The influence of perceptual information on control processes involved in self-regulated learning: evidence from item selection.

Previous research has shown that perceptual information such as font size has an impact on learners' judgments of their own learning. The present study extended the font-size effect to examine the influence of font size on how people decide which items to study first. Across three experiments, we showed that participants preferred to first select items presented in a large font size (48 pt) more than items presented in a small font size (18 pt), and that this effect continued even when more diagnostic cues (difficulty and reward value of items) were presented, suggesting that perceptual cues can strongly influence control process involved in self-regulated learning. These results provide evidence that perceptual information plays a key role in higher cognition. Moreover, our results also suggest that control processes are influenced by multiple cues, including font size, difficulty of items, and the reward value of items.