The role of working memory for learning with context-personalized tasks in elementary school

Context personalization is an instructional approach aimed at enhancing students' engagement and cognitive processing by embedding learning content in familiar contexts. Numerous studies explore the benefits of personalized tasks for learning, but few empirically examine cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of context personalization. In a cluster-randomized control trial with <i>N</i> = 156 elementary school students, we investigated (1) whether context personalization leads to an increased interest in the learning content. Furthermore, we examined (2) the role of working memory for learning and (3) whether the assumed effect of working memory on students' learning performance was moderated by the use of context-personalized tasks. The results indicate that context personalization elicits interest in the learning content. In addition, working memory was a significant predictor of student performance across conditions. However, the hypothesized moderating effect of context personalization on the relationship between working memory and student performance was not supported. These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the cognitive and motivational effects of context-personalized tasks in elementary science education.