timescales).

Enthusiasm for an evidence-informed approach towards educational interventions is currently hindered by difficulties integrating research findings into practice. To develop an understanding of current challenges for evidence integration, this qualitative study examined how commercial providers of educational interventions – increasingly involved in the development of practice – interact with and use research evidence in their intervention development and practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an international sample of 14 directors of commercial educational intervention companies (50% female) from countries in Europe and North, Central and South America. Based on thematic analysis of interview data, this paper presents a) an overview of the perspectives of the directors on the role of research evidence in their work, and b) suggestions for improving evidence integration into educational intervention provision based on these. Company directors considered research to be important for responsible practice in education and that intervention providers typically conduct their own research for the dual purposes of evidencing and optimising impact. However, there is currently disincentive for commercial providers to engage with academic research because taking part in external evaluation of their own intervention is perceived as high-stakes. Evidence standards required by schools and different research funding bodies are inconsistent. Together, the result is that rigorous standards of evaluation are not perceived as being necessary. To facilitate engagement with research, intervention providers desire a client-centred and collaborative approach to research partnerships, and evaluation processes that are incremental, reducing reliance on high-stakes one-off research trials. We propose ways to improve evidence integration into educational intervention provision based on the perspectives of commercial education intervention providers, while placing them in the context of other stakeholders in the evidence-informed approach to education.

Enthusiasm for an evidence-informed approach to educational interventions is currently hindered by difficulties with integrating research findings into practice. To develop an understanding of current challenges for evidence integration, this qualitative study examined how commercial providers of educational interventions – increasingly involved in the development of practice – interact with and use research evidence in their intervention development and practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an international sample of 14 directors of commercial educational intervention companies (50 per cent female) from countries in Europe and North, Central and South America. Based on thematic analysis of interview data, this paper presents (a) an overview of the perspectives of the directors on the role of research evidence in their work, and (b) suggestions for improving evidence integration into educational intervention provision based on these. Company directors considered research to be important for responsible practice in education and that intervention providers typically conduct their own research for the dual purposes of evidencing and optimising impact. However, there is currently a disincentive for commercial providers to engage with academic research, because taking part in external evaluation of their own intervention is perceived as high-stakes. Furthermore, evidence standards required by schools and different research funding bodies are inconsistent. The result is that rigorous standards of evaluation are not perceived as necessary. To facilitate engagement with research, intervention providers desire a client-centred and collaborative approach to research partnerships, and evaluation processes that are incremental, reducing reliance on high-stakes one-off research trials. We propose ways to improve evidence integration into educational intervention provision based on the perspectives of commercial education intervention providers, while placing them in the context of other stakeholders in the evidence-informed approach to education.

One of the main difficulties in the field of science of learning is to ensure that findings are adopted by policy makers and practitioners and translated into the classroom. To address the question of why challenges persist, five heads of research labs involved in the science of learning from three different countries (the United Kingdom, France, and Chile) conducted a workshop to discuss challenges for the science of learning field. Thematic analysis was conducted on presentation slides and discussion notes, and the themes were organised around an adapted five-dimensional gaps framework by Miles (2017) to produce a gap analysis. Current gaps were identified in relation to: 1) existing theory and knowledge; 2) the research-practice divide; 3) research methodologies; 4) empirical testing and evidence verification; and 5) research with specific populations. Examples from work across the labs were used to represent international perspectives on challenges and evidence possible solutions. Some of the key takeaways and strategies for surmounting these gaps included the need for funding to research lesser-studied areas and populations, to replicate or repeat intervention evaluations, and to establish meaningful co-produced research partnerships between educators and research institutions.

