Lehmann et al. (2016) investigated working memory capacity (WMC) as a boundary condition for disfluency in an Aptitude-Treatment-Interaction-Study (Metacognition and Learning, 11, 89-105) and, confirming predictions, found that only learners with higher WMC benefited from disfluency in retention and comprehension. Remarkably, retention with fluent texts was similar across WMC levels, while, counterintuitively, higher WMC descriptively predicted lower comprehension. This data pattern underlying their significant interactions is noteworthy and based on a small sample. Due to researchers' degrees of freedom in analytical decisions, we explored the replicability and analytical robustness of the primary findings by modeling different subjective choices in the analytical approach via multiverse analysis. In our (pre-registered) direct replication in the laboratory (N = 220) disfluency, WMC, and their interaction showed null effects on retention, comprehension, and transfer across all multiverse specifications, including when WMC was operationalized via OSPAN. This reflects a consistent lack of (analytical) replicability. Educational relevance statement: A proposed, cost-effective intervention to enhance learning is based on perceptual disfluency, which posits that harder-to-read fonts improve learning and memory. However, evidence supporting this font disfluency effect is mixed, leading researchers to propose conditions under which it might work. Lehmann et al. (2016) suggested that harder-to-read fonts only aid learning when paired with sufficient working memory capacity (WMC). Their findings imply that disfluency might not benefit everyone universally but could help those with higher WMC. If the disfluency effect were universal, it would always improve learning without exceptions. But if it depends on specific conditions like WMC, it might only benefit certain learners. If research shows that disfluency has no overall benefit, it would suggest that using harder-to-read fonts in education is ineffective. Our study found no evidence that font disfluency improves learning overall, nor did we find support for a more limited effect confined to learners with higher working memory capacity. Taken together, these findings suggest that the disfluency effect is unreliable and should not be recommended for educational purposes. Given the inconsistent results in the literature and the lack of robust evidence, educators should be cautious about relying on font disfluency as a tool for improving learning - despite its allure in terms of scalability due to easy applicability.

Readers associate the generic masculine (e.g., in German, die Zuschauer, for a gender-mixed group) more with men, whereas they associate the German gender star form (e.g., die Zuschauer*innen) more with women. However, the stability or malleability of these gender biases is unclear. In the present study (N = 272), we examined whether increasing the salience of the gender star form's inclusiveness (by anaphoric references to an equal number of women and men) in a first task influences gender representations in ensuing tasks. We observed no influence of the salience manipulation on two measures, but for a third measure, response speed, the female bias of the gender star form was neutralized by the salience manipulation. Thus, for some-though not all-measures, experiences in a previous task seem to influence how easily representations of men compared to women are available, indicating that gender representations elicited by language forms are malleable.

Although conversational agents are successfully applied in teaching, it is largely unclear which communication principles should be employed to optimise learning. We examine the influence of common ground (i.e. shared knowledge on which to build during conversation) on learning. In an in-class experiment, students studied with one of two pedagogical conversational agents. The control version provided information without emphasising grounding, whereas the common ground version emphasised grounding, for example, by encouraging students to monitor and repair common ground. After the learning unit, students evaluated their learning experience and the pedagogical conversational agent, after which they were tested on the studied material. Students in the common ground (vs. the control) condition performed better in a post-study knowledge test and engaged longer with the pedagogical conversational agent. Thus, the common ground emphasis facilitated learning with a conversational agent, indicating that grounding principles should be incorporated when designing conversational agents.

There is an ongoing debate about the linguistic gender forms that should be used to elicit fair mental representations of all genders. While most languages with grammatical gender traditionally use the masculine form to refer to people in a gender-independent way, numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that this form leads to a male bias in mental representations. In German, the so-called gender star form has been proposed as an alternative to the masculine form, aimed at better representing persons with nonmale gender identities. To provide empirical data on this claim, we compared the neural processing mechanisms elicited by the gender star form with those elicited by the generically intended masculine form during reference resolution. Participants in the present ERP study read sentence pairs in which a group of people was introduced with a role noun in one of the two gender forms and then revealed to be partly comprised of men or women. Following the masculine form, anaphoric references to women (vs. men) resulted in an increased ERP amplitude in the P600 range. In contrast, following the gender star form, the P600 amplitude was increased for references to men (vs. women), albeit in a slightly different spatio-temporal range. The present data thus indicate that the gender star form and the generically intended masculine form impose partially different demands on the syntactic operations performed by the brain during reference resolution but that, in the end, neither form elicits gender-balanced mental representations of men and women in German.

