Task Phase Recognition for Highly Mobile Workers in Large Building Complexes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stisen, Allan; Mathisen, Andreas; Krogh, Søren

2016-01-01

requirements on the accuracy of the indoor positioning, and thus come with low deployment and maintenance effort in real-world settings. We evaluated the proposed methods in a large hospital complex, where the highly mobile workers were recruited among the non-clinical workforce. The evaluation is based......-scale indoor work environments, namely from a WiFi infrastructure providing coarse grained indoor positioning, from inertial sensors in the workers’ mobile phones, and from a task management system yielding information about the scheduled tasks’ start and end locations. The methods presented have low...... on manually labelled real-world data collected over 4 days of regular work life of the mobile workforce. The collected data yields 83 tasks in total involving 8 different orderlies from a major university hospital with a building area of 160, 000 m2. The results show that the proposed methods can distinguish...

Effect of Tai Chi Training on Dual-Tasking Performance That Involves Stepping Down among Stroke Survivors: A Pilot Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Chan, Wing-Nga; Tsang, William Wai-Nam

2017-01-01

Descending stairs demands attention and neuromuscular control, especially with dual-tasking. Studies have demonstrated that stroke often degrades a survivor's ability to descend stairs. Tai Chi has been shown to improve dual-tasking performance of healthy older adults, but no such study has been conducted in stroke survivors. This study investigated the effect of Tai Chi training on dual-tasking performance that involved stepping down and compared it with that of conventional exercise among stroke survivors. Subjects were randomized into Tai Chi ( n = 9), conventional exercise ( n = 8), and control ( n = 9) groups. Those in the former two groups received 12-week training. Assessments included auditory Stroop test, stepping down test, and dual-tasking test involving both simultaneously. They were evaluated before training (time-1), after training (time-2), and one month after training (time-3). Tai Chi group showed significant improvement in the auditory Stroop test from time-1 to time-3 and the performance was significantly better than that of the conventional exercise group in time-3. No significant effect was found in the stepping down task or dual-tasking in the control group. These results suggest a beneficial effect of Tai Chi training on cognition among stroke survivors without compromising physical task performance in dual-tasking. The effect was better than the conventional exercise group. Nevertheless, further research with a larger sample is warranted.

Effect of Tai Chi Training on Dual-Tasking Performance That Involves Stepping Down among Stroke Survivors: A Pilot Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wing-Nga Chan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Descending stairs demands attention and neuromuscular control, especially with dual-tasking. Studies have demonstrated that stroke often degrades a survivor’s ability to descend stairs. Tai Chi has been shown to improve dual-tasking performance of healthy older adults, but no such study has been conducted in stroke survivors. This study investigated the effect of Tai Chi training on dual-tasking performance that involved stepping down and compared it with that of conventional exercise among stroke survivors. Subjects were randomized into Tai Chi (n=9, conventional exercise (n=8, and control (n=9 groups. Those in the former two groups received 12-week training. Assessments included auditory Stroop test, stepping down test, and dual-tasking test involving both simultaneously. They were evaluated before training (time-1, after training (time-2, and one month after training (time-3. Tai Chi group showed significant improvement in the auditory Stroop test from time-1 to time-3 and the performance was significantly better than that of the conventional exercise group in time-3. No significant effect was found in the stepping down task or dual-tasking in the control group. These results suggest a beneficial effect of Tai Chi training on cognition among stroke survivors without compromising physical task performance in dual-tasking. The effect was better than the conventional exercise group. Nevertheless, further research with a larger sample is warranted.

Highly task-related diversity vs. less task-related diversity among university staff

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauring, Jakob; Selmer, Jan

2013-01-01

from 489 university staff members showed that age diversity and cultural diversity, representing highly task-related diversity, were positively associated with most of the variables depicting group cohesiveness. On the other hand, gender diversity, illustrating less task-related diversity, seemed......As only very few large-scale studies have investigated multi-cultural university staff and as none of these studies have dealt with diversity and group processes, this survey was directed toward staffs in 16 science departments from three large universities in Denmark. Results based on the response...

Task force for integral test of High Energy nuclear data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oyama, Yukio [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

1998-11-01

According to completion of the JENDL-High Energy file for neutron nuclear cross sections up to 50 MeV, a task force for integral test of high energy nuclear data was organized to discuss a guide line for integral test activities. A status of existing differential and integral experiments and how to perform such a test were discussed in the task force. Here the purpose and outline of the task force is explained with some future problems raised in discussion among the task member. (author)

Role of the Frontal Cortex in Standing Postural Sway Tasks While Dual-Tasking: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study Examining Working Memory Capacity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroyuki Fujita

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Posture control during a dual-task involves changing the distribution of attention resources between the cognitive and motor tasks and involves the frontal cortex working memory (WM. The present study aimed to better understand the impact of frontal lobe activity and WM capacity in postural control during a dual-task. High and low WM-span groups were compared using their reading span test scores. High and low WM capacity were compared based on cognitive and balance performance and hemoglobin oxygenation (oxyHb levels during standing during single (S-S, standing during dual (S-D, one leg standing during single (O-S, and one leg standing during dual (O-D tasks. For sway pass length, significant difference in only the O-D task was observed between both groups. oxyHb levels were markedly increased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area in the high-span group during a dual-task. Therefore, WM capacity influenced the allocation of attentional resources and motor performance.

Selecting Learning Tasks: Effects of Adaptation and Shared Control on Learning Efficiency and Task Involvement

Science.gov (United States)

Corbalan, Gemma; Kester, Liesbeth; van Merrienboer, Jeroen J. G.

2008-01-01

Complex skill acquisition by performing authentic learning tasks is constrained by limited working memory capacity [Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. "Science, 255", 556-559]. To prevent cognitive overload, task difficulty and support of each newly selected learning task can be adapted to the learner's competence level and perceived task…

Determination of validity and reliability of performance assessments tasks developed for selected topics in high school chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Zichittella, Gail Eberhardt

The primary purpose of this study was to validate performance assessments, which can be used as teaching and assessment instruments in high school science classrooms. This study evaluated the classroom usability of these performance instruments and establishes the interrater reliability of the scoring rubrics when used by classroom teachers. The assessment instruments were designed to represent two levels of scientific inquiry. The high level of inquiry tasks are relatively unstructured in terms of student directions; the low inquiry tasks provided more structure for the student. The tasks cover two content topics studied in chemistry (scientific observation and density). Students from a variety of Western New York school districts who were enrolled in chemistry classes and other science courses were involved in completion of the tasks at the two levels of inquiry. The chemistry students completed the NYS Regents Examination in Chemistry. Their classroom teachers were interviewed and completed a questionnaire to aid in the establishment their epistemological view on the inclusion of inquiry based learning in the science classroom. Data showed that the performance assessment tasks were reliable, valid and helpful for obtaining a more complete picture of the students' scientific understanding. The teacher participants reported no difficulty with the usability of the task in the high school chemistry setting. Collected data gave no evidence of gender bias with reference to the performance tasks or the NYS Regents Chemistry Examination. Additionally, it was shown that the instructors' classroom practices do have an effect upon the students' achievement on the performance tasks and the NYS Regents examination. Data also showed that achievement on the performance tasks was influenced by the number of years of science instruction students had received.

Eye movement training is most effective when it involves a task-relevant sensorimotor decision.

Science.gov (United States)

Fooken, Jolande; Lalonde, Kathryn M; Mann, Gurkiran K; Spering, Miriam

2018-04-01

Eye and hand movements are closely linked when performing everyday actions. We conducted a perceptual-motor training study to investigate mutually beneficial effects of eye and hand movements, asking whether training in one modality benefits performance in the other. Observers had to predict the future trajectory of a briefly presented moving object, and intercept it at its assumed location as accurately as possible with their finger. Eye and hand movements were recorded simultaneously. Different training protocols either included eye movements or a combination of eye and hand movements with or without external performance feedback. Eye movement training did not transfer across modalities: Irrespective of feedback, finger interception accuracy and precision improved after training that involved the hand, but not after isolated eye movement training. Conversely, eye movements benefited from hand movement training or when external performance feedback was given, thus improving only when an active interceptive task component was involved. These findings indicate only limited transfer across modalities. However, they reveal the importance of creating a training task with an active sensorimotor decision to improve the accuracy and precision of eye and hand movements.

Task types and error types involved in the human-related unplanned reactor trip events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun

2008-01-01

In this paper, the contribution of task types and error types involved in the human-related unplanned reactor trip events that have occurred between 1986 and 2006 in Korean nuclear power plants are analysed in order to establish a strategy for reducing the human-related unplanned reactor trips. Classification systems for the task types, error modes, and cognitive functions are developed or adopted from the currently available taxonomies, and the relevant information is extracted from the event reports or judged on the basis of an event description. According to the analyses from this study, the contributions of the task types are as follows: corrective maintenance (25.7%), planned maintenance (22.8%), planned operation (19.8%), periodic preventive maintenance (14.9%), response to a transient (9.9%), and design/manufacturing/installation (6.9%). According to the analysis of the error modes, error modes such as control failure (22.2%), wrong object (18.5%), omission (14.8%), wrong action (11.1%), and inadequate (8.3%) take up about 75% of the total unplanned trip events. The analysis of the cognitive functions involved in the events indicated that the planning function had the highest contribution (46.7%) to the human actions leading to unplanned reactor trips. This analysis concludes that in order to significantly reduce human-induced or human-related unplanned reactor trips, an aide system (in support of maintenance personnel) for evaluating possible (negative) impacts of planned actions or erroneous actions as well as an appropriate human error prediction technique, should be developed

Task types and error types involved in the human-related unplanned reactor trip events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2008-12-15

In this paper, the contribution of task types and error types involved in the human-related unplanned reactor trip events that have occurred between 1986 and 2006 in Korean nuclear power plants are analysed in order to establish a strategy for reducing the human-related unplanned reactor trips. Classification systems for the task types, error modes, and cognitive functions are developed or adopted from the currently available taxonomies, and the relevant information is extracted from the event reports or judged on the basis of an event description. According to the analyses from this study, the contributions of the task types are as follows: corrective maintenance (25.7%), planned maintenance (22.8%), planned operation (19.8%), periodic preventive maintenance (14.9%), response to a transient (9.9%), and design/manufacturing/installation (6.9%). According to the analysis of the error modes, error modes such as control failure (22.2%), wrong object (18.5%), omission (14.8%), wrong action (11.1%), and inadequate (8.3%) take up about 75% of the total unplanned trip events. The analysis of the cognitive functions involved in the events indicated that the planning function had the highest contribution (46.7%) to the human actions leading to unplanned reactor trips. This analysis concludes that in order to significantly reduce human-induced or human-related unplanned reactor trips, an aide system (in support of maintenance personnel) for evaluating possible (negative) impacts of planned actions or erroneous actions as well as an appropriate human error prediction technique, should be developed.

Highly automated driving, secondary task performance, and driver state.

Science.gov (United States)

Merat, Natasha; Jamson, A Hamish; Lai, Frank C H; Carsten, Oliver

2012-10-01

A driving simulator study compared the effect of changes in workload on performance in manual and highly automated driving. Changes in driver state were also observed by examining variations in blink patterns. With the addition of a greater number of advanced driver assistance systems in vehicles, the driver's role is likely to alter in the future from an operator in manual driving to a supervisor of highly automated cars. Understanding the implications of such advancements on drivers and road safety is important. A total of 50 participants were recruited for this study and drove the simulator in both manual and highly automated mode. As well as comparing the effect of adjustments in driving-related workload on performance, the effect of a secondary Twenty Questions Task was also investigated. In the absence of the secondary task, drivers' response to critical incidents was similar in manual and highly automated driving conditions. The worst performance was observed when drivers were required to regain control of driving in the automated mode while distracted by the secondary task. Blink frequency patterns were more consistent for manual than automated driving but were generally suppressed during conditions of high workload. Highly automated driving did not have a deleterious effect on driver performance, when attention was not diverted to the distracting secondary task. As the number of systems implemented in cars increases, an understanding of the implications of such automation on drivers' situation awareness, workload, and ability to remain engaged with the driving task is important.

Intra-mathematical connections made by high school students in performing Calculus tasks

Science.gov (United States)

García-García, Javier; Dolores-Flores, Crisólogo

2018-02-01

In this article, we report the results of research that explores the intra-mathematical connections that high school students make when they solve Calculus tasks, in particular those involving the derivative and the integral. We consider mathematical connections as a cognitive process through which a person relates or associates two or more ideas, concepts, definitions, theorems, procedures, representations and meanings among themselves, with other disciplines or with real life. Task-based interviews were used to collect data and thematic analysis was used to analyze them. Through the analysis of the productions of the 25 participants, we identified 223 intra-mathematical connections. The data allowed us to establish a mathematical connections system which contributes to the understanding of higher concepts, in our case, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. We found mathematical connections of the types: different representations, procedural, features, reversibility and meaning as a connection.

Voluntary stepping behavior under single- and dual-task conditions in chronic stroke survivors: A comparison between the involved and uninvolved legs.

Science.gov (United States)

Melzer, Itshak; Goldring, Melissa; Melzer, Yehudit; Green, Elad; Tzedek, Irit

2010-12-01

If balance is lost, quick step execution can prevent falls. Research has shown that speed of voluntary stepping was able to predict future falls in old adults. The aim of the study was to investigate voluntary stepping behavior, as well as to compare timing and leg push-off force-time relation parameters of involved and uninvolved legs in stroke survivors during single- and dual-task conditions. We also aimed to compare timing and leg push-off force-time relation parameters between stroke survivors and healthy individuals in both task conditions. Ten stroke survivors performed a voluntary step execution test with their involved and uninvolved legs under two conditions: while focusing only on the stepping task and while a separate attention-demanding task was performed simultaneously. Temporal parameters related to the step time were measured including the duration of the step initiation phase, the preparatory phase, the swing phase, and the total step time. In addition, force-time parameters representing the push-off power during stepping were calculated from ground reaction data and compared with 10 healthy controls. The involved legs of stroke survivors had a significantly slower stepping time than uninvolved legs due to increased swing phase duration during both single- and dual-task conditions. For dual compared to single task, the stepping time increased significantly due to a significant increase in the duration of step initiation. In general, the force time parameters were significantly different in both legs of stroke survivors as compared to healthy controls, with no significant effect of dual compared with single-task conditions in both groups. The inability of stroke survivors to swing the involved leg quickly may be the most significant factor contributing to the large number of falls to the paretic side. The results suggest that stroke survivors were unable to rapidly produce muscle force in fast actions. This may be the mechanism of delayed execution

Task-based incidental vocabulary learning in L2 Arabic: The role of proficiency and task performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayman A. Mohamed

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This study tests the claim that word learning in a second language are contingent upon a task’s involvement load (i.e. the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes, as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001. Fifty-three English-speaking learners of Arabic were assigned to one of three vocabulary learning tasks that varied in the degree of involvement: reading comprehension with glosses (low, fill-in-the-gap task (medium, and sentence writing (high. Ten words, selected based on a pretest, were targeted in the tasks. Results showed a main effect of task, with the sentence writing task yielding the highest rates of vocabulary learning, followed by the gap-fill task, and finally the reading comprehension task. A significant correlation was found between accuracy of performance across participants and their subsequent vocabulary acquisition in the immediate posttest. Within groups, only the performance of the writing group correlated significantly with their posttest scores. Results of the present study validate the hypothesis and point to multiple factors at play in incidental vocabulary acquisition. The study provides further arguments to refine the hypothesis and implement pedagogical practices that accommodate incidental learning in foreign language settings.

Default mode network connectivity during task execution.

Science.gov (United States)

Vatansever, D; Menon, D K; Manktelow, A E; Sahakian, B J; Stamatakis, E A

2015-11-15

Initially described as task-induced deactivations during goal-directed paradigms of high attentional load, the unresolved functionality of default mode regions has long been assumed to interfere with task performance. However, recent evidence suggests a potential default mode network involvement in fulfilling cognitive demands. We tested this hypothesis in a finger opposition paradigm with task and fixation periods which we compared with an independent resting state scan using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a comprehensive analysis pipeline including activation, functional connectivity, behavioural and graph theoretical assessments. The results indicate task specific changes in the default mode network topography. Behaviourally, we show that increased connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex with the left superior frontal gyrus predicts faster reaction times. Moreover, interactive and dynamic reconfiguration of the default mode network regions' functional connections illustrates their involvement with the task at hand with higher-level global parallel processing power, yet preserved small-world architecture in comparison with rest. These findings demonstrate that the default mode network does not disengage during this paradigm, but instead may be involved in task relevant processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beads task vs. box task: The specificity of the jumping to conclusions bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Balzan, Ryan P; Ephraums, Rachel; Delfabbro, Paul; Andreou, Christina

2017-09-01

Previous research involving the probabilistic reasoning 'beads task' has consistently demonstrated a jumping-to-conclusions (JTC) bias, where individuals with delusions make decisions based on limited evidence. However, recent studies have suggested that miscomprehension may be confounding the beads task. The current study aimed to test the conventional beads task against a conceptually simpler probabilistic reasoning "box task" METHODS: One hundred non-clinical participants completed both the beads task and the box task, and the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI) to assess for delusion-proneness. The number of 'draws to decision' was assessed for both tasks. Additionally, the total amount of on-screen evidence was manipulated for the box task, and two new box task measures were assessed (i.e., 'proportion of evidence requested' and 'deviation from optimal solution'). Despite being conceptually similar, the two tasks did not correlate, and participants requested significantly less information on the beads task relative to the box task. High-delusion-prone participants did not demonstrate hastier decisions on either task; in fact, for box task, this group was observed to be significantly more conservative than low-delusion-prone group. Neither task was incentivized; results need replication with a clinical sample. Participants, and particularly those identified as high-delusion-prone, displayed a more conservative style of responding on the novel box task, relative to the beads task. The two tasks, whilst conceptually similar, appear to be tapping different cognitive processes. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to the JTC bias and the theoretical mechanisms thought to underlie it. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Idiom Comprehension Deficits in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Korean Autism Social Language Task

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seul Bee; Song, Seung Ha; Ham, Ju Hyun; Song, Dong Ho

2015-01-01

Purpose High-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves pragmatic impairment of language skills. Among numerous tasks for assessing pragmatic linguistic skills, idioms are important to evaluating high-functioning ASD. Nevertheless, no assessment tool has been developed with specific consideration of Korean culture. Therefore, we designed the Korean Autism Social Language Task (KASLAT) to test idiom comprehension in ASD. The aim of the current study was to introduce this novel psychological tool and evaluate idiom comprehension deficits in high-functioning ASD. Materials and Methods The participants included 42 children, ages 6-11 years, who visited our child psychiatric clinic between April 2014 and May 2015. The ASD group comprised 16 children; the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group consisted of 16 children. An additional 10 normal control children who had not been diagnosed with either disorder participated in this study. Idiom comprehension ability was assessed in these three groups using the KASLAT. Results Both ASD and ADHD groups had significantly lower scores on the matched and mismatched tasks, compared to the normal control children (matched tasks mean score: ASD 11.56, ADHD 11.56, normal control 14.30; mismatched tasks mean score: ASD 6.50, ADHD 4.31, normal control 11.30). However, no significant differences were found in scores of KASLAT between the ADHD and ASD groups. Conclusion These findings suggest that children with ASD exhibit greater impairment in idiom comprehension, compared to normal control children. The KASLAT may be useful in evaluating idiom comprehension ability. PMID:26446644

Administrative Task Performance by Heads of Senior High Schools ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study aimed at examining the administrative task performance of heads of senior high schools (SHS) in Ghana from the organising perspective. The study hypothesized that there is no statistically significant difference in the compliance level of organising as an administrative task performance by heads in the rural and ...

High-definition television evaluation for remote handling task performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujita, Y.; Omori, E.; Hayashi, S.; Draper, J.V.; Herndon, J.N.

1986-01-01

In a plant that employs remote handling techniques for equipment maintenance, operators perform maintenance tasks primarily by using the information from television systems. The efficiency of the television system has a significant impact on remote maintenance task performance. High-definition television (HDTV) transmits a video image with more than twice the number of horizontal scan lines as standard-resolution television (1125 for HDTV to 525 for standard-resolution NTSC television). The added scan lines dramatically improve the resolution of images on the HDTV monitors. This paper describes experiments designed to evaluate the impact of HDTV on the performance of typical remote tasks. The experiments described in this paper compared the performance of four operators using HDTV with their performance while using other television systems. The experiments included four television systems: (a) high-definition color television, (b) high-definition monochromatic television, (c) standard-resolution monochromatic television, and (d) standard-resolution stereoscopic monochromatic television

DOE high-level waste tank safety program Final report, Task 002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The overall objective of the work on Task 002 was to provide LANL with support to the DOE High-Level Waste Tank Safety program. The objective of the work was to develop safety documentation in support of the unsafe tank mitigation activities at Hanford. The work includes the development of safety assessment and an environmental assessment. All tasks which were assigned under this Task Order were completed. Descriptions of the objectives of each task and effort performed to complete each objective are provided. The two tasks were: Task 2.1--safety assessment for instrumentation insertion; and Task 2.2--environmental assessment

Evaluation of a novel high-fidelity epistaxis task trainer.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Grace M; Roth, Kathryn; Rotenberg, Brian; Sommer, Doron D; Sowerby, Leigh; Fung, Kevin

2016-07-01

To assess the efficacy of a novel high-fidelity epistaxis simulator in teaching epistaxis management to junior otolaryngology head and neck surgery residents. Prospective cohort study. A novel high-fidelity epistaxis task trainer was developed using a cadaver head, intravenous tubing, and a food coloring-filled saline bag to emulate blood. Learners were instructed on two techniques of nasal packing (formal nasal pack and nasal tampon) for the management of epistaxis using the task trainer. Learners were videotaped attempting to pack the nose of the task trainer pre- and postintervention (verbal instruction, and practice time with task trainer). Five board-certified otolaryngologists (blinded to pre- and postintervention status) evaluated the packing technique using standardized subjective outcome measures. There were 13 junior otolaryngology residents enrolled in the study. This cohort showed a statistically significant increase in global rating scores (P epistaxis simulator has been successful in teaching and the practical application of various skills in epistaxis management. This task trainer appears to confer an educational benefit in technical skills acquisition in novice learners. Further studies are needed to determine long-term skill retention. Simulation is a promising educational adjunct that effectively enhances epistaxis management skills acquisition while maximizing patient safety. NA. Laryngoscope, 126:1501-1503, 2016. © 2015 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Production practices affecting worker task demands in concrete operations: A case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Memarian, Babak; Mitropoulos, Panagiotis

2015-01-01

Construction work involves significant physical, mental, and temporal task demands. Excessive task demands can have negative consequences for safety, errors and production. This exploratory study investigates the magnitude and sources of task demands on a concrete operation, and examines the effect of the production practices on the workers' task demands. The NASA Task Load Index was used to measure the perceived task demands of two work crews. The operation involved the construction of a cast-in-place concrete building under high schedule pressures. Interviews with each crew member were used to identify the main sources of the perceived demands. Extensive field observations and interviews with the supervisors and crews identified the production practices. The workers perceived different level of task demands depending on their role. The production practices influenced the task demands in two ways: (1) practices related to work organization, task design, resource management, and crew management mitigated the task demands; and (2) other practices related to work planning and crew management increased the crew's ability to cope with and adapt to high task demands. The findings identify production practices that regulate the workers' task demands. The effect of task demands on performance is mitigated by the ability to cope with high demands.

Investigate-and-redesign tasks as a context for learning and doing science and technology: A study of naive, novice and expert high school and adult designers doing product comparisons and redesign tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Crismond, David Paul

This thesis studied high school students and adults with varying degrees of design experience doing two technology investigate-and-redesign (I&R) tasks. Each involved subjects investigating products, designing experiments to compare them fairly, and then redesigning the devices. A total of 25 pairs of subjects participated in this investigation and included naive and novice high school designers, as well as naive, novice, and expert adult designers. Subjects of similar age and design experience worked in same-gender teams and met for two 2-hour sessions. The essential research question of this thesis was: "What process skills and concepts do naive, novice and expert designers use and learn when investigating devices, designing experiments, and redesigning the devices?" Three methodologies were used to gather and analyze the data: clinical interviewing (Piaget, 1929/1960), protocol analysis (Ericsson & Simon, 1984) and interaction analysis (Jordan and Henderson, 1995). The thesis provides composite case-studies of 10 of the 50 test sessions, buttressed by descriptions of performance trends for all subjects. Given the small sample sizes involved, the findings are by necessity tentative and not supported by statistical analysis: (1) I&R activities are engaging, less time-intensive complements to design-and-build tasks, which involve simple mechanical devices and carry with them a host of potential "alternative understandings" in science and technology. Much gets learned during these tasks, more involving "device knowledge" and "device inquiry skills" than "big ideas" in science and technology. (2) Redesign tasks scaffold naive and novice designers to improved performance in the multidimensional and context-specific activity of design. The performances of naive and novice designers were more like that of expert designers when redesigning existing devices than when doing start-from-scratch designing. (3) Conceptual redesign involved more analysis- than synthesis

Inferring biological tasks using Pareto analysis of high-dimensional data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Yuval; Sheftel, Hila; Hausser, Jean; Szekely, Pablo; Ben-Moshe, Noa Bossel; Korem, Yael; Tendler, Avichai; Mayo, Avraham E; Alon, Uri

2015-03-01

We present the Pareto task inference method (ParTI; http://www.weizmann.ac.il/mcb/UriAlon/download/ParTI) for inferring biological tasks from high-dimensional biological data. Data are described as a polytope, and features maximally enriched closest to the vertices (or archetypes) allow identification of the tasks the vertices represent. We demonstrate that human breast tumors and mouse tissues are well described by tetrahedrons in gene expression space, with specific tumor types and biological functions enriched at each of the vertices, suggesting four key tasks.

"Smart inhibition": electrophysiological evidence for the suppression of conflict-generating task rules during task switching.

Science.gov (United States)

Meiran, Nachshon; Hsieh, Shulan; Chang, Chi-Chih

2011-09-01

A major challenge for task switching is maintaining a balance between high task readiness and effectively ignoring irrelevant task rules. This calls for finely tuned inhibition that targets only the source of interference without adversely influencing other task-related representations. The authors show that irrelevant task rules generating response conflict are inhibited, causing their inefficient execution on the next trial (indicating the presence of competitor rule suppression[CRS];Meiran, Hsieh, & Dimov, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 36, 992-1002, 2010). To determine whether CRS influences task rules, rather than target stimuli or responses, the authors focused on the processing of the task cue before the target stimulus was presented and before the response could be chosen. As was predicted, CRS was found in the event-related potentials in two time windows during task cue processing. It was also found in three time windows after target presentation. Source localization analyses suggest the involvement of the right dorsal prefrontal cortex in all five time windows.

The right look for the job: decoding cognitive processes involved in the task from spatial eye-movement patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Król, Magdalena Ewa; Król, Michał

2018-02-20

The aim of the study was not only to demonstrate whether eye-movement-based task decoding was possible but also to investigate whether eye-movement patterns can be used to identify cognitive processes behind the tasks. We compared eye-movement patterns elicited under different task conditions, with tasks differing systematically with regard to the types of cognitive processes involved in solving them. We used four tasks, differing along two dimensions: spatial (global vs. local) processing (Navon, Cognit Psychol, 9(3):353-383 1977) and semantic (deep vs. shallow) processing (Craik and Lockhart, J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav, 11(6):671-684 1972). We used eye-movement patterns obtained from two time periods: fixation cross preceding the target stimulus and the target stimulus. We found significant effects of both spatial and semantic processing, but in case of the latter, the effect might be an artefact of insufficient task control. We found above chance task classification accuracy for both time periods: 51.4% for the period of stimulus presentation and 34.8% for the period of fixation cross presentation. Therefore, we show that task can be to some extent decoded from the preparatory eye-movements before the stimulus is displayed. This suggests that anticipatory eye-movements reflect the visual scanning strategy employed for the task at hand. Finally, this study also demonstrates that decoding is possible even from very scant eye-movement data similar to Coco and Keller, J Vis 14(3):11-11 (2014). This means that task decoding is not limited to tasks that naturally take longer to perform and yield multi-second eye-movement recordings.

Safety instruction for execution tasks involving ionizing radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fonseca, G.

