News archive

Dr. Maren Mayer, postdoctoral researcher in the Knowledge Construction lab, has been accepted into the Leibniz Association's mentoring. The competitive format is aimed at excellent female postdoctoral researchers who are on their way to a management position or professorship.

The psychologist researches collaborative knowledge construction according to the so-called Wikipedia principle: one person starts with a contribution that can be supplemented, improved or maintained by others. Using a combination of experimental studies and cognitive modelling, she investigates how collective knowledge is created, how it changes and which cognitive mechanisms it is subject to - a research programme that convinced the selection committee.

‘I hope that the Leibniz Mentoring will bring buzzwords such as strategic career planning and the compatibility of an academic career and family to life, so that I ultimately know more precisely how I can best prepare myself and my career,’ says Maren Mayer.

The Leibniz Association's multifaceted mentoring enables female scientists to manage their careers in a targeted manner, further expand their professional networks and confidently take on leadership roles. Participants benefit not only from a structured and individually supported mentoring partnership, but also from a comprehensive seminar programme and professional process support, which ensures that what they have learned can be sustainably anchored in their everyday professional lives.

Land of Ideas, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation putting out a call to  schools throughout Germany to take part in the AI School Prize 2025. IWM Director Prof Dr Ulrike Cress is chair of the jury for the AI School Prize.

The prize honours innovative schools that are already successfully using artificial intelligence in everyday school life. Both holistic school strategies and targeted applications in individual subject areas are being sought for the competition. The prize is awarded to schools that successfully use AI for teaching, student development or school organisation.

Applications possible until 10 October
All primary and secondary schools in Germany can apply for the AI School Award until October 10, 2025.

To the blog article: ‘Education in transition: what artificial intelligence can achieve in schools’ (in German)

Further information on the AI School Prize: Website of the AI School Prize (in German)

With six successful clusters in the current round of the Excellence Strategy, the University of Tübingen has achieved  great success and retains the chance of being awarded the title of ‘University of Excellence’ again, from 2027 onwards. It will receive a total of six Clusters of Excellence, which will be funded by the federal and state governments for seven years from January 1, 2026, as part of the Excellence Strategy. These include three clusters that are already established and will receive renewed funding. In accordance with the guidelines of the Excellence Strategy, the University of Tübingen can now undergo evaluation in the ‘Universities of Excellence’ funding line.

One of those  three successful   clusters that will continue to receive funding is the Cluster of Excellence ‘Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science’, of which the IWM is one of the non-university partners.
The declared aim of the cluster is to develop the full potential of machine learning for science and to understand the changes this will bring to scientific approaches.

The Rector of the University of Tübingen, Professor Dr Dr h.c. (Dōshisha) Karla Pollmann, upon hearing  the news from Bonn,  explained that the decision was also an honour for all non-university partners, without whom this success would not have been possible.  ‘(...) in the case of the Machine Learning Cluster, this includes the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Kigali, Rwanda, all of whom also contributed to the success,’ said the University of Tübingen's press release.

Congratulations from the IWM
IWM Director Prof Dr Ulrike Cress says: ‘We warmly congratulate the University of Tübingen and all the scientists involved on this great, well-deserved success for their work.’

She is particularly pleased about the success of the cooperation partner in the Excellence Strategy and emphasises: ‘The cooperation between the IWM and the University of Tübingen in the field of machine learning enables further synergies between university and non-university research. We look forward to further joint research work.’

Further information on the Cluster of Excellence:
Machine Learning: New perspectives for science

To the joint press release of the DFG and the WR:
Decisions in the Second Round of Competition under the Excellence Strategy: Excellence Commission Selects 70 Clusters of Excellence

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. For example, the willingness to help is greater when it comes to medical support rather than safety issues. Surprisingly, anthropomorphism, i.e. how human a robot appears to be, 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.

Pauline Frick, PhD student in the Multiple Representations lab, successfully completed her dissertation on March 25, 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 function continuously while reading mainly non-illustrated texts.

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

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

A current impulse paper by the Vodafone Foundation and the Weizenbaum Institute deals with the digital transformation of the education system and how this can be made more successful by making sure there is sufficient data.  The paper is based on an analysis of international and national use of education data, current research literature and interviews with education experts, school practitioners and administrators.

Among others, Prof Dr Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM and head of the Knowledge Construction lab, and Prof Dr Detmar Meurers, head of the Language and AI in Education lab,  express their points of view  in the publication. Ulrike Cress emphasises the importance of data for quality assurance in education: ‘For quality assurance, we need comparative  data, especially in order to be able to look at different starting points and to assess the impact of measures.’

Data for research as the basis for improvements
Detmar Meurers also emphasises the relevance of data for research: "It's not primarily about digitality, but about addressing specific challenges. ... Only if we have data can research improve things."

The impulse paper presents five central fields of action with 100 concrete recommendations for education policy, administration and practice. The conclusion: Germany needs a forward-looking education data ecosystem that supports all stakeholders in persistently working towards common goals, recognising the need for action at an early stage and taking the right measures in a targeted manner.

More information:
Policy paper by the Vodafone Foundation and the Weizenbaum Institute: Data-based education transformation as the key to better learning outcomes (in German)

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)

Eva Specker has accepted the call to the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien as Professor of Informal Learning. She will start at the IWM on 1 April 2025 and head a lab.

‘We are delighted to have another excellent scientist at our institute in Prof Specker,’ says IWM Director Prof Dr Ulrike Cress.

Eva Specker completed her doctorate at the University of Vienna in 2019 on the topic of ‘Psychological Aesthetic Effects of Lines and Colors: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry’ and has been working there as a postdoc ever since. Since 2022, she has headed a junior research group funded by the FWF (the Austrian equivalent of the DFG). Her research focuses on the question of how aesthetic experiences play a role in learning, particularly in museum and other informal learning contexts. She is looking forward to her work in Tübingen: ‘I'm particularly looking forward to the fruitful dialogue with my colleagues at the IWM,’ says the 33-year-old.

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.

We have gathered knowledge, organized data, and shared important insights – none of which would have been possible without your inspiring and constructive support. Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and an exciting start to the New Year, full of anticipation for new discoveries!

Psychologist Jessica Kathmann, who is earning  her doctorate in Prof. Dr Peter Gerjets' Multimodal Interaction lab on learning with digital games, will receive funding for two years, starting in the winter semester, 2024-2025.   from the Mathilde Planck Lectureship Programme.

The programme  supports young female academics on their way to a professorship at a university of applied sciences and is funded by the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts.   It will pay for a lectureship and accompanying framework programmes.

Jessica Kathmann has already had considerable  teaching experience at several universities, including the SRH University of Applied Sciences Heidelberg and Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences. From the winter semester onwards, she will be teaching the subjects ‘Psychology for Game Developers’ and ‘Edutainment’ as part of the ‘Virtual Worlds & Game Technologies’ degree programme at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences.  Her focus will be on motivational processes in gaming and learning.

Further information: Mathilde Planck Teaching Assignment Programme / website in German: Mathilde-Planck-Lehrauftragsprogramm

The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) took part once again this year in the Science & Innovation Days 2024 in Tübingen. As part of the event,  a science slam was held at the institute on November 15, which attracted numerous visitors.

The participating scientists spoke entertainingly, vividly and with a  dash of humour for 10 minutes each about their research topics related to this year's SIDays motto, ‘Arguing better’.

Four IWM scientists competed against each other: Dr. Jürgen Buder, Dr. Helen Fischer, Dr. Tjark Müller and Reena Pauly. The audience voted Tjark Müller the best slammer (see image 12). The event was moderated by Dr. Danny Flemming.

The first online event organized by schule-mal-digital.de and the Zukunftsraum on the topic "The School of the Future – What Role Could Augmented and Virtual Reality Play?" has taken place, and the recording of the event is now available for interested parties. The event was part of the "Community Call" series, hosted by the competence network lernen:digital. Around 40 participants, including researchers, teachers, and educational administration representatives, joined the event on November 6, 2024, to discuss the potential and requirements of immersive technologies in education with experts Florian Brückner, Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets, and Nicola Przybylka.

In addition to insights from research and school practice on current developments involving VR and AR in the school context, discussions also focused on experiences regarding motivation, best practices, the role of pedagogically meaningful settings, and the production of educational VR/AR applications. The current state of research and the accompanying research gaps were also critically examined.

A Productive Discussion
Florian Brückner, a vocational schoolteacher for electrical engineering and social studies at the Vocational School Center in Kronach and project manager at the Stiftung Bildungspakt Bayern, highlighted the importance of clear use cases: "The definition of a clear use case is essential: VR/AR should not be seen by learners as just a gimmick. We need a clear, subject-related, curricular connection. Only then can a VR/AR application be successful."

The Future with VR and AR
Looking ahead, the discussion focused on how VR and AR could evolve in the next 10 to 20 years, considering opportunities, such as more immersive, hands-on learning experiences, as well as challenges, such as the need for teacher training and critical handling of risks and ethical concerns.

Opportunities and Challenges
Peter Gerjets, Professor of Learning Research at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and head of the Multimodal Interaction research group at IWM, provided an illustration of opportunity: "Of course, I learn something if I float through the ISS in a 360-degree sphere: I learn what it might feel like to float in space. But no school test would assess that – it's not standard declarative or procedural school knowledge. But I think it’s certainly valuable knowledge!"

Nicola Przybylka, research associate in the project "DigiProSMK – Digitalization-related and digitally supported professional development of sports, music, and arts teachers" at the competence network lernen:digital at the University of Duisburg-Essen, pointed out an example of the challenges: "The experiences you gain with AR and VR can be emotionally challenging. If they're marketed as harmless fun, important ethical dimensions might be overlooked."

Recording Now Available Online
For those who couldn’t attend the online event live and want to learn more, the recording of the event is available on the event page of schule-mal-digital.de. You can also find further contributions on the topic of learning and teaching with Augmented and Virtual Reality.

In his dissertation, which he successfully defended on November 6, Georg Pardi, a doctoral student in the Multimodal Interaction lab, investigated what determines whether people select a video or a text as the result of their web search in the hit list.

His doctoral thesis focuses on the question of the extent to which the knowledge type someone is searching for, influences the modality of the search result, i.e. whether someone selects a video or a text as a result. 

“A classic type of knowledge that people search for is procedural knowledge. Examples of this are 'how to' questions, such as 'How do I tie a figure-eight knot?’. Another type is declarative knowledge, which is often asked with 'what', for example 'What is direct current?”, explains Georg Pardi.

The result of his investigation: the type of knowledge has a significant effect on the preference for certain modalities - but does not fully explain the choice of modality. The degree of spatio-temporal change contained in a task also plays a role. Or as Georg Pardi explains “When it comes to explaining how a figure-eight knot is tied, this explanation contains a lot of elements that we call spatio-temporal changes: ‘First down, then through the loop, then up again, etc.’”. The degree of these expected spatio-temporal changes significantly influences the decision to prefer a certain modality.

Georg Pardi's work contributes to a better understanding of search processes in web use, to increasing their predictability and thus to communicating knowledge more effectively in the long term.

On October 24 to 25, the INTERACT! workshop took place at the Kunstmuseum Bochum, bringing together international experts to discuss interaction with intelligent systems. The title of the workshop was "Interaction with Intelligent Systems: The Significance of Scripts, Fiction, and Imagination." The focus was on ethical and philosophical questions surrounding technologies like chatbots and voice assistants.

On the second day of the event, IWM scientist Prof. Sonja Utz gave a presentation titled "Credibility of Language-Based Agents: The Influence of Social Presence and Social Roles." She shared the work of the Everyday Media research group on the credibility of ChatGPT and other voice assistants, as well as initial findings from a cross-group longitudinal study in collaboration with the Human-Machine Interaction Group. A key finding of that research: Information is perceived as more credible when it is presented in a dialogue format, which creates a sense of social presence.

Never before have people collected more data about their lives than they do today. But what impact does this have on memory? A research team from the University of Würzburg and the Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media (IWM) in Tübingen have examined how digital self-recording influences autobiographical memory.

A hundred years ago, most people owned only a few photos of themselves and their families. Today, almost every moment can be captured – from a child's first steps to a holiday snap on the beach. In addition, there are countless digital traces in emails, social media posts, or fitness data.

The field of research to which the scientists, including Prof. Stephan Schwan, head of the IWM Realistic Depictions research group, have dedicated themselves has barely been explored until now. Regarding memory in the digital age, both opportunities and risks have emerged. For instance, digital recordings can assist people in everyday life and preserve important memories. On the other hand, they also open up possibilities for manipulation, for example through deepfakes, which could play a role not only in politics but also in personal memories.

The team has now published an overview of their research findings in the renowned journal Psychological Inquiry. A current press release summarises the key results.

On June 21, 2024, the 2nd AI Symposium took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. The event examined in detail how initial expectations and concerns regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools have developed and how the current status can be described. In addition, the focus was on the opportunities and challenges of teaching and learning with AI for the future.

The event was jointly organized by the ZSL Regional Office Tübingen, the IWM, the TüCeDE (Tübingen Center for Digital Education), the KI Makerspace and the Regierungspräsidium Tübingen.

Subject-specific panels: natural sciences, languages, social sciences and aesthetic subjects

A particular highlight of the symposium were the four subject-specific panels, which were organized in close cooperation between ZSL subject advisors and didactic experts from the University of Tübingen. Months of preparatory work and organization by the Future Innovation Hub of the MINT ProNeD project under the direction of Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets resulted in these panels, which examined the use of generative AI in the form of adapted (custom) GPTs in eight different school subjects.

The results were presented in the form of panels on the natural sciences, languages, social sciences and aesthetic subjects. The collected subject-specific findings were presented in the individual panels, discussed with teachers, and presented to the students. The 2nd AI Symposium thus provided a valuable platform for evaluating the current status of AI use in specific subjects and developing forward-looking perspectives for teaching and learning with AI.

Project presentations at the "Market of Opportunities"

​
In addition, various projects on "Teaching and learning with and about AI" were presented with posters and demo stands as part of the one-hour "Market of Opportunities". Among other things, members of the e-teaching transfer working group collected questions from participants on the digital future of schools. Answers from experts will soon be published in the new "Future Room" of the learning:digital competence network at https://lernen.digital/.
Further information on the AI symposium can be found on the MINT-ProNeD website.

In this application period, two IWM researchers were accepted into the Leibniz Mentoring Programme: Dr. Thérése Eder (le.) from the former Leibniz Research Group Digitalisation and Education and Dr. Ayse Simsek (ri.) from the Perception and Action lab. With this program, which is being launched for the tenth time this year, the Leibniz Association offers excellent female researchers with doctorates support on their way to a management position or professorship.
 
‘I applied for Leibniz Mentoring because I think the programme offers ideal support for my further development and prepares me for the challenges of being a leader in science’, says Dr. Thérése Eder. She also hopes that mentoring will provide her the impetus to reconcile her academic career and family responsibilities and to take a concrete approach to career planning, which often comes up short in everyday life.  Dr. Ayse Simsek is also looking forward to the exchange with the mentors, which is one of the pillars of the programme: ‘My goal is to hold a faculty position in a respected research university. To achieve it, the exchange with someone who has already been through this academic journey will certainly help me grow as a scientist to reach this goal,’ says the postdoc.

Organisational psychologist Marisa Tschopp successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the end of april. She is an associate scientist at the IWM and also works for Scip AG, an IT service and consulting company based in Zurich. In her dual roles, she investigates how people perceive their interactions with conversational AI, specifically in the area of voice shopping, and how these perceptions affect their behaviour.

Her dissertation applies A.P. Fiske's theory of relational models to examine the human-machine dynamic. Through her research, she identifies three primary modes that characterise the relationship with AI, each with different implications for consumer purchasing behaviour. In particular, she highlights the significance of the social aspect and the importance of user-friendly design in shaping a positive user experience.

Reflecting on her achievement after the successful defence, Marisa Tschopp expressed her satisfaction: "Completing my dissertation is an important milestone for me and our organisation. In the dynamic field of AI, it's crucial to delve deeply into the subject matter, engaging in both rigorous scientific research and meaningful dialogue with people who are not experts in the field. Through my work, we aim not only to equip our clients for the challenges ahead in AI, but also to better prepare ourselves".

• Assistant Professor Minha Lee (Eindhoven University) discussed the design of voice agents to express moral emotions and addressed the attribution of blame or punishment to these agents.
• Prof. Dr. Nils Köbis (Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security & University of Duisburg-Essen) presented research on how AI influences human ethical behaviour, showing that people are more likely to make unethical decisions when guided by AI or when they entrust decisions to AI.
• Prof. Dr. Detmar Meurers , who took up a professorship in AI in Education at the IWM in April, shed light on the role of AI in language acquisition, particularly in foreign language learning. He emphasised that while AI alone cannot solve problems due to its lack of insight into learners and their goals, the development of targeted and adaptable AI tools offers significant opportunities.
  
  

As an educational researcher, Professor Cress has long been involved in studying the impact of digitalisation on cognitive processes. She believes that it is a key social responsibility to equip people to navigate our increasingly digital world. Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann praised her work in his award speech on 19 April: "Her research is essential for our knowledge-based society, especially in the areas of learning, teaching and information dissemination."

Education research with a practical focus
Prof. Cress emphasises the importance of research in identifying how digital tools can enhance knowledge processes and in addressing the challenges posed by digitalisation. She also stresses that research shouldn't exist in a vacuum but should actively contribute to practical improvements. With success: Her research into the impact of digital media and artificial intelligence on knowledge processes has directly influenced practical applications and improvements.

Influencing the academic landscape
Beyond her research, Prof Cress plays a key role in advising education policy as a member of the Standing Scientific Commission of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK). In addition, her involvement in organisations such as the Deutsche Telekom Foundation and the Academic Advisory Board of the German Literature Archive (DLA) enables her to share her insights for the benefit of the general public. "She leads the discourse on relevant topics of the future, is internationally networked and plays a major role in shaping Baden-Württemberg as a science location and the research landscape in Tübingen," said Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann at the ceremony in the New Palace in Stuttgart on Friday.

"I am truly honoured by this recognition, which underlines the vital role of science in shaping our society," says Prof. Cress. She is grateful to the state of Baden-Württemberg, which had the foresight to establish a research institution on this highly relevant topic back in 2001.
 

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Leibniz Mentoring Programme. Since its launch in 2014, the programme has been open for applications on an annual basis. During this time, IWM women scientists have successfully participated seven times.

Designed as a competitive platform, the Leibniz Association aims to support outstanding female postdoctoral researchers and guide them towards leadership positions or professorships. The programme enables these scientists to strategically manage their careers, expand their professional networks and take on leadership responsibilities with confidence. To facilitate these goals, mentees benefit from both a structured mentoring partnership and a comprehensive seminar programme.

More information: Leibniz Mentoring

How are ChatGPT and similar technologies reshaping our professional lives, our daily routines, and our society? Join us for a thought-provoking discussion as top experts explore the profound implications of these advancements. The panel discussion, entitled "The Impact of ChatGPT and Similar Technologies on Individuals and Society", will be held in English at the IWM in Tübingen, and will be live-streamed for remote viewers.

The panel discussion is part of the final conference of the Human-Agent Interaction Network (MAI) at the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien, to which experts have been invited separately. After four successful years, the event marks the festive conclusion of the network's research activities and brings together experts in the field of Human-Agent Interaction from various disciplines in a poster session and several keynote lectures. The event will conclude with a panel discussion open to the public. To register for the event in person, please email mai-conference@iwm-tuebingen.de by 9 April 2024. A livestream will also be available on the IWM YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@IWMtue

About the Panel Discussion:
Title: "The Impact of ChatGPT and Similar Technologies on Individuals and Society"
Language: English
Panellists:
Dr. Anne Scherer (Co-founder of Delta Labs; author of "You & AI: Alles über Künstliche Intelligenz und wie sie unser Leben prägt")
Prof. Dr. Leo van Waveren (Head of the Technical Didactics Working Group at the RPTU)
Dr. Sarah Fischer (Project Manager Digitalisation and Public Good, Bertelsmann Foundation)
Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets (Head of the Multimodal Interaction lab, IWM Tübingen)

Moderation:
Eva Wolfangel, freelance journalist and author

Start: 6 pm

To attend the event in person (with registration):
Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien, Schleichstr. 6, 72076 Tübingen
Please register by email to mai-conference@iwm-tuebingen.de by 9 April 2024.

Via livestream (without registration):
https://www.youtube.com/@IWMtue

About the research network:
Over the past four years, the Human-Agent Interaction research network at the IWM has been investigating the interaction of humans with artificial intelligence and natural language. Eight interdisciplinary projects have been carried out in collaboration with researchers from several universities and institutions, including the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart and the German Literature Archive Marbach.

In a joint response to the widely discussed Karolinska Statement, educators and researchers have expressed their opinions in the online magazine "Campus Schulmanagement". Among the contributors are well-known figures from the education sector, including our IWM Director, Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress, and Prof. Dr Peter Gerjets, who leads the Multimodal Interaction lab at the IWM.

The prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden, renowned for its work in medicine and health sciences, published a statement in April 2023 that also attracted considerable attention in Germany. The statement highlighted research showing that increased digitalisation in schools, especially through the frequent use of digital devices in the classroom, has a negative impact on students' learning, especially on their concentration and study habits.

Important stimulus, but paints a black and white picture

While acknowledging the Karolinska Statement as a valuable catalyst for discussion, the authors of the response criticise it for oversimplification. They note that the broad reception of the statement in Germany has led to an exaggerated perception of the risks of digitisation, sometimes even leading to calls for a halt to digitisation efforts - a reaction that they argue lacks a scientific basis.

Less digitalisation in German schools? No!

Contrary to calls for less digitalisation in German schools, the authors stress the importance of focusing on the quality, rather than the quantity, of technology use in the classroom. They point to research that demonstrates the potential of digital technologies to enhance learning.
The authors argue for a forward-looking approach, emphasising the need for intelligent use of new technologies. They argue that the discussion should move beyond the mere provision of technology and focus on ensuring successful digital transformation in schools. "In other words, it's not a question of WHETHER, but of HOW successful digital transformation in schools will be."

Education experts warn of two potential short-sighted responses: blindly adopting policies from other countries, and failing to critically evaluate initiatives and projects for evidence and potential impact.

Further Information:

"We should not be distracted by the statement of the Karolinska Institute", a response by Tim Fütterer, Peter Gerjets, Ulrike Cress, Andreas Lachner, Detmar Meurers, Olaf Köller, Frank Fischer, Katharina Scheiter, Ralph Müller-Eiselt, Florian Nuxoll, Patrick Bronner, Bob Blume, Ulrich Trautwein in the online magazine Campus Schulmanagement.

The Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) is contributing its expertise in science communication to "Leibniz Labs", a new initiative of the Leibniz Association to promote inter- and transdisciplinary excellence.

Leibniz Lab "Systemic Sustainability"
With a network of 41 research institutions and 11 research clusters, the "Systemic Sustainability" lab serves as a central hub for knowledge and advice on issues related to biodiversity, climate, agriculture, and food security. It focuses on a critical question: How can we protect biodiversity and tackle climate change while ensuring resilient agricultural practices for food security?
Recognising the urgent need for a more holistic and action-oriented approach to scientific research, the lab emphasises the importance of working with multi-sectoral stakeholders to find transformative solutions to biodiversity, climate, agriculture and food security challenges by integrating scientific knowledge and identifying innovative approaches. In pilot areas in different parts of the world, the lab addresses regional needs and links them to global trends in order to understand complex interrelationships from a holistic perspective and propose appropriate solutions. The lab serves as a link between the relevant scientific communities and promotes the exchange between science and society.

How can information be presented in a way that is accessible and actionable? This is where the IWM will contribute its expertise to the new Leibniz lab "Systemic Sustainability".

"Our goal is to bridge the gap between science and citizens" through successful science communication, says Prof. Dr. Markus Huff, who heads the Perception and Action lab at the IWM.

Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness"
The "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future" lab brings together excellent inter- and transdisciplinary expertise from 41 Leibniz Institutes to address the challenges of future pandemics. This lab represents the first collaboration in Germany between pathogen-focused sciences (such as virology, bacteriology, mycology, and immunology) and other life sciences, including ecology, health technologies, health economics and education research. It will be funded with three million euros over three years. The aim is to pool research efforts to provide evidence-based recommendations to policymakers on how to prepare for, prevent and respond to future pandemics.

Dealing with misinformation and information uncertainty is a key concern for this lab. The IWM's expertise will focus on addressing key questions such as: How can scientific evidence be effectively communicated in the dynamic context of a pandemic? How should uncertainty be communicated? And: How can we empower the public to recognise misinformation?

The labs will be officially launched during the Leibniz Association's spring reception on 16 May 2024.

Further information: 
Press release of the Leibniz Association

On Monday, the exhibition "Administration as Crime: The SS-Agency 'Concentration Camps Inspectorate'" was opened in the so-called T-Building in Oranienburg. Also on display: An application for an interactive multimedia table developed by the IWM. The table was presented on site by experts Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets, who heads the Multimodal Interaction lab at the IWM, Laura Peiffer-Siebert and Dr. Tjark Müller.

Bureaucratic history of the Nazi regime

Peter Gerjets explains the background to the project and how the multi-touch table will help visitors understand the content of the exhibition: "Through various empirical studies, we've explored ways to improve the communication of complex content about the bureaucratic history of the Nazi regime. Our aim is to stimulate visitors' interest and at the same time promote an understanding of the central psychological principles and mechanisms underlying the functioning of Nazi administrative structures".

Understanding connections through the multi-touch table 

The T building on Heinrich-Grüber-Platz, which now houses the tax office and the offices of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation, was the headquarters of the 'Concentration Camps Inspectorate' (IKL) from 1938 to 1945. Based in Oranienburg, the IKL oversaw the entire network of concentration camps. The new permanent exhibition explores the elaborate bureaucratic system developed by the IKL to control prisoners in an appalling manner and to determine the training, pay and equipment of the camp staff.

The multi-touch table is the centrepiece of the exhibition. It allows visitors to explore and interpret various documents. This interactive experience helps explain the significance of file numbers, stamps, annotations and signatures, and provides context for visitors.

The exhibition is open on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 09:00 to 12:00 and on Tuesdays from 09:00 to 17:00.

Further Information
Sachsenhausen Memorial website: Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum (sachsenhausen-sbg.de)
Media coverage of the exhibition: Berlin & Brandenburg: KZ-Gedenkstätte zeigt "Verwaltung als Verbrechen" - n-tv.de (German only)

The initiative, whose title loosely translates to "TogetherCountry -Diversity Makes Us Strong", has brought together around 500 companies, foundations, associations and research institutions committed to upholding the values of freedom, inclusivity and a culture of hospitality. The campaign was launched by the German newspapers Die ZEIT, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche, Tagesspiegel and Ströer.

We at the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) are also part of the initiative.

For more details, please visit the ZEIT website.

What are the benefits and risks of using ChatGPT and similar technologies in schools? Where is it appropriate to use AI, and does it threaten to replace teachers altogether?

These were some of the questions addressed by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), in her interview with ARD presenter Sven Lorig in the ARD Morgenmagazin on Friday, 15 March 2024.
Cress highlighted the potential of AI to provide personalised learning experiences tailored to the needs of individual students, noting that "nothing is more boring than being under- or over-challenged in school." By tailoring instruction to each student's abilities, AI has the ability to combat boredom and increase engagement in the classroom.

Personalised learning experiences 
Cress has high hopes that AI will be able to identify each student's individual learning level and provide tailored tasks for each child. But she stresses that while AI has potential, it still needs to be developed to match the precision of existing tutoring systems: "Educational psychology and learning research have been working for a long time to create tutoring systems that are very complex to develop. AI is now approaching the point where it can achieve near-identical performance, but development efforts are still needed."

Will AI make teachers redundant?
In response to concerns that AI will replace teachers when it comes to assessing students, Cress has a clear answer: Teachers will remain essential in the classroom to adaptively support students' learning needs. "Of course, teaching is about more than just assessment," says Cress. It is an event that takes place in the classroom and involves conversation, reflection, thinking, effort - and therefore learning.
AI can support certain aspects as an intelligent tool, but it can never take over the entire teaching process. Cress also stressed the importance of further developing students' writing skills before integrating AI-assisted writing into the curriculum: "A basic level of skill is necessary. Children should practice writing until they reach 7^th or 8^th grade, by which time they are usually proficient. Only then does it make sense to work with AI in writing. This involves learning how to interact effectively with AI by asking it questions - in other words, prompting it."

Concepts are needed 
To ensure the meaningful integration of AI in education, Ulrike Cress emphasised the need for concrete pedagogical concepts and resources to support teachers in the effective use of technologies such as ChatGPT. This is in line with recent recommendations from the Permanent Scientific Commission of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK), of which Cress is a member, which emphasised the potential of large-scale language models in the educational system.

Watch the ARD report and interview with Prof. Cress here:

​Video: KI an der Schule - Morgenmagazin (German only)

Algorithms have the potential to unfairly disadvantage or favour certain groups of people, often due to biased training data.

In two experiments published in a paper in the International Journal of Communication, Professor Sonja Utz and her Everyday Media lab investigated how people perceive bias in algorithms. "We wanted to find out whether women and men differ in how they evaluate an algorithm that discriminates against women," explains Sonja Utz.

In the first group, participants were asked to evaluate an algorithm that unfairly favoured men, while another group evaluated a gender-fair algorithm. Surprisingly, the results showed significant gender differences: In particular, women found the fair algorithm more discriminatory than men.

Women seem to expect algorithms to discriminate 

"Women seem to assume that algorithms often discriminate against women. Whether this is because they read reports about discriminatory algorithms more carefully or because they experience discrimination more often, we cannot tell from this study," says Sonja Utz.
Although men also found the algorithm that favoured men to be discriminatory, this didn’t affect their willingness to accept its use in everyday decision-making.

Second study with an additional unfair algorithm 

In a follow-up study, participants evaluated an additional algorithm that favoured married people, alongside the fair and unfair algorithms from the first experiment. The aim was to see whether participants were more concerned about perpetuating existing biases or about the unfairness itself.
The results showed that men found both unfair algorithms to be more discriminatory than the fair one, while women found the algorithm that favoured married couples to be particularly discriminatory. According to Sonja Utz, "these results suggest that women see a greater danger in algorithms introducing new forms of discrimination into the world."

Link to the article: 
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/20806

On  January 31, Dr. Anne Schüler, deputy head of the Multiple Representations lab, successfully cleared the final hurdle in the habilitation process with an oral presentation. The psychologist  discussed the effects of brief contact with nature on cognitive processes.

Anne Schüler's actual research project focused on the question of whether the so-called text-image integration, which the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) considers crucial for a deeper understanding of learning content, actually takes place. In other words, is the assumption correct that when learning with illustrated texts, a mental visual model and a mental verbal model are formed, and that these two models are linked and eventually mentally integrated?

The empirical results of Anne Schüler's work support this assumption. In a total of six studies, she was able to show that text and images are indeed linked and compared during processing, regardless of the length of the illustrated text. An interesting twist is that, contrary to CTML assumptions, the underlying cognitive processes appear to be partly automatic and unconscious. Moreover, the comparison of text and picture seems to be guided by the text itself.

Artificial intelligence, through tools like ChatGPT or voice assistants like Alexa, often simplifies our daily tasks. But our reliance on these innovations is often accompanied by a nagging concern: how much of our (personal) information should we willingly entrust to the powerful algorithms of tech giants like Google and Microsoft?

In her dissertation, which she successfully defended the week before last, Miriam Gieselmann explored the question of when people are willing to share their personal data when interacting with artificial intelligence. Among other things, she examined the extent to which the (perceived) capabilities of the technology being used influence whether or not people are willing to share personal data. The result: When users perceive a certain level of capability in an AI tool, their willingness to share personal data also increases. However, if the perceived capabilities of the AI exceed a critical qualitative threshold - for example, if the AI is able to make cross-domain inferences - the opposite effect may occur.

These reservations about powerful AI extend beyond individuals to decision-makers in professional settings. "We have also observed that decision-makers in the workplace are less inclined to invest in AI systems if the AI has very high capabilities," reports Miriam Gieselmann.

