Current Research Projects
DFG-Research Unit "Lasting Learning: Cognitive Mechanisms and Effective Instructional Implementation" (FOR 5254): Coordination Project
Principle investigator (spokesperson of the research unit): Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff: Dr. Veit Kubik
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2022-2026
Interleaved Learning with Verbal Materials
Subproject in the DFG-Research Unit "Lasting Learning: Cognitive Mechanisms and Effective Instructional Implementation" (FOR 5254)
Principle investigator: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff: Marina Klimovich, M.Sc.
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2022-2026
Comprehension of socio-scientific controversies with multiple documents: Language as a credibility cue
Principle investigator: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff: Lisa Pilotek, M.Sc.
Mercator fellow: Prof. Dr. Mohammad Karimi (Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran)
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2022-2025
Development and Evaluation of a Standardized Training Program for Promoting Metacognitive Competencies in Highly Gifted Students in Lower Secondary School.
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, Dr. Catharina Tibken
Project staff (Würzburg): Dr. Catharina Tibken
Funding: Karg Foundation
Duration: 2022-2025
The aim of the project is to develop a training program for use in the classroom to improve the metacognitive competencies of gifted students in the area of learning from expository texts. Metacognitive competencies include general knowledge about learning strategies and their meaningful use as well as monitoring and controlling the processing of concrete tasks (e.g., by adjusting learning time). According to the results of a previous project (for more information, see here), well-developed metacognitive competencies may protect against the development of underachievement in gifted adolescents. Following development of the training program, its effectiveness in improving metacognitive competencies and school performance development will be experimentally tested in a sample of high school students in Grades 6-9.
Development of an App for Modular Learning Therapy in Mathematics (AppLeMat)
Principal investigator (Würzburg): Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard
Project staff (Würzburg): Dr. Darius Endlich
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Defense
Duration: 2021-2024
Approximately 13% of school children in Germany are affected by a learning disorder. The nationwide lock-down and the associated school closures as a result of the Corona pandemic posed a major challenge, especially for students with special needs. Learning therapy and specific school support were limited during this time. The development of digital therapy approaches offers the potential to improve support not only in times of crisis, but also when there is a great distance to therapy facilities or for chronically ill children. In this project, in cooperation with the team of Prof. Dr. Monika Daseking (HSU), applications for distance teaching and therapy are to be developed that enable simultaneous therapeutic support for children and that adaptively adjust to the level of performance.
Mobile Reading Training: Validation of an Evidence-based Reading App (MobiLe)
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, Dr. Bettina Müller & Prof. Dr. Birgit Lugrin (Media Informatics) Project staff (Würzburg): Janina Heß, M.Sc.; Panagiotis Karageorgos, M.Sc.
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2020-2023
Adaptive Learning Environments in Higher Education: Effects on Learning Processes and Learning Outcomes
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, Prof. Dr. Roland Stein & Dr. Klaus Lingel (Pedagogy for Behavioral Disorders)
Project staff (Würzburg): N.N.
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2020-2023
Assessment and Training of Scientific Literacy (ASTRALITE): Transfer project
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, Dr. Hannes Münchow
Project staff (Würzburg): N.N.
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2020-2022
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Children's Eye Movements During First and Second Language Reading (Second)
Principal investigator: Dr. Simon Tiffin-Richards
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2019-2022
Tracking the eyes during reading has become an important method in the study of reading development. However, little is known about how eye movements develop in parallel in a child's first and second language. The aim of this project is to track the development of eye movements during reading in children's first language (German) and their first foreign language (English) taught at school. Eye movements during sentence and text reading are compared between the children's first and second language across the school grades 5 and 6. The study design thus allows a within-subject cross-lingual comparison as well as an analysis of the longitudinal development in both languages.
Metacognition and Early Dual Language Learning in Social Context (Meta L2)
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Alexander Grob and Dr. Robin Segerer (University of Basel), Prof. Dr. Tina Hascher (University of Bern), Prof. Dr. Karin Skoruppa (University of Neuchâtel), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard, Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff: Dr. Julia Schindler, Madlen Mangold, M.Sc., Daniel Schulz, M.Sc.
Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Duration: 2019-2022
The aim of the collaborative research project in Basel, Bern, Neuchâtel, and Würzburg is the longitudinal investigation of linguistic, socio-emotional, and metacognitive development in monolingual and bilingual preschool children. The project focusses on monolingual Swiss/German or French children and on bilingual children whose first language is Turkish or Italian and whose second language is Swiss-German/German or French. The children are tested in regular half-year intervals across a 3.5 years period. The team in Würzburg addresses questions of longitudinal transfer and interference effects between first and second language and investigates bidirectional relationships between bilingualism and the development of executive functions and metacognitive skills.
Completed Research Projects
Development of an Online-Screening for Learning Disorders in Elementary School
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard, PD Dr. Peter Marx
Project staff: Dr. Darius Endlich
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2018-2021
The aim of this project is to develop an online-screening for various subtyps of specific developmental disorders of scholastic skills and comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems in elementary school (grades 1-4). We seek to identify the performance in reading, spelling and maths. Moreover, some measures of intelligence will be included. Our screening is to be implemented in a wide-spread online presence combining diagnosis and intervention of learning disorders.
Development of Metacognition and Personality in Highly Gifted Underachievers and Achievers in Grades 5 and 7
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter, PD Dr. Sandra Schmiedeler, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider, and Dr. Nicole von der Linden
Project staff: Dr. Catharina Tibken
Funding: Karg Foundation
Duration: 2018-2021
The project aims at identifying (meta-)cognitive and socio-emotional characteristics that are systematically related to scholastic underachievement of gifted students. Highly gifted underachievers and achievers in Grades 5 and 7 are examined and compared with normally gifted students of the same age groups at two times of measurement.
The Role of Emotional Shifts and Event-Congruent Emotions in Narrative Persuasion
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Markus Appel (Media Communication) and Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff: Marie-Luise Schmidt, M.Sc., and Julia Winkler, M.A.
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2018-2021
Stories can change attitudes, beliefs and behavior. As important psychological mechanisms of narrative persuasion, previous research has emphasized the recipients' immersion into the story world (transportation) and their identification with the story characters. Empirical work on these concepts highlights the role of emotion in persuasion through stories. Stories - from classical dramas to contemporary stories in the context of health communication - contain emotional shifts as a central structural principle. In this project, we conduct a series of experiments to investigate the role of these emotional shifts and the resulting emotional processes for the persuasive impact of stories.
Language and Academic Success among Foreign Students in German Universities
Principal investigators: Dr. Katrin Wisniewski (Herder-Institut, Universität Leipzig) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard
Project staff (Würzburg): Jennifer Seeger, M.Sc.
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2017-2020
Project homepage: SPRASTU
The number of international students at German universities is on a continuous rise. This development befits policies of internationalization and social integration. However, the dropout rate among international students is high. While the causes for this are unknown, there are hints that restricted language abilities might play a role for the limited academic success of international students. In a multi-layered longitudinal study, the project sets out to shed light on the links between academic success and German language abilities, metacognitive regulation and study culture. Based on a longitudinal approach, we hope to find starting points to improve study counseling.
An Experimental and Long-term Investigation of Kindergarten Language Interventions for At-risk Children
Principal investigators: PD Dr. Sebastian Suggate (University of Regensburg) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard
Project staff (Würzburg): Jan Lenhart, M.Sc.
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2015-2019
Fostering early language development in kindergarten may constitute one avenue to improve educational achievement, but there is debate as to whether interventions should target more constrained (e.g., phonemic awareness) or less constrained skills (e.g., vocabulary). Furthermore, it is unclear how interventions should be designed to foster vocabulary development. Within the project, we run a series of experimental studies to optimize learning gains in kindergarten and a long-term intervention study with follow-ups in first and secondary grade in school. The results have theoretical and practical implications for understanding the skills and interventions required for successful reading and language development.
Desirable Difficulties in Academic Teaching
Principal investigators: Prof Dr. Tobias Richter and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard
Project staff: Sven Greving, M.Sc.
Funding: Professional School of Education (PSE), Universität Würzburg
Duration: 2017-2020
The approach of desirable difficulties assumes that learning often benefits from measures that make the learning process more difficult. Desirable difficulties described in the literature include distributed and interleaved practice, the active generation of information, or retrieval practice. Little is known so far on the conditions that govern the effectiveness of desirable difficulties in real-life learning scenarios such as academic teaching. In the project, a series of experimental studies will be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the different approaches in actual university courses for prospective teachers.
