Fostering self-regulated learning: the role of perceived mental effort

Self-regulated learning skills are crucial to achieve academic success, especially for higher education students who spend ample time studying on their own, at their own place or in the university library. Two learning strategies, that is, retrieval practice and distributed practice, have been found to be particularly effective in fostering long-term learning and transfer during self-regulated learning. The main aim of the studies reported in this dissertation was to investigate how we can encourage higher education students to optimize their self-regulated learning, by promoting the uptake of more effective learning strategies. This thesis found that the high perceived mental effort from the learning task and learning strategies reduces the chance of choosing an effortful learning strategy such as retrieval practice. Individual feedback on learning outcomes increased the uptake of retrieval practice in students who benefited from it, despite the high mental effort involved.