1985-01-01

Basic directives are presented allow operations with ionizing radiations in industrial areas with high levels of safety. Contractual, technical, operational and administrative criteria are established for the safe performance of x-rays and gamographies and the use of fixed radiation based equipment (indicators of level, density, flow, etc) as well as precautions to be taken during project, procurement, transportation, assembly and maintenance of such equipment. Finally procedures are suggested for emergencies involving radioactive sources. (author)

Decreased Modulation of EEG Oscillations in High-Functioning Autism During a Motor Control Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua Benjamin Ewen

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Autism spectrum disorders (ASD are thought to result in part from altered cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance; this pathophysiology may impact the generation of oscillations on EEG. We investigated premotor-parietal cortical physiology associated with praxis, which has strong theoretical and empirical associations with ASD symptomatology. 25 children with high-functioning ASD (HFA and 33 controls performed a praxis task involving the pantomiming of tool use, while EEG was recorded. We assessed task-related modulation of signal power in alpha and beta frequency bands. Compared with controls, subjects with HFA showed 27% less left central (motor/premotor beta (18-22 Hz event-related desynchronization (ERD (p = 0.030, as well as 24% less left parietal alpha (7-13 Hz ERD (p = 0.046. Within the HFA group, blunting of central ERD attenuation was associated with impairments in clinical measures of praxis imitation (r = -0.4; p = 0.04 and increased autism severity (r = 0.48; p = 0.016. The modulation of central beta activity is associated, among other things, with motor imagery, which may be necessary for imitation. Impaired imitation has been associated with core features of ASD. Altered modulation of oscillatory activity may be mechanistically involved in those aspects of motor network function that relate to the core symptoms of ASD.

Automatic Retrieval of Newly Instructed Cue-Task Associations Seen in Task-Conflict Effects in the First Trial after Cue-Task Instructions.

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Meiran, Nachshon; Pereg, Maayan

2017-01-01

Novel stimulus-response associations are retrieved automatically even without prior practice. Is this true for novel cue-task associations? The experiment involved miniblocks comprising three phases and task switching. In the INSTRUCTION phase, two new stimuli (or familiar cues) were arbitrarily assigned as cues for up-down/right-left tasks performed on placeholder locations. In the UNIVALENT phase, there was no task cue since placeholder's location afforded one task but the placeholders were the stimuli that we assigned as task cues for the following BIVALENT phase (involving target locations affording both tasks). Thus, participants held the novel cue-task associations in memory while executing the UNIVALENT phase. Results show poorer performance in the first univalent trial when the placeholder was associated with the opposite task (incompatible) than when it was compatible, an effect that was numerically larger with newly instructed cues than with familiar cues. These results indicate automatic retrieval of newly instructed cue-task associations.

Effects of Non-Driving Related Task Modalities on Takeover Performance in Highly Automated Driving.

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Wandtner, Bernhard; Schömig, Nadja; Schmidt, Gerald

2018-04-01

Aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of different non-driving related tasks (NDR tasks) on takeover performance in highly automated driving. During highly automated driving, it is allowed to engage in NDR tasks temporarily. However, drivers must be able to take over control when reaching a system limit. There is evidence that the type of NDR task has an impact on takeover performance, but little is known about the specific task characteristics that account for performance decrements. Thirty participants drove in a simulator using a highly automated driving system. Each participant faced five critical takeover situations. Based on assumptions of Wickens's multiple resource theory, stimulus and response modalities of a prototypical NDR task were systematically manipulated. Additionally, in one experimental group, the task was locked out simultaneously with the takeover request. Task modalities had significant effects on several measures of takeover performance. A visual-manual texting task degraded performance the most, particularly when performed handheld. In contrast, takeover performance with an auditory-vocal task was comparable to a baseline without any task. Task lockout was associated with faster hands-on-wheel times but not altered brake response times. Results showed that NDR task modalities are relevant factors for takeover performance. An NDR task lockout was highly accepted by the drivers and showed moderate benefits for the first takeover reaction. Knowledge about the impact of NDR task characteristics is an enabler for adaptive takeover concepts. In addition, it might help regulators to make decisions on allowed NDR tasks during automated driving.

Student Teachers’ Proof Schemes on Proof Tasks Involving Inequality: Deductive or Inductive?

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Rosyidi, A. H.; Kohar, A. W.

2018-01-01

Exploring student teachers’ proof ability is crucial as it is important for improving the quality of their learning process and help their future students learn how to construct a proof. Hence, this study aims at exploring at the proof schemes of student teachers in the beginning of their studies. Data were collected from 130 proofs resulted by 65 Indonesian student teachers on two proof tasks involving algebraic inequality. To analyse, the proofs were classified into the refined proof schemes level proposed by Lee (2016) ranging from inductive, which only provides irrelevant inferences, to deductive proofs, which consider addressing formal representation. Findings present several examples of each of Lee’s level on the student teachers’ proofs spanning from irrelevant inferences, novice use of examples or logical reasoning, strategic use examples for reasoning, deductive inferences with major and minor logical coherence, and deductive proof with informal and formal representation. Besides, it was also found that more than half of the students’ proofs coded as inductive schemes, which does not meet the requirement for doing the proof for the proof tasks examined in this study. This study suggests teacher educators in teacher colleges to reform the curriculum regarding proof learning which can accommodate the improvement of student teachers’ proving ability from inductive to deductive proof as well from informal to formal proof.

Dual-task performance involving hand dexterity and cognitive tasks and daily functioning in people with schizophrenia: a pilot study.

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Lin, Keh-chung; Wu, Yi-fang; Chen, I-chen; Tsai, Pei-luen; Wu, Ching-yi; Chen, Chia-ling

2015-01-01

This study investigated separate and concurrent performance on cognitive and hand dexterity tasks and the relationship to daily functioning in 16 people with schizophrenia and 16 healthy control participants. Participants performed the Purdue Pegboard Test and the Serial Seven Subtraction Test under single- and dual-task conditions and completed two daily functioning evaluations. The hand dexterity of all participants declined in the dual-task condition, but the discrepancy between single-task and dual-task hand dexterity was greater in the schizophrenia group than in the control group (p.70, for all). The extent of discrepancy in hand dexterity was negatively correlated with daily functioning in the schizophrenia group (rs=-.3 to -.5, ps=.04-.26). Ability to perform dual tasks may be an indicator of daily functioning in people with schizophrenia. Use of dual-task training may be considered as a therapeutic activity with these clients. Copyright © 2015 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Improving mental task classification by adding high frequency band information.

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Zhang, Li; He, Wei; He, Chuanhong; Wang, Ping

2010-02-01

Features extracted from delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma bands spanning low frequency range are commonly used to classify scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) for designing brain-computer interface (BCI) and higher frequencies are often neglected as noise. In this paper, we implemented an experimental validation to demonstrate that high frequency components could provide helpful information for improving the performance of the mental task based BCI. Electromyography (EMG) and electrooculography (EOG) artifacts were removed by using blind source separation (BSS) techniques. Frequency band powers and asymmetry ratios from the high frequency band (40-100 Hz) together with those from the lower frequency bands were used to represent EEG features. Finally, Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) combining with Mahalanobis distance were used as the classifier. In this study, four types of classifications were performed using EEG signals recorded from four subjects during five mental tasks. We obtained significantly higher classification accuracy by adding the high frequency band features compared to using the low frequency bands alone, which demonstrated that the information in high frequency components from scalp-recorded EEG is valuable for the mental task based BCI.

Investigating the relationship between media multitasking and processes involved in task-switching.

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Alzahabi, Reem; Becker, Mark W; Hambrick, David Z

2017-11-01

Although multitasking with media has increased dramatically in recent years (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010), the association between media multitasking and cognitive performance is poorly understood. In addition, the literature on the relationship between media multitasking and task-switching, one measure of cognitive control, has produced mixed results (Alzahabi & Becker, 2013; Minear et al., 2013; Ophir, Nass, & Wagner, 2009). Here we use an individual differences approach to investigate the relationship between media multitasking and task-switching performance by first examining the structure of task-switching and identifying the latent factors that contribute to switch costs. Participants performed a series of 3 different task-switching paradigms, each designed to isolate the effects of a specific putative mechanism (e.g., advanced preparation) related to task-switching performance, as well as a series of surveys to measure media multitasking and intelligence. The results suggest that task-switching performance is related to 2 somewhat independent factors, namely an advanced preparation factor and passive decay factor. In addition, multitasking with media was related to a faster ability to prepare for tasks, resulting in faster task-switching performance without a cost to accuracy. Media multitasking and intelligence were both unrelated to passive decay factors. These findings are consistent with a 2-component model of task-switching (Sohn & Anderson, 2001), as well as an automatic/executive framework of cognitive control (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Hypnosis, hypnotic suggestibility, memory, and involvement in films.

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Maxwell, Reed; Lynn, Steven Jay; Condon, Liam

2015-05-01

Our research extends studies that have examined the relation between hypnotic suggestibility and experiential involvement and the role of an hypnotic induction in enhancing experiential involvement (e.g., absorption) in engaging tasks. Researchers have reported increased involvement in reading (Baum & Lynn, 1981) and music-listening (Snodgrass & Lynn, 1989) tasks during hypnosis. We predicted a similar effect for film viewing: greater experiential involvement in an emotional (The Champ) versus a non-emotional (Scenes of Toronto) film. We tested 121 participants who completed measures of absorption and trait dissociation and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and then viewed the two films after either an hypnotic induction or a non-hypnotic task (i.e., anagrams). Experiential involvement varied as a function of hypnotic suggestibility and film clip. Highly suggestible participants reported more state depersonalization than less suggestible participants, and depersonalization was associated with negative affect; however, we observed no significant correlation between hypnotic suggestibility and trait dissociation. Although hypnosis had no effect on memory commission or omission errors, contrary to the hypothesis that hypnosis facilitates absorption in emotionally engaging tasks, the emotional film was associated with more commission and omission errors compared with the non-emotional film. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differences in time course activation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex associated with low or high risk choicesin a gambling task

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Stefano eBembich

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Prefrontal cortex plays an important role in decision making (DM, supporting choices in the ordinary uncertainty of everyday life. To assess DM in an unpredictable situation, a playing card task, such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT, has been proposed. This task is supposed to specifically test emotion-based learning, linked to the integrity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC. However, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC has demonstrated a role in IGT performance too. Our aim was to study, by multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy, the contribution of DLPFC to the IGT execution over time. We tested the hypothesis that low and high risk choices would differentially activate DLPFC, as IGT execution progressed. We enrolled 11 healthy adults. To identify DLPFC activation associated with IGT choices, we compared regional differences in oxy-haemoglobin variation, from baseline to the event. The time course of task execution was divided in four periods, each one consisting of 25 choices, and DLPFC activation was distinctly analyzed for low and high risk choices in each period. We found different time courses in DLPFC activation, associated with low or high risk choices. During the first period, a significant DLPFC activation emerged with low risk choices, whereas, during the second period, we found a cortical activation with high risk choices. Then, DLPFC activation decreased to non-significant levels during the third and fourth period. This study shows that DLPFC involvement in IGT execution is differentiated over time and according to choice risk level. DLPFC is activated only in the first half of the task, earlier by low risk and later by high risk choices. We speculate that DLPFC may sustain initial and more cognitive functions, such as attention shifting and response inhibition. The lack of DLPFC activation, as the task progresses, may be due to VMPFC activation, not detectable by fNIRS, which takes over the IGT execution in its

The Effects of Group Relaxation Training/Large Muscle Exercise, and Parental Involvement on Attention to Task, Impulsivity, and Locus of Control among Hyperactive Boys.

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Porter, Sally S.; Omizo, Michael M.

1984-01-01

The study examined the effects of group relaxation training/large muscle exercise and parental involvement on attention to task, impulsivity, and locus of control among 34 hyperactive boys. Following treatment both experimental groups recorded significantly higher attention to task, lower impulsivity, and lower locus of control scores. (Author/CL)

Business Involvement in Schools: Separating Wheat from Chaff.

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Molnar, Alex

1990-01-01

Given the importance of educating for democratic citizenship, the involvement of individual business people with policymaking bodies and task forces is highly desirable. However, schools should limit business involvement to civic-minded contributions free of marketing or advertising hype. To do otherwise betrays the spirit of educational…

Characterization of systemic disease in primary Sjogren's syndrome : EULAR-SS Task Force recommendations for articular, cutaneous, pulmonary and renal involvements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ramos-Casals, Manuel; Brito-Zeron, Pilar; Seror, Raphaele; Bootsma, Hendrika; Bowman, Simon J.; Doerner, Thomas; Gottenberg, Jacques-Eric; Mariette, Xavier; Theander, Elke; Bombardieri, Stefano; De Vita, Salvatore; Mandl, Thomas; Ng, Wan-Fai; Kruize, Aike; Tzioufas, Athanasios; Vitali, Claudio

2015-01-01

Objective. To reach a European consensus on the definition and characterization of the main organspecific extraglandular manifestations in primary SS. Methods. The EULAR-SS Task Force Group steering committee agreed to approach SS-related systemic involvement according to the EULAR SS Disease

The neural basis of task switching changes with skill acquisition

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Koji eJimura

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Learning novel skills involves reorganization and optimization of cognitive processing involving a broad network of brain regions. Previous work has shown asymmetric costs of switching to a well-trained task versus a poorly-trained task, but the neural basis of these differential switch costs is unclear. The current study examined the neural signature of task switching in the context of acquisition of new skill. Human participants alternated randomly between a novel visual task (mirror-reversed word reading and a highly practiced one (plain word reading, allowing the isolation of task switching and skill set maintenance. Two scan sessions were separated by two weeks, with behavioral training on the mirror reading task in between the two sessions. Broad cortical regions, including bilateral prefrontal, parietal, and extrastriate cortices, showed decreased activity associated with learning of the mirror reading skill. In contrast, learning to switch to the novel skill was associated with decreased activity in a focal subcortical region in the dorsal striatum. Switching to the highly practiced task was associated with a non-overlapping set of regions, suggesting substantial differences in the neural substrates of switching as a function of task skill. Searchlight multivariate pattern analysis also revealed that learning was associated with decreased pattern information for mirror versus plain reading tasks in fronto-parietal regions. Inferior frontal junction and posterior parietal cortex showed a joint effect of univariate activation and pattern information. These results suggest distinct learning mechanisms task performance and executive control as a function of learning.

Task-based statistical image reconstruction for high-quality cone-beam CT

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Dang, Hao; Webster Stayman, J.; Xu, Jennifer; Zbijewski, Wojciech; Sisniega, Alejandro; Mow, Michael; Wang, Xiaohui; Foos, David H.; Aygun, Nafi; Koliatsos, Vassilis E.; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H.

2017-11-01

Task-based analysis of medical imaging performance underlies many ongoing efforts in the development of new imaging systems. In statistical image reconstruction, regularization is often formulated in terms to encourage smoothness and/or sharpness (e.g. a linear, quadratic, or Huber penalty) but without explicit formulation of the task. We propose an alternative regularization approach in which a spatially varying penalty is determined that maximizes task-based imaging performance at every location in a 3D image. We apply the method to model-based image reconstruction (MBIR—viz., penalized weighted least-squares, PWLS) in cone-beam CT (CBCT) of the head, focusing on the task of detecting a small, low-contrast intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), and we test the performance of the algorithm in the context of a recently developed CBCT prototype for point-of-care imaging of brain injury. Theoretical predictions of local spatial resolution and noise are computed via an optimization by which regularization (specifically, the quadratic penalty strength) is allowed to vary throughout the image to maximize local task-based detectability index ({{d}\\prime} ). Simulation studies and test-bench experiments were performed using an anthropomorphic head phantom. Three PWLS implementations were tested: conventional (constant) penalty; a certainty-based penalty derived to enforce constant point-spread function, PSF; and the task-based penalty derived to maximize local detectability at each location. Conventional (constant) regularization exhibited a fairly strong degree of spatial variation in {{d}\\prime} , and the certainty-based method achieved uniform PSF, but each exhibited a reduction in detectability compared to the task-based method, which improved detectability up to ~15%. The improvement was strongest in areas of high attenuation (skull base), where the conventional and certainty-based methods tended to over-smooth the data. The task-driven reconstruction method presents a

The Role of Language Glossing in a Rooted Theory: The Involvement Load Hypothesis

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Hassan Soleimani

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This study builds on the innovative construct of task-induced involvement. It investigates different first and second language glossing in “involvement load hypothesis”. In order to do our study, 66 learners from two different English institutes were classified into two major high and low proficient groups based on Nelson Proficiency Test. Among them 22 low proficient students were randomly assigned to two different subgroups in order to complete two different types of tasks with different language glossing. The behaviors of the two groups in the immediate and delayed posttests did not confirm the predictions of involvement load hypothesis. Although the second task had a higher involvement index, no sign of superiority was observed in its performance. The study suggests that the predictions of involvement load hypothesis need to be more finely grained especially when the tasks have different language glossing.

Program of Hanford high-level waste retrieval task: a narrative description

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wallskog, H.A.

1976-12-01

The objective of this task is to develop and demonstrate the equipment and methods for the retrieval of high-level radioactive wastes from underground storage tanks at Hanford. The approach will be to continue with engineering studies and the conceptual design in progress and follow on with the engineering design, construction, testing and demonstration of a Prototype Retrieval System. This system will consist of a large, mobile platform providing the support and control of an articulated arm used to remotely position waste recovery/removal tools. Other major components include the equipment needed to bring the material up to the platform for packaging and subsequent transport to a processing facility, and the television viewing and lighting subsystem. This prototype system will be functionally complete and will contain items such as a control center, tool change and maintenance/repair capability, etc. The program includes a complete non-radioactive demonstration of the system in a mock waste tank as well as a radioactive demonstration involving one or more waste tanks

Resolving task rule incongruence during task switching by competitor rule suppression.

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Meiran, Nachshon; Hsieh, Shulan; Dimov, Eduard

2010-07-01

Task switching requires maintaining readiness to execute any task of a given set of tasks. However, when tasks switch, the readiness to execute the now-irrelevant task generates interference, as seen in the task rule incongruence effect. Overcoming such interference requires fine-tuned inhibition that impairs task readiness only minimally. In an experiment involving 2 object classification tasks and 2 location classification tasks, the authors show that irrelevant task rules that generate response conflicts are inhibited. This competitor rule suppression (CRS) is seen in response slowing in subsequent trials, when the competing rules become relevant. CRS is shown to operate on specific rules without affecting similar rules. CRS and backward inhibition, which is another inhibitory phenomenon, produced additive effects on reaction time, suggesting their mutual independence. Implications for current formal theories of task switching as well as for conflict monitoring theories are discussed. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Evaluation of high-definition television for remote task performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Draper, J.V.; Fujita, Y.; Herndon, J.N.

1987-04-01

High-definition television (HDTV) transmits a video image with more than twice the number (1125 for HDTV to 525 for standard-resolution TV) of horizontal scan lines that standard-resolution TV provides. The improvement in picture quality (compared to standard-resolution TV) that the extra scan lines provide is impressive. Objects in the HDTV picture have more sharply defined edges, better contrast, and more accurate reproduction of shading and color patterns than do those in the standard-resolution TV picture. Because the TV viewing system is a key component for teleoperator performance, an improvement in TV picture quality could mean an improvement in the speed and accuracy with which teleoperators perform tasks. This report describes three experiments designed to evaluate the impact of HDTV on the performance of typical remote tasks. The performance of HDTV was compared to that of standard-resolution, monochromatic TV and standard-resolution, stereoscopic, monochromatic TV in the context of judgment of depth in a televised scene, visual inspection of an object, and performance of a typical remote handling task. The results of the three experiments show that in some areas HDTV can lead to improvement in teleoperator performance. Observers inspecting a small object for a flaw were more accurate with HDTV than with either of the standard-resolution systems. High resolution is critical for detection of small-scale flaws of the type in the experiment (a scratch on a glass bottle). These experiments provided an evaluation of HDTV television for use in tasks that must be routinely performed to remotely maintain a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. 5 refs., 7 figs., 9 tabs

Review and Response to the Final Report of the National Black Health Providers Task Force on High Blood Pressure Education and Control.

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Public Health Service (DHHS), Rockville, MD.

This report presents the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) review of and response to the final report of the National Black Health Providers Task Force on High Blood Pressure Education and Control. The response includes a statement of NHLBI's involvement in health research, and descriptions of what steps can be taken to solve the…

Robot task space analyzer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamel, W.R.; Osborn, J.

1997-01-01

Many nuclear projects such as environmental restoration and waste management challenges involve radiation or other hazards that will necessitate the use of remote operations that protect human workers from dangerous exposures. Remote work is far more costly to execute than what workers could accomplish directly with conventional tools and practices because task operations are slow and tedious due to difficulties of remote manipulation and viewing. Decades of experience within the nuclear remote operations community show that remote tasks may take hundreds of times longer than hands-on work; even with state-of-the-art force- reflecting manipulators and television viewing, remote task performance execution is five to ten times slower than equivalent direct contact work. Thus the requirement to work remotely is a major cost driver in many projects. Modest improvements in the work efficiency of remote systems can have high payoffs by reducing the completion time of projects. Additional benefits will accrue from improved work quality and enhanced safety

The functional neuroanatomy of multitasking: combining dual tasking with a short term memory task.

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Deprez, Sabine; Vandenbulcke, Mathieu; Peeters, Ron; Emsell, Louise; Amant, Frederic; Sunaert, Stefan

2013-09-01

Insight into the neural architecture of multitasking is crucial when investigating the pathophysiology of multitasking deficits in clinical populations. Presently, little is known about how the brain combines dual-tasking with a concurrent short-term memory task, despite the relevance of this mental operation in daily life and the frequency of complaints related to this process, in disease. In this study we aimed to examine how the brain responds when a memory task is added to dual-tasking. Thirty-three right-handed healthy volunteers (20 females, mean age 39.9 ± 5.8) were examined with functional brain imaging (fMRI). The paradigm consisted of two cross-modal single tasks (a visual and auditory temporal same-different task with short delay), a dual-task combining both single tasks simultaneously and a multi-task condition, combining the dual-task with an additional short-term memory task (temporal same-different visual task with long delay). Dual-tasking compared to both individual visual and auditory single tasks activated a predominantly right-sided fronto-parietal network and the cerebellum. When adding the additional short-term memory task, a larger and more bilateral frontoparietal network was recruited. We found enhanced activity during multitasking in components of the network that were already involved in dual-tasking, suggesting increased working memory demands, as well as recruitment of multitask-specific components including areas that are likely to be involved in online holding of visual stimuli in short-term memory such as occipito-temporal cortex. These results confirm concurrent neural processing of a visual short-term memory task during dual-tasking and provide evidence for an effective fMRI multitasking paradigm. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Taxonomy for Heavy-Duty Telemanipulation Tasks Using Elemental Actions

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Alexander Owen-Hill

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In the maintenance of large scientific facilities, telemanipulation procedures can involve various subprocedures which in turn are made up of a sequence of subtasks. This work presents a taxonomy which describes a set of elemental actions for heavy-duty telemanipulation, along with an example of these actions in a standard maintenance subprocedure. As maintenance tasks are often very different at high-level, this generalized way of deconstructing tasks allows a highly adaptable approach to describe the sequence of any procedure, which can then be used for such applications as task monitoring, automation or detection of incomplete tasks. We describe in detail the properties of each elemental action and apply the taxonomy to an example subprocedure to show how the process can be generalizable. An automatic state-machine creation stage is shown, which would be used at the task scheduling stage to simplify calculations carried out during the moment-by-moment execution of the task.

Gender involvement in manual material handling (mmh) tasks in agriculture and technology intervention to mitigate the resulting musculoskeletal disorders.

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Singh, Suman; Sinwal, Neelima; Rathore, Hemu

2012-01-01

The lifting and carrying of loads in agriculture on small landholdings are unavoidable. Rural communities often lack access to appropriate technologies which may result in various health hazards. The objective was to study gender participation in agricultural activities involving manual material handling tasks, to assess MSDs experienced in various MMH tasks and to evaluate traditional method and designed technology. The study was conducted on 100 agricultural workers. Data on gender participation in MMH tasks in household, animal husbandry and agriculture and resulting MSDs was gathered. Pre and post assessment of technology intervention was done for NIOSH Lifting Index, QEC, and RPE. The results revealed greater susceptibility of females to musculoskeletal problems in most of the household and animal husbandry tasks. The hand trucks designed were pushing type with power grasp handle. The respondents were advised to carry 5 kg of weight per lift instead of lifting more weight in one lift/minute while filling the hand truck. By decreasing the weight and increasing the number of lifts per minute the respondents were seen falling in green zone indicating significant reduction in NIOSH lifting index. QEC scores concluded that for filling the hand truck 5 kg of weight should be carried to keep the exposure level low.

Inhibitory control and visuo-spatial reversibility in Piaget’s seminal number conservation task: A high-density ERP study.

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Gregoire eBorst

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The present high-density ERP study on 13 adults aimed to determine whether number conservation relies on the ability to inhibit the overlearned length-equals-number strategy and then imagine the shortening of the row that was lengthened. Participants performed the number-conservation task and, after the EEG session, the mental imagery task. In the number-conservation task, first two rows with the same number of tokens and the same length were presented on a computer screen (COV condition and then, the tokens in one of the two rows were spread apart (INT condition. Participants were instructed to determine whether the two rows had an identical number of tokens. In the mental imagery task, two rows with different lengths but the same number of tokens were presented and participants were instructed to imagine the tokens in the longer row aligning with the tokens in the shorter row. In the number-conservation task, we found that the amplitudes of the centro-parietal N2 and fronto-central P3 were higher in the INT than in the COV conditions. In addition, the differences in response times between the two conditions were correlated with the differences in the amplitudes of the fronto-central P3. In light of previous results reported on the number-conservation task in adults, the present results suggest that inhibition might be necessary to succeed the number-conservation task in adults even when the transformation of the length of one of the row is displayed. Finally, we also reported correlations between the speed at which participants could imagine the shortening of one of the row in the mental imagery task, the speed at which participants could determine that the two rows had the same number of tokens after the tokens in one of the row were spread apart and the latency of the late positive parietal component in the number-conservation task. Therefore, performing the number-conservation task might involve mental transformation processes in adults.

Thinking processes used by high-performing students in a computer programming task

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Marietjie Havenga

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Computer programmers must be able to understand programming source code and write programs that execute complex tasks to solve real-world problems. This article is a trans- disciplinary study at the intersection of computer programming, education and psychology. It outlines the role of mental processes in the process of programming and indicates how successful thinking processes can support computer science students in writing correct and well-defined programs. A mixed methods approach was used to better understand the thinking activities and programming processes of participating students. Data collection involved both computer programs and students’ reflective thinking processes recorded in their journals. This enabled analysis of psychological dimensions of participants’ thinking processes and their problem-solving activities as they considered a programming problem. Findings indicate that the cognitive, reflective and psychological processes used by high-performing programmers contributed to their success in solving a complex programming problem. Based on the thinking processes of high performers, we propose a model of integrated thinking processes, which can support computer programming students. Keywords: Computer programming, education, mixed methods research, thinking processes.  Disciplines: Computer programming, education, psychology

The task-to-task communication between computers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin Shuzi; Zhang Bingyun; Zhao Weiren

1992-01-01

The task-to-task communication is used in the Institute of High Energy Physics. The BES (Beijing Spectrometer) uses the communication mode to take some of the BEPC (Beijing Electron Positron Collider) running parameters needed by BES experiments in a periodic time. The authors describe the principle of transparent task-to-task communication and how to use it in BES on-line data acquisition system

Electroencephalogram oscillations support the involvement of task-unrelated thoughts in the mechanism of boredom: A pilot study.

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Miyauchi, Eri; Kawasaki, Masahiro

2018-06-11

Boredom is a universal experience; however, the neural mechanisms underlying the phenomenon remain unclear. Previous research suggests that boredom is related to attentional failure and derives a possible explanation for the cognitive processes of boredom as a product of appraisals made about task-unrelated thoughts. There are little published data regarding proposed processes from neuroscientific perspectives. Therefore, the authors aimed to examine whether cognitive processes of boredom with task-unrelated thoughts followed by appraisals of them can be explained by examining oscillatory correlates. Electroencephalography was used to measure changes in neural oscillatory activity during subjective experiences of boredom or dislike in healthy subjects. Using this approach, temporal information of brain activity particular to the boredom experience was acquired. Additionally, the Adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Scale was used to evaluate the effects of attentional deficits in the neural processing of boredom. Tonic increase in theta and transient increases in alpha activity were exhibited before the key press response for experiencing boredom; however, only tonic increases in theta amplitudes were boredom specific. The results of this pilot study suggest that the boredom experience is possibly associated with cognitive processes involved in task-unrelated thoughts, followed by their appraisals to be bored, mediated by alpha and theta activity. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

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Sanbonmatsu, David M; Strayer, David L; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David M Sanbonmatsu

Full Text Available The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants' perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation--high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking--reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control--low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity--tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking

Science.gov (United States)

Sanbonmatsu, David M.; Strayer, David L.; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M.

