Meinald Thielsch

Bergische Universität Wuppertal | Uni-Wuppertal, BUW ·  Psychologie

Visual aesthetics has been shown to critically affect a variety of constructs such as perceived usability, satisfaction, and pleasure. Given the importance of visual aesthetics in human-computer interaction, it is vital that it is adequately assessed. The present research aimed at providing a precise operational definition and to develop a new meas...

Content, usability and aesthetics are core constructs in users' perception and evaluation of websites, but little is known about their interplay in different use phases. In a first study, web users (n=330) stated content as most relevant, followed by usability and aesthetics. In Study 2, tests with four websites were performed (n=300), and resultin...

We investigated whether design experts or laypersons evaluate webpages differently. Twenty participants, 10 experts and 10 laypersons, judged the aesthetic value of a webpage in an EEG-experiment. Screenshots of 150 webpages, judged as aesthetic or as unaesthetic by another 136 participants, served as stimulus material. Behaviorally, experts and la...

Content is of primary importance in the World Wide Web. In particular, subjective perceptions of content are known to influence a variety of user evaluations, thereby altering attitudes and behavioral outcomes. Thus, it is essential that individually experienced facets of content can be adequately assessed. In a series of seven studies, we create,...

Digitalization of work processes is advancing, and this is increasingly supported by complex information systems (IS). However, whether such systems are used by employees largely depends on users’ trust in these IS. Because there are few systematic studies on this topic, this research provides an initial exploration and validation of preconditions...

Background: Clinical diagnoses determine if and how therapists treat their patients. As misdiagnoses can have severe adverse effects, disseminating evidence-based diagnostic skills into clinical practice is highly important. Objective: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a blended learning course in a multicenter cluster randomized controlled...

Leadership courses in the fire services are highly challenging, and they can seriously exhaust trainees and hamper their self-regulated learning efforts (for example, setting goals, focusing attention, seeking feedback). We theorize that experiences of failure or overload can curtail trainees’ available energy resources on subsequent training days,...

Im Rahmen des Projekts »FIRE: Feedback-Instrumente zur Rettungskräfte- Entwicklung – Führung und Teamarbeit in Hochrisiko-Umwelten« wurde in Kooperation zwischen dem Institut der Feuerwehr Nordrhein-Westfalen und der Organisations- und Wirtschaftspsychologie der Universität Münster (Nordrhein- Westfalen) ein Fragebogen entwickelt, welcher die Motiv...

Fire events, a specific type of emergency situation, occur regularly and often cost people’s lives. Early fire detection and involvement of (trained) laypeople in very early stages is essential, especially in fire-prone historical buildings. In an interview study (N =25) and a quantification study (N =238), we examined laypeople’s motivation to hel...

Die nichtpolizeiliche Gefahrenabwehr in Deutschland ist gekennzeichnet durch eine Vielfalt an Organisationen und Einsatzkräften: Unter anderem Feuerwehren, Hilfsorganisationen und öffentliche Rettungsdienste sind gemeinsam im Einsatz, um Menschen zu retten, Schäden zu begrenzen und die Folgen von Unfällen und Katastrophen zu mindern. Um den Ansprüc...

BACKGROUND Clinical diagnoses determine if and how therapists treat their patients. As misdiagnoses can have severe adverse effects, disseminating evidence-based diagnostic skills into clinical practice is highly important. OBJECTIVE Therefore, we developed and evaluated a blended learning course in a multicenter cluster randomized trial. METHODS...

Background Clinical diagnoses determine if and how therapists treat their patients. As misdiagnoses can have severe adverse effects, disseminating evidence-based diagnostic skills into clinical practice is highly important. Objective This study aimed to develop and evaluate a blended learning course in a multicenter cluster randomized controlled t...

This research aims to create an app-based visualization of fire probability to enhance fire safety measures in public and cultural buildings through the integration of the Internet of Things and wireless sensor networks. We employed a two-stage research methodology: the first study (N=104) used the Kano model to identify key app features and attrib...