What potential do Large Language Models (LLMs) have for the education sector? This question is explored by a panel of renowned experts in the latest episode of the German-language podcast "Im Dialog. Der IPN Podcast rund um Schule, Bildung und Wissenschaft " released on 1 February 2024.

The recently published white paper "Large Language Models and their Potential in the Education System" by the Standing Scientific Commission (SWK) provides groundbreaking recommendations for the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) in schools. A practical guide on "AI and School" has also been published by the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, offering a wealth of practical insights. In the podcast episode, Jacob Chammon, CEO of the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, Prof. Dr. Olaf Köller, Chairman of the SWK from the Leibniz Institute for Science Education and Mathematics Education (IPN), and Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the Leibniz-Institute für Wissensmedien (IWM) and member of the SWK, discuss "AI and the future of teaching and learning."

During the conversation, they explore the practical applications of LLMs in everyday school life and discuss the challenges of integrating AI into the educational landscape. In addition, the experts outline a strategic roadmap for further digital transformation in the education sector.

You can listen to the podcast (in German) here: „Im Dialog. Der IPN Podcast rund um Schule, Bildung und Wissenschaft“

Work-from-home arrangements, flexible working hours and virtual teams – our working landscape has changed significantly over the past five years. While these changes offer greater flexibility and freedom and are therefore viewed positively by many, "they also introduce a potential increase in uncertainty among employees (followers) about expectations related to their tasks and their relationship with their managers (leaders). These uncertainties could ultimately jeopardise the followers' performance in terms of taking responsibility for and engaging in their tasks," says Dr. Daniel Wroblewski.

In his dissertation, which he successfully defended on 20 December, Wroblewski examined strategies to counteract the potential negative effects of these new working models. His research highlights the importance of maintaining consistent communication between leaders and followers, whether through digital channels or face-to-face interactions, as such interactions positively influence employee performance by increasing clarity and perceived ownership of tasks. In addition, positive perceptions of leaders' commitment and goal orientation have a positive impact on overall work outcomes. In summary, Wroblewski suggests that remote managers can positively influence employee performance with minimal effort.

Thank you for the tremendous energy you‘ve put into our exciting projects throughout the year. May the festive season rejuvenate you with equal
vigour. Enjoy your well-deserved break! We look forward to seeing you all again in 2024, refreshed and ready for new endeavours.
gesetzt werden.

Tjark Müller's successful defence of his doctoral thesis provides scientific confirmation of an observation that many of us may have made in our personal lives: The optimal seat for a game night is the one that offers a direct view of the board. Things get difficult if you find yourself peering around corners or, worse, staring at an upside-down board.

In his doctoral thesis, Tjark Müller focused on the mental rotation of data visualisations. Specifically, he examined the presentation of diagrams on multi-touch tables, a setting in which multiple people often view an illustration from different angles at the same time. Confirming expectations, a series of studies showed that mentally rotating an inverted image – known as mental normalisation – placed an additional cognitive burden on participants.

A key finding was that when diagram labels and content were rotated separately, the labels emerged as a critical factor contributing to this cognitive load. Highlighting the practical implications, Tjark Müller said: "This is an important point to keep in mind when designing data visualisations and applications for multi-touch tables." In his current role as a software engineer in the Media Development division at the IWM, he is able to apply these findings to improve his daily work.

After almost 16 years at the IWM, Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, head of the Social Processes lab, was formally bid farewell at the beginning of December. He has embarked on a new chapter in his career, taking up the post of director at the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) in Trier in October. In doing so, he responded to a call from the University of Trier, which included the directorship of the Institute.

"With his focus on social psychological approaches, Kai Sassenberg has significantly enriched the profile of the IWM and added an important dimension to its research activities. His research on health communication, leadership and, more recently, fake news and conspiracy theories has received widespread attention and recognition. I am very happy for him that he will be the director of ZPID in the future, and we will continue to be colleagues within the Leibniz Association," said Ulrike Cress, congratulating the former lab head.

Robert Polgar also thanked Sassenberg for his commitment over the years. "Kai Sassenberg has held important positions within the IWM, including chairing the PhD Committee and leading the MAI network. We wish him every success in his new position," said the Administrative Director.

Despite Sassenberg’s departure, ongoing projects within the Social Processes lab will continue as planned - under the interim leadership of Ulrike Cress and the supervision of the deputy lab leader, PD Dr Annika Scholl Pasqualini.

The recently published results of the PISA 2022 study are causing a stir in the media and within the education sector. The academic performance of fifteen-year-olds in Germany has taken a noticeable nosedive in mathematics, reading and science. In all three subjects, there has been a significant decline in competence compared to the last assessment in 2018: a drop of 25 points in maths, 18 points in reading and 11 points in science.

Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM, puts the PISA results into context and highlights the potential role of digital media in addressing these challenges:

"PISA 2022 shows that we are no longer supporting students effectively. Both high- and low-achieving students are experiencing a significant decline in performance, particularly in key subjects such as maths, reading and science. What we urgently need are teaching strategies that build essential skills in students. Digital media can play a valuable role in this context. However, they should not be used solely for entertainment or distraction, but to provide intellectual challenge and stimulate learning. This requires their precise integration into specific subjects, supported by appropriate tools and targeted teacher training. Let's use PISA as an opportunity to improve teaching!"

Research Hub on Digital Education 
​
The Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien is actively involved in several projects investigating different aspects of digital education. Ongoing investigations include how students can effectively learn STEM subjects using digital tools, and the potential role of digital technologies in future STEM education. For more details on current digital education projects at the IWM, please visit the regularly updated website: https://forschungshub-digitale-bildung.de

The 12th edition of the Media Day took place on 16 November 2023 and was jointly organised by the Department of Media, Society and Communication at the University of Innsbruck, the Austria Press Agency (APA), the Tiroler Tageszeitung and the ORF. The focus of the event was "AI in Everyday Media".

Credibility is judged differently 

In her keynote, Prof. Sonja Utz, head of the IWM Everyday Media lab, looked at the psychological aspects of interacting with AI. In this context, she also addressed the credibility of AI-powered voice assistants. Utz and her team explored how devices like Alexa affect the way we search for and evaluate information. Their findings showed that people generally place more trust in spoken words from voice assistants and text generated by ChatGPT than in information from Wikipedia, even when the content is identical. According to Utz, "It's not just that ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates and provides inaccurate facts; our studies suggest that the format of presentation (in a dialogue) also affects the credibility of the information."

Panel brings together media professionals and AI-experts
​
During the final panel discussion, the psychologist debated with, among others, the deputy editor-in-chief of the APA, Katharina Schell, and the editor-in-chief of the Tiroler Tageszeitung, Matthias Krapf. The media professionals shared their experiences of AI's supporting role in newsrooms, such as transcribing interviews, and explained that their AI policies prioritise values such as human autonomy and fairness. However, Sonja Utz argued that generative models have a limited role in news production anyway, as they generate text based on probabilities, lack real-time knowledge, and do not conduct background research or interviews. She suggested exploring the grey area where journalists use AI to generate arguments for and against a given issue.

The role of the media is central

A prominent theme of the panel discussion was the critical role of education in navigating AI. Participants stressed the need to quickly grasp the basics of AI, particularly in the context of journalistic coverage of these issues. Maya Pindeus, CEO of Humanising Autonomy, an AI startup, emphasised that the media should play a central role in communicating values and ethical standards in the field of AI.

Dr. Helen Fischer, a member of the Perception and Action lab, has published a study on metacognition in one of the most prestigious interdisciplinary journals, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The highly cited journal has an impact factor of 13 and accepted only 15.6% of the articles submitted in 2021.

In the study, the cognitive psychologist showed that people's willingness to be vaccinated is significantly influenced by their own assessment of what they know. Helen Fischer conducted this research in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. She explains: "We found that people were more willing to get vaccinated if they could accurately assess their own knowledge of the Covid-19 vaccine. Interestingly, this self-assessment proved to be a better predictor of vaccine uptake than participants' general knowledge of Covid."

Helen Fischer's research is part of a series of studies at the IWM focusing on metacognition. These studies highlight the importance of accurately assessing one's own knowledge as a crucial skill to cultivate, as it enables individuals to make informed decisions.

On 10 November, the Future Innovation Space (FIS) was officially unveiled as part of the Science & Innovation Days 2023. Located at the IWM in Tübingen, the FIS serves as an experimental hub and meeting place for future educators. Here, they can explore groundbreaking innovations that are shaping the future of digital education and engage in discussions with experts from the scientific community.

A glimpse into the future of learning
The opening attracted a large number of visitors who wanted to see first-hand how we will use virtual and augmented reality, as well as multi-touch and AI applications, in our future learning experiences.

After an introduction by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM, the visitors were given an insight into the FIS concept by Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets, Project Manager of the Future Innovation Space (IWM), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Lachner from the Tübingen Centre for Digital Education (TüCeDE).

Hands-on exploration of future technologies
​Visitors were then invited to try out and discuss various stations in the Future Innovation Space with our scientists. Future technologies such as VR glasses, eye tracking, 360-degree video and multi-touch tables were available to explore and were enthusiastically embraced.

 For more details, visit the new FIS website: www.future-innovation.space

Dr. Anne Thillosen, project manager of the IWM practice portal e-teaching.org, has been awarded the title of GMW Fellow by the Gesellschaft für Medien in der Wissenschaft e.V. (GMW). The Fellowship honours individual members for their outstanding contributions to the field of media in science and their dedicated efforts to promote the society. Dr Anne Thillosen, who has been a board member of GMW since 2017 and a member of the editorial board since 2006, was elected in Chemnitz in September 2017 and completed her term on the board this year.

Echo chambers, the spread of fake news, online polarisation: Many of these phenomena that divide our society are scientifically linked to the so-called congeniality bias. This theory suggests that online users tend to consume information that aligns with their existing beliefs - a thesis that has been confirmed many times.

However, when people are asked not what content they want to read, but what they want to respond to, such as in online forums or on X (formerly Twitter), a different pattern emerges: Users actively choose posts that challenge their own opinions. This is the result of a recent series of studies conducted by PD Dr Jürgen Buder and his team.

The deputy head of the IWM’s Perception and Action lab has an interesting explanation for this phenomenon: "We believe that reading opinions that are contrary to one's own triggers a cognitive conflict in online users. Resolving this conflict motivates individuals to engage with the source of the dissenting opinion and to argue against it".

Published under the title "Online Interaction Turns the Congeniality Bias Into an Uncongeniality Bias" in Psychological Science, one of the top journals in psychology, this series of studies has already attracted considerable attention on social media.

On 26 October, Dr. Helen Fischer began her visiting professorship at the Zentrum für Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft (ZAK) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with an inaugural lecture entitled "Knowing what you don't know or: What climate change has to do with psychology". In her talk, the IWM scientist explored the psychological mechanisms behind differing opinions on the politicised issue of climate change.

The aim of the visiting professorships at the ZAK, which are funded by the Quality Pact, is to strengthen the link between science and society. Dr Fischer, who has been a member of the IWM’s Perception and Action lab since 2022, fits in perfectly with the programme's aims. This initiative seeks to stimulate and empirically explore discussions on the role of science, research and knowledge transfer in society. Dr Fischer's research focuses on the role of metacognition – the awareness of one's own knowledge limitations - in shaping beliefs about politically charged scientific issues, such as climate change or COVID-19. Expressing her enthusiasm, Dr Helen Fischer remarked: "I am delighted to be able to contribute to the advancement of research and teaching on the role of science in society".

Have you ever wished you could see through surfaces? This is now possible at the German Maritime Museum (DSM), thanks to the results of a research collaboration involving the IWM. The special exhibition 'SEH-STÜCKE - Maritimes digital entdeckt' now allows visitors to look inside 24 historical artefacts, including a box sextant, elaborately decorated sperm whale teeth and old medicine pills from ship's pharmacies, using state-of-the-art technology.

The exhibition presents key findings from the joint project 'Digital Materialities. Virtual and Analogue Forms of Exhibition' (DigiMat), a collaboration between DSM, the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the MAPEX Centre for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen. Funded by the Senate Science Committee of the Leibniz Association, the exhibition uses X-ray images, similar to those used in medicine or airport security checks, generated by a 3D X-ray microscope at MAPEX.
 
Floating digital replicas

As visitors explore the exhibition, the physical exhibits are displayed on the outside wall of an oversized black box. Inside, digital replicas - 3D models - float as holograms in the dark. A dedicated media station offers detailed insights into each exhibit.

"The 'Digimat' project dispels the notion that the original and the virtual are opposites. Materiality and digitality can stimulate learning processes and open up insights that wouldn't be possible with the original object alone or through data visualisation on a screen," says Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan, head of the IWM’s Realistic Representations research lab.  

Differing experiences

For Schwan and his team, understanding the learning processes behind visitors’ engagement with objects and their digital counterparts in a museum setting is particularly fascinating. The three previous experimental exhibitions at the IWM, both on-site and online, presented 3D models of objects using different technologies (video, tablet, Hololens). The researchers studied how this affected visitors’ learning, experience, and behaviour. The research showed that visitors perceived different potentials in the original objects compared to their 3D models. These findings are now being tested in the current DSM exhibition and will inform the design of future exhibits.

For the second year in a row, an IWM researcher has been selected to participate in the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum in Kyoto, Japan. Prof. Marlit Lindner, head of the Leibniz Research Group on Digitalisation and Education at the IWM, was nominated by Leibniz President Martina Brockmeier and selected by the Forum.

The renowned STS Forum, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, is a global meeting place for influential figures from politics, science and industry who use the platform to discuss the major scientific and technological challenges facing humanity. The highlight of the Forum's Young Leaders Programme is the "Dialogue between Young Leaders and Nobel Laureates".

 Reflecting on her experience, Marlit Lindner says: "It is truly inspiring; you get to meet a lot of fascinating people. Interacting with 13 Nobel Laureates was a remarkable experience. Being part of this special conference is something I am very grateful for".

The expanded Obersalzberg Documentation Centre reopened at the end of September. The new permanent exhibition, which is now twice the size of the original, features many multimedia exhibits. At the IWM Media Table, users can digitally deconstruct propaganda images of Hitler taken by his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, portraying him as the "People's Leader".

Making knowledge tangible by swiping, zooming, and sliding 

By swiping, zooming, and sliding on the multi-touch surface, developed by the Multimodal Interaction lab, visitors can deconstruct and analyse the extensively retouched images of Hitler. Such applications aim to make it easier for users to interact intuitively with complex information. Professor Peter Gerjets' lab is actively working on improving the use of this technology and has been collaborating with the memorial site since 2016 on the project "Obersalzberg from the Visitor's Perspective".

An important learning site 

​
The theme of the memorial, "Idyll and Crime", aims to illustrate the close connection between Obersalzberg and the mass crimes of the Nazi regime. Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder, who officially reopened the memorial, said the exhibition "exposes the madness of National Socialism". His colleague, Finance and Interior Minister Albert Füracker, described the exhibition as an important place of learning. During the Nazi era, Obersalzberg became Hitler's retreat and second seat of government. Thousands of forced labourers were involved in the construction of more than six kilometres of bunkers and other facilities. For the first time, several hundred metres of the bunker complex are now open to the public.

At the end of August, Sonja Utz, who heads the Everyday Media lab at the IWM, was invited to speak at the "Ladies Drive – Bar Talks Vol. 72" event, which focused on social media and the question "What does it really do to us? This monthly event is organised by the Swiss women's network "Ladies Drive" and the 72nd edition was held in Zurich.

During the event, Utz, a psychologist who specialises in researching the benefits of professional social media use, shared findings from her long-term study of the effects of news feed algorithms. She emphasised that no medium is inherently good or bad, highlighting the often overlooked advantages of using social media professionally. The panel also included insights from journalist Marc Bodmer and Gisèle Pinck, Deputy Director of the Swiss Radix Health Foundation.

To the Ladies' Drive Vol.72

On 19 July, the Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart opened a special exhibition entitled "Museum Special - The Other Wasps". The exhibition not only presents various insects, but also introduces visitors to digital approaches to insect research.

Since the beginning of 2022, the IWM and the State Museum of Natural History have been working together on a project to develop various mixed reality applications. The aim is to give visitors a better understanding of the diversity and evolution of insects. The IWM's Multimodal Interaction lab has developed three digital exhibits for this purpose.

Multimedia Microscopy Table

This interactive table allows visitors to playfully enlarge high-resolution photographs of tiny insects so that they appear human-sized, about 1000 times larger. This allows detailed exploration of the tiny features and often fascinating aesthetics of insects.

Through CT Scans Into the Bodies of Wasps

Using virtual reality stations and data goggles, visitors can virtually explore three-dimensional CT scans of a recently discovered species of wasp. The scans can be greatly magnified and visitors can even virtually walk through the insect's body, literally immersing themselves in the body of another species.

Virtual Tour of the Collection

The third digital station offers a virtual tour of the extensive insect collection, which is not open to the public. About 5000 collection drawers, containing around one million native insects, are virtually stacked on a large movable shelf. Visitors wearing data glasses can get a spatial impression of the huge collection. They can also pull out individual drawers, inspect their contents and discover native insects they may never have seen before.

These digital stations serve a dual purpose as both exhibits and research objects. "We are very curious to see if and how well the media stations are already working to achieve our educational goals," says IWM project manager Prof. Peter Gerjets. Together with Prof. Lars Krogmann, Director of the Natural History Museum, he opened the special exhibition and spoke to invited guests and media representatives about the evolving role of digital media in museums. According to Peter Gerjets, "the opening marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration that will explore innovative, experiential forms of science communication in various exhibition projects. "

"The Other Wasps" will be on display at the Museum am Löwentor until 19 November 2023.

The University of Tübingen, in collaboration with a consortium of renowned partners including the IWM (Institut für Wissensmedien), is set to become part of a new competence centre dedicated to researching and advancing the use of new technologies in the MINT subjects (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Technology). The joint initiative has received €7.5 million in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) over a period of 2.5 years.
"MINT-ProNeD" aims to create a nationwide, interdisciplinary network to improve the knowledge and skills of MINT educators. Within this network, a "Future Innovation Hub" will be established, drawing on the expertise of the IWM. This hub will serve as an experimental and testing ground for aspiring educators, granting them access to cutting-edge technologies and ground-breaking innovations that are shaping the future of digital education.
Furthermore, the IWM will actively contribute to the "Translation and Dissemination" cluster of the "MINT-ProNeD" project, facilitating the transfer of research findings and innovative practices into real-world educational settings.

With a study on citizen science, Hannah Greving and her colleagues from the WTimpact project were successful in the journal BioScience.  The journal ranks 2nd out of 94 in the Web of Science within Biology. Publishing in such a prestigious and widely read journal in the community has a positive impact on the visibility and potential impact of such an important topic: "In the study, we investigated the impact of citizen science attitudes on project outcomes such as pride, motivation, or enthusiasm about wildlife," describes the project leader.

In early 2023, Professor Dr Nicole Krämer became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the IWM, replacing Professor Dr med. Martin Fischer, whose four-year term has come to an end. Nicole Krämer is Professor of Social Psychology, Media, and Communication at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Founding Director of the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security.

IWM Director Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress expressed her excitement about the new addition: “We are delighted that Nicole Krämer has joined our Advisory Board. She is a renowned expert in the field of human-computer interaction. As the importance of collaboration between humans and artificial agents continues to grow, important questions arise regarding the optimal design of hybrid collaborations and privacy protection. Nicole Krämer’s expertise will contribute significantly to our understanding of this evolving field.”

In a significant move towards advancing digital education, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has committed €30 million to support “Competence Centres for Digital and Digitally Supported Teaching in Schools and Further Education” over the next three and a half years. Taking the lead in coordinating these centres and overseeing the associated research and communication is a cross-regional consortium to which the IWM contributes its expertise in the field of science communication. The central coordination hub for the BMBF competence centres is headed by former IWM scientist Prof. Dr Katharina Scheiter at the University of Potsdam.

Nationwide, 60 experts in educational science, subject didactics, computer science, information technology and media management will be involved in this initiative. Three of these experts are based at the IWM as part of the Wisskomm sub-project, and a further five will join as part of the competence centres.

At present, the IWM researchers have assumed responsibility for the implementation and editorial oversight of the so-called “Zukunftsraum” (future space) on the project’s forthcoming online platform. This platform aims to present innovative research in educational psychology in a way that stimulates interest in technological developments and highlights their potential in the use of digital media for educational purposes. Online events are part of the IWM team’s Wisskomm concept, which draws on the expertise of the e-teaching.org online portal. Launched in 2003, this platform provides up to 10,000 daily visitors with scientifically grounded insights and practical guidance on incorporating digital media into higher education teaching.

Numerous partners are joining forces with the IWM, including the University of Tübingen, the University of Wuppertal, the Technical Universities of Dortmund and Munich, and the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Kassel. In addition, prominent non-university partners, such as the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, the German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning, and the IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, will contribute their valuable insights and expertise to the project.

On 18 January 2023, Salome Flegr successfully defended her doctoral thesis on the meaningful integration of real and virtual experiments in physics education. The practice-based dissertation, which was written as part of a collaboration between the IWM and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, was awarded the highest distinction, Summa cum Laude.

In her dissertation, the former PhD student in the Multiple Representations Lab investigated the extent to which combining real and virtual experiments in physics education can enhance learning and improve students’ conceptual understanding of the content. To achieve this, she conducted a total of four studies. The results of her research were not only published in scientific journals but also disseminated through several articles aimed at practitioners, including a contribution to the LEAD-Schule-Blog (German only).

The IWM is establishing a new research lab with the appointment of a temporary W2 professorship as of 1 December. Prof. Dr Marlit Annalena Lindner will head the Leibniz Research Group on Digitalisation and Education.

The 36-year-old researcher, who previously worked at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel, has already achieved notable successes. Since 2019, she has led the Leibniz junior research group "COMET", which she successfully secured through the SAW funding procedure. In this project, she and her team investigated different design principles for learning and performance diagnostic materials, which are crucial for creating individualised or adaptive learning environments in digital settings that can be applied, for example, in schools. Topics such as computer-based adaptive performance feedback and the use of multimedia elements, such as combinations of static and animated text and image displays, play a central role in this context.

Marlit Lindner will continue this research at the IWM from 1 December 2022. Her work fits seamlessly into the institute's existing research landscape. "With Marlit Lindner, we have successfully recruited a talented young professor who will use state-of-the-art methods to investigate digital teaching and learning in schools and universities. She is a perfect match for the IWM’s profile," IWM Director Ulrike Cress is pleased to say.

Marlit Lindner is also looking forward to her next six years at the IWM: "The IWM offers an excellent infrastructure for realising my research plans, and I am very much looking forward to exchanging ideas with my colleagues in Tübingen and exploring new opportunities for collaboration."

In November 2022, the IWM achieved a significant milestone in the Leibniz Competition. Each year, the Leibniz Association announces a range of funding programmes through this competitive event. In the latest edition, the IWM successfully secured funding for the Leibniz Collaborative Excellence Programme 2023 with their project centred around the conditions necessary for successful video-based learning. This funding opportunity specifically targets projects that require collaborative networking, both within and outside the Leibniz Association, to ensure effective implementation.
The large-scale research project titled "Assisting the remote video learner with self-regulation support: A study on the responsible use of machine learning approaches in education" is led by Prof. Dr Peter Gerjets, who heads the Multimodal Interaction Lab at the IWM. Working closely alongside him is Prof. Dr Markus Huff, who leads the Perception and Action Lab. External collaborators include the University of Tübingen, the TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, and the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Kiel (IPN).

Project focus on self-regulation 

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The project addresses the growing significance of digital learning through videos in the education sector. It tackles the dual challenge faced by learners in terms of self-regulation and educators in recognising and addressing these self-regulation difficulties experienced by students engaged in video-based learning. The project operates at the intersection of psychology, educational science, and computer science. Its goal is to automatically detect potential self-regulation issues and develop effective measures to support learners, such as optimising instructional videos. The project focuses on the use of instructional videos in mathematics education across different age groups and levels of difficulty. Ultimately, the aim is to enhance the learning experience and lay the groundwork for responsible and effective utilisation of machine learning approaches in education.

During the Leibniz Annual Conference on 22 November, Magdalena Novak (right), now a postdoctoral researcher in the Realistic Representations lab, received the Leibniz Association's prestigious dissertation prize. The prize, valued at €5,000, was awarded in recognition of her dissertation entitled "Touch this Wisely - You May Want to Know More... How the Haptic Sense May Enhance Learning Experiences and Learning Outcomes".

In her dissertation, the educational researcher investigated how the tactile exploration of museum exhibits influences visitors' perception and memory of the objects on display. To investigate this, she designed experimental exhibitions on agriculture and nutrition that were presented to visitors in different sensory formats: through photographs only, as real objects, or as tangible objects that could be touched. The results showed that participants who engaged in haptic experiences had significantly improved recall of the exhibits and their features. As a result, Magdalena Novak concluded that the opportunity to interact with objects physically increases awareness of their reality and significance. IWM Director Ulrike Cress praised the research as "an excellent demonstration of seamlessly combining state-of-the-art basic research with practical relevance to address a pressing and significant contemporary issue."

Magdalena Novak's outstanding achievement of being recognised as one of the top two out of approximately 900 completed dissertations in 2021 is a source of great satisfaction for her, especially given the importance of the topic. "In a constantly evolving world, where visual and auditory learning are at the centre of digitisation, this topic is more relevant than ever. As social actors, museums have an educational mission and must reach a wide audience. If we can achieve greater enthusiasm and sustainable knowledge transfer through explorative elements, it is worth pursuing developments in this direction," says the prizewinner.

Every year, the Leibniz Association awards the Doctoral Prize for outstanding doctoral theses from Leibniz institutes in two categories: "Humanities and Social Sciences" and "Natural and Technical Sciences". The award-winning works are selected based on their outstanding evaluations, as well as their interdisciplinary significance, practical relevance and publication in specialist journals or presentation at academic conferences.

Can Engaging with art promote the development of socio-emotional competencies? That is what Lydia Kastner, a former doctoral student in the Multimodal Interaction lab, asked herself and put the thesis to the test. For her dissertation, she teamed up with the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig to develop a course programme consisting of three drawing courses in which almost 300 young people between the ages of 12 and 19 took part.

A ‘traditional’ drawing course focused primarily on conventional aspects of the different art periods. The other two drawing courses were psychologically instructed and explored the topics of emotions and self-concept. The result: Yes, engaging with art can promote the development of socio-emotional competencies. ‘But of course we have to look at it in a more differentiated way’, Lydia Kastner explains. ‘Our studies have shown that participants’ ability to recognise and correctly classify emotions improved when they had been specifically trained in identifying them as part of the psychologically instructed emotion course’.

This involved, for example, recognising the emotions of Cain and Abel in a painting or tracing emotions such as fear and anger, amplifying them or drawing them using selfies. This also applies to the self-concept course. ‘The youth who only attended the traditionally structured course on art periods were not able to strengthen their socio-emotional competencies by doing so’. Not only did Lydia Kastner present the results as part of her successful dissertation defence on Friday, 16 September, but they are also integrated into the education department of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum and are thus directly put to practice.

The Corona crisis has significantly boosted mobile working arrangements. To this day, zoom or teams meetings remain the primary form of exchange in many organisations. ‘By and large, collaborating online with one’s own team works quite smoothly by now’, says Prof. Dr Sonja Utz, head of the IWM’s Everyday Media lab. However, contacts outside the team are also important: ‘Without them, our thoughts tend to become compartmentalised, and our creativity decreases’, emphasises Prof. Utz, who, together with her colleague Linda-Elisabeth Reimann, investigated participants’ active behaviour in video conferences with strangers in a study recently published in the journal Social Science Computer Review.

The results suggest that organisations should pay more attention to the possibilities and challenges online environments present in terms of technology and communication. According to the researchers, standards, rules or conventions that provide guidance to participants could help improve the quality of interaction in video conferences.
More on this
 

Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress was elected Co-Director of the Tübingen LEAD Graduate School and Research Network on 20 June, together with Prof. Dr Kou Murayama (right) from the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology. The incumbent Co-Director, Prof. Dr Ulrich Trautwein (left), was re-elected to his post.

The international LEAD network for educational research brings together around 100 scholars from eleven disciplines and more than ten countries. The Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) has been involved in LEAD since its inception in 2012 when it emerged from the Excellence Initiative. ‘We are an important part of the network owing to our research on knowledge processes in a digitised world. The broad and interdisciplinary expertise united in LEAD makes Tübingen one of the leading international centres of empirical education research,’ says IWM Director Cress, who is committed to maximising the synergies among the various actors on site.

On 1 May 2022, Prof. Dr Katharina Scheiter, who previously headed the IWM’s Multiple Representations lab for many years, took up a position at the University of Potsdam. She has been appointed to a professorship funded by the Hasso Plattner Foundation, which also entails the establishment of a centre for digital education in Potsdam.
Katharina Scheiter has played a decisive role in shaping and guiding the IWM’s work since its inception in 2002. In addition to her professorship at the University of Tübingen, which she held since 2009, she successfully carried out numerous DFG-funded projects and was significantly involved in establishing key IWM-related schemes. Acknowledging her longstanding contribution, IWM Director Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress noted that ‘the LEAD Graduate School, the Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab and the Tübingen Centre for Research and Transfer on Digitisation in Teacher Education are all projects that Katharina Scheiter played a significant role in establishing and which will remain important pillars of our institute in the future’. Bidding her farewell, Cress adds ‘I am very grateful for her many years of successful commitment and wish her all the best for her new tasks, which I hope will keep us connected’.
The Multiple Representations lab will continue to operate under the provisional leadership of the IWM Director.

Elke Kümmel did not only successfully complete her dissertation on “Structural Influences of Higher Education on Student Performance”, but she also received an Education Sciences 2020 Best Paper Award for one of her studies conducted as part of her thesis.

Her dissertation examined whether structural influences at universities impact student performance by means of three studies. On one hand, the former member of the Knowledge Construction lab analysed researchers' theoretical perspectives on learning with digital media and, on the other hand, how higher education institutions portray themselves in terms of the arrangement of their research and teaching. Her findings suggest that variables used to determine student learning outcomes in digital learning environments are related to researchers' perspectives. In addition, Elke Kümmel discovered that a university's self-presentation affects student engagement. Consequently, she was able to develop promising approaches on how the structural setup of higher education institutions could be designed to support students' development.

As of 1 April 2022, Dr. Hauke S. Meyerhoff will accept the call to a tenure-track professorship in general and instructional psychology at the University of Erfurt. There he will also be contributing his expertise to the Bachelor programme in Teaching, Learning and Training Psychology and to the Master’s programme in Psychology. He will thus build on topics he has already been involved with at the IWM.

Hauke Meyerhoff has spent a total of twelve years at the IWM, first as a doctoral student and then as a research fellow in the Realistic Depictions Lab.

"United on the issue of polarisation?" – is the title of a debate post by PD Dr. Jürgen Buder (German only) on the blog of the Tübinale. This year’s Tübinale, an annual short film festival in Tübingen, will explore the theme of “Media Convergence & Polarisation” and will, among other things, examine the ways in which polarisation is interesting from a media studies perspective.

In his contribution, Jürgen Buder critically asks if polarisation could also be seen as an indicator of diversity and pluralism. The member of the Perception and Action Lab clarifies that the point is not to trivialise polarisation, but rather to adopt a more differentiated view of the phenomenon in academia. He also explores the extent to which (social) media fuel phenomena such as filter bubbles and echo chambers and points out ways in which polarisation can be mitigated via media and societal platforms.

 The feature was written as part of the blog accompanying the Tübinale. Several experts were asked to share their thoughts and insights in order to approach the topic from different angles. The Tübinale, which is organised by Tübingen's media studies students, highlights a different media-relevant topic every year. More information about the event can be found on the Tübinale website.

The transformation of the working culture was the topic at the digital conference "Corporate Re-Connection" hosted by the Quadriga University Berlin from 16 to 17 March 2022. The event discussed the question of how companies and institutions can, on the one hand, practically implement the flexibility gained through digital working and, on the other hand, continue to operate as efficiently as possible.

Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg shared findings from his research at the IWM during the panel discussion on "Leadership 2022: hybrid, empathic, successful?" on the event’s second day. Together with Dr. Matthias Reuter (Siemens), Kay Mantzel (Microsoft Germany), Katharina Winkler (acatech), Luise Ortloff (acatech), Thomas Resch (metafinanz Informationssysteme GmbH), he discussed the corporate culture and future development of leadership roles.

One of the focal points was which challenges arise in the context of New Work and Remote Work: "First of all, the integration of new employees is much more difficult because building up a social network is more complex in dispersed work environments due to fewer informal contacts. In addition, content-related conflicts and thematic overlaps require special attention," says the IWM expert.

‘Back to the Start – Education in the Digital Transformation’ is the slogan under which the 9^th Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung (Society for Empirical Educational Research, GEBF) is being held from 9 to 11 March. The virtual event is dedicated to the conflictual interplay between education and digitalisation. It is organised by the University of Bamberg and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi). Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress kicked off the event with a keynote speech on ‘”Knowledge” in the Digital Age’, in which the IWM director discussed processes of knowledge participation.

"Knowledge is generated in self-organised social communities that decide for themselves what is true. This then also shapes the perspective of their members," Cress explained. This results in a co-evolution in which individual learning and collaborative knowledge construction go hand in hand. According to Cress, this applies to ‘serious’ knowledge communities like Wikipedia as well as to advocates of conspiracy theories. To cope with these many ‘truths’, citizens should learn to scrutinise and categorise knowledge systems: "Education in the digital world does not consist of training people how to use digital tools. We should rather focus on the complex social and cognitive processes that shape the way we deal with a multitude of postulated truths," says the educational researcher. In her view, knowledge of one's own ignorance and trust in epistemic authorities are also important educational goals.

Around 600 national and international educational researchers virtually attended the opening of the event, for which around 600 conference papers were submitted.

At the IWM, scientists pursue a research topic that has hardly been in the focus of science and yet is more relevant than ever: What do "smart speakers" - AI-supported language software – do to our communication and how can any insights be gained into such forms of interaction with machines?

These were precisely the questions discussed in the digital workshop "Human-Machine Communication (HMC)" on 22 February 2022 as part of the Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK). Stefanie Klein, Franziska Gaiser, and Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz from the Junior Research Group Social Media in cooperation with Esther Greussing from TU Braunschweig organised the workshop. In addition to a theoretical discussion, the event offered participating scientists the opportunity to interact with AI-supported agents and to identify first-hand methodological and subject-related challenges that this research entails. The aim of the event was to develop possible solutions and implications for the field.

"The workshop was a great experience and we were able to get to know the German HMC community better, which led to exciting discussions and impulses", sums up co-organiser Franziska Gaiser. Feedback from around 20 participants was also consistently positive and confirmed the organisers' intention to organise a follow-up event this year's autumn.

As a research institute that is part of the Leibniz Association, the IWM fully endorses the statement made by the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany and condemns Russia's belligerent attack on Ukraine, which violates international law.

In January 2022, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress was elected on the programme committee of the Virtuellen Hochschule Bayern (vhb) for the fourth time in a row. Together with seven professors in managerial positions and high-ranking experts, the IWM Director will advise the executive committee on all questions related to the vhb course programme and quality management for the next four years.

The vhb is a network of 32 universities in Bavaria. Since 2000, it has pursued the idea of funding and supporting the development of digital learning units and their usage on an interuniversity basis. The design of digital teaching/learning concepts is also an important research topic at the IWM which is transferred into practical use by the online platform e-teaching.org. Since 2010, Ulrike Cress has used this expertise to advise the vhb: “For the IWM, the close linkage between research and practice is extremely important. This is why I am happy to continue contributing our scientific findings to design and further develop teaching/learning offers at the vhb,” says the IWM Director.

From 1 March of this year, Dr. Stefanie Jung will coordinate and lead the dual (training-integrated) Bachelor's programme Speech and Language Therapy at Trier University of Applied Science. In doing so, the member of the former Junior Research Group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity will return to her roots as a trained speech therapist. At the same time, she will integrate her successful research at the IWM on acquiring complex linguistic and numerical skills.

Stefanie Jung particularly appreciates the more application-oriented aspects of her new position. "I have always been enthusiastic about therapeutic work, and I am looking forward to focusing on it again. Nevertheless, I will also be able to preserve the link to theoretical research and media-related elements, albeit from a different perspective,” says the junior researcher who was part of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen and later worked as a doctoral student and then as a postdoc at the IWM.

Even though it is hard for her to bid farewell to the IWM, Stefanie Jung is looking forward to new challenges: In Trier she will focus on how digitalisation and healthcare provision can be effectively brought together in the therapeutic sciences.

How can museums convey controversial content in an appropriate way? Exhibition curators can now find answers to this question in the new online portal AUSSTELLUNGEN KONTROVERS (English Exhibitions Controversial). The website bundles research findings and practical examples of how controversial scientific topics can be communicated in museums and exhibitions and thus provides guidance for museum practitioners. "Museums are in a state of transformation, as they are increasingly taking an active role in current societal debates," explains Prof. Dr Stephan Schwan, head of the lab Realistic Depictions. The web portal is the outcome of a joint DFG (German Research Foundation) knowledge transfer project between the IWM, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Institute for Museum Research of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (IfM) and the Deutsches Museum.

In addition to focus texts on topics such as "Controversies and Participation", "Museums against Filter Bubbles" or "Attention, Provocation and Shock", AUSSTELLUNGEN KONTROVERS also contains a detailed index and bibliography. In the "Practical Examples" section, exhibition designers share tried and tested concepts and illustrate how the featured scientific theories can be put into practice. For this purpose, practitioners from the Deutsches Museum have prepared a set of case studies: The touring exhibition "energie.wenden", for example, showcases some of the ways in which visitors themselves can become active and experience participation. The permanent exhibition "Agriculture and Nutrition", on the other hand, demonstrates how emotionally charged topics such as "slaughter" can be presented in an appropriate way.

In order to ensure its scientific excellence, the portal was evaluated in two stages by the IWM, the TUM and the IfM in close cooperation with museum practitioners. The website will continue to be developed in the future by allowing practitioners to share their own practical examples and experiences via the contact form.

Click here to go to the website (German only).

"I know my looks resemble those of a student intern, but I’ve actually been a psychologist at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen for a few years now,” Daniel Flemming jokingly says about his youthful appearance at the Göppingen Science Slam last week. The IWM researcher has already presented his research on “laypersons’ comprehension of novel scientific findings with a focus on fragility detection in recipients of popular science texts" throughout Germany in the guise of comedy.

In his presentations, he uses wit and sarcasm to elaborate why some people ignore or even reject scientific findings. "People often react to irritating statements with disbelief and ignorance; they prefer simple solutions," the scientist explains. His research at the IWM confirms this: Recipients become oblivious to fragility through simple, one-sided messages. Optimistic preconceptions result in less fragility being perceived, while pessimistic preconceptions cause people to perceive fragility more clearly.

One possible solution: “We need to do a better job at explaining to the public how science works and how we arrive at our scientific conclusions," Danny Flemming claims. As a science slammer, he sets a good and successful example among others, with his contribution at the 2019 "Slam for Future" in front of 1200 people at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg.

All Leibniz Institutes are advised by a Scientific Advisory Board. The seven members of the IWM’s Advisory Board are appointed by Theresia Bauer, Minister for Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg. They are all internationally recognised experts in the institute's field of research. On 1 January, the following four researchers were each appointed for a period of four years:

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg

Prof. Dr. Olaf Köller, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel

Prof. Dr. Doris Lewalter, Professor of Formal and Informal Learning at the TU Munich

Prof. Dr. Tamara van Gog, Professor of Educational Sciences at Utrecht University (Netherlands)

The seven-member advisory board also includes familiar faces such as Prof. Dr. med. Martin Fischer, Director of the Institute for Medical Education at the LMU University Hospital in Munich, who is serving his current term until the end of this year. Prof. Dr. Vincent Aleven, Director of the Undergraduate Program at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg (USA), and Prof. Dr. Eva Jonas, academic director of the postgraduate university course "Master in Training and Development" at the Salzburg Management Business School, were reappointed for another term of office.

"I am very pleased that we were able to recruit highly distinguished and experienced advisory board members," says IWM Director Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress. The advisory board members will elect their chairperson at the forthcoming spring meeting. The four new scientists will assume the positions of Prof. Dr. Birgit Spinath, Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Prenzel, Prof. Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer and Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer, whose term of office ended at the turn of the year. "I would like to sincerely thank the former members for their expertise and professional input over the past years," says Ulrike Cress.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who worked with us on exciting projects and made our anniversary year a special one. We wish you a shining holiday season and cannot wait for a new year of researching together to answer the burning questions of our time.

The Standing Scientific Commission of the German Kultusministerkonferenz (SWK) has adopted its first work programme for 2022. Its main focus will be on the topics of “Education and Teaching in the Digital Transformation” and “Prospects for 2030 Primary Schools.” For both topics, the panel of 16 educational researchers will submit expert reports on recommended implementation and financing strategies to the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK).

In her capacity as a member of the SWK, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress’ expertise is particularly sought after in the focal area Digitalisation, which she heads together with Prof. Dr. Olaf Köller from the IPN Kiel. Along with the school sector, greater attention will be paid to early education as well as higher education and vocational training. The aim is to align the education system with the requirements of a digital world. “This is a multifaceted task, ranging from hardware equipment to the preparation of materials; from the education and training of teachers and other educational specialists to modifications in teaching and assessment cultures. This will require the joint effort of numerous stakeholders. The SWK will issue recommendations on what needs to be done for the transformation to succeed,” says IWM director Ulrike Cress.

The work programme covers a period of two years and is debated in the meetings of the KMK. The SWK has already issued two statements this year with recommendations on the implementation of the national action programme “Catching Up After Covid for Children and Teenagers” and on the “Further Development of the KMK Strategy ‘Education in the Digital World.’”

You can download the new SWK work programme (German only) here: https://tinyurl.com/swk2022

Perception and Action – this is the new name of Lab 4 at the IWM. The new title replaces its previous name, Knowledge Exchange. “I am very pleased about the name change. The new name very well reflects the research profile of the lab that has been developed over the past two years,” says Prof. Dr. Markus Huff, who has headed Lab 4 since 2020.

The core task of the lab is to investigate how content in texts, comics or videos conveyed through digital media is perceived and mentally structured. In addition, the lab investigates the impacts of this perceptual process on human action for example, in relation to the interaction with media. Special consideration is given to the specific characteristics of the media - for example, the combination of textual and pictorial elements - and the actors - for example, their expertise, attitudes, and abilities. In doing so, the lab has defined four primary areas of research: Multicodal Perception, Perception and Interaction in Social Networks, Perception and Action with Digital Agents and Risk Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence. The research approach is interdisciplinary through collaborations with Computer Science and Educational Science.

Since the end of November, the LEIFIchemie online portal provides teachers and students in lower and upper secondary levels with teaching materials, tasks and experiment instructions free of charge. The Hamburg-based Joachim Herz Foundation is thus continuing the successful concept of LEIFIphysik - one of the most successful studying portals for natural sciences for 20 years - for chemistry. The IWM contributed to the vast collection of materials with design recommendations for texts, illustrations and videos on the particle model. For the material conception, research findings originating from the eChemBook project played an important role.

The eChemBook is the result of a DFG-project with the aim of developing an evidence-based teaching concept for the use of digital media in chemistry classes. The IWM carried out the project in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Sascha Schanze, Leibniz University Hannover, the Schroedel Westermann schoolbook publisher and SMART Technologies. "For the development of the teaching materials, findings from both empirical teaching/learning research and didactical research were used. This resulted in general design recommendations that were also taken into account in the creation of LEIFIchemie," explains Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, who is responsible for the project at IWM. She also welcomes the initiative for LEIFIchemie in her role as Senior Fellow in the Joachim Herz Foundation's "Kolleg Didaktik:digital."

"The idea of LEIFIchemie is to offer a portal for teachers where they can download high-quality teaching materials," adds Katharina Scheiter. In the long term, LEIFIchemie could also become the basis for new research projects to improve the development and distribution of digital materials for science education in schools. In this way, the successful cooperation with Sascha Schanze, who heads the LEIFIchemie project, can also be continued.

Are robots stealing jobs from employees in industrial production? Many employers are confronted with their employees’ fears when it comes to the introduction of new technologies. Close cooperation between research and practice on this issue can not only contribute to the economic success of companies, but also indirectly increase employee satisfaction. Nora Hampel demonstrates this in her dissertation titled „When digital technologies enter the factory – Improving blue-collar workers’ attitudes towards new technologies.“ At Daimler AG, the PhD student has spent the last three years researching which strategies can contribute to a positive attitude of employees towards the implementation of new technologies in the company. 

25 percent of all psychological papers on the topic of conspiracy theories were published in 2020. The fact that the topic is currently shaping research so strongly is due to its social relevance: As a result of the Corona pandemic and the presidency of Donald Trump, conspiracy narratives have become part of wide areas of social discourse.

"For us, the boom in this research field means that we urgently need to exchange ideas about research on this explosive topic," says Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, head of the Social Processes lab. No sooner said than done: On November 18 and 19, his lab, in cooperation with Matthew Hornsey from the University of Queensland, hosted the international online conference “Social implications of conspiracy theories” - a so-called Small Group Meeting - supported by the European Association of Social Psychology.

However, there is no question of "small": A total of 30 contributions from scientists from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Israel, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, France, Norway and Greece were selected from more than 50 submissions. With about 80 participants the conference was a huge success. "The international exchange with our colleagues was exciting. We had the chance to learn what approaches and results they have found on the emergence, dissemination, but of course also on the prevention and containment of conspiracy theories," say Lotte Pummerer and Dr. Kevin Winter from the organizing committee.

How do you calculate the oxygen content of water? How does the European Union work? These and many other questions are addressed in countless videos on various internet platforms, the most prominent of which is YouTube. But how do people actually use these educational videos? In the context of an interdisciplinary research project, scientists at the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) and the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology have now gained first insights into when and why users of online video platforms push the pause button. “This essentially depends on two factors,“ explains IWM researcher Prof. Dr. Markus Huff. The head of the IWM’s Knowledge Exchange lab notes that “a frequent use of the pause button can be observed at particularly complicated passages and between different content sequences in the videos.” In contrast, the formal video structure, such as edits and graphic design elements on the video platform, did not affect viewing behaviour.

The study findings can not only be incorporated into the conceptional design of educational videos. Moreover, for their study, the researchers relied on anonymised usage data from real applications and not on data from controlled experimental settings in order to obtain the most authentic picture of viewing behaviour possible. In the future, this approach can help shed light on further questions concerning the natural viewing behaviour of users.

You can find further information in our press release.

IWM doctoral student Lara Wolfers becomes Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam. Even though she only recently submitted her dissertation, she won the competitive application process directly. The communication scientist attributes her remarkable success primarily to the perfect thematic fit. At the IWM, her research focused on media use within families, particularly parental smartphone use and its effects. She will continue her research on this topic in the Netherlands in the working group "Youth & Media Entertainment", focusing primarily on entertainment media. She particularly appreciates that in her new position, which is comparable to a junior professorship in Germany, she can develop her research activities independently and autonomously. 

However, there is more to taking this major career step directly after completing her doctorate than just finding the right topic. She also attributes the good starting opportunities to the IWM: "It is a good experience that at the end of a doctorate at the IWM you feel that you are competitive for positions that open the way to an academic career," Lara Wolfers finds.

Prof. Dr. Yvonne Kammerer has accepted a call from the Hochschule der Medien (HdM) in Stuttgart. Since 1 September, she has been working there as a professor for Information and Communication Psychology at the Faculty of Information & Communication. In this function, she is also co-responsible for the study programme Information Design. Interdisciplinarity lies at the heart of her new job, as research and teaching span across the fields of design, psychology, computer science and linguistics. This is reflected both in the subject areas covered in the courses and in the composition of the professors. "To me, this makes the study programme particularly attractive. I am therefore very much looking forward to the interdisciplinary exchange, just as I’m already used to from my work at the IWM and the projects I’ve been involved in," says Yvonne Kammerer.

Her scientific career has been closely linked to the IWM as early as 2003: First as a student assistant and later as a doctoral student in the Multimodal Interaction lab, where she completed her PhD in 2011 and has since stayed on as a postdoc. Even though she is looking forward to the new challenges, Yvonne Kammerer is having a hard time saying goodbye to the institute after all these years: "I am very grateful to the IWM for all the instructive years and hope to continue cooperating with the institute in the future."

Dr. Lara Ditrich, researcher in the IWM’s Social Processes lab, was selected for the Margarete von Wrangell Programme. The programme is considered one of the most competitive funding schemes for excellent female junior researchers in Germany and aims to support women on their path to a professorship.

Baden-Württemberg's universities submitted 68 applications, only ten of which made it to the final round. The fellowship provides Lara Ditrich with a five-year permanent employment and offers all fellows a platform for scientific exchange, such as at the Nobel Laureate Meeting, where they are given the opportunity to meet the world’s brightest minds.

As part of her habilitation, Lara Ditrich will investigate the role emotions play for collective action, for example, protest participation.

ESocial polarization is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. This dynamic is fuelled by the current media landscape, which encourages the spread of disinformation. Against this backdrop, researchers from interdisciplinary scientific fields presented and discussed their findings on these topics at the IWM’s symposium "Belief Polarization."

Three keynotes by renowned scientists formed the highlight of the three-day event. The lecture by the Australian cognitive psychologist and professor at the University of Bristol, Stephan Lewandowsky, was particularly well received. His keynote focused on the influence of social media on political participation: because nowadays, the dissemination of information is regulated less and less by media companies and increasingly via direct communication between politicians and citizens.

The participants engaged in a lively discussion on these current developments. In doing so, they highlighted the fact that polarization is not primarily attached to topics but sheer group affiliation. “This essentially means that many people no longer merely reject certain contents, but rather refuse to accept those contents altogether if they are presented by the ‘wrong’ group,’ explains PD Dr. Jürgen Buder, who was involved in organising the symposium. Moreover, it was also debated how effective various measures are in curbing polarization. Jürgen Buder adds that "the extent to which external measures, such as regulations or technical means, as well as an improved education of citizens, are helpful was a particularly central topic of the conference."

 The international symposium hosted by the IWM and the University of Tübingen took place from 4 to 6 October. The recordings of the keynotes are available here.

As an expert in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning, Prof. Dr Ulrike Cress is a member of the editorial board of the "International Handbook of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning" (CSCL), which was published in September. With this publication, the IWM director and three other renowned scientists closed a gap in the scientific literature: the handbook is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the research spectrum in the field of computer-supported cooperative learning. "I am pleased that we have succeeded in combining the very diverse streams of CSCL research in an international compendium”, says Ulrike Cress. All 34 chapters were written by internationally renowned authors. They provide a comprehensive picture of the current theoretical and methodological approaches in CSCL research. The handbook targets both newcomers and experienced researchers in the field.

 The handbook is published by Springer-Verlag and is available both in print and as a digital publication.

From 4 to 6 October, an interdisciplinary symposium organised by the IWM and the University of Tübingen brings together renowned experts from all over the world to share their insights on topics such as opinion polarization, fake news mechanisms or conspiracy theories. The aim is not only to understand these phenomena, but also to develop practical solutions to the challenges they pose.

The following keynotes of the "Belief Polarization" symposium will be streamed live and are open to the public:

Monday, 4. October, 11:00 am: 
„From agenda-setting to furtive manipulation: The role of (social) media in political polarization”
Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol, Australia

Tuesday, 5. Oktober, 9:00 am: 
„Investigating Social Dynamics in the Digital Era: A Data-driven Approach”
Fabiana Zollo, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy

Tuesday, 5. Oktober, 16:00 am: 
„Confronting Digital Challenges with Cognitive Tools”
Ralph Hertwig, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany

All further information can be found here.

What was part of the everyday life of all scientists two years ago is now a cause for special joy: The IWM was represented by a total of seven people at the Media Psychology in Aachen last week. Lara Wolfers, Stefanie Ritz, Franziska Gaiser, Dr. Christine Anderl and Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz from the junior research group Social Media presented their research results on-site at the poster sessions, while Fritz Becker from the lab Knowledge Exchange participated remotely.

In addition, Dr. Dominik Neumann presented his new research project on the topic of "Morality in Social Media" in a so-called position paper. The project aims to investigate how people construct their moral foundations and what role information and opinions conveyed via social media play in this process. "We know quite a lot about how information is spread on social media and what factors contribute to a topic going viral. However, we know much less about which cognitive processes take place inside the individual when, for example, posts are read in which moral questions play a role," says Dr. Dominik Neumann about the rationale behind his project.

Should researchers be able to successfully gain insights into how people process information and statements shared via social media, new opportunities for mediation could be unlocked: instead of contributing to the polarisation of a topic, posts containing moral issues could be designed to keep avenues for exchange and discussion open. Following the lecture, the international audience, which participated both on-site and via digital means, engaged in a lively discussion on the topic. Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz was pleased about her first on-site conference in a long time. Summing up the experience, she said "it was great to finally meet many colleagues again in presence and to exchange ideas in person. An all-around successful event."

Scientific findings have increasingly become the focus of public interest. Behind supposedly simple results are usually complex research processes that are often difficult for non-professionals to comprehend. Nevertheless, an understanding of research processes is vital for an accurate interpretation of their results. So how can scientific research processes be communicated better? This is the question that Hannah Greving and Joachim Kimmerle from the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM are investigating in their sub-project "VideT: Fragility and Credibility of Scientific Findings", which is part of the interdisciplinary joint project "VideT: Communicating the Research Process - a Video-based Transfer Tool for Pupils."

"The overall project aims to develop and create videos that can be used to communicate scientific research processes in student labs and schools," says Hannah Greving about the new project. The IWM's focus is primarily on researching the effects of these videos. "At the IWM, we are taking a closer look at how different video formats and thematic orientations of the videos affect the perception of the fragility of scientific findings as well as the credibility of the researchers."

The interdisciplinary project is funded over a period of three years by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and combines different research perspectives: In addition to the IWM, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) are involved as collaborating partners.

Despite a rise in Covid-19 cases, the number of daily administered vaccinations is declining because many people are still sceptical about immunisation. One factor that can lead to such a vaccine refusal is the influence of conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines, which are circulating on social media. In cooperation with the University of Queensland (Australia), IWM researchers were, for the first time, able to gain insights into how the negative influence of conspiracy theories on vaccination intentions could be reduced. "The crucial factor is the social environment," says project leader Dr Kevin Winter, research associate in the Social Processes lab at the IWM. If friends and family signal positive attitudes and expectations, even people who are otherwise sceptical about vaccinations are more willing to get vaccinated.

Having said that, even a conducive social environment will most likely not be able to convince everyone. In assessing the study results, Winter acknowledges that "people who fundamentally reject vaccinations or are already deeply immersed in a conspiratorial worldview are probably difficult to reach.” Nevertheless, talking to acquaintances and relatives who express such concerns at an early stage could not only counteract the spread of conspiracy theories but also increase their willingness to get vaccinated.

You can find more information in the press release.

As of 1 July, companies in Germany no longer have to offer a remote working option, but many employees have mixed feelings when thinking about returning to the office. IWM researchers PD Dr. Annika Scholl and Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg look at this transition from a psychological perspective.

While some are looking forward to more opportunities for personal exchange and less screen time, others fear the loss of working independently. In addition, people and companies have changed their way of working in the pandemic. "The sum of these changes suggests that the return may not naturally be smooth. If employees expect that everything will be the same as it was before the pandemic, unpleasant surprises and disappointments can arise," says Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg.

Together with PD Dr. Annika Scholl, he has published an article on this topic in the online magazine wissensdialoge.de, of which Scholl is the managing editor and co-founder. The most important thing for the two researchers is a good preparation of the transition phase. "Workshops or events can make the return to the office meaningful. Explicit and revisable agreements also help to avoid conflicts and disappointments when it comes to new norms such as not shaking hands anymore," recommends Annika Scholl. Nevertheless, the end of remote work will not go along with returning to the old normality. To cope well with this situation, people need one thing above all: time to get back together.

After its early exit from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Germany as a football nation could face the next disappointment at the UEFA Euro 2020. In this case, researchers from the IWM and the University of Tübingen can offer some tips for crisis communication: bad news on social media elicits fewer angry reactions by fans when posted by the players.

After the 2018 FIFA World Cup exit, the researchers investigated how fans reacted to Facebook posts by the DFB team and the individual players Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller. "Although Neuer and the DFB posted an identical statement after the defeat, Neuer received significantly fewer angry emojis than the DFB team. Müller received fewer negative reactions than the team, but more than Neuer," said the head of the study Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz.

The fact that the players were rated more positively by the fans than the team was also reflected in additionally collected questionnaire data. This can be explained by the so-called parasocial relationships between fans and football players. This term refers to people's relationship with media personalities, such as fans with their football idols. The closer the fan-player relationship is in good times, the milder the fans' reaction after a lost game. Nevertheless, no matter how good the crisis communication is, a game won is always the better option.

During the pandemic, many decisions with far-reaching consequences had to be made. Algorithms could have helped in making these. Researchers at the IWM in collaboration with the German University of Freiburg have now discovered that citizens generally do not object to the use of algorithm-based advice by those in responsible positions - as long as a human is the final decision-maker.

Various COVID-19-related decision scenarios were presented to the study participants. The distribution of ventilators among COVID-19 patients was considered the most morality-laden scenario. Decisions about financial support for suffering businesses or curfew rules for members of risk groups were presumed less severe and therefore less moral-laden. The result: In general, people had positive attitudes towards human-algorithm teaming – as long as a human has the final say.

Another important insight arose from the various perspectives the study participants took. They either had to imagine themselves in the role of the decision-maker or the person affected by the decision. For the most moral-laden scenario, a clear effect could be seen. “In the role of the physician, the study participants were more willing to get an initial assessment from an algorithm than when they imagined being the patient about whom the decision was being made,” said Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz. The IWM researcher is heading the study as part of the Tübingen Excellence Cluster “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for the Sciences.”

For more information, please refer to our press release.

Virtual and digital aspects are playing an increasingly important role for museums, as well. For example, materials scientists often no longer work on real samples, but are much more concerned with digital image data output from high-precision measuring instruments. New exhibition and education formats for digital exhibits are therefore now the subject of a scientific cooperation among the IWM, the German Maritime Museum - Leibniz Institute of Maritime History (DSM), and the University of Bremen.

In the joint project entitled "Digital Materialities. Virtual and Analogue Forms of Exhibition," selected objects from the DSM collection will be recorded using state-of-the-art measuring technology such as CT scanners and spectrographs and thus made visible and tangible in a new way. An image of a submarine model, for example, has already been taken with a 3D x-ray microscope in order to investigate which aspects of an object can only be experienced and analyzed through digitization. The cognitive process between observer, object, and the object's "digital twin" is also explored in the lab and museum context.

The project’s findings will be highly transferable for similar interdisciplinary projects and for experimental applications in standard exhibitions. A travelling exhibition with both analog and digital formats is planned starting in 2024.

The spread of the Corona virus and the resulting restrictions led to an increased awareness and reporting on conspiracy theories. Scientists from the IWM in Tübingen in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen investigated the influence these theories have on society and the fight against the corona virus.

In this recently published study, the researchers found that even confronting people with conspiracy theories can have negative societal consequences: Trust in state institutions and the support of governmental measures declines, as does the adaptation of physical distancing. "Remarkable here was that the effects were not only found in subjects who already believed in conspiracy theories, but also in other subjects, only after reading about a fictitious conspiracy theory," explained the initiator of the study Lotte Pummerer, who is a research associate in the Social Processes lab at the IWM.

Link to study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506211000217

Researching scientific topics on the internet, one often encounters contradictory information due to developing science, lack of quality control of online media or even misinformation. Especially for laypersons who do not have access to the necessary prior knowledge, it is often difficult to understand and evaluate contradictory claims. 

In his dissertation, Steffen Gottschling, who is a research associate in the Multimodal Interaction lab at the IWM, investigated how laypersons can be supported in evaluating information and which role the perceived trustworthiness of sources plays in this process. The research results show: The more credible a source, the greater the agreement with its claims. "As there is a huge amount of conflicting information and misinformation circulating on the internet, source evaluation is an increasingly important skill for scientific literacy and communication," explained Steffen Gottschling after his successful dissertation defense on March 12, 2021.

What factors lead to successful education in a digital world and how can the quality of teaching be ensured? These questions were the focus of this year's educational research conference, which was held by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and took place on March 9 and 10. The online event was attended by Dr. Anne Thillosen and Marcel Capparozza, two IWM researchers representing the meta project “Digitisation in the Fields of Education" (Digi-EBF).

In collaboration with researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen and from projects of the BMBF funding line “Digitisation in Education”, the two IWM scientists organised and led a forum on the topic of "Challenges and Perspectives of Teacher Education in a Digitally Shaped World”, in which participants from academia and practice discussed issues related to the education and training of teachers.

Teacher training courses which had to be designed and offered as online events on very short notice in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic were a topic of discussion. "All participants agreed that these formats have a lot of potential that must also be used in the future. At the same time, little is known about the conception of online formats in teacher training courses from an empirical perspective”, said Marcel Capparozza, who is conducting research at IWM as part of the meta project on digitisation in teacher education.

Dr. Anne Thillosen, scientific head of of the meta project at the IWM, discussed with another group the hypothesis that media didactics should be a mandatory part of teacher education. Despite the participants' fundamental agreement with this idea, it quickly became apparent in the discussion that opinions differed widely as to which competencies prospective teachers or students should possess. "That's exactly why this discussion is so important. And that's exactly what we want to contribute with the IWM online platform e-teaching.org and its associated dialogue and expert forums”, said Anne Thillosen.

Creating optimal research conditions to combat widespread diseases is a key concern of the German Centers for Health Research funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The University Hospital and the Medical Faculty of the University of Tübingen, together with other Tübingen cooperation partners, are going to take on the establishment of the new German Center for Mental Health. That was announced yesterday by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

As part of the research network, the IWM will also contribute to expand psychotherapy research and provide innovative ways to communicate new research findings to the public. After all, digital media are already applied in different parts of the healthcare sector: "They can provide in-depth training for physicians and therapists or support the doctor-patient relationship”, explained Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Executive Director at the IWM. "We look forward to working with the other research partners to use the potential of knowledge media across the spectrum of mental health and therapies”, she stated.

In the past, there have already been numerous cooperation projects with the University Hospital Tübingen, for example as part of the Leibniz Science Campus Tübingen (WCT) as well as other BMBF- and DFG-funded projects. Among other projects, computer interfaces have been developed for a variety of medical purposes and studied with respect to doctor-patient communication, interprofessional collaboration in health care, and medical education. In addition, the use of social networks to educate patients and VR interfaces that can be used in therapies were explored.

Over the next six months, the cooperation partners involved will develop implementation concepts. The Federal Ministry of Research stated that the funding phase, in which the federal and state governments participate, will then begin.

In many medical situations, there is not just one possible treatment method from a scientific point of view. Instead, there are several possibilities. Physicians must then work together with their patients to find the best solution, taking into account the patients’ personal wishes and preferences. This process is called Shared Decision Making (SDM) and can be very challenging for both parties.

In her dissertation, which she successfully defended on January 20, 2021, Marie Eggeling researched which factors play a role in SDM and which measures could help to improve participatory decision making. In four experimental studies, she examined both formal and substantive aspects of decision aids, patient-physician communication, and the utility of narrated patient experiences for health care professionals. "In the process, we found that patient safety and satisfaction improved with the use of decision support tools, while the communication of factual information in particular played a key role," Eggeling stated. In addition, physician recommendations also strongly influenced participants' decisions, but did not increase decision confidence. "Our results suggest that both direct patient support, for example in the form of decision aids, and training of healthcare professionals may be helpful to optimally support patients in decision making in the future," she said following her successful dissertation defense.

