In her dissertation project, Andreea-Elena Potinteu from the Perception and Action lab investigated when and why people are willing to show prosocial behaviour towards robots - such as offering help or sharing resources. A total of six experiments with almost 1,900 participants formed the basis of the research.

Willingness to help robots
The results show that the willingness to help robots increases particularly when people have positive attitudes towards robots. The context also plays a role and the willingness to help is greater when it comes to medical support rather than safety issues, for example. Surprisingly, anthropomorphism, i.e. how human a robot appears, did not play a decisive role - but knowledge about robots did. In addition, supposed eye contact makes a difference: subjectively perceived eye contact with the robot led the study participants to help more quickly.

Potinteu's results provide new insights into the social dynamics between humans and machines - with important implications for the use of robots in everyday life.

On 25 March, Pauline Frick, PhD student in the Multiple Representations lab, successfully completed her dissertation, providing new insights into the understanding of illustrated texts. Her work sheds light on the cognitive processes that play a role in reading and processing texts with images.

Illustrated texts are an integral part of our everyday lives, but their influence on text comprehension has not yet been fully researched. While the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning focuses on active processing, models of text comprehension often emphasise passive processes. The Resonance-Integration-Validation model (RI-Val) describes passive cognitive mechanisms that run continuously during reading - so far, however, mainly for non-illustrated texts.

The role of images in text comprehension
In nine experiments, she investigated whether and how passive processes also occur in illustrated texts. The results show that activation, integration and validation processes also apply to illustrated texts. In addition, added images slightly accelerated these processes, as a meta-analytical summary of four of the experiments revealed.

With her dissertation, Pauline is making an important contribution to research in the field of multimedia learning. Her work could help to improve didactic materials and teaching methods by further deciphering the role of images in text comprehension.

Donald Trump's communication style continues to attract international attention. In an interview with ZDFheute, IWM scientist Dr Helen Fischer explains that a strategy called ‘zone flooding’ mixes truths and lies: ‘By bombarding people with a mix of facts and fiction at a high rate, Trump blurs the line between truth and lies,’ says Fischer.

Helen Fischer is a member of the Perception and Action lab at the IWM and one of her research areas is this new strategy of disinformation. In an interview with Marcel Burkhardt, she also talks about the social consequences of this tactic: ‘’Zone flooding' jeopardises democracy because it makes evidence-based decisions more difficult. Even if reliable information is available, the increasing credulity towards false statements leads to more false things being believed to be true,’ says Fischer.

To the interview: Expert on communication ethics: ‘Trump is showering people with rubbish’ (in German)

AI can solve complex questions and tasks within seconds, creating new conditions for learning and school. But does AI take the thinking out of school? How do algorithms affect the learning process? And what role does media literacy play in this context?

These questions are addressed in an episode of the SWR Kultur programme series ‘Das Wissen’, in which Prof Dr Peter Gerjets was a recent guest. Peter Gerjets is head of the Multimodal Interaction lab at the IWM and Professor of Teaching and Learning Research at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

In the programme, he points out that increased digital work has an impact on the learning processes in the brain and the expectations of learners: ‘I now expect to be able to receive things as videos and no longer have to read them. I expect a learning unit to be seven minutes long and no longer. This means, among other things, that it's really important to practise old media habits, so to speak.  For example,  sitting down and reading a thick book on a topic from cover to cover.’

About the programme: Das Wissen: How AI is influencing schools and learning (in German)

Disinformation threatens democratic processes. This is because it undermines trust in democratic institutions, fuels social division and influences the formation of public opinion.

With its Upgrade Democracy project, the Bertelsmann Stiftung has published an open letter to the new German government with five key recommendations for strengthening disinformation monitoring in the digital space. The IWM supports this initiative.

More information: Countering disinformation effectively: Five recommendations for strengthened disinformation monitoring in the digital space - Upgrade Democracy (in German)

On 11 February, Dr. Stefanie Klein successfully defended her dissertation on the interaction between humans and text-based chatbots. Her research provides valuable insights into how users perceive chatbots and how organisations can make the best use of these technologies.

In her thesis, the doctoral student from the Everyday Media lab investigated two key questions: Do people prefer human agents or chatbots? And how should chatbots be designed to improve the user experience? The results show that although people prefer to communicate with human agents for a task that requires social and emotional skills, chatbots are perceived as more entertaining. In addition, human-like cues increase user satisfaction. ‘We found that responsive verbal cues in particular, which convey active listening, and an apology from the chatbot if it has not understood a user request, ensure greater acceptance among users,’ explains Stefanie Klein.

Her results represent an important contribution to a better understanding of human-machine communication. At the same time, they provide valuable impetus for future studies. In follow-up work, Stefanie Klein would like to find out whether and how interactions with AI-based systems influence our behaviour and our relationships with other people.

