Sascha Schneider

University of Zurich | UZH

For more than three decades, cognitive load theory has been addressing learning from a cognitive perspective. Based on this instructional theory, design recommendations and principles have been derived to manage the load on working memory while learning. The increasing attention paid to cognitive load theory in educational science quickly culminate...

Lernen mit digitalen Medien ist ein zwar junges aber weit erforschtes Feld der psychologischen Forschung. Ein Großteil der Forschung widmete sich dabei der Erforschung kognitiver Prozesse bei der Selektion und Verarbeitung sowie der Speicherung und dem Abruf von Informationen. Erst in den letzten 20 Jahren wurden verstärkt begleitende psychische Pr...

For a long time, research on individuals learning in digital environments was primarily based on cognitive-oriented theories. This paper aims at providing evidence that social processes affect individual learning with digital materials. Based on these theories and empirical results, a social-processes-augmented theory is suggested: the Cognitive-Af...

Teachers’ behaviour is a key factor that influences students’ motivation. Many theoretical models have tried to explain this influence, with one of the most thoroughly researched being self-determination theory (SDT). We used a Delphi method to create a classification of teacher behaviours consistent with SDT. This is useful because SDT-based inter...

Concept maps are assumed to enhance learning as their inherent structure makes relations between information more salient. Nevertheless, research on how to design concept maps as conducive to learning as possible is still rare. In particular, the salience of spatial arrangement of thematically related concepts within the map as well as the complexi...

Cognitive load theory assumes effort may only lead to comprehension if the material-induced load leaves enough resources for learning processes. Therefore, multimedia materials should induce as little non-relevant load as possible. Metacognition research assumes that learners tap into their memory processes to generate a mental representation of th...

The disfluency effect postulates that intentionally inserted desirable difficulties can have a beneficial effect on learning. Nevertheless, there is an ongoing discussion about the emergence of this effect since studies could not replicate this effect or even found opposite effects. To clarify boundary effects of the disfluency effect and to invest...

Body movements such as gestures and facial expressions are an essential part of human communication. While first results show that body movements of pedagogical agents in educational videos foster learning when they are learning-related, the impact of unrelated gestures and facial expressions is still not fully examined. This study investigated whe...

Learning from erroneous worked examples could enhance learning in contrast to problem-solving tasks. The type of error was hypothesized to be a moderator and accuracy of error detection and correction a mediator of this effect. This study examines the influence of simple syntactic (the structure of the code) and complex semantic (the logic or conte...

Based on the Self‐Determination Theory, the choice effect states that offering learners choice options independent from their relevance for learning will increase the perception of autonomy and intrinsic motivation as well as the learning performance. However, an increasing number of choice options can also have detrimental effects. This study exam...

Nach der Selbstbestimmungstheorie (Ryan & Deci, 2000) fördern sowohl die Bereitstellung von Wahlmöglichkeiten als auch eine geringere Aufgabenschwierigkeit sowohl die Motivation als auch Lernleistungen von Lernenden über eine Steigerung des Autonomie- und Kompetenzerlebens als psychische Grundbedürfnisse (z.B., Goemaere et al., 2018, Schneider et a...

Concepts maps can be an effective way to present conceptual relationships to learners. However, teachers using concept maps suffer from a lack of evidence-based principles. Highlighting the organization of the information and making its structure more salient might be more helpful for learners, especially as concept maps increase in size and comple...

Learning materials often consist of pictures that do not pursue a learning goal but an aesthetics function. Such decorative pictures were found to hinder learning by an increase of learning-irrelevant cognitive load (i.e., the seductive detail effect). Studies also showed that various details within a learning setting could have a retrieval-enhanci...

Statistical concepts are quite abstract and difficult for students to understand, leading to high examination failure rates. This study investigated whether the use of decorative pictures during online learning could enhance learning performance or reduce cognitive load. Although many multimedia studies showed the negative influences of decorative...

Text-based learning media are often used in primary, secondary and university education. Therefore, text designers can support the learner by highlighting the most relevant information by using visual cues. Despite this signaling effect’s broad empirical basis, the extent to which the effectiveness of educational signals is dependent on moderator v...

