Dr. Roman Abel

Consultation Hours

by appointment by e-mail

External Links:

• ResearchGate
• ORCID

Academic Degrees

• 2021: Doctorate (Dr. phil.) in Psychology at the University of Kassel
• 2014: M.A. in Educational Psychology at the University of Hildesheim
• 2009: B.A. in Educational Science at the University of Nowgorod
• 2009: B.A. in Educational Psychology at the University of Hildesheim

CV

• Since 2025: Research Scientist at the Research Group on Learning and Instruction at the Ruhr University Bochum (Prof. Dr. Joachim Wirth)
• 2021-2025: Research Scientist at the Research Group on Psychology of Education at the Ruhr University Bochum (Prof. Dr. Julian Roelle)
• 2019-2020: Research Scientist at the Research Group on General Psychology at the University of Kassel (Prof. Dr. Ralf Rummer)
• 2015-2018: Research Scientist at the Research Group on Educational Psychology at the University of Kassel (Prof. Dr. Martin Hänze)
• 2014-2016: Research Scientist at the Department of German Language / Second Language Acquisition at the University of Hildesheim (Prof. Dr. Elke Montanari)
• 2008-2013: Student tutor in statistics I & II at the Department of Psychology at the University of Hildesheim

Research Interests 

• Desirable Difficulties in Learning
• Interleaving Effect
• Generation Effect
• Retrieval Practice
• Learning with Expository Texts
• Multilingual Vocabulary Acquisition

Selected Publications

Kim, S., Abel, R., Leutner, D., Schmiemann, P., & Roelle, J. (2025). Can the effects of generative drawing on lasting learning be optimized through integration of retrieval practice? Learning and Instruction, 98. DOI

Abel, R., de Bruin, A. B. H., Onan, E., & Roelle, J. (2024). Why do learners (under)utilize interleaving in learning confusable categories? The role of metastrategic knowledge and utility value of distinguishing. Educational Psychology Review, 36(2). DOI

Abel, R., Roelle, J., & Stadtler, M. (2024). Whom to believe? Fostering source evaluation skills with interleaved presentation of untrustworthy and trustworthy social media sources. Discourse Processes, 61(4-5), 233–254. DOI

Onan, E., Biwer, F., Abel, R., Wiradhany, W., & de Bruin, A. B. H. (2024). Optimizing self-organized study orders: Combining refutations and metacognitive prompts improves the use of interleaved practice. NPJ Science of Learning, 9(1). DOI

Abel, R. (2023). Interleaving effects in blindfolded perceptual learning across various sensory modalities. Cognitive Science, 47(4). DOI

Abel, R., Brunmair, M., & Weissgerber, S. C. (2021). Change one category at a time: Sequence effects beyond interleaving and blocking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 47(7), 1083–1105. DOI

Abel, R., Niedling, L. M., & Hänze, M. (2020). Spontaneous inferential processing while reading interleaved expository texts enables learners to discover the underlying regularities. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(1), 258–273. DOI

Selected Presentations

Abel, R. (2025, August). Contrast is key: Applying instructional principles to create informative comparison opportunities in inductive learning. Workshop at the Conference of the Junior Researchers of EARLI (JURE) 2025, Graz, Austria.

Abel, R., & Roelle, J. (2025, August). The interplay of effort beliefs and goal orientation in promoting the use of interleaved practice. In S. Ruitenburg & M. Ebersbach (Chairs), Cognitive and motivational individual differences in the effectiveness of desirable difficulties [Symposium]. 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), Graz, Austria.

Abel, R., Trentepohl, S., Froese, L., Heitmann, S., Krebs, R., Obergassel, N., & Roelle, J. (2024, September). Combining the advantages of open- & closed-book quizzing: Starting with open-book quizzing supports long-term learning. In V. Kubik, T. Richter & M. Ebersbach (Chairs), Lasting Learning – Part 2: Retrieval practice as a desirable difficulty in educationally relevant contexts [Symposium]. 53rd Congress of the German Psychological Association (DGPs), Vienna, Austria.

Abel, R., Onan, E., & Roelle, J. (2024, August). When interleaving feels easy: Aligning learners’ goals and strategies to reduce perceived effort [Paper presentation]. Conference of the EARLI Special Interest Groups 6+7 (EARLI SIG 6+7), Tübingen, Germany.

Abel, R., Roelle, J., & Stadtler, M. (2023, June). Fostering source evaluation skills by means of interleaved presentation of untrustworthy and trustworthy online sources [Paper presentation]. 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Oslo, Norway.

Weissgerber, S. C., & Abel, R. (2023, February). The best of both worlds: Abrufaufgaben mit Fokus auf Verständnis fördern Wiedergabe und Verständnis. In R. Abel & J. Roelle (Chairs), Lernen auf Abruf? Balancieren zwischen Anstrengung und Abruferfolg [Symposium]. Vortrag im Rahmen der 10. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung (GEBF), Essen, Deutschland.

Abel, R., & Roelle, J. (2022, August). Effects of incorporating interleaving into retrieval. In J. Roelle & R. Abel (Chairs), How to beneficially integrate retrieval practice into established educational activities? [Symposium]. Conference of the EARLI Special Interest Groups 6+7 (EARLI SIG 6+7), Zollikofen, Switzerland.