In many languages, masculine language forms are not only used to designate the male gender but also to operate in a generic fashion. This dual function has been found to lead to male biased representations when people encounter the generic masculine. In German, the now predominant substitute is the gender star form (e.g., Athlet*innen). In two experiments, we examined gender representations elicited when reading the gender star form (vs. generic masculine vs. pair forms). We found that, following the generic masculine, continuations about men (vs. women) were more frequently and more quickly judged to be compatible, replicating the male bias, even though participants were informed about the generic intention. Following the gender star form, a female bias in judgments (both Studies) and speed (only Study 2) occurred, which was somewhat smaller. Representations were most balanced when both male and female forms were mentioned.

Text complexity, an important factor of text-based learning, is typically operationalized through measures of readability and cohesion. However, cognitive load theory assumes that in addition to these measures the number of idea units that need to be held in working memory simultaneously to understand the text’s content substantially influences text complexity. This factor termed element interactivity can impact both intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. However, assessing element interactivity for texts is challenging and its influence is mostly investigated by comparing entirely different learning materials. In this study, we developed two versions of an expository text that differed only in terms of element interactivity, by making changes to argumentative structure, adherence to the given-new principle, inference explication and the amount of subordinate information. We controlled for readability, cohesion, and text length. In Experiment 1, participants who studied the text high in element interactivity demonstrated significantly poorer comprehension on a short-answer-test compared to those who studied the text low in element interactivity. However, there were no significant differences in participants’ cognitive load ratings. In Experiment 2, we presented both texts to raters which allowed for a more accurate comparison of the texts. Under these conditions, we found significant differences in judgments of intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. Our results indicate that element interactivity of a text can be manipulated systematically and that this manipulation impacts both text comprehension and cognitive load. This adds an important dimension to the conceptualization of text complexity, extending traditional measures like readability and cohesion.

The size of physical objects is systematically associated with specific speech sounds used to refer to these objects. This phenomenon, termed size sound symbolism, has been demonstrated with a number of different behavioral measures such as word rating or word selection tasks. Yet, there is little data on where and how such sound-symbolic associations come into play within the brain's cognitive processing hierarchy. In the present EEG study, we investigated whether the neural activation of associations based on size sound symbolism can be automatic by nature. Participants were presented with small or large novel visual objects (greebles), followed by small-sounding or large-sounding (containing the letter or ) fictional greeble names. We found, in accordance with our hypotheses, that the processing of sound-symbolically congruent names, compared to incongruent names, elicited a reduced N400 ERP component, in particular with regard to the small greebles. An additional exploratory analysis revealed an effect of size sound symbolism also in a subsequent time window, capturing a late positive component. These findings were evident in the absence of any task demands or conscious awareness related to sound symbolism. We argue that the greebles' presentation entailed an automatic activation of sound-symbolically associated linguistic information, which in turn facilitated the subsequent linguistic processing of sound-symbolically matching input, followed by stronger engagement of memory functions. The present study thus demonstrates that size sound symbolism is an inherent component of the brain's information processing system rather than a product of deliberate decision or response mechanisms and that it thereby exerts a significant influence on how we experience the world around us.

Features of word form (e.g., the vowel i as in meet) are associated with word meaning (e.g., positive valence), termed sound symbolism. Experimentally, sound symbolism is predominantly examined using pseudo-words. The present research employs a new experimental paradigm where participants are shown faces and are asked to choose a suitable name from memory for each face. In two experiments (total N = 399), we tested whether valence (manipulated via facial expressions, Experiment 1a, or likability, Experiment 1b) influences the occurrence of i-phonemes and o-phonemes in first names. To test convergent validity, a corpus analysis (Study 2) examined the association of likability and the occurrence of i-phonemes and o-phonemes using a representative corpus of German first names. Consistent with previous findings, names given to positively (vs. negatively) valenced faces more frequently contained i-phonemes, whereas, unexpectedly, valence did not influence o-phoneme occurrence. Thus, the naming paradigm bridges the gap between controlled pseudo-word experiments and the natural use of real names and can be employed to examine whether sound symbolic associations are stable enough to generalize to meaningful words.

Grammatical gender form influences readers’ mental gender representations. Previous research demonstrates that the generic masculine form leads to male-biased representations, while some alternative forms lead to female-biased representations. The present research examines the recently introduced glottal stop form in spoken language in German, where a glottal stop (similar to a short pause), meant to represent all gender identities, is inserted before the gender-specific ending. In two experiments (total N = 1188), participants listened to sentences in the glottal stop, the generic masculine, or the generic feminine form and classified whether a second sentence about women or men was a sensible continuation. The generic feminine and the glottal stop led to female biases (fewer errors in sentences about women vs. men) and the generic masculine led to a male bias. The biases were smaller for the glottal stop and the generic masculine than for the generic feminine, indicating that the former two are more readily understood as representing both women and men.

