The effects of offering and seizing optional learning opportunities rarely have been investigated. Thus, university instructors have no basis on which to decide whether offering optional learning opportunities to their students would be worth the effort and which students would seize and benefit from them. To target these questions, we designed a…

Decorative pictures, which make a learning text aesthetically appealing rather than provide information, have been predominantly found to impair learning by an increase of learning-irrelevant cognitive processes. Recent research, however, indicates that this effect is moderated by various factors. On the basis of cognitive-affective theories and…

When people attribute human characteristics to nonhuman objects they are amenable to anthropomorphism. For example, human faces or the insertion of personalized labels are found to trigger anthropomorphism. Two studies examine the effects of these features when included in decorative pictures in multimedia learning materials. In a first…

Using cluster analysis of Adolescent Time Attitude Scale (ATAS) scores in a sample of 300 adolescents ("M" age = 16 years; "SD" = 1.25; 60% male; 41% European American; 25.3% Asian American; 11% African American; 10.3% Latino), the authors identified five time attitude profiles based on positive and negative attitudes toward…

As a result of public discussions regarding Germany's standing on international rankings of student achievement, increased attention was focused on enhancing cognitive stimulation in preschools. There are some concerns that preschool curricula that focus more on cognitive stimulation rather than on socio-emotional skills might neglect the…

Introduction: A variety of studies has shown that the type of goal orientation determines students' cognitive and behavioral reactions as well as their educational performance (e.g. Ames 1992, Ames/Archer 1988, Valle et al. 2003). Contrary to many views, this study perceives goal orientation as a multidimensional construct with different…

The conclusion of a 1999 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report that wage gains for training are higher for workers with lower levels of education was revisited using data for males from the 1997 Australian Survey of Education and Training (SET). The study used methods similar to the OECD report (ordinary least squares…