Smooth social interactions rely on children’s abilities to decode others’ social signals, which includes what an individual may say or do, and their facial emotional expressions. Failure can lead to exclusion from social groups. Consequently, a number of social and emotional learning (SEL) training programmes have been developed, with some evidence of positive impacts on those skills themselves and on academic achievement. Here, we present and evaluate the efficacy of a novel classroom-based computerized learning activity, called SEE+ (Socio-emotional engagement through observation), in supporting and enhancing 7- to 10-year-olds’ emotion recognition and theory of mind judgements through observation and inference. SEE+ involved observing four virtual characters interacting within social scenarios and inferring their mental states. Participants were recruited from across diverse school settings (rural, urban) in England as part of a large-scale randomised controlled trial (n = 5585; 7.3–11.0 years old, M age = 9.1, SD = 1.0) resulting in a mix of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. Mixed model ANOVAs were used to compare performance on socio-emotional tasks between the SEE+ group, an active control group and a teaching-as-usual control group. SEE + was associated with the equivalent of 4–6 months improvement in performance on the socio-emotional assessment tasks. Children showed near transfer effects of the intervention (i.e., when characters present in the computerized learning activity were used in the assessment), while no strong evidence of far transfer effects (i.e., when photographs of unknown children were used in the assessment) was found. Limitations were the use of pen-and-paper assessments with a reduced number of trials, and a possible ceiling effect in the older children in the photograph condition. Our findings point to the relative plasticity of younger children’s socio-emotional cognition and underscore SEE+ as an easy-to-use cost-effective socio-emotional resource for teachers to embed SEL in the school curriculum.

This study examined how two metacognitive constructs, cognitive self-consciousness and beliefs about emotion regulation, mediate the link among early adolescents between emotion regulation and engagement in coping with worry, and whether these relationships change with age during this period. A total of 338 Chinese pupils completed a series of measures assessing the metacognitive constructs plus emotional awareness and regulation; scenario-based questions examined coping strategies. Participants were divided into two age groups, 11 to 12 (M_age = 11.9 years) and 13 to 15 (M_age = 13.2 years). Path models showed that younger participants adopted emotion-focused coping whereas older participants adopted more problem-focused coping, and these response patterns were mediated as hypothesized by cognitive self-consciousness and controllability beliefs towards worry. These findings highlight the need for more adaptive coping to be specifically targeted during early adolescence by raising awareness of controllability beliefs.

Background/Objectives. While mind wandering has often been linked to negative outcomes, some research suggests it has potential benefits for creativity, particularly through incubation. However, two critical gaps remain: limited understanding of mind wandering’s effects on creative performance and lack of comparative research examining its impact on both divergent and convergent thinking. The study addressed these gaps by comparing the effects of two types of mind wandering (i.e., with and without awareness) on both types of creative thinking, using repeated and novel problems post-incubation to isolate effects. Methods. Eighty-five participants completed divergent (Unusual Uses Task, UUT) and convergent (Compound Remote Associate Task, CRA) thinking tasks, interspersed with a 0-back incubation task. Thought probes measured mind wandering frequency and awareness. Performance was assessed for fluency and originality (UUT) and accuracy (CRA), with problems categorised by difficulty. Results. Results revealed no significant effects of mind wandering on divergent thinking, though incubation improved fluency, particularly for repeated items. For convergent thinking, mind wandering with awareness enhanced performance on low-difficulty repeated items, while mind wandering without awareness hindered novel moderate-difficulty items. Divergent and convergent performance showed no correlation, suggesting distinct cognitive demands. Conclusions. The findings provide evidence that mind wandering’s impact on creativity is limited and context-dependent, with conscious reflection during incubation more beneficial than uncontrolled drifting. Differences in task demands and difficulty levels further modulate these effects. Future research should explore naturalistic settings and use of incubation tasks that do not compete for cognitive resources with the core task to better understand incubation and mind wandering’s roles in creativity.

