The animacy effect refers to the memory advantage of words denoting animate beings over words denoting inanimate objects. Remembering animate beings may serve important evolutionary functions, but the cognitive mechanism underlying the animacy effect has remained elusive. According to the richness-of-encoding account, animate words stimulate…

In research practice, it is common to measure cognitive load after learning using self-report scales. This approach can be considered risky because it is unclear on what basis learners assess cognitive load, particularly when the learning material contains varying levels of complexity. This raises questions that have yet to be answered by…

Research on the instructional quality of private tutoring is scarce. Meanwhile, poor instructional quality may be a reason for the minimal or null effects of private tutoring on academic achievement reported in many studies. It is also not clear what makes a good private tutor. To fill in these gaps, the study examined whether the structure of…

Context information can guide cognitive control, but both the extent and the underlying processes are poorly understood. Previous studies often found that the congruency sequence effect (CSE) is larger when perceptual context features (e.g., modality and format) of task-related distractors and targets repeat compared to change. However, it is…

We combine empirical experimental research on biased argument processing with a computational theory of group deliberation to overcome the micro-macro problem of sociology and to clarify the role of biased processing in debates around energy. We integrate biased processing into the framework of argument communication theory in which agents…

Training of self-regulated learning is most effective if it supports learning strategies in combination with metacognitive regulation, and learners can transfer their acquired metacognitive regulation skills to different tasks that require the use of the same learning strategy (near transfer). However, whether learners can transfer metacognitive…

Purpose: Prospective physical education teachers (PPETs) acquire beliefs during acculturation, which is the time before teacher education begins. Beliefs are based on shared experiences and influential in PPETs' professional development. We examined German PPETs' shared beliefs through the lens of teaching quality, comprising classroom management,…

This study reports the results of 4 experiments that addressed whether the domains of deictic time and number exert a cross-domain link. Such a link would be consistent with A Theory of Magnitude (i.e., ATOM). In contrast, no link between the two domains would support the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), which assumes that each domain is only…

Interleaved practice combined with comparison prompts can better foster students' adaptive use of subtraction strategies compared to blocked practice. It has not been previously investigated whether all students benefit equally from these teaching approaches. While interleaving subtraction tasks prompts students' attention to the different task…

Scrolling is a widely used mean to interact with visual displays, usually to move content to a certain target location on the display. Understanding how user scroll might identify potentially suboptimal use and allows to infer users' intentions. In the present study, we examined where users click on a scrollbar depending on the intended scrolling…

Learning processes that involve cognitive incongruity are closely tied to emotional experiences such as curiosity or confusion. The present study examined how discovering that a confidently held misconception is incorrect influences emotions and in turn the motivation to seek additional information. We asked 275 preservice teachers to judge if…

Color has been investigated as a signaling cue in multimedia learning environments, guiding the learner's attention and as an emotional design element, increasing the learner's motivation and, thus, improving learning outcomes. Retrieval cues (e.g., visual cues, odor, sound) facilitating memory retrieval have been primarily investigated in…

Previous research reveals that the visual design of open-ended questions should match the response task so that respondents can infer the expected response format. Based on a web survey including specific probes in a list-style open-ended question format, we experimentally tested the effects of varying numbers of answer boxes on several indicators…

Probes are follow-ups to survey questions used to gain insights on respondents' understanding of and responses to these questions. They are usually administered as open-ended questions, primarily in the context of questionnaire pretesting. Due to the decreased cost of data collection for open-ended questions in web surveys, researchers have argued…

Integrating creativity into science classes may pave the way to tapping complex scientific phenomena. Although not yet conclusively defined nor assessed using standardized measures, creativity is understood to support cognitive learning in formal and informal settings. However, the successful integration of creativity in educational modules…