Themen für Bachelorarbeiten
Übersicht der Bachelorarbeitsthemen dieser Professur
Durch Klick auf die einzelnen Themen werden die Detail-Informationen angezeigt.
- Themenvergabe durch OLAT
Betreuungsperson der Bachelorarbeit: Prof. Dr. K. OberauerEs gibt keinen Termin für die Themenvergabe. Wenn Sie sich für ein Thema interessieren, kontaktieren Sie bitte direkt die Kontaktperson.
Profound or obvious? The role of predictability in working memory tasks
Beschreibung: Working memory (WM) is responsible for the storage and manipulation of information over short periods of time. It is an essential part of our cognition, and performance in WM tasks is highly correlated with intelligence test scores. Studies have shown that the degree to which such a task is predictable influences working memory performance. This is expected, as predictability allows preprocessing of the expected response, reducing the number of possible actions to prepare. However, some theories (e.g., Bayesian brain theory) suggest a more central role of predictions and their success, proposing them as a core principle of our neural functioning. Yet, it has proven difficult to disentangle effects inherent to the nature of predictable events from those related to how humans process them, especially with regard to WM. The goal of this thesis is to critically evaluate the existing literature on these topics, bring together different lines of research, and synthesize them into a comprehensive overview.
Kontakt: Noé Zimmermann, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 12.07.2026)The Influence of Attention on Visual Masking Efficacy
Beschreibung: Visual masking is an experimental design technique often used in visual cognition research to influence the processing of a primary percept by the presentation of a secondary percept. The classic application of this method is to present one task irrelevant stimulus after the presentation of a task relevant stimulus (backwards masking), which can degrade the ability to report the relevant stimulus depending on the length of the interval between presentations. This phenomenon has been often used to make arguments about the temporal properties of visual information processing in storage. While time is a known strong efficacy modifier of the masking effect, it is not the only modifying factor. Evidence has also appeared describing a variety of eccentricities that occur in a masking paradigm depending on attentional allocation to the target stimulus and/or the masking stimulus. Within this thesis the literature regarding interactions between masking efficacy and attentional allocation will be reviewed and collated. The overall goal will be to evaluate the evidence that attention may be a strong, but often overlooked, factor in masking paradigms and to determine what the literature might tell us about both attentional processing and the masking phenomenon.
Kontakt: Dr. Jacob Zepp, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)Directed Forgetting and Remembering in vWM
Beschreibung: Working memory is often characterized, in part, by the ability to access and manipulate information present in its storage state. To this end, experimental evidence shows that humans appear to be able to actively influence the continued storage of items within working memory, through processes known as directed remembering and forgetting. These phenomena have been well documented, though the underlying details of the process are still debated. The purpose of this thesis is to review the state of the directed forgetting and remembering literature for visual information in working memory. In particular, this thesis will evaluate the phenomenon within the context of the temporal properties of the phenomenon and how this time course relates to other known storage and maintenance processes related to vWM within the literature. The thesis should ultimately aim to characterize directed forgetting and remembering within the broader context of dynamic vWM processes to better understand the phenomena.
Kontakt: Dr. Jacob Zepp, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)Attending selectively while switching between unbalanced tasks
Beschreibung: Selective attention and task switching paradigms are among the most popular paradigms used in cognitive psychology. The former include tasks such as the Stroop task and the Simon task typically requiring participants to respond to a stimulus component (e.g., the ink color of a colored color name) while constantly ignoring a more salient stimulus component (e.g., the color name itself). In constrast, task switching paradigms typically require participants to respond to either of two stimulus features of similar salience (e.g., the parity of a number and its magnitude relative to a reference number) based on a cue that might vary from trial to trial. Despite the wealth of research with these two paradigms, the interaction between them, particularly the case in which participants are required to switch between less and more salient stimulus components in a selective attention task, has rarely been examined. The present thesis will summarize the research that makes exception to this general tendency, with the goal being to determine what we know about the mutual impact of selective attention and task switching and what is yet to be discovered.
