Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions:Previous studies have investigated if quantity of target language (TL) use predicts second language (L2) learning. The aim of this study is to understand what kind of TL use promotes host language proficiency among adults in the context of migration, operationalized as productive collocation knowledge.

Design/Methodology/Approach:The study takes a cross-sectional quantitative approach to explore what clusters of TL activities predict language proficiency among 63 first language (L1) French L2 Swedish long-term residents in Sweden.Data and Analysis:Data were collected within a larger project. Productive collocation knowledge was assessed by a collocation test and participants’ TL use through the Language Engagement Questionnaire. We conducted a factor analysis to identify patterns of TL use. We then used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationship between TL use and productive collocation knowledge.

Findings/Conclusions:Two factors emerged from the factor analysis: “Everyday Interactive Target Language Use” and “Non-interactive Target Language Use.” Only the former was related to productive collocation knowledge as evidenced by the structural equation modeling. “Everyday Interactive Target Language Use” included using the TL at the workplace, in conversations and service encounters, through text messages and emails, participating in online social network platforms, and browsing the internet.

Background: When university students guide their own learning, how much they learn depends on how well they can manage their learning efforts. An important component of self-regulated learning is knowledge about effective learning techniques and how to use them.

Aims: This study investigates if a two-page study manual describing how to use effective learning techniques can enhance learning outcomes.

Sample: Eighty-seven undergraduate psychology students at Stockholm University.

Methods: Participants were randomized to receive the study manual (manual group) or not (control group) at the beginning of a semester. Grades from three of the semester's courses and responses to post-exam questionnaires were used to evaluate the effect of the manual.

Results: The manual group had a higher probability of passing the exams (10-20%-points) and getting high grades (16-24%-points) on the three consecutive courses. Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regressions estimated that an average student in the manual group, taking an average course, had a median increase of 12%-points (95% CI [1%, 38%]) in the probability of passing the exam and 24%-points (95 % CI [1%, 55%]) to get a high grade, compared to the control group. Questionnaire responses indicate that the manual increased students' use of effective learning techniques.

Conclusions: The study shows that self-regulated learning and learning outcomes can be improved with a short and cost-effective study manual describing how to use effective learning techniques.

We have evaluated a new pedagogical approach, pure question-based learning, or rather, amodern, digitized version of a really old approach: the Socratic method of learning. The pedagogicalapproach was evaluated and improved using a design-based research methodology. An onlinecourse was developed with pure question-based learning to explain its predecessor: questionbased learning. The course was successively taken by students, researchers, and practitioners, anddiscussed in four group seminars. Feedback from each iteration was integrated into the next versionand the course is still in use, see link below. Results from the design-based research process werepositive (n ≈ 78 participants, over four iterations) with the main negative results coming from theunfamiliarity of the format and feelings of exam-like stress during the first encounter. While purequestion-based learning is new, it builds upon well-tested pedagogical methods. The method hasseveral potential advantages: learning can be broken down into smaller modules, there is lesspassive learning for the students, less learning material needs to be created and AI could be used forthis creation.

The study investigates how psychological and social factors relate to productive collocation knowledge in late L2 learners of Swedish (French L1) (N = 59). The individual factors are language aptitude (measured through the LLAMA aptitude test), reported language use, social networks, acculturation, and personality. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that positive effects were found for LLAMA D (phonetic memory), LLAMA E (sound-symbol correspondence), reported language use, and length of residence (LOR). Furthermore, a negative effect was found for the personality variable Open-mindedness. These variables explained 63% (adjusted R²) of the variance, which represents large effects compared to other studies on individual factors. In sum, the findings confirm earlier results on the importance of language aptitude and language use for productive collocation knowledge. They also add evidence of the importance of personality and LOR. In sum, cognitive and social factors combine to explain different outcomes in adult L2 acquisition.

This study investigated what psychological and social factors predict 'perceived nativelikeness' in late second language (L2) learners of French (L1 Swedish) (N = 62) with a minimum length of residence (LOR) of 5 years in France. The included factors were: language aptitude (LLAMA), acculturation (VIA), personality (MPQ), target language engagement and social networks (number of relations in L2). LOR and Length of French studies were also included as extraneous variables. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that positive effects were found for LLAMA D (sound recognition), acculturation (VIA France and VIA Sweden), number of relations in L2 and LOR. A negative effect was found for the personality variable Social initiative. The strongest effects were found for LLAMA D, Social initiative and LOR. All variables together explained 25% (adjusted R-2) of the variance in the sample, which represents medium-sized effects in relation to other studies on individual factors. In sum, these findings confirm results from earlier studies on the importance of language aptitude and acculturation in late L2 acquisition. They also add evidence of the importance of personality, social networks, and LOR. On a more general note psychological and social factors combine to explain different outcomes in adult L2 acquisition, although the effects of psychological variables are deemed somewhat stronger.