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated with actual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceived ability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control - low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity - tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity. PMID:23372720

Medial temporal lobe involvement in an implicit memory task: evidence of collaborating implicit and explicit memory systems from FMRI and Alzheimer's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Koenig, Phyllis; Smith, Edward E; Troiani, Vanessa; Anderson, Chivon; Moore, Peachie; Grossman, Murray

2008-12-01

We used a prototype extraction task to assess implicit learning of a meaningful novel visual category. Cortical activation was monitored in young adults with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We observed occipital deactivation at test consistent with perceptually based implicit learning, and lateral temporal cortex deactivation reflecting implicit acquisition of the category's semantic nature. Medial temporal lobe (MTL) activation during exposure and test suggested involvement of explicit memory as well. Behavioral performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and healthy seniors was also assessed, and AD performance was correlated with gray matter volume using voxel-based morphometry. AD patients showed learning, consistent with preserved implicit memory, and confirming that AD patients' implicit memory is not limited to abstract patterns. However, patients were somewhat impaired relative to healthy seniors. Occipital and lateral temporal cortical volume correlated with successful AD patient performance, and thus overlapped with young adults' areas of deactivation. Patients' severe MTL atrophy precluded involvement of this region. AD patients thus appear to engage a cortically based implicit memory mechanism, whereas their relative deficit on this task may reflect their MTL disease. These findings suggest that implicit and explicit memory systems collaborate in neurologically intact individuals performing an ostensibly implicit memory task.

Task-related modulation of visual neglect in cancellation tasks

OpenAIRE

Sarri, Margarita; Greenwood, Richard; Kalra, Lalit; Driver, Jon

2008-01-01

Unilateral neglect involves deficits of spatial exploration and awareness that do not always affect a fixed portion of extrapersonal space, but may vary with current stimulation and possibly with task demands. Here, we assessed any ‘top-down’, task-related influences on visual neglect, with novel experimental variants of the cancellation test. Many different versions of the cancellation test are used clinically, and can differ in the extent of neglect revealed, though the exact factors determ...

Observer efficiency in free-localization tasks with correlated noise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Craig eAbbey

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The efficiency of visual tasks involving localization has traditionally been evaluated using forced choice experiments that capitalize on independence across locations to simplify the performance of the ideal observer. However, developments in ideal observer analysis have shown how an ideal observer can be defined for free-localization tasks, where a target can appear anywhere in a defined search region and subjects respond by localizing the target. Since these tasks are representative of many real-world search tasks, it is of interest to evaluate the efficiency of observer performance in them. The central question of this work is whether humans are able to effectively use the information in a free-localization task relative to a similar task where target location is fixed. We use a yes-no detection task at a cued location as the reference for this comparison. Each of the tasks is evaluated using a Gaussian target profile embedded in four different Gaussian noise backgrounds having power-law noise power spectra with exponents ranging from 0 to 3. The free localization task had a square 6.7° search region. We report on two follow-up studies investigating efficiency in a detect-and-localize task, and the effect of processing the white-noise backgrounds. In the fixed-location detection task, we find average observer efficiency ranges from 35% to 59% for the different noise backgrounds. Observer efficiency improves dramatically in the tasks involving localization, ranging from 63% to 82% in the forced localization tasks and from 78% to 92% in the detect-and- localize tasks. Performance in white noise, the lowest efficiency condition, was improved by filtering to give them a power-law exponent of 2. Classification images, used to examine spatial frequency weights for the tasks, show better tuning to ideal weights in the free-localization tasks. The high absolute levels of efficiency suggest that observers are well-adapted to free-localization tasks.

Rostering and Task Scheduling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dohn, Anders Høeg

. The rostering process is non-trivial and especially when service is required around the clock, rostering may involve considerable effort from a designated planner. Therefore, in order to minimize costs and overstaffing, to maximize the utilization of available staff, and to ensure a high level of satisfaction...... as possible to the available staff, while respecting various requirements and rules and while including possible transportation time between tasks. This thesis presents a number of industrial applications in rostering and task scheduling. The applications exist within various contexts in health care....... Mathematical and logic-based models are presented for the problems considered. Novel components are added to existing models and the modeling decisions are justified. In one case, the model is solved by a simple, but efficient greedy construction heuristic. In the remaining cases, column generation is applied...

Student Writing Accepted as High-Quality Responses to Analytic Text-Based Writing Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Elaine; Matsumura, Lindsay Clare; Correnti, Richard

2018-01-01

Literacy standards increasingly emphasize the importance of analytic text-based writing. Little consensus exists, however, around what high-quality student responses should look like in this genre. In this study, we investigated fifth-grade students' writing in response to analytic text-based writing tasks (15 teachers, 44 writing tasks, 88 pieces…

Tracking the impact of depression in a perspective-taking task

OpenAIRE

Ferguson, Heather J.; Cane, James

2017-01-01

Research has identified impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in depressed patients, particularly in relation to tasks involving empathetic responses and belief reasoning. We aimed to build on this research by exploring the relationship between depressed mood and cognitive ToM, specifically visual perspective-taking ability. High and low depressed participants were eye-tracked as they completed a perspective-taking task, in which they followed the instructions of a ‘director’ to move ...

Planning and Enacting Mathematical Tasks of High Cognitive Demand in the Primary Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Georgius, Kelly

2013-01-01

This study offers an examination of two primary-grades teachers as they learn to transfer knowledge from professional development into their classrooms. I engaged in planning sessions with each teacher to help plan tasks of high cognitive demand, including anticipating and planning for classroom discourse that would occur around the task. A…

Involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex in time-based prospective memory task monitoring: An EEG analysis of brain sources using Independent Component and Measure Projection Analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Cruz

Full Text Available Time-based prospective memory (PM, remembering to do something at a particular moment in the future, is considered to depend upon self-initiated strategic monitoring, involving a retrieval mode (sustained maintenance of the intention plus target checking (intermittent time checks. The present experiment was designed to explore what brain regions and brain activity are associated with these components of strategic monitoring in time-based PM tasks.24 participants were asked to reset a clock every four minutes, while performing a foreground ongoing word categorisation task. EEG activity was recorded and data were decomposed into source-resolved activity using Independent Component Analysis. Common brain regions across participants, associated with retrieval mode and target checking, were found using Measure Projection Analysis.Participants decreased their performance on the ongoing task when concurrently performed with the time-based PM task, reflecting an active retrieval mode that relied on withdrawal of limited resources from the ongoing task. Brain activity, with its source in or near the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, showed changes associated with an active retrieval mode including greater negative ERP deflections, decreased theta synchronization, and increased alpha suppression for events locked to the ongoing task while maintaining a time-based intention. Activity in the ACC was also associated with time-checks and found consistently across participants; however, we did not find an association with time perception processing per se.The involvement of the ACC in both aspects of time-based PM monitoring may be related to different functions that have been attributed to it: strategic control of attention during the retrieval mode (distributing attentional resources between the ongoing task and the time-based task and anticipatory/decision making processing associated with clock-checks.

Indiana University high energy physics group, task C: Technical progress report, December 1, 1987-November 30, 1988

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bower, C.R.; Heinz, R.M.; Mufson, S.L.

1988-01-01

The Indiana University High Energy Physics Group, Task C has been actively involved in the MACRO experiment at Gran Sasso during the current contract year. MACRO is a large US-Italian Monopole, Astrophysics, and Cosmic Ray Observatory being built under the Gran Sasso Mountain outside of Rome. Indiana University is in charge of the US software effort. We have been performing extensive Monte Carlo design and data analysis calculations. We are also doing development work on the MACRO liquid scintillator. We are setting up a Quality Assurance liquid scintillator laboratory in Frascati, Italy. We are producing vertical scintillator tank endplates and calibration boats in our machine shop

High-Frequency Binaural Beats Increase Cognitive Flexibility: Evidence from Dual-Task Crosstalk.

Science.gov (United States)

Hommel, Bernhard; Sellaro, Roberta; Fischer, Rico; Borg, Saskia; Colzato, Lorenza S

2016-01-01

Increasing evidence suggests that cognitive-control processes can be configured to optimize either persistence of information processing (by amplifying competition between decision-making alternatives and top-down biasing of this competition) or flexibility (by dampening competition and biasing). We investigated whether high-frequency binaural beats, an auditory illusion suspected to act as a cognitive enhancer, have an impact on cognitive-control configuration. We hypothesized that binaural beats in the gamma range bias the cognitive-control style toward flexibility, which in turn should increase the crosstalk between tasks in a dual-task paradigm. We replicated earlier findings that the reaction time in the first-performed task is sensitive to the compatibility between the responses in the first and the second task-an indication of crosstalk. As predicted, exposing participants to binaural beats in the gamma range increased this effect as compared to a control condition in which participants were exposed to a continuous tone of 340 Hz. These findings provide converging evidence that the cognitive-control style can be systematically biased by inducing particular internal states; that high-frequency binaural beats bias the control style toward more flexibility; and that different styles are implemented by changing the strength of local competition and top-down bias.

Planning and task management in Parkinson's disease: differential emphasis in dual-task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Bialystok, Ellen; Craik, Fergus I M; Stefurak, Taresa

2008-03-01

Seventeen patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease completed a complex computer-based task that involved planning and management while also performing an attention-demanding secondary task. The tasks were performed concurrently, but it was necessary to switch from one to the other. Performance was compared to a group of healthy age-matched control participants and a group of young participants. Parkinson's patients performed better than the age-matched controls on almost all measures and as well as the young controls in many cases. However, the Parkinson's patients achieved this by paying relatively less attention to the secondary task and focusing attention more on the primary task. Thus, Parkinson's patients can apparently improve their performance on some aspects of a multidimensional task by simplifying task demands. This benefit may occur as a consequence of their inflexible exaggerated attention to some aspects of a complex task to the relative neglect of other aspects.

Exploiting impedance shaping approaches to overcome force overshoots in delicate interaction tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loris Roveda

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the presented article is to overcome the force overshoot issue in impedance based force tracking applications. Nowadays, light-weight manipulators are involved in high-accurate force control applications (such as polishing tasks, where the force overshoot issue is critical (i.e. damaging the component causing a production waste, exploiting the impedance control. Two main force tracking impedance control approaches are described in literature: (a set-point deformation and (b variable stiffness approaches. However, no contributions are directly related to the force overshoot issue. The presented article extends both such methodologies to analytically achieve the force overshoots avoidance in interaction tasks based on the on-line estimation of the interacting environment stiffness (available through an EKF. Both the proposed control algorithms allow to achieve a linear closed-loop dynamics for the coupled robot-environment system. Therefore, control gains can be analytically on-line calculated to achieve an over-damped closed-loop dynamics of the controlled coupled system. Control strategies have been validated in experiments, involving a KUKA LWR 4+. A probing task has been performed, representative of many industrial tasks (e.g. assembly tasks, in which a main force task direction is defined.

Report on the joint meeting of the Division of Development and Technology Plasma/Wall Interaction and High Heat Flux Materials and Components Task Groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, K.L.

1985-10-01

This report of the Joint Meeting of the Division of Development and Technology Plasma/Wall Interaction and High Heat Flux Materials and Components Task Groups contains contributing papers in the following areas: Plasma/Materials Interaction Program and Technical Assessment, High Heat Flux Materials and Components Program and Technical Assessment, Pumped Limiters, Ignition Devices, Program Planning Activities, Compact High Power Density Reactor Requirements, Steady State Tokamaks, and Tritium Plasma Experiments. All these areas involve the consideration of High Heat Flux on Materials and the Interaction of the Plasma with the First Wall. Many of the Test Facilities are described as well

Increased cognitive control after task conflict? Investigating the N-3 effect in task switching.

Science.gov (United States)

Schuch, Stefanie; Grange, James A

2018-05-25

Task inhibition is considered to facilitate switching to a new task and is assumed to decay slowly over time. Hence, more persisting inhibition needs to be overcome when returning to a task after one intermediary trial (ABA task sequence) than when returning after two or more intermediary trials (CBA task sequence). Schuch and Grange (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 41:760-767, 2015) put forward the hypothesis that there is higher task conflict in ABA than CBA sequences, leading to increased cognitive control in the subsequent trial. They provided evidence that performance is better in trials following ABA than following CBA task sequences. Here, this effect of the previous task sequence ("N-3 effect") is further investigated by varying the cue-stimulus interval (CSI), allowing for short (100 ms) or long (900 ms) preparation time for the upcoming task. If increased cognitive control after ABA involves a better preparation for the upcoming task, the N-3 effect should be larger with long than short CSI. The results clearly show that this is not the case. In Experiment 1, the N-3 effect was smaller with long than short CSI; in Experiment 2, the N-3 effect was not affected by CSI. Diffusion model analysis confirmed previous results in the literature (regarding the effect of CSI and of the ABA-CBA difference); however, the N-3 effect was not unequivocally associated with any of the diffusion model parameters. In exploratory analysis, we also tested the alternative hypothesis that the N-3 effect involves more effective task shielding, which would be reflected in reduced congruency effects in trials following ABA, relative to trials following CBA; congruency effects did not differ between these conditions. Taken together, we can rule out two potential explanations of the N-3 effect: Neither is this effect due to enhanced task preparation, nor to more effective task shielding.

Can NATO's new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force deter?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rynning, Sten; Ringsmose, Jens

2017-01-01

” a distinct strategic rival – Russia. Chief among the Welsh summit initiatives was the decision to set up a new multinational spearhead force – the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) – as part of an enhanced NATO Response Force (NRF) and within the framework of a so-called Readiness Action Plan (RAP...

Neonatal Perirhinal Lesions in Rhesus Macaques Alter Performance on Working Memory Tasks with High Proactive Interference.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, Alison R; Nadji, Ryhan; Bachevalier, Jocelyne

2015-01-01

The lateral prefrontal cortex is known for its contribution to working memory (WM) processes in both humans and animals. Yet, recent studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex is part of a broader network of interconnected brain areas involved in WM. Within the medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures, the perirhinal cortex, which has extensive direct interactions with the lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex, is required to form active/flexible representations of familiar objects. However, its participation in WM processes has not be fully explored. The goal of this study was to assess the effects of neonatal perirhinal lesions on maintenance and monitoring WM processes. As adults, animals with neonatal perirhinal lesions and their matched controls were tested in three object-based (non-spatial) WM tasks that tapped different WM processing domains, e.g., maintenance only (Session-unique Delayed-nonmatching-to Sample, SU-DNMS), and maintenance and monitoring (Object-Self-Order, OBJ-SO; Serial Order Memory Task, SOMT). Neonatal perirhinal lesions transiently impaired the acquisition of SU-DNMS at a short (5 s) delay, but not when re-tested with a longer delay (30 s). The same neonatal lesions severely impacted acquisition of OBJ-SO task, and the impairment was characterized by a sharp increase in perseverative errors. By contrast, neonatal perirhinal lesion spared the ability to monitor the temporal order of items in WM as measured by the SOMT. Contrary to the SU-DNMS and OBJ-SO, which re-use the same stimuli across trials and thus produce proactive interference, the SOMT uses novel objects on each trial and is devoid of interference. Therefore, the impairment of monkeys with neonatal perirhinal lesions on SU-DNMS and OBJ-SO tasks is likely to be caused by an inability to solve working memory tasks with high proactive interference. The sparing of performance on the SOMT demonstrates that neonatal perirhinal lesions do not alter working memory processes per se but

Neonatal perirhinal lesions in rhesus macaques alter performance on working memory tasks with high proactive interference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alison R Weiss

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The lateral prefrontal cortex is known for its contribution to working memory (WM processes in both humans and animals. Yet, recent studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex is part of a broader network of interconnected brain areas involved in WM. Within the medial temporal lobe structures, the perirhinal cortex, which has extensive direct interactions with the lateral and orbital prefrontal cortex, is required to form active/flexible representations of familiar objects. However, its participation in WM processes has not be fully explored. The goal of this study was to assess the effects of neonatal perirhinal lesions on maintenance and monitoring WM processes. As adults, animals with neonatal perirhinal lesions and their matched controls were tested in three object-based (non-spatial WM tasks that tapped different WM processing domains, e.g. maintenance only (Session-unique Delayed-nonmatching-to Sample, SU-DNMS, and maintenance and monitoring (Object-Self-Order, OBJ-SO; Serial Order Memory Task, SOMT. Neonatal perirhinal lesions transiently impaired the acquisition of SU-DNMS at a short (5s delay, but not when re-tested with a longer delay (30s. The same neonatal lesions severely impacted acquisition of OBJ-SO task, and the impairment was characterized by a sharp increase in perseverative errors. By contrast, neonatal perirhinal lesion spared the ability to monitor the temporal order of items in WM as measured by the SOMT. Contrary to the SU-DNMS and OBJ-SO, which re-use the same stimuli across trials and thus produce proactive interference, the SOMT uses novel objects on each trial and is devoid of interference. Therefore, the impairment of monkeys with neonatal perirhinal lesions on SU-DNMS and OBJ-SO tasks is likely to be caused by an inability to solve working memory tasks with high proactive interference. The sparing of performance on the SOMT demonstrates that neonatal perirhinal lesions do not alter working memory processes per se

Exploring relations between task conflict and informational conflict in the Stroop task.

Science.gov (United States)

Entel, Olga; Tzelgov, Joseph; Bereby-Meyer, Yoella; Shahar, Nitzan

2015-11-01

In this study, we tested the proposal that the Stroop task involves two conflicts--task conflict and informational conflict. Task conflict was defined as the latency difference between color words and non-letter neutrals, and manipulated by varying the proportion of color words versus non-letter neutrals. Informational conflict was defined as the latency difference between incongruent and congruent trials and manipulated by varying the congruent-to-incongruent trial ratio. We replicated previous findings showing that increasing the ratio of incongruent-to-congruent trials reduces the latency difference between the incongruent and congruent condition (i.e., informational conflict), as does increasing the proportion of color words (i.e., task conflict). A significant under-additive interaction between the two proportion manipulations (congruent vs. incongruent and color words vs. neutrals) indicated that the effects of task conflict and informational conflict were not additive. By assessing task conflict as the contrast between color words and neutrals, we found that task conflict existed in all of our experimental conditions. Under specific conditions, when task conflict dominated behavior by explaining most of the variability between congruency conditions, we also found negative facilitation, thus demonstrating that this effect is a special case of task conflict.

A Measure of Student Involvement in Learning: Time-on-Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Lorin W.

The importance of appropriate task relevant behaviors as a necessary condition for school learning has long been noted. This paper suggests a multiple measure of one set of student classroom behaviors, presents a brief theoretical basis for the measure, provides some empirical support for the use of the measure, and indicates some educational…

Children's Task Engagement during Challenging Puzzle Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Feihong; Algina, James; Snyder, Patricia; Cox, Martha

2017-01-01

We examined children's task engagement during a challenging puzzle task in the presence of their primary caregivers by using a representative sample of rural children from six high-poverty counties across two states. Weighted longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to identify a task engagement factor…

On the functional integration between postural and supra-postural tasks on the basis of contextual cues and task constraint.

Science.gov (United States)

de Lima, Andrea Cristina; de Azevedo Neto, Raymundo Machado; Teixeira, Luis Augusto

2010-10-01

In order to evaluate the effects of uncertainty about direction of mechanical perturbation and supra-postural task constraint on postural control, young adults had their upright stance perturbed while holding a tray in a horizontal position. Stance was perturbed by moving forward or backward a supporting platform, contrasting situations of certainty versus uncertainty of direction of displacement. Increased constraint on postural stability was imposed by a supra-postural task of equilibrating a cylinder on the tray. Performance was assessed through EMG of anterior leg muscles, angular displacement of the main joints involved in the postural reactions and displacement of the tray. Results showed that both certainty on the direction of perturbation and increased supra-postural task constraint led to decreased angular displacement of the knee and the hip. Furthermore, combination of certainty and high supra-postural task constraint produced shorter latency of muscular activation. Such postural responses were paralleled by decreased displacement of the tray. These results suggest a functional integration between the tasks, with central set priming reactive postural responses from contextual cues and increased stability demand. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Asynchronous Task-Based Polar Decomposition on Manycore Architectures

KAUST Repository

Sukkari, Dalal

2016-10-25

This paper introduces the first asynchronous, task-based implementation of the polar decomposition on manycore architectures. Based on a new formulation of the iterative QR dynamically-weighted Halley algorithm (QDWH) for the calculation of the polar decomposition, the proposed implementation replaces the original and hostile LU factorization for the condition number estimator by the more adequate QR factorization to enable software portability across various architectures. Relying on fine-grained computations, the novel task-based implementation is also capable of taking advantage of the identity structure of the matrix involved during the QDWH iterations, which decreases the overall algorithmic complexity. Furthermore, the artifactual synchronization points have been severely weakened compared to previous implementations, unveiling look-ahead opportunities for better hardware occupancy. The overall QDWH-based polar decomposition can then be represented as a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where nodes represent computational tasks and edges define the inter-task data dependencies. The StarPU dynamic runtime system is employed to traverse the DAG, to track the various data dependencies and to asynchronously schedule the computational tasks on the underlying hardware resources, resulting in an out-of-order task scheduling. Benchmarking experiments show significant improvements against existing state-of-the-art high performance implementations (i.e., Intel MKL and Elemental) for the polar decomposition on latest shared-memory vendors\\' systems (i.e., Intel Haswell/Broadwell/Knights Landing, NVIDIA K80/P100 GPUs and IBM Power8), while maintaining high numerical accuracy.

Co-Constructional Task Analysis: Moving beyond Adult-Based Models to Assess Young Children's Task Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Scott Weng Fai

2013-01-01

The assessment of young children's thinking competence in task performances has typically followed the novice-to-expert regimen involving models of strategies that adults use when engaged in cognitive tasks such as problem-solving and decision-making. Socio-constructivists argue for a balanced pedagogical approach between the adult and child that…

Analysis of Task Types and Error Types of the Human Actions Involved in the Human-related Unplanned Reactor Trip Events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea

2008-02-01

This report provides the task types and error types involved in the unplanned reactor trip events that have occurred during 1986 - 2006. The events that were caused by the secondary system of the nuclear power plants amount to 67 %, and the remaining 33 % was by the primary system. The contribution of the activities of the plant personnel was identified as the following order: corrective maintenance (25.7 %), planned maintenance (22.8 %), planned operation (19.8 %), periodic preventive maintenance (14.9 %), response to a transient (9.9 %), and design/manufacturing/installation (9.9%). According to the analysis of error modes, the error modes such as control failure (22.2 %), wrong object (18.5 %), omission (14.8 %), wrong action (11.1 %), and inadequate (8.3 %) take up about 75 % of all the unplanned trip events. The analysis of the cognitive functions involved showed that the planning function makes the highest contribution to the human actions leading to unplanned reactor trips, and it is followed by the observation function (23.4%), the execution function (17.8 %), and the interpretation function (10.3 %). The results of this report are to be used as important bases for development of the error reduction measures or development of the error mode prediction system for the test and maintenance tasks in nuclear power plants

Analysis of Task Types and Error Types of the Human Actions Involved in the Human-related Unplanned Reactor Trip Events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea

2008-02-15

This report provides the task types and error types involved in the unplanned reactor trip events that have occurred during 1986 - 2006. The events that were caused by the secondary system of the nuclear power plants amount to 67 %, and the remaining 33 % was by the primary system. The contribution of the activities of the plant personnel was identified as the following order: corrective maintenance (25.7 %), planned maintenance (22.8 %), planned operation (19.8 %), periodic preventive maintenance (14.9 %), response to a transient (9.9 %), and design/manufacturing/installation (9.9%). According to the analysis of error modes, the error modes such as control failure (22.2 %), wrong object (18.5 %), omission (14.8 %), wrong action (11.1 %), and inadequate (8.3 %) take up about 75 % of all the unplanned trip events. The analysis of the cognitive functions involved showed that the planning function makes the highest contribution to the human actions leading to unplanned reactor trips, and it is followed by the observation function (23.4%), the execution function (17.8 %), and the interpretation function (10.3 %). The results of this report are to be used as important bases for development of the error reduction measures or development of the error mode prediction system for the test and maintenance tasks in nuclear power plants.

Unfinished tasks foster rumination and impair sleeping - particularly if leaders have high performance expectations.

Science.gov (United States)

Syrek, Christine J; Antoni, Conny H

2014-10-01

This study examines the relationship between time pressure and unfinished tasks as work stressors on employee well-being. Relatively little is known about the effect of unfinished tasks on well-being. Specifically, excluding the impact of time pressure, we examined whether the feeling of not having finished the week's tasks fosters perseverative cognitions and impairs sleep. Additionally, we proposed that leader performance expectations moderate these relationships. In more detail, we expected the detrimental effect of unfinished tasks on both rumination and sleep would be enhanced if leader expectations were perceived to be high. In total, 89 employees filled out online diary surveys both before and after the weekend over a 5-week period. Multilevel growth modeling revealed that time pressure and unfinished tasks impacted rumination and sleep on the weekend. Further, our results supported our hypothesis that unfinished tasks explain unique variance in the dependent variables above and beyond the influence of time pressure. Moreover, we found the relationship between unfinished tasks and both rumination and sleep was moderated by leader performance expectations. Our results emphasize the importance of unfinished tasks as a stressor and highlight that leadership, specifically in the form of performance expectations, contributes significantly to the strength of this relationship.

Reliability of the Cooking Task in adults with acquired brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Poncet, Frédérique; Swaine, Bonnie; Taillefer, Chantal; Lamoureux, Julie; Pradat-Diehl, Pascale; Chevignard, Mathilde

2015-01-01

Acquired brain injury (ABI) often leads to deficits in executive functioning (EF) responsible for severe and long-standing disabilities in daily life activities. The Cooking Task is an ecological and valid test of EF involving multi-tasking in a real environment. Given its complex scoring system, it is important to establish the tool's reliability. The objective of the study was to examine the reliability of the Cooking Task (internal consistency, inter-rater and test-retest reliability). A total of 160 patients with ABI (113 men, mean age 37 years, SD = 14.3) were tested using the Cooking Task. For test-retest reliability, patients were assessed by the same rater on two occasions (mean interval 11 days) while two raters independently and simultaneously observed and scored patients' performances to estimate inter-rater reliability. Internal consistency was high for the global scale (Cronbach α = .74). Inter-rater reliability (n = 66) for total errors was also high (ICC = .93), however the test-retest reliability (n = 11) was poor (ICC = .36). In general the Cooking Task appears to be a reliable tool. The low test-retest results were expected given the importance of EF in the performance of novel tasks.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the supplementary motor area (SMA) influences performance on motor tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Hupfeld, K E; Ketcham, C J; Schneider, H D

2017-03-01

The supplementary motor area (SMA) is believed to be highly involved in the planning and execution of both simple and complex motor tasks. This study aimed to examine the role of the SMA in planning the movements required to complete reaction time, balance, and pegboard tasks using anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which passes a weak electrical current between two electrodes, in order to modulate neuronal activity. Twenty healthy adults were counterbalanced to receive either tDCS (experimental condition) or no tDCS (control condition) for 3 days. During administration of tDCS, participants performed a balance task significantly faster than controls. After tDCS, subjects significantly improved their simple and choice reaction time. These results demonstrate that the SMA is highly involved in planning and executing fine and gross motor skill tasks and that tDCS is an effective modality for increasing SMA-related performance on these tasks. The findings may be generalizable and therefore indicate implications for future interventions using tDCS as a therapeutic tool.

Policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda: a case study

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Dambisya Yoswa M

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Uganda has a severe health worker shortage and a high demand for health care services. This study aimed to assess the policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda. Methods This was a qualitative, descriptive study through 34 key informant interviews and eight (8 focus group discussions, with participants from various levels of the health system. Results Policy makers understood task shifting, but front-line health workers had misconceptions on the meaning and intention(s of task shifting. Examples were cited of task shifting within the Ugandan health system, some formalized (e.g. psychiatric clinical officers, and some informal ones (e.g. nurses inserting IV lines and initiating treatment. There was apparently high acceptance of task shifting in HIV/AIDS service delivery, with involvement of community health workers (CHW and PLWHA in care and support of AIDS patients. There was no written policy or guidelines on task shifting, but the policy environment was reportedly conducive with plans to develop a policy and guidelines on task shifting. Factors favouring task shifting included successful examples of task shifting, proper referral channels, the need for services, scarcity of skills and focused initiatives such as home based management of fever. Barriers to task shifting included reluctance to change, protection of professional turf, professional boundaries and regulations, heavy workload and high disease burden, poor planning, lack of a task shifting champion, lack of guidelines, the name task shifting itself, and unemployed health professionals. There were both positive and negative views on task shifting: the positive ones cast task shifting as one of the solutions to the dual problem of lack of skills and high demand for service, and as something that is already happening; while negative ones saw it as a quick fix intended for the poor, a threat to quality care and likely to compromise the health

The trickle-down effect of predictability: Secondary task performance benefits from predictability in the primary task.

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Magdalena Ewa Król

Full Text Available Predictions optimize processing by reducing attentional resources allocation to expected or predictable sensory data. Our study demonstrates that these saved processing resources can be then used on concurrent stimuli, and in consequence improve their processing and encoding. We illustrate this "trickle-down" effect with a dual task, where the primary task varied in terms of predictability. The primary task involved detection of a pre-specified symbol that appeared at some point of a short video of a dot moving along a random, semi-predictable or predictable trajectory. The concurrent secondary task involved memorization of photographs representing either emotionally neutral or non-neutral (social or threatening content. Performance in the secondary task was measured by a memory test. We found that participants allocated more attention to unpredictable (random and semi-predictable stimuli than to predictable stimuli. Additionally, when the stimuli in the primary task were more predictable, participants performed better in the secondary task, as evidenced by higher sensitivity in the memory test. Finally, social or threatening stimuli were allocated more "looking time" and a larger number of saccades than neutral stimuli. This effect was stronger for the threatening stimuli than social stimuli. Thus, predictability of environmental input is used in optimizing the allocation of attentional resources, which trickles-down and benefits the processing of concurrent stimuli.

The trickle-down effect of predictability: Secondary task performance benefits from predictability in the primary task.

Science.gov (United States)

Król, Magdalena Ewa; Król, Michał

2017-01-01

Predictions optimize processing by reducing attentional resources allocation to expected or predictable sensory data. Our study demonstrates that these saved processing resources can be then used on concurrent stimuli, and in consequence improve their processing and encoding. We illustrate this "trickle-down" effect with a dual task, where the primary task varied in terms of predictability. The primary task involved detection of a pre-specified symbol that appeared at some point of a short video of a dot moving along a random, semi-predictable or predictable trajectory. The concurrent secondary task involved memorization of photographs representing either emotionally neutral or non-neutral (social or threatening) content. Performance in the secondary task was measured by a memory test. We found that participants allocated more attention to unpredictable (random and semi-predictable) stimuli than to predictable stimuli. Additionally, when the stimuli in the primary task were more predictable, participants performed better in the secondary task, as evidenced by higher sensitivity in the memory test. Finally, social or threatening stimuli were allocated more "looking time" and a larger number of saccades than neutral stimuli. This effect was stronger for the threatening stimuli than social stimuli. Thus, predictability of environmental input is used in optimizing the allocation of attentional resources, which trickles-down and benefits the processing of concurrent stimuli.

78 FR 27339 - Private Attorney Involvement

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-10

... Pro Bono Task Force identified the benefits of integrated intake and referral systems that link... volunteers, the Pro Bono Task Force recommended that the resources the recipient uses to support the training... Involvement (PAI) rule to respond to Recommendation 2 of LSC's Pro Bono Task Force Report. The discussions in...

Cooperative Scheduling of Imaging Observation Tasks for High-Altitude Airships Based on Propagation Algorithm

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He Chuan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The cooperative scheduling problem on high-altitude airships for imaging observation tasks is discussed. A constraint programming model is established by analyzing the main constraints, which takes the maximum task benefit and the minimum cruising distance as two optimization objectives. The cooperative scheduling problem of high-altitude airships is converted into a main problem and a subproblem by adopting hierarchy architecture. The solution to the main problem can construct the preliminary matching between tasks and observation resource in order to reduce the search space of the original problem. Furthermore, the solution to the sub-problem can detect the key nodes that each airship needs to fly through in sequence, so as to get the cruising path. Firstly, the task set is divided by using k-core neighborhood growth cluster algorithm (K-NGCA. Then, a novel swarm intelligence algorithm named propagation algorithm (PA is combined with the key node search algorithm (KNSA to optimize the cruising path of each airship and determine the execution time interval of each task. Meanwhile, this paper also provides the realization approach of the above algorithm and especially makes a detailed introduction on the encoding rules, search models, and propagation mechanism of the PA. Finally, the application results and comparison analysis show the proposed models and algorithms are effective and feasible.

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Pascucci, David; Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2015-01-01

Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL) shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

Understanding fatherhood in Greece: father's involvement in child care

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Katerina Maridaki-Kassotaki

Full Text Available The present study aims to depict a picture of Greek fathers concerning their involvement in family and child-centered tasks over the first year of the child. Eighty fathers from rural areas with low educational and occupational status and eighty fathers from urban districts with high educational and occupational status were asked to talk about their own perceptions of fatherhood and also their participation into two parenting commitments: (a preparations before and after the birth of the child and (b involvement in play with the child and a variety of daily child-care tasks. The results show that fathers in urban regions were more involved in these activities than their counterparts in rural areas. All fathers valued fatherhood as a pleasant experience. Many fathers, however, stated that child-rearing responsibilities cause them a lot of psychological strain. The results are discussed in relation to the division of roles between spouses in Greek families.

Task Uncertainty Can Account for Mixing and Switch Costs in Task-Switching

Science.gov (United States)

Rennie, Jaime L.

2015-01-01

Cognitive control is required in situations that involve uncertainty or change, such as when resolving conflict, selecting responses and switching tasks. Recently, it has been suggested that cognitive control can be conceptualised as a mechanism which prioritises goal-relevant information to deal with uncertainty. This hypothesis has been supported using a paradigm that requires conflict resolution. In this study, we examine whether cognitive control during task switching is also consistent with this notion. We used information theory to quantify the level of uncertainty in different trial types during a cued task-switching paradigm. We test the hypothesis that differences in uncertainty between task repeat and task switch trials can account for typical behavioural effects in task-switching. Increasing uncertainty was associated with less efficient performance (i.e., slower and less accurate), particularly on switch trials and trials that afford little opportunity for advance preparation. Interestingly, both mixing and switch costs were associated with a common episodic control process. These results support the notion that cognitive control may be conceptualised as an information processor that serves to resolve uncertainty in the environment. PMID:26107646

Dog rivalry impacts following behavior in a decision-making task involving food.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, Christy L; Suchak, Malini

2017-07-01

Dogs learn a great deal from humans and other dogs. Previous studies of socially influenced learning between dogs have typically used a highly trained demonstrator dog who is unfamiliar to the observer. Because of this, it is unknown how dynamics between familiar dogs may influence their likelihood of learning from each other. In this study, we tested dogs living together in two-dog households on whether individual dogs' rivalry scores were associated with performance on a local enhancement task. Specifically, we wanted to know whether dog rivalry impacted whether an observer dog would approach a plate from which a demonstrator dog had eaten all available food, or whether the observer dog would approach the adjacent plate that still contained food. Dog rivalry scores were calculated using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire and indicated each dog's tendency to engage aggressively with the other household dog. Low-rivalry dogs were more likely to approach the empty plate than high-rivalry dogs when the observer dog was allowed to approach the plates immediately after the demonstrator had moved out of sight. This difference between low- and high-rivalry dogs disappeared, however, when observer dogs had to wait 5 s before approaching the plates. The same pattern was observed during a control condition when a human removed the food from a plate. Compared to low-rivalry dogs, high-rivalry dogs may pay less attention to other dogs due to a low tolerance for having other dogs in close proximity.

Assessing the Impact of (Overly Socially Desirable Brand Attributes in Choice Conjoint Tasks

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André Carlos Martins Menck

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This research assesses the effects of corporate social responsibility on choice behavior. The construct social responsibility is highly socially desirable by definition. As a result, choice tasks in such setting may be biased by social desirability. This paper unveils a data treatment on choice conjoint tasks that sorts out the respondents who are likely to be mostly affected by social desirability. In this research a survey with choice conjoint tasks is used to evaluate interaction effects of corporate social involvement on functional attributes. Choice on four different product categories is assessed in a 215 within-subject design embedded in a 3x2x2 between-subject design. The main effects of corporate social involvement come out strong. The predicted interactions between social involvement and the functional attributes of the products seem to be affected by social desirability, leading to unclear results. The sub-samples resulting from the data manipulation, however, provide empirical support to the hypotheses on the interaction terms. This indicates the appropriateness of a model in which social involvement signals that the firm’s arguments on its products’ credence attributes are worth trusting. Nonetheless, the results with the full data prevent assertive conclusions.

High-frequency binaural beats increase cognitive flexibility: evidence from dual-task crosstalk

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Bernhard Hommel

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Increasing evidence suggests that cognitive-control processes can be configured to optimize either persistence of information processing (by amplifying competition between decision-making alternatives and top-down biasing of this competition or flexibility (by dampening competition and biasing. We investigated whether high-frequency binaural beats, an auditory illusion suspected to act as a cognitive enhancer, have an impact on cognitive-control configuration. We hypothesized that binaural beats in the gamma range bias the cognitive-control style towards flexibility, which in turn should increase the crosstalk between tasks in a dual-task paradigm. We replicated earlier findings that the reaction time in the first-performed task is sensitive to the compatibility between the responses in the first and the second task—an indication of crosstalk. As predicted, exposing participants to binaural beats in the gamma range increased this effect as compared to a control condition in which participants were exposed to a continuous tone of 340 Hz. These findings provide converging evidence that the cognitive-control style can be systematically biased by inducing particular internal states; that high-frequency binaural beats bias the control style towards more flexibility; and that different styles are implemented by changing the strength of local competition and top-down bias.

The task complexity experiment 2003/2004

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laumann, Karin; Braarud, Per Oeivind; Svengren, Haakan

2005-08-01

The purpose of this experiment was to explore how additional tasks added to base case scenarios affected the operators' performance of the main tasks. These additional tasks were in different scenario variants intended to cause high time pressure, high information load, and high masking. The experiment was run in Halden Man-Machine Laboratory's BWR simulator. Seven crews participated, each for one week. There were three operators in each crew. Five main types of scenarios and 20 scenario variants were run. The data from the experiment were analysed by completion time for important actions and by in-depth qualitative analyses of the crews' communications. The results showed that high time pressure decreased some of the crews' performance in the scenarios. When a crew had problems in solving a task for which the time pressure was high, they had even more problems in solving other important tasks. High information load did not affect the operators' performance much and in general the crews were very good at selecting the most important tasks in the scenarios. The scenarios that included both high time pressure and high information load resulted in more reduced performance for the crews compared to the scenarios that only included high time pressure. The total amount of tasks to do and information load to attend to seemed to affect the crews' performance. To solve the scenarios with high time pressure well, it was important to have good communication and good allocation of tasks within the crew. Furthermore, the results showed that scenarios with an added complex, masked task created problems for some crews when solving a relatively simple main task. Overall, the results confirmed that complicating, but secondary tasks, that are not normally taken into account when modelling the primary tasks in a PRA scenario can adversely affect the performance of the main tasks modelled in the PRA scenario. (Author)

The Effect of a Workload-Preview on Task-Prioritization and Task-Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Minotra, Dev

2012-01-01

With increased volume and sophistication of cyber attacks in recent years, maintaining situation awareness and effective task-prioritization strategy is critical to the task of cybersecurity analysts. However, high levels of mental-workload associated with the task of cybersecurity analyst's limits their ability to prioritize tasks.…

External Control of Knowledge of Results: Learner Involvement Enhances Motor Skill Transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Figueiredo, L S; Ugrinowitsch, H; Freire, A B; Shea, J B; Benda, R N

2018-04-01

Providing the learner control over aspects of practice has improved the process of motor skill acquisition, and self-controlled knowledge of results (KR) schedules have shown specific advantages over externally controlled ones. A possible explanation is that self-controlled KR schedules lead learners to more active task involvement, permitting deeper information processing. This study tested this explanatory hypothesis. Thirty undergraduate volunteers of both sexes, aged 18 to 35, all novices in the task, practiced transporting a tennis ball in a specified sequence within a time goal. We compared a high-involvement group (involvement yoked, IY), notified in advance about upcoming KR trials, to self-controlled KR (SC) and yoked KR (YK) groups. The experiment consisted of three phases: acquisition, retention, and transfer. We found both IY and SC groups to be superior to YK for transfer of learning. Postexperiment participant questionnaires confirmed a preference for receiving KR after learner-perceived good trials, even though performance on those trials did not differ from performance on trials without KR. Equivalent IY and SC performances provide support for the benefits of task involvement and deeper information processing when KR is self-controlled in motor skill acquisition.

Secondary task for full flight simulation incorporating tasks that commonly cause pilot error: Time estimation

Science.gov (United States)

Rosch, E.

1975-01-01

The task of time estimation, an activity occasionally performed by pilots during actual flight, was investigated with the objective of providing human factors investigators with an unobtrusive and minimally loading additional task that is sensitive to differences in flying conditions and flight instrumentation associated with the main task of piloting an aircraft simulator. Previous research indicated that the duration and consistency of time estimates is associated with the cognitive, perceptual, and motor loads imposed by concurrent simple tasks. The relationships between the length and variability of time estimates and concurrent task variables under a more complex situation involving simulated flight were clarified. The wrap-around effect with respect to baseline duration, a consequence of mode switching at intermediate levels of concurrent task distraction, should contribute substantially to estimate variability and have a complex effect on the shape of the resulting distribution of estimates.

High-definition television evaluation for remote handling task performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujita, Y.; Omori, E.; Hayashi, S.; Draper, J.V.; Herndon, J.N.

1986-01-01

This paper describes experiments designed to evaluate the impact of HDTV on the performance of typical remote tasks. The experiments described in this paper compared the performance of four operators using HDTV with their performance while using other television systems. The experiments included four television systems: (1) high-definition color television, (2) high-definition monochromatic television, (3) standard-resolution monochromatic television, and (4) standard-resolution stereoscopic monochromatic television. The stereo system accomplished stereoscopy by displaying two cross-polarized images, one reflected by a half-silvered mirror and one seen through the mirror. Observers wore a pair of glasses with cross-polarized lenses so that the left eye received only the view from the left camera and the right eye received only the view from the right camera

Risk assessment of maintenance operations: the analysis of performing task and accident mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Carrillo-Castrillo, Jesús A; Rubio-Romero, Juan Carlos; Guadix, Jose; Onieva, Luis

2015-01-01

Maintenance operations cover a great number of occupations. Most small and medium-sized enterprises lack the appropriate information to conduct risk assessments of maintenance operations. The objective of this research is to provide a method based on the concepts of task and accident mechanisms for an initial risk assessment by taking into consideration the prevalence and severity of the maintenance accidents reported. Data were gathered from 11,190 reported accidents in maintenance operations in the manufacturing sector of Andalusia from 2003 to 2012. By using a semi-quantitative methodology, likelihood and severity were evaluated based on the actual distribution of accident mechanisms in each of the tasks. Accident mechanisms and tasks were identified by using those variables included in the European Statistics of Accidents at Work methodology. As main results, the estimated risk of the most frequent accident mechanisms identified for each of the analysed tasks is low and the only accident mechanisms with medium risk are accidents when lifting or pushing with physical stress on the musculoskeletal system in tasks involving carrying, and impacts against objects after slipping or stumbling for tasks involving movements. The prioritisation of public preventive actions for the accident mechanisms with a higher estimated risk is highly recommended.

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Pascucci

Full Text Available Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

Paw Preference Correlates to Task Performance in Dogs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alphen, A. van; Bosse, T.; Frank, I.; Jonker, C.M.; Koeman, F.; Bara, B.G.; Barsalou, L.; Bucciarelli, M.

2005-01-01

A study involving 36 domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in a simple search task provides evidence of a correlation between paw use and performance. The study was carried out to determine whether or not paw use is related to task performance. Different aspects of task performance were taken into

Urachal-sigmoid fistula managed by laparoscopic assisted high anterior resection, primary anastomosis and en bloc resection of the urachal cyst and involved bladder.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakata, Shinichiro; Grundy, Joshua; Naidu, Sanjeev; Gillespie, Christopher

2016-08-01

Sigmoid-urachal fistula is exceedingly rare in adults and only a few cases have been reported in the world literature. We present the case of a 54-year-old man with symptomatic sigmoid-urachal fistula managed successfully with a laparoscopic assisted high anterior resection, primary anastomosis and an en bloc resection of the urachal cyst and the involved cuff of bladder. © 2016 Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery, Asia Endosurgery Task Force and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Stress Reactivity of Six-Year-Old Children Involved in Challenging Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Sajaniemi, Nina; Suhonen, Eira; Kontu, Elina; Lindholm, Harri; Hirvonen, Ari

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the preschool activities challenge the stress regulative system in children. We used a multi-system approach to evaluate the underlying processes of stress responses and measured both cortisol and [alpha]-amylase responses after emotionally and cognitively challenging tasks followed by a recovery…

Brain activation in teenagers with isolated spelling disorder during tasks involving spelling assessment and comparison of pseudowords. fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Borkowska, Aneta Rita; Francuz, Piotr; Soluch, Paweł; Wolak, Tomasz

2014-10-01

The present study aimed at defining the specific traits of brain activation in teenagers with isolated spelling disorder in comparison with good spellers. fMRI examination was performed where the subject's task involved taking a decision 1/whether the visually presented words were spelled correctly or not (the orthographic decision task), and 2/whether the two presented letters strings (pseudowords) were identical or not (the visual decision task). Half of the displays showing meaningful words with an orthographic difficulty contained pairs with both words spelled correctly, and half of them contained one misspelled word. Half of the pseudowords were identical, half of them were not. The participants of the study included 15 individuals with isolated spelling disorder and 14 good spellers, aged 13-15. The results demonstrated that the essential differences in brain activation between teenagers with isolated spelling disorder and good spellers were found in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus and right cerebellum posterior lobe, i.e. structures important for language processes, working memory and automaticity of behaviour. Spelling disorder is not only an effect of language dysfunction, it could be a symptom of difficulties in learning and automaticity of motor and visual shapes of written words, rapid information processing as well as automating use of orthographic lexicon. Copyright © 2013 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding the differentiating impacts of the communication strategies of a high involvement service (investment advisory services) and a high involvement product (precious jewellery) on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

OpenAIRE

Gupta, Gauri

2009-01-01

While marketing literature has largely focused on high and low involvement purchases and the positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty; the differentiating impacts of communication strategies for a high involvement service and a high involvement product on customer satisfaction and loyalty has received little academic attention. Consequently, this study examines the differentiating impacts of the communication strategies for investment advisory services and precious jewe...

Task uncertainty can account for mixing and switch costs in task-switching.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick S Cooper

Full Text Available Cognitive control is required in situations that involve uncertainty or change, such as when resolving conflict, selecting responses and switching tasks. Recently, it has been suggested that cognitive control can be conceptualised as a mechanism which prioritises goal-relevant information to deal with uncertainty. This hypothesis has been supported using a paradigm that requires conflict resolution. In this study, we examine whether cognitive control during task switching is also consistent with this notion. We used information theory to quantify the level of uncertainty in different trial types during a cued task-switching paradigm. We test the hypothesis that differences in uncertainty between task repeat and task switch trials can account for typical behavioural effects in task-switching. Increasing uncertainty was associated with less efficient performance (i.e., slower and less accurate, particularly on switch trials and trials that afford little opportunity for advance preparation. Interestingly, both mixing and switch costs were associated with a common episodic control process. These results support the notion that cognitive control may be conceptualised as an information processor that serves to resolve uncertainty in the environment.

Reward contingencies and the recalibration of task monitoring and reward systems: a high-density electrical mapping study.

Science.gov (United States)

Morie, K P; De Sanctis, P; Foxe, J J

2014-07-25

Task execution almost always occurs in the context of reward-seeking or punishment-avoiding behavior. As such, ongoing task-monitoring systems are influenced by reward anticipation systems. In turn, when a task has been executed either successfully or unsuccessfully, future iterations of that task will be re-titrated on the basis of the task outcome. Here, we examined the neural underpinnings of the task-monitoring and reward-evaluation systems to better understand how they govern reward-seeking behavior. Twenty-three healthy adult participants performed a task where they accrued points that equated to real world value (gift cards) by responding as rapidly as possible within an allotted timeframe, while success rate was titrated online by changing the duration of the timeframe dependent on participant performance. Informative cues initiated each trial, indicating the probability of potential reward or loss (four levels from very low to very high). We manipulated feedback by first informing participants of task success/failure, after which a second feedback signal indicated actual magnitude of reward/loss. High-density electroencephalography (EEG) recordings allowed for examination of event-related potentials (ERPs) to the informative cues and in turn, to both feedback signals. Distinct ERP components associated with reward cues, task-preparatory and task-monitoring processes, and reward feedback processes were identified. Unsurprisingly, participants displayed increased ERP amplitudes associated with task-preparatory processes following cues that predicted higher chances of reward. They also rapidly updated reward and loss prediction information dependent on task performance after the first feedback signal. Finally, upon reward receipt, initial reward probability was no longer taken into account. Rather, ERP measures suggested that only the magnitude of actual reward or loss was now processed. Reward and task-monitoring processes are clearly dissociable, but

Using dual-task methodology to dissociate automatic from nonautomatic processes involved in artificial grammar learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendricks, Michelle A; Conway, Christopher M; Kellogg, Ronald T

2013-09-01

Previous studies have suggested that both automatic and intentional processes contribute to the learning of grammar and fragment knowledge in artificial grammar learning (AGL) tasks. To explore the relative contribution of automatic and intentional processes to knowledge gained in AGL, we utilized dual-task methodology to dissociate automatic and intentional grammar- and fragment-based knowledge in AGL at both acquisition and at test. Both experiments used a balanced chunk strength grammar to assure an equal proportion of fragment cues (i.e., chunks) in grammatical and nongrammatical test items. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in a working memory dual-task either during acquisition, test, or both acquisition and test. The results showed that participants performing the dual-task during acquisition learned the artificial grammar as well as the single-task group, presumably by relying on automatic learning mechanisms. A working memory dual-task at test resulted in attenuated grammar performance, suggesting a role for intentional processes for the expression of grammatical learning at test. Experiment 2 explored the importance of perceptual cues by changing letters between the acquisition and test phase; unlike Experiment 1, there was no significant learning of grammatical information for participants under dual-task conditions in Experiment 2, suggesting that intentional processing is necessary for successful acquisition and expression of grammar-based knowledge under transfer conditions. In sum, it appears that some aspects of learning in AGL are indeed relatively automatic, although the expression of grammatical information and the learning of grammatical patterns when perceptual similarity is eliminated both appear to require explicit resources. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

READINESS OF MILITARY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FOR TACTICAL TASKS

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Nikolai Alekseevich Seredkin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background. The purpose of this article is to reveal the features and analyze the studies of the interpretation of the concept of “readiness”, to formulate the definition of the concept of “the future officer’s willingness to solve tactical problems,” to describe the components and its main components. Methods. The methodological basis for researching the problem of the future officers’ readiness for solving tactical tasks is the personal and activity approach. Relying on them, the author reveals the essence of the definition of readiness and a description of its components. Results. The results of the article are the readiness of the cadet for professional work and we consider it as an integrated education formed in the process of professional training, ensuring the performance of their service and job functions, the successful solution of the service-combat tasks of professional activity. It includes a system of personality qualities of the future officer, characterized by a positive attitude towards professional activity, the presence of an adequate holistic view of it, the possession of ways to solve professional problems, the perception of oneself as a subject of one’s own activity. Reflexive attitude to one’s own activity is one of the most important conditions for its deep comprehension, critical analysis and constructive improvement. Conclusion. The definition of the concept of the cadet’s readiness for the solution of tactical tasks and its components is the theoretical basis for improving the process of professional training in a military high school. The components of readiness and its indicators set the teacher of the military higher educational institution a vector of practical activities for its formation.

A fuzzy-based particle swarm optimisation approach for task assignment in home healthcare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mutingi, Michael

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Home healthcare (HHC organisations provide coordinated healthcare services to patients at their homes. Motivated by the ever-increasing need for home-based care, the assignment of tasks to available healthcare staff is a common and complex problem in homecare organisations. Designing high quality task schedules is critical for improving worker morale, job satisfaction, service efficiency, service quality, and competitiveness over the long term. The desire is to provide high quality task assignment schedules that satisfy the patient, the care worker, and the management. This translates to maximising schedule fairness in terms of workload assignments, avoiding task time window violation, and meeting management goals as much as possible. However, in practice, these desires are often subjective as they involve imprecise human perceptions. This paper develops a fuzzy multi-criteria particle swarm optimisation (FPSO approach for task assignment in a home healthcare setting in a fuzzy environment. The proposed approach uses a fuzzy evaluation method from a multi-criteria point of view. Results from illustrative computational experiments show that the approach is promising.

The effects of dual tasking on handwriting in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Broeder, S; Nackaerts, E; Nieuwboer, A; Smits-Engelsman, B C M; Swinnen, S P; Heremans, E

2014-03-28

Previous studies have shown that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience extensive problems during dual tasking. Up to now, dual-task interference in PD has mainly been investigated in the context of gait research. However, the simultaneous performance of two different tasks is also a prerequisite to efficiently perform many other tasks in daily life, including upper limb tasks. To address this issue, this study investigated the effect of a secondary cognitive task on the performance of handwriting in patients with PD. Eighteen PD patients and 11 age-matched controls performed a writing task involving the production of repetitive loops under single- and dual-task conditions. The secondary task consisted of counting high and low tones during writing. The writing tests were performed with two amplitudes (0.6 and 1.0cm) using a writing tablet. Results showed that dual-task performance was affected in PD patients versus controls. Dual tasking reduced writing amplitude in PD patients, but not in healthy controls (p=0.046). Patients' writing size was mainly reduced during the small-amplitude condition (small amplitude p=0.017; large amplitude p=0.310). This suggests that the control of writing at small amplitudes requires more compensational brain-processing recourses in PD and is as such less automatic than writing at large amplitudes. In addition, there was a larger dual-task effect on the secondary task in PD patients than controls (p=0.025). The writing tests on the writing tablet proved highly correlated to daily life writing as measured by the 'Systematic Screening of Handwriting Difficulties' test (SOS-test) and other manual dexterity tasks, particularly during dual-task conditions. Taken together, these results provide additional insights into the motor control of handwriting and the effects of dual tasking during upper limb movements in patients with PD. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

No psychological effect of color context in a low level vision task.

Science.gov (United States)

Pedley, Adam; Wade, Alex R

2013-01-01

A remarkable series of recent papers have shown that colour can influence performance in cognitive tasks. In particular, they suggest that viewing a participant number printed in red ink or other red ancillary stimulus elements improves performance in tasks requiring local processing and impedes performance in tasks requiring global processing whilst the reverse is true for the colour blue. The tasks in these experiments require high level cognitive processing such as analogy solving or remote association tests and the chromatic effect on local vs. global processing is presumed to involve widespread activation of the autonomic nervous system. If this is the case, we might expect to see similar effects on all local vs. global task comparisons. To test this hypothesis, we asked whether chromatic cues also influence performance in tasks involving low level visual feature integration. Subjects performed either local (contrast detection) or global (form detection) tasks on achromatic dynamic Glass pattern stimuli. Coloured instructions, target frames and fixation points were used to attempt to bias performance to different task types. Based on previous literature, we hypothesised that red cues would improve performance in the (local) contrast detection task but would impede performance in the (global) form detection task.  A two-way, repeated measures, analysis of covariance (2×2 ANCOVA) with gender as a covariate, revealed no influence of colour on either task, F(1,29) = 0.289, p = 0.595, partial η (2) = 0.002. Additional analysis revealed no significant differences in only the first attempts of the tasks or in the improvement in performance between trials. We conclude that motivational processes elicited by colour perception do not influence neuronal signal processing in the early visual system, in stark contrast to their putative effects on processing in higher areas.