To successfully convey knowledge, textbooks and digital learning environments often present complex subject matter using text and pictures. While the effectiveness of text-picture combinations is already well researched, little is known about how these two elements are processed. Dr. Anne Schüler, deputy head of the Multiple Representations lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, is addressing this research gap in a new project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project was launched in January.

Empirical research shows that the combination of text and pictures often leads to better learning results than if the information is presented only as a text. The explanation given is that learners actively select relevant pieces of information and link them mentally. However, previous research findings suggest that additional cognitive processes such as the validation and reactivation of information could play a key role when learning with text-picture combinations. The validation mechanism checks whether the link between information presented in the text and picture makes sense based on general knowledge and the specific context, while in contrast, the reactivation mechanism reactivates information that is no longer currently in the working memory but is necessary to establish connections. Typically, these two cognitive processes are passive, that is, they occur automatically. Dr. Anne Schüler’s research team therefore aims to discover whether these kinds of automatic reactivation and validation processes also take place when learning with text-picture combinations.

For their cooperative project "Experiencing biodiversity. How nature research benefits from interactive web maps on your own doorstep", the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL), the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) and the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) were honored as official projects of the UN Decade on Biodiversity at the end of October. The initiative launched by the United Nations is designed to counteract the worldwide decline in natural diversity.

"Experiencing Biodiversity" is one of 13 projects for the promotion of citizen science projects for which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) provided about 5 million euros in funding from 2018 to 2021. In the joint project, the scientists have developed the web portal ornitho-regioportal.de for the analysis of ornithological observation data with extensive citizen science support. In order to ensure that this data can be used and evaluated by the public, the Realistic Depictions lab of the IWM attached great importance to the most intuitive handling possible when developing the user interface. The online tool is  supposed to be accessible as free software by other Citizen-Science projects.

In its statement, the jury was impressed by the idea, the implementation and the results of the joint project and praised the commitment to the preservation of biological diversity in Germany. Further information on the project

What could be an efficient use of digital media in science teaching?
This question is the focus of the project "Kolleg Didaktik:digital" of the Joachim Herz Foundation, which aims to implement digital media in teacher training. To this end, it brings together experienced professors of science didactics (Senior Fellows) with young professionals from these disciplines (Junior Fellows). Since March 2020, IWM doctoral student Salome Wörner has been accepted as a "Junior Fellow" at the fellowship programme. As one of 17 doctoral candidates and postdocs from all over Germany, she convinced the jury of her project "Orchestration of Real and Virtual Experiments". The admission to the research training group is accompanied by a grant of 10,000 euros for the realization of her research project. It concerns the question of how real and virtual experiments can be combined in a didactically efficient way in science lessons. The digital tools are not intended to replace the analogue working methods in research-based learning, but to expand, supplement and support them. "In addition to financial support, the Fellowship programme includes numerous workshops and regular meetings where the Junior Fellows can exchange ideas with the Senior Fellows and benefit from their experience – this advice and support in implementing my project represents the greatest added value for me", Salome Wörner said about the programme.

The Leibniz WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen (WCT) was established 10 years ago as an interdisciplinary research network between the IWM and the University of Tübingen. Since 2018, the University of Stuttgart has also been an associated partner of the WCT. On Friday, May 15, the end of this successful and research-intensive period was celebrated with a virtual festive event at which around 100 participants gathered online.
The online ceremony was opened by Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, spokeswoman of the research network and director of the IWM. She spoke about the development of the WCT, the ideas it had pursued and which path the research would take in the future. Virtual greetings were given by Prof. Dr. Bernd Engler, Rector of the University of Tübingen, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association, Prof. Dr. Nikol Rummel, Chairwoman of the WCT's Scientific Advisory Board, and Ulrich Steinbach, Ministerial Director and Head of Department in the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg.
The keynote was given by Prof. Dr. Kristian Kiili from Tampere University of Technology in Finland, whose research focuses on the advantages and challenges of digital educational games. His presentation linked up with the work of the WCT scientists who had researched on cognitive interfaces in the previous years. The WCT research was concentrated on investigating how these interfaces between man and machine should be designed in order to encourage knowledge acquisition, understanding and exchange.
All contributions, greetings and project presentations on the WCT research are now available and can be viewed on the event website www.cognitiveinterfaces.de.

After Prof. Dr. Korbinian Moeller had leaded the IWM junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity since 2013, he successfully completed this qualification phase with a call to Loughborough University in Great Britain. Since April, he has held a professorship in mathematical cognition and will continue to work on the cognitive and neural basics of the acquisition and development of mathematical skills. At the IWM, his research focused particularly on game-based applications for learning numerical skills. The work of his group has been widely appreciated. Moeller looks back on a productive time: His group has published 153 papers and received 14 awards in the past seven years. „We congratulate Korbinian Moeller, who has led his junior research group at the IWM very successfully with great commitment, and we wish him for his further academic career all the best", said IWM Director Ulrike Cress at the farewell ceremony.

What happens in our brain when we write letters and numbers? Stefanie Jung from the Junior Research Group Neurocognitive Plasticity of the IWM answered this question in her defense of her doctoral thesis on March 4. In her thesis, she uses various empirical studies to present both the differences between the cognitive processes involved in writing letters and numbers and the shared writing processes.

“We found that identical brain regions are activated for the motor planning and executions of writing movements when we write numbers and letters. These regions, however, integrate the input from specific brain networks,” explained Stefanie Jung. The results provide a better understanding of impairments such as dyslexia and dyscalculia and enable the development of appropriate intervention options. The doctoral student also showed how the use of a keyboard influenced writing processes in children. When children typed on a keyboard in the experiment, their case sensitivity dropped compared to handwriting due to the additional motor component required when pressing the shift key. Linguistic processes such as the recognition of double consonants and rule knowledge remained unaffected. "In the digital age, this knowledge is essential regarding the development of orthographic and arithmetic skills," said Stefanie Jung after her successful defence.

By resolution of the Joint Science Conference (GWK), the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is granted additional funding for the expansion of its research. The establishment of a research network on human-agent interaction will begin this year, followed in 2021 by the new lab Data Science. At the end of the build-up phase in 2022, the IWM will then receive additional permanent grants of around 1.2 million Euros per year.

With this expansion, the Institute is reacting to the rapid growth of Big Data. For the analysis of knowledge acquisition, the complex data sets offer enormous potential: They enable processes of human information processing, for example on social media, to be examined comprehensively and directly in the application context.
The new IWM lab Data Science is therefore dedicated to the goal of rendering large amounts of data interpretable and researching new evaluation methods such as AI-based systems. It combines specific knowledge from psychology, communication science and neuroscience with approaches of computer science and methods of statistics. The group is headed by a W3-professorship in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tübingen. In addition, the establishment of a network on Human-Agent Interaction is also part of the project. Its research subjects are the acceptance and user behaviour when interacting with intelligent voice assistants.

"We are pleased that the GWK supports the expansion of the IWM", Director Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress welcomes the decision. "By continuously researching the potential of Big Data for knowledge processes, we provide decisive impulses for a society that is further challenged and transformed by digital media".

What does physics lessons have to do with the magic classes at Hogwarts? Quite a bit, according to Salome Woerner. The IWM doctoral student combined her research with Harry Potter magic at the Science Slam of the Tübingen PhD Days on February 19. As one of five young researchers, the physicist and educationalist enchanted the packed auditorium of the Kupferbau. In ten-minute contributions on linguistics, the secret life of ponds and data fairies, the speakers competed for the loudest applause from the audience.

At the beginning of her slam “Expelliarmus and Experiments”, Salome Wörner explained why experiments of physic lessons are similar to the magic ones in Harry Potter: “They are not always understandable, often lead to chaos in the classroom or fail entirely.” But to make sure that children leave the classroom just as clever as model witch student Hermine Granger, Wörner is currently investigating in her dissertation at the IWM how experiments can be made more accessible. Her studies on different teaching concepts show that combinations of traditional hands-on experiments with virtual simulations are particularly helpful for knowledge acquisition. The virtual experiments can primarily illustrate invisible processes such as light refraction and are also interactive. Even if it wasn't enough to win first place in the slam at the end of the evening, the IWM doctoral candidate's evocative Harry Potter analogies provided many "Lumos" moments.  

On 1 January, Dr. Markus Huff was appointed to a W3 professorship at the University of Tübingen. In addition to managing the Applied Cognitive Psychology research group at the Department of Psychology, he will also be head of the Knowledge Exchange Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). "Prof. Huff will continue the successful work here and at the same time introduce innovative topics," emphasizes IWM Director Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress.

The cognitive psychologist had already worked as a research assistant at the Tübingen IWM from 2004 to 2010 before being appointed Junior Professor of General Psychology at the Eberhard Karls University. "This background and his dual function qualify Prof. Huff to further promote the exchange and cooperation between the non-university IWM and the university's Department of Psychology and, as a result, to enrich the work of both institutions," stresses Prof. Cress. She also thanks the provisional head of the Knowledge Exchange Lab, Dr. Jürgen Buder.

In his research, Markus Huff is interested in the question of how people learn and acquire knowledge with dynamic media - a focus that the Knowledge Exchange Lab at the IWM is also dedicated to. As the subsequent head, Markus Huff will further develop the lab and add individual research topics to it. In the future, for example, the team will investigate how processes of knowledge exchange can be supported with methods of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Tübingen, with its diverse university and non-university research institutions, is an ideal location for interdisciplinary work on these important topics, explains the new head.

Markus Huff studied psychology and computer science at the University of Tübingen where he received his doctorate in 2007. In the past two years, he worked as head of the Research Infrastructure Department at the German Institute for Adult Learning (DIE) in Bonn.

At the end of the year, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress visited the cultural centre Urania in Berlin in the context of a lecture series of the Leibniz Association to address one of 2019 central questions in digitisation: How is knowledge created in times of Wikipedia and eco chambers?

“Before digitisation, knowledge was mainly imparted by experts. Now it is often collaboratively generated online but also influenced by the subjective convictions of the communities,” Prof. Cress provocatively emphasized at the beginning of her lecture. In the following, the head of the IWM illustrated knowledge construction processes using Wikipedia. Due to the the highly dynamic exchange and the rigid rules of the Wiki community, articles are created which in terms of their quality come close to entries of the renowned Britannica Encyclopaedia. Yet, Wikipedia is not completely neutral. Knowledge systems mirror the norms of their respective community and draw people into their own set of rules, as do other online encyclopaedias like Metapedia and Conservapedia. Cress pointed out: “In order to secure a high level of quality, knowledge construction needs friction, dialogue and disruptive algorithms.”

Climate change? Doesn’t exist! Vaccination? A risk. Science is more and more distrusted. Scientific facts are often under criticism, are not properly understood by laypersons or actively rejected. In her habilitation lecture on 11 December, Dr. Annika Scholl explained why and presented possible interventions. Using selected research examples, the Deputy Head of the Social Processes Lab explained that motivational reasons could be respsonsible for the rejection of scientific evidence. This means that people often do not accept findings because they contradict their convictions or their own interests, or because they distrust the source of information. Approaches to increasing acceptance suggest, for example, emphasising the scientific consensus on a topic in order to stress the trustworthiness of findings.

"It was a playground full of ideas and very inspiring," reports Daniela Becker from her one-month lab visit in Belgium. In November, she worked in the Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Ghent and used the lively exchange with the international colleagues for a cooperative project: Together with the lecturer and psychologist Prof. Ruth Krebs, the scientist from the Social Processes Lab designed a study about the effects of cognitive conflicts on the memory of irrelevant information. “Especially when learning and making decisions, distraction by irrelevant information plays an important role, as it suggests an alternative answer or different decision”, Becker explains. The researchers therefore investigate whether a cognitive conflict causes both the relevant information and the insignificant or rejected information to be remembered. “This is important because what stays in mind is more likely to influence future behaviour”, says Becker. Back in Tübingen, Daniela Becker will carry out the study in January and publish the results in a joint paper with Ruth Krebs.

One could also say that St. Nicholas brought something special to Dr. Jürgen Buder: The provisional head of the Knowledge Exchange Lab at the IWM has now received the "Best Reviewer Award" of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE). The ICCE is organised by the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE), whose main objective is to promote the conduct and communication of scientific research related to all aspects of the use of computers in education.
"The job of a reviewer is immensely important, but usually receives little appreciation. You put a lot of effort into detailed feedback, but remain invisible in the background," explains Buder, who usually writes one to two-page reviews on scientific articles of the programme. For the first time, the ICCE is now paying tribute to reviewers who help the authors to improve their papers and inspire them to advance their research with particularly constructive comments. The award was presented at this year's conference, which takes place in Taiwan from 2 to 6 December. In the best reviewer manner, Jürgen Buder remained in the background and accepted the award in Tübingen due to time constraints.

The new board of the Serious Games Society has been elected: At the Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA 2019) in Athens from 27 to 29 November, five new members were selected. Among them is IWM scientist Dr. Manuel Ninaus (second from right), who was appointed to the board for the second time.
The Serious Games Society purpose is to foster science, technological innovation and excellence in the field of Serious Games and Gamification – that means digital but also analogue games that are designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. As a founding member, Manuel Ninaus has been contributing his psychological and neuroscientific expertise in game-based learning to the interdisciplinary association of universities, research centres and companies since 2014. The expert has already played an active role in shaping the company as a board member in the last period. From January 2020, he will continue this work for another two years. His main tasks include the publication of the Open Access journal International Journal of Serious Games and the organisation of the annual GALA and Serious Games Competition.

Applying for funding is not easy. No less difficult is the selection of applications that are eligible for funding. Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter will now also get to know this side of the scientific process. The head of the IWM Lab Multiple Representations was elected to the Review Board "Developmental Psychology and Educational Psychology" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) on 22th of November. The DFG's 49 Review Boards are key players in the scientific evaluation of proposals: The main task of the members is to discuss these proposals in their respective disciplines and to recommend funding to the DFG's decision-making bodies.

Starting in January 2020, Katharina Scheiter will hold this office for four years - on a voluntary basis. What motivates her is the quality assurance of DFG-funded research: "The Review Boards play a major role in this by making funding recommendations based on consistent criteria. In addition, the work offers me an in-depth insight into the range of psychological research in my field."

Infographics visualize concentrated knowledge. But does this type of picture also say more than a 1000 words? Although the designs of icons, arrows and numbers may be nice to look at, viewers often have difficulties identifying the relevant information. This could be easier with infographics being interactive.
Learners can solve task better with infographics if the format and the content can be changed interactively state the result of Julia Moritz’ dissertation. The doctoral student of the Realistic Depiction Lab at the IWM examined in five experiments with a total of 650 subjects, how the so-called representation control of infographics affects the understanding of the content. Her studies show that almost all users took the opportunity to strategically reorganise and reduce information in a graphic on fictitious election results. Thus, the subjects were better able to retrieve specific information of the graphics. The overall understanding of the infographics’ structure, however, could not be improved by the representation control. The results of the studies presented by Moritz in her successful defence on 2^nd of October are particularly relevant for the conception of infographics in digital newspapers or learning materials.

We are all prejudiced. But how can stereotypes and prejudices be deconstructed? Kevin Winter answered this question at his doctoral defence on 13^th of September. In his thesis, the IWM researcher shows through various empirical studies innovative and effective ways, how people can face outgroups unbiasedly. Communication and cognitive flexibility, according to Winter, are part of the solution. Especially through the use of negations in communication attitudes about an outgroup can be changed. For example, if we say “foreigners are not criminals”, the negation leads us to consider an alternative perspective and to a more flexible way of thinking. The original attitude towards the outgroup is then questioned and perhaps revised. Kevin Winter's findings are particularly relevant with regard to media communication: Negations in news, speeches or press releases can contribute to the reduction of prejudices and stereotypes.

The school system of Norway has a good reputation and in terms of digitisation it is some steps ahead of Germany. This makes the country a particular interesting field of research for Iris Backfisch. The doctoral student investigates motivational factors that influence teachers when using digital media in class and has been working on a joint research project with Norwegian colleagues in Oslo since August 26^th.

For six weeks in total, the IWM scientist collaborates with two renowned researchers for digital education and teaching skills: Prof. Ronny Scherer from the Centre for Educational Measurement (CEMO) at the University of Oslo and Prof Fazilat Siddiq of the University of South-Eastern Norway. The German-Norwegian team works on a data set that is based on a survey of 700 teachers in Norway. Among other things, respondents assessed the usefulness of digital technologies in teaching and reported to which extent they felt able to teach with them. The researchers analyse the impact of such factors on the manner of teaching using statistical models and thus derive implications for teacher education and training. The results are to be documented in a joint publication and incorporated into Backfisch's doctorate.

“It is enriching to exchange ideas with a variety of scientists here in Norway who have a lot of experience both in research but also in the implementation of digitisation projects in teacher training and schools,” reports Iris Backfisch. The IWM doctoral student would like to continue and expand the fruitful collaboration in future projects.

In 2018, Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, head of the IWM's working group Social Processes, together with Dr. Micheal Vliek from the University of Amsterdam, edited the textbook "Social Psychology in Action: Evidence-Based Interventions from Theory to Practice", which was initially published as e-book by Springer-Verlag. Now the textbook on central theories in social psychology is also available in printed form. In 15 chapters, leading scientists summarize key concepts, their reliability and limitations and explain their application in researching different settings of life. IWM scientist Prof. Sonja Utz, for example, describes the application of social psychology theories to the emotional effects of social media use.
“Social Psychology in Action” is targeting advanced undergraduate and graduate students in social psychology, as well as students of neighbouring fields. Since it can be successfully applied to benefit social and practical problems, it is also useful to practitioners working, for example, in the fields of health communication and educational science.

Leading scientists from the area of numerical cognition met at the 1^st Winterschool on Numerical Cognition in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, from 5^th to 9^th of August in order to discuss latest research results. The exchange was initiated and organized by the Developmental Neuropsychology Laboratory of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. The two institutions have cooperated in the DAAD funded project “A genetic and cross-linguistic Brazilian-German approach to children's numerical development” since March 2018.

In collaboration with the Brazilian partners Prof. Vitor Haase, Prof. Raquel Carvalho and Prof. Júlia Silva, Prof. Korbinian Möller, head of the junior research group, and his colleague Dr. Julia Bahnmüller had set up the first international meeting of this kind. A total of 50 researchers spend five days on the exchange of ideas across disciplines. 

The top topics, in the eyes of Prof. Möller, included the influence of cultural and linguistic peculiarities (i.e. the so-called inversion of Germen number words, 21 = einundzwanzig = twenty and one) as well as of genetic factors on the development of numerical skills but also fear of arithmetic. The question of how concrete research results can have an effect on teaching and learning of numerical skills was also intensively discussed. Korbinian Möller himself provided two contributions to the program and focussed on neuronal correlates of numerical learning and embodied training of numerical abilities. Postdoc Julia Bahnmüller held a lecture on the linguistic influences on numerical processes.

Dr. Johannes Blöchles work in the Neuro-Cognitive Plasticity Lab at the IWM has distinguished itself in the truest sense of the word: In recognition of his excellent doctoral thesis, the University of Tübingen awarded the former PhD student of the IWM with the doctoral prize from the Faculty of Science. In 2018, under the title „Substantiating and specifying the neurocognitive architecture of numerical cognition” the scientist brought together the results of his four-year research on numerical cognition. While figure processing is often explained by closed models which hardly consider cross-domain functions, Blöchle combined in his thesis theories on attention, long-term memory and visual perception with cognitive research.

Each year, the University of Tübingen awards a fixed number of doctoral prices per faculty for the most outstanding dissertations of the previous year.  The awards were presented by headmaster of the University Prof. Dr. Bernd Engler at the annual graduation ceremony on July 13. In his speech, Dr. Ulrich Köstlin, honorary senator of Tübingen University advised the PhD students of the academic year 2018/2019 to remember the university slogan in the future: “Take a risk!”

Dr. Johannes Blöchle is now continuing his research on the complex interplay of number processing at the University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. In a DFG funded project, he investigates how fraction magnitude understanding at the beginning of secondary education can be fostered in children.

In order to be prepared for a future in which automatization and artificial intelligence are part of everyday life, generation Alpha (all born after 2010) has to learn today what machines cannot do: Critical thinking, flexibility, creativity and communication skills. But how can schools promote the necessary 21^st century skills?

Prof. Dr. James Pellegrino from the University of Illinois at Chicago has been researching processes of children's and adult's thinking and learning for over 30 years. At his lecture at the IWM on July 10, the author of over 300 books and chapters on cognition and learning explained: Success at school does not only comprise cognitive performance, but also the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills such as the ability to work in a team. According to Pellegrino, these three dimensions of competence interact with each other and must be taken into account both in curricula and in the evaluation of school success. This requires a change in the entire system, so the psychologist, since teachers need the organisational framework and the individual skills to be able to implement such curricula.

"It is up to the young scientists to further explore how the school system has to be reoriented in the 21^st century. This is a life task for many and we should rather deal individually with a small part of the entire mosaic," said Pellegrino in his closing statement.

Everybody is talking about multimedia learning. It is often assumed that learners know how to deal adequately with different representations of content such as texts and images. However, empirical studies show a different picture. Many learners struggle with developing strategies with which they can process texts and images equally. In her doctorate, IWM doctoral student Marie-Christin Krebs is therefore concerned with the question whether learners can be supported in better processing multiple representations by so-called Eye Movement Modeling Examples (EMME). Her experiments show that the demonstration of optimal eye movements can be an effective instructional support for multimedia learning. However, social factors can moderate the effectiveness of EMME – especially when learners have little prior knowledge. Thus, this experimental group only benefited from instructional support if they assumed that the gaze movements presented came from another subject and not from a comparatively more competent model. The reason for this is the tendency of people to orient themselves more towards others who have a similar background or abilities as they do, explained Marie-Christin Krebs during her successful dissertation defence on July 1.

We are confronted by numbers and math on a daily basis. Yet our knowledge of how people process figures is still emerging. This growing knowledge was explored by nearly 250 scientists at the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society (MCLS) conference in Ottawa, Canada from June 16 to 18.

Dr. Julia Bahnmüller, Roberta Barrocas and Silke Bieck from the IWM also travelled overseas to present the work of the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity. The scientists have been researching numerical cognition for years with particular interest being paid to the neural correlates of number processing as well as its development during childhood. In Ottawa, Dr. Julia Bahnmüller introduced three of her projects. Among other things, she presented a study on number word inversion ("42" in Germany literally translates as "two-forty" and not as "forty-two"). She addressed the question of how the strategy of writing down the unit digit before the decade digit in multi-digit numbers influences arithmetic performance in children. Junior scientist Roberta Barrocas discussed, whether counting with fingers promotes numerical learning in children – a topic which especially targeted teachers who were invited to the conference as well.  Silke Bieck, a LEAD PhD student and associate at the IWM, put up a poster to debate the design of her study on learning fractions. In the study, she will identify the neural correlates of fraction arithmetic and their commonalities with and differences from whole number arithmetic.

All in all, the IWM experts considered the mission of the MCLS – to promote the communication of scientific research on mathematical cognition and learning – successful: "Almost all of the lectures were relevant to the content of our work at the IWM and therefore very inspiring," said Julia Bahnmüller after the conference.

Computational Thinking as conceptual foundation of problem solving in different context domains has been coined a crucial 21st century competence. Scientists of the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien have been investigating for years how these skills can be promoted in children and are cooperating with other international research teams. From April 22 to June 9, scientific member Katerina Tsarava visited the Distance University (UNED) in Madrid where she collaborated with Prof. Dr. Marcos Román-González. Román Gonzáles is the developer behind the Computational Thinking Tests, the only proven test to determine computer-relevant abilities in children (the picture shows are child being assessed for its coding skills) . During the lab visit, the two researchers examined how well-developed computational thinking is in children between the age of 4 and 5. They used the CT test in a jointly designed study on 40 children of this age group. “We are currently analysing the data and plan to jointly publish the results,” says Katerina Tsarava after her stay. The junior researcher regards the cooperation as very positive: “Prof. Dr. Marcos Román-Gonzáles and his team are well known in the community of computational thinking. Working together and working so intensely on the design and execution of CT-tests, is very valuable for my own work.”

On June 6, the IWM welcomed a renowned guest: Roy Baumeister, Professor for Psychology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, is one of the most influential and frequently cited social psychologists of our time. His forty years of research cover a wide range of topics of the human life, including self-confidence, free will and the sense of belonging.

At the IWM, the US native gave a comprehensive lecture on his research on the far-reaching effects of social exclusion. In numerous laboratory experiments and field studies, Baumeister and his colleagues had investigated how social rejection affects people's behaviour and emotions. "No more Mr. Nice Guy," Baumeister summed up the results concisely. People who experienced social rejection in the experiment behaved more aggressively, had less self-regulation and showed more anti-social behaviour than people who received encouragement or did not have any negative social experiences - even though they would like to be connected again. This is because rejected people want to avoid further refusal. "Although social exclusion had a strong effect on behaviour, rejected persons did not show any emotional reactions," Baumeister surprised the audience. Rather, they seemed to be emotionally indifferent to their fellow human beings and felt less empathy and even less physical pain. The social psychologist explained this with an emotional shut-down: "Social rejection leads to a numbness of emotions and of sensitivity to pain similar to the experience of shock reactions, which in turn affects the loss of pro-social behaviour.”

For Dr. Lara Ditrich from the Social Processes Lab, the lecture was also inspiring with regard to her own work at the IWM: "The lecture impressively showed that we humans are social living beings and what consequences it can have if we are rejected by others. It was particularly exciting for me that numerous topics such as self-control, self-regulation, emotions and empathy were addressed, which we also investigate in our own research here at the IWM".

As part of a research cooperation between the IWM and the city of Tübingen, an interactive multimedia tool for the historic Tübingen city hall was developed which was presented by Lord Mayor, Boris Plamer on June 3. On the so called “Tübinger Table”, a billiard-table-sized multitouch installation, visitors can now intuitively and interactively access the city's highlights – and IWM researches can gather further insights into the perfect usability.

A “genuine innovation” called Lord Mayor Palmer the interactive city guide developed by the IWM. On the map of the multitouch display, visitors of the city can now virtually explore the Tübingen’s hotspots through intuitive gestures like swiping, rotating and scaling. Yet, there is much more than just technology to the info cards equivalent to over 700 pages of text, the around 400 photos and the interface which can be used by several persons simultaneously.  "The table is basic research cast in a product," said project manager Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets from the IWM. The Tübingen Leibniz-Insitute has researched for many years how digital media can transfer knowledge in a way that as much of it as possible is remembered and understood. The findings are already being applied in multimedia tables in museums, but Tübingen is the first city to do so. The use of the Tübingen table during the opening hours of the city hall provides the project team with important research access. Through observations, surveys and experiments, the IWM will in future collect reliable research results on knowledge transfer with the table and continually optimise the installation.

Every year, the International Communication Associations (ICA) invites researchers from all over the world to one of the most important conferences in the field of communication science. This year, more than 3000 experts met at the 69^th ICA Conference in Washington D.C. from May 24 to 28, including scientists from the IWM.

“Our institute is becoming increasingly well known in the professional field. This is proof that the IWM has established itself with its psychological research in the world of communication science,” reports Dr. Ruth Festl, scientist at the IWM. Together with Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz, head of the junior research group Social Media, and colleague Lara Wolfers, she informed the international audience about the research of the IWM. In a joint paper the scientists presented findings of a study on a new phenomenon in times of permanent smartphone use: Nomophobia (short for “no-mobile-phone-phobia”), the fear of being cut off from one’s social environment and important information when not having a mobile phone. Nomophobia is often associated with situational stress according to one of the results. Yet, the effect did not replicate over a longer period of time.

The junior research group had submitted six papers prior to the conference all of which were included in the program. In other contributions the IWM scientists talked about relevant topics of digital media use such as excessive media consumption, online social competence and crisis communication as well as privacy and self-disclosure in online contexts. PhD student Lara Wolfers was also able to present her research on stress management through smartphone use in the coveted doctoral consortium. On the first conference day, 16 chosen doctoral students had the chance to discuss their dissertation topic with international experts and to ask question concerning their professional career after the dissertation.
Dr. Jürgen Buder from the Knowledge Exchange Lab represented the IWM in Washington as well.

Who researches what, how and why in Tübingen? Once a year the “Tübingen Fenster für Forschung” (Tübingen Window for Research) grants insights which are normally denied to the public. On May 24, scientists of the University of Tübingen, the hospital and non-university research institutes presented their research projects. Curious guests of all age groups could observe tiniest organisms under microscopes, measure CO₂ in the air and immerse into virtual worlds. Visitors were also drawn to the interactive stations of the IWM: With the educational game “Crabs and Turtles” IWM scientist Katerina Tsarava demonstrated at her booth how computing concepts can be learned in a playful way.  At the station of the digital classroom Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab (TüDiLab) visitors could try out learning applications on tablets and thus gain impressions of future teaching. "Our research attracted many visitors. They particularly enjoyed eye-tracking which we use to record eye movements while learning on the computer," reports Dr. Juliane Richter (second from the right), coordinator of the TüDiLab at the IWM.

The International Autumn School "Cognitive Interfaces" of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen will take place from October 8 - 11, 2019 in Bad Teinach, Black Forest.

The Autumn School focuses on the complex interplay of digital technologies and human interaction. How do interfaces between humans and digital technologies need to be designed to encourage optimal knowledge acquisition, understanding and exchange, as well as optimal decision-making and what challenges and potentials are associated with this? These are the leading questions of the Autumn School 2019.
Across two parallel workshop tracks, the Autumn School provides the framework for interested doctoral students and post-docs to exchange ideas, develop research ideas and discuss recent developments from a scientific point of view and to expand their interdisciplinary network.

Trackleaders and keynote speakers are leading scientists in psychology and biomedical(informatics): Vimla L. Patel & Edward H. Shortliffe (Track: Digital Technology in Medicine) and Evan F. Risko (Track: Cognitive Offloading). Participation in the Autumn School is free of charge.
Registration deadline June 15, 2019 (contact: m.gross@iwm-tuebingen.de)
Please find further information on program, workshops and organisation online https://autumnschool.wissenschaftscampus-tuebingen.de

Scientists at the IWM have been researching the exchange of knowledge and information on the internet and in social networks for many years. In particular, the lab Social Processes investigates how emotions affect people's attitudes about controversial issues and their processing of information. In a recently published study, the lab linked the surprising election results of the US presidential election campaign of 2016 with Twitter as a social barometer: 148 million randomly selected tweets from almost 1,350 US counties were divided into four emotion categories - anger, fear, generally negative and positive emotions - and compared with the election results of the respective counties.

The study shows: The emotions of US citizens on Twitter are connected with the outcome of the election. Candidate Donald Trump was better supported in counties where more anger and negative emotions were tweeted, regardless of social factors such as education and socio-economic status. With the study, the IWM lab provides a further indication that voters are attracted by political appeals that correspond to their emotional state, and are more likely to be guided by emotions than by rational arguments. Read more (German only)

Scientists from Tübingen are involved in a new research association. The new scientific consortium called digilog@bw will conduct interdisciplinary research on the influence of digitization on individuals and society. The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the University of Tübingen are taking part in the consortium with four projects: At the IWM, Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz and her junior research group Social Media investigate how AI-supported language assistants affect information search and evaluation and what role media literacy plays in this. The International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) is concerned with the effects of artificial intelligence on public communication and investigates the influence of cloud-computing on digital sovereignty as well as fair participation conditions in a diverse society.

In order to promote the exchange between scientists within the institute the IWM launched the Lab Information Days in 2018. This year, the third edition took place on May 6 and 7. Focus was placed on the ideas and developments which have already been applied in practice. Grouped in several demo stations, the researchers presented their innovations from fields like digital education, museum/mulit-touch, knowledge-related internet usage and knowledge work with digital media. In addition to the life-sized game “Crabs & Turtles” and the digital chemistry book “eChemBook”, highlights included applications for multi-touch tables that are used in a series of cooperations with museums as well as interactive cards for visualizing complex data. “The Lab Days showed me once again the broad range of research at the IWM – a great opportunity for everyone to take a look beyond the labs or junior research groups,” reports Salome Wörner, who has been a doctoral student at the IWM since March 2019 and was able to use the two-day event to familiarize herself better with the topics and projects of the IWM.

