The purposes of the study are to: 1) investigate how students' motivation towards reading is related to their reading comprehension skills, and 2) assess the impact of using an Intelligent Tutoring System to improve comprehension. Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking-3 (iSTART-3) is a game-based tutoring system designed to improve students' reading comprehension skills. The current study was conducted in South Africa with 8th and 9th graders between the ages of 14 and 18. These students are multilingual and they learn English as a First Additional Language (English-FAL). Firstly, we predict that students who are highly motivated to read will have high comprehension scores than those who are slightly or not at all motivated to read. Secondly, we predict that the use of iSTART-3 will improve students' reading comprehension, regardless of their level of reading motivation, with better results for those who are more motivated to read. Counter to our predictions, the results did not reveal a relation between reading motivation and reading comprehension. Furthermore, an effect of iSTART-3 on reading comprehension was not found. These results were likely influenced by the small sample size and the length of the intervention.

The fields of psychology and education are typically housed within separate contexts. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, thoughts, behaviors and actions (Nordqvist, 2018). The history of psychology originated centuries ago in Europe, although some attribute the beginning of mind study as far back as Aristotle. Currently, the American Psychological Association has 54 active scientific divisions, ranging from the Society of Military Psychology to Psychological Hypnosis. Education, has been studied in a variety of ways, including curriculum, instruction, and educational policy. Educational psychology is a relatively new field that examines the effects of how psychological science can be applied to learning and educational success (Parankimalil, 2014). Some of the factors that educational psychologists study include: educational reform, classroom interactions, stimuli effects on learning, student motivation, individual and collective self-beliefs, goal orientation, theory of attribution, and cognitive development. It is important to distinguish that each student has a unique approach to learning. Student relationships in classrooms can profoundly impact this learning. Moreover, student motivation stems intrinsically and is influenced by external factors. Research demonstrates the positive effects sensory stimuli, including auditory, tactile, olfactory and visual, can have on student learning as well. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are inseparable facets of student learning, as explained by the self-determination theory. This allows for student progression from external to internal motivation, to develop better learning methods. Educational psychology is very relevant to study today, more so in a classroom where students are actively synthesizing the information learned, to apply it to real-world situations. Future research includes studying cultural effects, technology, stereotypes and reciprocal determinism in an educational setting and providing individualized learning opportunities. This research provides a transition to a student focused change rather than the cyclical model currently driving the education system today. By studying the psychological effects in a classroom, the goal is to reduce the dropout rate and improve child and adolescent education by personalizing learning.

Color is an inseparable part of our world as it exists in everything we perceive (Hemphill, 1996). With this constant exposure to colors, it has been widely acknowledged that colors have a distinct effect on a person's feelings and emotions (Hemphill, 1996). In fact, researcher have found that color perception evolved as an adaptation to increase fitness for animals (Bryne & Hilbert, 2003). For humans, color is a part of many everyday associations from temperature to traffic lights to sporting events. Taking this a step further, researchers have studied the effects of color on psychological functioning and physiological responses, including anxiety. A substantial body of research developed a base of information to support the idea that color has a significant effect on humans' emotions, perceptions and behaviors. I set out to test the effects of color on test anxiety and the relationship between anxiety and test performance. It was hypothesized that paper colors red, blue, and green would have an effect on anxiety with red having the most robust effect. It was also hypothesized that there would be a correlation between test performance and anxiety. Fifty undergraduate students took a ten-question brainteaser test printed on one of the three paper colors. Results displayed a significant mead difference between the three test group colors and a significant correlation between test performance and anxiety. This study was then repeated using the colors white, blue, and red. Fifty-eight undergraduate students took the same ten-question brainteaser test. These results failed to suggest a significant mean difference between the three test groups and failed to suggest a correlation between performance and anxiety. These findings conflict with the first study, and therefore, are of interest. Possibilities for these findings are the frequency of occurrence of white and social desirability. Future directions include testing for trait anxiety prior to data collection and using physiological measures to test anxiety. Still, these results can be applied in classroom settings, office environments, and airports.