Digital Technology and Layered Learning

Introductory psychology classes typically focus on mastery of content. A layered-learning approach extends basic mastery by focusing not only on learning base-level instances of a concept but also on the process of generalization to other instances of the concept and on application to new concepts. The ability to learn information at different layers is an important intellectual skill that is critical to liberal education. Analysis of student performance on test questions that probe knowledge at different layers directs learners to exercises that use digital technology to teach layering as a higher-order cognitive skill.