Supporting and accompanying outstanding female researchers on their way to a leadership position or professorship is the goal of the Leibniz Mentoring Programme of the Leibniz Association. These young talents now also include Dr. Julia Bahnmüller (right side) and Dr. Ruth Festl (left side) from the IWM. The two postdocs were selected for the desired career advancement program in a highly competitive process from 57 competitors. This is the fifth time that the IWM has been represented in the programme with young scientists. For 16 months starting in June 2019, Dr. Julia Bahnmüller and Dr. Ruth Festl will be accompanied by an executive as mentor. In regular meetings, professional development will be promoted and the outstanding skills of the mentees will be further developed. "I am looking forward to reflecting on topics such as career planning or network strategies, which are often neglected in everyday working life," said Dr. Ruth Festl about the admission to the program. The new mentees will receive suggestions for this in various seminars of the programme on topics such as career strategies, key competences and research funding.

"Reading and information literacy are more important than ever in the digital age," Dr. Yvonne Kammerer opened the library directors' conference at the Regierungspräsidium Karlsruhe on April 15. The IWM scientist had been invited by the Regierungspräsidium to inform the heads of the public libraries in the Karlsruhe area about current findings in reading research. At the IWM, Dr. Yvonne Kammerer investigates how information on the internet is searched, read and evaluated. She is a co-signatory of the Stavanger Declaration "On the Future of Reading". In her lecture, the psychologist presented, among other things, the results of a current meta-analysis on the differences between analogue and digital reading. Especially when reading digitally readers tend to read more superficially. Sources of web content are rarely taken into account. Libraries could take a targeted approach and promote reading and information literacy through their own didactic offerings or in cooperation with schools.

The conference offered participants an interface between research and library practice. "It was interesting for the library directors to learn about the results of research on reading and information literacy," comments Dr. Yvonne Kammerer. "The conference also addressed other topics that are relevant for us at the IWM, such as promotion of MINT subjects".

Social media make you depressed. This disturbing headline is not only circulating in German media. One of the most important daily journals of France, Le Figaro, dedicated a double-page special to social media usage in April. On the question of whether we are actually happier without a social media account, the national paper asked the expert opinion of Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz from the IWM. The psychologist, who has been researching the effects of media usage with her junior research group Social Media for years, gave good news in the interview. Most scientific studies only showed short-term negative effects of media use for a small group of test subjects which, however, could hardly be mapped on the entire population. In the feature the scientist explained how our well-being is rather influenced by the way we use social media - both negatively and positively.

To the French online article (fee required)

Organizing data and archiving is daily routine for scientist. Yet, with the growing amount of digital research data demands concerning data management are increasing. IWM employees discussed how research data can be managed sustainably in a workshop at the IWM on April 11. The IWM had invited the data management experts Roland Ramthun and Ronny Bölter of the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID), Trier, as guest speakers. The ZPID supports Open Science in psychology and offers with PsychArchives a platform for archiving and the transfer of psychological publications, data and tests. The ZPID experts presented their work with the archive in the first part of the workshop. During the second part participants could work with data management program DataWiz. Dr. Nora Umbach, Research Assistant for Research Data Protection at the IWM, comments on a possible use at the institute: “The lectures were very informative and the products of the ZPID could, in my opinion, further improve research data management at the IWM and also to make it easier for scientists.”

German schools should become digitized. But what exactly does this mean for schools and teachers? In a radio feature SWR2 Wissen spoke about the challenges of the digital classroom with pupils, teachers and experts from education and media research. IWM Director Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress and her colleague, media technician Dr. Uwe Oestermeier, demonstrate how lessons can be digitally reinvented.  In their contributions, Prof. Cress also outlined the digital learning spaces of the future which in her opinion are individually designed and open.

Listen to the podcast here (German only)

Endless complex sentences or tables full of numbers – for many, science is above all one thing:  as dry as dust. But not for Dr. Danny Flemming of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. As a science slammer, the IWM researcher even makes his audience laugh with topics like “Fragility of scientific findings".

At the first Science Slam of the Rotary Club Fürth, the psychologist and six other scientific entertainers competed for the audience’s favour on March 30, 2019. In the sold-out hall of the Fraunhofer Institut the scientists engaged with 10 minutes slams from network technologies to German fun facts in an intriguing competition. As opener of the evening Flemming explained the guests “How people who have no idea about science understand scientific reports”. Unfortunately, they often fail to understand: While the majority of people prefer clear and simple messages, researcher only make definite statements when results are unmistakable. With a lot of humour, Flemming unambiguously showed that most scientific findings are in fact ambiguous, that means fragile or only partially generalizable.

Whether witty, surprising or in a very sensitive manner, the speakers attracted the attention of the audience. And the enthusiasm was enormous not only in the hall. More than 100 visitors had to stay outside the doors of the institute due to the large crowd. Their consolation: A poetry slam under the open sky with the spontaneous slammers.

On March 29, about 40 project partners of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen met at the 5th campus meeting at the IWM. The aim of the event was to present the progress and challenges of the 16 research projects within an open format, to discuss them and to strengthen the cross-project exchange.

From the research focuses of the projects, four contexts can be identified which were addressed in two parallel sessions: During session 1 projects with a focus on touch as well as school and learning environments were presented, session 2 focused on projects on social media and the medical context.

The flexible format and thematic clustering of the projects offered the opportunity to network and to establish concrete links between the projects. Through the close exchange of experiences, suggestions and impulses for further research and ideas for joint research activities could be gained.

Every day we have to make decisions. Some are trivial; others are momentous for our personal or social life. Preferences or biased information might even affect our decisions and become pitfalls. Yet, digital devices can help us in overcoming such pitfalls as Inga Bause from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) shows in her dissertation.

In her thesis “Can(`t) we help it? Overcoming Preferences and Understanding Biased Information Evaluation” the doctoral student tested whether functions of a multi-touch table can support the decision of a group. To test her hypotheses Inga Bause implemented functions on a multi-touch table that support the exchange of information and enable the joint structuring of information. While groups in the experimental condition processed a decision task with the technological support, the control group had a classic group discussion. In both groups not all members had the same relevant information for making the decision.

Inga Bause presented the results of her studies during the successful defense of her work on March, 28, 2019: Compared to the control group, the use of the multi-touch table increased discussions and the exchange of information. The postgraduate also showed that the biased evaluation of new information seems to hinge on associations between prior information and new information. Future research could therefore concentrate on determining specific mechanisms contributing to the effectiveness of the technological support functions, for example by investigating how virtually sharing prior information affects its evaluation.

Regardless of their official status, many universities throughout Germany are increasingly emphasising their "excellence". Universities also expect from their students “excellent” performance. But how do such expectations affect students? Dr. Annika Scholl of the IWM and her research lab Social Processes investigated this topic in two studies that have now been published in the renowned Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. On the basis of a survey of 500 students of a German university, the research team of Dr. Scholl showed what can counteract the pressure to be excellent.

Find the online publication here.

From March 12 to 13, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) hosted the Bildungsforschungstagung (Education Research Conference) in Berlin. Scientists, practitioners, politicians and association members followed the invitation to discuss the educational world of the future as well as its challenges. Among them: Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, head of the lab Multiple Representations at the IWM who showed with her lecture on orchestrations of digital educational processes how research has to develop in order to support digitization in schools with useful results. “In the classroom of the future, the potentials of digital media will be realized and connected with analogue approaches without losing sight of pedagogy,” says Scheiter about the future educational world.

In addition, IWM expert Dr. Anne Thillosen presented the Meta project “Digitization of the Education Sector” (Digi-EBF) in the context of the conference. The initiative will review the current state of research on digital learning issues over the next four years. The IWM focuses on the evaluation of teacher training. The kick-off meeting at the BMBF conference 2019 offered the project members the opportunity to get to know each other personally for the first time and to establish a closer network of the Meta project.

How can we make use of digital media in schools? This question does not only concern the researches at the IWM but also politics. Not least in view of the Digitalpakt recently passed by the Federal Government, member of the Bundestag Pascal Kober (FDP) informed himself at the IWM at the beginning of March about the potentials of digitization in schools as well as in museums and the medical sector. On the basis of the applications of the IWM, the vice-chair of Baden-Wuerttemberg's FDP, together with a six-member delegation of his party, was able to gain insights into the practical use of digital media in classrooms and hospitals. At the TüDILab, the IWM’s digital classroom, experts of the IWM showed the guests how the effects of learning tools can be investigated and how teachers can be trained in media-based teaching. Afterwards, the FDP members could try out several applications involving the use of multi-touch tables.

Pascal Kober was content with his visit at the IWM: “Both the acquisition and application of scientific education will increasingly be digital in the future. The excellent work of the IWM helps to mediate educational services and at the same time helps people to understand them in the best possible way. This opens up individual possibilities and personal potentials are used, which is a matter of the heart to us Free Democrats.”

“I touched it, it’s mine now!” was the title of a presentation by Lisa Rabl, doctoral student at the IWM, at the Science Slam of the University of Tübingen at the end of February, where she showed the audience that research can be both understandable and exciting. At the event, which was organised by the Graduate Academy of the university in cooperation with the faculties, six slammers competed for the loudest applause in the auditorium of the Kupferbau. The slam of the junior resreacher focused on the ownership effect: It says that when people touch objects, they are perceived as more positive, since the touch leads to the perception of a personal sense of ownership of these objects. Lisa Rabl’s slam was honoured by the audience with several cheering waves and strong applause. "Although it was quite frightening to present the topic in front of more than 650 persons, it was still a great experience! The audience had fun, the slammers had fun. I can recommend it to everyone who would like to try it out for themselves!” says Rabl about the evening.  

The whole science slam can be viewed here: 

https://timms.uni-tuebingen.de/tp/UT_20190220_003_scienceslam2019_0001

The German Literature Archive Marbach celebrated the inauguration of its new director, Professor Dr. Sandra Richter, with a ceremony on February 14. At press conference held in advance the Germanist and professor for literature made it clear, that she likes to turn the archive into a literary think tank.

She has already introduced the “Netzwerk literarische Erfahrung” (Network for Literary Experience), an association with the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Tübingen, the Freien Deutschen Hochstift, Frankfurt, and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, also located in Frankfurt. The network is also a reaction to the Stavanger Declaration on the future of reading which was co-signed by the IWM.

The tasks of the new network include the description and definition of literary experience, the empirical and in its methods plural investigation of readings (reading research), literary exhibitions and their visitors, and the investigation of the public reception of such phenomena. "This is an exciting task, because reading research has so far focused primarily on short, non-literary texts or the medium itself rather than on literary pieces," comments network member Professor Dr. Stephan Schwan on the project. The deputy director of the IWM would like to bring the institute’s expertise on cognitive-psychological processes of reading into the network.

From January 29 to 31, 2019, the Messe Karlsruhe was all about digital learning: At the 27th LEARNTEC - the trade fair for digital learning in schools, universities and in the corporate area - the focus was on applications, innovations and best practice examples for the use of digital media in education. With the two-day programme university@LEARNTEC this year, a separate forum was dedicated to the digitisation of university teaching for the fifth time already.
For the first time, a full-day conference was offered at the trade fair in addition to the lecture programme. Both event days were organized by e-teaching.org, the e-learning information portal of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), in cooperation with the Hochschulnetzwerk Digitalisierung der Lehre Baden-Württemberg (HND BW) and the Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern (vhb).  "In recent years, the forum university@LEARNTEC has established itself well," Anne Thillosen, head of e-teaching.org, sums up. "Around 170 participants at the symposium, the well-attended lecture programme during the fair and a consistently positive response show just how important the topic 'university' is in connection with digital media".

Wikipedia is for many people the first step to close a knowledge gap. For others, it is a platform to collect their own knowledge in articles, to correct and update entries – and they do this voluntarily. But what motivates Wikipedia editors to join the platform if there is no obvious compensation for their efforts?

Seren Yenikent from IWM answers this question in her dissertation "Understanding the effects of topic factors and threat exposure on motivation to participate in knowledge artefacts: The case of Wikipedia". Previous studies have identified several encouraging factors (e.g. fun, ideology, community aspect) as reasons for Wikipedia participation. The PhD student now found that general (i.e., topic familiarity and controversiality) and specific characteristics (i.e., sentiment and psychological content) of a topic played significant roles in Wikipedia motivation. Yenikent presented her findings in the successful defence of her work last Wednesday: Using two laboratory studies and one Wikipedia text analysis study, she showed that working with known and controversial issues that had socio-political implications increases engagement with Wikipedia articles. A closer examination on psychological content showed that affective (positive and negative emotion) and drive states (achievement, reward, power, affiliation and risk) were the best predictors of article production. Yenikent's results support the human-oriented aspect of the Wikipedia platform that is distinctively fostered by editors’ psychological, social and emotional interests.

"My smartphone, for example, knows more about what I do than my wife," the renowned US professor David Williamson Shaffer opened his guest lecture at the Tübingen IWM on January 15 and introduced the audience so vividly to the subject of Quantitative Ethnography: Turning Big Data into Real Understanding. "In the age of Big Data, there is much more information available about what people do and how they do it than ever before," said the learning science expert from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. "The challenge is to gain meaning from these large amounts of data, where traditional methods such as significance testing find only arbitrary patterns and are therefore not applicable," Shaffer continues. New statistical methods are therefore needed to allow researchers, for example, not only to determine whether learning tools are effective for students, but also to show why.

David Shaffer hopes to solve this problem with a new method: Quantitative ethnography which he presented in his lecture. It merges statistical and ethnographic analyses that were previously carried out separately. For this purpose, Shaffer and his colleagues are developing the Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) tool to model how codes are linked in a data set. ENA models visualize a system of interconnected codes, enabling researchers to quantify and test the differences between them using statistical methods. The model should then, for example, identify critical components that are decisive for the success of a learning tool and point out correlations between the components.

"These models will certainly become even more relevant in the future as we try to understand learning and knowledge processes through Big Data," says Nora Umbach, scientific assistant for method consulting at the IWM. She therefore expects them to be of direct relevance for research at the IWM. "All the more reason for us to be pleased that David Shaffer and his research group will cooperate with us in the future in order to support the institute in the application of his methods," states Nora Umbach.

What happens in the TueDiLab (Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab)? The research magazine attempto! of the University of Tübingen has investigated this question. In the current issue, the magazine reports on a lesson in the high-tech classroom of the IWM.  Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, head of Multiple Representations, explains how digital media and state-of-the-art technology are used to research and teach the lessons of the future.
Link to the article (PDF)

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich W. Hesse has been appointed as Presidium Commissioner for the Global Learning Council (GLC) by the executive board of the Leibniz Association for an initial period of three years. The GLC is a globally active, cross-sector group of thought leaders from science, industry and non-profit organizations in the field of the effective use of technologies to enhance learning and understanding.
Friedrich Hesse is Scientific Co-Chair of the GLC and together with the President of the Leibniz Association, Matthias Kleiner, GLC board member. In addition, Mr. Hesse will continue to participate in the Leibniz Association's strategic field of digitization as a representative of the executive board for an initial period of three years. Within the scope of his participation, Mr. Hesse will, among other things, continue to chair the working group "Digitization in Transition".

With effect to January 1, 2019, the head of the IWM, Ulrike Cress, has been elected new deputy speaker of the Tübingen Research Campus. “The TRC is a forum of exchange between the different research organisations and provides a basis for joint activities”, says Ulrike Cress on the advantages of the cooperation. The Tübingen Research Campus founded in 2016 aims at intensifying the cooperation between the local research institutions and offers joint services to the scientists who like to come to Tübingen.

The 24^th annual meeting of the Leibniz Association took place from November 27 to 29, 2018, in Berlin. At the general meeting, two new institutes were admitted to the Leibniz Association and the founding director of the IWM – Professor Friedrich Hesse – officially took leave as long-term vice-president. Furthermore, decisions on projects of the Leibniz Competition 2019 were made.

New Leibniz institutes
The Hans-Bredow-Institut for Media Research of the University of Hamburg as well as the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin will become new members of the Leibniz Association on January 1^st, 2019. The research organisation hereby grows to 95 member institutions. 

In this respect, the general meeting recommended carrying the name “Leibniz-Institut für Medienforschung – Hans Bredow” respective “Leibniz-Institut für Literatur- und Kulturforschung”.

Farewell to Tübinger vice president
After eight years in the board of the Leibniz Association, Friedrich Hesse, former director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen, will leave as vice president at the end of the year. He was honoured during a farewell ceremony.

New projects in the Leibniz Competition 
The senate of the Leibniz Association has decided on the funding of 31 projects of the Leibniz Competition in a total amount of 24,1 million Euro. One of the projects approved is “KnowWolf”, a cooperation between the Senckenberg Nature Research Society and the Tübinger Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. The project focuses on the provision of knowledge and its suitability for users.

From November 15 to 16, 2018 the first meeting of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen (WCT) on „WCT meets HCI“ with external guests took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). The workshop aimed at discussing interfaces of the research within the WCT and the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and at having a closer look on the question in how far they can mutually benefit from each other.

Dr. Elisa Mekler (Universität Basel), Prof. Dr. Gerhard Fischer (University of Colorado) and Prof. Dr. Heinz Ulrich Hoppe (Universität Duisburg-Essen) presented their research on HCI and shared their experiences and longstanding expertise within this field with the Campus projects. They contributed to a lively exchange of ideas and a profound discussion.
The WCT project members who are now in the mid-term of the project phase had the opportunity to present the current state of their research and to reflect the results from an outside perspective. Within the scope of talks and a postersession, the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus was epxerienced as a unique interdisciplinary network by the external guests. The campus meeting is also an opportunity for internal networking. Thus, for example, one of the newly associated projects in May 2018 of the University of Stuttgart was represented at the meeting for the first time.

Social media have become essential to the communication of companies. Today almost all businesses use Facebook or Instagram for marketing; and Enterprise Social Media for their knowledge management. “But if employees use Xing, LinkedIn or Twitter, it is often seen with scepticism”, says Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). “But especially these platforms offer benefits and can lead to more creative ideas, information advantages and informal learning.”

For several years, Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz has investigated at the IWM how social media can be used in a work-related context. This November, the head of the junior research group Social Media is on the move as expert on the effects of work-related social media use at different events:
At the 82. Mercedes-Benz Social Media Night (#mbsmn) on November, 14 Utz will answer the question what benefits LinkedIn, Twitter and Xing have ("LinkedIn, Twitter, Xing – was bringt (mir) das?"). She will describe the current state of science on this matter and will present results of her panel study on the use of business networks.
At the 1. Forum Fortbildung BW on November, 30 in Stuttgart, Utz will show that training and informal learning does not only take place in workshops but in everyday life through the use of social media. YouTube, for example, offers “How to…” videos on professional skills and Twitter provides with its hashtags opportunities to find communities for further training. In her talk on the advantages of social media for further training („YouTube, Twitter, Xing: Das Potenzial sozialer Medien in der (informellen) Weiterbildung“), Utz will show how to make use of this potential.

There has and still is much debating going on about the integration of asylum seekers. Perceptions and assumptions about this group set the tone of the discussion, either rational or polemic. A more scientific look on the perception of asylum seekers takes Kevin Winter, scientists at the Social Processes Lab of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), during his lab visit in the Netherlands.

Winter works at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, from October 15, 2018 to December 14, 2018. In collaboration with Dr. Kai Epstude, he investigates how asylum seekers are perceived compared to other group of migrants. Are they considered passive recipients of integration or active agents?
Furthermore, Winter uses the lab visit to continue the work on his dissertation on trust in outgroups, social groups with which an individual does not identify. He researches, if people can be motivated to reconsider stereotypes or prejudices through the communication of so-called counterfactual thinking (“What if…?”).

"I am glad to meet so many well-known social psychologists and to benefit from their expertise. Working in such a big department with a different structure and its diverse perspectives is a completely new experience for me”, says Winter. “What is crazy though, there are much more students here in Groningen than in Tübingen. And much more bikes.”

From October 11 to 12, 2018, the symposium „#LearnMap – Focussing on learning processes: research on digital media in university teaching” took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). The symposium was held in connection with the BMBF-sponsored project “Digital Learning Map 2020”. The project investigates the success factors of digital learning and teaching in higher education and aims to foster the interdisciplinary exchange. Therefore, the program of the symposiums offered a variety of different topics to almost one hundred guests.

Besides various talks and discussions, especially the keynotes emphasized the possibilities and challenges of digital learning and teaching in higher education and of its respective research: Prof. Dr. Hendrick Drachsler (Professor for Educational Technologies at the DIPF and the Goethe University Frankfurt) explained in his lecture „Trusted learning analytics for personal development“ how learning analytics can be used effectively. A key aspect is the trust of students. To build trust, students shall be given the possibility to decide which data can be used and analysed. Prof. Dr. Birgit Spinath (University of Heidelberg) presented the concept of “Research-orientated teaching to improve the quality of university teaching”. In this concept, the effect of the teachers didactic is examined in an iterative process. Spinath demonstrated how learning conditions and the contentment of students in a lecture with 400 persons can be improved using digital tools. The third keynote „Determinants and consequences of technology integration in classrooms: Between technology acceptance and 21st century skills” was held by Prof Dr. Ronny Scherer (University of Oslo). Scherer presented two studies on the development of 21^st century skills of students and pupils through the integration of technology in class.

In the interactive world café, the participant of the symposium could get active themselves. Different questions on the digitization of university teaching were discussed in small groups. In the final panel discussion, Prof. Dr. Johannes Moskaliuk, project leader of the Digital Learning Map 2020, asked the question: “Has digitization in university failed?” The answer of the debating participants was: No, but digitization is not easy. The symposium showed the variety of research on this topic. But the actual implementation often fails because of different reasons. Like most things at a university this process, above all else, needs time.

“During the discussions the list of ideas for the Network’s agenda for the next year filled up fast. We take those ideas now to the individual Leibniz institutes”, says Seren Yenikent, PhD student of the Knowledge Construction Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), after the meeting of the Leibniz PhD Network.

Yenikent participated together with Lisa Rabl, PhD student at the Knowledge Exchange Lab (IWM), at the 3^rd general assembly of the network in Jena from September 26 to 28, 2018. The Leibniz PhD Network exists since September 2016 on initiative of a group of PhD students of the Leibniz Association.
It was founded with the goal to promote exchange among doctoral researchers within the Leibniz Association and beyond, to organise occasions and opportunities that foster and strengthen the Leibniz Network.
82 representatives from 63 out of the 93 institutes and museums followed the invitation of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) and Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) to the assembly. Besides the election of the steering committee and the keynote lecture of Dr. Thomas Kleinsorge (IfADo – Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors) on stress among PhD students, the participants engaged in lively discussions on the current situation of PhD students: “One of the most important topics in the agenda I would say is about alternative career paths apart from academia”, says Yenikent. “In general the institutes should be aware of the fact that PhDs might be looking for 'outside' jobs and should provide specific trainings or workshops for their doctoral researchers”
Yenikent and Rabl took part on behalf of the official IWM doc speakers, Iris Backfisch and Leonie Jacob.

Find the detailed assembly report on the Leibniz PhD Network Blog.

For the third time now, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) has received the berufundfamilie audit certificate testifying its strategic family-conscious personnel policy. The certificate is awarded for the successful completion of the auditing process by the berufundfamilie Service GmbH.
In its objectives of the last audit in 2015, the IWM defined and implemented 48 key measures concerning equal opportunity matters in order to ensure a better work-family balance to its employees: For example, childcare subsidy was raised and employees in non-work phases such as parental leave or care of relatives receive greater support through the financing of further training. The institute is now recertified for the next three years.

From November 15 to November 16, 2018 the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen (WCT) workshop “WCT meets HCI” (human computer interaction) takes place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). On the first day of the workshop three distinguished plenary speakers will present their research on HCI: Prof. Gerhard Fischer (University of Colorado), Prof. Dr. Heinz Ulrich Hoppe (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Dr. Elisa Mekler (University of Basel). In the ensuing poster session the 16 projects of the WCT will present their current state of research. The Workshop provides a platform for active exchange and discussions. The second day is dedicated to the discussion about overlaps between the research of the WCT and HCI more generally.

Katerina Tsarava of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and Luzia Leifheit of the LEAD Graduate School won the  the 1^st prize in the category of non-digital games and the joint overall 1^st prize of the competition at the 6^th International Educational Games Competition for their board game series “Crabs & Turtles: A Series for Computational Adventures” on October 4 and 5. The competition was part of the 12^th European Conference on Games Based Learning at SKEMA Business School in Sophia Antipolis, France. 
The life-size board game series “Crabs & Turtles” were developed at the IWM in the junior research group Neurocognitive Plasticity by Tsarava and Leifheit. It is aiming to train computational thinking skills to primary school children like algorithmic thinking, sequences, loops, constants, variables, etc. in a low-threshold manner. The games are integrated into the structured course curriculum “Verstehen wie Computer denken”  (Understanding how computers think) of the Hector Children Academies, in which primary school students learn informatics concepts in a playful manner and apply their acquired skills at programming afterwards. The project is funded by the Hector Stiftung II and the courses are offered in more than 20 Hector Children Academies in Baden-Württemberg since October 2018.

At the end of September, 57 Clusters of Excellence were selected that will be funded by the federal and state government as part of their Excellence Strategy. Partners of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus (WCT) Tübingen “Cognitive Interfaces” are involved in two of the selected clusters. As Vice Director, Prof. Thomas Ertl (1) has contributed to the renewed success of the Cluster of Excellence Simtech of the University of Stuttgart. Within the WCT he is a tandem partner in the project “Context changes in social media contributions”. Moreover, the Cluster of Excellence “Machine Learning: New Perspectives for Science” was newly funded. Among the partners of that cluster is Prof. Sonja Utz (2) who contributes to the WCT in two projects: “Overcoming cognitive and motivational barriers for networking: Contact recommendation systems in professional settings” and “Context changes in social media contributions”. Both Clusters of Excellence investigate how knowledge work can be intelligently supported, thus having significant overlap with the research topics of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen „Cognitive Interfaces“.

The funding decisions on the new Clusters of Excellence in Germany’s Excellence Strategy have now been made: The expert committee and the research ministers of the federal and state governments selected 57 Clusters of Excellence to be funded from among 88 initial project submissions on September 27, 2018. Among them is the cluster “Machine Learning in Science” of the University of Tübingen and its partners, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. The IWM supports the top level research of the cluster with its expertise on the influence of digital media on knowledge and communication processes. 

New technologies using artificial intelligence are set to make tangible changes to our world in the coming decades. Recent breakthroughs in the area of machine learning will make it possible. Algorithms are now able to solve ever more complex problems which previously only humans could manage. The new “Machine Learning in Science” Cluster of Excellence will analyse these developments, which promise to fundamentally change even the process of scientific investigation. The researchers aim to discover the full potential of machine learning and how it can be harnessed for science and academia in general and to understand the effects this will have on the scientific process. At the heart of their research are algorithms which recognize complex structures and causal links in data sets; methods with which uncertainties can be quantified in data-driven scientific models; and techniques enabling the researchers to better understand, interpret and control the phases of machine learning. Ethical and scientific theory issues will also be looked at.
The research of the IWM in the cluster concentrates on knowledge processes on digital platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn. Such platforms increasingly offer automatic text recognition and knowledge visualizations providing users with new resources of knowledge.

Head of the IWM Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress is very pleased with the success in Germany’s Excellence Strategy: “The close collaboration between the IWM and the University of Tübingen will be even more intensified with the new research cluster. We have already established a sound and flexible structure enabling innovative cooperation projects between a Leibniz-Institut and a university with the launch of the first nationwide Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus in 2008. The cluster of excellence on machine learning will strengthen these synergies between university and non-university research. We are looking forward to the joint work that lies ahead of us.”

By now digital media have become an integral part of learning at most universities. Their use is versatile, ranging from interactive quizzes tracking learning progress to virtual classrooms or online lecture recordings to rework a course. These and other potential applications of digital media in higher education are from now on presented by the Digital Learning Map. 

The database Digital Learning Map was developed at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) within the project LearnMap, funded by the by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and in cooperation with the online portal e-teaching.org and the German Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age.
The database features teaching and learning environments which apply digital media and are put to use by individuals or institutions. The practical examples from all over Germany uncover the variety of possible applications in academic teaching.
 
As of now, the interactive map of Germany is online and presents best practices. With just one click, teachers are able to gather ideas for new learning settings using digital media and learn from one another. The examples show how media is used didactically appropriate. Therefore, every example explains which media properties are used to enhance learning and solve certain issues of teaching, like poor motivation to learn.

The purpose of the database is to make practical knowledge of how to use digital media in higher education teaching available and demonstrate solutions for possible challenges. That stimulates an exchange of knowledge beyond the confines of individual higher education institutions or disciplinary borders. University instructors can use the database to draw inspiration, comment the practical examples and to establish contact. Service facilities can use the Digital Learning Map in their consulting activities. The Digital Learning Map is furthermore continually developed: University instructors are welcome to register their field-tested examples.

Link to the database (in German)

Further information on the research project (in German)

With the slogan “Psychologie gestaltet” (Psychology shapes) the German Psychological Society (DGPs) invites scientists to its congress from September 15 to 20 in Frankfurt a. M. and puts this year’s focus on the important role of scientific psychology in tackling individual and societal challenges. More than 20 researchers of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) participate at the biggest scientific psychology meeting of the German-speaking region.  

The scientists of the IWM organized, amongst other things, various symposia at the congress and present here their current research findings: Kevin Winter for example holds a talk on radicalization and populism in “Chances and challenges for successful integration of refugees: What can social psychology contribute?” on Monday. At the symposium “Radiologische Aufnahmen befunden: Analyse und Förderung visueller Expertise“ Dr. Juliane Richter shows findings on visual expertise in medical fields. On Thursday, Dr. Hauke S. Meyerhoff talks about “Crossmodal Interaction and Integration affect Perception, Attention, and Learning” and Dr. Annika Scholl guides the discussion on “When others make a healthy day: How social processes contribute to health and well-being “. “What is moral or what is best for public good? How social roles, action features, and reasoning preferences shape judgments of right and wrong” is one of the research questions Michael Wenzler delves into on Thursday as well.

At symposia, lectures and poster presentations, the researchers of the IWM and the 2500 international guests of the congress discuss psychological solutions for urgent social topics such as fake news, work 4.0, radicalization and inequalities in education. 

Link to the online program

Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, head of the Multiple representations Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, was elected chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID) on September 7. As chairman, Scheiter directs the board, gives advice on scientific matters – such as the planning of research projects and of national as well as international cooperation – and evaluates the research quality of the institute. Scheiter about the new task: "I am looking forward to supporting ZPID in the advisory board over the next four years as it implements its diverse plans for the future."
The ZPID is a supra-regional scientific research support organization for psychology in German-speaking countries. It supports the scientific work process from gathering ideas to documenting research, archiving data and publishing the results. It is committed to the idea of open science and sees itself as a public open science institute for psychology.

Lara Wolfers, PhD student at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), received the Paul-Lazasrfeld Scholarship for her excellent Master thesis yesterday. The grant was awarded during the method meeting of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) in Ilmenau from September 12 to 14. 

In her master thesis on self-revelation online and offline Wolfers analyses a longitudinal data set with structural equation modelling. Her findings show that self-revelation offline and online is influenced by personality traits irrespective of the context. Persons, who reveal much about themselves online, do so offline, too, and vice versa. When using complex methods (such as the random intercept-cross lagged panel model) Wolfers finds no evidence that self-revelation for offline purposes can be learned online. Her thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte of the University of Hohenheim.

The Paul-Lazarsfeld Scholarship is granted by the methods division of the DGPuK. It is awarded annually to three outstanding theses or studies with special focus on research methods and comes with 1.000€.

83 – dreiundachtzig in German, quatre-vingt-trois in French and oitenta e três in Portuguese. Depending on the language, numerals are composed and spelled differently (i.e. inverted in German).  Whether differences in language have an influence on the development of numeric competencies is investigated by Dr. Julia Bahnmüller of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) during her research stay in Brazil. 