When making memory predictions (judgments of learning; JOLs), people typically underestimate the recall gain across multiple study–test cycles, termed the underconfidence-with-practice (UWP) effect. This is usually studied with verbal materials, but little is known about how people repeatedly learn and monitor their own actions and to what extent retrieval practice via interim tests influence the progression of JOLs across cycles. Using action phrases (i.e., squeeze the lemon) as learning material, we demonstrated the UWP effect after both verbal and enactive encoding, although we did not get first-cycle overconfidence. As predicted, participants exhibited underconfidence in Cycles 2 and 3, as an error of calibrations. However, people’s resolution of JOLs (i.e., ability to discriminate recalled from unrecalled items) increased across study–test cycles. Importantly, JOLs for study–test (relative to study–study) items increased faster across cycles suggesting that repeated study–test practice not only produces underconfidence across cycles, but also reduces underconfidence relative to study–study practice. We discuss these findings in terms of current explanations of the underconfidence-with-practice effect.

Processing fluency influences many types of judgments. Some metacognitive research suggests that the influence of processing fluency may be mediated by participants’ beliefs. The current study explores the influence of processing fluency and beliefs on ease-of-learning (EOL) judgments. In two experiments (Exp 1: n = 94; Exp 2: n = 146), participants made EOL judgments on 24 six-letter concrete nouns, presented in either a constant condition (high fluency) with upper-case letters (e.g., BUCKET) or an alternating condition (low fluency) with mixed upper- and lower-case letters (e.g., bUcKeT). After judging words individually, participants studied the words and completed a free recall test. Finally, participants indicated what condition they believed made the words more likely to be learned. Results show constant-condition words were judged as more likely to be learned than alternating condition words, but the difference varied with beliefs. Specifically, the difference was biggest when participants believed the constant condition made words more likely to be learned, followed by believing there was no difference, and then believing the alternating condition made words more likely to be learned. Thus, we showed that processing fluency has a direct effect on EOL judgments, but the effect is moderated by beliefs.

To learn efficiently, many situations require people to judge what will be easy or difficult to learn, or how well it has been stored in memory. These metacognitive judgments are important to understand because they most likely guide how people behave when they learn, and consequently how much they learn. In this thesis, I focus on what is referred to as ease-of-learning (EOL) judgments, that is judgments about how easy or difficult a material will be to learn. EOL judgments have received relatively limited attention in the metacognitive literature. Therefore, this thesis also considers for comparison the more extensively researched judgments of learning (JOL), which are judgments of how well a studied material has been learned or how likely it is to be remembered on a later memory test. I had two major aims with my research. First, I aimed to investigate how accurate EOL judgments are, that is, how well they can predict the ease of future learning, and what moderates this accuracy. More precisely, I investigated what affects EOL judgment accuracy by varying how much an item-set varies in a predictive item characteristic, as well as varying methodological aspects of the judgment situation. The second major aim was to investigate what sources of information people use to make EOL judgments and how the information is used to make metacognitive judgments. In three studies, participants made EOL judgments for word pairs (e.g., sun – warm), or single words (e.g., bucket), studied the items, and tried to recall them on memory tests. In Study II, participants also made JOLs after studying the items. To estimate the accuracy of the judgments, the judgments were correlated with recall performance on memory tests. The results of the thesis show that EOL judgments can be accurate when they are made on a to-be-learned material which varies in a predictive item characteristic (Study I and II). In some conditions, EOL judgments are even as accurate as JOLs (Study II). Study II also supports the cue competition hypothesis, which predicts that, when people judge memory and learning, they sometimes rely less on one source of information if other information is available. Furthermore, Study III shows that processing fluency (the experience of effort associated with processing information), may be an important source of information for EOL judgments, and that people’s beliefs about available information can moderate how the information is used to make EOL judgments. Overall, the results show when EOL judgments will be accurate and when they will not, and provides evidence that people may use processing fluency to make EOL judgments even when it contradicts their beliefs. Importantly, the results also indicate that when multiple sources of information are available, information may compete for influence over metacognitive judgments.

When people begin to study new material, they may first judge how difficult it will be to learn. Surprisingly, these ease of learning (EOL) judgments have received little attention by metacognitive researchers so far. The aim of this study was to systematically investigate how well EOL judgments can predict actual learning, and what factors may moderate their relative accuracy. In three experiments, undergraduate psychology students made EOL judgments on, then studied, and were tested on, lists of word-pairs (e.g., sun – warm). In Experiment 1, the Goodman-Kruskal gamma (G) correlations showed that EOL judgments were accurate (G = .74) when items varied enough in difficulty to allow for proper discrimination between them, but were less accurate (G = .21) when variation was smaller. Furthermore, in Experiment 1 and 3, we showed that the relative accuracy was reliably higher when the EOL judgments were correlated with a binary criterion (i.e., if an item was recalled or not on a test), compared with a trials-to-learn criterion (i.e., how many study and test trials were needed to recall an item). In addition, Experiments 2 and 3 indicate other factors to be non-influential for EOL accuracy, such as the task used to measure the EOL judgments, and whether items were judged sequentially (i.e., one item at a time in isolation from the other items) or simultaneously (i.e., each item was judged while having access to all other items). To conclude, EOL judgments can be highly accurate (G = .74) and may thus be of strategic importance for learning. Further avenues for research are discussed.