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Julia Härder

[Person] [Project]

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Julia Härder, Dr.

Short Vita

1973:

Born in Wuppertal (Germany).

1992-1993:

Student at the Leibniz Kolleg, Tübingen (Germany).

 

 

1993-2000:

Study of Psychology at the University of Göttingen (Germany),

University of California at Santa Cruz (USA) and

University of Freiburg (Germany).

03/2000:

Graduation in Psychology at the University of Freiburg (Germany). Thesis: "Lernen mit Hypertext: Übersichts- und Verarbeitungshilfen zur Unterstützung des Wissenserwerbs" [Learning with Hypertext: Fostering Knowledge Aquisition by Supporting Navigation and Information Processing]

June 2000-Mai 2003:

Graduate student of the VGK (with scholarship).

Contact

Phone: ++49 (0) 761 / 203 9164
FAX: ++49 (0) 761 / 203 2496
email: Julia.Haerder@vgk.de
WWW: My homepage

Department of Psychology
Research Group on Cognitive Systems
University of Freiburg
D-79085 Freiburg (Germany)

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Ph.D. Project

Topic: The influence of individual and shared workspaces on memory and inference processes in computer-assisted groups

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. H. Spada (Freiburg), Prof. Dr. Michael Diehl (Tübingen)

Start/End of the Ph.D. project: June, 2000 - May, 2003
 

Summary

The main advantage of group decision-making and cooperative problem solving can be seen in the groups' potential to come to more informed decisions or problem solutions. This can be accomplished by pooling the groups' overall knowledge, which is - thinking of differences in education and expertise - heterogeneous in at least some parts. Research literature differentiates between shared knowledge, the knowledge held by all members of the group, and unshared knowledge, the knowledge held only by a single member. A well studied problem in terms of pooling the groups' knowledge resources is the groups tendency to focus the discussion mainly on the shared part of the information (Wittenbaum & Stasser, 1996). Often inferior group decisions can be traced back to a failure of pooling and considering unshared information more thoroughly during discussion. A large body of social psychology research has demonstrated this "information pooling effect" in context of different group, environmental, and task characteristics. A classical group decision task used in these studies asks for a consensus decision about e.g. the guilty suspect in a criminal case.

In comparison to the social psychology research of the information pooling phenomenon, the main idea of my Ph.D. project is to take a cognitive perspective on the information processing activities during information exchange and problem solving in groups with heterogenous knowledge backgrounds. Since my focus is on communication in computer-assisted groups the classical group decision task will not be conducted in a face-to-face discussion but via a videoconference system. The particular research question I am interest in, concerns the supportive influence of individual and shared external representations within such a form of group discussion. The distinct influence of individual and shared workspaces as a means of externalizing information, will be examined in a 2x2 design with the independent variables being availability (yes/no) of (a) an individual and (b) a shared workspace. Another goal will be to come to a theoretically funded description especially of the memory and inference processes taking place. One of the classical group decision tasks (Stasser & Stewart, 1992) with a revised task structure and a different item distribution will be used. In order to solve the intellective task a distinct and necessary cognitive activity will be the drawing of individual and cooperative inferences.

References:

Stasser, G. & Stewart, D. (1992). Discovery of hidden profiles by decision-making groups: Solving a problem versus making a judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 3, 426-434.

Wittenbaum, G. M. & Stasser, G. (1996). Management of information in small groups. In J. L. Nye & A. M. Brower (Eds.), What's social about social cognition? Research on socially shared cognition in small groups (pp. 3-28). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Publications

Heise, E., Westermann, R., Härder, J., Petter, E. & Trautwein, U. (1997).

Wissenschaftliche Filme in der Hochschullehre: Eine Befragung zu Zielen, Determinanten und Evaluation des Filmeinsatzes im Fach Psychologie. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 44 (2), 92-109.

Beller, S., Plötzner, R. & Härder, J. (1999).

Konzepte vor Formeln: Effekte unterschiedlicher tutorieller Unterstützung auf die Problemlöseleistung in der Physik. In E. Schröger, A. Mecklinger & A. Widmann (Hrsg.), Experimentelle Psychologie - Beiträge zur 41. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (S. 195). Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers.

Plötzner, R., Beller, S. & Härder, J. (2000).

Wissensvermittlung, tutoriell unterstützte Wissensanwendung und Wissensdiagnose mit Begriffsnetzen. In: H. Mandl & F. Fischer (Hrsg.), Wissen sichtbar machen: Begriffsnetze als Werkzeuge für das Wissensmanagement in Lehr- und Lernprozessen. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

Presentations/Workshops/Conferences

September 24-28, 2000:

42. Kongreß der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie. Poster Presentation: "Learning with Hypertext: Fostering Knowledge Aquisition by Supporting Navigation and Information Processing.", Jena (Germany).

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