Isophoric News · Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Study links one extra second of loading time to lower completion and scores among online learners
A study in Nature Human Behaviour, led by Asaf Mazar of the University of Pennsylvania, found that brief loading delays were associated with worse engagement and results on two online learning platforms, according to the journal's abstract and a Phys.org report. Among 26,707 U.S. students using the ASSISTments math platform, each extra second of load time was associated with a 1.1-percentage-point lower assignment completion rate and a 0.7-point lower score on a 100-point scale, Phys.org reported. Among 55,184 learners, mostly in Latin America, on the Spanish-language freeCodeCamp site, an extra second was associated with a 4.6-percentage-point lower chance of keeping the lesson tab in focus for more than a minute. The two platform studies are observational and compare each learner's faster and slower loads; the abstract says this supports a causal interpretation, while Phys.org says changing circumstances could still influence the results. In a separate randomized experiment with 598 adults reading science material, about 70% finished with no delays and 54% when three-second loading screens were added, Phys.org reported. The authors did not measure long-term learning or final grades, could not tell whether disadvantaged learners were more affected because they lacked income data, and measured tab focus, not attention itself, according to Phys.org.