Tina Seufert

Ulm University | UULM

Background Most workplace learning is informal. However, some employees struggle to execute informal learning strategies effectively because they lack the necessary knowledge or skills or use their knowledge and skills ineffectively or not at all. Objectives We examined the effects of computer‐based micro‐learning interventions that provide strate...

Solving Bayesian problems poses many challenges, such as identifying relevant numerical information, classifying, and translating it into mathematical formula language, and forming a mental representation. This triggers research on how to support the solving of Bayesian problems. The facilitating effect of using numerical data in frequency format i...

Informal workplace learning accounts for a large extent of employees' learning. Informal learning activities such as reflection or keeping up-to-date resemble self-regulated learning strategies that indicate the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate one's learning. However, little is known about the relationship between informal learning behaviors...

When Virtual Reality (VR) is used to present learning content, the three-dimensional image is often not sufficient and additional text is required, either in the form of visual or auditory text. Such additional instructional text could be particularly beneficial due to the many visual stimuli and the risk of visual working memory overload. Relievin...

Novices need to overcome initial barriers while programming cyber-physical systems behavior, like coding quadcopter missions, and should thus be supported by an adequately designed programming environment. Using multiple representations by including graphical previews is a common approach to ease coding and program understanding. However, novices s...

Virtual reality (VR) environments offer new opportunities for mastering complex procedures (e.g. manipulating 3D objects). Novices might be confronted with challenges that they can overcome with the help of an expert. For example, expert strategy instruction might facilitate the performance of 3D object manipulations. Moreover, the available intera...

Due to the success and growing job market of deep learning (DL), students and researchers from many areas are interested in learning about DL technologies. Visualization has been used as a modern medium during this learning process. However, despite the fact that sequential data tasks, such as text and function analysis, are at the forefront of DL...

As domestic service robots become more prevalent and act autonomously, conflicts of interest between humans and robots become more likely. Hereby, the robot shall be able to negotiate with humans effectively and appropriately to fulfill its tasks. One promising approach could be the imitation of human conflict resolution behaviour and the use of pe...

Learning with desktop virtual reality learning environments (DVR) can be highly visual and present many visual stimuli simultaneously. This can be distracting and require instructional support to help learners in their learning processes. The signaling principle could be a promising approach to support these processes, as signals can guide learners...

Virtual reality (VR) environments offer promising possibilities to design learning material. However, learning in VR does not guarantee deep processing of the learning content. Therefore, further research is needed to investigate how to turn the potential of VR learning environments into an effective deep learning approach. Prior findings from mult...

Learning to code challenges novices to deal with an unfamiliar syntax and semantic structure. A graphical 3D preview can help novices to understand the computer code. Additionally, code and preview can be linked through interactive elements that visualize corresponding elements and outline their relations. By highlighting corresponding elements in...

Presenting a pictorial representation followed by a textual representation supports learners to build a coherent mental model. Providing an elaboration prompt stimulates learners to process the learning content semantically. Hence, combining both approaches might result in synergetic effects as both foster mental model development, which could be p...

Immersive virtual reality learning environments (VRLEs) have great potential but they do not guarantee effective or in-depth learning. Activating learners by including prompts, has been reported to increase learning in VR. Based on their promising effects in conventional settings, elaboration prompts should increase learning outcomes by activating...

One crucial design characteristic of auditory texts embedded in instructional videos is the speaker gender, which has received some attention from empirical researcher in the recent years. Contrary to the theoretical assumption that similarity between the speaker’s and the learner’s gender might positively affect learning outcomes, the findings hav...

In cognitive load theory (CLT), the role of different types of cognitive load is still under debate. Intrinsic cognitive load (ICL) and germane cognitive load (GCL) are assumed to be highly interlinked but provide different perspectives. While ICL mirrors the externally given task affordances which learners experience passively, germane resources a...

The digital shift leads to increasing changes. Employees can deal with changes through informal learning that enables needs-based development. For successful informal learning, self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial, i.e., to set goals, plan, apply strategies, monitor, and regulate learning for example by applying resource strategies. However, ex...

