My lab investigates human learning, problem solving, and motivation with an aim to understand, predict, and promote knowledge transfer. Transfer is the ability to use prior knowledge and experience to solve novel problems. We have focused on four interrelated lines of research: 1) investigating the cognitive and metacognitive processes underlying transfer success and failure, 2) exploring the relations between motivation, learning, and transfer, 3) examining the social and ecological processes that support or inhibit transfer, and 4) investigating the effects of mindfulness meditation on emotion regulation, learning, and transfer.

Laboratory 

Representative Publications

Zepeda, C. D., Hlutkowsky, C. O., Partika, A. C., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2019). Identifying teachers’ supports of metacognition through classroom talk and its relation to growth in conceptual learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(3), 522-541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000300

Marshman, E., Kalender, Z. Y., Nokes-Malach, T. J., Schunn, C., & Singh, C. (2018). Females with As have similar physics self-efficacy as males with Cs: A cause for alarm? Physical Review Physics Education Research, 14, 020123. doi.10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020123

Richey, J. E., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Cohen, K. (2018). Collaboration facilitates abstract category learning. Memory & Cognition, 46, 685-698. doi.org/10.3758/s13421-018-0795-7

 Chan, J., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2016). Situative creativity: Larger physical spaces facilitate thinking of novel uses for everyday objects. Journal of Problem Solving, 9 (1), 29-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1932-6246.1184

Richey, J. E., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2015). Comparing four instructional techniques for promoting robust knowledge. Educational Psychology Review, 27 (1), 181-218. doi: 10.1007/s10648-014-9268-0

Bernacki, M. L., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Aleven, V. (2015). Examining self-efficacy during learning: Variability and relations to performance, behavior, and learning. Metacognition and Learning, 10, 99-117. doi: 10.1007/s11409-014-9127-x

Nokes-Malach, T. J., Richey, J. E., & Gadgil, S. (2015). When is it better to learn together? Insights from research on collaborative learning. Educational Psychology Review, 27, 645-656. doi: 10.1007/s10648-015-9312-8

Zepeda, C., Richey, J. E., Ronevich, P., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2015). Direct instruction of metacognition benefits adolescent science learning, transfer, and motivation: An in vivo study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107 (4), 954-970. doi: 10.1037/edu0000022

Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Mestre, J. (2013). Toward a model of transfer as sense-making. Educational Psychologist, 48(3), 184-207. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2013.807556

 Alfieri, L., Nokes-Malach, T. J., & Schunn, C. D. (2013). Learning through case comparisons: A meta-analytic review. Educational Psychologist, 48 (2), 87-113. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2013.775712

Belenky, D. M., & Nokes-Malach, T. J. (2012). Motivation and transfer: The role of mastery-approach goals in preparation for future learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21 (3), 399-432. doi: 10.1080/10508406.2011.651232

Nokes-Malach, T. J., Meade, M. L., & Morrow, D. G. (2012). The effect of expertise on collaborative problem solving. Thinking & Reasoning, 18 (1), 32-58. doi: 10.1080/13546783.2011.642206

Nokes, T. J.,  Hausmann, R. G. M., VanLehn, K., & Gershman, S. (2011). Testing the instructional fit hypothesis: The case of self-explanation prompts. Instructional Science, 39 (5), 645-666. doi: 10.1007/s11251-010-9151-4

Nokes, T. J. (2009). Mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Thinking & Reasoning, 15 (1), 1-36. doi: 10.1080/13546780802490186

Nokes, T. J., & Ohlsson, S. (2005). Comparing multiple paths to mastery: What is learned? Cognitive Science, 29 (5), 769-796. doi: 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_32