Kontakt: Dr. Giacomo Spinelli, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)One ability behind many? Binding as a common mechanism of cognitive abilities
Beschreibung: People who do well on working-memory tasks also tend to respond faster and to score higher on tests of reasoning. Why these abilities go together is an old question, and one proposal points to binding: the ability to link separate pieces of information into a coherent whole, such as tying a colour to a shape, or an item to its position. If binding is what these tasks share, it could explain why they correlate. The evidence, however, is mixed. Some studies find that binding predicts both working memory and fluid intelligence, while others find that it relates to working memory but not to intelligence at all. Part of the disagreement may be that "binding" is used to mean rather different things in different research traditions. This thesis reviews whether binding can serve as a common mechanism behind individual differences in processing speed, working memory, and reasoning. The student maps how binding is defined and measured across these literatures, separates evidence that binding merely correlates with an ability from evidence that it is a shared cause, and weighs binding against rival explanations such as attentional control. The purpose of this thesis is to build a clear taxonomy of what "binding" means and to critically assess whether it lives up to the unifying role it has been given.
Kontakt: Dr. Gidon Frischkorn-Bartsch, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)As clear as we perceive? How perceptual fidelity constrains memory
Beschreibung: We tend to treat memory errors as failures of memory. But what we can remember depends on what we perceived in the first place: if a color or a sound is registered only fuzzily, the memory built from it can be no sharper than that first impression. This simple idea, that the clarity of perception sets a ceiling on the clarity of memory, connects several research fields that rarely talk to each other. Researchers studying perception ask how internal "noise" blurs the signal we take in; working-memory researchers ask how precisely people can hold a color or an orientation in mind; and research on ageing finds that people whose eyesight and hearing decline also tend to show poorer memory and reasoning. This thesis reviews these literatures around a single organizing idea: that a noisier perceptual signal leads to a lower-quality memory. The student asks whether the same mechanism operates across different senses, such as vision and hearing, and across very different timescales, from a single laboratory trial to gradual change over the lifespan. All formal models are kept at a conceptual level, so no mathematics is required. The purpose of this thesis is to line up evidence that is usually read in isolation and to judge whether one principle, the quality of the perceptual signal, can explain how perception constrains memory.
Kontakt: Dr. Gidon Frischkorn-Bartsch, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)Clearing the mind, or just forgetting? Active removal in working memory
Beschreibung: Working memory has to do two jobs at once: hold on to what we currently need and get rid of what we no longer need. When people successfully drop outdated information, for example after being told to forget a just-studied list or to update what they are holding in mind, researchers disagree about why. One account proposes an active removal mechanism that deliberately clears items out of working memory. A competing account needs no such mechanism: unwanted information simply fades over time, or is overwritten by interference from newer information. The difficulty is that both accounts often predict the same behaviour, so a result that looks like active removal can usually be re-described as ordinary forgetting. This thesis reviews the evidence for removal as a distinct process across the main paradigms used to study it, such as directed forgetting, memory updating, and distractor removal. The student sorts the findings by which account they support, identifies where the two accounts make identical predictions and therefore cannot be told apart by behaviour alone, and reaches a verdict on whether any evidence is truly decisive. The purpose of this thesis is to establish what "removal" really means and whether the data justify treating it as a mechanism in its own right.
Kontakt: Dr. Gidon Frischkorn-Bartsch, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 07.07.2026)The effects of advance set-size knowledge in visual working memory: A review of capacity and strategy accounts
Beschreibung: Visual working memory (WM) refers to the ability to temporarily maintain visual information for a short period of time in order to support ongoing and upcoming cognitive tasks. A long-standing debate in cognitive psychology concerns the nature of its capacity limits. Some researchers argue that visual working memory is limited by a small number of fixed memory slots, whereas others propose that it relies on a continuous resource that can be distributed across multiple items. One common way of studying this issue is through set-size manipulations, in which researchers vary the number of items that participants must remember. Previous research suggests that when set size is predictable, participants may adopt a more flexible, resource-like strategy, whereas unpredictable set sizes may encourgae a more slot-like approach. This thesis aims to review whether the effects of advance set-size knowledge are best understood as evidence about the underlying limits of working memory or as the result of strategic differences in attentional allocation and encoding.