One challenge while learning scientific concepts is to select relevant information and to integrate different representations of the learning content into one coherent mental model. Virtual reality learning environments (VRLEs) offer new possibilities to support learners and foster learning processes. Whether learning in VR is successful, however,...

For novices in computer science, it can be particularly beneficial to add a 3D preview to the code editor. In computer-based learning environments, additional interactive elements can be used to visualize correspondences between the elements and relations of the code and what is displayed in the preview. For instance, element to element mapping can...

Virtual reality (VR) learning environments are highly visual and need instructional aid to help the learner. Presenting too much visual information can impair selection and organization processes by overloading the learner’s cognitive capacity. Signaling could support these processes by highlighting relevant information. In this study we used signa...

Multimedia learning research addresses the question of how to design instructional material effectively. Signaling and adding graphics are typical instructional means that might support constructing a mental model, particularly when learning abstract content from multiple representations. Although signals can help to select relevant aspects of the...

Building bridges between two of the most influential research fields in educational psychology, self-regulation and cognitive load theory, is highly relevant but also challenging. The collection of papers in this special issue reflects this interplay by reviewing the still scarce base of empirical data in an impressively elaborated and profound way...

By activating self-regulation processes, prompts affect strategy use and learning outcomes. This study investigates the effects of cognitive and metacognitive prompts on strategy use and learning outcomes. Since enactive self-regulation processes represent the basis for self-efficacy judgements, we also investigated the effects of cognitive and met...

New technologies such as virtual reality learning environments support learning complex concepts of robotics as they offer new possibilities to display the learning content. To foster learning explanatory prompts can help the learner to process the learning content more efficiently and deeply. Therefore, we conducted a between-subject design study...

Instructional design deals with the optimization of learning processes. To achieve this, three aspects need to be considered: (1) the learning task itself, (2) the design of the learning material, and (3) the activation of the learner’s cognitive processes during learning. Based on Cognitive Load Theory, learners also need to deal with the task its...

This study investigates the aptitude–treatment interaction between text modality and learners’ modality preference on learning outcomes and cognitive load, which is currently a point of controversy. The Meshing Hypothesis postulates there are better learning outcomes when the modality of a learning environment matches the learner’s preference. Howe...

Self-regulated learning is essential for academic success. Learning strategies can help to support and improve self-regulated learning. To examine the efficacy of a teacher based learning strategy training we tested 5th grade students (N=4232) who were divided into two groups. Specially trained teachers supported the students of the experimental gr...

Although research shows higher levels of perceived academic control are associated with academic adjustment in the first year of university, little is known about how changes in perceived control over multiple years relate to longitudinal university dropout and grades. Thus, our 3-year study (N = 1,007) examined whether changes in perceived control...

When preparing for exams, students experience various achievement emotions, which are related to their perceived academic control and achievement regarding their exams. These emotions are shaped by a trait-like stable person-specific component and a state-like variable situation-specific component. Furthermore, it is plausible that students' previo...

Learning with text and pictures requires learners to integrate the given information into one coherent mental representation. Since learners often fail to integrate text and pictures, the study investigates the effects of a training for text processing strategies, picture processing strategies and strategies to map text and picture onto each other....

Seductive details in general affect learning and cognitive load negatively. However, especially background music as a seductive detail may also influence the learner´s arousal, whose optimal level depends on the learner´s extraversion. Therefore, the interaction of extraversion and background music on learning outcomes, cognitive load and arousal w...

Self-regulated learning is important for learning success and can be effectively fostered through learning journals including prompts. However, studies examining long-term effects of learning journals with prompts are sparse. Thus, the study investigates short- and longterm effects of prompt-enhanced learning journals on the development of self-reg...

To conceptualize regulation processes that may occur within groups, a differentiation between self-regulation (i.e., individual members regulate their own learning during collaboration), co-regulation (i.e., single learners regulate the learning of one or more of their learning partners), and shared regulation (i.e., the whole group regulates its l...