Visual Cluster Analysis for Computing Tasks at Workflow Management System of the ATLAS Experiment

CERN Document Server

Grigoryeva, Maria; The ATLAS collaboration

2018-01-01

Hundreds of petabytes of experimental data in high energy and nuclear physics (HENP) have already been obtained by unique scientific facilities such as LHC, RHIC, KEK. As the accelerators are being modernized (energy and luminosity were increased), data volumes are rapidly growing and have reached the exabyte scale, that also affects the increasing the number of analysis and data processing tasks, that are competing continuously for computational resources. The increase of processing tasks causes an increase in the performance of the computing environment by the involvement of high-performance computing resources, and forming a heterogeneous distributed computing environment (hundreds of distributed computing centers). In addition, errors happen to occur while executing tasks for data analysis and processing, which are caused by software and hardware failures. With a distributed model of data processing and analysis, the optimization of data management and workload systems becomes a fundamental task, and the ...

Sensation seeking in males involved in recreational high risk sports

OpenAIRE

M Guszkowska; A Bołdak

2010-01-01

The study examined sensation seeking intensity level in males involved in recreational high risk sports and investigated whether its level depends on type of sport practised. Additionally, in case of parachutists, sport experience of study participants were scrutinised with regard to its possible impact on the level of sensation seeking.The research involved 217 males aged 17 to 45, practising recreational high risk sports, namely: parachuting (n=98); wakeboarding (n=30); snowboarding (n=30);...

Manual lateralization in macaques: handedness, target laterality and task complexity.

Science.gov (United States)

Regaiolli, Barbara; Spiezio, Caterina; Vallortigara, Giorgio

2016-01-01

Non-human primates represent models to understand the evolution of handedness in humans. Despite several researches have been investigating non-human primates handedness, few studies examined the relationship between target position, hand preference and task complexity. This study aimed at investigating macaque handedness in relation to target laterality and tastiness, as well as task complexity. Seven pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) were involved in three different "two alternative choice" tests: one low-level task and two high-level tasks (HLTs). During the first and the third tests macaques could select a preferred food and a non-preferred food, whereas by modifying the design of the second test, macaques were presented with no-difference alternative per trial. Furthermore, a simple-reaching test was administered to assess hand preference in a social context. Macaques showed hand preference at individual level both in simple and complex tasks, but not in the simple-reaching test. Moreover, target position seemed to affect hand preference in retrieving an object in the low-level task, but not in the HLT. Additionally, individual hand preference seemed to be affected from the tastiness of the item to be retrieved. The results suggest that both target laterality and individual motivation might influence hand preference of macaques, especially in simple tasks.

The effects of anticipating a high-stress task on sleep and performance during simulated on-call work.

Science.gov (United States)

Sprajcer, Madeline; Jay, Sarah M; Vincent, Grace E; Vakulin, Andrew; Lack, Leon; Ferguson, Sally A

2018-04-22

On-call work is used to manage around the clock working requirements in a variety of industries. Often, tasks that must be performed while on-call are highly important, difficult and/or stressful by nature and, as such, may impact the level of anxiety that is experienced by on-call workers. Heightened anxiety is associated with poor sleep, which affects next-day cognitive performance. Twenty-four male participants (20-35 years old) spent an adaptation, a control and two counterbalanced on-call nights in a time-isolated sleep laboratory. On one of the on-call nights they were told that they would be required to do a speech upon waking (high-stress condition), whereas on the other night they were instructed that they would be required to read to themselves (low-stress condition). Pre-bed anxiety was measured by the State Trait Anxiety Inventory form x-1, and polysomnography and quantitative electroencephalogram analyses were used to investigate sleep. Performance was assessed across each day using the 10-min psychomotor vigilance task (09:30 hours, 12:00 hours, 14:30 hours, 17:00 hours). The results indicated that participants experienced no significant changes in pre-bed anxiety or sleep between conditions. However, performance on the psychomotor vigilance task was best in the high-stress condition, possibly as a result of heightened physiological arousal caused by performing the stressful task that morning. This suggests that performing a high-stress task may be protective of cognitive performance to some degree when sleep is not disrupted. © 2018 European Sleep Research Society.

Variable Lifting Index (VLI): A New Method for Evaluating Variable Lifting Tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Waters, Thomas; Occhipinti, Enrico; Colombini, Daniela; Alvarez-Casado, Enrique; Fox, Robert

2016-08-01

We seek to develop a new approach for analyzing the physical demands of highly variable lifting tasks through an adaptation of the Revised NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) Lifting Equation (RNLE) into a Variable Lifting Index (VLI). There are many jobs that contain individual lifts that vary from lift to lift due to the task requirements. The NIOSH Lifting Equation is not suitable in its present form to analyze variable lifting tasks. In extending the prior work on the VLI, two procedures are presented to allow users to analyze variable lifting tasks. One approach involves the sampling of lifting tasks performed by a worker over a shift and the calculation of the Frequency Independent Lift Index (FILI) for each sampled lift and the aggregation of the FILI values into six categories. The Composite Lift Index (CLI) equation is used with lifting index (LI) category frequency data to calculate the VLI. The second approach employs a detailed systematic collection of lifting task data from production and/or organizational sources. The data are organized into simplified task parameter categories and further aggregated into six FILI categories, which also use the CLI equation to calculate the VLI. The two procedures will allow practitioners to systematically employ the VLI method to a variety of work situations where highly variable lifting tasks are performed. The scientific basis for the VLI procedure is similar to that for the CLI originally presented by NIOSH; however, the VLI method remains to be validated. The VLI method allows an analyst to assess highly variable manual lifting jobs in which the task characteristics vary from lift to lift during a shift. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

A comparative study of Swedish generation Y decision-making style between high involvement and low involvement products.

OpenAIRE

Pakdeejirakul, Warangkhana; Agosi, Micheal

2013-01-01

Title A comparative study of Swedish generation Y decision-making style between high involvement and low involvement products. Research questions  How does product involvement influence consumer decision-making styles in Generation Y of Swedish nationals for the two selected products?  To what level does the model proposed by Sproles and Kendall in 1986 now apply to the modern-day Generation Y in Sweden as they decide on both of the selected products? Purpose The purpose of this research unde...

It's the situation that matters : Affective involvement in context-oriented learning tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fechner, Sabine; van Vorst, H.; Kölbach, E.; Sumfleth, E.

2014-01-01

This chapter focuses on the evaluation of affective variables in contextbased learning (cbl) environments. Although the majority of studies in the field have shown positive effects on attitude, the need to investigate specific elements of cbl tasks has become evident. On the basis of prior research

Task-focused modeling in automated agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Vriesenga, Mark R.; Peleg, K.; Sklansky, Jack

1993-01-01

Machine vision systems analyze image data to carry out automation tasks. Our interest is in machine vision systems that rely on models to achieve their designed task. When the model is interrogated from an a priori menu of questions, the model need not be complete. Instead, the machine vision system can use a partial model that contains a large amount of information in regions of interest and less information elsewhere. We propose an adaptive modeling scheme for machine vision, called task-focused modeling, which constructs a model having just sufficient detail to carry out the specified task. The model is detailed in regions of interest to the task and is less detailed elsewhere. This focusing effect saves time and reduces the computational effort expended by the machine vision system. We illustrate task-focused modeling by an example involving real-time micropropagation of plants in automated agriculture.

Does Guiding Toward Task-Relevant Information Help Improve Graph Processing and Graph Comprehension of Individuals with Low or High Numeracy? An Eye-Tracker Experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Carmen; Junghans, Alex

2017-11-01

Individuals with low numeracy have difficulties with understanding complex graphs. Combining the information-processing approach to numeracy with graph comprehension and information-reduction theories, we examined whether high numerates' better comprehension might be explained by their closer attention to task-relevant graphical elements, from which they would expect numerical information to understand the graph. Furthermore, we investigated whether participants could be trained in improving their attention to task-relevant information and graph comprehension. In an eye-tracker experiment ( N = 110) involving a sample from the general population, we presented participants with 2 hypothetical scenarios (stomach cancer, leukemia) showing survival curves for 2 treatments. In the training condition, participants received written instructions on how to read the graph. In the control condition, participants received another text. We tracked participants' eye movements while they answered 9 knowledge questions. The sum constituted graph comprehension. We analyzed visual attention to task-relevant graphical elements by using relative fixation durations and relative fixation counts. The mediation analysis revealed a significant ( P attention to task-relevant information, which did not differ between the 2 conditions. Training had a significant main effect on visual attention ( P attention to task-relevant graphical elements than individuals with low numeracy. With appropriate instructions, both groups can be trained to improve their graph-processing efficiency. Future research should examine (e.g., motivational) mediators between visual attention and graph comprehension to develop appropriate instructions that also result in higher graph comprehension.

Hybrid-Logical Reasoning in False-Belief Tasks

OpenAIRE

Brauner, Torben

2013-01-01

The main aim of the present paper is to use a proof system for hybrid modal logic to formalize what are called falsebelief tasks in cognitive psychology, thereby investigating the interplay between cognition and logical reasoning about belief. We consider two different versions of the Smarties task, involving respectively a shift of perspective to another person and to another time. Our formalizations disclose that despite this difference, the two versions of the Smarties task have exactly th...

Exploring high school science students' perceptions of parental involvement in their education.

Science.gov (United States)

Mji, Andile; Mbinda, Zoleka

2005-08-01

This exploratory study describes high school students' perceptions of their parents' involvement in their education and in relation to school achievement. A new 12-item Parental Involvement Scale was used to measure parents' involvement in curricular and extracurricular activities and using exploratory analyses to estimate the scale's properties. Exploratory analysis resulted in the reduction of the 12 items to 8, with an internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) .82. Grade 12 science students indicated that their less educated parents were involved in activities pertaining to their learning; however, high perceived parental involvement in curricular activities was related to low achievement. It is recommended that further exploratory analyses be undertaken to examine the reported two-dimensional model of the Parental Involvement Scale.

Didactical design based on sharing and jumping tasks for senior high school chemistry learning

Science.gov (United States)

Fatimah, I.; Hendayana, S.; Supriatna, A.

2018-05-01

The purpose of this research is to develop the didactical design of senior high school chemistry learning based on sharing and jumping tasks in shift equilibrium chemistry. Sharing tasks used to facilitate students slow learners with help by other students of fast learners so they engage in learning. While jumping tasks used to challenge fast learners students so they didn’t feel bored in learning. In developing the didactic design, teacher activity is not only to focus on students and learning materials but also on the relationship between students and learning materials. The results of the analysis teaching plan of shift equilibrium chemistry in attached Senior High School to Indonesia University of Education showed that the learning activities more focus on how the teacher teaches instead of how the process of students’ learning. The use of research method is didactical design research (DDR). Didactical design consisted of three steps i.e. (a) analysing didactical condition before learning, (b) analyzing metapedadidactical, and (c) analyzing retrospective. Data were collected by test, observations, interviews, documentation and recordings (audio and video).The result showed that the didactical design on shift equilibrium chemistry was valid.

Involvement of Working Memory in College Students' Sequential Pattern Learning and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Kundey, Shannon M. A.; De Los Reyes, Andres; Rowan, James D.; Lee, Bern; Delise, Justin; Molina, Sabrina; Cogdill, Lindsay

2013-01-01

When learning highly organized sequential patterns of information, humans and nonhuman animals learn rules regarding the hierarchical structures of these sequences. In three experiments, we explored the role of working memory in college students' sequential pattern learning and performance in a computerized task involving a sequential…

Performance of children with developmental dyslexia on high and low topological entropy artificial grammar learning task.

Science.gov (United States)

Katan, Pesia; Kahta, Shani; Sasson, Ayelet; Schiff, Rachel

2017-07-01

Graph complexity as measured by topological entropy has been previously shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning tasks among typically developing children. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of graph complexity on implicit sequential learning among children with developmental dyslexia. Our goal was to determine whether children's performance depends on the complexity level of the grammar system learned. We conducted two artificial grammar learning experiments that compared performance of children with developmental dyslexia with that of age- and reading level-matched controls. Experiment 1 was a high topological entropy artificial grammar learning task that aimed to establish implicit learning phenomena in children with developmental dyslexia using previously published experimental conditions. Experiment 2 is a lower topological entropy variant of that task. Results indicated that given a high topological entropy grammar system, children with developmental dyslexia who were similar to the reading age-matched control group had substantial difficulty in performing the task as compared to typically developing children, who exhibited intact implicit learning of the grammar. On the other hand, when tested on a lower topological entropy grammar system, all groups performed above chance level, indicating that children with developmental dyslexia were able to identify rules from a given grammar system. The results reinforced the significance of graph complexity when experimenting with artificial grammar learning tasks, particularly with dyslexic participants.

Is the High-Involvement Worker Precarious or Opportunistic?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ekman, Susanne

2014-01-01

This article addresses the recent trend in critical organization theory and sociological literature to regard employees in creative and high-involvement work as precarious. It does so by tapping into the perennial debate about control and ambiguity in organization studies. Its main contribution i...

Electronic Communication and Its Influence on Parental Involvement in High School

Science.gov (United States)

Watkins, Aaron

2013-01-01

This study investigated the effect of electronic communication has on parent's involvement with their high school child's education. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) specifically requires that schools find ways to increase parental involvement; this requirement stemmed from evidence that involvement tends to decline as the students…

Technology-Related Involvement: The Effect of the MASHOV System on Parent Involvement in Israeli Junior Highs

Science.gov (United States)

Davidovitch, Nitza; Yavich, Roman

2015-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine differences in parental involvement between two high schools that use the MASHOV program (an online learning management system) and one high school where parents receive updates regarding their children in other ways, with attention to parents' background variables: sex, income, and schooling. The study…

Adaptation to Recent Conflict in the Classical Color-Word Stroop-Task Mainly Involves Facilitation of Processing of Task-Relevant Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sascha ePurmann

2015-03-01

Full Text Available To process information selectively and to continuously fine-tune selectivity of information processing are important abilities for successful goal-directed behavior. One phenomenon thought to represent this fine-tuning are conflict adaptation effects in interference tasks, i.e. reduction of interference after an incompatible trial and when incompatible trials are frequent. The neurocognitive mechanisms of these effects are currently only partly understood and results from brainimaging studies so far are mixed. In our study we validate and extend recent findings by examining adaption to recent conflict in the classical Stroop task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Consistent with previous research we found increased activity in a fronto-parietal network comprising the medial prefrontal cortex, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex when contrasting incompatible with compatible trials. These areas have been associated with attentional processes and might reflect increased cognitive conflict and resolution thereof during incompatible trials. While carefully controlling for non-attentional sequential effects we found smaller Stroop interference after an incompatible trial (conflict adaptation effect. These behavioral conflict adaptation effects were accompanied by changes in activity in visual color-selective areas (V4, V4α, while there was no modulation by previous trial compatibility in a visual word-selective area (VWFA. Our results provide further evidence for the notion, that adaptation to recent conflict seems to be based mainly on enhancement of processing of the task-relevant information.

Adaptation to recent conflict in the classical color-word Stroop-task mainly involves facilitation of processing of task-relevant information.

Science.gov (United States)

Purmann, Sascha; Pollmann, Stefan

2015-01-01

To process information selectively and to continuously fine-tune selectivity of information processing are important abilities for successful goal-directed behavior. One phenomenon thought to represent this fine-tuning are conflict adaptation effects in interference tasks, i.e., reduction of interference after an incompatible trial and when incompatible trials are frequent. The neurocognitive mechanisms of these effects are currently only partly understood and results from brainimaging studies so far are mixed. In our study we validate and extend recent findings by examining adaption to recent conflict in the classical Stroop task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Consistent with previous research we found increased activity in a fronto-parietal network comprising the medial prefrontal cortex, ventro-lateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex when contrasting incompatible with compatible trials. These areas have been associated with attentional processes and might reflect increased cognitive conflict and resolution thereof during incompatible trials. While carefully controlling for non-attentional sequential effects we found smaller Stroop interference after an incompatible trial (conflict adaptation effect). These behavioral conflict adaptation effects were accompanied by changes in activity in visual color-selective areas (V4, V4α), while there was no modulation by previous trial compatibility in a visual word-selective area (VWFA). Our results provide further evidence for the notion, that adaptation to recent conflict seems to be based mainly on enhancement of processing of the task-relevant information.

Recommendations for a National High Blood Pressure Community Education Plan. Report of Task Force III--Community Education.

Science.gov (United States)

National Institutes of Health (DHEW), Bethesda, MD. High Blood Pressure Information Center.

Hypertensive disease being one of the most important medical problems now facing American medicine brought about the formation of the Federally sponsored National High Blood Pressure Education Program, which included four Task Forces. Task Force 3 reviews in this study information and experience useful for the development of guidelines for…

Asynchronous Task-Based Polar Decomposition on Single Node Manycore Architectures

KAUST Repository

Sukkari, Dalal E.; Ltaief, Hatem; Faverge, Mathieu; Keyes, David E.

2017-01-01

This paper introduces the first asynchronous, task-based formulation of the polar decomposition and its corresponding implementation on manycore architectures. Based on a formulation of the iterative QR dynamically-weighted Halley algorithm (QDWH) for the calculation of the polar decomposition, the proposed implementation replaces the original LU factorization for the condition number estimator by the more adequate QR factorization to enable software portability across various architectures. Relying on fine-grained computations, the novel task-based implementation is capable of taking advantage of the identity structure of the matrix involved during the QDWH iterations, which decreases the overall algorithmic complexity. Furthermore, the artifactual synchronization points have been weakened compared to previous implementations, unveiling look-ahead opportunities for better hardware occupancy. The overall QDWH-based polar decomposition can then be represented as a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where nodes represent computational tasks and edges define the inter-task data dependencies. The StarPU dynamic runtime system is employed to traverse the DAG, to track the various data dependencies and to asynchronously schedule the computational tasks on the underlying hardware resources, resulting in an out-of-order task scheduling. Benchmarking experiments show significant improvements against existing state-of-the-art high performance implementations for the polar decomposition on latest shared-memory vendors' systems, while maintaining numerical accuracy.

Asynchronous Task-Based Polar Decomposition on Single Node Manycore Architectures

KAUST Repository

Sukkari, Dalal E.

2017-09-29

This paper introduces the first asynchronous, task-based formulation of the polar decomposition and its corresponding implementation on manycore architectures. Based on a formulation of the iterative QR dynamically-weighted Halley algorithm (QDWH) for the calculation of the polar decomposition, the proposed implementation replaces the original LU factorization for the condition number estimator by the more adequate QR factorization to enable software portability across various architectures. Relying on fine-grained computations, the novel task-based implementation is capable of taking advantage of the identity structure of the matrix involved during the QDWH iterations, which decreases the overall algorithmic complexity. Furthermore, the artifactual synchronization points have been weakened compared to previous implementations, unveiling look-ahead opportunities for better hardware occupancy. The overall QDWH-based polar decomposition can then be represented as a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where nodes represent computational tasks and edges define the inter-task data dependencies. The StarPU dynamic runtime system is employed to traverse the DAG, to track the various data dependencies and to asynchronously schedule the computational tasks on the underlying hardware resources, resulting in an out-of-order task scheduling. Benchmarking experiments show significant improvements against existing state-of-the-art high performance implementations for the polar decomposition on latest shared-memory vendors\\' systems, while maintaining numerical accuracy.

Development of task analysis method for operator tasks in main control room of an advanced nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin Chiuhsiangloe; Hsieh Tsungling

2016-01-01

Task analysis methods provide an insight for quantitative and qualitative predictions of how people will use a proposed system, though the different versions have different emphases. Most of the methods can attest to the coverage of the functionality of a system and all provide estimates of task performance time. However, most of the tasks that operators deal with in a digital work environment in the main control room of an advanced nuclear power plant require high mental activity. Such mental tasks overlap and must be dealt with at the same time; most of them can be assumed to be highly parallel in nature. Therefore, the primary aim to be addressed in this paper was to develop a method that adopts CPM-GOMS (cognitive perceptual motor-goals operators methods selection rules) as the basic pattern of mental task analysis for the advanced main control room. A within-subjects experiment design was used to examine the validity of the modified CPM-GOMS. Thirty participants participated in two task types, which included high- and low-compatibility types. The results indicated that the performance was significantly higher on the high-compatibility task type than on the low-compatibility task type; that is, the modified CPM-GOMS could distinguish the difference between high- and low-compatibility mental tasks. (author)

Multi-Task Video Captioning with Video and Entailment Generation

OpenAIRE

Pasunuru, Ramakanth; Bansal, Mohit

2017-01-01

Video captioning, the task of describing the content of a video, has seen some promising improvements in recent years with sequence-to-sequence models, but accurately learning the temporal and logical dynamics involved in the task still remains a challenge, especially given the lack of sufficient annotated data. We improve video captioning by sharing knowledge with two related directed-generation tasks: a temporally-directed unsupervised video prediction task to learn richer context-aware vid...

Human cortical EEG rhythms during long-term episodic memory task. A high-resolution EEG study of the HERA model.

Science.gov (United States)

Babiloni, Claudio; Babiloni, Fabio; Carducci, Filippo; Cappa, Stefano; Cincotti, Febo; Del Percio, Claudio; Miniussi, Carlo; Moretti, Davide Vito; Pasqualetti, Patrizio; Rossi, Simone; Sosta, Katiuscia; Rossini, Paolo Maria

2004-04-01

Many recent neuroimaging studies of episodic memory have indicated an asymmetry in prefrontal involvement, with the left prefrontal cortex more involved than the right in encoding, the right more than the left in retrieval (hemispheric encoding and retrieval asymmetry, or HERA model). In this electroencephalographic (EEG) high-resolution study, we studied brain rhythmicity during a visual episodic memory (recognition) task. The theta (4-6 Hz), alpha (6-12 Hz) and gamma (28-48 Hz) oscillations were investigated during a visuospatial long-term episodic memory task including an encoding (ENC) and retrieval (RET) phases. During the ENC phase, 25 figures representing interiors of buildings ("indoor") were randomly intermingled with 25 figures representing landscapes ("landscapes"). Subject's response was given at left ("indoor") or right ("landscapes") mouse button. During the RET phase (1 h later), 25 figures representing previously presented "indoor" pictures ("tests") were randomly intermingled with 25 figures representing novel "indoor" ("distractors"). Again, a mouse response was required. Theta and alpha EEG results showed no change of frontal rhythmicity. In contrast, the HERA prediction of asymmetry was fitted only by EEG gamma responses, but only in the posterior parietal areas. The ENC phase was associated with gamma EEG oscillations over left parietal cortex. Afterward, the RET phase was associated with gamma EEG oscillations predominantly over right parietal cortex. The predicted HERA asymmetry was thus observed in an unexpected location. This discrepancy may be due to the differential sensitivity of neuroimaging methods to selected components of cognitive processing. The strict relation between gamma response and perception suggests that retrieval processes of long-term memory deeply impinged upon sensory representation of the stored material.

Performance-Based Task Assessment of Higher-Order Proficiencies in Redesigned STEM High Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Ernst, Jeremy V.; Glennie, Elizabeth; Li, Songze

2017-01-01

This study explored student abilities in applying conceptual knowledge when presented with structured performance tasks. Specifically, the study gauged proficiency in higher-order applications of students enrolled in earth and environmental science or biology. The student sample was drawn from a Redesigned STEM high school model where a tested…

Differential activation of brain regions involved with error-feedback and imitation based motor simulation when observing self and an expert's actions in pilots and non-pilots on a complex glider landing task.

Science.gov (United States)

Callan, Daniel E; Terzibas, Cengiz; Cassel, Daniel B; Callan, Akiko; Kawato, Mitsuo; Sato, Masa-Aki

2013-05-15

In this fMRI study we investigate neural processes related to the action observation network using a complex perceptual-motor task in pilots and non-pilots. The task involved landing a glider (using aileron, elevator, rudder, and dive brake) as close to a target as possible, passively observing a replay of one's own previous trial, passively observing a replay of an expert's trial, and a baseline do nothing condition. The objective of this study is to investigate two types of motor simulation processes used during observation of action: imitation based motor simulation and error-feedback based motor simulation. It has been proposed that the computational neurocircuitry of the cortex is well suited for unsupervised imitation based learning, whereas, the cerebellum is well suited for error-feedback based learning. Consistent with predictions, pilots (to a greater extent than non-pilots) showed significant differential activity when observing an expert landing the glider in brain regions involved with imitation based motor simulation (including premotor cortex PMC, inferior frontal gyrus IFG, anterior insula, parietal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, and middle temporal MT area) than when observing one's own previous trial which showed significant differential activity in the cerebellum (only for pilots) thought to be concerned with error-feedback based motor simulation. While there was some differential brain activity for pilots in regions involved with both Execution and Observation of the flying task (potential Mirror System sites including IFG, PMC, superior parietal lobule) the majority was adjacent to these areas (Observation Only Sites) (predominantly in PMC, IFG, and inferior parietal loblule). These regions showing greater activity for observation than for action may be involved with processes related to motor-based representational transforms that are not necessary when actually carrying out the task. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Non-Interfering Effects of Active Post-Encoding Tasks on Episodic Memory Consolidation in Humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Varma, Samarth; Takashima, Atsuko; Krewinkel, Sander; van Kooten, Maaike; Fu, Lily; Medendorp, W Pieter; Kessels, Roy P C; Daselaar, Sander M

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have used tasks involving only complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant activities. The possibility that interference can be elicited using a task that heavily taxes our limited brain resources, but has low semantic and hippocampal related long-term memory processing demands, has never been tested. We address this question by investigating whether consolidation could persist in parallel with an active, encoding-irrelevant, minimally semantic task, regardless of its high resource demands for cognitive processing. We distinguish the impact of such a task on consolidation based on whether it engages resources that are: (1) general/executive, or (2) specific/overlapping with the encoding modality. Our experiments compared subsequent memory performance across two post-encoding consolidation periods: quiet wakeful rest and a cognitively demanding n-Back task. Across six different experiments (total N = 176), we carefully manipulated the design of the n-Back task to target general or specific resources engaged in the ongoing consolidation process. In contrast to previous studies that employed interference tasks involving conceptual stimuli and complex processing demands, we did not find any differences between n-Back and rest conditions on memory performance at delayed test, using both recall and recognition tests. Our results indicate that: (1) quiet, wakeful rest is not a necessary prerequisite for episodic memory consolidation; and (2) post-encoding cognitive engagement does not interfere with memory consolidation when task-performance has minimal semantic and hippocampally-based episodic memory processing demands. We discuss our findings with reference to resource and reactivation-led interference theories.

Anterior medial prefrontal cortex exhibits activation during task preparation but deactivation during task execution.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hideya Koshino

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC exhibits activation during some cognitive tasks, including episodic memory, reasoning, attention, multitasking, task sets, decision making, mentalizing, and processing of self-referenced information. However, the medial part of anterior PFC is part of the default mode network (DMN, which shows deactivation during various goal-directed cognitive tasks compared to a resting baseline. One possible factor for this pattern is that activity in the anterior medial PFC (MPFC is affected by dynamic allocation of attentional resources depending on task demands. We investigated this possibility using an event related fMRI with a face working memory task. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sixteen students participated in a single fMRI session. They were asked to form a task set to remember the faces (Face memory condition or to ignore them (No face memory condition, then they were given 6 seconds of preparation period before the onset of the face stimuli. During this 6-second period, four single digits were presented one at a time at the center of the display, and participants were asked to add them and to remember the final answer. When participants formed a task set to remember faces, the anterior MPFC exhibited activation during a task preparation period but deactivation during a task execution period within a single trial. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that the anterior MPFC plays a role in task set formation but is not involved in execution of the face working memory task. Therefore, when attentional resources are allocated to other brain regions during task execution, the anterior MPFC shows deactivation. The results suggest that activation and deactivation in the anterior MPFC are affected by dynamic allocation of processing resources across different phases of processing.

