Dr. Benedict Fehringer
School of Social Sciences
A 5, 6
Building B – Room B 208
68159 Mannheim
by appointment
Research
My research lies at the intersection of psychology and computer science. On the one hand, I am interested in how methods originating in computer science (e.g., from the fields of data mining and machine learning) can be meaningfully and effectively applied in psychological research. On the other hand, I am also interested in the potential of digital information sources (particularly eye tracking and pupillometry) in psychological research. During my time at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbrücken, I focused primarily on the technical aspects of eye tracking and the associated algorithms for data processing. After joining the Department of Psychology of Education at the University of Mannheim, I shifted my focus to applying these computer scientific technologies and methods to psychological research. My current research is situated in the fields of cognitive psychology and psychological assessment. In this work, I examine how eye-tracking patterns and pupillometric indicators (particularly those related to cognitive load) can be used to analyze cognitive processes. I integrate these findings within psychological diagnostics for ability and performance, for example, in the context of spatial reasoning and map reading followed by route finding. However, knowledge of cognitive processes also enables the identification of strategies that could then be optimized, for example, in an interactive system through system-generated prompts. Other key research areas include teaching and learning research, multimedia learning, and research of biased judgments.
Biographic Information
Since 2012, I have been working as a research associate at the Chair of Educational Psychology at the University of Mannheim.
During the 2021–2022 winter semester (October 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022), I served as a visiting professor at the Chair of Psychological Methodology at the University of Kassel.
Prior to that, I worked for three years (2009–2012) at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbrücken.
I finished my doctorate in psychology in the spring of 2019 at the University of Mannheim. I completed my studies in psychology (Diploma) and computer science (B.Sc., M.Sc.) at the Saarland University.
Publications
- Şatır, H. D., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2026). The roles of cognitive abilities, instructions, and gaze patterns in navigational map-based route learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Applied, 1–19.
- Beißert, H., Staat, M., Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Weiß, H. and Bonefeld, M. (2025). Explaining gender effects in teachers’ evaluation of exclusion among students: The role of communion. Zeitschrift für Bildungsforschung : ZBF, 1–16.
- Bonefeld, M. and Fehringer, B. C. O. F. (2025). Unveiling bias: Assessing the efficacy of an intervention in enhancing bias awareness of pre-service teachers. Open Psychology, 7, 1–17.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Bonefeld, M. and Schunk, F. (2025). Bias awareness in teachers: A German adaptation of the bias awareness scale for teachers. Social Psychology of Education, 28, 1–20.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Münzer, S. and Dedetas, H. (2025). Perspective taking ability is important in map reading for navigation – Unless you follow the instruction. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 103, 1–14.
- Thielmann, M.-S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Karst, K. (2025). Cultural diversity beyond the binary – testing a disparity-weighted indicator of cultural classroom composition. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 12, 1–12.
- Fehringer, B. (2023). Different perspectives on retest effects in the context of spatial thinking : interplay of behavioral performance, cognitive processing, and cognitive workload. Journal of Intelligence, 11, 1–23.
- Fehringer, B. (2023). R-Cube-SR Test: A new test for spatial relations distinguishable from visualization. European Journal of Psychological Assessment : EJPA, 39, 37–48.
- Karst, K., Bonefeld, M., Dotzel, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Steinwascher, M. (2022). Data-based differentiated instruction: The impact of standardized assessment and aligned teaching material on students’ reading comprehension. Learning and Instruction, 79, 1–11.
- Kühl, T., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2022). Unifying the ability-as-compensator and ability-as-enhancer hypotheses. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1063-1095.
- Fehringer, B. (2021). Optimizing the usage of pupillary based indicators for cognitive workload. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 14, 1–12.
- Waag, A.-S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2021). Entwicklung und Validierung der “Mannheimer Skalen zur Erfassung von Handlungswissen, Reflexion und Berufsbezug (HAREBE)” für situierte Lehrveranstaltungen an Hochschulen. Diagnostica, 67, 137–148.
- Fehringer, B. (2020). Spatial thinking from a different view: Disentangling top-down and bottom-up processes using eye tracking. Open Psychology, 2, 138–212.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2019). Compensation of ceiling effects through eye tracking. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 12, 133–133.
- Kühl, T., Stebner, F., Navratil, S. D., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2018). Text information and spatial abilities in learning with different visualizations formats. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 110, 561–577.
- Münzer, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Kühl, T. (2018). Specificity of mental transformations involved in understanding spatial structures. Learning and Individual Differences, 61, 40–50.
- Münzer, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Kühl, T. (2016). Standardized norm data for three self-report scales on egocentric and allocentric environmental spatial strategies. Data in Brief, 8, 803–811.
- Münzer, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Kühl, T. (2016). Validation of a 3-factor structure of spatial strategies and relations to possession and usage of navigational aids. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 47, 66–78.