Objective: Clinical diagnoses determine if and how therapists treat their patients. As misdiagnoses can have severe adverse effects, disseminating evidence-based diagnostic skills into clinical practice is highly important. Therefore, we developed and evaluated a blended learning course in a multicenter cluster randomized trial. Method: Undergrad...

Hazards like fires occur regularly and can cost people’s lives. Optimal auditory alarm signals enable laypeople to recognise dangers and to protect themselves. Existing fire alarm sound research focuses on alarm sounds and voice alerts presented singularly. We explored a combination of both and aimed to identify alarm signals that work optimally in...

The COVID-19 pandemic required the deployment of crisis management teams (CMTs) on an unprecedented scale. Due to their high level of responsibility and wide-ranging decision-making authority, the enduring resilience and health of CMT members is essential. Yet, during pandemics, they are permanently challenged. With cross-sectional data from 219 CM...

The COVID-19 pandemic required the deployment of crisis management teams (CMTs) on an unprecedented scale. Due to their high level of responsibility and wide-ranging decision-making authority, the enduring resilience and health of CMT members is essential – yet, during pandemics they are permanently challenged. We tested six hypotheses based on the...

The aesthetic appeal of a website has strong effects on users’ reactions, appraisals, and even behaviors. However, evaluating website aesthetics through user ratings is resource intensive, and extant models to predict website aesthetics are limited in performance and ability. We contribute a novel and more precise approach to predict website aesthe...

This study is the first to investigate how a local government’s humorously framed response strategy on social media to a low-severity crisis influences people’s trust in the local government and their crisis-related behavioral intentions, specifically when considering the government’s responsibility for the crisis. Based on the situational crisis c...

Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) guides responses of corporations in crises. We tested how COVID-19 related crisis communication strategies affect trust in mayors and the acceptance of behavioral measures. A total of 561 participants (53% female) with a mean age of 50 years took part in an online experiment in which we systematically...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Gruppenarbeiten (FIRE-G) erfasst die er- lebte Qualität von Gruppenarbeiten in der Rettungskräfte-Ausbildung. Das Instrument ist ein Zusatzmo- dul für das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019; Schulte et al., 2019), einem Fragebogen für die Evalua...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Aufgaben zum eigenverantwortlichen Arbeiten (FIRE-EV) erfasst die erlebte Qualität von Aufgaben zum eigenverantwortlichen Arbeiten in der Rettungskräfte-Ausbildung. Das Instrument ist ein Zusatzmodul für das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019; S...

Aesthetics is essential to the design of products. Nevertheless, aesthetic quality is often assessed with inaccurate, ad hoc scales. Therefore, we have developed the Product Aesthetics Inventory (PAI) and its short version, the PAI-S. A Pre-Study using face-to-face interviews (N = 6 design experts, N = 4 product users) served as basis for the devel...

In the field of human–computer interaction, the concept of visual aesthetics gained popularity after researchers started to recognize its merits and effects on user experience. Yet, no proper instrument exists to assess the visual aesthetics of websites that are intended for users who speak Arabic as their native language. As such, the aim of this...

Als vor mehr als 140 Jahren Wilhelm Wundt an der Universität Leipzig das weltweit erste psychologische Forschungslabor gründete, war dies so etwas wie die Geburtsstunde einer neuen Wissenschaft. Die moderne akademische Psychologie wollte sich loslösen von ihren philosophischen Wurzeln. Sie wollte das menschliche Verhalten und Erleben nach dem Vorbi...

User Experience wird oftmals anhand von Befragungen mittels standardisierter Fragebögen erfasst. Allerdings bringen dabei gerade quantitative Online-Datenerhebungen den großen Nachteil mit sich, dass die Umstände, unter denen die Befragten an der Untersuchung teilnehmen zumeist nur schwer zu kontrollieren sind. Insbesondere ist unklar, unter welche...

