Glossary
I will attempt to define some of the technical terms discussed throughout the site here.
ICAP Theory of Cognitive Engagement (link to paper)
ICAP is a recent theory of human learning on how, universally, we retain information. Many people know of the theory of learning "styles". While learning styles are good for suggesting possible study methods, there's not much use beyond that. ICAP, however, studies how the level of engagement directly impacts learning, instead of the type of engagement (such as auditory or kinesthetic). ICAP is an acronym that explains these levels, in order from most to least effective: Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive. Passive engagement would be like listening to a lecture. Active engagement would be taking notes on that lecture. Constructive engagement would be taking notes and then making some conceptualization of your own on the material. This could be a mind map, a recording of your voice, or just a paragraph explaining everything in your own terms. Interactive is when you and another person compare conceptualizations, effectively teaching a different viewpoint on the same material.
Contingent responsivity in E-books modeled from quality adult-child interactions: Effects on children’s learning and attention (link to paper)
This paper formed the basis of two studies on this site. It applied the ICAP theory to e-books. All the books that were used were on-level picture books for 4 to 5 year olds. The book teaches children to read by saying a line from the story aloud, and only continuing on when it hears the child correctly repeat that line. There were also animations of the art, which served to both engage the child and indicate when a line was recognized. The experiment found an almost universal improvement in story comprehension in comparison to a static book.
Inhibition (APA definition)
In this specific case, we are defining inhibition as the ability to surpress immediate, incorrect responses for the correct one.
Simon Effect (try it out)
The Simon Effect studies the delay in response in which stimulus and response are on opposite sides. It is one application of inhibition.
