Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a shift to primarily learning from screens. More than previously, and as a continuous trend in the past decade, students are reading mostly from screens. Students are evaluated by their knowledge and by their ability to complete tasks within a certain timeframe. One population of students that might demonstrate difficulties in time estimation is students with ADHD. Less is known about the time estimation abilities of higher education students, especially on the time estimation of academic tasks. One aspect that may impact the cognitive load is the medium of presentation. To date, research on the medium's effect on academic performances has focused on students' achievements and self-evaluation, as measured by confidence ratings.

The current research investigated the medium effect on time estimation and confidence in time estimation among higher education students with and without ADHD.

Method:
34 students without ADHD and 19 students with ADHD completed short reading comprehension tasks on screen and paper. Following each text, five multiple-choice questions were presented, and participants rated their confidence in their answers. They were asked to estimate time verbally twice: once after reading the text and again after answering the questions. Following each time estimation, participants were asked “How confident are you that you estimated the time correctly?” and rated their confidence in accurately estimating time. At the end of each task, participants rated task difficulty. The actual time was measured.

Results:
Students performed short reading comprehension tasks faster on screen than on paper. Groups did not differ in time estimation when the reading comprehension task was presented on paper. Interestingly, when the reading comprehension task was presented on-screen, students with ADHD estimated time significantly less accurately than the control participants. For both groups, time estimations were significantly less accurate on-screen compared to paper. Also, variability time estimations were higher on screen, compared to paper. Students with ADHD were significantly less confident in time estimations and less confident in their reading comprehension on screen. Although groups did not differ in reading comprehension scores, students with ADHD were less confident in their answers on screen.

Conclusions:
Performing academic tasks on screen demands a higher cognitive load than on paper. The cognitive load significantly affects students with ADHD. Students with ADHD present lower academic self-concept. The research extends the time estimation and reading comprehension models by examining the impact of the presentation mode on time estimation and reading comprehension.

Keywords:

ADHD, higher education students, screen vs. paper, time estimation.