@phdthesis{Gralke2023,
  author    = {Gralke, Verena Maria},
  title     = {The Impact of Media Literacy in Adolescence and Young Adulthood. - Correlative and Experimental Investigations on the Influence of Media Literacy on Cognitive and Political Variables, and on Knowledge Acquisition from Media -},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-34601},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-346018},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {This thesis consists of three studies investigating the influence media literacy has on political variables, cognitive variables, and learning. Adolescents from 13 years of age and young adults are included in the studies. This thesis is divided into three chapters. Study I and II are one comprehensive study, but will be presented separately for better readability. Chapter I provides the reader with background knowledge for the original studies presented in chapter II includes information about media use, different conceptualizations of media literacy and its development over the lifetime, as well as media literacy's impact on cognitive and political variables. Additionally, current literature on the comparison of the learning outcomes of different kinds of texts (written, auditory, and audiovisual) is presented, with a differentiation between text-based information and inferences. In chapter II, the original studies are placed in the current state of research and presented in detail. In chapter III, a critical discussion of the studies is conducted, and a general model of the influence media literacy has on the investigated cognitive and political factors is presented, followed by a conclusion of the research. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is three models of media literacy proposed by Groeben (2002, 2004), Hobbs (1997), and Potter (1998, 2016). These three models are similar in that they define media literacy as a multifactorial construct with skills that develop further in the course of life. Their ideas are integrated and developed further, leading to our own model of media literacy. It encompasses five scales: media sign literacy, distinction between reality and fiction, knowledge of media law, knowledge of media effects, and production skills. Thereupon, the assessment tool W{\"u}rzburg Media Literacy Test (WMK; W{\"u}rzburger Medienkompetenztest) is designed. There is evidence that media use and media literacy influence socio-political factors. Young adults name the internet as the main source of information on political topics (see Pasek et al., 2006), and knowledge demonstrably fosters political participation (Delli Carpini \& Keeter, 1996). However, the kind of participation activity regarded is important (Quintelier \& Vissers, 2008), as sometimes real-life participation is supplemented by online activities (Quan-Haase \& Wellman, 2002). Media literacy is the key to evaluating the quality of information from media. Whether or not a direct link between media literacy and political interest exists has, as far as I know, not yet been investigated. Several studies have shown that precursors and subcomponents of media literacy have the capacity to influence cognitive variables. For instance, children with higher media sign literacy possess better reading proficiency (Nieding et al., 2017) and are better at collecting information and drawing inferences from hypermedia and films (Diergarten et al., 2017) as compared to children with low literacy. These precursors and subcomponents are more efficient in processing medial sign systems, reducing cognitive load, and consequently, liberating cognitive capacity for other mental tasks (Sweller, 1988). Paino and Renzulli (2012) showed that highly computer-proficient adolescents exhibit better mathematics and reading abilities. Different types of media influence the learning process differently, and the learning process can be enhanced by combining these different types of media, if the material is prepared according to the research findings and Mayer's (2002) cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Similarly, a reduction in cognitive load takes place and more resources can be invested in the learning process itself (Mayer \& Moreno, 2003; Sweller, 1988). It is not easy to answer the question of whether one medium is superior for learning to another. Generally, adults learn best from written texts (e.g., Byrne \& Curtis, 2000), and audiovisual and auditory texts are comparable (e.g., Hayes et al., 1986); however, there is little research regarding the comparison of the latter two. Study I examined whether