Using Psychometric Approaches in the Modeling of Abstract Cognitive Skills for Personalization

Cognitive Skills for Personalization Victoria Macarthur1, Owen Conlan1, 1 School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland {macarthv, owen.conlan}@cs.tcd.ie Abstract. “Learning to learn” is the informal phrase often used to describe the “Learning to learn” is the informal phrase often used to describe the acquisition of abstract cognitive skills such as metacognition and social cognition. Current personalization approaches within Adaptive Learning Systems typically support cognitive gain without explicitly enhancing such key skills. This paper compares the acquisition of two metacognitive factors, planning and information management strategies, between learners who have eLearning experience and those who have not. Such complimentary skills should be fostered alongside learning activities in order to ground their relevance and applicability in a genuine learning experience. This paper presents an exploration of how psychometric approaches, which are used to study and measure human cognition, may be utilized to better model and facilitate the learner’s acquisition of abstract cognitive skills. Specifically, it presents the modeling and organization of mental structures according to schema theory and the development of standardized inventories through factor analysis.