Linda Schürmann

Motivation for school generally declines over the years. At the same time, self-determined motivation is most beneficial for learning, achievement, and well-being. Therefore, it is crucial to support and maintain student motivation in the school context. This holds especially for science, where motivation is often low. Out-of-school learning settin...

Digital badges are debated as a possible motivator in higher education, but their impact on basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration still requires research. Particularly need frustration has not been addressed systematically yet, specifically in relation to gender. Investigating whether and how badges affect both need satisfaction and...

Despite increasing scientific interest in explaining how gamification supports positive affect and motivation, behavior change and learning, there is still a lack of an overview of the current theoretical understanding of the psychological mechanisms of gamification. Previous research has adopted several different angles and remains fragmented. Tak...

Preservice teachers should learn about motivation theory during their university studies in order to be able to motivate their students in their future job. Thus, this study had two objectives. First, it explored whether experience in education sciences and a motivation theory seminar were related to preservice teachers' perceived experience with m...

Gamification has become one of the main areas in information systems and human–computer interaction research related to users’ motivations and behaviors. Within this context, a significant research gap is the lack of understanding of how users’ characteristics, especially in terms of their preferences for gameful interaction (i.e., user typologies)...

Spielen und Lernen sind seit jeher eng verbunden. Kinder erkunden spielend ihre Umwelt und testen hierbei ihre Grenzen aus. Sie üben dadurch beispielsweise schon früh, sich in die Perspektiven verschiedener Personen (Mama, Papa, Kind) hineinzuversetzen (z. B. Mead 2015). Den Drang zum Spiel und zur Exploration teilen alle Menschen und auch Erwachse...

Mental rotation is a spatial cognitive ability malleable by training, e.g., physical education. The importance of children’s physical activity on their self-concept is also well proven. The present study examines whether a ten-week boxing training improves ten-year-old children’s mental rotation performance and self-concept. Forty-five children (26...

Introduction Mental rotation is an ability that usually displays robust and large gender differences in favor of boys and men. When participants are told that males outperform females, it can result in worse performance for females (stereotype threat effect) and better performance for males (stereotype lift effect). Because various studies show dif...

Introduction Based on self-determination theory, we investigated whether examinees are classifiable into profiles based on basic need strength and perceived need support that differ in stress parameters and achievement in the context of a standardized oral exam. Methods 92 students reported their basic need strength before and perceived need suppo...

The research topic of Serious Games, Game-based Learning and Gamification has gained rising popularity among researchers from diverse disciplines, such as education, management, medicine, and sustainability, in the last decade. Whereas the investigation of its effects and outcomes has already widely been empirically addressed and meta-analysed, the...

Gender differences favouring males are often found in mental-rotation tests and are usually smaller in chronometric than in psychometric test. The individual feedback in the chronometric test after every item could be an explanation for the comparable performance of males and females. To test this hypothesis, 102 undergraduate students (60 females,...

Males outperform females in mental-rotation for various reasons, e.g. stimuli characteristics. This study tested the hypothesis that girls and boys solve mental-rotation tests with female- or respectively male-stereotyped objects faster and more correctly. 116 fourth-graders solved a chronometric mental-rotation test with either female- or male-ste...

Various studies have demonstrated the gender effect in mental-rotation tests. The largest male advantage in mental-rotation tests has been found with Shepard- and Metzler cube figures. This might be due to the male characteristics of such figures, as they are similar to LEGO® bricks or construction toys, which are more frequently part of boys’ and...

Correlations between mental-rotation performance, self evaluation, and spatial abilities

Mental-rotation tasks usually produce significant gender effects in favor of men. Current studies found an interaction of stimulus material and gender: they showed that at least male subjects might benefit from stimuli that are stereotyped to their own gender. However, it is still ambiguous whether performance enhancement is the result of increased...

The poster illustrates a research project within the framework of MoSAiK (Modulare Schulpraxiseinbindung als Ausgangspunkt zur individuellen Kompetenzentwicklung) focusing on the development of teachers’ motivational competence under heterogeneous conditions with the help of places of extracurricular learning.

Influence of the stimulus material on the performance of a psychometric mental-rotation test

The poster illustrates a study with N=255 teachers in training about their attitudes towards and knowledge about motivation as a school-related topic. The theories in focus were self-determination theory, expectancy-value theory, and attribution theory. It was found that although the participants valued the topic’s importance, they lack theoretical...