‘Using the opportunities of AI and developing its potential’ was the topic of a panel discussion at didacta on February 13, 2025.  It took place at the state stand “Ministry of Culture and the Transparent Classroom”, and our Director, Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress, took part. The panel discussion revolved around the fundamental question: How can AI be used successfully for education?
The opportunities and potential of artificial intelligence in the educational system were examined from the different perspectives of education administration, schools and civil society. State Secretary Sandra Boser MdL (KM), Prof Dr Ulrike Cress (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien), Dr Julia Freudenberg (hacker-school), Steffen Haschler (Gymnasium Englisches Institut Heidelberg) were the participants on the panel. 

The classroom of the future
Other IWM researchers were also represented at didacta. IWM researchers from the KuMuS-ProNeD and MINT-ProNeD projects were present at the stand of the Kompetenzverbund lernen:digital. They shared applications and ideas for the classroom of the future with interested trade fair visitors. One of the questions they addressed was: What opportunities do technologies such as virtual reality offer for teaching? Further information on this can also be found on our website under the Future Innovation Space, which is the experience and experimentation centre at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien where future digital possibilities for schools can be tried out: future-innovation.space (in German)

New perspectives and inspiration
Team members from schule-mal-digital.de (in German) were also on site and exchanged ideas with teachers and other experts from the education sector. Information about innovative training programmes in the fields of art, music and sport was particularly in demand. Another highlight was trying out VR applications, which was very popular with many visitors.
Lively expert discussions on the development and future of schools, particularly on the topics of digitalisation, G9 and teacher shortages, opened up many new perspectives. The topics of democracy, heterogeneity and digitalisation, with a particular focus on AI, were also discussed intensively.

The new year also brings changes to the IWM committees. There are two new faces on both the Executive Board and the Scientific Advisory Board.

Prof Dr Stephan Schwan, head of the Realistic Depictions research group, held the position of Deputy Executive Director at the IWM Executive Board almost since the institute was founded. His last term of office ended in 2024. "I would like to express my sincere thanks for his commitment and contribution. It has always been a great pleasure to steer the fortunes of the IWM together with him as a partner in our three-member Executive Board – thank you very much!" said IWM Director Prof Dr Ulrike Cress.

Stephan Schwan's successor will be Prof Dr Markus Huff (right), Head of the Perception and Action lab. ‘We are looking forward to working together and to the fact that Markus Huff will be focussing more on the interests and promotion of young IWM researchers, among other things. As he is already Chairman of the PhD Committee and is also networked in various committees at the University's Department of Psychology, he will be able to fulfil this task on the Executive Board in the best possible way,’ Ulrike Cress and Executive Board Member Dr Robert Polgar are pleased to say.

There was also a change to the IWM Advisory Board at the turn of the year. Prof Dr Tamara van Gog has stepped down - Prof Dr Jan Plass (left) will be a new member of the Advisory Board from 2025. He holds the Chair of Digital Media and Learning Sciences at New York University, is Founding Director of the CREATE Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technology in Education and Co-Director of the Games for Learning Institute. Jan Plass draws from a broad range of fields, including cognitive science, learning sciences, computer science, and design, to conceptualize, implement, and study new and more effective ways of learning with digital technologies, especially for underserved communities. ‘We are delighted to have Jan Plass, an extremely competent and productive scientist, as a member of the Advisory Board,’ says Ulrike Cress about the new addition. ‘We already held him in high regard as a member of the advisory board of the WissenschaftsCampus ‘Cognitive Interfaces’.’

For Dr. Helen Fischer, member of the IWM's Perception and Action Lab, the year 2024 ended with fantastic news:: Her application to the Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been approved. The programme is considered prestigious and competitive, as it is only open to highly qualified researchers with particularly outstanding scientific achievements. It offers researchers who meet all the requirements to be appointed to a permanent professorship an ideal platform to advance their own scientific research programme. Therefore it offers various formats, including the well-known Heisenberg professorship, but also a Heisenberg position or a Heisenberg fellowship.

In terms of content, her application was aimed at expanding her research into the topic of metacognition - the ability to critically assess one's own knowledge and thinking. She is particularly interested in the question of what role metacognition plays in forming opinions on politicised scientific topics such as climate change or Covid-19. Her work provides important insights into how people evaluate scientific information and make decisions.

The DFG reviewers particularly emphasised Helen Fischer's exceptional academic productivity, which is especially impressive in light of her motherhood of two children. Her Google Scholar profile documents 19 publications in peer-reviewed journals, two handbook articles and several preprints in the last five years alone. ‘Being accepted into the Heisenberg Programme is a great opportunity for me to further expand my research under very comfortable and free conditions,’ says Helen Fischer.