media literacy has a positive impact on interest in politics and the political self-concept. A sample of 101 13-to 20-year-olds was drawn. The control variables were intelligence, socio-economic status (SES), openness to experiences, perspective-taking, age, and sex. Additionally, an evaluation of the WMK was conducted, which indicated good construct validity and excellent overall reliability. Media literacy was positively associated with interest in politics, political self-concept, and perspective-taking but not with openness. In hierarchical regressions and path analysis, a direct influence of media literacy and openness on interest in politics could be found. Political self-concept was solely influenced by interest in politics. Although media literacy had no direct influence on political self-concept, it influenced its precursor interest in politics and was thus expected to have distal influence. The results of the first study confirm previous findings (e.g., Vecchione \& Caprara, 2009), where political self-concept is regarded as a precursor of political participation. In conclusion, the findings of study I suggested that by stimulating political interest, media literacy could, mediated through political self-concept, foster political participation. Study II (which was conducted on the same sample as study I) was concerned with the question of whether highly media-literate adolescent and young adult participants exhibit better academic skills (mathematics; reading) and academic achievement (grades) compared to less media-literate participants. Additionally, to obtain information about potential development during adolescence, a group of 50 13-year-olds was compared with a group of 51 19-year-olds in terms of their media literacy. The control variables were intelligence, SES, sex, and age. The results showed that a significant development of media literacy took place during adolescence (∆M = .17), agreeing with Potter's (1998, 2013) development theory of media literacy. Media literacy was significantly correlated with reading skills and school grades. Regarding adults, media literacy was also significantly correlated with mathematical skills; the association was greater than that with reading skills. However, no connection with mathematical skills was found for adolescents. To control for the influence of age and intelligence, which were both associated with media literacy, hierarchical regressions and path analyses were conducted. The results revealed that media literacy had a greater impact on grades and academic abilities than intelligence. These results are in line with those obtained by Paino and Renzulli (2012). Study III investigated whether media literacy helps young adults to better learn from three kinds of media, a written, an auditory, and an audio-visual text, and which medium achieves the best learning results. Three groups of 91 young adults were compared (written, auditory, and audio-visual text) in terms of their learning outcomes. These outcomes were conceptualized as directly stated information in the text (assessed by text-based questions) and inferential learning (inference questions). A computer-based short version of the WMK was applied to assess media literacy, which should be optimized in the future. The control variables were intelligence, verbal ability, media usage, prior knowledge, and SES. In hierarchical regression, media literacy turned out to be a significant predictor of text inferences, even when other relevant variables, such as intelligence, were controlled for. Inferences foster the building of the situation model, which is believed by many authors to be true comprehension of a text (Zwaan \& Radvansky, 1998). The outcomes of study III support Ohler's (1994) assumption that media literacy fosters the creation of a more elaborated situational model. Text-based questions were only influenced by prior knowledge. As assumed by Potter (1998, 2016), the media literacy of young adults in the Western world suffices to extract relevant facts from educational learning material. Both subjects were best in the written text condition for text-based and inference question results. Audiovisual and auditory texts showed no significant differences. The written text condition did not excel in the auditory text condition for inferences. The results accord with those obtained by, for instance, Byrne and Curtis (2000). Taken together, these studies show that media literacy can influence several cognitive and political variables. It stimulates political interest, reading comprehension, school grades, and mathematical abilities in young adults, as well as drawing inferences from different kinds of texts. Additionally, media literacy develops further during adolescence.},