Until sufficient practical experience and documented examples are available, emerging technological methods to create educational content typically require in-depth knowledge from different fields in order to apply them in the most beneficial way. The method of creating photorealistic 3D models (PR3DMs) of real-world objects with the methods of pho...

The entity players compete with is an important element of competitive mechanisms. However, this crucial element is barely investigated within educational video games, as educational psychology research focuses mainly on supportive role models (e.g., pedagogical agents, intelligent tutorial systems). Nevertheless, the influence on learning must be...

The emotional design hypothesis states that features in digital learning materials can elicit emotional reactions. Voice-related cues, such as enthusiastic accentuations are getting more into the focus of research. These emotion-related cues have to be additionally processed to the relevant instructions while learning, so that the overall amount of...

Lecturers in educational videos often use gestures to emphasize what has been said or highlight learning relevant information, which is visible on the screen. However, differences in types of lecturer gestures, such as rhythmic (beat) gestures and signaling (deictic) gestures, have not been investigated thoroughly yet concerning human lecturers in...

Text-based learning environments are often used in primary, secondary, university, and online education. Two prominent design recommendations for improving learning instructional texts are the signaling principle (i.e., highlighting the most important information) and the disfluency principle (i.e. impairing the ease of identifying words). Despite...

Concept Maps sind Diagramme, die Beziehungen zwischen Konzepten und Ideen visuell wiedergeben (Novak & Cañas, 2006) und häufig Anwendung beim Lernen finden. Sie gelten grundsätzlich als lernförderlich, da Lernende weniger kognitive Verarbeitungsstrukturen benötigen, um relevante Informationen zu extrahieren (Schroeder, Nesbit, Anguiano & Adesope, 2...

Die Implementation von affektiven Gestaltungsprinzipien in multimedialen Lernumgebungen brachte bisher gegensätzliche Ergebnisse hervor. Während in einigen Lernsituationen Emotionen als zusätzliche kognitive Belastung wirkten und die Lernergebnisse negativ beeinflussten (Cognitive Load Perspektive), wurde in anderen Untersuchungen festgestellt, pos...

The split-attention effect refers to learning with related representations in multimedia. Spatial proximity and integration of these representations are crucial for learning processes. The influence of varying amounts of proximity between related and unrelated information has not yet been specified. In two experiments (N1 = 98; N2 = 85), spatial pr...

The motivation for students to keep working with online materials can fade quite rapidly. Reasons for it might lay in the limited perceived autonomy while reading and solving tasks on computers. Based on previous school setting experiments and the self-determination theory, a provision of choice might help to improve learners’ perception of autonom...

The segmenting effect states that people learn better when multimedia instructions are presented in (meaningful and coherent) learner-paced segments, rather than as continuous units. This meta-analysis contains 56 investigations including 88 pairwise comparisons and reveals a significant segmenting effect with small to medium effects for retention...

According to the Self-Determination Theory, the autonomy-supporting feature of choice leads to an increase in intrinsically motivated behavior. Although this effect was replicated multiple times, instructional designers often dread to include choice options in single tasks because of the high effort in designing additional materials or a higher cog...

Social entities are implemented within educational videos in order to create a stimulating learning environment that will serve for social identification and knowledge transfer. In two experiments performed for this study, university students watched an instructional video about multiple sclerosis (experiment 1) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ex...

Arousal has been found to increase learners' attentional resources. In contrast, seductive details (interesting but learning‐irrelevant information) are considered to distract attention away from relevant information and thus, hinder learning. However, a possibly moderating role of arousal on the seductive detail effect has not been examined yet. I...

In the educational context, the influences of the emotional charge of audiovisual media are rarely investigated. Additionally, the mood of the learner influences learning with multimedia. This study aims to investigate the influence of both variables on learning with videos. Therefore, 162 school students watched educational videos which were manip...