Dr. Julia Bahnmüller, scientists of the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity at the IWM, is visiting the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte in Brazil from August 27 to September 21. With Prof. Vitor Geraldi Haase and his lab Laboratório de Neuropsicologia Bahnmüller works on a Brazilian-German research project on cognitive and genetic features of typical and atypical arithmetic learning.  The research team investigates how characteristics of the German and Portuguese language – in terms of spelling and structure of numerals – affect the development of numeracy skills. In addition, Bahnmüller examines developmental numeracy deficits in families and develops with the Brazilian colleagues an online screening tool which records the development of arithmetic and numeric competencies.

From August 27 to 29, 2018, scientists of different labs of the IWM visited the second EARLI SIG meeting 2018 in Freiburg. 
 
The conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) was held in cooperation with the Special Interest Group „Comprehension of Text and Graphics“. Since nowadays texts and graphics come in many forms – not just written text, but in combination with animations, simulations or videos –research on how representations affect learning and instruction is growing. This vast research body was brought together at the EARLI SIG meeting.
On the first day, the scientists of the IWM shared their experiences on the use of eye-tracking and eye movement analysis when investigating multiple representations: Psychologists Marie-Christin Krebs of the Multiple representations Lab held a lecture on “Eye movement modeling examples vs. cuing: Does the human factor matter?“. Colleague Thérése Eder continued with a presentation on “Do gaze visualizations foster the diagnostic performance and gaze behavior of dental students?“. Closing the session, Dr. Juliane Richter, also from the Multiple representations Lab, presented an eye tracking study in dental education (“How massed practice improves reading radiographs: An eye-tracking study in dental education”). On the second day, the deputy head of the lab, Dr. Anne Schüler, gave a talk on “Investigating integration during learning from a video “. In addition, Caroline Leroy and Steffen Gottschling of the Multimodal interaction Lab presented posters on different key aspects,

As the announcement states, the conference aimed to not only analyse the different perspectives but to gain a clear overview of the research body: “Zooming out of single studies and representations may allow seeing the gist of the research findings, and not just the single details. In figurative speech, it may allow seeing the forest, and not just the single trees.”

EARLI is the central organization at European level, in which researchers from the field of empirical teaching-learning research have joined forces. Representing over 2000 members in more than 60 countries, EARLI is the biggest educational association in Europe.

How do professionals of medicine and healthcare learn with digital learning material and how do they connect their knowledge with practical experience? Johannes Großer of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) held a talk on this topic at the conference of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) 2018 from August 25 to 29 in Basel – a key annual education venue for medical and healthcare professionals and researchers. 

With his talk on „Learning from an interactive online platform: Anatomy in the inter-professional operation room (OR)“, Großer presented the IWM project Open Teach to an international audience: The project is concerned with the analysis of open digital higher education and aims particularly at the opening of medical teaching and learning materials for the discourse between different professions. The results and insights gained are directly integrated into the further development of the interactive online platform Sectio Chirurgica which broadcasts surgeries live from the emergency room. The audience get close to the operation table and can ask questions via a live chat.

AMEE is a worldwide organisation with members in 90 countries on five continents. Members include teachers, educators, researchers, administrators, curriculum developers, deans, assessors, students and trainees in medicine and the healthcare professions.

Digitization offers great potential to the research process: Huge amounts of data can be saved, linked and published digitally. But the storage and transfer of continuously growing volumes of research data need a reliable and proper data management.

“Therefore, research data should be FAIR. That means findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable.”, says Dr. Nora Umbach, scientific member of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). The expert on data storage and protection of the IWM held a talk on research data management last Friday at the Leibniz-Zentrum für Psychologische Information und Dokumentation (ZPID). Describing the data management of the IWM, Umbach exemplified the specific needs, solutions and challenges of a reliable storage of research material and pointed out possible cooperation between the IWM and the ZPID.

“Especially psychological data often consist of personal information. But also other aspects of data protection are important”, says Umbach. The IWM collects its own primary data which is stored in an internal data archive according to precise data protection regulations and metadata standards.

Watch the lecture here (in German only)

“It is a prerequisite for scientific progress to think about and rethink phenomenon again and again. Therefore, the exchange with international researchers is key to the advancement of science”, says Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, head of Social Processes lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM).

From August 17 to December 12, 2018, Sassenberg visits the School of Psychology of the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane and gets in touch with the Australian colleagues. Together with Matthew Hornsey, Professor for Psychology at the UQ, Sassenberg works on a project, promoted by the German Research Foundation, on building collective trust through trust brokers: Collective trust (i.e. between members of different groups) is a crucial precondition for the functioning of societies which are based on the division of labor. Trust based on group membership can be generated by the communication of so-called trust brokers. Examples for trust brokers are institutions testing products and conflict mediators. Yet, there is barely any research on the antecedents of trust brokers’ effectiveness. Therefore, the project is aimed at preparing a research program at a theoretical and methodological level that will identify the conditions of successful communication by trust brokers.
Besides that, further opportunities for cooperation with scientists of social and organizational psychology at the UQ will be explored. Furthermore, Sassenberg will hold a talk at the Digilab of the School of Social Sciences and Psychology (Western Sydney University) and will strengthen the cooperation with social psychologist Frank de Wit of Melbourne Business School.

Sassenberg: "A stay abroad offers many possibilities, both professionally and privately. You experience different ways of life, different societies, organisations, educational systems and many more. This allows reflecting on your own work and life and gives inspiration for change.”

More and more people take pills in order to enhance their cognitive performance for work or study. But these drugs hardly have any effect on the brain or the memory, as the most effective substances for brain doping is the body itself. This is described in the article “Sie sind klüger als sie denken” (You are smarter than you think) of the 33^rd issue of Focus magazine. Some of the means to improve brain performance are exercise, healthy nutrition and cognitive trainings.

The article cover mentions the work of Dr. Dr. Elise Klein, scientist at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. Klein demonstrated in her studies how a short arithmetic training increased the strength and conductivity of nerve fibres. “This shows us how fast the brain can change itself plastically just with a short brain training, even in adulthood”, says Klein.

Since the popular Berlin newspaper Taz currently considers discontinuing their print version, the radio station Deutschlandfunk interviewed Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg, scientist at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, in its show @mediasres – das Medienmagazin about the possible consequences of reading news online. Probably, this will make hardly any difference for the reader, says the psychologist. Although the presentation formats change, the way of reception will only differ slightly. Much more decisive are the motivation and emotions of the readers.

• corresponding online article (German only)

Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle, scientist at the Leibniz- Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), was elected Associate Editor of the journal Transactions on Learning Technologies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for three years. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers on advances in learning technologies and their applications such as innovative online learning systems, intelligent tutors, educational software applications and games and many more. Since the journal has its focus on the crossroads of computing and education, it is cosponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Education Society.

In more and more German classrooms, notebooks, tablets & co are being used. Still, the application of digital media in class is often discussed. In this debate, teachers, learners as well as scientists from educational research, media science and communications face the question how learning with digital media can be successful.

The recently published book “Lernen mit Bildungstechnologien” provides professionals and scientist now with an overview of empirical findings on learning with educational technologies and presents evidence-based models on designing learnings environments that are supported by digital media. Scientists of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) incorporate their expertise on teaching and learning with digital media in three chapters: Peter Holtz, Ulrike Cress and Joachim Kimmerle explain how social media and platforms such as Wikipedia are used for everyday informal learning. Stephan Schwan and Martin Merkt (IWM alumnus, Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung) evaluate the use of videos and animations in learning scenarios. Besides their discussion on different theories on learning with multimedia, Katharina Scheiter, Juliane Richter and Alexander Renkl (University of Freiburg) close with their chapter the long exsiting research gap on teaching with text-image combinations.

 The Book on SpringerLink

Virtual Reality (VR) has not only been successfully applied in entertainment but also in the treatment of various psychological disorders. Furthermore, promising benefits for VR with respect to educational applications are currently researched.  On the one hand, these new trends are promising. On the other hand, the development of according applications requires new principles of interface and information design. Recently, the application of Serious Gaming principles has been proposed to augment and improve educational and therapeutic VR applications and their beneficial impact on the user. To discuss this development, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) hosted the second "Virtual Environments: Current Topics in Psychological Research" (VECTOR) workshop from July 25 to July 27, 2018.

On three days, researchers and interested students from Tübingen and around the world discussed current developments of VR and Serious Gaming in therapeutic and educational applications, as well as in basic research and exchanged their expertise in designing and evaluating such applications.

Starting with tutorials on the first day, talks and poster sessions followed on the second and the third day of the workshop. On Thursday, Mareike Gooßes (University of Cologne, Fig. 1) opened with her talk on the application of exergames in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease. Following a talk session on the application of Serious Games in therapy and education, and a poster session (Fig. 2), Valerie Shute (Florida State University, Fig. 3) gave her talk on stealth assessment in educational games and discussed the new possibilities of continuous evaluation and feedback regarding the learner’s success in such applications. Lab tours at the IWM and a presentation of the TüDiLab concluded the schedule on Thursday. Friday began with Marta Ferrer-García’s (University of Barcelona, Fig. 4) talk on the main characteristics and uses of VR in the study, assessment, and treatment of eating disorders. After a talk session on the application of VR in research of agency, social cognition and spatial cognition, Prof. Giuseppe Riva (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Fig. 5) gave the last keynote lecture. Riva gave an overview of the promising applications of VR in the treatment and diagnosis of different psychological disorders. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion: Marta Ferrer-García, Christian Plewnia (University Hospital of Tübingen), Giuseppe Riva, Stephan de la Rosa (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics) and Valerie Shute reflected and discussed inter alia which technical and theoretical, but also ethical and political challenges remain when fostering the large-scale application of software assisted therapies and trainings.

The 2^nd VECTOR workshop showed the current state of the development of VR applications and their augmentation with game elements. It demonstrated the possibilities, but also the challenges of interdisciplinary cooperation at this hub between psychotherapy, education, game design, medicine, and computer science. 

The workshop was a cooperation between the IWM and the University of Tübingen, further support came from the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN), the Serious Gaming Society, and the University Hospital of Tübingen.

There it is in black and white..? Even if we have information in the form of texts, we interpret them differently. In the age of information overload, contradictions and fake news, the research on the comprehension of texts is of major social relevance. On this year’s Meeting of the Society for Text & Discourse (ST&D) scientists from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien discussed with other participants how texts and discourses are processed in the digital age. 

The 28 Annual Meeting of the ST&D from July 17 to 19 in Brighton was held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading uniting contributions on the different theoretical and practical perspective on text comprehension of both societies. Of the IWM Steffen Gottschling (Image 1), member of the Multimodal Interaction Lab, held a talk on the processing of scientific texts (“Readers’ Attention to and Use of Source Information as a Function of its Usefulness to Explain Conflicting Scientific Claims”). He raised the question, how the usefulness of source information to explain conflicting scientific claims affects readers’ attention to and use of this information. With his eye-tracking study with 80 participants he demonstrated that differences in benevolence between the sources (i.e., that source information can be used as conflict explanation) affect both readers’ attention to source information and conflict explanation.

In addition, Dr. Danny Flemming (Image 2), member of the Knowledge Construction Lab (IWM), presented two studies on refutation texts in a poster session and explained how such texts can support laypeople’s comprehension of scientific tentativeness ("Refutation texts as tools to support laypeople's appraisal of scientific tentativeness"). Background to this is that laypeople consider scientific texts to be unreliable the more they know about the limitations of the scientific findings. Flemming had conducted the studies in collaboration with Prof. Gale M. Sinatra during a lab visit at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Germany is seen as a country of innovations. Yet, the economic utilization of its ideas and patents lags behind expectations. Therefore, the joint project “Ideas to Market” aims to foster the economic use of scientific findings and to facilitate the transition of basic research into different application areas. As partner of the project, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) focuses on the development of communication tools like a multi touch table to support the knowledge and idea exchange between groups. 

On July 20, the scientists of the Knowledge Exchange Lab (IWM) met with their partners of the Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and the Human-Centered Computing Lab of the Freie Universität Berlin for the first hands-on workshop of the “Ideas to Market” project in Berlin. In the first application case, scientists had a crowd generate ideas for the usage of new material on a website and visualized these ideas on a multi touch table (MTT). Based on this, six experts with an industrial, scientific or political background tried to identify, evaluate and enhance the best ideas. The MTT application was developed and implemented at the IWM. Highlights in the project include the use of tangibles and the interaction between tablet PCs and the MTT, to offer private and public spaces during the interaction.

“The feedback at the workshop was promising, participants saw a lot of potential in the process as well as in the technologies used”, says Dr. Johanna Rahn, member of the Knowledge Exchange Lab. “The automated sorting options, a similarity matrix, and scripted collaboration of the multi touch table helped improve the decision and evaluation process.”

Citizen Science is an upward trend in Germany and expectations are high: Citizen Science is expected to change the relation between science and society, to strengthen science itself and to impart knowledge about specific topics to citizens. From the perspective of the federal and state governments, research institutions should therefore include participatory elements like citizen science projects in their work if they generate added value.

Concerning this, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) sets a good example:  In cooperation with the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde and the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) they develop interactive maps for the citizen science platform ornitho.de hosted by the DDA. The online platform offers citizen the chance to search for information on local fauna and flora and to upload their own observations. The project is now listed as an example for the citizen science projects of the Leibniz Association in the monitoring report on the Pakt für Innovation und Forschung (pact for research and innovation) of the Joint Science Conference (GWK). Around 40 projects based on citizen participation are currently carried out by Leibniz Institutions.

In addition, the report highlights the joint project “WTimpact – From knowledge transfer to knowledge exchange”: In order to evaluate the effects of Citizen Science, the IWM and its projects partners from natural science and educational research investigate which factors influence the learning process and the emotional attitude of amateur scientists. The partners are the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research.
The Pakt für Forschung und Innovation has been made between the federal and state governments and research institutions like the Leibniz Association, the German Research Foundation, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers and the Max Planck Gesellschaft. It aims to strengthen Germany as a scientific location and to further improve international competitiveness. The monitoring report on the pact recognizes the progress of its institutions annually.

Monitoring Report (PDF in German only)

With effect from July 1, 2018, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and Head of the Knowledge Construction Lab, has been appointed Deputy Chairwoman of the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung. The foundation is one of the largest corporate foundations in Germany and pursues the goal of promoting good education for a networked knowledge and information society. Chairman is Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster, former Mayor of the city of Stuttgart. Ulrike Cress is looking forward to the new task and emphasizes the connections between the topics of the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung and her research work at the IWM: "With digitization, educational institutions are facing new challenges and tasks. Research can help to make teaching-learning settings more efficient and shows how digital media can support learning processes. Expanding these efficient scenarios is now a priority for educational institutions. The Deutsche Telekom Stiftung has an important pioneering role here. I particularly like that their initiatives take into account the entire education chain." Prof. Cress has been appointed to the office for five years.

On three days scientists and interested students will have time to exchange and discuss ongoing developments and applications of virtual reality (VR) technologies in therapy, training, and education, as well as the prospects of these technologies regarding basic research. This year, the VECTOR workshop focus on the enhancement of VR trainings and therapies with principles of gamification, in order to increase the accessibility and to encourage the users.

From July 25th to July 27th 2018 the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen will host the second "Virtual Environments: Current Topics in Psychological Research" (VECTOR) workshop. The workshop is a cooperation with the Universtiy of Tübingen, further support comes from the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN), the Serious Gaming Society, and the University Clinic.

One day of tutorials and two days filled with talks and posters will provide insights into current VR research. Furthermore, four distinguished plenary speakers will present their research on VR and Serious Gaming. Giuseppe Rive is a pioneer in the application of VR in psychological and neurophysiological assessment and rehabilitation. He promotes the distribution of innovative health care approaches and investigates the neuropsychological foundations of the sense of presence - the subjective sense of being there - experienced by users during VR exposure. Marta Ferrer-García applies VR technologies for her research in the fields of clinical and personality psychology, with a special focus on the relation between body image distortions and eating disorders. Valerie Shute is a leading expert in the field of digital learning environments. For more than 30 years, she has been investigating how to design, develop and evaluate advanced learning systems to promote the development of core competencies for successful interactions in a complex and interconnected world. Mareike Gooßes is a physiotherapist and neuroscientist, investigating how non-pharmacological interventions, like exergaming programs, can improve learning processes in patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.
The event is held in English.

Link 

Conflicts are part of everyday life and unavoidable in a society. Especially situations in which different ideologies and beliefs clash together are vulnerable to conflicts. This is particularly noticeable in the current discussion on migration and refugees. But how do conflicts arise? And when do they turn violent?

The development of conflicts is the main focus of the scientists at the Summer School of the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Science (BIGSSS) from July 23 to August 3, 2018 in Bremen. During the summer school, participants are introduced to computational social sciences, the link of research on social science and computational methods of data mining and analysis.

Dr. Peter Holtz of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) has been invited as expert to the event and presents with Dr. Henrik Dobewall (University of Tampere) the project “Values in everyday language and inter-group conflict”: Together with PhD students from different countries, Holtz and Dobewall analyse discourses on social conflicts like the migration debate in Germany and other countries of the EU. Using linguistic analysis and computational methods, they investigate content of websites of right- and left-wing parties as well as comments on social media in order to reconstruct personal value attitudes of the respective authors and to link them with conflict-based discourse patterns.

„Reframing issues in terms of values that the conflict groups can understand facilitates agreement and conflict solution,” says Holtz. “The Summer School is an excellent opportunity to explore such conflict topics in a project with PhD students from different disciplines and to enter a dialogue with other experts on Computational Social Science.”

“I knew that all along” – In hindsight, events often seem predictable, more obvious, and more likely than in foresight. This tendency of overestimating what one knew before an event happened is a psychological phenomenon called hindsight bias.

Ina von der Beck, PhD student of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, focussed in her dissertation on hindsight bias at different stages of knowledge about an event: Among others, she addressed the question how hindsight distortions may be communicated and enhanced even after clarification of what happened (i.e., through Wikipedia articles). In several studies von der Beck got further insights into hindsight: Hindsight distortions in written artefacts are directly related to the author’s level of bias and reading such a distorted article can further increase a reader’s hindsight bias. However, differences in cultural background do not moderate this effect. These findings suggest that the hindsight bias of an individual can be communicated via written artefacts and thus spread and proliferated amongst many.

Ina von der Beck studied psychology at the University of Osnabrück (2008-2013, B.Sc. Psychology, M.Sc. Intercultural Psychology). In November 2013, she joined the IWM as a PhD candidate and research assistant in the Knowledge Construction Lab.

From scientific output to scientific use: Researchers from France, Germany, Italy and Spain discuss on the ESOF 2018 in France today how science communication and public relations can be improved. The panel is part of the 6-day conference on “Sharing Science – Towards new horizons”. The science of the future addresses topics like the development of robotics and artificial intelligence, big data and health, computerised intelligent home and town systems, fact checking as well as questions on ethic, risks and security.
Head of the Leibniz-Instituts für Wissensmedien (IWM) Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress participates with researchers of Baden-Württemberg international (bw-i), the German Research Foundaiton (DFG), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona (IRB), the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of Environment (IREA-CNR) and the Maison des mathématiques et de l'informatique de Lyon (MMI Lyon) in a panel of the section “Social utility of Science”. The panel addresses the efforts of scientific experts and organization to contribute to social utility of science through outreach activities. It opens the discussion whether the values inherent in scientific careers need re-assessment, if the mission of scientific communication is to be pursued with a stronger dedication from scientists.
Cress emphasizes the relevance of science for knowledge transfer and the comprehensibility of research for the public: “Science still naively assumes that laymen comprehend the relevance of research findings. Unfortunately, empirical studies often show that for laymen results from science are only one voice among many.”

The workshops of the event “How can learning be fun? Experiments on playful learning” on Saturday, July 7, were completely booked up. Children flocked in the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) at 1:15pm and 3:15pm. In about two hours they playfully approached the questions: What is learning? How do we learn? Can we learn when we play? How can we measure learning? What helps us learn better? And how can we measure fun?
„It is not about listening but joining on the research day of the children’s university: Children between seven and twelve years old get to know the institutes of the University in small events and workshops and can become little researchers themselves,” said the organizers of the event.
At the IWM, the children found different stations with experiments. Researchers of the IWM had designed the experiments in order to understand how our brain can learn numbers well. Roberta Barrocas (IWM) and Katerina Tsarava (IWM) of the junior research lab Neuro-cognitive Plasticity, Dominik Krauss (Department of Informatics at the University of Tuebingen), and  Silke Maria Bieck (LEAD, University of Tuebingen) had prepared themselves well since it is especially challenging to give children an understanding of science and research.

The term Ubiquitous Working describes work as phenomenon that became ever-present due to modern technological developments. It is also known as Arbeit 4.0 (Work 4.0), one of the central topics of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Due to mobile devices work can be done in spaces other than the office that are usually associated with leisure and free time (i.e. living room, park bench). This is particularly true for knowledge workers who acquire only few material resources beside their mind and therefore are portable. They only need a laptop with internet connection, access to information and files and a chat or mobile phone.  
Research has demonstrated that information processing and work behaviour are influenced by external factors and the environment. Therefore, it can be assumed that workers do not show the same performance when working in a typical work setting compared to typical places of leisure. Using lab experiments and field studies, Carolin Burmeister, a PhD student of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), examined how cognitive performance (like attention and concentration) and decision-making behaviour differed when subjects had experienced a virtual office or leisure environment (i.e. a garden) before or actually had been in a work or leisure environment. Findings indicate that spaces associated with work lead to higher cognitive performance and more risky decisions. In addition, factors of the task (like time pressure or the fit between task and environment) and personal influences (such as personality traits or mood) might affect this correlation. However, employers should keep these effects in mind when assigning important decisions or tasks that acquire a high level of concentration.
Burmeister has been a research associate and PhD student since October 2015. Since 2014, she has been working at the institute, initially as a research assistant in the Knowledge Construction Lab. In her current research, she focusses on modern forms of work. Within the project “Ubiquitous Working: Challenges and opportunities for the net-worked world” she investigates different work environments and surroundings that influence work behaviour.

The future education is digital: At this year’s Festival for Digital Education,  the state government Baden-Württemberg took this idea as an opportunity to experience this future now and to become aware of it. The program on July 4 in Heidelberg was diverse: speeches, digital teaching and learning spaces, discussions, workshops, talks with ministers, a “market of opportunities” that offered meetings with ministers on equal terms, an education boutique with innovative projects and good practice examples from all over Baden-Württemberg.
Researchers of the Leibniz- Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), the only German research facility that examines knowledge processes in the digitization age, were also represented. Among them were Thérése Eder, Andreas Lachner and Marie Krebs of the lab Multiple Representation of Katharina Scheiter. In addition, the Realistic Depiction lab of Peter Gerjets and the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity of Korbinian Moeller participated in the festival.
Two stands informed visitors about the TüDiLab and about learning with tablets and offered to try out the devices. The TüDiLab at the IWM pursues two objectives: the practical professionalization of teaching staff regarding their use of media in class as well as the research on the effects of such media use in teaching. A part of this research could now be experienced live in the tent in hall 02. Visitors tried out eye-trackers that recorded movements of the eye during learning on a computer – like when reading a text or looking at an animation. In this way the perception of images or learning progress can be evaluated. At the second stand, the visitors could test different applications developed in research projects of the IWM and the University of Tübingen. Examples are Semideus, a game for learning fractions, the eChembook, a prototype of a digital school book for chemistry lessons and the Feedbook, a digital book with interactive exercises for English lessons. Furthermore, a multitouch table to compose music digitally was presented via video.

Anyone who visited the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) yesterday probably stood in quite empty hallways: On Tuesday, the annual company outing of the IWM took place. The destination of the outing was an alpaca farm in Nürtingen near Stuttgart. Colleagues starting started relaxed in the day took the train or the car. The others climbed onto their bikes and pedalled in bright sunshine around 30km along the Neckartalweg.  

Each IWM employee had chosen between alpaca trekking with a guided tour around the farm and a round of alpaca minigolf. Both activities offered the chance to talk across work groups about professional issues like the previous lab day as well as about private topics. In the end, there were many happy faces which you can find now back in the rooms of the IWM.

The meeting Leibniz im Bundestag of the Leibniz Association brings together scientists and politicians. The use of digital media in education, learning and teaching with media and media literacy are the main topics of the talk of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, head of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). On 5 July, Cress will meet B Ronja Kemmer (CDU).  The IWM is the only German research institute that examines knowledge processes in times of digitization.
At Leibniz im Bundestag socially relevant topics are discussed in individual meetings from the point of various disciplines: Humanities, Educational Research, Economics, Social Sciences, Spatial Science, Life Science, Mathematics, Natural Science and Engineering as well as Environmental Sciences.

Researchers at the Leibniz-Institutes für Wissensmedien (IWM) and of the Graduate School and Research Network LEAD at the University of Tübingen now found out: Short and intensive arithmetic training strengthens the neuronal connections between brain regions in adults. This neuronal plasticity through numerical learning was already detectable after only five training sessions. 

Today, a so-called "Lab Information Day" took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) - an internal information event during which the scientific staff members inform each other about their research in order to make cross-connections and synergies visible.
The research staff discussed in small groups various topics such as mobile device learning, fake news & propaganda and the medium- and long-term effects of digitization. Following the group discussions, the groups presented their findings in a plenary session.
This was not the first time the Lab Information Day took place. Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM, commented on the Lab Day: "This event has proven to be an excellent tool for formal and informal exchange between the IWM researchers."

“Now more than ever, the learning sciences have a key role to play in unpacking the complexity of the teaching and learning processes. AI and Automation in the workplace, including within education, will alter what we need to learn and how we need to teach it. Therefore, as scientists and educators we need to explore learning in real-world settings in an interdisciplinary manner in order to understand how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology.” This is the intent of the 13^th ICLS Conference taking place from 23 to 30 July in London.
Yesterday, Elke Kümmel of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) presented with her colleagues Gabriele Irle, Joachim Kimmerle, Ulrike Cress and Johannes Moskaliuk a joint poster. Her contribution addressed the question, how learning outcomes can be measured in empirical studies of digital learning environments in higher education. The researchers identified seven categories of learning outcomes: Self-reports, observable behaviour, learning skills, elaboration depth, personal initiative, digital activity, and social interaction. On the basis of these categories, opportunities for future research can be discussed.

 Paper available  

Dr. Christian Scharinger and Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien received together with Tobias Appel and Enkelejda Kasneci the award “Best Early Inverstigators Paper” for their conference contribution “Cross-subject workload classification using pupil-related measures" at the ETRA 2018 (ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications).
In their talk, they presented a new method that allowed measuring the cognitive workload through changes of the pupil. The new approach is more broadly applicable than previous methods and, thanks to the use of Machine Learning, is able to determine the workload during an experiment in real time. The possible applications are diverse: For example, the level of difficulty of a learning exercise could be adjusted so that learners feel neither unchallenged nor overwhelmed.
The price was awarded in Warsaw, after the contribution had prevailed against 84 other Early Investigator Papers. The contribution emerged from cooperation between the IWM, the Graduate and Research Network LEAD and the Perception Engineering Group of the University of Tübingen. It is a model for the successful interplay between basics of psychology, IT knowhow and applications of educational research.

On June 21, the three-part event series on “Bildung in der digitalen Welt im Hochschulbereich" (Education in Universities of the Digital World) of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs continues. It focusses on “Service and Support of Digital Higher Education”. The topics of the last conferences were “Digitization as Challenge of University Teaching” (March 21 and 22 at the University of Mainz) and “Virtual Events and Technical Challenges” (May 28 and 29 at the Leibnizhaus in Hannover).
Anne Thillosen and Markus Schmidt of the e-teaching.org team of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien are going to take part in the event sharing their experience on cooperation with universities and other partners of the portal in the two workshops “Staff and Quality” and “Service and Support”.
The event addresses representatives of the responsible Federal and State Ministries, experts on federal, state and university levels and especially representatives of university support facilities and (inter-university) institutions of the Länder with support function. The information and qualification portal e-teaching.org of the IWM aims to embed e-learning in higher education institutions. The portal provides a wide range of topics such as didactical, technological and organizational aspects. e-teaching.org cooperates with more than 90 universities in German-speaking countries. The community section of the portal offers the 5.000 members a broad range of functions.

Link to the portal e-teaching.org

On 20 June, Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present her report and comments on cross-national cooperation regarding “Digitization and Education” at the Landesinstitut für Lehrerbildung und Schulentwicklung (Institute of Teacher Education and Educational Development) in Hamburg. Afterwards, she will talk in a group discussion with Prof. Dr. Josef Keuffer, head of the Landesinstitut, and with Udo Michallik, Secretary of the KMK, about future steps and implications.
The KMK about the conference: "The topic „Digitization and Education“ is  currently ubiquitous. The implementation in school and education as well as in training of pedagogic staff is both challenging and complex. The event “Digitization and Education – Strengthening Teachers” form 19 to 20 June 2018 in Hamburg provides a platform for mutual exchange. Its aim is to learn from each other by sharing ideas and experiences on the following questions: Which methods can be used for the qualification of the target groups? How can we reach as many teachers as possible in terms of numbers and content? What role do universities and the training of teachers play? What strategies have proved to be efficient?"
Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter is head of the Multiple Representations Lab at the IWM and full professor for Empirical Research on Learning and Instruction at the University of Tübingen. Together with her research group, she investigates cognitive processes underlying learning from multiple representations as well as means of supporting these processes. Results from this research are used to design digital textbooks and tablet-based applications for education.

The European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) is the central organization at European level, in which researchers from the field of empirical teaching-learning research have joined forces. Representing over 2000 members in more than 60 countries, EARLI is the biggest educational association in Europe. Researches from different labs of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) have participated in this year’s second Earli SIG Conference, which has taken place from 15 to 17 June 2018 in Warsaw.
Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, head of the lab Multiple Representation at the IWM, was invited to held a keynote talk on “Offline and online gaze-based interventions: From fundamental lab research to real-world learning tools” on Saturday, 16 June. Dr. Yvonne Kammerer of the lab Multimodal Interaction of Prof. Dr. Peter Gerjets has spoken on the same day about “Learning about controversial scientific issues on the Internet: Relations between attention to source information and sourcing and argumentation in essays”. Dr. Christian Scharinger, also of the same lab, has presented his research on “Using the EEG and Virtual Reality to study the effect of immersion on cognitive processing and learning”. On Sunday, 17 June, Thérése Eder of the lab Multiple Representation has given a lecture on “Do eye movement visualisations foster the interpretation of radiology images and gaze behaviour of dental medicine students?”
After the first successful SIG conference in Oulu, at this year’s meeting the Special Interest Group (SIG) 27 of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) came together with the Polish Eye Tracking Conference (a community of researchers from various fields that utilize eye tracking). So the announcement says: „The combined conference will yield a great platform for the communication and exchange of experience with different fields of researches interested in different multimodal, multichannel process measures, such as computer log data, eye tracking, EEG, facial expressions of emotions, EDA, and observational data.“

Link to the program

Pencil or keyboard – Is writing the same as writing? Stefanie Jung answers this question with a study on children with and without dyslexia (reading/spelling disability) from 5^5h to 7^th grade applying a dictation of a cloze test as it is often done in linguistic experiments. The results demonstrate that children without dyslexia make more spelling mistakes when using a keyboard compared to hand writing. Children with dyslexia make more mistakes in general than the control group, but the number of mistakes decline when they use a keyboard for writing. The findings indicate that media context influences children’s ability of spelling differently. Furthermore, the use of digital media might help compensate linguistic deficits.

Stefanie Jung of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien presented her current research at this year’s annual conference of the dbl (German Federal Association of Speech Therapy). On 15. and 16. June,  she will show a digital poster presentation in the section “Spotlight” on current topics of speech therapy following a detailed discussion with the participants over the printed posters.
Since April 2017, Stefanie Jung has been employed as research assistant in the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity of Prof. Dr. Korbinian Moeller. Within her PhD project, she investigates the influence of digital technologies on written language development. In particular, she compares writing and typing in children with and without dyslexia. Her presentation at this year’s dbl conference with its focus on spelling ability in different media context stimulates the discussion and development of diagnostic and intervention methods in speech therapy together with practicing speech therapists.    