The effects of goal involvement on moral behavior in an experimentally manipulated competitive setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Sage, Luke; Kavussanu, Maria

2007-04-01

In this experiment we examined the effects of task and ego involvement on three measures of moral behavior--prosocial choice, observed prosocial behavior, and observed antisocial behavior--in a competitive setting. We also investigated sex differences in moral behavior. Male (n = 48) and female (n = 48) college students were randomly assigned to a task-involving, an ego-involving, or a control condition. Participants played two 10-min games of table soccer and completed measures of prosocial choice, goal involvement, goal orientation, and demographics. The two games were recorded, and frequencies of prosocial and antisocial behavior were coded. Players assigned to the task-involving condition were higher in prosocial choice than those in the ego-involving or control conditions. Individuals in the ego-involving condition displayed more antisocial behaviors than those in the task-involving or control conditions. Finally, females displayed more prosocial behaviors than males.

Stimulating Mathematical Reasoning with Simple Open-Ended Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

West, John

2018-01-01

The importance of mathematical reasoning is unquestioned and providing opportunities for students to become involved in mathematical reasoning is paramount. The open-ended tasks presented incorporate mathematical content explored through the contexts of problem solving and reasoning. This article presents a number of simple tasks that may be…

A Multitasking General Executive for Compound Continuous Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Salvucci, Dario D.

2005-01-01

As cognitive architectures move to account for increasingly complex real-world tasks, one of the most pressing challenges involves understanding and modeling human multitasking. Although a number of existing models now perform multitasking in real-world scenarios, these models typically employ customized executives that schedule tasks for the…

Mood states determine the degree of task shielding in dual-task performance.

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Zwosta, Katharina; Hommel, Bernhard; Goschke, Thomas; Fischer, Rico

2013-01-01

Current models of multitasking assume that dual-task performance and the degree of multitasking are affected by cognitive control strategies. In particular, cognitive control is assumed to regulate the amount of shielding of the prioritised task from crosstalk from the secondary task. We investigated whether and how task shielding is influenced by mood states. Participants were exposed to two short film clips, one inducing high and one inducing low arousal, of either negative or positive content. Negative mood led to stronger shielding of the prioritised task (i.e., less crosstalk) than positive mood, irrespective of arousal. These findings support the assumption that emotional states determine the parameters of cognitive control and play an important role in regulating dual-task performance.

Parental influences on students' self-concept, task value beliefs, and achievement in science.

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Senler, Burcu; Sungur, Semra

2009-05-01

The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, to investigate the grade level (elementary and middle school) and gender effect on students' motivation in science (perceived academic science self-concept and task value) and perceived family involvement, and secondly to examine the relationship among family environment variables (fathers' educational level, mothers' educational level, and perceived family involvement), motivation, gender and science achievement in elementary and middle schools. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) showed that elementary school students have more positive science self-concept and task value beliefs compared to middle school students. Moreover, elementary school students appeared to perceive more family involvement in their schooling. Path analyses also suggested that family involvement was directly linked to elementary school students' task value and achievement. Also, in elementary school level, significant relationships were found among father educational level, science self-concept, task value and science achievement. On the other hand, in middle school level, family involvement, father educational level, and mother educational level were positively related to students' task value which is directly linked to students' science achievement. Moreover, mother educational level contributed to science achievement through its effect on self-concept.

High and low schizotypal female subjects do not differ in spatial memory abilities in a virtual reality task.

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García-Montes, José Manuel; Noguera, Carmen; Alvarez, Dolores; Ruiz, Marina; Cimadevilla Redondo, José Manuel

2014-01-01

Schizotypy is a psychological construct related to schizophrenia. The exact relationship between both entities is not clear. In recent years, schizophrenia has been associated with hippocampal abnormalities and spatial memory problems. The aim of this study was to determine possible links between high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) and spatial abilities, using virtual reality tasks. We hypothesised that the HS group would exhibit a lower performance in spatial memory tasks than the LS group. Two groups of female students were formed according to their score on the ESQUIZO-Q-A questionnaire. HS and LS subjects were tested on two different tasks: the Boxes Room task, a spatial memory task sensitive to hippocampal alterations and a spatial recognition task. Data showed that both groups mastered both tasks. Groups differed in personality features but not in spatial performance. These results provide valuable information about the schizotypy-schizophrenia connections. Schizotypal subjects are not impaired on spatial cognition and, accordingly, the schizotypy-schizophrenia relationship is not straightforward.

Formal Derivation of Lotka-Volterra-Haken Amplitude Equations of Task-Related Brain Activity in Multiple, Consecutively Performed Tasks

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Frank, T. D.

The Lotka-Volterra-Haken equations have been frequently used in ecology and pattern formation. Recently, the equations have been proposed by several research groups as amplitude equations for task-related patterns of brain activity. In this theoretical study, the focus is on the circular causality aspect of pattern formation systems as formulated within the framework of synergetics. Accordingly, the stable modes of a pattern formation system inhibit the unstable modes, whereas the unstable modes excite the stable modes. Using this circular causality principle it is shown that under certain conditions the Lotka-Volterra-Haken amplitude equations can be derived from a general model of brain activity akin to the Wilson-Cowan model. The model captures the amplitude dynamics for brain activity patterns in experiments involving several consecutively performed multiple-choice tasks. This is explicitly demonstrated for two-choice tasks involving grasping and walking. A comment on the relevance of the theoretical framework for clinical psychology and schizophrenia is given as well.

Task-specific modulation of human auditory evoked responses in a delayed-match-to-sample task

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Feng eRong

2011-05-01

Full Text Available In this study, we focus our investigation on task-specific cognitive modulation of early cortical auditory processing in human cerebral cortex. During the experiments, we acquired whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG data while participants were performing an auditory delayed-match-to-sample (DMS task and associated control tasks. Using a spatial filtering beamformer technique to simultaneously estimate multiple source activities inside the human brain, we observed a significant DMS-specific suppression of the auditory evoked response to the second stimulus in a sound pair, with the center of the effect being located in the vicinity of the left auditory cortex. For the right auditory cortex, a non-invariant suppression effect was observed in both DMS and control tasks. Furthermore, analysis of coherence revealed a beta band (12 ~ 20 Hz DMS-specific enhanced functional interaction between the sources in left auditory cortex and those in left inferior frontal gyrus, which has been shown to involve in short-term memory processing during the delay period of DMS task. Our findings support the view that early evoked cortical responses to incoming acoustic stimuli can be modulated by task-specific cognitive functions by means of frontal-temporal functional interactions.

Predictors and Outcomes of Parental Involvement with High School Students in Science

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Shumow, Lee; Lyutykh, Elena; Schmidt, Jennifer A.

2011-01-01

Demographic and psychological predictors of parent involvement with their children's science education both at home and at school were examined during high school. Associations between both types of parent involvement and numerous academic outcomes were tested. Data were collected from 244 high school students in 12 different science classrooms…

Cognitive Modeling and Task Analysis: Basic Processes and Individual Differences

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ackerman, Phillip

1999-01-01

... in a complex-skill environment. The subset of task conditions selected were those that involve basic processes of working memory, task monitoring, and differential loads on spatial reasoning and speed of perceiving...

The neural architecture of age-related dual-task interferences

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Witold Xaver Chmielewski

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In daily life elderly adults exhibit deficits when dual-tasking is involved. So far these deficits have been verified on a behavioral level in dual-tasking. Yet, the neuronal architecture of these deficits in aging still remains to be explored especially when late-middle aged individuals around 60 years of age are concerned. Neuroimaging studies in young participants concerning dual-tasking were, among others, related to activity in middle frontal (MFG and superior frontal gyrus (SFG and the anterior insula (AI. According to the frontal lobe hypothesis of aging, alterations in these frontal regions (i.e., SFG and MFG might be responsible for cognitive deficits. We measured brain activity using fMRI, while examining age-dependent variations in dual-tasking by utilizing the PRP (psychological refractory period test. Behavioral data showed an increasing PRP effect in late-middle aged adults. The results suggest the age-related deteriorated performance in dual-tasking, especially in conditions of risen complexity. These effects are related to changes in networks involving the anterior insula, the SFG and the MFG. The results suggest that different cognitive subprocesses are affected that mediate the observed dual-tasking problems in late-middle aged individuals.

The neural architecture of age-related dual-task interferences.

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Chmielewski, Witold X; Yildiz, Ali; Beste, Christian

2014-01-01

In daily life elderly adults exhibit deficits when dual-tasking is involved. So far these deficits have been verified on a behavioral level in dual-tasking. Yet, the neuronal architecture of these deficits in aging still remains to be explored especially when late-middle aged individuals around 60 years of age are concerned. Neuroimaging studies in young participants concerning dual-tasking were, among others, related to activity in middle frontal (MFG) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and the anterior insula (AI). According to the frontal lobe hypothesis of aging, alterations in these frontal regions (i.e., SFG and MFG) might be responsible for cognitive deficits. We measured brain activity using fMRI, while examining age-dependent variations in dual-tasking by utilizing the PRP (psychological refractory period) test. Behavioral data showed an increasing PRP effect in late-middle aged adults. The results suggest the age-related deteriorated performance in dual-tasking, especially in conditions of risen complexity. These effects are related to changes in networks involving the AI, the SFG and the MFG. The results suggest that different cognitive subprocesses are affected that mediate the observed dual-tasking problems in late-middle aged individuals.

A process for integrating public involvement into technical/social programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiltshire, S.; Williams, C.

1994-01-01

Good technical/social decisions--those that are technically sound and publicly acceptable--result from a planning process that considers consulting the public a basic part of the technical program, as basic as hiring a technical consultant to advise about new ideas in computer modeling. This paper describes a specific process for making public involvement an integral part of decision-making about high-level radioactive waste management, so that important technical, social, environmental, economic, and cultural information and values can be incorporated in a meaningful way in planning and carrying out a high-level waste management program or project. The process for integration must consider: (a) the decision or task for which public interaction is needed; (b) the people who should or will want to participate in the decision or task; (c) the goals or purposes of the communication or interaction--the agency's and the public's; (d) the kinds of information the public needs and that the agency needs in order to understand the relevant technical and social issues; and (e) the types of communication or involvement that best serve to meet the agency's and the public's goals

Task type and incidental L2 vocabulary learning: Repetition versus ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigated the effect of task type on incidental L2 vocabulary learning. The different tasks investigated in this study differed in terms of repetition of encounters and task involvement load. In a within-subjects design, 72 Iranian learners of English practised 18 target words in three exercise conditions: three ...

The Applicability of Rhythm-Motor Tasks to a New Dual Task Paradigm for Older Adults

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Soo Ji Kim

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Given the interplay between cognitive and motor functions during walking, cognitive demands required during gait have been investigated with regard to dual task performance. Along with the needs to understand how the type of concurrent task while walking affects gait performance, there are calls for diversified dual tasks that can be applied to older adults with varying levels of cognitive decline. Therefore, this study aimed to examine how rhythm-motor tasks affect dual task performance and gait control, compared to a traditional cognitive-motor task. Also, it examined whether rhythm-motor tasks are correlated with traditional cognitive-motor task performance and cognitive measures. Eighteen older adults without cognitive impairment participated in this study. Each participant was instructed to walk at self-paced tempo without performing a concurrent task (single walking task and walk while separately performing two types of concurrent tasks: rhythm-motor and cognitive-motor tasks. Rhythm-motor tasks included instrument playing (WalkIP, matching to rhythmic cueing (WalkRC, and instrument playing while matching to rhythmic cueing (WalkIP+RC. The cognitive-motor task involved counting forward by 3s (WalkCount.f3. In each condition, dual task costs (DTC, a measure for how dual tasks affect gait parameters, were measured in terms of walking speed and stride length. The ratio of stride length to walking speed, a measure for dynamic control of gait, was also examined. The results of this study demonstrated that the task type was found to significantly influence these measures. Rhythm-motor tasks were found to interfere with gait parameters to a lesser extent than the cognitive-motor task (WalkCount.f3. In terms of ratio measures, stride length remained at a similar level, walking speed greatly decreased in the WalkCount.f3 condition. Significant correlations between dual task-related measures during rhythm-motor and cognitive-motor tasks support the

Single-task and dual-task tandem gait test performance after concussion.

Science.gov (United States)

Howell, David R; Osternig, Louis R; Chou, Li-Shan

2017-07-01

To compare single-task and dual-task tandem gait test performance between athletes after concussion with controls on observer-timed, spatio-temporal, and center-of-mass (COM) balance control measurements. Ten participants (19.0±5.5years) were prospectively identified and completed a tandem gait test protocol within 72h of concussion and again 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, and 2 months post-injury. Seven uninjured controls (20.0±4.5years) completed the same protocol in similar time increments. Tandem gait test trials were performed with (dual-task) and without (single-task) concurrently performing a cognitive test as whole-body motion analysis was performed. Outcome variables included test completion time, average tandem gait velocity, cadence, and whole-body COM frontal plane displacement. Concussion participants took significantly longer to complete the dual-task tandem gait test than controls throughout the first 2 weeks post-injury (mean time=16.4 [95% CI: 13.4-19.4] vs. 10.1 [95% CI: 6.4-13.7] seconds; p=0.03). Single-task tandem gait times were significantly lower 72h post-injury (p=0.04). Dual-task cadence was significantly lower for concussion participants than controls (89.5 [95% CI: 68.6-110.4] vs. 127.0 [95% CI: 97.4-156.6] steps/minute; p=0.04). Moderately-high to high correlations between tandem gait test time and whole-body COM medial-lateral displacement were detected at each time point during dual-task gait (r s =0.70-0.93; p=0.03-0.001). Adding a cognitive task during the tandem gait test resulted in longer detectable deficits post-concussion compared to the traditional single-task tandem gait test. As a clinical tool to assess dynamic motor function, tandem gait may assist with return to sport decisions after concussion. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hysteresis in Mental Workload and Task Performance: The Influence of Demand Transitions and Task Prioritization.

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Jansen, Reinier J; Sawyer, Ben D; van Egmond, René; de Ridder, Huib; Hancock, Peter A

2016-12-01

We examine how transitions in task demand are manifested in mental workload and performance in a dual-task setting. Hysteresis has been defined as the ongoing influence of demand levels prior to a demand transition. Authors of previous studies predominantly examined hysteretic effects in terms of performance. However, little is known about the temporal development of hysteresis in mental workload. A simulated driving task was combined with an auditory memory task. Participants were instructed to prioritize driving or to prioritize both tasks equally. Three experimental conditions with low, high, and low task demands were constructed by manipulating the frequency of lane changing. Multiple measures of subjective mental workload were taken during experimental conditions. Contrary to our prediction, no hysteretic effects were found after the high- to low-demand transition. However, a hysteretic effect in mental workload was found within the high-demand condition, which degraded toward the end of the high condition. Priority instructions were not reflected in performance. Online assessment of both performance and mental workload demonstrates the transient nature of hysteretic effects. An explanation for the observed hysteretic effect in mental workload is offered in terms of effort regulation. An informed arrival at the scene is important in safety operations, but peaks in mental workload should be avoided to prevent buildup of fatigue. Therefore, communication technologies should incorporate the historical profile of task demand. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Consumers’ versatile buying behavior irrespective to high and low involvement products

OpenAIRE

Hasan, Syed Akif; Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz; Osman, Ms. Amber

2012-01-01

The consumers of today are impulse and cautious buyers at the same time. This study basically comprehends the concept of non-linearity towards the consumer purchase behavior for either high or low involvement of products. The research was interesting to note the consumption patterns of different product classes. The peculiarity of this study found the same non-linearity wavelengths between the high and low involvement products’ that was shaped by the consumers buying intention and actions. AD...

Positive and negative effects of family involvement on work-related burnout

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brummelhuis, Lieke L. ten; Lippe, Tanja van der; Kluwer, Esther S.; Flap, Henk

2008-01-01

We aimed to explain the influence of family involvement on feelings of burnout among employees who combine work and family tasks. As proxies for family involvement, we used the family structure (partner, number and age of children) and family tasks (e.g. hours spent on household chores). We compared

Specific default mode subnetworks support mentalizing as revealed through opposing network recruitment by social and semantic FMRI tasks.

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Hyatt, Christopher J; Calhoun, Vince D; Pearlson, Godfrey D; Assaf, Michal

2015-08-01

The ability to attribute mental states to others, or "mentalizing," is posited to involve specific subnetworks within the overall default mode network (DMN), but this question needs clarification. To determine which default mode (DM) subnetworks are engaged by mentalizing processes, we assessed task-related recruitment of DM subnetworks. Spatial independent component analysis (sICA) applied to fMRI data using relatively high-order model (75 components). Healthy participants (n = 53, ages 17-60) performed two fMRI tasks: an interactive game involving mentalizing (Domino), a semantic memory task (SORT), and a resting state fMRI scan. sICA of the two tasks split the DMN into 10 subnetworks located in three core regions: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC; five subnetworks), posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PrC; three subnetworks), and bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Mentalizing events increased recruitment in five of 10 DM subnetworks, located in all three core DMN regions. In addition, three of these five DM subnetworks, one dmPFC subnetwork, one PCC/PrC subnetwork, and the right TPJ subnetwork, showed reduced recruitment by semantic memory task events. The opposing modulation by the two tasks suggests that these three DM subnetworks are specifically engaged in mentalizing. Our findings, therefore, suggest the unique involvement of mentalizing processes in only three of 10 DM subnetworks, and support the importance of the dmPFC, PCC/PrC, and right TPJ in mentalizing as described in prior studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Estimating the operator's performance time of emergency procedural tasks based on a task complexity measure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Won Dae; Park, Jink Yun

2012-01-01

It is important to understand the amount of time required to execute an emergency procedural task in a high-stress situation for managing human performance under emergencies in a nuclear power plant. However, the time to execute an emergency procedural task is highly dependent upon expert judgment due to the lack of actual data. This paper proposes an analytical method to estimate the operator's performance time (OPT) of a procedural task, which is based on a measure of the task complexity (TACOM). The proposed method for estimating an OPT is an equation that uses the TACOM as a variable, and the OPT of a procedural task can be calculated if its relevant TACOM score is available. The validity of the proposed equation is demonstrated by comparing the estimated OPTs with the observed OPTs for emergency procedural tasks in a steam generator tube rupture scenario.

An overview of task order 10

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rousculp, Christopher L [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2011-01-12

Task Order 10 formalizes a collaboration in high explosive pulsed power (HEPP) experiments between LANL and VNIIEF. The focus is the VNIIEF disk explosive magnetic generator (DEMG) technology. The task order outlines a sequence of tasks and deliverables culminating in an experiment which takes place in the US utilizing US explosives and a Russian DEMG. This talk summarizes task order 10. It gives a brief history and present status in terms of the proposed high pressure EOS experiment (ALT-3).

Eliciting the Dutch loan phoneme /g/ with the Menu Task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamann, S.; de Jonge, A.

2015-01-01

This article introduces the menu task, which can be used to elicit infrequent sounds such as loan phonemes that only occur in a restricted set of words. The menu task is similar to the well-known map task and involves the interaction of two participants to create a menu on the basis of a list of

Mind Your Grip: Even Usual Dexterous Manipulation Requires High Level Cognition

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Erwan Guillery

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Simultaneous execution of cognitive and sensorimotor tasks is critical in daily life. Here, we examined whether dexterous manipulation, a highly habitual and seemingly automatic behavior, involves high order cognitive functions. Specifically, we explored the impact of reducing available cognitive resources on the performance of a precision grip-lift task in healthy participants of three age groups (18–30, 30–60 and 60–75 years. Participants performed a motor task in isolation (M, in combination with a low-load cognitive task (M + L, and in combination with a high-load cognitive task (M + H. The motor task consisted in grasping, lifting and holding an apparatus instrumented with force sensors to monitor motor task performance. In the cognitive task, a list of letters was shown briefly before the motor task. After completing the motor task, one letter of the list was shown, and participants reported the following letter of the list. In M + L, letters in the list followed the alphabetical order. In M + H, letters were presented in random order. Performing the high-load task thus required maintaining information in working memory. Temporal and dynamic parameters of grip and lift forces were compared across conditions. During the cognitive tasks, there was a significant alteration of movement initiation and a significant increase of grip force (GF throughout the grip-lift task. There was no interaction with “age”. Our results demonstrate that planning and the on-line control of dexterous manipulation is not an automatic behavior and, instead, that it interacts with high-level cognitive processes such as those involved in working memory.

The Attentional Boost Effect: Transient increases in attention to one task enhance performance in a second task.

Science.gov (United States)

Swallow, Khena M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2010-04-01

Recent work on event perception suggests that perceptual processing increases when events change. An important question is how such changes influence the way other information is processed, particularly during dual-task performance. In this study, participants monitored a long series of distractor items for an occasional target as they simultaneously encoded unrelated background scenes. The appearance of an occasional target could have two opposite effects on the secondary task: It could draw attention away from the second task, or, as a change in the ongoing event, it could improve secondary task performance. Results were consistent with the second possibility. Memory for scenes presented simultaneously with the targets was better than memory for scenes that preceded or followed the targets. This effect was observed when the primary detection task involved visual feature oddball detection, auditory oddball detection, and visual color-shape conjunction detection. It was eliminated when the detection task was omitted, and when it required an arbitrary response mapping. The appearance of occasional, task-relevant events appears to trigger a temporal orienting response that facilitates processing of concurrently attended information (Attentional Boost Effect). Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Classification of visual and linguistic tasks using eye-movement features.

Science.gov (United States)

Coco, Moreno I; Keller, Frank

2014-03-07

The role of the task has received special attention in visual-cognition research because it can provide causal explanations of goal-directed eye-movement responses. The dependency between visual attention and task suggests that eye movements can be used to classify the task being performed. A recent study by Greene, Liu, and Wolfe (2012), however, fails to achieve accurate classification of visual tasks based on eye-movement features. In the present study, we hypothesize that tasks can be successfully classified when they differ with respect to the involvement of other cognitive domains, such as language processing. We extract the eye-movement features used by Greene et al. as well as additional features from the data of three different tasks: visual search, object naming, and scene description. First, we demonstrated that eye-movement responses make it possible to characterize the goals of these tasks. Then, we trained three different types of classifiers and predicted the task participants performed with an accuracy well above chance (a maximum of 88% for visual search). An analysis of the relative importance of features for classification accuracy reveals that just one feature, i.e., initiation time, is sufficient for above-chance performance (a maximum of 79% accuracy in object naming). Crucially, this feature is independent of task duration, which differs systematically across the three tasks we investigated. Overall, the best task classification performance was obtained with a set of seven features that included both spatial information (e.g., entropy of attention allocation) and temporal components (e.g., total fixation on objects) of the eye-movement record. This result confirms the task-dependent allocation of visual attention and extends previous work by showing that task classification is possible when tasks differ in the cognitive processes involved (purely visual tasks such as search vs. communicative tasks such as scene description).

Can NATO's new very high readiness joint task force deter?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rynning, Sten; Ringsmose, Jens

2017-01-01

When NATO-allies met at their Wales summit in September 2014, the D-word was back in vogue. Not in a muttering, shy or implicit way, but unambiguously and straightforward. For the first time in more than two decades NATO’s heads of states and governments openly discussed how best to “deter......” a distinct strategic rival – Russia. Chief among the Welsh summit initiatives was the decision to set up a new multinational spearhead force – the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) – as part of an enhanced NATO Response Force (NRF) and within the framework of a so-called Readiness Action Plan (RAP...

Predicting Parental Home and School Involvement in High School African American Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Hayes, DeMarquis

2011-01-01

Predictors of parental home and school involvement for high school adolescents were examined within two groups of urban African American parents from various socioeconomic levels. Home involvement was defined as parent-adolescent communication about school and learning, while school involvement was defined in terms of parent attendance and…

Iowa Gambling Task (IGT: Twenty Years After - Gambling Disorder and IGT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Damien eBrevers

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT involves probabilistic learning via monetary rewards and punishments, where advantageous task performance requires subjects to forego potential large immediate rewards for small longer-term rewards to avoid larger losses. Pathological gamblers perform worse on the IGT compared to controls, relating to their persistent preference toward high, immediate and uncertain rewards despite experiencing larger losses. In this contribution, we review studies that investigated processes associated with poor IGT performance in pathological gamblers. Findings from these studies seem to fit with recent neurocognitive models of addiction, which argue that the diminished ability of addicted individuals to ponder short-term against long-term consequences of a choice may be the product of an hyperactive automatic attentional and memory system for signaling the presence of addiction-related cues (e.g., high uncertain rewards associated with disadvantageous decks selection during the IGT and for attributing to such cues pleasure and excitement. This incentive-salience associated with gambling-related choice in pathological gamblers may be so high that it could literally hijack resources (hot executive functions involved in emotional self-regulation and necessary to allow the enactment of further elaborate decontextualized problem-solving abilities (cool executive functions. A framework for future research is also proposed, which highlights the need for studies examining how these processes contribute specifically to the aberrant choice profile displayed by pathological gamblers on the IGT.

Staff perceptions of leadership during implementation of task-shifting in three surgical units.

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Amanda; Paterson, Karyn; Burmeister, Liz; Thomson, Bernadette; Young, Louise

2013-03-01

Registered nurses are difficult to recruit and retain. Task shifting, which involves reallocation of delegation, can reduce demand for registered nurses. Effective leadership is needed for successful task shifting. This study explored leadership styles of three surgical nurse unit managers. Staff completed surveys before and after the implementation of task shifting. Task shifting involved the introduction of endorsed enrolled nurses (licensed nurses who must practise under registered nurse supervision) to better utilize registered nurses. Implementation of task shifting occurred over 4 months in a 700-bed tertiary hospital, in southeast Queensland, Australia. A facilitator assisted nurse unit managers during implementation. The impact was assessed by comparison of data before (n = 49) and after (n = 72) task shifting from registered nurses and endorsed enrolled nurses (n = 121) who completed the Ward Organization Features Survey. Significant differences in leadership and staff organization subscales across the settings suggest that how change involving task shifting is implemented influences nurses' opinions of leadership. Leadership behaviours of nurse unit managers is a key consideration in managing change such as task shifting. Consistent and clear messages from leaders about practice change are viewed positively by nursing staff. In the short term, incremental change possibly results in staff maintaining confidence in leadership. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Ego Depletion in Real-Time: An Examination of the Sequential-Task Paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Arber, Madeleine M; Ireland, Michael J; Feger, Roy; Marrington, Jessica; Tehan, Joshua; Tehan, Gerald

2017-01-01

Current research into self-control that is based on the sequential task methodology is currently at an impasse. The sequential task methodology involves completing a task that is designed to tax self-control resources which in turn has carry-over effects on a second, unrelated task. The current impasse is in large part due to the lack of empirical research that tests explicit assumptions regarding the initial task. Five studies test one key, untested assumption underpinning strength (finite resource) models of self-regulation: Performance will decline over time on a task that depletes self-regulatory resources. In the aftermath of high profile replication failures using a popular letter-crossing task and subsequent criticisms of that task, the current studies examined whether depletion effects would occur in real time using letter-crossing tasks that did not invoke habit-forming and breaking, and whether these effects were moderated by administration type (paper and pencil vs. computer administration). Sample makeup and sizes as well as response formats were also varied across the studies. The five studies yielded a clear and consistent pattern of increasing performance deficits (errors) as a function of time spent on task with generally large effects and in the fifth study the strength of negative transfer effects to a working memory task were related to individual differences in depletion. These results demonstrate that some form of depletion is occurring on letter-crossing tasks though whether an internal regulatory resource reservoir or some other factor is changing across time remains an important question for future research.

Ego Depletion in Real-Time: An Examination of the Sequential-Task Paradigm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madeleine M. Arber

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Current research into self-control that is based on the sequential task methodology is currently at an impasse. The sequential task methodology involves completing a task that is designed to tax self-control resources which in turn has carry-over effects on a second, unrelated task. The current impasse is in large part due to the lack of empirical research that tests explicit assumptions regarding the initial task. Five studies test one key, untested assumption underpinning strength (finite resource models of self-regulation: Performance will decline over time on a task that depletes self-regulatory resources. In the aftermath of high profile replication failures using a popular letter-crossing task and subsequent criticisms of that task, the current studies examined whether depletion effects would occur in real time using letter-crossing tasks that did not invoke habit-forming and breaking, and whether these effects were moderated by administration type (paper and pencil vs. computer administration. Sample makeup and sizes as well as response formats were also varied across the studies. The five studies yielded a clear and consistent pattern of increasing performance deficits (errors as a function of time spent on task with generally large effects and in the fifth study the strength of negative transfer effects to a working memory task were related to individual differences in depletion. These results demonstrate that some form of depletion is occurring on letter-crossing tasks though whether an internal regulatory resource reservoir or some other factor is changing across time remains an important question for future research.