Research on iconicity or sound symbolism chronicles associations between aspects of word meaning and word form. In valence sound symbolism, specifically, vowels were demonstrated to be associated with valence, so that the vowel /i/ (as in English sea) is judged to fit positively valenced stimuli whereas the vowel /o/ (as in German Boot) is judged to fit negatively valenced stimuli. However, because previous findings were based on judgements or name invention tasks, they may reflect deliberate strategies. The present research aims at demonstrating the automaticity of valence sound symbolism in online language processing by means of a speeded response task. A total of 163 participants performed a speeded categorization task in which they were requested to classify one of two simultaneously presented stimuli, pseudowords containing the vowels /i/ or /o/ and pictures with positive or negative emotional facial expressions. Thus, stimulus pairings could be either congruent (/i/-words and positive expressions; /o/-words and negative expressions) or incongruent (/i/-words and negative expressions; /o/-words and positive expressions). We observed faster and more accurate responses for congruent over incongruent combinations (the simple effects were significant for positive but not for negative expressions). Thus, sound symbolic congruency (vs. incongruency) of an irrelevant stimulus facilitated responses, which accords with an automatic process contributing to valence sound symbolism and indicates that valence sound symbolism is deeply engrained in the human cognitive system.

The masculine form in German and other grammatically gendered languages can be used to refer either to male people specifically or to people of any gender generically. While decades of behavioral research have demonstrated that this dual function leads to male-biased responses, the neural underpinnings of this male bias are still underexplored. In the present EEG study, we investigated how the presentation of generically intended masculine role nouns (vs. role nouns in the feminine–masculine and the masculine–feminine pair form) affected the neural processing of subsequently presented anaphoric references to men and to women. The data showed that referring to women after generic masculine role nouns induced processing difficulties not only during early perceptual processing but, crucially, also during high-level reference resolution, as indicated by an enhanced P600 ERP amplitude. In contrast, no significant processing conflicts were observed in any of the analyzed time windows after the pair form. The present results shed light on the online processing of referent gender information in the human brain and support the notion that the generic masculine does not represent men and women equally well.

Fifty years ago, the Rosenhan experiment was one of the most impactful psychological studies across decades. One of the main claims of the experiment was that clinicians could be negatively biased in their first clinical impressions, which would negatively impact further clinical decisions. We conducted two experiments (N = 56 and 64) in which psychotherapists were asked to give their first clinical impressions in two consecutive cases after a brief presentation of the case (case description and video excerpt) and a short recall task of the information provided. The attentional focus in the recall task served as an independent variable. Therapists had to adopt either a symptom-focused or a strength-focused attentional focus to recall the cases, that is, therapists rated their first case in either the symptom-focused or the strength-focused condition and the second case in the opposite condition. In both studies, therapists in the symptom-focused conditions rated patients as slightly more distressed, less resilient, and less psychosocially integrated in comparison to the strength-focused conditions. However, even statistically significant, these effects were rather small to clinically negligible. Our preliminary results suggest that the first clinical impressions of contemporary psychotherapists are vulnerable in both experiments to be slightly, but not as dramatically, distorted as the Rosenhan experiment would suggest at the time.

In addition to accurate information, people also acquire inaccurate information (i.e., a type of semantically inconsistent information) when reading fictional texts. This can result from low epistemic vigilance during reading. Here, we examine the prediction that low (vs. high) accessibility of fictional texts increases epistemic vigilance (approximated as reading time per syllable for semantically inconsistent compared to consistent information). In addition, we explore two associations: first, accessibility with transportation and perceived effects of foregrounding (both measured via self-report), and second, accessibility with acceptance of fiction-based inaccuracies (measured via a general knowledge test). Undergraduate students (n = 102) were randomly assigned to read a fictional story either high or low in accessibility (i.e., accessibility varied between subjects), after which perceived foregrounding, transportation, and then acceptance of inaccurate fiction-based information as accurate were collected. Contrary to our hypothesis, high instead of low accessibility increased epistemic vigilance. Furthermore, accessibility was unrelated to transportation and negatively linked with perceived foregrounding. The acceptance of inaccurate information could not be analyzed due to a floor effect. We exclude several alternative explanations for the pattern of results, such as too high text difficulty. In sum, high text accessibility increases epistemic vigilance and presumably can contribute to reducing the acquisition of inaccurate information.

We doubt the prevailing interpretation of lower Judgments of Learning (JOLs) for testing over rereading to reflect learners' favoritism of an ineffective activity. We argue that JOLs for testing are biased due to a negative feedback effect. In three preregistered experiments (N-final = 306), we eliminated the feedback effect by asking students to only imagine learning with the described activities (rereading/testing) after reading a text and by capturing offline-JOLs (off-JOLs = being decoupled from the current learning experience) as a function of an imaginary final test delay (5 min/1 week/2 weeks). In 5-min conditions, off-JOLs consistently reflected no differences between rereading and testing; in 1-week and 2-week conditions, two (of three) experiments demonstrated an advantage of testing over rereading. These results are consistent with actual learning outcomes in an experiment using the same text and activities (Rummer et al., 2017, Exp. 1). Learners' metacognitive judgments resembled actual learning outcomes more accurately than suggested by previous research.