- Karst, K., Bonefeld, M., Dotzel, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Steinwascher, M. (2021). Der Einfluss von Assessment und kohärenter Differenzierung im Unterricht auf Lesekompetenz. In , Zusammenfassungen der Beiträge. Sektionstagung empirische Bildungsforschung der Arbeitsgruppe für Empirische Pädagogische Forschung (AEPF) sowie der Kommission Bildungsplanung, Bildungsorganisation und Bildungsrecht (KBBB) an der JGU, Mainz (S. 7–7). , Johannes Gutenberg-Universität: Mainz.
- Fehringer, B. (2020). One threshold to rule them all? : Modification of the index of pupillary activity to optimize the indication of cognitive load. In , ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (S. 1–5). , Association for Computing Machinery: New York, NY.
- Fehringer, B. (2018). Improving the adaptive event detection algorithm of Nyström and Holmquist for noisy data. In , ETVIS '18 : Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Eye Tracking and Visualization : Warsaw, Poland, June 14 – 17, 2018 (S. Article 8, 1–5). , ACM: New York, NY.
- Lörch, L., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2017). Reading music. How melody and notation influence musicians' eye movements, information processing and cognitive workload in a pattern-matching task. In , (S. 301). Journal of Eye Movement Research, Bern Open Publishing: Bern.
- Lörch, L., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2017). Reading music. How melody and notation influence musicians' eye movements, information processing and cognitive workload in a pattern-matching task. In , Conference on Music & Eye-Tracking : August 17th-18th, 2017, Frankfurt, Germany (S. 17). MET-Music and Eye Tracking, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics: Frankfurt a. M..
- Schmitz, M., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Akbal, M. (2015). Expressing emotions with synthetic affect bursts. In , CHI PLAY 2015 : proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play : October 5–7, 2015, London, United Kingdom (S. 91–95). , ACM: New York, NY.
- Fehringer, B. (2014). Eye tracking gaze visualiser: eye tracker and experimental software independent visualisation of gaze data. In , Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (S. 259–262). , ACM: New York, NY.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Bulling, A. and Krüger, A. (2012). Analysing the potential of adapting head-mounted eye tracker calibration to a new user. In , ETRA 2012 : proceedings of the Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications ; Santa Barbara, CA, USA, March 28 – 30, 2012 (S. 245–248). , ACM: New York, NY.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Janson, M. P., Wissel, S. and Münzer, S. (2023). Visible self-regulation: The association of self-regulation strategies, learning behavior, and exam success. PAEPS 2023 19. Fachgruppentagung Pädagogische Psychologie, Kiel, Deutschland.
- Thielmann, M.-S., Karst, K. and Fehringer, B. C. O. F. (2023). Beyond the binary classification – testing a disparity-weighted indicator of cultural diversity. EARLI 2023, 20th Biennial EARLI Conference, Thessaloniki, Greece.
- Thielmann, M.-S., Karst, K. and Fehringer, B. C. O. F. (2023). Mehr als die binäre Optik – Testung eines disparitätsgewichteten Indikators kultureller Diversität. GEBF-Tagung 2023, 10. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung “Bildung zwischen Unsicherheit und Evidenz”, Essen, Germany.
- Wissel, S., Janson, M. P., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2023). Self-regulated learning with a digital learning system: Students apply superficial recognition in repeated testing. PAEPS 2023 19. Fachgruppentagung Pädagogische Psychologie, Kiel, Deutschland.
- Janson, M. P., Wissel, S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Münzer, S. (2022). Self-reported learning strategies do not predict exam success, but digital learning protocol data do. 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), Hildesheim, Germany.
- Thielmann, M.-S., Fehringer, B. C. O. F. and Karst, K. (2022). Kulturelle Diversität und die Leseleistung von Schüler:innen Diversitätsbezogene Lehrkrafteinstellung als Moderator. GEBF-Tagung 2022, 9. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung “Alles auf Anfang? – Bildung im digitalen Wandel”, Online.
- Münzer, S., Wissel, S., Janson, M. P. and Fehringer, B. C. O. F. (2021). Self-directed study behavior in the first semester: Usage of a digital learning system under pandemic conditions compared to normal conditions. ESPLAT2021 conference : Teaching and Learning Psychology in Times of COVID and Beyond, Online.
- Fehringer, B. C. O. F., Habermann, N., Becker, N. and Deegener, G. (2016). MSI : Multiphasic Sex Inventory : Fragebogen zur Erfassung psychosexueller Merkmale bei Sexualtätern. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
Teaching
Repeatedly, I offer courses for the Bachelor of Psychology (e.g., experimental-psychological practical training) and for the Bachelor of Education (e.g., side-seminar for the practical training in school). I also supervise theses that are related to my research interests.