Kontakt: Dr. Shuangke Jiang, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 03.07.2026)Dual-Task interference between working memory and visual attention: Effects of verbal and visuospatial load
Beschreibung: Working memory (WM) and attention are essential cognitive processes that help people keep information in mind while focusing on relevant aspects of the environment. Although these functions work closely together, it is still unclear whether they depend on the same limited cognitive resources or on partly distinct systems. This bachelor thesis will review how verbal and visuospatial WM loads shape dual-task interference across three established visual attention paradigms: multiple object tracking (MOT), rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), and visual search, which together capture spatial tracking, temporal selection, and selective search. By comparing findings across these paradigms, the review explores whether such interference arises from a general limitation in cognitive capacity or by a more specific overlap between the type of information held in WM and the attentional demands of each task. Overall, the thesis aims to provide a focused account of how WM load shapes attentional performance, and what this reveals about the relationship between WM and visual attention.
Kontakt: Dr. Shuangke Jiang, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 03.07.2026)One task is better than two, but two are not better than three
Beschreibung: Multitasking is ubiquitous in everyday life, despite performance declines under multitasking compared to single-task settings. For example, when alternating between two different tasks in rapid succession, responses are slower and less accurate than when only one task is performed over and over again. However, perhaps surprisingly, alternating between three tasks does not worsen performance compared to alternating between two tasks. The objective of this thesis is to summarize and critically evaluate the existing literature to highlight the factors contributing to this finding.
Kontakt: Dr. Elena Benini, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 08.06.2026)The paradox of overlap: How item overlap affects working memory capacity
Beschreibung: There is a limit to the information that we can process and maintain simultaneously. To date, it remains unclear what causes this limit. For example, can we maintain more information if the different elements to memorize overlap by some dimensions (e.g., colour, shape)? This would reduce the total amount of information to memorize. Or does overlap increase interference between the different elements, which become more confusable? This thesis synthesizes and systematizes existing evidence to clarify whether dimensional overlap facilitates or hinders memory for items.
Kontakt: Dr. Elena Benini, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 08.06.2026)Less resources, more distraction? Selective attention under cognitive load
Beschreibung: Selective attention allows us to attend to a component of a stimulus while ignoring other stimulus components. Still, if the latter components are salient enough (such as with words in the color-word Stroop task), distraction can occur, e.g., in the form of increased interference effects (e.g., a larger Stroop effect) in response times and/or errors. These distraction effects suggest a capacity limitation of selective attention. According to a popular explanation?load theory?this limitation comes from the fact that there is a limited amount of cognitive resources that we can use. Based on this idea, load theory predicts that distraction effects should be particularly large when other tasks in addition to the selective attention task need to be performed, as long as the additional tasks create a sufficient load on cognitive resources. However, while initial evidence supported this prediction, a more mixed pattern of results has later emerged. The purpose of this thesis is to critically evaluate the current state of the literature on this issue.
Kontakt: Giacomo Spinelli, E-Mail[ Einzelthema ]
Status: offen (erfasst / geändert: 27.02.2026)
vergeben:
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 17.02.2026)
Set-Size Effects in Summarization Performance
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 07.02.2026)
Are Performance-Contingent Incentives in Cognitive Experiments a Source of Bias?
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 04.02.2026)
What is the Value of Embodiment Theories for Explaining Cognitive Phenomena in 2026?
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 02.02.2026)
Encoding vs. consolidation in visual processing
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 30.01.2026)
Current models measuring working memory capacity in change detection paradigms
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 30.01.2026)
How can theta transcranial alternating current stimulation improve working memory?
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 30.01.2026)
Statistical learning and repetition learning - Two sides of the same coin?
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 26.11.2025)
Which Mechanisms Underlie Cross-Set Set-Size Effects in Working Memory?
