Research Projects

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The (backward) testing effect constitutes the finding that practicing retrieval after initial study is more effective than other restudy techniques. The effect is one of the best-researched findings on long-term learning and has been demonstrated in both lab and classroom studies. However, retrieval practice with more complex materials might not be beneficial for all learning. Indeed, several studies using complex materials have failed to find a testing effect. If this assumption is true, its applicability in school and higher education would clearly be compromised. Conversely, if retrieval practice is prematurely discarded as beneficial for more complex materials, learners would be deprived of one of the most effective techniques for lasting learning, especially seniors in high school and students in higher education who are typically learning more complex subject matter. The main goal of this research project is to test the alternative explanation that learners had not adequately understood the subject matter by the time the consolidation phase started, which resulted in less effective retrieval practice than with less complex materials. Thus, we assume that the testing effect will occur even with complex learning materials when learners adequately understand the learning material in the initial learning phase. We plan two series of field experiments and an additional joint experiment that will take place in eleventh-grade German classes, and the learning materials will cover a topic that is part of the curriculum.

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The work program of the current research project was twofold. On a methodical level, it aimed at establishing a comprehensive, state-of-the-art EEG laboratory in the University of Kassel’s Department of Psychology. To this end, a powerful research EEG system was installed, together with several sound-attenuating testing booths, in a newly renovated laboratory space. The project encompassed the creation, critical examination, and optimization of detailed data acquisition protocols as well as the practical training of qualified student assistants and the securing of necessary ethical approvals. These measures were then put to the test in the context of several EEG studies that have so far been conducted successfully in the established research laboratory. In terms of content, the project was concerned with the EEG-based investigation of sound-symbolic associations in the human brain, thereby targeting the neuronal basis of a historically disputed principle of the organization of human language. In an ongoing series of experiments, we analyze(d) the neuronal processing of sound-symbolically matching (vs. mismatching) object–sound pairs, concerning for example the pairing between different product categories and different fictional brand names (Glim & Hillje, in preparation). In accordance with our hypotheses, information that followed sound-symbolic principles has (so far) been shown to be associated with a facilitation of neuronal processing—a finding suggesting that the concept of sound symbolism is deeply anchored in the human brain, rather than being merely a curious byproduct of the evolution of language.

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The grammatically masculine form in German is intrinsically ambiguous, referring either to male people specifically or to people of any gender generically. Behavioral studies have suggested that this dual function leads to a so-called male bias in elicited mental representations. The underlying neuro-cognitive mechanisms related to such a bias, however, have so far been unexplored. In a total of three EEG-ERP studies (Glim et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2024), we analyzed the neuronal processing of anaphoric references to men versus women following a role noun in one of several different gender forms in German. The collected data showed that the generic masculine (“Studenten”) leads to recurring processing difficulties when female (rather than male) referents are encountered, both during early perceptual processing and during higher-order reference resolution. In addition, we demonstrated that neither the feminine–masculine pair form (“Studentinnen und Studenten”) nor the gender star form (“Student*innen”) elicits gender-balanced mental representations, with both forms obstructing the neuronal processing of references to men (vs. women), albeit in varying spatio-temporal processing ranges. The current research project was the first to provide comprehensive neurophysiological data on the processing of different gender forms in German and, by doing so, helped put the ongoing societal debate on gender-fair language on robust empirical grounds.

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