Drawing on the recent framework of internal and external attention in cognitive science (Chun et al., 2011), the current study explored how learner internal and external factors, namely, working memory capacities and presentation formats affected learner attention and learning outcome. Sixty-nine English native speakers studied 30 two-character Chinese words in three different presentation formats, namely, horizontal, vertical, and adjacent, within a computer-assisted self-study context. Their learning gains were measured with a bilingual vocabulary test that adopted recognition and recall tasks to assess different mappings between form and meaning. Learners' eye movements when viewing the characters, pinyin, and English meaning of the Chinese words were recorded during the learning process. Two attention indices were employed: fixation durations and fixation counts. Working memory capacities were assessed with a storage, an inhibition, a shifting, and an updating tasks based on Miyake et al.'s (2000) framework. Mixed effects modeling and repeated-measures ANOVA, as well as descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations were conducted for data analysis. Results showed that compared with the horizontal and vertical formats, the adjacent format generally led to better learning outcome and promoted attention to the characters, when factors including vocabulary test formats and L2 Chinese proficiency were taken into consideration. Working memory capacities were also generally found as a significant predictor of learner attention and learning outcome. In addition, learning outcome was predicted by learner attention. These results were discussed in terms of theoretical and pedagogical implications.
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