- Status: vergeben (erfasst / geändert: 03.02.2025)
Declarative and Procedural Working Memory: Independent or Not Independent?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 17.06.2019)
Neurophysiologische Parameter von Arbeitsgedächtnisprozessen
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 14.06.2019)
Detecting crime knowledge
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 14.06.2019)
The role of cognitive load in the unanticipated questions approach
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 02.07.2018)
Interference and Event Schemas
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 02.07.2018)
Evidence for discrete-state models in visual working memory
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 02.07.2018)
Measuring Recognition Memory Performance
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 02.07.2018)
Kurzzeit- und Langzeitgedächtnis: Was unterscheidet sie?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 11.06.2018)
Proaktive und retroaktive Interferenz - Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 11.06.2018)
Mentale Repräsentation von Objekten - die "object file" Theorie und ihre empirische Grundlage.
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 11.06.2018)
Will labeling help me to improve my visual memory?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 24.05.2018)
Boosting Maintenance in Working Memory with Temporal Regularities
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 24.05.2018)
Elaboration in older adults
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 21.11.2017)
How is information consolidated into working- and long-term memory?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 17.11.2017)
Utilizing signs of cognitive load in deception detection
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2017)
Space, features, or objects: How do we set our focus of attention?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2017)
Internal and external search
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2017)
From fleeting to enduring emotions: When do emotional states affect working memory?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2017)
2. How does describing our visual experiences affect memory for visual details?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 03.11.2017)
Deception detection and strategic interviewing: how to interview strategically in order to elicit stronger cues to deception and truth?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 22.06.2017)
Arbeitsgedächtnis und Denken: Wird Denken durch eine zusätzliche Belastung des AG beeinträchtigt?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 22.06.2017)
Automatische und kontrollierte Informationsverarbeitung: Was heisst "automatisch", was heisst "kontrolliert"?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 22.06.2017)
Welchen Einfluss hat die Aufmerksamkeit auf das Behalten im episodischen Gedächtnis?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 15.06.2017)
Language and visual perception: how describing our experiences affects memory for visual details?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 15.06.2017)
Space, features, or objects? How does attention operate on perceptual and memory representations?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 15.06.2017)
Evidence for discrete-state models in working memory
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.06.2017)
Arbeitsgedächtnis und Langzeitgedächtnis im Alter: Die Rolle von Assoziationen
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 27.10.2016)
Episodisches Gedächtnis: Wie funktioniert Elaboration?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 17.10.2016)
Hick/Hyman law in contemporary cognitive psychology
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 08.12.2015)
Feeling the future - what's your prior?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 07.12.2015)
Wie werden Lügen erkennbar?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 07.12.2015)
Kognition bei Tieren
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 13.07.2015)
"Can Working Memory for visual objects profit from Long Term Memory?"
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 13.07.2015)
Working memory in aging: what does get impaired as people grow older?
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 13.07.2015)
"Komponenten der Gesichtserkennung: Der Zusammenhang zwischen Gesichtswahrnehmung und Gesichtsgedächtnis."
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 13.07.2015)
Item similarity in working memory
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 13.07.2015)
Working memory and intelligence
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 10.11.2014)
The role of rehearsal on working memory
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 07.11.2014)
Kognitive Inhibition im Kindesalter
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 07.11.2014)
Kognitive Inhibition - Formen und Paradigmen
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 06.11.2014)
Der Zusammenhang von Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität und (visueller) Aufmerksamkeit am Beispiel des Attentional Blink
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2014)
Measuring Recognition Memory Performance: Discrete State Models, Signal Detection Models, and Hybrid Models.
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2014)
Multinomial Processing Tree Models of Memory: Slot Models, Recognition and Source Memory, and More.
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 05.11.2014)
Conditionals and the "New Paradigm Psychology of Reasoning".
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 03.11.2014)
Kapazitätsgrenzen der Aufmerksamkeit
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 16.12.2013)
Exekutive Funktionen im Erwachsenenalter
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 04.07.2013)
Der Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität und exekutiver Kontrolle
- Status: (erfasst / geändert: 04.07.2013)
Messung der Übereinstimmung zwischen Personen: Interrater-Reliabilität und ähnliche Masse