  subject      = {Media Literacy},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Reinhard2019,
  author    = {Reinhard, Julia},
  title     = {Developmental Aspects of Fear Learning and Fear Generalization},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-16437},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-164372},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {In situations of real threat, showing a fear reaction makes sense, thus, increasing the chance to survive. The question is, how could anybody differentiate between a real and an apparent threat? Here, the slogan counts "better safe than sorry", meaning that it is better to shy away once too often from nothing than once too little from a real threat. Furthermore, in a complex environment it is adaptive to generalize from one threatening situation or stimulus to another similar situation/stimulus. But, the danger hereby is to generalize in a maladaptive manner involving as it is to strong and/or fear too often "harmless" (safety) situations/stimuli, as it is known to be a criterion of anxiety disorders (AD). Fear conditioning and fear generalization paradigms are well suited to investigate fear learning processes. It is remarkable that despite increasing interest in this topic there is only little research on fear generalization. Especially, most research on human fear conditioning and its generalization has focused on adults, whereas only little is known about these processes in children, even though AD is typically developing during childhood. To address this knowledge gap, four experiments were conducted, in which a discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm was used. In the first two experiments, developmental aspects of fear learning and generalization were of special interest. Therefore, in the first experiment 267 children and 285 adults were compared in the differential fear conditioning paradigm and generalization test. Skin conductance responses (SCRs) and ratings of valence and arousal were obtained to indicate fear learning. Both groups displayed robust and similar differential conditioning on subjective and physiological levels. However, children showed heightened fear generalization compared to adults as indexed by higher arousal ratings and SCRs to the generalization stimuli. Results indicate overgeneralization of conditioned fear as a developmental correlate of fear learning. The developmental change from a shallow to a steeper generalization gradient is likely related to the maturation of brain structures that modulate efficient discrimination between threatening and (ambiguous) safety cues. The question hereby is, at which developmental stage fear generalization gradients of children adapt to the gradients of adults. Following up on this question, in a second experiment, developmental changes in fear conditioning and fear generalization between children and adolescents were investigated. According to experiment 1 and previous studies in children, which showed changes in fear learning with increasing age, it was assumed that older children were better at discriminating threat and safety stimuli. Therefore, 396 healthy participants (aged 8 to 12 years) were examined with the fear conditioning and generalization paradigm. Again, ratings of valence, arousal, and SCRs were obtained. SCRs indicated differences in fear generalization with best fear discrimination in 12-year-old children suggesting that the age of 12 years seems to play an important role, since generalization gradients were similar to that of adults. These age differences were seen in boys and girls, but best discrimination was found in 12-year-old boys, indicating different development of generalization gradients according to sex. This result fits nicely with the fact that the prevalence of AD is higher in women than in men. In a third study, it was supposed that the developmental trajectory from increased trait anxiety in childhood to manifest AD could be mediated by abnormal fear conditioning and generalization processes. To this end, 394 children aged 8 to 12 years with different scores in trait anxiety were compared with each other. Results provided evidence that children with high trait anxiety showed stronger responses to threat cues and impaired safety signal learning contingent on awareness as indicated by arousal at acquisition. Furthermore, analyses revealed that children with high trait anxiety showed overall higher arousal