Conscientiousness exploratorily moderated the effect of ITS condition on subjective difficulty and enjoyment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-19 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Students with lower conscientiousness tended to report higher perceived difficulty and higher enjoyment in the adaptive condition than in the control condition, with differences smaller and partly reversed at higher conscientiousness. → Sibley 2026

Evidence¶

Sibley 2026¶

Sibley, L., Berner, T., & Schmalfeldt, T. (2026). Effectiveness of adaptive versus non-adaptive intelligent tutoring systems in early primary mathematics. Computers and Education Open 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2026.100420

q3 · i2 · causal · r3

Exploratory moderation analyses in the N = 132 field experiment with conscientiousness as moderator of condition effects on subjective perceptions. The article reports η²p = .04 and η²p = .05, which are small effects by its own thresholds (η²p = .01 small, .06 medium, .14 large); the direction of the interactions comes from visual inspection of Fig. 2.

"conscientiousness moderated the effect of condition on subjective difficulty, F(1, 115) = 4.39, p = .038, η²p = .04, and on enjoyment, F(1, 114) = 5.63, p = .019, η²p = .05."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Interest — outcome: instruction changes it
• Achievement Emotions — outcome: instruction changes it
• Personality Traits — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Intelligent tutoring systems improve achievement over non-individualised instruction — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Adaptive versus non-adaptive ITS condition showed no significant differences in mental effort, subjective difficulty, or enjoyment — related
• Latent learner profiles did not moderate the effectiveness of the adaptive ITS — reports the opposite
• Conscientiousness and tolerance for novelty show small negative associations with well-being decline; other uncertainty-tolerance facets do not — related