Realistic Depictions

Realistic Depictions

Duration 04/2021 - 08/2024

As part of the "DigiMat" project, scientists from the fields of cultural studies, psychology and materials science are working together to combine digital imaging with physical-chemical analysis of historical museum artifacts in order to create new levels of perception and interaction between museum visitors and the exhibits. The assumption of digital imaging is that it can make new and otherwise hidden information about the respective exhibition objects accessible to the museum visitor.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 09/2022 - 08/2025

How can the historicity of sounds and noises be integrated into a museum narrative? What role do acoustics play in the transfer of knowledge in connection with the movement of visitors and in the field of tension between analog and digital? In order to answer these questions, the project "Historical Sounds" investigates the influence of different representations of historical sounds on their reception in the context of a presentation using 3D glasses.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 09/2017 - 09/2020

The aim of this knowledge transfer project is to draw on empirical evidence to design and implement a prototypical exhibition space in the Deutsches Museum, where museum visitors can encounter conflicting information on a current science topic. In addition, an evidence-based, practice-oriented wiki on the subject of presenting conflicting information in museums and exhibitions will be developed.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 06/2018 - open

Information for example in museum contexts often is presented in immersive digital environments. The project examines the influence of these rooms on basic cognitive aspects of perception and information processing: Is there a difference in viewing duration or the subjective flow of time in rooms of varying size? And do the rooms influence the processing of information presented in these environments?

Realistic Depictions

Duration 01/2020 - 09/2024

The project examined the influence of acoustic and semantic audio-text characteristics such as the position of the audio information in the room, speech characteristics, personalization and naming of depicted content on the text-picture processing. Especially in museums and exhibitions, the content shown can often only be accessed and understood with a textual explanation. This can be presented in written or auditory form. The modality principle of multimedia learning postulates that when viewing objects or pictures, an accompanying auditory text is better understood and retained than a written text. This is one of the reasons why museums and exhibitions often use audio guides and tours that offer an auditory explanation of what can be seen. This project examined how these auditory explanations must be formally designed to contribute to the greatest possible knowledge acquisition in exhibitions. This was done within an experimental exhibition on inventors and the technical devices they have developed. Subjects received audio explanations of a series of photographic portraits of inventors and their inventions via headphones. The explanations were presented automatically when entering a certain exhibition area. A special audio system was used, which allowed this automated presentation and the variation of the perceived position of the audio source, and by means of which AI-generated audio characteristics are varied. The results of the study conducted in this project show that the audio quality of the system used was perceived as good to excellent and thus equivalent to conventional audio systems. In terms of interest regarding the inventors and their objects, judgement of learning, and text-picture integration, there were no significant differences between the varying-source audio system and a conventional audio presentation, but the difference in terms of retention performance was significant in that the learning content was better remembered with the varying-source audio system than with a conventional audio presentation. The further investigation of different mechanisms of this effect indicates that this effect is due to externalization, i.e. the attribution of the audio sources to the exterior. For the practice in museums it can therefore be deduced that audio systems with varying audio sources have a positive effect on the retention of the presented content and should therefore be used.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 10/2020 - 09/2023

Artificial intelligence-based applications, especially deep learning techniques, allow the manipulation of visual and auditory information. In the context of knowledge acquisition, these technological developments offer the potential to personalize learning materials and optimize their utility. Aim of the project is to investigate the extent to which aligning the tutor with the learner influences the learning process.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 10/2017 - open

While current theories on learning in multimedia learning environments concentrate on visual and auditory access, this dissertation project focuses on a different sensory approach to learning content: The haptics and haptic exploration of physical objects. Thus, the extent to which this haptic experience - in combination with visual impressions - influences learning and the learning experience in informal learning environments, such as museums and exhibitions, is investigated.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 10/2011 - open

The project 'Learning with 3D reconstructions' examines the influence of visual and auditive types of presentations on cognitive processing of archaeological 3D reconstructions and concentrates, among other things, on the depiction of uncertain information.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 07/2022 - 03/2026

How do museum visitors remember the spatial-temporal relationships of the exhibits after visiting a museum exhibition? A special exhibition at the German Mining Museum in Bochum with the title “Gras over it – Mining and Environment in a German-German comparison” presents developments and events during the last decades for three different mining regions in Germany. In the exhibition, the exhibits are ordered along different topics. The survey examines how visitors after visiting the exhibition remember the spatial-temporal structure of the presented exhibits. This project is funded by the Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past“.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 04/2025 - 03/2028