Die Forschung zu digitalen Lernmaterialien wurde lange Zeit durch rein kognitiv ausgerichtete Theorien dominiert. Dieser Beitrag widmet sich der Fragestellung, inwieweit der individuelle Umgang mit digital präsentierten Lernmaterialien auch sozialen Prozessen unterliegt. Dafür werden Theorien herangezogen, die soziale Einflüsse auf Lernprozesse pro...

The inclusion of human-like shapes like arms or faces in rather abstract pictures triggers the tendency of anthropomorphism, which is defined as the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Anthropomorphism-triggering features in digital learning materials were found to enhance the performance of students. However, the probability...

Share Link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1W7ZA,dlbROvvb The signaling effect states that learners profit from cues that highlight the organization of specific relevant information within materials. This meta-analysis includes 103 studies and N = 12,201 participants. 139 retention and 70 transfer performance measures were used to determine separat...

Anthropomorphisierung bezeichnet im Lernkontext die Tendenz von Personen, menschliche Charakteristiken auf nicht-menschliche Objekte zu übertragen. Dieser Effekt wird in multimedialen Lernmaterialien durch Designelemente wie menschliche Gesichter oder soziale Hinweiszeichen hervorgerufen und kann die Lernleistung erhöhen. Bisher konnten Studien die...

Social entities are often implemented within educational videos in order to create a stimulating learning environment which serves for knowledge transfer and social identification. Recent research revealed that the effect of social entities is linked to several boundary conditions. In order to specify these conditions, this study aimed at investiga...

German Presentation.

Instructional designer use external representations such as pictures in order to represent, organize, explain or decorate a learning material. In the case of decorative pictures (e.g., photographs or illustrations), the aim is to make a learning material aesthetically appealing rather than to provide learning topic-related information. As such, the...

Decorative pictures in multimedia materials were long been regarded as detrimental (seductive) for learning. In contrast, resent research has shown that the impact of these pictures is moderated by a number of variables. In a series of experiments, this presentation examines if the emotional charge of decorative illustrations can be verified as an...

Presentation held at the EARLI 2017

This thesis aimed at examining the impact of decorative pictures, defined as pictures which make an instructional material aesthetically appealing rather than conveying information for learning. In research, the use of decorative pictures was considered to be detrimental for learning for a long time. In contrast, recent research revealed that the i...

The signaling effect states that learners profit from cues that highlight organization or relevant information. This meta-analysis includes 95 studies and N = 11,499 participants. One hundred thirty-one retention, 67 transfer performance and 23 cognitive load measures were used to determine separate mean effect sizes. Additionally, nine possible mo...

Decorative pictures, which make a learning text aesthetically appealing rather than provide information, have been predominantly found to impair learning by an increase of learning-irrelevant cognitive processes. Recent research, however, indicates that this effect is moderated by various factors. On the basis of cognitive–affective theories and st...

Numerous studies were conducted to investigate how recipients are affected by the miscellaneous characters in multimedia. However, there is a lack of research concerning the connection between parasocial processes and learning performances. This study aims to investigate the influence of addressing (as a social encounter of parasocial interaction)...

Although many of the existing educational videogames rely on leaderboard mechanisms, dedicated research on their effectiveness or how they should be implemented is missing. In this study, competitive effort, perceived difficulty and connected gameplay which are revealed to be core concepts of leaderboards, are manipulated to examine how leaderboard...

Pedagogical agents are frequently used in digital learning environments. On the basis of the computers-as-social-actors paradigm (CASA), learners do not differentiate between the interaction with these characters and any other social interaction. Therefore, the appearance of pedagogical agents is vulnerable to stereotyping mechanisms such as ageism...

When people attribute human characteristics to nonhuman objects they are amenable to anthropomorphism. For example, human faces or the insertion of personalized labels are found to trigger anthropomorphism. Two studies examine the effects of these features when included in decorative pictures in multimedia learning materials. In a first experiment,...

Pedagogical agents are used more frequently in digital learning environments. On the basis of the computers-as-social-actors paradigm (CASA), learners do not differentiate between the interaction with these characters and any other human social interaction. Therefore, the appearance of pedagogical agents is vulnerable to stereotyping mechanisms suc...