Task relevant variables are encoded in OFC neurons

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Ramon Nogueira

2015-04-01

Our results demonstrate that OFC in rats might not only be involved in reward processing but it also conveys a wide variety of task relevant variables. Our hypothesis is that OFC acts as a hub for complex decision-making tasks where all possible information is processed and conveyed to other brain regions responsible for decision execution.

High variability impairs motor learning regardless of whether it affects task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardis, Marco; Casadio, Maura; Ranganathan, Rajiv

2018-01-01

Motor variability plays an important role in motor learning, although the exact mechanisms of how variability affects learning are not well understood. Recent evidence suggests that motor variability may have different effects on learning in redundant tasks, depending on whether it is present in the task space (where it affects task performance) or in the null space (where it has no effect on task performance). We examined the effect of directly introducing null and task space variability using a manipulandum during the learning of a motor task. Participants learned a bimanual shuffleboard task for 2 days, where their goal was to slide a virtual puck as close as possible toward a target. Critically, the distance traveled by the puck was determined by the sum of the left- and right-hand velocities, which meant that there was redundancy in the task. Participants were divided into five groups, based on both the dimension in which the variability was introduced and the amount of variability that was introduced during training. Results showed that although all groups were able to reduce error with practice, learning was affected more by the amount of variability introduced rather than the dimension in which variability was introduced. Specifically, groups with higher movement variability during practice showed larger errors at the end of practice compared with groups that had low variability during learning. These results suggest that although introducing variability can increase exploration of new solutions, this may adversely affect the ability to retain the learned solution. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We examined the role of introducing variability during motor learning in a redundant task. The presence of redundancy allows variability to be introduced in different dimensions: the task space (where it affects task performance) or the null space (where it does not affect task performance). We found that introducing variability affected learning adversely, but the amount of

The relation between task characteristics, BI quality and task compatibility: An explorative study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gaardboe, Rikke; Jonasen, Tanja Svarre; Nyvang, Tom

2018-01-01

The purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between task characteristics, business intelligence (BI) quality, and task compatibility. It is essential to investigate this relationship, as BI often builds up data from the organization's existing information systems, and thus......, is a supplement. In addition, there is a gap within existing research about task characteristics and BI. We conducted a survey of three companies, where 104 BI end users answered the questionnaire. Our findings reveal that BI users who experience high information quality solve difficult tasks, have a specified...

Nursing Education in High Blood Pressure Control. Report of the Task Force on the Role of Nursing in High Blood Pressure Control.

Science.gov (United States)

National Institutes of Health (DHEW), Bethesda, MD. High Blood Pressure Information Center.

This curriculum guide on high blood pressure (hypertension) for nursing educators has five sections: (1) Introduction and Objectives provides information regarding the establishment and objectives of the National Task Force on the Role of Nursing in High Blood Pressure Control and briefly discusses nursing's role in hypertension control; (2) Goals…

Multivariate information-theoretic measures reveal directed information structure and task relevant changes in fMRI connectivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Lizier, Joseph T; Heinzle, Jakob; Horstmann, Annette; Haynes, John-Dylan; Prokopenko, Mikhail

2011-02-01

The human brain undertakes highly sophisticated information processing facilitated by the interaction between its sub-regions. We present a novel method for interregional connectivity analysis, using multivariate extensions to the mutual information and transfer entropy. The method allows us to identify the underlying directed information structure between brain regions, and how that structure changes according to behavioral conditions. This method is distinguished in using asymmetric, multivariate, information-theoretical analysis, which captures not only directional and non-linear relationships, but also collective interactions. Importantly, the method is able to estimate multivariate information measures with only relatively little data. We demonstrate the method to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging time series to establish the directed information structure between brain regions involved in a visuo-motor tracking task. Importantly, this results in a tiered structure, with known movement planning regions driving visual and motor control regions. Also, we examine the changes in this structure as the difficulty of the tracking task is increased. We find that task difficulty modulates the coupling strength between regions of a cortical network involved in movement planning and between motor cortex and the cerebellum which is involved in the fine-tuning of motor control. It is likely these methods will find utility in identifying interregional structure (and experimentally induced changes in this structure) in other cognitive tasks and data modalities.

Brain deactivation in the outperformance in bimodal tasks: an FMRI study.

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Tzu-Ching Chiang

Full Text Available While it is known that some individuals can effectively perform two tasks simultaneously, other individuals cannot. How the brain deals with performing simultaneous tasks remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to assess which brain areas corresponded to various phenomena in task performance. Nineteen subjects were requested to sequentially perform three blocks of tasks, including two unimodal tasks and one bimodal task. The unimodal tasks measured either visual feature binding or auditory pitch comparison, while the bimodal task required performance of the two tasks simultaneously. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI results are compatible with previous studies showing that distinct brain areas, such as the visual cortices, frontal eye field (FEF, lateral parietal lobe (BA7, and medial and inferior frontal lobe, are involved in processing of visual unimodal tasks. In addition, the temporal lobes and Brodmann area 43 (BA43 were involved in processing of auditory unimodal tasks. These results lend support to concepts of modality-specific attention. Compared to the unimodal tasks, bimodal tasks required activation of additional brain areas. Furthermore, while deactivated brain areas were related to good performance in the bimodal task, these areas were not deactivated where the subject performed well in only one of the two simultaneous tasks. These results indicate that efficient information processing does not require some brain areas to be overly active; rather, the specific brain areas need to be relatively deactivated to remain alert and perform well on two tasks simultaneously. Meanwhile, it can also offer a neural basis for biofeedback in training courses, such as courses in how to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

The role of gender in the association between personality and task priority in older adults' dual-tasking while walking.

Science.gov (United States)

Agmon, Maayan; Armon, Galit; Denesh, Shani; Doumas, Mihalis

2018-01-02

Falls are a major problem for older adults. Many falls occur when a person's attention is divided between two tasks, such as a dual task (DT) involving walking. Most recently, the role of personality in walking performance was addressed; however, its association with DT performance remains to be determined. This cross-sectional study of 73 older, community-dwelling adults explores the association between personality and DT walking and the role of gender in this relationship. Personality was evaluated using the five-factor model. Single-task (ST) and DT assessment of walking-cognitive DT performance comprised a 1-min walking task and an arithmetic task performed separately (ST) and concurrently (DT). Dual-task costs (DTCs), reflecting the proportional difference between ST and DT performance, were also calculated. Gender plays a role in the relationship between personality and DT. Extraversion was negatively associated with DTC-motor for men (ΔR 2  = 0.06, p fall prevention.

Household Task Delegation among High-Fertility Forager-Horticulturalists of Lowland Bolivia.

Science.gov (United States)

Stieglitz, Jonathan; Gurven, Michael; Kaplan, Hillard; Hooper, Paul L

2013-04-01

Human kin cooperation is universal, leading researchers to label humans as "cooperative breeders." Despite widespread interest in human cooperation, there has been no systematic study of how household economic decision making occurs. We document age and sex profiles of task delegation by parents to children ages 4-18 among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists. We test for sex differences in the probability of delegation and examine whether tasks are more likely delegated as household labor demand increases. We also test whether food acquisition tasks are more likely delegated to higher producers. We find mixed support for the prediction that girls are more likely delegated domestic and alloparenting tasks than boys ( n = 173 children). Both sexes are more likely delegated tasks during rice harvest months; number of coresident young children is also associated with greater probability of delegated allocare, although the effect retains significance for girls only. For both sexes, father absence is associated with greater probability of delegation, particularly for food acquisition tasks. Children delegated rice harvesting achieve 45% higher mean daily caloric returns from harvesting than children not delegated harvesting. Our results therefore suggest that delegation increases household economic efficiency. We find mixed support for the hypothesis that delegation prepares children for sex-specific adult roles.

Interference with olfactory memory by visual and verbal tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Annett, J M; Cook, N M; Leslie, J C

1995-06-01

It has been claimed that olfactory memory is distinct from memory in other modalities. This study investigated the effectiveness of visual and verbal tasks in interfering with olfactory memory and included methodological changes from other recent studies. Subjects were allocated to one of four experimental conditions involving interference tasks [no interference task; visual task; verbal task; visual-plus-verbal task] and presented 15 target odours. Either recognition of the odours or free recall of the odour names was tested on one occasion, either within 15 minutes of presentation or one week later. Recognition and recall performance both showed effects of interference of visual and verbal tasks but there was no effect for time of testing. While the results may be accommodated within a dual coding framework, further work is indicated to resolve theoretical issues relating to task complexity.

Integration and segregation of large-scale brain networks during short-term task automatization.

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Mohr, Holger; Wolfensteller, Uta; Betzel, Richard F; Mišić, Bratislav; Sporns, Olaf; Richiardi, Jonas; Ruge, Hannes

2016-11-03

The human brain is organized into large-scale functional networks that can flexibly reconfigure their connectivity patterns, supporting both rapid adaptive control and long-term learning processes. However, it has remained unclear how short-term network dynamics support the rapid transformation of instructions into fluent behaviour. Comparing fMRI data of a learning sample (N=70) with a control sample (N=67), we find that increasingly efficient task processing during short-term practice is associated with a reorganization of large-scale network interactions. Practice-related efficiency gains are facilitated by enhanced coupling between the cingulo-opercular network and the dorsal attention network. Simultaneously, short-term task automatization is accompanied by decreasing activation of the fronto-parietal network, indicating a release of high-level cognitive control, and a segregation of the default mode network from task-related networks. These findings suggest that short-term task automatization is enabled by the brain's ability to rapidly reconfigure its large-scale network organization involving complementary integration and segregation processes.

Sensation seeking in males involved in recreational high risk sports

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M Guszkowska

2010-09-01

Full Text Available The study examined sensation seeking intensity level in males involved in recreational high risk sports and investigated whether its level depends on type of sport practised. Additionally, in case of parachutists, sport experience of study participants were scrutinised with regard to its possible impact on the level of sensation seeking.The research involved 217 males aged 17 to 45, practising recreational high risk sports, namely: parachuting (n=98; wakeboarding (n=30; snowboarding (n=30; scuba diving (n=22; alpinism (n=20; paragliding (n=17. The control group included 54 men not involved in sports. Polish version of Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS-IV of Zuckerman was applied.Results show, that high risk sports males are featured by stronger need of sensations in comparison to control group and this concerned all but one aspect of sensation seeking variable. The only exception was the need of intellectual stimulation. Except from the thrill and adventure seeking dimension, type of sport may also be an important determinant of sensation seeking. Men practising snowboard and wakeboard presented stronger need for sensations, especially in the dimension of experience seeking, disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. Sport experience (number of jumps in parachuting did not differentiate the level of sensation seeking among investigated parachutists. Population of sport high risk male takers was not homogeneous, and therefore in future research one should analyse specific sports (or events in a certain sport separately.

Relationship and task conflict at work: interactive short-term effects on angry mood and somatic complaints.

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Meier, Laurenz L; Gross, Sven; Spector, Paul E; Semmer, Norbert K

2013-04-01

Our research examined short-term within-person effects of relationship and task conflict on angry mood and somatic complaints. We assumed that conflicts of both kinds would be prospectively related to both indicators of impaired well-being, that the effect of relationship conflict would be stronger than the effect of task conflict, and that the effect of relationship conflict would be stronger when task conflict is low than when it is high. We tested our hypotheses with a daily diary study with ratings made 3 times/day for 2 weeks, involving 131 participants. We found a prospective main effect of relationship conflict on angry mood, but not on somatic complaints. In contrast, controlling for relationship conflict, task conflict was unrelated to both angry mood and somatic complaints. Supporting our assumption, task conflict moderated the effect of relationship conflict. Relationship conflict had a prospective effect on angry mood and somatic complaints that lasted until the next day if, and only if, task conflict was low.

Task A. Study of large P/sub T/ direct photon production at the ISR. Task B. Direct photon production at the tevatron (E-706). Task C. Search for fractional charge particles in semiconductors. Progress report, June 1, 1983-May 31, 1984

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleland, W.E.; Coon, D.D.; Engels, E. Jr.; Shepard, P.F.; Thompson, J.A.

1984-01-01

Task A is the Pitt contingent of the Axial Field Spectrometer Collaboration, performing experiment R807/808 at CERN. The experiment has studied several topics related to study of high P/sub T/ phenomena such as production of jets at high E/sub T/ and a comparison of their properties with jets seen in e + e - . We are working primarily on those aspects of the experiment involving reactions with photons in the final state. We are completing an analysis of prompt photons and pions produced at 11 0 in the center of mass, from data taken in 1982. Presently, new data are being taken with two large NaI arrays in place. With these data, we are studying low P/sub T/ (20 to 200 MeV/c) photon production as well as prompt photons in the range 1.5 < P/sub T/ < 4 GeV/c. For the 1.5 - 4 GeV/c data we plan to compare single photon production in pp and anti pp collisions. Task B is the Pitt contingent of the E706 collaboration, which is studying prompt photon production in πp and pp collisions at the Tevatron. The major contribution of the Pitt effort to the experiment is the provision of the array of semiconductor detectors required for the charged particle spectrometer to be used in the study of correlated hadronic jets. Task C is the search for fractional charge in semiconductors. Although the physics goals of this experiment are removed from those of the other tasks, the technical overlap with task B is extremely important. The construction and testing of semiconductor detectors requires specialized semiconductor physics knowledge and instrumentation, both of which are being developed concurrently by these two tasks. 109 references

Appraisal, Coping, Task Performance, and Cardiovascular Responses during the Evaluated Speaking Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Baggett, H. Lane; And Others

1996-01-01

Appraisal, coping, task performance, and cardiovascular responses were examined among men high and low in speech anxiety who prepared and performed a speech under evaluative conditions. Speech-anxious men saw the task as more threatening. They were more stressed, anxious, distracted, and aware of their emotions, focused on the passage of time, and…

The Effects of Locus of Control and Task Difficulty on Procrastination.

Science.gov (United States)

Janssen, Tracy; Carton, John S

1999-12-01

The authors investigated the effects of locus of control expectancies and task difficulty on procrastination. Forty-two college students were administered an academic locus of control scale and a task that was similar to a typical college homework assignment. The students were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 task difficulty levels. Although none of the results involving task difficulty was significant, several results involving locus of control were significant. Specifically, analyses revealed that students with internal locus of control expectancies tended to begin working on the assignment sooner than students with external locus of control expectancies. In addition, students with internal locus of control completed and returned the assignment sooner than students with external locus of control. The results are discussed within the context of J. B. Rotter's (1966, 1975, 1982) social learning theory.

Safety reloaded: lean operations and high involvement work practices for sustainable workplaces

OpenAIRE

Camuffo, Arnaldo; De Stefano, Federica; Paolino, Chiara

2017-01-01

Starting from the recent quest to investigate the human side of organizational sustainability, this study applies a variety of regression analyses to investigate the effects of Lean Operations, High Involvement Work Practices, and management behaviors on occupational safety. It tests and finds support for the hypotheses that Lean Production systems, High Involvement Work Practices, and two specific management behaviors—workers’ capability development (coaching and teaching of workers) and emp...

Ergonomic assessment for the task of repairing computers in a manufacturing company: A case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Maldonado-Macías, Aidé; Realyvásquez, Arturo; Hernández, Juan Luis; García-Alcaraz, Jorge

2015-01-01

Manufacturing industry workers who repair computers may be exposed to ergonomic risk factors. This project analyzes the tasks involved in the computer repair process to (1) find the risk level for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and (2) propose ergonomic interventions to address any ergonomic issues. Work procedures and main body postures were video recorded and analyzed using task analysis, the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) postural method, and biomechanical analysis. High risk for MSDs was found on every subtask using REBA. Although biomechanical analysis found an acceptable mass center displacement during tasks, a hazardous level of compression on the lower back during computer's transportation was detected. This assessment found ergonomic risks mainly in the trunk, arm/forearm, and legs; the neck and hand/wrist were also compromised. Opportunities for ergonomic analyses and interventions in the design and execution of computer repair tasks are discussed.

Effect of physical workload and modality of information presentation on pattern recognition and navigation task performance by high-fit young males.

Science.gov (United States)

Zahabi, Maryam; Zhang, Wenjuan; Pankok, Carl; Lau, Mei Ying; Shirley, James; Kaber, David

2017-11-01

Many occupations require both physical exertion and cognitive task performance. Knowledge of any interaction between physical demands and modalities of cognitive task information presentation can provide a basis for optimising performance. This study examined the effect of physical exertion and modality of information presentation on pattern recognition and navigation-related information processing. Results indicated males of equivalent high fitness, between the ages of 18 and 34, rely more on visual cues vs auditory or haptic for pattern recognition when exertion level is high. We found that navigation response time was shorter under low and medium exertion levels as compared to high intensity. Navigation accuracy was lower under high level exertion compared to medium and low levels. In general, findings indicated that use of the haptic modality for cognitive task cueing decreased accuracy in pattern recognition responses. Practitioner Summary: An examination was conducted on the effect of physical exertion and information presentation modality in pattern recognition and navigation. In occupations requiring information presentation to workers, who are simultaneously performing a physical task, the visual modality appears most effective under high level exertion while haptic cueing degrades performance.

The coordination of problem solving strategies: when low competence sources exert more influence on task processing than high competence sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Quiamzade, Alain; Mugny, Gabriel; Darnon, Céline

2009-03-01

Previous research has shown that low competence sources, compared to highly competent sources, can exert influence in aptitudes tasks in as much as they induce people to focus on the task and to solve it more deeply. Two experiments aimed at testing the coordination between self and source's problem solving strategies as a main explanation of such a difference in influence. The influence of a low versus high competence source has been examined in an anagram task that allows for distinguishing between three response strategies, including one that corresponds to the coordination between the source's strategy and participants' own strategy. In Study 1 the strategy suggested by the source was either relevant and useful or irrelevant and useless for solving the task. Results indicated that participants used the coordination strategy in a larger extend when they had been confronted to a low competence rather than a highly competent source but only when the source displayed a strategy that was useful to solve the task. In Study 2 the source's strategy was always relevant and useful, but a decentring procedure was introduced for half of the participants. This procedure induced participants to consider other points of view than their own. Results replicated the difference observed in Study 1 when no decentring was introduced. The difference however disappeared when decentring was induced, because of an increase of the high competence source's influence. These results highlight coordination of strategies as one mechanism underlying influence from low competence sources.

Within-person relationship between self-efficacy and performance across trials. Effect of task objective and task type.

Science.gov (United States)

Hepler, Teri J; Ritchie, Jason; Hill, Christopher R

2017-07-05

Self-efficacy has been shown to be a consistent, positive predictor of between-persons performance in sport. However, there have been equivocal results regarding the influence of self-efficacy on a person's performance over time. This study investigated the influence of self-efficacy on motor skill performance across trials with respect to two different task objectives and task types. Participants (N=84) performed 4 blocks of 10 trials of a dart throwing (closed skill) and a hitting (open skill) task under 2 different task objectives: competitive and goal-striving. For the goal-striving condition, success was defined as reaching a pre-determined performance level. The competitive condition involved competing against an opponent. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the influence of past performance and self-efficacy on the within-person performance across multiple trials. Previous performance was negatively related with subsequent performance on all conditions. Self-efficacy was not a significant predictor of performance on any of the conditions. While task objective and task type did not moderate the efficacy-performance relationship in the current study, it is important to consider the role of other moderators in future research.

Investment Portfolio Simulation: An Assessment Task in Finance

Science.gov (United States)

Parle, Gabrielle; Laing, Gregory K.

2017-01-01

The use of an investment portfolio simulation as an assessment task is intended to reinforce learning by involving students in practical application of theoretical principles in a real-time actual financial market. Simulation as a teaching pedagogy promotes individual involvement and provides students with a deeper understanding of the issues, and…

Hmong Parental Involvement and Support: A Comparison Between Families of High and Low Achieving High School Seniors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katherine Green

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The Hmong are some of the newest refugees who have settled in the United States with population estimates around 300,000. Unfortunately research has shown many Hmong children are not as successful in their education as their peers. Parental involvement in education has consistently been shown to impact academic success and attendance in higher education programs. Little is known about Hmong parental involvement in their children’s education process. Therefore, this study was done to compare and contrast the general family characteristics, parenting methods, parental involvement philosophies, parental involvement experiences, and parental education expectations in Hmong families of high school seniors classified as either high academic achievers or low achievers. Students were classified into either higher or lower academic achievement groups based on their high school cumulative GPA. Five students were randomly selected for each group and a qualitative research interview method was used to interview the students and both of their parents (n=30. The findings showed the parents of the higher academic achieving students were younger, had higher levels of education, and had better relationships and trust with the students. Parents from both groups did not have any written rules for their children to follow at home, they mainly became involved in their children’s education during the elementary and middle school years, and they did not have any specific preference of an educational level, career, or school for their children after high school. Recommendations for ways Hmong families can be encouraged to participate more in education are made.

Performance Monitoring and Response Inhibition in a Saccadic Countermanding Task in High and Low proficient bilinguals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niharika eSingh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We compared Hindi-English bilinguals differing in their L2 fluency on a saccadic countermanding task which taps inhibitory control as well as monitoring. We particularly explored whether response inhibition and performance monitoring within the oculomotor domain are affected by language proficiency in bilinguals. There were two different oculomotor redirect tasks: Visually Guided Redirect (VGR task (Experiment1 and Memory Guided Redirect (MGR task (Experiment 2. In this task typically a target is presented to which subject must make saccade (No step trials, unless a new target appears on the other location after some delay from the first target onset (Step trials. On such trials participants are required to inhibit and cancel the saccade to the first instead program a saccade to the new target. Using trial switch reaction time (TSRT, which is the time taken to inhibit the initiated saccade to the first target, as a measure of response inhibition, and post-stop slowing as a measure of performance monitoring, we observed two important results. It was found that high proficiency bilinguals showed more post-stop slowing on the no-step trials as compared to the low proficiency bilinguals for both VGR and MGR. Secondly, high and low proficiency bilingual exhibited comparable TSRT in both VGR and MGR, showing no altering effect of language proficiency on the response inhibition in bilinguals. These results suggest that bilingualism impacts performance monitoring which is modulated by language proficiency if not the inhibitory control system. Higher fluency may lead to superior cognitive flexibility, and ability to adjust behaviour that facilitates attainment of cognitive goal. These findings are in consonance with other current studies that suggest a top-down effect of bilingualism on action control systems.

Divided-attention task on driving simulator: comparison among three groups of drivers

OpenAIRE

FREYDIER, Chloé; PAXION, Julie; BERTHELON, Catherine; Bastien-Toniazzo, Mireille

2013-01-01

Introduction: Driving is a complex and dynamic task that requires performing simultaneously several sub-tasks, as traffic management and vehicle control. Driving involves both automatic and controlled processing depending on situation met and drivers’ experience. Method: Three groups of drivers with different driving experience were submitted to a divided-attention task in order to assess the interference linked to a secondary task on driving behaviour. The main task was a car-following...

Client Involvement in Home Care Practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glasdam, Stinne; Henriksen, Nina; Kjær, Lone

2013-01-01

, political and administrative frames that rule home- care practice. Client involvement is shown within four constructed analytical categories: ‘Structural conditions of providing and receiving home care’; ‘Client involvement inside the home: performing a professional task and living an everyday life......’; ‘Client involvement outside the home: liberal business and mutual goal setting’; and ‘Converting a home to a working place: refurnishing a life’. The meaning of involvement is depending on which position it is viewed from. On the basis of this analysis, we raise the question of the extent to which...

How Stimulus and Task Complexity Affect Monitoring in High-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koolen, S.; Vissers, C.T.W.M.; Egger, J.I.M.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.

2014-01-01

The present study examined whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are able to update and monitor working memory representations of visual input, and whether performance is influenced by stimulus and task complexity. 15 high-functioning adults with ASD and 15 controls were asked to

Neural Correlates of Task Cost for Stance Control with an Additional Motor Task: Phase-Locked Electroencephalogram Responses

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Ing-Shiou; Huang, Cheng-Ya

2016-01-01

With appropriate reallocation of central resources, the ability to maintain an erect posture is not necessarily degraded by a concurrent motor task. This study investigated the neural control of a particular postural-suprapostural procedure involving brain mechanisms to solve crosstalk between posture and motor subtasks. Participants completed a single posture task and a dual-task while concurrently conducting force-matching and maintaining a tilted stabilometer stance at a target angle. Stabilometer movements and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The added force-matching task increased the irregularity of postural response rather than the size of postural response prior to force-matching. In addition, the added force-matching task during stabilometer stance led to marked topographic ERP modulation, with greater P2 positivity in the frontal and sensorimotor-parietal areas of the N1-P2 transitional phase and in the sensorimotor-parietal area of the late P2 phase. The time-frequency distribution of the ERP primary principal component revealed that the dual-task condition manifested more pronounced delta (1–4 Hz) and beta (13–35 Hz) synchronizations but suppressed theta activity (4–8 Hz) before force-matching. The dual-task condition also manifested coherent fronto-parietal delta activity in the P2 period. In addition to a decrease in postural regularity, this study reveals spatio-temporal and temporal-spectral reorganizations of ERPs in the fronto-sensorimotor-parietal network due to the added suprapostural motor task. For a particular set of postural-suprapostural task, the behavior and neural data suggest a facilitatory role of autonomous postural response and central resource expansion with increasing interregional interactions for task-shift and planning the motor-suprapostural task. PMID:27010634

Listening Strategies of L2 Learners with Varied Test Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Anna Ching-Shyang

2008-01-01

This article investigates the strategies that EFL students used and how they adjusted these strategies in response to various listening test tasks. The test tasks involved four forms of listening support: previewing questions, repeated input, background information preparation, and vocabulary instruction. Twenty-two participants were enlisted and…

Modeling the effects of high-G stress on pilots in a tracking task

Science.gov (United States)

Korn, J.; Kleinman, D. L.

1978-01-01

Air-to-air tracking experiments were conducted at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories using both fixed and moving base dynamic environment simulators. The obtained data, which includes longitudinal error of a simulated air-to-air tracking task as well as other auxiliary variables, was analyzed using an ensemble averaging method. In conjunction with these experiments, the optimal control model is applied to model a human operator under high-G stress.

High-sucrose diets in male rats disrupt aspects of decision making tasks, motivation and spatial memory, but not impulsivity measured by operant delay-discounting.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Alanna; Dogra, Vimi R; Reichelt, Amy C

2017-06-01

Excessive consumption of sugar sweetened drinks is proposed to produce functional changes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, leading to perturbations in behavioural control. Impairments in behavioural control have been observed in obese people on tasks that involve making choices, including delay-discounting, indicative of increased impulsivity. In this study we examined the impact of 2h daily access to 10% sucrose (or no sucrose in controls) in young male rats on behavioural tasks reliant on hippocampal function including delay-discounting, T-maze forced choice alternation and place recognition memory, as well as progressive ratio to measure motivation. We observed deficits in place recognition memory and T-maze forced choice alternation, indicative of hippocampal deficits in rats with a history of sucrose consumption. Moreover, rats with a history of sucrose consumption were less motivated to lever press for rewards on a progressive ratio schedule. However, rats with a history of sucrose consumption performed equally to control animals during the delay-discounting task, suggesting that they discounted for reward size over a delay in a manner comparable to control animals. These findings indicate that high-sucrose diets impact on spatial and working memory processes, but do not induce impulsive-like choice behaviours in rats, suggesting that unhealthy diet choices may not influence this aspect of decision-making behaviour. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Action recognition and movement direction discrimination tasks are associated with different adaptation patterns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan eDe La Rosa

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The ability to discriminate between different actions is essential for action recognition and social interaction. Surprisingly previous research has often probed action recognition mechanisms with tasks that did not require participants to discriminate between actions, e.g. left-right direction discrimination tasks. It is not known to what degree visual processes in direction discrimination tasks are also involved in the discrimination of actions, e.g. when telling apart a handshake from a high-five. Here, we examined whether action discrimination is influenced by movement direction and whether direction discrimination depends on the type of action. We used an action adaptation paradigm to target action and direction discrimination specific visual processes. In separate conditions participants visually adapted to forward and backward moving handshake and high-five actions. Participants subsequently either categorized the action or the movement direction of an ambiguous action. The results showed that direction discrimination adaptation effects were modulated by the type of action but action discrimination adaptation effects were unaffected by movement direction. These results suggest that action discrimination and direction categorization rely on partly different visual information. We propose that action discrimination tasks should be considered for the exploration of visual action recognition mechanisms.

