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- Projects
- Appropriation and Experience at the Museum: Research at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart and the Museum of Modern Literature Marbach a. N.
- Cognitive processes of comparative visual search
- Digital Atlas of Political and Historical Images of Space in East-Central Europe
- Event Models
- Intuitive and personalized visitor information with interactive displays in museums: contextualized – multimedia-based – collaborative (EyeVisit)
- Knowledge transfer of conflictual natural scientific issues in museums and exhibitions: The role of authentic objects
- knowledge&museum: archive – exhibit – evidence
- Learning with conflicting 3D reconstructions
- Learning with documentary media
- Looking through the “expert-coloured glasses”: training visual competences of museum visitors to help them understand works of art
- Narratisation of historical reconstructions
- Perception of activities in movies and everyday life
- Spatial Online-Processing of Dynamic Scenes
- Spatial Relations in Static and Dynamic Scenes
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Cybermedia Lab
In recent years so called cybermedia have become more and more important concerning the area of education. Such media communicate their contents by presenting scenes in a graphical, three-dimensional form. Examples are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), computer games, interactive videos, and hypervideos. All these provide learners with realistic, activity-oriented opportunities for perception and experience. Therefore, cybermedia are used for instance at schools, especially in history, geography, or biology lessons. But also numerous informal and non-institutionalized learning settings benefit from the advantages of cybermedia, such as science films and documentaries on television, as well as exhibitions or museums. Although cybermedia are characterized by a high degree of realism, their instructional possibilities go far beyond a mere simulation of reality. One of the essential challenges of designing cybermedia is how they can activate learners to a reflected and elaborated examination of the learning matters in order to improve knowledge acquisition.
Optimizing Experience
Within this group, we study the perception and cognitive processing of dynamic three-dimensional scenes. In media, dynamic information is presented in many different ways and with varying reception modes, ranging from a passive uptake of information to an active interaction with the medium. In our research, we address the question as to whether these presentation and reception modes influence basic cognitive mechanisms such as attentional control, visual recognition and knowledge acquisition.
An effective and successful application of pictures and videos for knowledge transfer requires several decisions regarding the properties of the presentation. In this context, we examine (1) the influence of spatial and temporal distance between two pictures on learning, (2) attentional control and regulation in dynamic scenes, and (3) interactive control of visual information. Our results contribute to the understanding of learner-related processes in dynamic visualizations.
Competence and Elaboration within Cybermedia
It is often assumed that audiovisual media are processed more passively as for example printed texts. However, empirical results do not express this assumption clearly (Wetzel, Radtke & Stern, 1994). The group Competence and Elaboration within Cybermedia examines cognitive processes in the area of audiovisual media (film, video). On the one hand inference processes and their role for knowledge acquisition on the part of the recipient are analysed. On the other hand, navigation possibilities of interactive videos are used to promote a more elaborated cognitive processing of the film content. The goal of the group is to review the assumption of the passive reception attitude regarding audiovisual media and to develop measures that foster a more active reception attitude.
Entertainment and Knowledge Acquisition
Edutainment means to combine learning contents and entertaining elements. From a psychological point of view, it is interesting to find out whether entertainment and knowledge acquisition are compatible or mutually exclusive goals. Among such edutainment formats, there are often hybrid media presentations which combine learning contents with narratives. Due to this particular structure, these media presentations require also particular types of processing which are examined in this group within the Cybermedia lab. Thereby, it is focused on edutainment presentations in informal learning settings such as television and museums. The related projects examine cognitive processes, knowledge acquisition, subjective experiences, and motivational aspects with regard to the reception of hybrid formats.