ratings at generalization. Contrary to what was expected, high trait anxious children did not show significantly more fear generalization than children with low trait anxiety. However, high-trait-anxious (HA) participants showed a trend for a more linear gradient, whereas moderate-trait-anxious (MA) and low-trait-anxious (LA) participants showed more quadratic gradients according to arousal. Additionally, after controlling for age, sex and negative life experience, SCR to the safety stimulus predicted the trait anxiety level of children suggesting that impaired safety signal learning may be a risk factor for the development of AD. Results provide hints that frontal maturation could develop differently according to trait anxiety resulting in different stimuli discrimination. Thus, in a fourth experiment, 40 typically developing volunteers aged 10 to 18 years were screened for trait anxiety and investigated with the differential fear conditioning and generalization paradigm in the scanner. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used to identify the neural mechanisms of fear learning and fear generalization investigating differences in this neural mechanism according to trait anxiety, developmental aspects and sex. At acquisition, HA participants showed reduced activation in frontal brain regions, but at generalization, HA participants showed an increase in these frontal regions with stronger linear increase in activation with similarity to CS+ in HA when compared to LA participants. This indicates that there is a hyper-regulation in adolescents to compensate the higher difficulties at generalization in form of a compensatory mechanism, which decompensates with adulthood and/or may be collapsed in manifest AD. Additionally, significant developmental effects were found: the older the subjects the stronger the hippocampus and frontal activation with resemblance to CS+, which could explain the overgeneralization of younger children. Furthermore, there were differences according to sex: males showed stronger activation with resemblance to CS+ in the hippocampus and frontal regions when compared to females fitting again nicely with the observation that prevalence rates for AD are higher for females than males. In sum, the studies suggest that investigating developmental aspects of (maladaptive) overgeneralization may lead to better understanding of the mechanisms of manifest anxiety disorders, which could result in development and provision of prevention strategies. Although, there is need for further investigations, the present work gives some first hints for such approaches.},
  subject      = {Furcht},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kochler2012,
  author    = {Kochler, Yvonne},
  title     = {Der zeitliche Verlauf von Parametern des Zellzyklus bei Patienten mit Fanconi An{\"a}mie},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-67204},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {Es werden die Parameter Summe-G2/GF und G0/G1 der hochaufl{\"o}senden, zweiparametrigen Zellzyklusanalyse von Lymphozyten bei Fanconi-An{\"a}mie-Patienten, bei denen mehrere Meßwerte vorliegen, im Hinblick auf Schwankungen untersucht. Nach Auswertung der Daten stellen die Werte keine konstanten Parameter f{\"u}r den einzelnen Patienten dar. Die Langzeitanalyse des Zellzyklusverhaltens peripherer Blutlymphozyten reflektiert jedoch weitgehend die klinische Situation der Patienten.},
  subject      = {Fanconi-An{\"a}mie},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Melcher2010,
  author    = {Melcher, Hansj{\"o}rg},
  title     = {Auswirkungen einer fr{\"u}hzeitigen Stimulation nach VOJTA bei sehr unreifen Fr{\"u}hgeborenen},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-55892},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2010},
  abstract  = {Ziel: Durch physiotherapeutische Stimulation sehr kleiner Fr{\"u}hgeborener (FG) ab dem 5. Lebenstag bis zur korrigierten 4. Lebenswoche soll im Vergleich mit Fr{\"u}hgeborenen, die gezielt erst ab vierter korrigierter Lebenswoche Physiotherapie erhielten, eine Verbesserung der neurovegetativen, statomotorischen und perzeptiven Entwicklung erreicht und gegebenenfalls der langfristige Bedarf an Krankengymnastik reduziert werden. Methode: In einer randomisierten, prospektiven Studie an 125 Neugeborenen mit einem Gestationsalter (GA) von < 33 Wochen wurde der Einfluss einer Stimulation nach Vojta untersucht. Die Patienten wurden nach ihrer Geburt zwischen Januar 2001 und M{\"a}rz 2004 auf der Intensivstation der Kinderklinik Frankfurt/Main-H{\"o}chst behandelt und wiesen außer ihrer