Project "The impact of mind-wandering on the precision of episodic memory" Disengaging from the external world – a phenomenon referred to as mind-wandering – is a ubiquitous experience that has been shown to be associated with detriments in cognitive performance across a large range of tasks. In the current project, we investigate the impact of task disengagement on spatial episodic memory.
Project "School of Tomorrow" The distinctive qualities of good digital teaching aids have not yet been sufficiently analysed. In this project, a Web application for acquiring a second language is being developed according to scientifically sound learning principles. The benefit of the Web application will be scientifically reviewed over a period of several years.
Project «The role of irrational beliefs on perception, cognition, and media use» Many people hold beliefs about subjects which are difficult or impossible to explain with established knowledge or scientific methods, such as paranormal phenomena (telepathy) or believe in conspiracy theories. This project focuses on the association of such irrational beliefs with perceptual, cognitive and personality aspects in the context of (social) media usage.
Project «Creativity: Links to personality, perception and brain mechanisms» Creative thinking is an extraordinary capacity of the human mind that is advancing culture, science, economy and alike. Despite a long history of research, there are still important questions that remain open: What are the facets of creative thinking? How can it be assessed? Which aspects of personality are linked to creativity? What are the underlying neuronal mechanisms? And how can creative thinking be improved?
Project «Numerical Cognition» Numbers are omnipresent in our society, and dealing with numbers (e.g. in a supermarket or at school) is a key cognitive competence that has a crucial impact on our socio-economic status and well-being. The aim of this project is to explore basic cognitive and neuronal aspects of numerical cognition.
Project «The role of motives on emotional processing» There is variance between persons regarding the incentives that activate our motivational system. The effect of individual differences in basic motives on attentional allocation to emotional stimuli remains controversial.
Project «What makes a Screencast successful?» Screencasts are useful eLearning-tools for distance learning. However, they are not always successful. Different aspects of screencast will be explored in this project, with a focus on cognitive and affective impacts on observers.
Project «When is the use of tablets useful?» Tablets and Smartphones are omnipresent in our society, and more and more schools have started to use tablets in classrooms. Considering perceptual and cognitive factors, it remains unclear for which tasks the user can really profit from the use of tablets.
Project "Using virtual reality to investigate access, fidelity, and vividness of visual mental representations" When recalling an object that you have previously seen how do the different features location, orientation, and color integrate in memory? To understand the relations between individual features of visual mental representations it is essential to extend the existing research to a 3D virtual reality approach, which allows to represent space in a more natural way than 2D computer-based experiments.
Project "Interactions between memory systems in typical development and in neurodevelopmental disorders" Parallel learning and memory systems supported by different neurobiological substrates contribute different representations of the world. This project aims to describe the emergence, development, and function of these different parallel memory systems in children and adults with a typical development, and in individuals with Down syndrome (Trisomy 21 or T21) or Williams syndrome (WS).
Project "Links between brain activity (EEG) and cognitive capacities" In this project, we are first exploring the relations between brain activity, using EEG recordings, and memory in typically developing children, young and healthy aging older adults. Second, we are characterizing the EEG microstates that are present in individuals with Down syndrome (Trisomy 21 or T21) or Williams syndrome (WS).
Project "Profiles of spatial abilities in Down and Williams syndromes" Down syndrome (Trisomy 21 or T21) and Williams syndrome (WS) are genetic disorders characterized by mental retardation and impaired abilities to process visuospatial information. Nevertheless, the ability of individuals with Down syndrome or Williams syndrome to navigate in the real word have not been well studied. The goal of this study is to characterize this capacity in these individuals.
Project "EATMINT" How to improve emotional awareness, emotion sharing with peers and emotion regulation in computer-mediated collaboration?
Project "EMOVIZ" How to support self-regulation and engagement in distance learning?
Completed projects
Project "Distance learning: Individual differences & distributed vs. massed learning" It is well known that humans learn more effectively when the material is spread out over a period of time in different learning sessions (i.e. distributed learning) than when they learn the material in one long session (i.e. massed learning). Here we want to replicate and extend this finding to a mixed mode approach in a distance learning setting based on new technologies.
