ArticleNature human behaviour2026
Microdelays disrupt online learning.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
An ever-growing share of education happens on screens. We examine an overlooked feature of modern education: 'microdelays'-brief loading lags that could hinder learners with slower internet connections. In two longitudinal quasi-experimental field studies, microdelays as short as 1-2 s predicted impaired learner engagement and achievement. When faced with microdelays, US primary and secondary school students (N = 26,707) completed fewer online math assignments, took longer to complete assignments, were more likely to get distracted mid-task and earned lower scores. Likewise, when aspiring coders, primarily in Latin America (N = 55,184), experienced microdelays, they spent less time actively engaged, multitasked more often, completed fewer lessons and were less likely to attain a key course milestone. Our results held across a range of model specifications, and leverage within-person variation in load times to support a causal interpretation. These findings identify microdelays as a hitherto-overlooked barrier in online learning.
Identifiers
42850271What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.