Unreife keine zus{\"a}tzlichen schwer wiegenden Erkrankungen auf. Eine Stimulationsgruppe (n=61) wurde nach festgelegtem Protokoll zweimal (mindestens einmal) t{\"a}glich stimuliert, w{\"a}hrend die Kontrollgruppe (n=64) keine Stimulation erhielt. Der station{\"a}re Behandlungsverlauf wurde dokumentiert, dabei wurden Parameter wie Apnoen, Bradykardien, Beatmungsdauer, Sauerstoffbedarf, parenterale oder orale Ern{\"a}hrung gesondert ausgewertet. Mit Vollendung der 36. Gestationswoche und im korrigierten Alter von 4 Wochen wurden alle Kinder von zwei neurop{\"a}diatrisch ausgebildeten Fach{\"a}rztinnen ohne Kenntnis der Gruppenzugeh{\"o}rigkeit untersucht (kinesiologische und neurologische Untersuchung nach VOJTA). Bei der Untersuchung im korrigierten Alter von 4 Wochen wurde von denselben {\"A}rztinnen entschieden, welche Kinder beider Gruppen Physiotherapien ben{\"o}tigten. F{\"u}r die Kinder aus der Kontrollgruppe bedeutete das einen Ersteinstieg in die Krankengymnastik auf neurophysiologischer Grundlage nach Vojta, bei der Stimulationsgruppe wurde von der VOJTA-Stimulation auf VOJTA-Therapie umgestellt. Die weiteren Untersuchungen fanden im korrigierten Alter von 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 und 24 Monaten statt und wurden mit 12, 18 und 24 Monaten durch die M{\"u}nchener funktionelle Entwicklungsdiagnostik erg{\"a}nzt. An der letzten Untersuchung mit 24 Monaten nahmen noch 45 Kinder der Stimulationsgruppe und 40 Kinder der Kontrollgruppe teil. Folgende Parameter wurden in beiden Gruppen statistisch ausgewertet: Dynamik der Entwicklung der Reflexe, Zahl der abnormen Lagereaktionen und Teilmuster, Asymmetrien, krankengymnastische Behandlung sowie die verschiedenen Ergebnisse der Entwicklungsdiagnostik in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit von der jeweiligen Altersstufe und getrennt nach 50. und 95. Perzentile. Ergebnis: Im Durchschnitt entsprachen Entwicklung und neurologische Befunde dem korrigierten Lebensalter, signifikante Unterschiede zwischen Stimulations- und Kontrollgruppe zeigten sich nicht. Allerdings war ein deutlich (wenn auch nicht signifikant) h{\"o}herer Anteil Asymmetrien in der Gruppe derjenigen Fr{\"u}hgeborenen zu erkennen, die erst mit Beginn der korrigierten 4. Lebenswoche in Behandlung genommen worden waren. Fazit: Die Stimulation kleiner FG (GA < 33 Wochen) ab der 2. bis zur korrigierten 4. Lebenswoche nach VOJTA ergibt im Vergleich zu Kindern mit sp{\"a}terem Therapiebeginn keine signifikante Verbesserung neurologischer oder entwicklungsdiagnostischer Befunde bis zur Vollendung des 2. Lebensjahres, immerhin aber normalisieren sich fr{\"u}hstimulierte Fr{\"u}hgeborene mit Asymmetrien im Verlauf des ersten Lebensjahres h{\"a}ufiger. Die H{\"a}ufigkeit der krankengymnastischen Behandlung konnte insgesamt nicht signifikant gesenkt werden. Zu ber{\"u}cksichtigen bleibt, dass hier eine hoch selektierte Fr{\"u}hgeborenenpopulation (Ausschluss von Fr{\"u}hgeborenen mit Komplikationen wie z. B. Hirnblutungen II. Grades) untersucht wurde - ob bei Fr{\"u}hgeborenen mit zus{\"a}tzlichen Risikofaktoren andere Ergebnisse zu erzielen w{\"a}ren, sollte in weiteren Untersuchungen gekl{\"a}rt werden.},
  subject      = {Fr{\"u}hgeborenes},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Krug2003,
  author    = {Krug, Anja},
  title     = {Die Langzeitentwicklung von sehr kleinen Fr{\"u}hgeborenen der Jahrg{\"a}nge 1992 - 1994 an der Kinderklinik der Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-9975},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2003},
  abstract  = {Bei ungef{\"a}hr 1,5 \% der j{\"a}hrlich in Deutschland geborenen Kinder handelt es sich um sehr kleine Fr{\"u}hgeborene mit einem Geburtsgewicht von weniger als 1500g. In diese Studie aufgenommen wurden diejenigen der sehr kleinen Fr{\"u}hgeborenen, die zwischen dem 01. 01. 1992 und dem 31. 12. 1994 geboren und anschließend in der Kinderklinik der Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg behandelt wurden. Diese Kinder sollten bez{\"u}glich ihrer Langzeitentwicklung beurteilt werden. Zum Zeitpunkt der letzten Datenerhebung waren die Kinder zwischen 5 und 8 ½ Jahre alt. 45,8 \% der hier untersuchten Kinder k{\"o}nnen als entwicklungsretardiert im Vergleich mit der Normgruppe bezeichnet werden. Bei allen zur Beurteilung der motorischen, kognitiven und sprachlichen Entwicklung verwendeten Verfahren erzielten die M{\"a}dchen durchschnittlich h{\"o}here Werte als die Knaben, ein Einfluss des Geschlechts auf die Langzeitentwicklung sehr kleiner Fr{\"u}hgeborener konnte nachgewiesen werden.},
  language  = {de}
}