Understanding effort regulation: Comparing ‘Pomodoro’ breaks and self‐regulated breaks

Author:

Biwer Felicitas1ORCID,Wiradhany Wisnu2ORCID,oude Egbrink Mirjam G. A.3ORCID,de Bruin Anique B. H.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Educational Development and Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences, School of Health Professions Education (SHE) Maastricht University Maastricht The Netherlands

2. Psychology Department, Faculty of Humanities Bina Nusantara University Jakarta Indonesia

3. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences, School of Health Professions Education (SHE) Maastricht University Maastricht The Netherlands

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundDuring self‐study, students need to monitor and regulate mental effort to replete working memory resources and optimize learning results. Taking breaks during self‐study could be an effective effort regulation strategy. However, little is known about how breaktaking relates to self‐regulated learning.AimsWe investigated the effects of taking systematic or self‐regulated breaks on mental effort, task experiences and task completion in real‐life study sessions for 1 day.SampleEighty‐seven bachelor's and master's students from a Dutch University.MethodsStudents participated in an online intervention during their self‐study. In the self‐regulated‐break condition (n = 35), students self‐decided when to take a break; in the systematic break conditions, students took either a 6‐min break after every 24‐min study block (systematic‐long or ‘Pomodoro technique’, n = 25) or a 3‐min break after every 12‐min study block (systematic‐short, n = 27).ResultsStudents had longer study sessions and breaks when self‐regulating. This was associated with higher levels of fatigue and distractedness, and lower levels of concentration and motivation compared to those in the systematic conditions. We found no difference between groups in invested mental effort or task completion.ConclusionsTaking pre‐determined, systematic breaks during a study session had mood benefits and appeared to have efficiency benefits (i.e., similar task completion in shorter time) over taking self‐regulated breaks. Measuring how mental effort dynamically fluctuates over time and how effort spent on the learning task differs from effort spent on regulating break‐taking requires further research.

Publisher

Wiley

Subject

Developmental and Educational Psychology,Education

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