The vast majority of the German population uses the internet on a regular basis. Past research has shown that depressiveness has a negative influence on the user experience of websites, which in turn is an important predictor for the success of web content. The present study investigates the influence of worrying and intolerance of uncertainty on w...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Dozent (FIRE-DO) dient der Beurteilung der didaktischen Kompetenz eines einzelnen Dozenten / einer einzelnen Dozentin in der Rettungskräfte-Ausbildung. Das Instrument ist ein Zusatzmodul für das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019; Schulte et al....

Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat wie kaum ein anderes Ereignis seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg gravierende Auswirkungen auf das Leben fast aller Menschen auf der gesamten Welt. Zur Bewältigung dieser in Dauer und Intensität herausragenden Krisensituation wurden in zahlreichen Organisationen Krisenstäbe gebildet. Auf Grundlage einer Analyse der Lage wurden dort...

Zusammenfassung. Hochwertiges Personalmarketing ist der essenzielle erste Schritt im Recruiting. Qualifizierte Bewerber_innen müssen auf offene Positionen erfolgreich aufmerksam gemacht werden, wofür Unternehmen und Organisationen verschiedene Online- und Offline-Maßnahmen zur Verfügung stehen. Zentral ist dabei die Wahrnehmung des Personalmarketin...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Planübungen (FIRE-PL) erfasst die erlebte Qualität von Planübungen in der Rettungskräfte-Ausbildung. Das Instrument ist ein Zusatzmodul für das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019; Schulte et al., 2019), einem Fragebogen für die Evaluation von Au...

Introduction: The communication patterns of commercial organizations are generally guided by Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), but the impact of different crisis communication strategies for public messaging on COVID-19 has not been thoroughly examined. As such, we test how crisis communication strategies affect trust in mayors and th...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-021-00344-8

Purpose How diversity in management boards affects employer attractiveness has yet to be fully clarified. This paper aims to contrast the two main theoretical rationales – similarity attraction and diversity attraction – and examines whether potential employees are more attracted to an organization with a homogenous board (in terms of gender and et...

Durch eine Kooperation zwischen dem Institut der Feuerwehr Nordrhein-Westfalen (IdF NRW) und der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster entstand eine Toolbox zur Evaluation der Feuerwehrausbildung. In diesem Beitrag werden zunächst ein Überblick über die theoretischen Hintergründe von Ausbildungsevaluationen gegeben und der Entwicklungsprozess...

Pandemics, such as the COVID‐19 crisis, are very complex emergencies that can neither be handled by individuals nor by any single municipality, organization or even country alone. Such situations require multidisciplinary crisis management teams (CMTs) at different administrative levels. However, most existing CMTs are trained for rather local and...

Within minutes, an incipient fire can develop into a life-threatening full fire. Consequently, it should be fought as early as possible. But are laypersons capable of doing this? In such a situation, how do they behave and feel? These questions are addressed in the current study. Persons without any professional firefighting training (N = 64) were...

Organizations provide their employees with decision support systems (DSS) to facilitate successful decision making. However, the mere provision of a DSS may not be sufficient to facilitate beneficial work outcomes because employees often do not rely on a DSS. Therefore, we examined whether users' trust in a DSS increases positive effects of DSS pro...

Since members of rescue forces such as firefighters have to deal with sometimes extreme and dangerous situations, high-quality basic trainings are indispensable for their professional success. There is therefore an obvious need for standardized tools assessing the training quality. This paper aims to develop and validate such an evaluation instrume...

In digital media and on the World Wide Web, content is king. As such, users’ subjective perceptions of content can influence a variety of their evaluations, thereby altering their attitudes and behavioral outcomes. Thus, users’ content perceptions need to be assessed using a valid measure, but this often has to be done while keeping the survey time...