[GERMAN VERSION] The Questionnaire presented in the article Klepsch, M., Schmitz, F., & Seufert, T. (2017) in a editable format (MS Word).

Learning with prompts activates self-regulation processes often resulting in increased learning performance. As experiences of self-regulation and learning success are sources of self-efficacy, the study investigated whether prompts affect learning performance over two learning sessions and examines whether prompts affect learners' self-efficacy pe...

We aimed to disentangle achievement emotions' variances of stable trait, autoregressive developmental path, and state (RQ 1) and to analyze their relations with perceived academic control and achievement (RQ 2).

Research on self-regulated learning and on cognitive load has been two of the most prominent and influential research lines in educational research during the last decades. However, both lines developed quite independently from one another. This paper aims to bridge both concepts in order to better understand self-regulation as well as cognitive af...

This study investigates the possibilities of fostering learning based on differences in recall and comprehension after learning with texts which were presented in one of three modalities: either in a spoken, written, or sung version. All three texts differ regarding their processing, especially when considering working memory. Overall, we assume th...

Cognitive Load Theory is one of the most powerful research frameworks in educational research. Beside theoretical discussions about the conceptual parts of cognitive load, the main challenge within this framework is that there is still no measurement instrument for the different aspects of cognitive load, namely intrinsic, extraneous, and germane c...

This study investigates how background music influences learning with respect to three different theoretical approaches. Both the Mozart effect as well as the arousal-mood-hypothesis indicate that background music can potentially benefit learning outcomes. While the Mozart effect assumes a direct influence of background music on cognitive abilities...

The poster describes the Interaction between background music and the learner´s extraversion level.

When learning with multiple representations, coherence formation is considered an essential cognitive process, which involves learners’ attempt to make sense of various written and visual learning material. Working in dyads has shown to affect such cognitive processes such as coherence formation because group learners have to externalize their comp...

Co-construction of knowledge strongly builds on learners’ ability of co-regulation, which may or may not be related to skills of self-regulation. In our study, we ask the question whether co-regulation learning strategies are detectable with questionnaires and what relationship does self-regulated learning strategies have with co-regulated learning...

In some cases difficult-to-read learning materials lead to better performance than easy to-read materials. This phenomenon is called the disfluency effect and is attributed to a subjective feeling of task difficulty resulting in a deeper learning approach. In two studies (n1 = 67, n2 = 73) we investigated the impact of three increasing disfluency l...

The present study addressed concerns over the high risk of university students' academic failure. It examined how perceived academic control and academic emotions predict undergraduate students' academic success, conceptualized as both low dropout intention and high achievement (indicated by GPA). A cross-sectional survey was administered to 883 un...

Lernstrategien spielen eine zentrale Rolle für den Wissenserwerb. Zugleich zeigt sich ein po-sitiver Zusammenhang der Lernstrategieanwendung auf Lernleistung. Die zentrale Frage des Kooperationsprojekts der Universitäten Ulm und Köln war deshalb, ob und wie lernstrategi-sche Schlüsselkompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schüler gefördert werden können....

The present Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction (ATI) study investigates the learner characteristic spatial ability (aptitude) and the variation of mental-animation prompts (treatment: no vs. mental-animation prompts). A group of high-school students (N = 94) learned about a biology topic through learner-paced multimedia instruction. Some of the learner...

According to Cognitive Load Theory, learning material should be designed in a way to decrease unnecessary demands on working memory (WM). However, recent research has shown that additional demands on WM caused by less legible texts lead to better learning outcomes. This so-called disfluency effect can be assumed as a metacognitive regulation proces...

According to cognitive load theory learning material should be designed in a way to decrease unnecessary demands on working memory (Sweller, van Merrienboer, & Paas, 1998). However, recent research (Diemand -Yauman, Oppenheimer, & Vaughan, 2011; Eitel, Kuhl, Scheiter, & Gerjets, 2014; Scheiter, & Schuler, 2011) has shown that additional demands on...

