THE INVESTIGATION OF EYE MOVEMENTS OF STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT SHORT TERM MEMORY SPANS IN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS WITH DIFFERENT ATTENTION DESIGN

In learning environments, information presentations should be integrated into one another spatially and temporally for the student's attention to focus on the actual knowledge and not to divide attention. In addition to design of learning environments, the cognitive individual differences between students are effective on the information processing. Short-term memory, which is considered as cognitive individual difference in the study, is a temporary memory which has an important role in information processing theories because of takes information with sensory receptors and providing a permanent in long-term memory. When evaluating the impact of learning environments on information processing short term memory capacities should be taken into account. Eye tracking is used to evaluate learning environments and to obtain information about the students' information processing process. In this study, it is aimed to examine the eye movements of students with different short term memory spans in the learning environments created for different attention designs within the framework of individual differences. In this study, randomly assigned paired experimental design was used. 26 students from a state university participated in the study. In order to determine the short term memory capacity levels of the students, The Auditory Verbal Digit Span Test - Form B was used. After the students' short term memory spans are determined, they are divided into random groups for learning with multimedia materials which has focused attention design or split attention design. The data about the eye movements were obtained with the eye tracking tool used while the students were studying with the materials. As a result of the research, information processing of the students with different short term memory spans were determined in the learning materials with different attention designs and various recommendations were given