Das Feedback-Instrument für die Ausbildung von Rettungskräften - Führungsstab (FIRE-CU) erfasst die Qualität der Ausbildung des Führungsstabs der Feuerwehr. Das Instrument basiert auf dem FIRE (Schulte & Thielsch, 2019), einem Instrument zur Bewertung der Ausbildung von Führungskräften der Feuerwehr. Dieses wurde inhaltlich an die Ausbildung von Mi...

This is the online supplement (see https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3816781) for a study entitled "Evaluation of Fire Service Command Unit Trainings" (see https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-020-00279-6). This study was conducted at the University of Münster, Germany, in cooperation with the State Fire Service Institute North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (in...

The lack of routine and training of command units and emergency managers is among the main causes of suboptimal decisions and could lead to serious consequences. To ensure optimal standards of emergency management training, specific and valid evaluation tools are needed—but are lacking. Thus, the present study’s purpose is to validate instruments f...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Seminare und Tagesveranstaltungen (FIRE-ST) erfasst die Qualität der Fortbildung von Rettungskräften im Kontext von ein- bis dreitägigen Tagesveranstaltungen. Das Instrument ist eine adaptierte Version des Feedback-Instruments zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019), e...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Einsatzübungen (FIRE-E) erfasst die Qualität von Einsatzübungen in der Rettungskräfte-Ausbildung. Das Instrument ist ein Zusatzmodul für das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE, Schulte & Thielsch, 2019; Schulte, Babiel, Messinger & Thielsch, 2019), einem Fragebogen für d...

Zusammenfassung Das Internet ist heutzutage eine zentrale Quelle für Gesundheitsinformationen. Eine optimale Gestaltung von Webangeboten und E‑Health-Maßnahmen erfordert valide Evaluationen der Wahrnehmung von Nutzenden, der sogenannten User Experience. Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojektes der Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA) wur...

Initial results suggest that decision support systems (DSSs) can trigger ‘directed forgetting’ in business settings if users trust in the DSS (Hertel et al., 2019). In the present study, we further examined this trust effect on DSS-cued forgetting and related positive effects on users’ cognitive resources, performance, and well-being. Moreover, we...

Digitalization, enhanced storage capacities, and the Internet of Things increase the volume of data in modern organizations. To process and make use of these data and to avoid information overload, management information systems (MIS) are introduced that collect, process, and analyze relevant data. However, a precondition for the application of MIS...

We investigated whether design experts or laypersons evaluate webpages differently. Twenty participants, 10 experts and 10 laypersons, judged the aesthetic value of a webpage in an EEG-experiment. Screenshots of 150 webpages, judged as aesthetic or as unaesthetic by another 136 participants, served as stimulus material. Behaviorally, experts and la...

Scores of different evaluation measures resulting from website tests are difficult to interpret without comparative data. Benchmarks and optimal cut points provide such interpretation aids. Benchmarks are usually built with test score means based on a tested pool of comparable websites. Optimal cut points are calculated with an external criterion u...

Aesthetics has become a central construct in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and it has clear beneficial effects on users' perceptions and attitudes. Yet, do attractive interfaces actually enhance user performance? In the light of the importance of the construct and the mixed findings in various studies on the matter a systematic approach is urge...

When planning studies to evaluate websites practitioners need to answer two central questions: (1) Which instrument should be used? (2) How many users should be queried? While the answer to the first question depends on the goal of the specific evaluation, the second question can also be answered in relation to fundamental psychometric relationship...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung (FIRE) erfasst die Qualität der Ausbil-dung von Rettungskräften. Das Instrument basiert auf qualitativen Analysen zu Merkmalen einer guten Ausbildung im Bereich Rettungswesen. Die auf Basis dieser Merkmale zusammengestellten Items wurden in zwei Studien am Institut der Feuerwehr Nordrhein-Westf...

