Boosting self-regulated learning with mobile interventions: Planning and prompting help children maintain a regular study routine

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities for encouraging self-regulated learning (SRL) in children. In this pre-registered study, we tested what kind of mobile intervention helps children maintain a regular study routine for vocabulary learning. Study behavior was measured objectively and with high ecological validity using logfiles of a vocabulary app that the children used. The mobile intervention was delivered via a separate study app and combined two critical components: planning and prompting. Children (N = 130, mean age = 10.75 years) first received a digital instruction on the benefits of distributed practice. Children in the full intervention group also formulated a plan for when and where to learn vocabulary. On about half of the next 36 days (within-subject manipulation), they received prompts reminding them of the instruction and the plan. The comparison groups lacked either the prompting or planning intervention component (between-person manipulation). The results revealed that the reminder prompts increased the likelihood of studying on the day they were given. Planning, in contrast, had a more long-term impact in that it helped children maintain a high frequency of learning over time. Overall, our findings show that mobile interventions can be highly effective in supporting SRL in children. We discuss the results in light of theoretical assumptions about the different mechanisms underlying planning and prompting effects, and highlight the practical importance of finding the optimal frequency of prompting.