Spaced learning (SL) involves distributed learning with timed distraction breaks unrelated to the learning input. These breaks are thought to facilitate consolidation of novel information in long-term memory by accommodating post-activation neural recovery and biochemical changes in potentiation. Applications of SL have become commonplace across UK teaching and feature in government guidance, although there have been few research trials, especially within secondary schools, and none addressing physics independently. However, past research with 14–16-year-old students in England found that interspersing a fast-paced video input with ten-minute distraction breaks in a standard hour-long biology lesson yielded exam performance equivalent to regular teaching across many months. The present study adapted this regime to learning a novel physics topic, atomic structure, including radioactive decay, part of pre-16 compulsory science education in England. An in-class video covered all of the subject content in a single one-hour lesson, with three learning inputs, of length 11 - 14 minutes, interspersed with ten-minute distraction breaks. As well as ‘business as usual’ controls, the research included groups that only experienced the SL lesson, and those who were exposed to it prior to traditional teaching. Impact on learning was assessed using tests similar to state examinations taken at the end of a two-year physics course. Six non-selective state (non-fee charging) schools with varying demography were invited to join the study to ensure the sample was representative of the 93% of students who attend such schools in England. In total, 336 students completed all pre- and post-intervention (immediate and delayed) tests. Students studying combined sciences and separate physics were divided into groups cutting across conditions, with the former taking a shorter test. SL led to immediate benefits for separate physics students, but the SL only group showed no further gain at delayed post-test, with performance then equal to controls, as in past work. However, the SL plus group exhibited additional gains, 50% to 90% greater than the other groups at delayed post-test, following traditional teaching. Among combined science students, the SL plus group showed gains at delayed post-test 60% greater than controls. These effects were consistent across different schools. The implication is that SL provides a foundation for subsequent learning, often doubling its efficiency regardless of context, and that it does so with minimal additional input.

Background/Objectives. While mind wandering has often been linked to negative outcomes, some research suggests it has potential benefits for creativity, particularly through incubation. To address inconsistencies in prior research findings, the current study investigated the role of mind wandering during incubation in divergent and convergent creative thinking. The study compared the effects of two types of mind wandering (i.e., with and without awareness) on both types of creative thinking, using repeated and novel problems post-incubation to isolate effects.Methods. Eighty-five participants completed divergent (Unusual Uses Task, UUT) and convergent (Compound Remote Associate Task, CRA) thinking tasks, interspersed with a 0-back incubation task. Thought probes measured mind wandering frequency and awareness. Performance was assessed for fluency and originality (UUT) and accuracy (CRA), with problems categorized by difficulty.Results. Results revealed no significant effects of mind wandering on divergent thinking, though incubation improved fluency, particularly for repeated items. For convergent thinking, mind wandering with awareness enhanced performance on low-difficulty repeated items, while mind wandering without awareness hindered novel moderate-difficulty items. Divergent and convergent performance showed no correlation, suggesting distinct cognitive demands.Conclusions. The findings provide evidence that mind wandering’s impact on creativity is limited and context-dependent, with conscious reflection during incubation more beneficial than uncontrolled drifting. Differences in task demands and difficulty levels further modulate these effects. Future research should explore naturalistic settings and use of incubation tasks that do not compete for cognitive resources with the core task to better understand incubation and mind wandering’s roles in creativity.

Block construction is a central activity in childhood, engaging key motor and cognitive capabilities. Skills such as problem-solving, planning, and the intuitive understanding of physical principles are required during block building, all of which are foundational to later academic achievement in domains such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Past research has predominantly taken an outcome-oriented approach overlooking the underlying mechanisms and their connections to other skills. Here, we introduce a graph-theory framework to capture and analyze the sequential steps in children’s block construction activities. We tested our framework using a dataset of adults (n = 18) and children (n = 12; ages 7–10) building Duplo models. We took a process-oriented approach by using a novel video-annotation scheme that allowed us to generate graphical structures of the building process and extract measures that provided valuable insights into the differences between children and adults in the construction process. Our findings show that while adults take fewer steps, they take more time per step, and that children struggle to recover from errors more than adults. The framework is openly shared with the scientific community, aiming to provide the groundwork for other researchers who are interested in shifting from an outcome-oriented to a process-oriented approach when studying block construction.