Future work environments will offer technical applications to manage increasing amounts of information for organizations, teams, and individuals. In this context, psychological concepts of intentional forgetting (IF) can be applied to improve the performance of work systems or to extend the cognitive capacities of humans in technical systems. Diffe...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte-Entwicklung – Basisausbildung (FIRE-B) wird eingesetzt, um die wahrgenommene Qualität feuerwehrtechnischer Ausbildungen auf Gemeinde- und Kreisebene zu erfassen. Befragt werden TeilnehmerInnen dieser Ausbildungen bei der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr und der Berufsfeuerwehr. Das Instrument basiert auf einer quali...

In Human-Computer Interaction research, the positive effect of aesthetics on users’ subjective impressions and reactions is well-accepted. However, results regarding the influence of interface aesthetics on a user’s individual performance as an objective outcome are very mixed, yet of urgent interest due to the proceeding of digitalization. In this...

Decision-makers in organisations are often overtaxed by huge amounts of information in daily business processes. As a potential support strategy, this study examined ‘directed forgetting’ (Bjork, 1970) in a simulated sales planning scenario. We assumed that the availability of a computer-based decision support system (DSS) triggers forgetting of de...

Users access the Internet not only to pursue specific goals (e.g. searching for information), but also to browse through content in a more exploratory fashion. The current study experimentally manipulates participants’ tasks in order to investigate how goal-directed (searching) or exploratory (browsing) website activities moderate the impact of key...

Das Feedback-Instrument zur Rettungskräfte Entwicklung – Prüfungen (FIRE-P) erfasst die wahrgenommene Qualität schriftlicher Prüfungen in der Rettungskräfteausbildung. Befragt werden dabei die TeilnehmerInnen von Ausbildungsmaßnahmen im Rettungswesen. Das Instrument basiert auf Skalen im akademischen Kontext, einer qualitativen Analyse von Merkmale...

Background: The Spinal Appearance Questionnaire (SAQ) and the Trunk Appearance Perception Scale (TAPS) are questionnaires that mostly rely on drawings to assess scoliosis patients' subjective viewpoints on their trunk deformity. Our aim was to perform an in-depth assessment of the psychometric quality of both measures, the SAQ (version 1.1) and TAP...

Purpose The training of highly skilled officers in rescue forces is essential for success and performance of fire brigades in their daily work. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated instrument assessing the quality of leadership trainings in firefighter education. Design/methodology/approach In Study 1, relevant factors of teaching q...

Background Parental reactions to their child’s pain can comprise cognitive-affective and behavioral responses. Dysfunctional responses like parental catastrophizing may lead to an aggravation of the child’s pain. Objectives Aims of the online-based study were (1) to psychometrically evaluate existing questionnaires into cognitive-affective (Pain C...

Data package for study 2 Data package contains raw data for study 2 of “Trust and Distrust in Information Systems at the Workplace”. Demographic variables were excluded to protect privacy of participants. (Study 1 was an interview study using the critical incidents technique. Thus, data of study 1 (i.e., audio files) were not provided to protect pr...

Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die Merkmale guter User Experience (UX) Fragebögen anhand von zentralen Kriterien heraus. Neben den klassischen Gütekriterien, insbesondere Reliabilität und Validität, werden hierbei die Grundlagen eines Verfahrens sowie die praktische Anwendung diskutiert. Eine beispielhafte Illustration erfolgt anhand etablierter UX...

Zusammenfassung Inhalte sind zentral im Internet-und damit auch deren Wahrnehmung und Bewertung durch die Nutzer-Innen. Der hier vorgestellte Web-CLIC-Fragebogen erfasst zentrale Facetten dieser Inhaltswahrneh-mung. In einer Übersicht wird die Konstruktion und Validierung des Fragebogens basierend auf einer Serie von sieben Studien mit insgesamt n...

Diese Expertise soll der BZgA eine Übersicht über typische Methoden der Website-Evaluation liefern. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf der begleitenden oder vergleichenden Evaluation bereits bestehender Websites. Dargestellt werden theoretische Hintergründe zur Evaluation im Allgemeinen und im spezifischen Kontext von Websites, eine Entscheidungshilfe zur W...

