Can't Ignore—Distraction by Task-Irrelevant Sounds in Early and Middle Childhood

Attention control abilities are relevant for learning success. Little is known about the development of audio-visual attention in early childhood. Four groups of children between the ages of 4 and 10 years and adults performed an audio-visual distraction paradigm (N = 106). Multilevel analyses revealed increased reaction times in a visual categorization task when task-irrelevant novel sounds were presented, demonstrating involuntary distraction of attention. This distraction effect decreased with age and significantly differed between age groups. In addition, the two youngest age groups responded with a delay in trials following a distractor trial, indicating delayed reallocation of attention to the task at hand. Results indicate a significant maturation of audio-visual attention control within a few years during early childhood that continues throughout middle childhood.     

Wann sollten computerbasierte Verfahren zur Messung von Kompetenzen anstelle von papier- und bleistift-basierten Verfahren eingesetzt werden?

Currently, competencies are mostly assessed with paper and pencil tests. Nevertheless, for some competencies, using paper and pencil tests is problematic for three reasons. For (a) competencies requiring complex interactions under time constraints, (b) complex competence constructs, and (c) competencies requiring using a computer, a computer-based assessment provides several advantages compared to a paper and pencil-based assessment. Nevertheless, none of the two testing media is superior to the other in a general way. Thus, the testing medium which provides the best opportunities for a proper operationalization of the competence construct at stake should be selected. If both paper and pencil and computer seem applicable for measuring a competence construct, precisely costing out and comparing the two alternatives is recommended. Within this comparison, not only the additional costs caused by using computers but also the specific costs of paper and pencil-based assessment should be considered.     

Does the accuracy matter? Accurate concept map feedback helps students improve the cohesion of their explanations

Students are often challenged by the demand of writing cohesive explanatory texts. Prior research has shown that providing students with concept map feedback that visualizes explanatory cohesion deficits helped students generate more cohesive explanations. We conducted an experiment to investigate whether the accuracy of the provided information within the concept map feedback affected students’ improvements of cohesion. Accordingly, we varied the represented accuracy of information within such concept maps: Students either received accurate concept map feedback that depicted the real relations between concepts, as well as the authentic cohesion gaps in their explanations, or students received inaccurate concept map feedback, which depicted randomly drawn relations and random cohesion gaps. Additionally, in a baseline condition, students did not receive any feedback. We found that the students in the accurate feedback condition generated more cohesive explanations than the students in the no-feedback condition, whereas the students in the inaccurate feedback condition lay in-between. Evidently, providing feedback in general can be regarded as beneficial to enhance students’ writing. However, the accuracy of the provided feedback further impacts the effectiveness of computer-generated concept maps.     

Editorial Themenheft: Aktuelle Entwicklungen im Softwaretest

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Adult education and the fostering of asylum seekers as “full” citizens

International Review of Education - The role of adult education in the shaping and fostering of democratic citizens is prevalent in current transnational and national policy discussions; a...     

Fostering Upper Secondary Students’ Ability to Engage in Practices of Scientific Investigation: a Comparative Analysis of an Explicit and an Implicit Instructional Approach

Research in Science Education - Inquiry-based teaching is considered as contributing to content-related, procedural, and epistemic learning goals of science education. In this study, a...     

Parsing written language with non-standard grammar

Reading and Writing - Morphologically marked case is in Arabic a feature exclusive to the variety of Standard Arabic, with no parallel in the spoken varieties, and it is orthographically marked...