Successful Habilitation of Dr. Anne Schüler

On  January 31, Dr. Anne Schüler, deputy head of the Multiple Representations lab, successfully cleared the final hurdle in the habilitation process with an oral presentation. The psychologist  discussed the effects of brief contact with nature on cognitive processes.

Anne Schüler's actual research project focused on the question of whether the so-called text-image integration, which the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) considers crucial for a deeper understanding of learning content, actually takes place. In other words, is the assumption correct that when learning with illustrated texts, a mental visual model and a mental verbal model are formed, and that these two models are linked and eventually mentally integrated?

The empirical results of Anne Schüler's work support this assumption. In a total of six studies, she was able to show that text and images are indeed linked and compared during processing, regardless of the length of the illustrated text. An interesting twist is that, contrary to CTML assumptions, the underlying cognitive processes appear to be partly automatic and unconscious. Moreover, the comparison of text and picture seems to be guided by the text itself.