Background Depression, as one of the most prevalent mental disorders, is expected to become a leading cause of disability. While evidence-based treatments are not always easily accessible, Internet-based information and self-help appears as a promising approach to improve the strained supply situation by avoiding barriers of traditional offline tre...

Background: The Quality of Life Profile for Spine Deformities (QLPSD) is a self-reporting questionnaire designed for studying patients with spinal deformities. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to systematically translate the QLPSD into German (G-QLPSD) and to test its reliability and validity. Special emphasis was intended to be given t...

Die Toolbox erlaubt zuverlässige und schnelle User Experience-Evaluationen von Websites mittels (Online-)Befragung der Nutzenden. Sie beinhaltet aktuell verfügbare deutschsprachige quantitativ-empirische Fragebogen-Verfahren im Bereich User Experience und Usability, mit denen sich zentrale Aspekte der Wahrnehmung von Website-NutzerInnen reliabel un...

Nowadays, a systematic student evaluation of teaching (SET) is common at many universities. However, not all students evaluate all relevant courses and, as a consequence, feedback from a substantial number of students is missing. The current study examines response behavior with respect to demographic, motivational, and situational variables. Based...

Purpose: Enterprises aim for a favorable corporate image and use their corporate annual reports to impart it. The annual report is a formal document that fulfills the mandatory disclosure requirements and serves as an organization’s mass communication medium to inform shareholders, investors, employees, customers, suppliers, and the press, as well...

In the Experience Design approach, the fulfillment of universal psychological needs (e.g., autonomy, relatedness to other humans) is seen to be the key factor for pleasurable experiences with interactive technologies (e.g., Hassenzahl, 2008). The current study directly applied this theory on web users. An interactive product (i.e., a website) is de...

This chapter explores difference between the indirect effect of an appealing design on learning and working performance and a more direct effect of motivating people with game-based concepts applied to working interfaces. Game-based approaches are an aspect of user experience capable of directly enhancing performance. Gamification can enhance produ...

ERP Data Grand averages for the individual participants

PurposeThe Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire-Scoliosis (BIDQ-S) is a seven-item questionnaire inquiring into patients’ worries about back shape and associated problems at school, at work, with friends or family, and whether the patients are avoiding certain activities. The aim of this study was to translate the BIDQ-S into German (G-BIDQ-S), tes...

In der Praxis wird schnelles Nutzerfeedback zunehmend wichtiger – und häufig mit eingeschränkten Stichproben generiert. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung von Webseiten in Abhängigkeit zum Kundenstatus. Insgesamt 481 deutsch- und englischsprachige User besuchten in einem Online-Experiment Webseiten und evaluierten ze...

We examined whether the Big Five personality dimensions and choice of reimbursement (participating in a lottery for a coupon vs. personality feedback) were related to respondents’ motivation to continue filling out an online survey. A total of 3,013 individuals took part in an online study that asked them to rate a number of items separated into di...

Im Rahmen einer Online-Befragung von 199 Personalpraktikern wird deren Weiterbildungsverhalten untersucht. Nach eigener Einschätzung greifen die Befragten bei der Lösung von rund einem Viertel ihrer Arbeitsaufgaben auf Wissen zurück, das sie in der Weiterbildung erworben haben. Dabei spielen Print- und Onlinemedien eine herausgehobene Rolle. Person...

The current study investigates how different types of company website designs influence first impressions, aesthetic evaluations and memory performance. We implemented an online study with a between-subjects design to examine differences between three design categories identified by ten experts in a pretest: strong colours of one colour family (SCO...

Usability is a core construct of website evaluation and inherently defined as interactive. Yet, when analysing first impressions of websites, expected usability, i.e., before use, is of interest. Here we investigate to what extend ratings of expected usability are related to (a) experienced usability, i.e., ratings after use, and (b) objective usab...