Digital media for learning use combinations of different representational formats, such as texts, pictures, or animations, to represent matters to be learned. A precondition for successful learning with multiple representations is that learners select information from text and picture that is essential for the content area, organize these pieces of information and link them together in memory (cognitive processes). From the point of view of research, it is important to exactly describe these cognitive and metacognitive processes and – based hereupon – develop effective measures which can instruct learners regarding the execution of these processes. The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) works intensively on this research matter.
From 6 to 8 June 2018 the IWM invited scientist to the Summer School “Multimodality and Knowledge Processes” to discuss the interplay between different sensorial channels (like vision, sound and haptics) and modes of information (like texts, pictures and animation) regarding the perception, cognitive processing and knowledge acquisition during the use of different media. John Bateman /University of Bremen (Pic.1), Neil Cohn / University of Tilburg, Netherlands (Pic.3&4), Mike Stieff / University of Illinois at Chicago (Pic.2), Zacharias Zacharia / University of Cyprus (Pic.5) und Leilah Lyons / University of Illinois at Chicago (Pic.6&7) presented their research as keynote speakers.
In an interview with the IWM the guest speakers explained the relevance of the research on multimodality: “I think we have a very good body of empirical evidence that people learn with multiple modes”, says Mike Stieff, Professor of Learning Science in Chicago. “But it’s crucial that we conduct research on understanding exactly how this happens both in service of better informing theories of multimodality as well as designing educational interventions to help people learn from multiple modes.” Leilah Lyons, Professor of Learning Science and Computer Science, says, “How could it not be important? It is such a dominant mode of human learning and human interaction. I think that not studying things from that perspective is just not relevant.” Professor of Linguistics John Bateman from London, who works at the University of Bremen, adds, “Life is multimodal. And up to now research on it has been fragmented for good disciplinary reasons. But that does not give us the necessary connection to understand how we interact in today’s society which is really multimodal.”
Therefore, the Summer School brings together scientists from different fields including experimental psychology, neuroscience as well as computer science, learning science and linguistics. “These are communities that usually do not come together”, says Katharina Scheiter, one of the organizers of the event and head of the lab Multiple Representation at the IWM. “We have different approaches on multimodality, theoretical and methodical. That became evident during the three days of the Summer School. But it has lead also to the activation of new perspectives which the participant will use for their own research.”

A virtual walk through Tübingen: by zooming in the digital city map, exploring pictures of historical buildings and reading background information. The multitouch table developed by the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the city of Tübingen offers an interactive knowledge transfer on the history of the city. The table will serve as a visitor information system at the town hall of Tübingen providing an overview of the city centre. Popular spots like the town hall, the castle Hohentübingen, the Stiftskirche, the Alte Aula and the Neckargasse can be experienced virtually. The table can present different documents or images simultaneously to its visitors and enables them to use it at the same time.
The multitouch table and its interactive applications is a result of long-term research at the IWM. Though, research on it will continue after its installation at town hall. Thus, possible forms of interaction will be optimized in order to facilitate the access of information. One research focus lies on the cognitive processes which are relevant for the understanding and memory of multi-perspective, historical and geographic information.
Prof. Dr. Gerjets, head of the lab Multimodal Interaction at the IWM, worked on the development of the table and thus is concerned with the question how knowledge can be transferred in a way that persons can recall as much as possible of it:  “The project of the interactive information table for the town hall of Tübingen is a particularly exciting one since it does not only consider the perspective of application but enables a new access to the topic: On the one hand, we can convert our research findings on intuitive visitor information systems into attractive displays of knowledge transfer. On the other hand, the installation of the table in the town hall allows us to gather reliable data in the future on how much visitors will remember the city’s history after using the table and how they can orientate themselves in the city afterwards."
The Lord Mayor of Tübingen and the First Mayor Dr. Christine Arbogast together with other participants of the city visited the IWM yesterday in order to talk about the current status of the “Tübinger Tisch” – or in short “Tüsch” – like the development of its digital maps. Since November 2017, Severin Opel has been software developer at the IWM and is currently developing the software for the table: “The biggest challenge of the project for me is to write a highly intuitive multitouch interface that can be used from different users at the same time as well as from different angles of the table.”

The meeting “Leibniz im Bundestag” of the Leibniz Association brings together scientists and politicians. The use of digital media in education, learning and teaching with media and media literacy are the main topics of the talk of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, head of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). On 5 June, Cress will meet Birke Bull- Bischoff (Die Linke) and with Dr. Wiebke Esdar (SPD) on 6 June.
The IWM is the only German research institute that examines knowledge processes in times of digitization. New technologies are ubiquitous, their progress rapid. Just as diverse are the questions on this development: How can digital media be used to improve knowledge processes? How can they deepen and optimize our understanding? Which role do they play in the transfer of knowledge? At the IWM, we answer tomorrow's questions today. “A central task of our country is to get children and adults fit for the digital era,” says Cress. “And researchers can make an important contribution to that. That is why I consider “Science meets politics” as an excellent discussion panel.”

On Sunday evening, May 27, Ana Levordashka held the award in her hands. She had written her dissertation at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. There, she had investigated how people process news and messages on social media. The results indicate that the regular skimming of updates contributes to the development of so-called ambient awareness, the knowledge about the network members.
The Herbert S. Dordick Award was handed out during this year’s ICE (international communication association) conference in Prague. “This award honors the memory of Prof. Herbert S. Dordick (1925-1998), a distinguished telecommunications engineer, public/urban policy researcher and intellectual, teacher and mentor. […] The Dordick Dissertation Award recognizes the most outstanding doctoral dissertation in the area of communication and technology completed and defended in the preceding year.”

Against a backdrop of evolving technologies and shifting sociocultural and political dynamics, the ICA (international communication association) hosts its annual conference from May 24 to May 28 in Prague. Lara Wolfers of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present here her topic “Put Your Phone Down? How Mothers' Smartphone Use Is Associated With Sensitivity” on Friday, May 25. With her junior research group Social Media she investigates the use of media and social networks of parents and how this affects their children and the everyday life of the family. Head of the junior research group Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz will give a talk on “The Effects of Facebook Use after Self-threat: Decrease of Negative Mood, but no Increase of Self-esteem“ on Saturday, May 26. In her study “Redefining tie strength” she has examined the effects of social media use. The results indicate that Facebook provides social support and does not lead to stress or less life satisfaction in the long term. The longitudinal study is available as Open Data. On Friday, May 25, Utz will also talk about the study at the panel “Open Data and Its Impact on the Discipline“.

Digitization is a social development, which encompasses nearly all aspects of our life. Now it’s up to the members of society to shape the changes through digitization responsibly. This responsibility particularly affects foundations. On this current occasion, this year’s German Foundation Congress, which takes place from May 16 to May 18 in Nürnberg, deals with the main topic “Update! Foundations and Digitization”.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and head of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen (WCT), gives a speech to the working group Science and Research of the Association of German Foundations on “What are experts, what are laypersons? How digitization changes the knowledge system”. Background is that digitization facilitates the participation of laypersons in science (Citizen Science) and might counteract the increasing estrangement of science and citizens.
Can Citizen Science help bring citizens closer to science again by making them co-actors? This talk examines the possible contribution of Citizen Science to the meanwhile highly complex science and the limits of this cooperation. The talk will be commented by Manuel J. Hartung, head of the section ZEIT-Chancen.

A research lab is under construction at the RGMZ in Mainz. Artificial realities will show visitors long forgotten worlds. Mixed and virtual reality as well as digital models and game application are used for the installations. An example: Diving into a new water world. Visitors can explore a Roman cargo ship that sunk in the first century.

This virtual experience is part of the cooperation project “Mixed Reality Open Lab” that taps into the potential of digital media for informal learning settings like the museum. The content experts of the RGZM work together with professionals from the computer science department of Mainz University and the visitor experts of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan (IWM) is responsible for the studies on knowledge transfer of digital depictions and on visitor perception. The project is part of an action plan of the Leibniz Research Museums that design innovative information formats.
The 3D reconstruction of the Roman cargo ship is presented during der 1^st Science Week Mainz from May 2 until 9. On May 9, Stephan Schwan will hold a lecture on the value of digital media for visitor perception in the accompanying expert workshop „Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Reality for Knowledge Transfer in Museums”. His research focus is on cognitive processing and comprehension of dynamic audio-visual media, knowledge acquisition with topographic and thematic maps, and the role of digital media and authentic exhibits for informal learning in museums.

Almost all children use their fingers for counting and calculating. But there is still disagreement whether fingers are useful for learning. For a short time counting with fingers was even forbidden in class rooms.

The so called finger-based numerical learning is part of the research of psychologist Korbinian Moeller. He studies the cognitive and neuronal underpinnings of numerical competencies employing latest neuro-cognitive methods with his junior research lab Neuro-cognitive Plasticity at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM).
His research demonstrates: Fingers are important for initial calculation and counting as well as for the understanding of cardinal numbers. “Fingers are good,” says Moeller in a radio feature on Deutschlandfunk, “since they are more than just a tool. Children, who count with their fingers, play finger games, count loudly or point on numbers, use different channels while learning math: Seeing, hearing and feeling numbers they are able to better retain numbers.” In the interview for Deutschlandfunk Kultur he explains among other things the concerns of people rejecting counting with finger and which advantages it actually offers.
Listen to the full interview here (German only).

Soccer – a sport people are excited about not only during the World Cup. Even in Russia the ball rolls over sports fields and TV screens. And the question is always “Who is winning?”. But how do fans evaluate a game and assess the chances of winning for their team?

So, on May 5, Prof Dr. Stephan Schwan of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) explained at a Science Slam in St Petersburg how soccer fans watch a game. In a large-scale study with the department of Media Studies of Tübingen University subjects had watched a live Champions League match. During the match the scientists had tracked the eye movement of the participants and had observed how they structured the course of play by significant stages. Additional data had been collected through a survey right after the match. The findings show: The perceptual processes are similar during the game (because the viewing directions are the same) but the memories of the viewers are biased in favour of the own team. The participants recalled more ball possessions for their team and less for the opponents.

The Science Slam was organized by the German-Russian Forum e.V. and Bumaga on the occasion of the upcoming World Cup. The contributions of the German poets were translated simultaneously into Russian.

Link to the Science Slam – Lecture of Stephan Schwan at 1:06:50 (Russian/German)

The topics and speakers of this year’s scientific meeting of the Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN) were overall diverse: “Education counts among the most important areas of activity in society today and in the future. Shaping an education system and its institutions and ensuring their success is regarded as a central resource for prosperity, cultural wealth and social cohesion in modern societies.” (Fig. 17-20)
The opening talks, therefore, focused on the future of education: Martin Merkt (Fig. 1) of the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) discussed how critical reflection of online information can be promoted – which is especially relevant for the debate around fake news, online privacy and cyber mobbing. Mirjam Weis (School of Education, Munich, TUM; Centre for International Student Assessment, ZIB) talked about the attitudes of parents on smartphone and tablet use of children in the age of 0 to 3, a potential target group of a growing sales market (Fig. 2). Still, tablets can be used in school lessons and their possible application has been reflected in several scientific studies. Findings and implications of a study on the use of iPads in math lessons at different schools were presented by Frank Reinhold (TUM), Sarah Hofer (ZIB), Stefan Hoch (TUM), Bernhard Werner (TUM), Jürgen Richter-Gebert (TUM) and Kristina Reiss (TUM) (Fig. 3).
Discussion and lectures followed inter alia by Felicitas Macgilchrist (GEI, University of Göttingen) „Datafication and Education“ (Fig. 4), by Olaf Köller und Jennifer Meyer (IPN) on “Automatic Coding of Arguments in English: Evidence from a Large-Scale Assessment Study“ (Fig. 5) and by Simon Janssen (IAB, IZA) with Jens Mohrenweiser (Bournemouth University) „The Shelf Life of Incumbent Workers during Accelerating Technological Change: Evidence from a Training Regulation Reform“ (Fig.6).
During two Knowledge Cafés the scientists could exchange views on learning support and digital education possibilities (Fig. 7 & 8). Furthermore, posters on topics like media didactics, game-based learning, digital media in schools and universities as well as adult education were presented and discussed (Fig. 9-13). On the second day of the meeting, Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) – this year’s host of the LERN – introduced the Tübingen Digital Teaching Lab (TüDiLab). The TüDiLab simulates a class room with current digital media and survey instruments for the training of teachers as well as for the research on media-based lessons (Abb. 14-16).

How can digital media compensate disadvantages of students? Can digital media balance individual differences in learning and optimize individual learning processes? What possibilities do digital media offer to include the diversity of students in teaching?
These questions and many more will be discussed with examples from teaching practice at the online events of the e-teaching topic special “Heterogenität im Studium: Was leisten digitale Medien?“ (Heterogeneity in university education: What can digital media achieve?). Between May 7 and June 9, six online events will be held on digital applications and programs that support the heterogenic backgrounds of students. The opening event on teaching quality for heterogenic students („Lehrqualität für heterogene Studierende gestalten: Welche (digitalen) Unterstützungsangebote sind sinnvoll?“) is going to take place on Monday, May 7 at 2.00pm. The events are open to all.

Link to press release and program (German only)

The Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen (WCT) will be expanded through an association of two projects located at the University of Stuttgart in May 2018. The projects, which are formed by tandem partners from the IWM and the University of Stuttgart, will be financed for a term of three years by the University of Stuttgart. This association is an important preparatory work for the Excellence Cluster proposal “Understanding understanding: language and text”, which was submitted by the Universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen jointly with the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien.
The Scientific Advisory Board of the WCT recommended the projects “Emotion and argument in digital information environments“ by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Padó, Dr. Roman Klinger (Institute for Natural Language Processing of the University of Stuttgart) and Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg (IWM) as well as “Visual analysis of context changes in (social) media contributions“ by Prof. Dr. Thomas Ertl, Dr. Steffen Koch (Institute for Visualisation and Interactive Systems of the University of Stuttgart) and Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz (IWM) to be associated with the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen.

 Press Release

Interactive interfaces such as smartphone displays or multitouch tables are becoming more common and allow more and more physical interaction: on the one hand with those media itself and on the other hand with their learning content on the other.
From 21 to 26 April scientists, business representatives and users have discussed how interactive technologies can be used effectively in various areas of life in the future at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors at Computing Systems in Montreal. Prof. Dr. Korbinian Moeller from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) – a Knowledge Media Research Center - presented the results of a training study on Wednesday, April 25, in which preschool children used oversized LEGO-like stones to improve their numerical skills. In his research, Moeller focuses on the influence of physical experiences on the development of computational skills in children. This embodied cognition approach has been successful in several studies, demonstrating the importance of physical experience for numerical competencies.

How do digital communication technologies affect processes of political opinion formation? Do specific forms of media use have a negative influence on the development of young people? How can social media be used as data source for research in Social Psychology?
Dr. Peter Holtz addresses these issues in his habilitation. With his thesis “Social Psychology in the Information Age” at the Johannes Kepler University Linz Holtz has qualified as professor in Psychology. The psychologist uses for example internet data like forum posts to examine dynamics in opinion formation. “Social media are becoming increasingly important in almost every aspect of our daily lives. Social psychologist today face the challenge to utilise data from social media for research in both the most efficient and ethical way”, explains Holtz. Since December 2015, he has been working as research associate in the EU-project “AFEL- Analytics for Everyday Learning" with the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM.  Within the project he focuses on socio-cognitive models of media-based everyday learning and aims together with colleagues in IT at making the findings applicable to the development of online learning platforms.

“Education is a central pillar of our society that is more and more supported by digitisation. Digital media already help us develop the education system and make it more efficient.  But how we make effective use of these possibilities in order to support teachers and learners equally, is still a central question in research,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, head of the Leibniz- Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM).
Therefore, the IWM hosts the Annual Research Meeting LERN “Digitisation and Education: Potentials and Challenges from the Perspective of Educational Research” on 26 and 27 April 2018. During the two days researcher of the Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN) present inter alia their findings on the use of digital media in class, discuss about success factors of digitisation projects and respond to the often ignored concerns of teachers. Thus, the meeting identifies the current state of research and expertise of its member institutions as well as further research demands.

Yesterday, a consultation upon the request „Chancen und Potenziale der Digitalisierung für Niedersachsen nutzen - Digitalisierungsprofessuren fördern“ (Exploiting opportunities and potentials of digitization for Lower Saxony – Promoting professorships in digitization) by the SPD and CDU is taking place in a public session with the committee “Science and Culture” at the Landtag of Lower Saxony. Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) has stated his opinion as an expert yesterday at the Landtag. On the basis of the IWMs profile, his position will concentrate on the role of digitization professors – as mentioned in the application – regarding the transfer of knowledge on digitization, the digitization of education as well as the development of digital and media literacy in university studies and training, especially in teacher training. Overall, the IWM supports the introduction of digital professorships that provide expertise in both computer science and social science.

The postdoc network Cognitive Conflicts during Media Use hosts a workshop on “Selective Information Processing during Digital Media Use” on 10 and 11 April at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Scientists – including some IWM alumni – from Germany and the Netherlands present their current research.
Digital media nowadays provide access to a wealth of information. “But with a high density of information comes the danger of overload. Users often don’t know which information is relevant for their purposes,” says Dr. Anne Schüler (IWM), Deputy Head of the Multiple Representations Lab at the IWM and one co-organiser of the workshop. “It is crucial to understand how users process information in order to systematically prepare and edit content so unfavourable processing does not occur.” In the workshop, the researchers examine quite different (positive and negative) examples of selective information processing such as the formation of opinions in echo chambers, information biases in science as well as the processing of data in digital environments and during multimedia learning.
“The workshop offers the unique opportunity to bring together researchers from various fields like Communication Studies, Social Psychology, Political Psychology and Multimedia Research and to discuss from the different perspectives how information is processed in the digital age and what possibilities digital media offer in this area,” so Anne Schüler. 

Math and numbers are everywhere – at the supermarket, when looking at timetables and when reading prescriptions and expiration dates. They are also central for the use of modern technology. Dr. Julia Bahmüller of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) investigates with the junior research group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity the behavioural and neural underpinnings of numerical processing as well as the development of numerical competencies.
The Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society (MCLS), too, set itself the aim of promoting the communication of scientific research on mathematical cognition and learning, and advancing the study of its typical and atypical development, neural substrates, genetic and environmental influences, cultural variation, and malleability. At the international conference Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society on April 8 and 9 in the heart of Oxford, Julia Bahnmüller presents her work about the influence of linguistic factors on the cognitive processing of multi-digit numbers. Furthermore, Silke Bieck, PhD student of the LEAD Graduate School and associate researcher at the IWM, talks about the outcomes of a game-based study on the learning of fraction numbers. In the study training success was measured by performance indicators as well as on a neuronal level. 

The Phaenomenta, a Science Center of Flensburg University, bought a LEGO table and set it up with the software of the media development department of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). Dr. Uwe Oestermeier, head of software development at the IWM, presented the table to the press on Thursday, March 29th.
The Phaenomenta counts around 65.000 visitors every year and shows exhibits that invite visitors to explain, describe and even test them. For example, a long metal spiral allows producing transverse and longitudinal waves; there are cable pulls where one can lift oneself up and many other mechanical, optical and acoustic experiments. Visitors should be encouraged to engage in a dialogue about the interesting and astonishing phenomena.
Chairman of the Phaenomenta e.V. Dr. Michael Kiuple first heard about LEGO table during a presentation of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress (IWM) at the 5^th Sankelmanker Talk on Teacher Education in Flensburg. The meeting of the IWM and the Phaenomenta now aimed at remodelling the LEGO table – which overall serves to develop a composition course of 8 to 10 double lessons – as exhibit that is suitable for the short stays at different stations of an exhibition. The Phaenomenta is going to try several variations in the course of a voluntary social year. The plan is to offer workshops for teachers and school classes together with the Education Department of the University of Flensburg.

Wooden turtles, colourful plugs and a treasure – Ph.D. student Katerina Tsarava of the project group Neuro-cognitive Plasticity of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) plays for science.
With her life-size board game “Crabs and Turtles”, Katerina Tsarava examines how the game environment affects the computational thinking development of children between 8 and 9 years. In the game children solve math related tasks with variables or have to figure out the most efficient way to collect treasures by creating effective sequences of commands which is similar to coding concepts. By doing so, computational thinking related skills are trained like abstraction, pattern recognition and decomposition.
“Games or game-based applications are an increasingly important mechanism for cognitive training, learning and educational interventions because of their ability to keep players motivated to play and to interact with the application or learning environment, respectively,” says Tsavara. Recent research even indicates that game-based learning is more effective in terms of learning and retention than conventional instruction methods.
In her Master thesis project, Tsavara has already studied computational thinking and designed a life-size board game for teaching students basic programming skills. Her current game was further developed and integrated into a new Core Course (“Verstehen wie Computer denken”) of the Hector Kinderakademie in collaboration with Luzia Leifheit from the LEAD Graduate School. The game was tested so far in a Student Enrichment Center in Thessaloniki, at the Kinderakademie of the Hector Institut fuer Empirische Forschungsbildung in Tuebingen (Wanne) and in several beta-test playing sessions at the IWM. The upcoming months, Katerina Tsavara and Luzia Leifheit will apply “Crabs and Turtles” in other Hector Kinderakademien in Baden-Wuertemberg (inter alia in Reutlingen, Nuertingen and Lossburg).
 

Euroscepticism, Brexit, and the rise of populism – only three of the challenges with which the European Union is currently faced. Each of these phenomena harbors great social and political explosiveness, rendering them an interesting field of application for psychological research.
Recent results of this research will be discussed at the symposium Brexit & The Rise of Populism - Insights from Political and Psychological Sciences which will take place at the University of Kent in Canterbury. In this context, Dr. Lara Ditrich of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present a poster displaying her research on the identity-related dynamics among Scottish residents that are associated with the situation in the United Kingdom after the Brexit-referendum. In her research. Ditrich focuses on what factors and processes influence group composition in offline as well as online contexts.

The use of serious games has received increasing attention – also in health care. Serious games have already been used in clinical medicine, surgery and public health successfully, allowing participants to observe the impact of their decision-making, practice clinical skills safely, and exposing them to infrequent yet critical scenarios.
Researches, clinicals and game designer have discussed future implementation and challenges of health games at the International Summit on Serious Health Games of the Imperial College London yesterday. Dr. Manuel Ninaus of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien shows as keynote speaker the importance of emotional engagement in games. In his research Ninaus focuses on game-based learning environments. His motivational approach and his different evaluation methods are crucial for the use of serious games in the health sector.

People in high-power positions experience more stress if they are aware of their responsibility than if they recognize the freedom their position provides. Research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen has shown this. If power-holders think about their responsibility (rather than their personal freedom) they do act more fairly towards others – but at the same time, their own stress level rises. 

On 2 March 2018, the second meeting of the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Cognitive Interfaces” took place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM). The meeting aimed to discuss first results of pre-tests and studies as well as current developments that have arisen from present findings.
All 14 projects presented their current status of work in a poster session to the Scientific Advisory Board. It revealed the diversity of the projects, all focusing on the question, how thinking, action and work can be improved by human computer interfaces. Hereby, multidisciplinarity is the defining feature through cooperation between psychology, computer science, medicine, dentistry, didactics of biology, media science, educational science and sports science.
After the short presentations practical relevance – for example the applicability of an app for patients with osteoarthritis – and contribution to the development of psychological theories were discussed. Overall, the meeting showed how well the projects are progressing. The dyadic teams of IWM employees and scientists of Tübingen University allow the experience of intensive interdisciplinary work.

Dr. Annika Scholl of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is visiting the department of Social Psychology and Prof. Dr. Gerben van Kleef at Amsterdam University from 1 February to 27 March. Both scientists are working on a joint research project.
Gerben van Kleef conducts research – like Annika Scholl – on power and social norms. She reports: “It is enriching to combine different perspective and to develop a joint idea so intensively.” The visit is supported by the SAW postdoc network Cognitive Conflicts. The projects examines in which cases people give power to others. Still little is known about how the behaviour of people can influence others to transfer their power. “To shed light on this issue, we combine theoretical approaches on power, perception of persons and leadership. A conflict occurs: Having power often leads to persons behaving selfishly (i.e. to hold back knowledge).  However, self-seeking behaviour on the other hand does not seem to result in power transfer of others. People might expect that especially power holders share their knowledge instead of keeping it to oneself. In this project we observe how this conflict can be explained and solved in order to support, for example, the knowledge work of organisations”, Annika Scholl explains.

Logging in Facebook or other social networks is nowadays part of our daily routine. While constant checking of status messages is often associated with stress, envy and reduced wellbeing, researchers of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) found out: Stress is influenced by external factors and not by Facebook usage. Concerns that Facebook has a negative impact on the wellbeing are therefore exaggerated. The platform even offers possibilities of social support. The professional use of social media pays off as well: Anyone who uses LinkedIn has professional information advantages. 

The second VECTOR workshop on virtual reality (VR) and games in psychological, medical and educational research takes place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen on 25 till 27 July 2018. The VECTOR workshop 2018 aims at bringing together excellent researchers who uses virtual reality, serious games and related technologies as new approaches within the field of education and health. 

More information 

Controversy and transparency are quality characteristics of journalistic work. This includes the reporting of limitations of scientific findings. “However, our research suggests that the juxtaposition of contradictory positions lead to more negative attitudes towards the reported scientific approaches. Readers may even find the report less credible. How this problem can be solved, has to be shown by further studies. One possible solution might be that journalists address this problem and emphasize the processual character of research in order to resolve the apparent contradiction of fragility and credibility”, so Apl. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IMW) in the interview. “Our findings offer a basic approach for further examining how laymen understand the fragility of scientific results and must therefore be regarded as provisional. But they also show possible starting points on how recipients can be supported in understanding scientific information.  Most obvious is, that science journalists help their readers recognizing fragility by explicitly describing the results as preliminary and by offering a balanced presentation. When presenting new results and findings with weak evidence, contradictory positions should be reported as well. This is part of a good scientific practice anyway, but is often not realized in practice”, he adds. Kimmerle is Deputy Head of the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM.  In his research, he examines the fragility and uncertainty of scientific findings and their perception. In a field study on the reception of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), or in other words of pacemakers, Kimmerle investigates how the temporary character of scientific knowledge can be explained and clarified and how it is processed.

In times of digitization, mobility, networking, clouds and artificial intelligence are possible success factors for the future of companies. Further training in this area should be part of strategic corporate objectives. Thus, following questions arise: “What kind of educational opportunities do companies want or need?”, “How can the success of further training be measured?” and “How does future training look?” Concerning cooperation within the company, it is interesting to examine how social processes affect computer-related collaboration. Social psychologist Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) studies exactly this topic. With his lab „Social Processes“ he focuses on how social factors (such as hierarchy, identification, influence, power, collaboration or competition) help or hinder cooperation. His research findings enrich the panel discussion with Matthias Schäfer (CEO of MÖRK GmbH & Co. KG), Bernd Heinzinger (Solution Specialist Intelligent Cloud, Microsoft Deutschland) and Evelyn Koch (Management Emil-Gminder-Akademie). The discussion was organized last friday by the vhs Reutlingen together with its new institution, the Emil-Gminder-Akademie.

This year’s spring meeting of the newly composed scientific advisory board of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien took place on 19 and 20 February 2018. (In the picture from left to right: Prenzel, Jonas, Leutner, Cress, van Merriënboer, Spinath, Stürmer, Aleven)

The new members Prof. Dr. Vincent Aleven (Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, USA), Prof. Dr. Eva Jonas (University of Salzburg, Austria), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred Prenzel (Technical University of Munich) and Prof. Dr. Stefan Stürmer, (FernUniversität in Hagen) provide very different scientific perspectives – form social psychology to educational research to human-computer-interaction – and therefore excellently complement the other members of the scientific advisory board of the IWM with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlef Leutner (Universität Duisburg-Essen), Prof. Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer (Maastricht University, Niederlande und Prof. Dr. Birgit Spinath (Heidelberg University).
We look forward to continue working with this strong team and like to thank the former members Prof. Dr. Monique Boekaerts, Prof. Dr. Bettina Hannover, Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn und Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader for their expertise and professional input in the last eight years.

“Digital learning must become a standard practise in German schools. All experts, who present themselves at the education fair Didacta in Hannover this week, agree on this point.  But how well are publishers prepared for it?“ says the introduction of the article. 
Katharina Scheiter is head of the Multiple Representations Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and full professor for Empirical Research on Learning and Instruction at the University of Tübingen. Together with her research group, she investigates cognitive processes underlying learning from multiple representations as well as means of supporting these processes. Results from this research are used to design digital textbooks and tablet-based applications for education. Therefore, she is an expert when it comes to evaluating and developing digital learning media at schools. Regarding her work at school, she notes: “Excedingly few media are designed in accordance with latest findings in teaching research” and “You have to consider under what circumstances digital learning has an advantage”.

Your research focuses on learning processes from a psychological perspective, examines different facets of learning success respectively the characteristics of digital learning environments or deals with the evaluation of learning and teaching methods?
The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) organises a symposium about learning processes – research on digital media in university teaching – on 11 and 12 October 2018. The conference is aimed at scholars of psychology and related disciplines, project participants of the current funding line on digital higher education of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as at interested teachers and students. Following research topics will be presented: Learning process during learning with digital media; empirically measuring the success of learning with digital media; digital learning environments in the university; theoretical approach towards learning and teaching with digital media.

Papers can be submitted now: Go to the event website or download the Call for Papers as PDF here (in German)

Detailed information about the symposium: https://learnmap.iwm-tuebingen.de (in German)

Within the framework of the CCS, the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media has invited selected professors to a “Roadmap Conference” on 15 and 16 February. In addition to training courses, the event aims to discuss possibilities and challenges of digital research with and on large data sets that can be addressed by the community. Key issues are “Access and Availability of Big Data Resources”, “Analysing Software and Techniques”, “Research Ethics and Data Science”, “Combination of computational and conventional Methods” and “Interdisciplinary Arrangement between Computer Science and Communication Research”. 

Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is excited: “Computational methods offer many possibilities. But since they are not part of the course of study, they are currently posing challenges for researchers. I greatly welcome that the topic is explored systematically at the Roadmap Conference and I am looking forward to synergy effects through new co-operations.”
Participants are Noshir Contractor of Northwestern University, Jan Kleinnijenhuis of VU University Amsterdam as well as data science experts who are not based in the field of Communications Research such as Wolfgang Nejdl (Computer Science) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover – principal investigator of a thematic ERC Advanced Grants and head of the Learning Labs Lower Saxony (L3S). In order to ensure the sustainability of the joint discussion and brain power, the results will be documented and published in a special issue of the “International Journal of Communication”.

Since 2008, the Alliance of Science Organisations has successfully contributed to an improved provision of information in research and teaching through its Priority Initiative “Digital Information”. Now the initiative starts into the third project phase (2018-2022) and responds to challenges of digital learning and teaching with a new project group. 
More and more digital services allow learning, teaching and even graduating online. Providers are not only educational institutions but also commercial suppliers. In order to support an effective positioning of science organisations regarding this wealth of information, intensive co-operation between the players is more important than ever.
At this point the new project group „Digital learning, teaching and networking” of the Alliance sets in.  Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) represented the Leibniz Association at the first session of the project group in Berlin yesterday: “Unlike universities, teaching is not in the main focus of science organisations. But yesterday’s meeting has shown: Teaching and networking with digital media is crucial for all – within the organisation as well as in areas like Citizen Science. Until the next meeting, the open-minded and very active discussion about the future key topics the project group likes to determine – in comparison to universities – will be continued online. I have the impression that the group will deliver very constructive impulses not only for the science organisations but also for the education system and the society."
The Alliance of Science Organisations is an association of all large science organisations in Germany. It regularly comments on important issues of science policy. Besides the Leibniz Association additional members are: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD),   German Research Foundation (DFG), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Helmholtz Association, German Rectors' Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz - HRK), Max Planck Society, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Wissenschaftsrat (German Council of Science and Humanities).

In 2004, the first edition of the handbook was published, which has since become a standard work on teaching and learning with digital media.