Assessment and Training of Scientific Literacy (ASTRALITE)
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter (University of Würzburg), Dr. Sebastian Schmid and Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Wild (University of Regensburg)
Project staff (Würzburg): Dr. Hannes Münchow
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2016-2019
The project examines students' competencies of comprehending scientific primary literature. Based on the results of a previous project, tests for the assessment of epistemic-systematic and epistemic-heuristic reading competencies and training programs to foster these competencies are developed and experimentally validated. Moreover, we investigate the underlying cognitive processes by means of eye tracking and other process measures.
Development and Validation of a Screening Battery for Early Diagnosis of Problems in Reading and Writing
Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider
Project staff (Würzburg): Dr . Darius Endlich, Dr. Petra Küspert, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lenhard, PD Dr. Peter Marx
Funding: Hogrefe-Verlag
Duration: 2015-2018
The early diagnosis of precursors of reading and writing in preschool is of uttermost importance for the prevention of learning disorders. In focusing on well-known precursors like phonological processing or knowledge of letters we develop a screening battery in order to predict problems in reading and spelling in elementary school. A sample of about 300 preschool children was tested two times, 10 to 11 and 4 to 5 months before school entry, with the “Würzburger Screening zur Früherkennung von Lese-/Rechtschreibschwierigkeiten”. In first grade the new screening battery will be validated by standardized school performance tests (e.g. ELFE-II, HSP1+). Data for sensitivity, specificity, RATZ-Index and more will be reported.
Evidence-based Promotion of Reading Skills in Primary School
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Marco Ennemoser (University of Education Ludwigsburg) and Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter
Project staff (Würzburg): Dr. Bettina Müller
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2010-2013 and 2014-2017
This project investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of interventions for fostering the reading skills of poor readers at primary school level (grades 2-4). For this purpose, we develop interventions for fostering reading skills at the word and the text level and use longitudinal experimental control-group designs to investigate their differential effects on cognitive component processes of reading. Currently, we are evaluating a syllable-based reading training that aims at fostering direct word recognition through improving orthographic representations.
Development and Relationship of Motor Performance, Executive Functions, and Scholastic Achievement in Children at Risk for Developmental Coordination Disorders (MEX project)
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider and PD Dr. Eva Michel
Project staff: Dipl.-Psych. Sabine Molitor
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration: 2013-2018
This three-year longitudinal study investigates motor and cognitive development in kindergarten and primary school children at risk for developmental coordination disorders (DCD) and typically developing children. The aim is to analyze the developmental pathways with a focus on quantitative and/or qualitative deviations from typical development in the area of motor coordination and working memory/executive functions. Children´s scholastic achievement is assessed to identify predictors that may contribute to school problems in children at risk for DCD.
Development of a Language Test and a Spelling Screening for Grades 9 and 10
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schneider, Dr. Robin Segerer (University of Basel) and PD Dr. Peter Marx
Project staff (Würzburg): Jan Lenhart, M.Sc.
Duration: 2016-2018
This project aims at developing a comprehensive language test for 9th and 10th graders. The test is designed to be appropriate for different school tracks and to measure a broad range of language, reading, and writing competencies. These include basic abilities (vocabulary, grammar, reading fluency), text comprehension (listening and reading comprehension), and text production (spelling, composition of texts). Simultaneously, we also develop an economic spelling screening that measures the ability to detect spelling errors.
Reading to Young Children and the Development of Early Linguistic and Socio-Emotional Competencies
Principal investigators: PD Dr. Frank Niklas
Project staff (Würzburg/Mainz): Dipl.-Psych. Astrid Wirth
Funding/Support:: Reading Foundation Germany
Duration: 2017-2018
This project follows the development of linguistic and socio-emotional competencies of young children (aged 2;6 to 3;6 years at t1) longitudinally across one year. It focusses on the impact of the home learning environment, and in particular of shared reading, on children’s competencies. We will assess linguistic competencies with the “Sprachentwicklungstest für dreijährige Kinder“ (SETK) and children’s socio-emotional competencies via educator surveys. Further, children’s story telling and reading competencies will be obtained with the test “Erzähl- und Lesekompetenzen“ (EuLe). In addition, parents will be surveyed concerning the amount of reading in the family (TRT-VS) and more general aspects of the home learning environment. Few studies on this topic have analysed such a young sample. Consequently, this project aims to explore the associations between the variables and their development, and test and validate new assessment tools.