With regard to the communications and learning of scientific information, there has been a growing awareness in the field of formal and informal learning in recent years that the uncertainties inherent in scientific information must be communicated to learners. This is particularly evident in history lessons, where the construct character of history should be taught. But this is also important on the Internet, where we are dealing with a range of information that is characterized by a wide variety of more or less well-founded scientific information and a multitude of more or less reliable sources of information. In order to adequately understand scientific information, participate in informed discussions, form an opinion and make decisions based on the information provided, the nature and degree of uncertainty of the information must be presented, cognitively processed and taken into account when proceeding. It is therefore increasingly important to understand how people cognitively process uncertain information and information sources and how knowledge is created from this in interaction with other factors. Glaser et al. (2022) have already developed and empirically tested a theoretical model for the cognitive processing of uncertain information: the IMPEUV model. In the project, this model is to be supplemented by further influencing factors and supported empirically. These are: the trustworthiness and expertise of the information source, scientific justifications of the uncertainties, the congruence of the information with prior knowledge structures, and epistemic reception goals. This project additionally aims to improve the connectivity of the IMPEUV model to existing similar research areas and its suitability for application to concrete learning situations.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 10/2021 - 12/2024

The BMBF-funded joint project "Educational research at informal learning sites in the interplay between authenticity and digitality" (BILAD) launched in October 2021. Initiated by TUM and the IWM, the international research network is comprised of established researchers and experts from 17 research institutions, museums, science centers, and memorial sites in Europe and the USA. The network deliberately transcends traditional museum types, and the spectrum of participating learning spaces includes natural history museums, technology museums, art museums, and historical memorial sites. Over the course of the project, several thematic areas were conceptually addressed: authenticity, the concept of 4E learning, informal learning, digital media, and research methodological challenges. Overall, the project aimed to address the underlying mechanisms and their sustainability in informal learning spaces. Funding for the project ended in December 2024. However, network participants intend to continue to exchange ideas through online and on-site meetings, and empirical projects involving multiple network participants have also been initiated.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 12/2021 - 11/2024

In various research areas and topics such as climate change or testimonies it has already been demonstrated that mental representations are influenced by true and false information. Problematically, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify false information in our daily lives. Furthermore, new technologies simplify the creation of realistic-looking false messages in media. This dissertation project, therefore, addresses the question of how discriminability of information influences mental representations.

Realistic Depictions

Duration 10/2020 - 09/2024

This research project, which is part of the research network "Human-Agent-Interaction", investigates how laypersons (and literary experts) perceive and evaluate an artificial intelligence (AI) based writing tool that produces creative output such as short narrative texts and poems. How credible, creative, and easy to read are the outputs of such a GPT-3-based writing tool?

Realistic Depictions

Duration 05/2025 - 08/2026

Timelines are a common means of making historical processes and developments visually comprehensible. They are based on transforming the chronological sequence of historical events into a spatial juxtaposition. In the case of wall-filling, spatially extended timelines (as are often used in museums), in addition to the overview function, there is also the retranslation into the temporal experience of walking along or running through the timeline. Against the background of the 4E Cognition approach, this interplay between physical movement patterns and cognitive processing will be empirically analysed. In one study, visitors will explore and understand the timeline representation (a) from left to right (chronologically from earlier to later), (b) from right to left (anti-chronologically from later to earlier), (c) not along the timeline, but directly towards it (achronologically). To this end, the resulting mental representations of the depicted historical timeline should be systematically examined (questions on chronological order, simultaneity, individual elements, and duration of excerpts from the presentation).

Realistic Depictions

Duration 09/2021 - 09/2024

Under National Socialism, discrimination and murder were implemented with frightening efficiency with the help of bureaucratic routines. The crimes of the Nazi era could be presented as necessary and harmless processes with the use of administrative language and euphemistic terms in forms and correspondences. But how can this phenomenon be presented to visitors in an interesting, intuitive and interactive way using exemplary Nazi documents? Can visitors learn to read and assess Nazi documents with the right medium?