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Monika Nobs

[Person] [Project]

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Monika Nobs, Dipl. Psych.

Short Vita

1974:

Born in Löffingen (Germany)

1995-2001

Study of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg (Germany)

October 2001

Graduation in Psychology at the University of Heidelberg (Germany),
Thesis: "Autobiographisches Gedächtnis: Erfassung, Spezifität und affektive Valenz" [Autobiographical memory: Assessment, specificity, and affective valence]

Since Apr 2002

PhD student of the VGK

Contact

Phone: +49 (0) 761 - 203-9163
FAX: +49 (0) 761 - 203-2496
email: Monika.Nobs@vgk.de
WWW: My homepage

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Institut für Psychologie
Abteilung Allgemeine Psychologie
Engelbergerstr. 41
D-79085 Freiburg

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Ph.D. Project

Topic: Fostering self-explanations when learning with text and animations: The use of an annotation facility

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Peter Reimann (Heidelberg), Prof. Dr. Hans Spada (Freiburg)

Start/End of the Ph.D. project: Apr 2002 - Aug 2003

Summary

Recent findings in learning research indicate that the acquisition of knowledge requires the active involvement of learners. Previous research demonstrated that generating explanations to oneself - as a specific kind of learner activity - in the process of knowledge acquisition is helpful for understanding. Based on a variety of studies these self-explanations now are considered a constructive learning activity which can be used to acquire new knowledge in an efficient and self-guided way and with respect both to declarative and procedural knowledge (for an overview see Chi, 2000). In most studies, expository text served as learning material whereas now hints are emerging that different representational formats could have different effects on self-explaining (Ainsworth and Loizou, 2001). Aside from this, previous research also has provided evidence of strong individual differences with respect to amount and content of self-explanations. As a reaction to this finding, researchers tried to foster self-explanations, for example by means of coaching, direct training, or the manipulation of structure of learning materials and instructions (see Atkinson, Derry, Renkl, and Wortham, 2000). Another way to promote self-explaining is to provide environmental resources, i. e. tools, that support learners in generating self-explanations (Schult and Reimann, 2001; Trafton and Trickett, 2001). Results indicated that these tools are not beneficial until they are actually used to perform activities relevant for learning.

My PhD project continues this line of research and refines it by guiding learners to perform relevant activities. The main idea is to provide them with a computer-assisted annotation facility that invites them to self-explain. It takes the form of a structured tool containing special, theoretically derived affordances for self-exlanations. It will be designed specifically to foster the constructive learning activity of self-explaining while remaining to some extent independent of the domain. Compared to at least one basic version that simply contains space for any sort of annotations, it should prove to foster self-explanations and therefore to be helpful for understanding. As a second experimental factor I examine the role of representational format of learning material by providing informationally equivalent versions of a learning unit about the human cardiovascular system appearing as text, diagrams, and animations. Subjects will work individually with different versions of the tool learning from materials with different representational formats.

In short, the two main questions of my project are:

• Is it possible to foster self-explanations by providing learners with an annotation tool containing optimized affordances?
• Does representational format of learning material have an impact on self-explanations?

References:

Ainsworth, S., & Loizou, A. (2001). The effects of self-explaining when learning with text or diagrams (76). Nottingham: ESRC Centre for Research in Development, Instruction, and Training, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham.

Atkinson, R. K., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., & Wortham, D. (2000). Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of Educational Research, 70(2), 181-214.

Chi, M. T. H. (2000). Self-explaining expository texts: The dual process of generating inferences and repairing mental models. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in Instructional Psychology (pp. 161-238). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Schult, T. J., & Reimann, P. (2001). Automatisierte Hilfe für das Lernen aus Lösungsbeispielen. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 29(1), 64-81.

Trafton, J. G., & Trickett, S. B. (2001). Note-Taking for Self-Explanation and Problem Solving. Human-Computer Interaction, 16, 1-38.

Publications:

Renneberg, B., Theobald, E., Nobs, M., & Weisbrod, M. (submitted). Autobiographical memory in borderline personality disorder and depression.

Conference Contributions:

Renneberg, B., Theobald, E. & Nobs, M. (2000). Autobiographisches Erinnern bei Patientinnen mit Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung. Vortrag auf dem 18. Symposium der Fachgruppe Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie der DGPs, Göttingen.

[Top of Page] [Person] [Project] hier steht der Text, damit diese Seite auf auf Netscape nicht soooooooo schlecht aussieht, sondern irgendwie im Rahmen bleibt.... Ich glaub da muss noch was stehen, damit das ganze im Netscape nicht völlig verrutscht, Monika Nobs

Last update: 12 Sep 2003, Erik Ründal
URL: www.vgk.de/projects/nobs/index.html