Does the length of time off-task matter?

We investigate the relationship between a student's time off-task and the amount that he or she learns to see whether or not the relationship between time off-task and learning is a more complex model than the traditional linear model typically studied. The data collected is based off of students' interactions with Cognitive Tutor learning software. Analysis suggested that more complex functions did not fit the data significantly better than a linear function. In addition, there was not evidence that the length of a specific pause matters for predicting learning outcomes; e.g. students who make many short pauses do not appear to learn more or less than students who make a smaller number of long pauses. As such, previous theoretical accounts arguing that off-task behavior primarily reduces learning by reducing the amount of time spent learning remain congruent with the current evidence.