Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember to carry out delayed intentions, more precisely, to remember to initiate and execute an intended action at some point in the future. The development and progression of prospective memory across the lifespan is still heavily under debate. Only few studies have so far investigated prospective memory development in childhood, revealing an inconsistent pattern. In adulthood, studies in the laboratory and naturalistic studies showed paradoxical results with age deficits in the laboratory and age benefits in naturalistic tasks. Up to now, no conceptual model has been suggested to guide research on prospective memory development across the lifespan. Thus, the present work examined the effect of central factors from the multiprocess framework (McDaniel & Einstein, 2000) on the development of prospective memory in four different age-groups: pre-schoolers, school-age children, young and old adults. The first study explored the role of task motivation in age differences in prospective memory performance across the pre-school age-range. No main effect of age or motivation in prospective memory performance was found, yet a significant interaction, indicating that for younger children motivation or task importance may help allocating the available resources to the task elements of interest. Evidence from the second study indicated that 9-10 year old school children outperform 6-7 year old school children on a measure of prospective memory, and that retrieval-based factors (ongoing task absorption, cue salience, cue focality) systematically influenced performance. Of particular importance for possible developmental mechanisms was the finding of an age x cue focality interaction, suggesting that age effects may be modulated by cue focality. The third study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory procedure and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic procedure on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. Results from the laboratory prospective memory procedure revealed significant age-related decline for irregular tasks but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic procedure, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives. Results from the present work indicated that already pre-school age children were able to remember to perform intended actions and this ability increased across school-age. In adulthood, the results revealed a decline with age on a pure performance level. Yet, older adults may be able to compensate for basic cognitive impairments if task conditions reduce the need for controlled attention. Furthermore, the present work suggest, that factors of the multiprocess framework may indeed affect age-differences in prospective memory performance throughout the lifespan, as cue focality and task importance were related to prospective memory development in children and adults. Thus, the multiprocess approach might serve as foundation for a lifespan theory of the development of prospective memory.

Der Weg hin zum kompetenzorientierten Lehren und Lernen und damit die Einführung von Bildungsstandards steht im Zentrum gegenwärtiger schultheoretischer Diskussionen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird dieser Diskurs aufgegriffen und gezeigt, dass die schulpraktische Umsetzung dieser „Outputorientierung“ eine vielschichtige und komplexe ist. Im Fokus der theoretischen Betrachtungen der Arbeit stehen die Themen Selbststeuerung und Selbstorganisation beim Lernen, Lernziele, Bildungsstandards und Kompetenzorientierung. Die empirische Studie analysiert, basierend auf den theoretischen Erörterungen, die Möglichkeiten der Steigerung der Fremdsprachenkompetenz von Schülerinnen und Schülern. Erforscht wird dies am Beispiel des webbasierten adaptiven Systems des Englisch-Assistenten bzw. Englisch.Digital. Es wurden fünf Explorationen auf Basis von drei Fragebogenuntersuchungen sowie Informelle Kompetenzmessungen (IKM) mit 75 Schüler/‑innen zweier österreichischer Hauptschulen der achten Schulstufe durchgeführt. Die Untersuchung richtete sich auf die hypothesentestende Exploration von vier Konstrukten (Allgemeine Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung – Selbsteinschätzung, Spezielle Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung im Unterrichtsfach Englisch im Bereich Lesen – Selbsteinschätzung, Selbstregulation – Selbsteinschätzung und spezielle Fremdsprachenkompetenz im Bereich Lesen – Selbsteinschätzung und Informelle Kompetenzmessung). Die Untersuchung zeigt ein differenziertes Bild in Bezug darauf, welche Schülergruppen vom digitalen Medienangebot des Englisch-Assistenten (Englisch.Digital) am stärksten profitieren, durchgehend signifikante Ergebnisse konnten in den fünf Explorationen nicht erzielt werden, was unterschiedliche Gründe haben kann (z. B. Unterschiede in den individuellen Wirkungen oder in den Unterrichtsprozessen oder auch Beschränkungen des Studiendesigns). Zusammenfassend kann festgestellt werden, dass die Frage nach den Wirkungen von digitalen Medien einer weiteren Ausdifferenzierung bedarf und keine allgemeingültigen Aussagen diesbezüglich getroffen werden können, dass digitale Medien per se eine bestimmte Lernwirkung erzeugen. Es ist festzuhalten, dass es nicht ausreichen wird, neue Technologien zu den traditionellen Lehr- und Lernmethoden lediglich hinzuzufügen, es hat auch ein Wandel der Unterrichtsstruktur zu erfolgen (vgl. Dittler, 2003, S. 193 und Lembke & Leipner, 2015, S. 181). Eine Möglichkeit für dies und für die Umsetzung bzw. Anwendung von Informationskompetenz bietet der in dieser Arbeit analysierte Englisch-Assistent (Englisch.Digital). / The road to competency-based teaching and learning, and thus the introduction of educational standards, is at the heart of current educational debate. This doctoral dissertation takes up this discussion and shows that the practical implementation in schools is a multi-layered, multi-faceted and complex one. The focus of the theoretical discussion of the current paper is the fields of self-control and self-organization of learning, learning objectives, educational standards and competence orientation. The empirical study analyses, based on the theoretical considerations, the opportunities for developing pupils’ skills in the foreign language (English). This is explored using the web-based adaptive version of the “English Assistant” or “Englisch.Digital”. Five explorations based on three questionnaires and informal competence measurements (IKM) with 75 pupils (grade eight) were carried out at two Austrian secondary schools. The empirical study focused on (the hypothesis testing) exploration of four constructs (self-assessment of general self-efficacy, self-assessment of special self-efficacy in reading, self-assessment of self-regulation and self-assessment and informal competence measurements of specific skills in reading in the foreign language). The study shows a mixed picture with respect to which groups of students benefit the most from the digital media offer of Englisch.Digital. Consistent significant results in the five explorations could not be obtained, which may be due to any of a number of different reasons (e.g. differences in individual effects/reactions, the teaching processes or limitations of the study design). To summarise, it can be stated that the question of the effects of digital media requires further differentiation and no general conclusions can be drawn with respect to the supposition that digital media produce a certain learning effect per se. It should be noted that it will not suffice to merely add new technologies to the traditional teaching and learning methods, changes to teaching structures will also have to be made (cf. Dittler, 2003, p. 193 and Lembke & Leipner, 2015, p. 181). The English Assistant (Englisch.Digital) analysed in this dissertation offers one possible solution for this and also the problem of the transposition or implementation of information literacy.