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

• Published in: British journal of educational psychology 2023-08, Vol.93 (S2), p.353-367
• Main Authors: Biwer, Felicitas, Wiradhany, Wisnu, oude Egbrink, Mirjam G. A., Bruin, Anique B. H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention Control; break‐taking; College students; Educational psychology; effort regulation; Foreign Countries; Graduate Students; Learning; Learning Strategies; Mental effort; Motivation; Self Management; Self regulation; self‐regulated learning; Short Term Memory; Students; Task completion; Time Blocks; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0007-0998; 2044-8279
• DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12593

Background During 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. Aims We 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. Sample Eighty‐seven bachelor's and master's students from a Dutch University. Methods Students 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). Results Students 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. Conclusions Taking 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.