Higher prior proficiency is associated with faster step-level response-time propensities¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · no dated study recorded · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Prior proficiency is negatively associated with RT propensity: more proficient students tend to respond more quickly at the step level. → proficiency-rt-1

Evidence¶

proficiency-rt-1¶

Conrad Borchers, Lijin Zhang, Kexin Yang, Tomohiro Nagashima, and Benjamin W. Domingue. 2026. Understanding Student Effort Using Response-Time Propensities During Problem Solving. Proceedings of the Thirteenth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S '26). https://doi.org/10.1145/3774398.3811624

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Correlational analysis of student-level random-effect estimates from the iAFM and RT propensity models, shown in Figure 2 (left panel), based on the eight algebra tutoring deployments. The article attributes the pattern to a fluency account: stronger procedural knowledge yields shorter latencies without implying low effort.

"Prior proficiency is negatively associated with RT propensity (Figure 2), indicating that more proficient students tend to respond more quickly at the step level."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Ability and speed are negatively correlated, and the reading test's ability estimates are more affected by speed than the math test's — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• The association between RT propensity and learning rate is moderated by prior proficiency: slower propensities predict greater learning efficiency for higher-proficiency students but are weakly negative for lower-proficiency students — related
• RT propensity shows no reliable main effect on learning rate, while prior proficiency is positively associated with learning rate — related
• The RT propensity–learning relationship is strongest early in the class session and attenuates later — related
• Response-time propensities show moderate to strong within-student stability across practice session slices — related
• High math-anxious participants sacrifice accuracy for speed as problems become more difficult, interpreted as an avoidance-like effort to finish quickly — related