The ability of children and adults to generate symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude estimations was examined in the light of their familiarity with numbers. Children (6-year-old kindergartners, 7-year-old first graders, and 9-year-old third graders) and adults made symbolic estimations either by saying number words that matched numbers of dots (i.e., perception task) or by generating numbers of dots that matched given number words (i.e., production task). In the non-symbolic estimation task, participants generated the ...

We examined whether body parts attached to abstract stimuli automatically force embodiment in a mental rotation task. In Experiment 1, standard cube combinations reflecting a human pose were added with (1) body parts on anatomically possible locations, (2) body parts on anatomically impossible locations, (3) colored end cubes, and (4) simple end cubes. Participants (N = 30) had to decide whether two simultaneously presented stimuli, rotated in the picture plane, were identical or not. They were fastest and made less ...

When presented with auditory, visual, or bimodal audiovisual stimuli in a discrimination task, adults tend to ignore the auditory component in bimodal stimuli and respond to the visual component only (i.e., Colavita visual dominance effect). The same is true for older children, whereas young children are dominated by the auditory component of bimodal audiovisual stimuli. This suggests a change of sensory dominance during childhood. The aim of the current study was to investigate, in three experimental conditions, ...

Acting ecologically sustainably and not exhausting natural resources is becoming more and more important. Sustainable behavior can be investigated within the conceptual frame of resource dilemmas, in which users share a common, slowly regenerating resource. A conflict emerges between maximizing one’s own profit and maintaining the resource for all users. Although many studies have investigated adults’ behavior in resource dilemmas, barely anything is known about how children deal with such situations and which factors ...

Spacing or distributed practice is a prominent learning strategy that is related to the so-called desirable difficulties. With distributed practice, a given learning duration is interrupted by at least one break of variable length. In contrast, with massed practice the same total time is spent learning, but without interruption. There is a rich body of empirical evidence proving the positive effect of distributed practice on the retention of verbal material. Beyond rote memory, however, the empirical grounds regarding ...

Der Beitrag beleuchtet didaktische Maßnahmen, die unter dem Begriff „Wünschenswerte Erschwernisse“ zusammengefasst werden. Diese Maßnahmen erschweren zwar kurzfristig das Lernen, langfristig aber fördern sie das Behalten und den Transfer des Gelernten. Vier dieser wünschenswerten Erschwernisse sind empirisch besonders gut belegt: 1) Das verteilte Lernen, 2) das verschachtelte Lernen, 3) der Testungseffekt und 4) der Generierungseffekt. Zu jeder dieser wünschenswerten Erschwernisse werden aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse ...

Generating questions referring to the learning material is a powerful learning strategy. The present study investigated potential mechanisms behind this effect. Students (N=231) read a text and then generated questions referring to the text in three conditions: (1) open-book (i.e., text accessible), (2) closed-book (i.e., text inaccessible), and (3) cued closed-book (i.e., text inaccessible but keywords provided). After one week, students’ knowledge gain was larger in the open-book and cued closed-book conditions ...

We investigated whether individuals used mental rotation and embodiment for arm laterality judgments of human figures that were stepwise rotated from back view to front view along a vertical axis. In Experiment 1, figures’ heads were always shown in profile, while only the bodies were rotated. Judgments were faster and more correct when figures were presented in back view compared to front view, but the relation between reaction times (RTs) and rotation angles was not strictly linear. In addition, judgments on figures ...

The current study tested gender differences in the developmental transition from drawing cubes in two‐ versus three dimensions (3D), and investigated the underlying spatial abilities. Six‐ to nine‐year‐old children (N = 97) drew two occluding model cubes and solved several other spatial tasks. Girls more often unfolded the various sides of the cubes into a layout, also called diagrammatic cube drawing (object design detail). In girls, the best predictor for drawing the cubes was Mental Rotation Test (MRT) accuracy. ...

Fostering sustainable behavior in children and adolescents should be a central aim of today’s education. Even though the interplay of factors affecting sustainable behavior is complex, simple interventions can be effective too. In the current study, 10-year-olds (N = 132) were read a short story about two foresters who collectively used a forest to gain timber, facing a resource dilemma that involved striving for maximizing their individual profit while sustaining the forest. In the story, the foresters solved the ...