We examined whether visual disfluency, as elicited by presenting text on flickering slides, affects learning positively and the global judgment of learning (JOL) negatively. Participants (N = 202 in Experiment 1, between-subjects design; N = 53 in Experiment 2, within-subjects design) saw in an online session multiple slides including textual information that they had to learn. The slides were presented either fluently or disfluently, that is, interrupted by rapid presentations of black slides, evoking a flickering effect. Thus, instead of manipulating the textual material (e.g., by using different fonts), as most studies on the disfluency effect so far did, we manipulated the characteristics of the presentation (i.e., flickering vs. nonflickering). In both experiments, JOL was lower in the flickering than in the nonflickering condition. However, flickering slides did not lead to a better memory performance. The results provide further evidence for the assumption that a beneficial disfluency effect is questionable.

In most gender-marked languages, the masculine form is used to refer to male people specifically as well as to people of any gender generically. This dual functionality was shown in behavioral studies to lead to male-biased mental representations. Here, using EEG, we targeted the neurophysiological basis of this bias by investigating whether and how the generic masculine influences the early perceptual and cognitive processing of anaphoric references to men and women. We found that ERP amplitudes in the P200 range were larger for references to women than to men after generic masculine role nouns, while amplitudes in the P300 range were larger for references to men than to women after the feminine-masculine pair form. These findings suggest that the generic masculine primes the perceptual system towards processing men and that neither this form nor the feminine-masculine pair form elicits gender-balanced computations during early processing in the human brain.

As educational organizations face difficulties in providing personalized learning material or individual learning support., pedagogical conversational agents (PCAs) promise individualized learning for students. However, the problem of conversational breakdowns of PCAs and consequently poor learning outcomes still exist. Hence, effective and grounded communication between learners and PCAs is fundamental to improving learning processes and outcomes. As understanding each other and the conversational grounding is crucial for conversations between humans and PCAs, we propose common ground theory as a foundation for designing a PCA. Conducting a design science research project, we propose theory-motivated design principles and instantiate them in a PCA. We evaluate the utility of the artifact with an experimental study in higher education to inform the subsequent design iterations. We contribute design knowledge on conversational agents in learning settings, enabling researchers and practitioners to develop PCAs based on common ground research in education and providing avenues for future research. Thereby, we can secure further understanding of learning processes based on grounding communication.

Vowels are associated with valence, so that words containing /i/ (as in English meet) compared with /o/ (as in French rose) are typically judged to match positively valenced persons and objects. As yet, valence sound symbolism has been mainly observed for Indo-European languages. The present research extends this to a comparison of Japanese-speaking and German-speaking participants. Participants invented pseudo-words as names for faces with different emotional expressions (happy vs. neutral vs. sad vs. angry). For both Japanese-speaking and German-speaking participants, vowel usage depended on emotional valence. The vowel I was used more for positive (vs. other) expressions, whereas O and U were used less for positive (vs. other) expressions. A was associated with positive emotional valence for Japanese-speaking but not German-speaking participants. In sum, emotional valence associations of I (vs. rounded vowels) were similar in German and Japanese, suggesting that sound symbolism for emotional valence is not language specific.

According to an aptitude-treatment interaction experiment (Lehmann et al., Metacognition and Learning, 11, 89–105, 2016 , N = 47, published in Metacognition and Learning ), perceptually disfluent texts facilitated retention and comprehension performance (but not transfer performance) only for learners with higher working memory capacity (WMC). No effects of WMC for a fluent text were found (albeit theoretically, fluency may be more advantageous for learners with lower WMC). The findings of our (pre-registered) direct replication (supervised online sample of N = 96) show a substantial deviation from the original results: In contrast to the interaction effect (disfluency and WMC) of the primary study, we obtained null results for disfluency, WMC, and their interaction for all learning outcomes. Our replication data are not indicative of WMC as a boundary condition moderating the disfluency effect on learning. We discuss discrepancies in the results of the primary study and our direct replication regarding particular methodological and analytical decisions, questioning the robustness and generalizability of Lehman et al.’s results beyond their primary study.

Abstract. Creating lasting knowledge is an important goal of education. But how much do students retain what they have learned in school beyond the next class assignment? Is school instruction suitable for creating lasting knowledge and skills? And what can teachers do to foster the learning of lasting knowledge? We present a selective overview of research on these questions. The two theoretical strands that deal with lasting learning are meaningful learning and desirable difficulties in learning. We propose combining ideas from these two approaches to develop a comprehensive theoretical account of lasting learning and sketch questions that research should clarify to enable such a theory.