In some cases difficult-to-read learning materials lead to better performance than easy-to-read materials. This phenomenon called disfluency effect and is attributed to a subjective feeling of task difficulty resulting in a deeper learning processing. But findings of the disfluency effect are inconsistent because different kinds of disfluency and d...

Do all text-related pictures support the construction of mental representations? Or is this supporting function depending of the surface structure of pictures and the level of learning process? To answer these questions, we conducted a study with two experimental conditions: one condition with text-related pictures whose surface structure fit to th...

The level of text coherence can influence a learnerís success by reducing extraneous cognitive load and facilitating the generation of a propositional representation. In study 1 students learned with a high or a low coherent text in a between subject design. Results showed the advantages of high coherent material in recall and comprehension. In stu...

Learning to play the piano is a prolonged challenge for novices. It requires them to learn sheet music notation and its mapping to respective piano keys, together with articulation details. Smooth playing further requires correct finger postures. The result is a slow learning progress, often causing frustration and strain. To overcome these issues,...

The effect that poorly readable learning material leads to better performance within tasks requiring keeping information in mind is called disfluency-effect. Additional there is the assumption, that the use of learning strategies can improve successful learning. To test the disfluency-effect, the effect of learning strategies and their combination...

Learning to play piano is demanding because one has to map music notations from a sheet onto piano keys. Moreover learners have to look back and forth between the sheet and the piano. Overall learning performance will be low and cognitive load should be increased. To assist piano learners with these demands P.I.A.N.O., a piano learning system with...

Due to the increasing use of multimedia learning systems contents can be easily presented as visual or auditory text. Besides learners can have a preference for a particular sort of text presentation, the so called modality preference. It seems plausible that learners should learn better when the preferred modality is provided. We conducted two exp...

In maths students have to deal with different representations like terms, graphs or tables. They have to transform representations into another one or combine information of different given representations. But students have problems learning with multiple mathematical representations. Therefore we investigated the effects of a teacher based traini...

Theoretischer Hintergrund und Fragestellung: Gemäß der Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) sollte Lernmaterial so gestaltet werden, dass eine unnötige Arbeitsgedächtnisbelastung vermieden wird. Ziel ist somit die Reduzierung des extraneous load durch eine günstige Darstellung sowie eine Erhöhung des germane load durch die Förderung lernrelevanter Aktivität...

Um Erstsemester/innen in ihrer Orientierungsphase zu helfen, erhielten sie vor Studienbeginn eine Einführung in Lernstrategien. Diese empirische Studie untersucht, ob ein tutorenbasiertes Lernstrategietraining positive Effekte auf den Lernstrategieeinsatz der Studierenden aufweist. Während eines Trainingscamps wurden sie (n=207) von geschulten Tuto...

Bilder können den Lernprozess unterstützen, wenn sie mit einem Text kombiniert werden, der entweder neben dem Bild oder im Bild platziert sein kann. Die separierte Darstellung führt laut zahlreicher Studien zu einem split attention effect, der sowohl die kognitive Belastung erhöht als auch den Lernerfolg behindert, da die Lernenden ihre Aufmerksamk...

In the last years the importance of self-regulated learning processes increased steadily (for an overview see e.g. Artelt & Moschner, 2005) One of the central key competencies of successful learning is an efficient use of learning strategies. This study aims to investigate, whether learning strategies can optimize learnerscognitive load, i.e. imp...

To investigate the interaction between worked examples and self-explanation-prompts we conducted an experimental study with 73 learners. In the present study we investigated the impact on learning performance and cognitive load. We assume that worked examples and prompts will cause better learning performance, worked examples will reduce extraneous...

By using modern learning technologies it is possible to reflect learners’ individual preferences when designing learning materials by providing many different formats like text, pictures, video or narrations. Hence, preferences for learning with either written or spoken text - so called modality preferences - can be easily taken into account. It se...