Research on multimedia learning continues its shift towards a more complex understanding of affective impacts on cognitive processing. For example, arousal has been found to increase learners’ attentional resources. In contrast, interesting but learning-irrelevant information, also called seductive details, are considered to distract attention away...

Hyperlinks as interactive network structures of knowledge have become a gradually inherent part in multimedia learning settings. On the one hand, they are claimed to foster deeper understanding and enhance information acquisition. On the other hand, they are prone to overstrain learners’ cognitive resources and impair the construction of coherent m...

Background: The increased usage of educational video games with their strong graphical and technical potential raises the question of how to optimize the instructional elements of gameplay. In this article, the instructional goal was analyzed with the theoretical background of both motivational psychology (goal-setting theory) and cognitive psychol...

Complex, multimedia software such as educational videogames offer a wide range of elements to modify learner behavior. The adjustment of such software might support learning, especially in complex settings like collaborative or cooperative scenarios. Coming from a theoretical background of educational psychology, our experiment seeks to implement t...

Interactive multimedia environments such as educational videogames offer great potential for learning in groups with multiple players. Multiplayer games might lead to competition among the learners which is frequently used to motivate them to play again. Additionally, competitive outcomes as discrepancies to a desired standard might differ between...

Die bisherige Forschung zu emotionalen Einflüssen in multimedialen Lernprozessen zeichnet sich vor allem durch Untersuchung lernrelevanter Bestandteile aus. Dieser Vortrag beschäftigt sich mit den Effekten von affektiven, aber dekorativen (lernirrelevanten) Bildern in Lernumgebungen. Daher war das Ziel des zugrundeliegenden Experiments, herauszufin...

Wie in herkömmlichen Lehr-Lernsituationen an der Schule spielen soziale Anpassungsprozesse auch beim Lernen mit Multimedia eine wichtige Rolle für den Lernerfolg. Soziale Hinweiszeichen („social cues“) in digitalen Lernmedien können dabei nicht nur die Anstrengungsbereitschaft oder Einstellung gegenüber Lernmaterialien, sondern auch die Behaltens-...

Previous research on the perception of websites has shown that users' impressions of websites generated in ultra-rapid display durations (50 ms) correlate with their assessment after longer display durations. Based on the importance of color saturation in the design of websites, we present a 2 ✕ 3 ✕10 study design in which participants either asses...

In multimedia learning settings, limitations in learners’ mental resource capacity need to be considered to avoid impairing effects on learning performance. A prominent and influential theory that provides advice for the conducive design of media-transmitted instructional content from a cognitive perspective is the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). Base...

Mit dem Projekt ID4BM wurde eine hochschulübergreifende Lehrkooperation umgesetzt. Es wurden zwei Seminare in allen Phasen – von der Wissensbereitstellung über die Wissensanwendung bis hin zur Bewertung – miteinander verzahnt. Technologische Basis war die Lernplattform OPAL. Verwendete Methoden waren projektbasiertes Lernen, Flipped Classroom, Virt...

Considering learners’ cognitive scopes and limitations exhibits broad impact on the design of instructional material. In this context, the influential Cognitive Load Theory postulates distinct facets that amount to the overall construct of cognitive load. While task complexity and learners’ previous knowledge constitute intrinsic load, extraneous l...

In multimedia learning settings, limitations in learners’ mental resource capacities need to be considered to avoid impairing effects on learning performance. Based on the prominent and often quoted Cognitive Load Theory, this study investigates the potential of a single experimental approach to provide simultaneous and separate measures for the po...

Nutzern von digitalen Lernspielen (educational videogames/Serious Games) explizite Spielziele vorzugeben, gehört zu den grundlegenden Aufgaben im Entwicklungsprozess. Hierbei stellt sich jedoch die Frage, welche Ziele am sinnvollsten sind. Der folgende Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dieser Fragestellung aus Sicht der Pädagogik, Psychologie und des Ga...

Plenty studies were conducted to investigate how recipients get effected by personae, i.e., the fictional or nonfictional characters in multimedia. However, there is a lack of research concerning the connection between parasocial processes and learning performances. This study aims to investigate the influence of addressing in an educational video...