Research has shown that attention and learning rate increase with time pressure on the current learning task. Interestingly, Professor Sophie Leroy has also shown that attention and learning rate on the next task is also improved with time pressure on the previous task. It is hypothesized that by providing time pressure, the learner is more able to achieve completion and cognitive closure of the previous task which frees up their attention to focus on the next learning task. This is one of the reasons you see the timer in the JogNog game – to provide time pressure so that the student feels cognitive closure as they complete each level of their knowledge tower.
Read the paper: “Why Is It so Hard to Do My Work? The Challenge of Attention Residue when Switching Between Work Tasks” .
This article by Stephen Smith appeared in the October 21, 2010 edition of the JogNog weekly newsletter.