In January 2018, Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut füt Wissenmedien (IWM), Patricia Arnold (HS Munich), Lars Kilian (TU Kaiserslautern) and Gerhard Zimmer (formerly HSU Hamburg) published the 5th edition. The manual was updated and supplemented again this time. It now includes, e.g., a section on the use of humanoid robots in learning contexts and an index. The eleven chapters provide a basic, application-oriented overview of all central areas of teaching and learning with digital media (except for the technical implementation). Topics are: ”Education with E-Learning”, “Virtual Educational Space”,  “Didactic Conception”, “Educational Resources”, “Competencies for Teaching and Learning”, “Learning Outcomes and Competency Web Testing”, “Quality Management”, “Evaluation”, “Standardization”, “Legal Foundations” and “Implementation”.

Anne Thillosen about the new edition: “The ongoing interest in the manual E-Learning indicates that the target group is steadily expanding.  As author I recognize with every necessary update how fast this area develops.  Of course, there was a major step between the first edition in 2004 and the completely revised edition of 2011 – but between 2015 and today many things have changed as well.”

10.000 visitors attracted the E-Learning fair LEARNTECT last week. Among the 302 exhibitors, the visitors could examine the cooperation project LISA – Learning Analytics for sensor-based adaptive Learning – of the Leibniz-Institut für Wisssensmedien (IWM). 
Project LISA shows how learning processes can be made more personalized and adaptive. It is a cooperation between the IWM, the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin, the Humboldt Universität Berlin, Neocosmo, Solutions & Global Media GmbH and Promotion Software. At the booth of Neocosmo (Pic.1-3), visitors could measure by their pulse rate how their mood and power of concentration affected learning activity (Pic.4). Then, via smartphone they received information on how they could improve their learning situation. (Pic.5-7)
Regarding the evaluation of sensor-based data, the area of Learning Analytics still lags behind major providers like Google – with that Prof. Albrecht Fortenbacher of the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin opened his speech on „Learning Analytics für erfahrbares Lernen“. LISA takes an important step forward: It shows the link between learning content and learning success on the basis of sensor measurements, thus providing significant implications for the development of didactic concepts.
                          

Psychologists of the Leibniz- Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tuebingen from the team of Prof. Dr. Kai Sassenberg found out: The fear of cancer influences whether people after searching medical information online go to cancer check-ups or not. People who look up information on cancer screening on the internet, plan to go to their screenings more often – but only if they are afraid of getting cancer. 
Although modern medicine has made progress in the fight against cancer, the fear of cancer diseases is widespread. Still, regular screenings are no matter of course.  Only almost every fifth person over 55 years has undergone a colonoscopy even though it is recommend for this age group as cancer prevention. What influences people to undergo these screenings?

Press Release

Following an invitation from the speaker of psychology at the secondary school department of the Regierungspräsidium, Apl. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) is holding a lecture today. In doing so, he starts off the training day on media psychology for teachers who teach psychology at course level in the 170 high schools of the Stuttgart region. 
Kimmerle offers an introduction to “Media and Media Psychology” and focusses on the choice of media, for example the media teens select, and on explanations of emotion-related media choices. In addition, he discusses media impact like for instance in relation to aggressive behaviour as well as media literacy. Workshops on teaching practice will follow the lecture. “The everyday reality of teens is highly influenced by the use of media. Thus, it is crucial that teachers are sensitised to the media consumption habits of their students and that they examine possibilities of increasing media literacy,“ says Kimmerle.

Several research projects on digital media in higher education teaching of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) have been presented at the e-learning trade fair LEARNTEC in Karlsruhe last week. 

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hirt (Pic.6) of the university clinic Tübingen reported about the BMBF-project (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) “Open Teach” – a cooperation project between the IWM and the online platform Sectio Chirurgica. The key question of his lecture was how digital media can support collaborative working in different medical professions. The BMBF-project “Digital Learning Map 2020” was presented the second time at LEARNTEC after its start in 2017.

Gabriele Irle and Elke Kümmel (IWM) invited the audience to join the best practice database (Pic.1 & 5) which is developed within the project and will go online in summer 2018. Gabriele Irle: “The database offers university teachers from all over Germany the possibility to share their experiences on digital teaching and to get to know the best practices of other teachers. The database is characterized by two features: It shows interdisciplinary solutions across universities and focusses on the individual learning process – not on the tools used.”
Both speeches were held at the well-attended exhibition forum university@LEARNTEC. The forum was again organized by the team of e-teaching.org and was moderated by its members Dr. Anne Thillosen (Pic.4 & 7) and Markus Schmidt (Pic.2). The presenters provided exciting insights into a broad range of applications of digital media in teaching: From agility to peer assessment, from robot vehicles to augmented reality, from gamification to the consequences for curricula and university administrations.
The forum was followed by a workshop for ten digitization projects at national universities that are currently funded by the program „Digital Innovations for Smart Teaching – Better Learning“ of the Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg. Organizer of the workshop was the IWM’s accompanying program „Smart Teaching Baden-Württemberg“ which supports the sustainable implementation of the projects inter alia through a series of events. Mareike Kehrer and Dr. Michael Hellermann (IWM), for example, talked in their workshop about the workflow during the production of open educational resources (Pic.8).

The Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) has taken first steps to advance the set-up of a national platform for Higher Education Teaching. In the final report of the first project phase (2014-2016), the HFD supported the idea of creating such a platform. There are several reasons for it.
First, on the existing non-European (MOOC-)platforms like edX and Coursera, the protection of student data cannot be guaranteed.  Second, the German – and in the medium term the European – university sector should be strengthened for example by a platform that all German higher education institutions can use for their own teaching and that strengthens university cooperation.

In order to evaluate the possibilities for the concrete implementation of such a platform, the HFD and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had ordered a feasibility study in summer 2017. The study was given to the MBB institute and to neocosmo which invited experts – including Dr. Anne Thillosen of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) – to a “Stakeholder workshop” to discuss possible development scenarios and variations. At the workshop, first ideas and results will be presented. The key agenda is: How could and should a national university platform ideally look like and which requirements and options for development as well as problems and risk have to be considered?

“In any case it is useful to take different perspective into account especially at the beginning of the discussion process since e-learning actors, university administration and data centres all have very different views and interests – and they all, of course, should use such a platform. I am glad to bring the perspective of e-teching.org and our community into discussion”, says Thillosen.

Future school education without the use of digital media would be inconceivable. Thereby, children of new generations (the so called digital natives) seem to know more about the use of digital technologies than adults who did not grow up with those media. But is this true? Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensemedien answers this question. In an interview with Die Debatte, Cress also talked about how digital media is changing school education and about their specific use for different age groups: 

“If we successfully integrate media into school lesson as teachers, it means, that teaching changes as well. Lessons will be more self-directed, more collaborative as well as interactive.”   

Die Debatte discusses controversial scientific issues. It is organized by Wissenschaft im Dialog, the Science Media Center Germany (SMC) and the Technische Universitaet Braunschweig.

Link to the video  (german only)

To engage African scholars in advancing the Learning Sciences, the first Workshop of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 12 and 13 February 2018. The workshop will showcase inspirational research, drawing from multidisciplinary areas of the Learning Sciences, and presenting new and provocative debates on how people learn.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Insitut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen, is one of the keynote speakers. She will talk about “Knowledge creation in mass-collaboration scenarios”, for instance on the online platform Wikipedia. Cress: “Although Africa is working on exciting research questions, it is still underrepresented in the international research of Learning Sciences. The workshop aims to explore possibilities for cooperation and to discover the different research foci.”

The International Society of the Learning Sciences is an interdisciplinary society dedicated to the empirical investigation of learning as it exists in real-world settings. It is concerned with the question how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology.

Workshop program

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), was again elected member of the program commission of the Virtuellen Hochschule Bayerns (vhb) -  Bavarian Virtual University. Since 2017, she accompanies the development of the vhb: “I am very impressed how Bavaria is consequently spreading digital teaching with the vhb. It succeeds in identifying the mutual needs and offers of higher education institutions, thus facilitating cooperation between universities. Therefore, I am looking forward to continuing working at the vhb.”

The Bavarian Virtual University is an association of all Bavarian universities and higher education institutions for applied sciences. The VHB offers multimedia online courses on a wide range of scientific areas for students as well as non-students.

On 26 and 27 April 2018, the Annual Research Meeting LERN takes place at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. Subject of the meeting is “Digitisation and Education: Potentials and Challenges from the Perspective of Educational Research”.

The Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN) aims to identify with the meeting the current state of research and expertise of its member institutions as well as further research demands. In order to prepare the conference, all LERN member institutions are asked to submit suggestions for presentations via mail to leibniz-bildungspotenziale@dipf.de until Wednesday, 31 January 2018.

Call for Papers (PDF in German)

Most German universities use digital media for teaching. However, their potential is not yet fully utilised. How the use of digital media in higher education can be improved, is the topic of the exhibition forum university@LEARNTEC.

On 30 January 2018, scientists from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will present new impulses for the future of university education at the LEARNTEC fair:  Gabriele Irle (IWM) and Prof. Dr. Johannes Moskaliuk visualise the current state of digital university education with the Digital Learning Map 2020. They will answer the question, what makes teaching with digital tools effective. Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle (IWM) together with Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hirt from the University of Tübingen will show how learning between specialists can be supported – especially between medical professionals.

“We expect exciting insights into innovative ideas and best practice examples” says Dr. Anne Thillosen (IWM), head of e-teaching.org. The team of the information and qualification portal has organised the program and will moderate the forum. E-teaching.org offers extensive scientific content on the integration of digital media into higher education.

Information on the program (in German)

The internet is an integral part of our everyday life. Here we connect with each other. We use the internet to search, place and expand our knowledge - and the knowledge of others: consciously and unconsciously. The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen is researching how the Internet is used in a knowledge-based way. The IWM focuses not only on digital knowledge processes at universities or in workplaces, but also on knowledge acquisition during our leisure time. At the IWM a series of research questions on knowledge processes are being investigated. Alone or in groups, at home or at school, at work or in the museum - knowledge emerges everywhere. Digital media exist in all these places and they accompany us at all times in our daily lives.

Link to video

With regard to its digitization, the future of teaching at universities seems uncertain. Yet, in the area of e-learning – the electronically supported learning by the use of media – much has happened. Anne Thillosen from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien talked to studienwahl.de about the future of higher education institutions. She is head of e-teaching.org, an e-learning information and qualification portal that provides extensive and scientifically based content about the integration of digital media into higher education.

In January 2011, the journey of the online journal wissensdialoge.de, supported by the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, began (IWM). Here, employees work as editors and guest authors, thus contributing to a continuous exchange of knowledge between research and practical fields. In the last seven years over 300 articles on current research questions and findings have been published on the platform. Topics include personnel development, teamwork, employee management as well as organisational learning and knowledge management.

To celebrate the 7^th anniversary, the editorial team likes to offer you seven tips – their personal kit – for a successful work day (in german): For example “After the break is before the break” by Dr. Christina Matschke and “Practise active listening” by Dr. Annika Scholl.

More information on the online journal:

 http://www.wissensdialoge.de

“Misunderstandings are part of everyday life. They disturb communication but also stimulate it. Misunderstandings trigger arguments, are the source of conversation and not uncommonly only strategically simulated.” So how can we learn to better understand the process of understanding from misunderstandings? And what happens if we just do not understand.
On 12 January 2018 at the interdisciplinary workshop “misunderstanding”, researchers from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmeiden (IWM) present latest insights and developments in psychology on this topic. With its focus on knowledge processes the Leibniz Institute provides a valuable input for the workshop. Therefore, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress and Prof. Dr. Joachim Kimmerle address the question “How well do laymen understand the fragility of scientific content?” and Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan gives insights into “(Mis-)understanding text-image combinations”. From the perspective of various disciplines, the participants want to discuss, inter alia, which roles context, medium, perspective and affects play in processes of understanding. The workshop will end on 13 January 2018.
Processes of understanding also take centre stage of the joint cluster application “Understanding Understanding“ of the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen as well as of the Deutsche Literaturarchiv (DLA) (German Literature Archive) Marbach and the Leibniz-Institute für Wissensmedien Tübingen (IWM).

Program of the workshop (in german)

In December Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter, head of the Multiple representations Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, was elected to the editorial board of the journal Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (ZfE) for the subject area of digital literacy. The ZfE is a representative forum for the entire discipline of educational science and publishes highly rated, peer-reviewed articles on current developments in educational science, making the findings of interdisciplinary research accessible to all those with a professional interest in the field. The ZfE is published on a quarterly basis by the Wiesbaden publishing house~VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

„Cognitive conflict in Science: Demonstrations in what scientists talk about and study.“
The concept of cognitive conflict, that being two competing ideas in the brain at the same time, encompasses a large number of instantiations throughout Psychology, even playing an important role in many philosophies considering how science works best. This experience of cognitive conflict is widely considered to be aversive, but also motivating, for individuals across a wide range of contexts. Overall, the results suggest that scientists talk more when they disagree, and that they speak more about threats to the group and individual. Most generally the results can be thought of as an indication of what science is actually about, i.e., reducing uncertainty and solving problems, and that general psychological principles can be applied within the context of science to understand how science works, and how science should work.

Brett Buttliere has been working as a research assistant under Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich W. Hesse and Dr. Jürgen Buder in the Knowledge Exchange Lab to investigate online knowledge exchange, and especially the role that cognitive conflict plays in this process. The goal of his research is to develop and apply fundamental psychological technologies to help individuals lead better lives (e.g., trying to improve the efficiency of science).

„Influencing appraisals of emotional valence with spatial touchscreen interactions: An embodied approach to Positive Technology“ 

​(Sergio Cervera Torres & Peter Gerjets)

Could bodily interactions with touchscreen interfaces influence users’ affective experiences? This present dissertation investigates, from an embodied perspective, the potential of touchscreen interfaces as “positive technologies”. Positive Technology is an emergent research area within the fields of Cyberpsychology and Human-Computer Interaction interested in examining and promote the quality of user’s affective experiences. However, despite touchscreens enable the manipulation of digital contents directly with the hands, very little is known about how such physical interaction may influence users’ affectivity. This question was approached from theory and research on embodied cognition, which postulate that perception and action influence cognitive and emotional functioning.

Torres is Associated PhD candidate at the Multimodal Interaction Lab of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network of the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

Citizens create knowledge; nature lovers gather valuable information about our domestic flora and fauna day after day. The online accessible data help scientists to make more precise assumptions about the habitat and distributions of different species. In order to inspire even more people to capture biodiversity, scientists of the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL) and the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) together with the Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA) are designing a new generation of interactive online maps for the ornithological web portal ornitho.de.

Press  release

At the “Games and Learning Alliance conference” last week, the new board of the Serious Games Society was elected for a two year team. The members of the board are Francesco Bellotti (president), Manuel Ninaus of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), Remco C. Veltkamp and Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge (see image from left to right).

The Serious Games Society was born from the GALA Network of Excellence, a multidisciplinary consortium of 30 partners from all over the EU. It comprised universities, research centres and large enterprises. The SGS has been designed to bring together the cutting edge companies, institutions and individuals researching on and developing Serious Games. It annually organizes a conference including the Serious Game Awards and publishes its own journal.

Under what circumstances does cooperative research succeed? How can the chances of success be increased  for interdisciplinary projects? These questions were discussed yesterdayin the Leibniz Salon "Cooperative Research and Interdisciplinarity". The Director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress debated with Leibniz colleagues from archaeology, history, biology, medicine and chemistry. Cooperative research and interdisciplinary exchange on scientifically and socially relevant questions are a special claim of the Leibniz Association and its institutes. This session of the Leibniz Salon was also the farewell to Christiane Neumann, the Secretary General of the Leibniz Association.

We can hardly imagine life without the internet as a search tool: whether at school, at work or for recreation. If it were a library, the internet would be the largest library in the world – with millions of shelves stacked with endless amounts of books, texts, CDs and films. And yet how can we get to grips with all of this if we want to learn something? How do we search for information when we want to know something and learn about it? What type of search process leads us to which goal? What action do we take when we want to find certain information on a particular topic, and what significance does information search have when learning? Search engines, link lists, wikis and video portal all offer search assistance.

As key issue of the workshops the participating project groups asked for the topic of data protection. About 20 participants of all funding programs as well as the e-teaching.org-team gained insight into the basics and practical aspects of the new General Data Protection Regulations of the EU. Prof. Dr. Tobias Keber, professor of media law and media politics from the faculty of Electronic Media at Stuttgart Media University, explained in his lecture which data protection regulations must be taken into account when implementing innovative digitalization projects at universities from 25th May 2018. Afterwards, the requirements of the new regulations for the development and use of digitals tools were discussed. Prof. Dr. Sacher Paulus, professor for IT security at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Mannheim, demonstrated, how privacy requirements can be realized in the process of software development and during ongoing operations. Both speakers presented descriptively the legal or technical topic as well as its practical consequences and pointed out courses of action. In an extensive discussion and Q&A session, both lecturers offered expert help and advice on current problems and questions of the projects.

On November 30^th members of ten digitalization projects from Universities in Baden-Württemberg met for a joint workshop day at the IWM as part of the MWK funding program “Digital Innovations for Smart Teaching - Better Learning”. The program “Smart Teaching BW” which is based on the IWM accompanies and supports the projects and their sustainable development. For this purpose it organizes regularly joint workshops during the project term of two years. The workshops provide a networking space for the project groups and universities where they are informed about relevant current issues and are encouraged to discuss them.

Movement and orientation in space is an everyday experience. But it is also a fundamental theoretical problem for science. How does a moving observer perceive the relative movement between two other persons or objects?

Despite its everyday relevance, this "perceptual three-body problem" is largely unexplored. Dr. Tobias Meilinger from the department of Prof. Bülthoff at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biological Cybernetics and Dr. Bärbel Garsoffky and Prof. Dr. Stephan Schwan from the Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media (IWM) examined under which circumstances the perception of movement is distorted - and thus an illusion arises.

Meilinger, T., Garsoffky, B., & Schwan, S. (2017). A catch-up illusion arising from a distance-dependent perception bias in judging relative movement. Scientific Reports, 7: 17037. DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-17158-8

It is all about the topic of an "open culture in times of artificial intelligence" at the conference OPEN! in Stuttgart today. One question will be whether artificial intelligence (AI) can replace creative people in the future. The basic assumption is that AI will definitely change work, creative industries, art and culture. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, director of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and head of the Knowledge construction Lab participates in the panel discussion "AI – catalyst or enemy of an open society?" She will, amongst others things, report on "Cognitive Interfaces" as they are researched in the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus “Cognitive Interfaces” (WCT) of the IWM. The research network focusses on interfaces that expand, not narrow, the human horizon. Cress adds: "Artificial intelligence should show us patterns. We, the people, should draw the conclusions, not the machines." Further members of the discussion include Peter H. Ganten (Chairman OSB Alliance), Prof. Dipl.-Des. Jo Wickert (user generated design GmbH) and Dominika Szope (ZKM-Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe). 

The self-description of the conference - https://www.openkonferenz.de/ueber-uns/: "OPEN! is the event for digitization. It identifies challenges and provides solutions for how to increase productivity and innovation in a data-driven world based on the principles of an "open culture". The OPEN! provides a 360° perspective and looks at both the economy and public administration, science and research, cultural and creative industries and civil society“. The conference is organized by the MFG Baden-Württemberg and the OSB Alliance eV., supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts - Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg.

Since 2017, Leonie Jacob has been a PhD student at the IWM in the Multiple representations Lab of Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter. She will be giving a seminar called "Chances and Risks of Digital Media for Children and Adolescents" for students training to be teachers at the University of Tübingen on three weekends in December. Jacob wants to make it easier for the students to strengthen young people's media literacy in their classes and to feel competent handling digital media: "Media literacy is enormously important in our society. Writing e-mails or doing research on the internet is only a small part of this and an indispensable part of most professions. Since digital media are already used by almost every child in Germany in everyday life, it is very important that they learn media competence, which is important not only for individual development, but also for the prevention of risks of digital media. Media literacy has long been considered a key skill and should be acquired at school. This requires well-trained teachers who have a high level of media literacy themselves. I offer prospective teachers in my seminar the possibility to become aware of the opportunities and risks of digital media. The feeling that students can apply their knowledge later in their lessons and pass it on to their future students motivates me to give as good a seminar as I can. With the use of digital media, the awareness of its possibilities and limitations and the design of prevention lessons, the students should gain a deeper insight into the use of digital media and strengthen their own media literacy. In addition, the seminar enables me to implement newly researched and proven teaching and learning methods and gives me hope that this will make the seminar more exciting and sustainable.” 

The seminar will partly take place at the IWM's TüDiLab, where digital media can be used directly and partly at the Faculty of Education. It is an offer of the Tübingen School of Education (TüSe) for students training to be teachers.

On an interactive multi-touch table LEGO bricks are used to create musical patterns. In this way musical as well as mathematical abilities of elementary learners fostered. The table and the corresponding course „Listening to Math“ were demonstrated in Glasgow at the International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI). Out of a total of 19 demonstrations only two were awarded. Jennifer Müller, Associate PhD student at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) is excited: "It was very impressive. There was a robot to support emotion detection for autistic people." What is so special about the Lego-Table is that it has been developed in a multidisciplinary way. For example, teachers and composers were involved in the course concept development. The software for the table was developed by Dr. Uwe Oestermeier from the software development department of the IWM. The effectiveness of the course is studied by psychologists. Müller says about the peculiarity of the course concept: "If you want to use multimodal technologies in the classroom, then you need to work with teachers, psychologists, computer scientists, education researchers and others. In order for teachers to be able to use multimodal technologies effectively in the classroom, suitable methods need to be developed as well."

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Aileen Oeberst, Dr. Annika Scholl und Dr. Dr. Elise Klein vom Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) have been named by the Leibniz Gemeinschaft to join AcademiaNet – the Expert Database for Outstanding Women in Academia. The Robert Bosch Stiftung, in cooperation with Spektrum der Wissenschaft (Nature Publishing Group), has set up this exclusive expert database in 2010. It is the only web site of its kind that shows profiles exclusively of outstandingly qualified women who are best in their field. They all have been nominated by highly recognized science and research institutions. To date, more than 2.000 profiles of female top-class researchers of all disciplines are in the database.

Under the main theme "The role of science in a post fact society" the European Parliament opens its doors to the Science Meets Parliaments - the flagship initiative of the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
The Brussels Week will take place for the sixth time from November 28 to 30 2017, bringing together members of the European Parliament and European scientists. The aim of the mutual exchange is to build mutual understanding and to establish a long-term cooperation between politics and science. Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) is one of the selected scientists this year. She will accompany Dr. Paul Rübig (Österreichische Volkspartei and Deputy Chairman of STOA - Science and Technology Options Assessment) for two days, participating in all of his appointments and meetings. Prof. Dr. Sonja Utz examines in her ERC project the impact of social media on life satisfaction, civic engagement and information benefits in a professional context and looks forward to her stay in Brussels: "This is a unique opportunity to gain insight into political decision-making processes and to present my own research results to decision-makers. Communication on social media takes place across borders; the discussion on possible regulations should therefore also take place at European level."

In the debate about digital media in teaching, it is often about the question of whether digital media are conducive to the learning process. But instead of dwelling on this question, at this year's Campus Innovation, Gabriele Irle will give a lecture that focuses on the impact of digital media and the reasons why and how digital media can be effective . "I think that a further development in research and practice of digital teaching is only possible if the modes of action of the learning process with digital media are known. In my lecture I will present the framework model that was developed in the project "Digital Learning Map 2020", which attempts to classify and illustrate the existing theory and empiricism on impact factors. In addition, I show preliminary results of our literature study, which illustrates how differently learning success can be defined. Our research will be applied in the best-practice-database I have outlined, which will make the practical knowledge in Germany visible within the area of digital teaching."

The Campus Innovation is organized annually by the Multimedia Kontor Hamburg and addresses decision-makers and creative thinkers from universities, politics and business, lecturers, administrative staff and students. Under the title "Digitization as a megatrend - what does Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Virtual Reality mean for universities?", the 15th Campus Innovation is expecting more than 800 participants in Curio-Haus Hamburg on November 23 and 24 2017.

One topic of the future is the opportunities and risks of teaching and learning in the digital school. The main question is what teachers in the future will need – be it special school materials or their own abilities in dealing with new media. In his presentation Jun.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Lachner presents the current empirical status of digitization in the school sector as well as empirically-tested application possibilities of digital media in the classroom.

 „Digital education is one of the most challenging goals of our time. Therefore, the question arises how school and education can contribute to the digital education of adolescents, and what opportunities exist to use digital media in school and teaching. In this lecture, the current problematic of digitization in school and teaching will be discussed and effective application scenarios of digital media will be shown," says Lachner about the background of his lecture. Andreas Lachner is junior professor for learning and teaching with digital media at the University of Tübingen, and associated researcher at the Multiple Representations Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien. The lecture series on the future of teacher education and school, organized by the Tübingen School of Education, is part of the Studium Generale series of the University of Tübingen and runs until February 2018. The series focuses on the social integration of teacher education and school, their future challenges and their educational research.

The project meeting for the Eurostars project Dr. TIDE - Digital Research Information Detector - is being held on November 14and 15. In this project, in cooperation with the Norwegian company Scan4News and the company ec4u (formerly InsightDimensions) a business intelligence tool is being developed, which allows the integration of external information and enables the visualization of the results of complex analyzes. The IWM subproject investigates how creating visualizations affects the understanding of complex data and decision-making.

Dr. Yvonne Kammerer has been a part-time Assistant Professor at the Welten Institute of the Open University of the Netherlands since November. The Welten Institute is the research center for learning, teaching and technology of the Open University of the Netherlands. She will continue to work at the IWM as Postdoc.

Digitization of the world - this is the headline of the conference "Fünftes Sankelmarker Gespräch zur Lehrerbildung - Fifth Sankelmarker Talk on Teacher Education" from November 10th to 11th. The talks are about the current challenges of digitization for school and teacher training. The participants are experts from the areas of higher education, educational administration, teacher training institutes and professional associations. The aim is to discuss how electronic media are changing world perceptions, which products, technologies and concepts are currently playing a role in schools and teaching and which trends are recognizable. Ulrike Cress of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will speak on the podium "Learning / E-Learning" today, the subject of her talk is what digital media can do and change in schools. She is the director of the IWM, head of the Knowledge Construction Lab and a full professor at the University of Tübingen, department of psychology. "The public discussion about media in schools is very complex. It's not about more or less technology, but about understanding the variety of applications", says Cress.

The "Sankelmarker Gespräche zur Lehrerbildung - Sankelmarker Talks on Teacher Education" are a series of conferences that has been taking place since 2009. This year, the fifth episode will be held at the European University in Flensburg. The objective of the conference: "Creating space for discussing fundamental problems of teacher education and the teaching profession - if possible beyond daily political issues – in a differentiated and intense way among experts."

Today, the spread of information through digitization is enormously facilitated while at the same time the willingness to accept facts without verifying them thoroughly seems to be increasing. Since scientific knowledge plays an increasingly important role in our everyday lives and the number and complexity of to-be-faced problems is growing, so is the relevance of a public understanding of the challenges tob e overcome is growing, so does the relevance of a general understanding of scientific issues. From global warming, for example, to medical insights: a well-informed and critical reflective public is important for political and social developments and decisions.N² – the Network of Networks comprising the Max Planck PhDnet, the Helmholtz Juniors and the Leibniz PhD Network – is therefore organizing an event in ordert o inspire and prepare young researchers to take responsibility for communicating their science.
Our junior researchers Carolin Burmeister of the Knowledge Construction Lab, Steffen Gottschling of the Multimodal Interaction Lab, Irina Brich and Inga Marie Bause - members of the Knowledge Exchange Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) - will be at the conference in Berlin from November 6-8. Inga Marie Bause has been a research associate and PhD student at the IWM since January 2015: „As part of the organization team I am looking forward to a somewhat different conference, with lots of creative input and unconventional approaches to communicate science in order to increase the public understanding and critical reflection of scientific findings.“
Part of the conference takes place within the context of the Berlin Science week. On the first day the public is invited to join in under the motto “Science Beyond Borders” in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. In addition to lectures and presentations, a Science Lounge will provide an opportunity to talk to researchers, to view the artworks of the “Beyond Curie” project and to learn more about „Knowledge Link through Art and Science (KLAS)”. The remainder of the conference will take place on the EUREF Campus and will give over 200 PhD candidates from Leibniz, Helmholtz and MPG the chance to improve their science communication skills in workshops and presentations. Moreover, lectures and panel discussions will inform and encourage young researchers to engage in science communication as well as to develop visions for future directions of science communication.

"Factors influencing laypersons understanding of the fragility of new scientific findings in journalistic articles"

Scientific journal articles on the Internet provide an important source of information for  laypersons. However, the scientific findings reported therein are always fragile to a certain extent. To recognize and classify this fragility is difficult for laypersons, because they lack expert knowledge, which is why they are mainly dependent on the information available in the text. Moreover, a number of intrapersonal variables can distort the collection and processing of information - for example, the comments of other users who can influence the understanding of the text. How these factors interact and influence the fragility understanding of laypersons has been little researched so far. Danny Flemming investigated this in the BMBF project "Understanding of the tentativeness of medical findings in participative media environments“ and focused on the scientific understanding of laypersons, especially in the context of participative media formats (Web 2.0). Since September 2013 he has been a research scientist and a PhD student in the Knowledge Construction Lab of Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress at the IWM.

Learning from multiple, that means several documents, is becoming more and more important in our digital society, for example when we try to get information about a science-related topic through the Internet. In order to form a solid picture of the facts addressed in the documents from our research, readers must critically evaluate, compare and integrate the various, possibly contradictory information. The research in the field of multiple document literacy (literacy = competency) is investigating these cognitive processes as well as the influencing factors of a competent handling of multiple documents. In the annual international workshop on Multiple Document Literacy, current research results on this subject are presented and discussed in 9 lectures and a poster presentation. The topics include, for example, how a training program influences the source assessment of pupils, the development of an instrument for measuring multiple document literacy, or strategies for dealing with multiple documents in pupils with or without dyslexia.

This year, the workshop will take place for the first time at the IWM from 26 to 27 October. Dr. Yvonne Kammerer is organizing the workshop. A total of about 30 researchers from 8 different countries (Norway, Finland, France, Spain, Italy, USA, Cyprus and Germany) will participate.

On July 1, 2017 the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen has begun a new research topic. It is the first nationwide Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus, which researched "Informational environments" from 2010 to 2016. In the current topic "Cognitive Interfaces" about 40 scientists are investigating in 14 projects how thinking, acting and working can be improved through the design of man-machine interfaces. Digital technologies allow for the creation of an interface, which gives access to an enormous variety of information in real time. This interface influences what we know, how we think, how we decide and how we behave. It is a "cognitive" interface because it can help people in their knowledge processes.
The Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tübingen is a research network jointly initiated by the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) and the University of Tübingen. The aim is to create a closer and strategically oriented network in order to further develop the research into digital media in Tübingen and to strengthen the scientific environment for this topic.

Link: https://www.wissenschaftscampus-tuebingen.de/www/index.html

Are readers focusing on the original sources of the news they read? How or when are they trying to figure out who has said what? These questions are linked to current debates, which controversially discuss the Internet as a source for information.
Despite the importance of using and evaluating primary sources for learning from texts, little is known about the particular conditions that encourage sourcing during reading. Jason Braasch (University of Memphis) about the lecture: „Basic assumptions of the discrepancy-induced source comprehension (D-ISC) model are presented, which describes the moment-by-moment cognitive processes that readers undergo when reading-to-understand controversial messages. We then review supporting evidence from single and multiple text comprehension research. In the discussion, we draw conclusions based on the theoretical and empirical research, highlight limitations of what is known to date, and suggest how further investigations of D-ISC might address these concerns."
Jason Braasch is the founder of the D-ISC assumption model and therefore relevant in this area. The lecture opens the series "Cognitive Conflict Colloquium". The colloquium is organized every semester within the framework of the Postdoc network "Cognitive Conflicts During Media Use" of the Leibniz Institut für Wissensmedien. Its members present research on the subject of the network.

Interested guests are cordially invited, the lecture will be held in English.