Performance monitoring and response conflict resolution associated with choice stepping reaction tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Tatsunori; Tsutou, Kotaro; Saito, Kotaro; Ishida, Kazuto; Tanabe, Shigeo; Nojima, Ippei

2016-11-01

Choice reaction requires response conflict resolution, and the resolution processes that occur during a choice stepping reaction task undertaken in a standing position, which requires maintenance of balance, may be different to those processes occurring during a choice reaction task performed in a seated position. The study purpose was to investigate the resolution processes during a choice stepping reaction task at the cortical level using electroencephalography and compare the results with a control task involving ankle dorsiflexion responses. Twelve young adults either stepped forward or dorsiflexed the ankle in response to a visual imperative stimulus presented on a computer screen. We used the Simon task and examined the error-related negativity (ERN) that follows an incorrect response and the correct-response negativity (CRN) that follows a correct response. Error was defined as an incorrect initial weight transfer for the stepping task and as an incorrect initial tibialis anterior activation for the control task. Results revealed that ERN and CRN amplitudes were similar in size for the stepping task, whereas the amplitude of ERN was larger than that of CRN for the control task. The ERN amplitude was also larger in the stepping task than the control task. These observations suggest that a choice stepping reaction task involves a strategy emphasizing post-response conflict and general performance monitoring of actual and required responses and also requires greater cognitive load than a choice dorsiflexion reaction. The response conflict resolution processes appear to be different for stepping tasks and reaction tasks performed in a seated position.

Performance samples on academic tasks : improving prediction of academic performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tanilon, Jenny

2011-01-01

This thesis is about the development and validation of a performance-based test, labeled as Performance Samples on academic tasks in Education and Child Studies (PSEd). PSEd is designed to identify students who are most able to perform the academic tasks involved in an Education and Child Studies

Real-time scheduling of software tasks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoff, L.T.

1995-01-01

When designing real-time systems, it is often desirable to schedule execution of software tasks based on the occurrence of events. The events may be clock ticks, interrupts from a hardware device, or software signals from other software tasks. If the nature of the events, is well understood, this scheduling is normally a static part of the system design. If the nature of the events is not completely understood, or is expected to change over time, it may be necessary to provide a mechanism for adjusting the scheduling of the software tasks. RHIC front-end computers (FECs) provide such a mechanism. The goals in designing this mechanism were to be as independent as possible of the underlying operating system, to allow for future expansion of the mechanism to handle new types of events, and to allow easy configuration. Some considerations which steered the design were programming paradigm (object oriented vs. procedural), programming language, and whether events are merely interesting moments in time, or whether they intrinsically have data associated with them. The design also needed to address performance and robustness tradeoffs involving shared task contexts, task priorities, and use of interrupt service routine (ISR) contexts vs. task contexts. This paper will explore these considerations and tradeoffs

A voice from the high wire: Public involvement in a co-operative siting process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oates, D.J.L.

1995-01-01

The author is a public consultation and communications consultant to the Siting Task Force (STF), Low level Radioactive Waste Management. The STF is a Canadian government-appointed yet independent body implementing a voluntary, co-operative siting process for a long term storage or disposal facility for 1 million cubic metres of LLRW. The presentation will document the experiences of and lessons learned by the author during her role developing and implementing a public involvement program for the process. The Co-operative Siting Process is a new approach to siting controversial facilities. It is based on the belief that communities should accept such a facility in their backyard and not be forced against their will on technical or political grounds. A formal 'ground rules-up-front' process was developed and is now being carried out, with completion slated for April, 1995. Putting these rules and theories into practice has resulted in significant changes being made to the work plan for technical activities, and in a sober second look at the intricacies involved in planning and carrying out a thorough and efficient public involvement program that remain practical and cost-effective. There is a delicate balancing act between meaningful public participation that lays the foundation for trust, confidence and consensus, and public involvement that can result in the process being side-tracked and legitimate solutions and technical activities becoming mired in political and personal agendas

Implementing the Science Assessment Standards: Developing and validating a set of laboratory assessment tasks in high school biology

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, Gouranga Chandra

Very often a number of factors, especially time, space and money, deter many science educators from using inquiry-based, hands-on, laboratory practical tasks as alternative assessment instruments in science. A shortage of valid inquiry-based laboratory tasks for high school biology has been cited. Driven by this need, this study addressed the following three research questions: (1) How can laboratory-based performance tasks be designed and developed that are doable by students for whom they are designed/written? (2) Do student responses to the laboratory-based performance tasks validly represent at least some of the intended process skills that new biology learning goals want students to acquire? (3) Are the laboratory-based performance tasks psychometrically consistent as individual tasks and as a set? To answer these questions, three tasks were used from the six biology tasks initially designed and developed by an iterative process of trial testing. Analyses of data from 224 students showed that performance-based laboratory tasks that are doable by all students require careful and iterative process of development. Although the students demonstrated more skill in performing than planning and reasoning, their performances at the item level were very poor for some items. Possible reasons for the poor performances have been discussed and suggestions on how to remediate the deficiencies have been made. Empirical evidences for validity and reliability of the instrument have been presented both from the classical and the modern validity criteria point of view. Limitations of the study have been identified. Finally implications of the study and directions for further research have been discussed.

Experiments on data presentation to process operators in diagnostic tasks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Jens; Goodstein, L. P.

1972-01-01

Safety and reliability considerations in modern power plants have prompted our interest in man as an information receiver - especially in diagnostic tasks where the growing complexity of process plants and hence the amount of data involved make it imperative to give the staff proper support....... The great flexibility and capacity of the process computer for data reduction and presentation and for storing information on plant structure and functions give the system designer great freedom in the layout of information display for the staff, but the problem for the designer is how to make proper use...... of this freedom to support the operators efficiently. This is especially important in connection with unique, high-risk, and generally improbable abnormalities in plant functioning. Operator tasks and mental models and the need for matching the encoded information about the plant to these models are treated...

Measuring language lateralisation with different language tasks: a systematic review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abigail R. Bradshaw

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Language lateralisation refers to the phenomenon in which one hemisphere (typically the left shows greater involvement in language functions than the other. Measurement of laterality is of interest both to researchers investigating the neural organisation of the language system and to clinicians needing to establish an individual’s hemispheric dominance for language prior to surgery, as in patients with intractable epilepsy. Recently, there has been increasing awareness of the possibility that different language processes may develop hemispheric lateralisation independently, and to varying degrees. However, it is not always clear whether differences in laterality across language tasks with fMRI are reflective of meaningful variation in hemispheric lateralisation, or simply of trivial methodological differences between paradigms. This systematic review aims to assess different language tasks in terms of the strength, reliability and robustness of the laterality measurements they yield with fMRI, to look at variability that is both dependent and independent of aspects of study design, such as the baseline task, region of interest, and modality of the stimuli. Recommendations are made that can be used to guide task design; however, this review predominantly highlights that the current high level of methodological variability in language paradigms prevents conclusions as to how different language functions may lateralise independently. We conclude with suggestions for future research using tasks that engage distinct aspects of language functioning, whilst being closely matched on non-linguistic aspects of task design (e.g., stimuli, task timings etc; such research could produce more reliable and conclusive insights into language lateralisation. This systematic review was registered as a protocol on Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/5vmpt/.

Task conflict and proactive control: A computational theory of the Stroop task.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalanthroff, Eyal; Davelaar, Eddy J; Henik, Avishai; Goldfarb, Liat; Usher, Marius

2018-01-01

The Stroop task is a central experimental paradigm used to probe cognitive control by measuring the ability of participants to selectively attend to task-relevant information and inhibit automatic task-irrelevant responses. Research has revealed variability in both experimental manipulations and individual differences. Here, we focus on a particular source of Stroop variability, the reverse-facilitation (RF; faster responses to nonword neutral stimuli than to congruent stimuli), which has recently been suggested as a signature of task conflict. We first review the literature that shows RF variability in the Stroop task, both with regard to experimental manipulations and to individual differences. We suggest that task conflict variability can be understood as resulting from the degree of proactive control that subjects recruit in advance of the Stroop stimulus. When the proactive control is high, task conflict does not arise (or is resolved very quickly), resulting in regular Stroop facilitation. When proactive control is low, task conflict emerges, leading to a slow-down in congruent and incongruent (but not in neutral) trials and thus to Stroop RF. To support this suggestion, we present a computational model of the Stroop task, which includes the resolution of task conflict and its modulation by proactive control. Results show that our model (a) accounts for the variability in Stroop-RF reported in the experimental literature, and (b) solves a challenge to previous Stroop models-their ability to account for reaction time distributional properties. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications to Stroop measures and control deficits observed in some psychopathologies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence that communication impairment in schizophrenia is associated with generalized poor task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Merrill, Anne M; Karcher, Nicole R; Cicero, David C; Becker, Theresa M; Docherty, Anna R; Kerns, John G

2017-03-01

People with schizophrenia exhibit wide-ranging cognitive deficits, including slower processing speed and decreased cognitive control. Disorganized speech symptoms, such as communication impairment, have been associated with poor cognitive control task performance (e.g., goal maintenance and working memory). Whether communication impairment is associated with poorer performance on a broader range of non-cognitive control measures is unclear. In the current study, people with schizophrenia (n =51) and non-psychiatric controls (n =26) completed speech interviews allowing for reliable quantitative assessment of communication impairment. Participants also completed multiple goal maintenance and working memory tasks. In addition, we also examined (a) simple measures of processing speed involving highly automatic prepotent responses and (b) a non-cognitive control measure of general task performance. Schizophrenia communication impairment was significantly associated with poor performance in all cognitive domains, with the largest association found with processing speed (r s =-0.52). Further, communication impairment was also associated with the non-cognitive control measure of poor general task performance (r s =-0.43). In contrast, alogia, a negative speech symptom, and positive symptoms were less if at all related to cognitive task performance. Overall, this study suggests that communication impairment in schizophrenia may be associated with relatively generalized poor cognitive task performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systemic high-dose methotrexate plus ifosfamide is highly effective for central nervous system (CNS) involvement of lymphoma

OpenAIRE

2008-01-01

Abstract Patients with malignant central nervous system (CNS) involvement of lymphoma have a poor prognosis with intrathecal chemotherapy and radiation. In this paper, we report the results we obtained in such patients by intravenous chemotherapy with high-dose methotrexate and ifosfamide (HDMTX/IFO). The study involved a review of all patients who received HDMTX/IFO for CNS involvement of malignant lymphoma at our hospital. Therapy consisted of 4 g/m2 of MTX (4 h infu...

Attentional bias in high math-anxious individuals: evidence from an emotional Stroop task

Science.gov (United States)

Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena; Núñez-Peña, Maria Isabel; Colomé, Àngels

2015-01-01

Attentional bias toward threatening or emotional information is considered a cognitive marker of anxiety, and it has been described in various clinical and subclinical populations. This study used an emotional Stroop task to investigate whether math anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias toward math-related words. Two previous studies failed to observe such an effect in math-anxious individuals, although the authors acknowledged certain methodological limitations that the present study seeks to avoid. Twenty high math-anxious (HMA) and 20 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals were presented with an emotional Stroop task including math-related and neutral words. Participants in the two groups did not differ in trait anxiety or depression. We found that the HMA group showed slower response times to math-related words than to neutral words, as well as a greater attentional bias (math-related – neutral difference score) than the LMA one, which constitutes the first demonstration of an attentional bias toward math-related words in HMA individuals. PMID:26539137

Attentional bias in high math-anxious individuals: evidence from an emotional Stroop task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MACARENA eSUÁREZ PELLICIONI

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Attentional bias towards threatening or emotional information is considered a cognitive marker of anxiety, and it has been described in various clinical and subclinical populations. This study used an emotional Stroop task to investigate whether math anxiety is characterized by an attentional bias towards math-related words. Two previous studies failed to observe such an effect in math-anxious individuals, although the authors acknowledged certain methodological limitations that the present study seeks to avoid. Twenty high math-anxious (HMA and 20 low math-anxious (LMA individuals were presented with an emotional Stroop task including math-related and neutral words. Participants in the two groups did not differ in trait anxiety or depression. We found that the HMA group showed slower response times to math-related words than to neutral words, as well as a greater attentional bias (math-related – neutral difference score than the LMA one, which constitutes the first demonstration of an attentional bias towards math-related words in HMA individuals.

The role of attention during retrieval in working-memory span: a dual-task study.

Science.gov (United States)

Healey, M Karl; Miyake, Akira

2009-04-01

We tested the hypothesis that retrieving target words in operation span (OSpan) involves attention-demanding processes. Participants completed the standard OSpan task and a modified version in which all equations preceded all target words. Recall took place under either full attention or easy versus hard divided-attention conditions. Recall suffered under divided attention with the recall decrement being greater for the hard secondary task. Moreover, secondary-task performance was disrupted more by the standard OSpan task than by the modified version with the hard secondary task showing the larger decrement. Finally, the time taken to start recalling the first word was considerably longer for the standard version than for the modified version. These results are consistent with the proposal that successful OSpan task performance in part involves the attention-demanding retrieval of targets from long-term memory.

Objective threshold for distinguishing complicated tasks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-08-15

Estimating the likelihood of human error in a reliable manner is really important for enhancing the safety of a large process control system such as Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). In this regard, from the point of view of Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA), various kinds of Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) methods have been used for several decades in order to systematically evaluate the effect of human error on the safety of NPPs. However, one of the recurrence issues is to determine the level of an important Performance Shaping Factor (PSF) by using a clear and objective manner with respect to the context of a given task. Unfortunately, there is no such criterion for a certain PSF such as the complexity of a task. For this reason, in this study, an objective criterion that is helpful for identifying a complicated task is suggested based on the Task Complexity (TACOM) measure. To this end, subjective difficulty scores rated by high speed train drivers are collected. After that, subjective difficulty scores are compared with the associated TACOM scores being quantified based on tasks to be conducted by high speed train drivers. As a result, it is expected that high speed train drivers feel a significant difficulty when they are faced with tasks of which the TACOM scores are greater than 4.2. Since TACOM measure is a kind of general tool to quantify the complexity of tasks to be done by human operators, it is promising to conclude that this value can be regarded as a common threshold representing what a complicated task is.

A chain-retrieval model for voluntary task switching.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandierendonck, André; Demanet, Jelle; Liefooghe, Baptist; Verbruggen, Frederick

2012-09-01

To account for the findings obtained in voluntary task switching, this article describes and tests the chain-retrieval model. This model postulates that voluntary task selection involves retrieval of task information from long-term memory, which is then used to guide task selection and task execution. The model assumes that the retrieved information consists of acquired sequences (or chains) of tasks, that selection may be biased towards chains containing more task repetitions and that bottom-up triggered repetitions may overrule the intended task. To test this model, four experiments are reported. In Studies 1 and 2, sequences of task choices and the corresponding transition sequences (task repetitions or switches) were analyzed with the help of dependency statistics. The free parameters of the chain-retrieval model were estimated on the observed task sequences and these estimates were used to predict autocorrelations of tasks and transitions. In Studies 3 and 4, sequences of hand choices and their transitions were analyzed similarly. In all studies, the chain-retrieval model yielded better fits and predictions than statistical models of event choice. In applications to voluntary task switching (Studies 1 and 2), all three parameters of the model were needed to account for the data. When no task switching was required (Studies 3 and 4), the chain-retrieval model could account for the data with one or two parameters clamped to a neutral value. Implications for our understanding of voluntary task selection and broader theoretical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phonological similarity effect in complex span task.

Science.gov (United States)

Camos, Valérie; Mora, Gérôme; Barrouillet, Pierre

2013-01-01

The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that two systems are involved in verbal working memory; one is specifically dedicated to the maintenance of phonological representations through verbal rehearsal while the other would maintain multimodal representations through attentional refreshing. This theoretical framework predicts that phonologically related phenomena such as the phonological similarity effect (PSE) should occur when the domain-specific system is involved in maintenance, but should disappear when concurrent articulation hinders its use. Impeding maintenance in the domain-general system by a concurrent attentional demand should impair recall performance without affecting PSE. In three experiments, we manipulated the concurrent articulation and the attentional demand induced by the processing component of complex span tasks in which participants had to maintain lists of either similar or dissimilar words. Confirming our predictions, PSE affected recall performance in complex span tasks. Although both the attentional demand and the articulatory requirement of the concurrent task impaired recall, only the induction of an articulatory suppression during maintenance made the PSE disappear. These results suggest a duality in the systems devoted to verbal maintenance in the short term, constraining models of working memory.

Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy Diagnostic Task Force Criteria Impact of New Task Force Criteria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cox, Moniek G. P. J.; van der Smagt, Jasper J.; Noorman, Maartje; Wiesfeld, Ans C.; Volders, Paul G. A.; van Langen, Irene M.; Atsma, Douwe E.; Dooijes, Dennis; Houweling, Arjan C.; Loh, Peter; Jordaens, Luc; Arens, Yvonne; Cramer, Maarten J.; Doevendans, Pieter A.; van Tintelen, Peter; Wilde, Arthur A. M.; Hauer, Richard N. W.

Background-Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) Diagnostic Task Force Criteria (TFC) proposed in 1994 are highly specific but lack sensitivity. A new international task force modified criteria to improve diagnostic yield. A comparison of diagnosis by 1994 TFC versus

THE RELATION OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEMS WITH EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bilal AFSAR

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The basic aim of high performance work systems is to enable employees to exercise decision making, leading to flexibility, innovation, improvement and skill sharing. By facilitating the development of high performance work systems we help organizations make continuous improvement a way of life.The notion of a high-performance work system (HPWS constitutes a claim that there exists a system of work practices for core workers in an organisation that leads in some way to superior performance. This article will discuss the relation that HPWS has with the improvement of firms’ performance and high involvement of the employees.

A multitasking general executive for compound continuous tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvucci, Dario D

2005-05-06

As cognitive architectures move to account for increasingly complex real-world tasks, one of the most pressing challenges involves understanding and modeling human multitasking. Although a number of existing models now perform multitasking in real-world scenarios, these models typically employ customized executives that schedule tasks for the particular domain but do not generalize easily to other domains. This article outlines a general executive for the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) cognitive architecture that, given independent models of individual tasks, schedules and interleaves the models' behavior into integrated multitasking behavior. To demonstrate the power of the proposed approach, the article describes an application to the domain of driving, showing how the general executive can interleave component subtasks of the driving task (namely, control and monitoring) and interleave driving with in-vehicle secondary tasks (radio tuning and phone dialing). 2005 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Memory distorions resulting from a choice blindness task

OpenAIRE

Pärnamets, Philip; Hall, Lars; Johansson, Petter

2015-01-01

Using a choice blindness paradigm, it is possible to switch decisions and outcomes in simple choice tasks. Such switches have been found to carry over into later choices, hypothesized to be mediated by beliefs about earlier decisions. Here we investigated participants’ memories for stimuli in a simple choice blindness task involving preferential choices between pairs of faces. We probed participants’ recognition and source memory following a round of choices where on some trials participants ...

Dubbing Projects for the Language Learner: A Framework for Integrating Audiovisual Translation into Task-Based Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Danan, Martine

2010-01-01

This article describes a series of exploratory L1 to L2 dubbing projects for which students translated and used editing software to dub short American film and TV clips into their target language. Translating and dubbing into the target language involve students in multifaceted, high-level language production tasks that lead to enhanced vocabulary…

Taking Teacher Education to Task: Exploring the Role of Faculty Education in Promoting Values and Moral Education of Task-Based Language Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr. Gabriel C. Delariarte

2014-02-01

Full Text Available - This study aimed to determine the taking teacher education to task: exploring the role of teacher education in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching in the college of education of West Visayas State University Calinog-Campus for the school year 2012-2013. Descriptive research method was utilized in the study. The findings revealed that the respondents perceived highly observable Teachers’ role in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching; the entire group of respondents has perceived highly observable Teachers’ role in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching; both male and female respondent have perceived a highly observable Teachers’ role in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching; all age brackets have perceived a highly observable Teachers’ role in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching except 19 to 20 brackets that perceived very highly observable Teachers’ role in promoting values and moral education of taskbased language teaching. Finally, there is no significant difference in the perceived teacher’s role in promoting values and moral education of task-based language teaching when classified as to sex and age.

Technical support of standards for high-level radioactive waste management. Volume B. Engineering controls. Task b report Mar-Aug 77

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-01-01

This report is the result of work performed under the second part (Task B) of a four-part contract to gather technical information to evaluate enviornmental acceptablity of various options for disposing high-level wastes. The other tasks are: A-Source Term Characterization; C-Assessment of Migration Pathways; D-Assessment of Accidental Pathways. The scope of work for Task B was divided into 2 major steps: analysis of technology for engineering control of high-level wastes, and projections of costs for various alternative disposal technologies. Primary emphasis has been placed in non-reprocessed spent fuel. Brief consideration has been given to lower-level transuranic contaminated wastes which arise primarily from plutonium fuel fabrication and reprocessing plants. The objective of this limited review is to provide some insight into the state of the art for applying engineering controls to such wastes, including, where necessary, direct burial with high-level wastes in a geologic disposal facility

Increasing On-Task Behavior in Students in a Regular Classroom: Effectiveness of a Self-Management Procedure Using a Tactile Prompt

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moore, D.W.; Anderson, A.; Glassenbury, M.; Didden, H.C.M.; Lang, R.B.

2013-01-01

Self-management strategies have been shown to be widely effective. However, limited classroom-based research exists involving low performing but developmentally normal high school-aged participants. This study examined the effectiveness of a self-management strategy aimed at increasing on-task

Effects of visual and verbal interference tasks on olfactory memory: the role of task complexity.

Science.gov (United States)

Annett, J M; Leslie, J C

1996-08-01

Recent studies have demonstrated that visual and verbal suppression tasks interfere with olfactory memory in a manner which is partially consistent with a dual coding interpretation. However, it has been suggested that total task complexity rather than modality specificity of the suppression tasks might account for the observed pattern of results. This study addressed the issue of whether or not the level of difficulty and complexity of suppression tasks could explain the apparent modality effects noted in earlier experiments. A total of 608 participants were each allocated to one of 19 experimental conditions involving interference tasks which varied suppression type (visual or verbal), nature of complexity (single, double or mixed) and level of difficulty (easy, optimal or difficult) and presented with 13 target odours. Either recognition of the odours or free recall of the odour names was tested on one occasion, either within 15 minutes of presentation or one week later. Both recognition and recall performance showed an overall effect for suppression nature, suppression level and time of testing with no effect for suppression type. The results lend only limited support to Paivio's (1986) dual coding theory, but have a number of characteristics which suggest that an adequate account of olfactory memory may be broadly similar to current theories of face and object recognition. All of these phenomena might be dealt with by an appropriately modified version of dual coding theory.

Feasibility Study of Haptic Display for Rotation Tasks of Wrist Work

OpenAIRE

曽根, 順治; 岩井, 秀樹; 山田, 勝実; 陳, 軍; 徳山, 喜政; 今野, 晃市; Sone, Junji; Iwai, Hideki; Yamada, Katsumi; Chen, Jun; Tokuyama, Yoshimasa; Konno, Kouichi

2011-01-01

We have developed a haptic display for rotational tasks that involve functions of the human wrist. We represent the torque using a motor and a brake. Reference torque curves are obtained by the measuring torque required for each actual task using a torque sensor. The brake represents the stop condition. We have confirmed the effectiveness of the display by comparing the actual tasks with the haptic display experiment.

Investigating the Appropriateness of the TACOM Measure: Application to the Complexity of Proceduralized Tasks for High Speed Train Drivers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea; Ko, Jong Hyun

2010-01-01

According to wide-spread experience in many industries, a procedure is one of the most effective countermeasures to reduce the possibility of human related problems. Unfortunately, a systematic framework to evaluate the complexity of procedural tasks seems to be very scant. For this reason, the TACOM measure, which can quantify the complexity of procedural tasks, has been developed. In this study, the appropriateness of the TACOM measure is investigated by comparing TACOM scores regarding the procedural tasks of high speed train drivers with the associated workload scores measured by the NASA-TLX technique. As a result, it is observed that there is a meaningful correlation between the TACOM scores and the associated NASA-TLX scores. Therefore, it is expected that the TACOM measure can properly quantify the complexity of procedural tasks

Investigating the Appropriateness of the TACOM Measure: Application to the Complexity of Proceduralized Tasks for High Speed Train Drivers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Ko, Jong Hyun [Nuclear Engineering and Technology Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2010-02-15

According to wide-spread experience in many industries, a procedure is one of the most effective countermeasures to reduce the possibility of human related problems. Unfortunately, a systematic framework to evaluate the complexity of procedural tasks seems to be very scant. For this reason, the TACOM measure, which can quantify the complexity of procedural tasks, has been developed. In this study, the appropriateness of the TACOM measure is investigated by comparing TACOM scores regarding the procedural tasks of high speed train drivers with the associated workload scores measured by the NASA-TLX technique. As a result, it is observed that there is a meaningful correlation between the TACOM scores and the associated NASA-TLX scores. Therefore, it is expected that the TACOM measure can properly quantify the complexity of procedural tasks

The impact of physical and mental tasks on pilot mental workoad

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, S. L.; Sheridan, T. B.

1986-01-01

Seven instrument-rated pilots with a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels flew four different scenarios on a fixed-base simulator. The Baseline scenario was the simplest of the four and had few mental and physical tasks. An activity scenario had many physical but few mental tasks. The Planning scenario had few physical and many mental taks. A Combined scenario had high mental and physical task loads. The magnitude of each pilot's altitude and airspeed deviations was measured, subjective workload ratings were recorded, and the degree of pilot compliance with assigned memory/planning tasks was noted. Mental and physical performance was a strong function of the manual activity level, but not influenced by the mental task load. High manual task loads resulted in a large percentage of mental errors even under low mental task loads. Although all the pilots gave similar subjective ratings when the manual task load was high, subjective ratings showed greater individual differences with high mental task loads. Altitude or airspeed deviations and subjective ratings were most correlated when the total task load was very high. Although airspeed deviations, altitude deviations, and subjective workload ratings were similar for both low experience and high experience pilots, at very high total task loads, mental performance was much lower for the low experience pilots.

Family involvement and helping behaviour in teams

OpenAIRE

Brummelhuis, L.L. ten; Lippe, T. van der; Kluwer, E.S.

2010-01-01

Helping behavior at work has become increasingly important, with organizations making more and more use of cooperative work practices. The difficulty is that employees are facing growing demands beyond the workplace. This study investigates the mechanisms by which family involvement (family structure, family tasks, family support) affects helping behavior in teams. Based on a sample of 495 team members, the results show that having a supportive partner and performing care tasks increase helpi...

Task-Based Modeling of a 5k Ultra-High-Resolution Medical Imaging System for Digital Breast Tomosynthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Chumin; Kanicki, Jerzy

2017-09-01

High-resolution, low-noise X-ray detectors based on CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) technology have demonstrated superior imaging performance for digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). This paper presents a task-based model for a high-resolution medical imaging system to evaluate its ability to detect simulated microcalcifications and masses as lesions for breast cancer. A 3-D cascaded system analysis for a 50- [Formula: see text] pixel pitch CMOS APS X-ray detector was integrated with an object task function, a medical imaging display model, and the human eye contrast sensitivity function to calculate the detectability index and area under the ROC curve (AUC). It was demonstrated that the display pixel pitch and zoom factor should be optimized to improve the AUC for detecting small microcalcifications. In addition, detector electronic noise of smaller than 300 e - and a high display maximum luminance (>1000 cd/cm 2 ) are desirable to distinguish microcalcifications of [Formula: see text] in size. For low contrast mass detection, a medical imaging display with a minimum of 12-bit gray levels is recommended to realize accurate luminance levels. A wide projection angle range of greater than ±30° in combination with the image gray level magnification could improve the mass detectability especially when the anatomical background noise is high. On the other hand, a narrower projection angle range below ±20° can improve the small, high contrast object detection. Due to the low mass contrast and luminance, the ambient luminance should be controlled below 5 cd/ [Formula: see text]. Task-based modeling provides important firsthand imaging performance of the high-resolution CMOS-based medical imaging system that is still at early stage development for DBT. The modeling results could guide the prototype design and clinical studies in the future.

Functional localization of a "Time Keeper" function separate from attentional resources and task strategy.

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Tracy, J I; Faro, S H; Mohamed, F B; Pinsk, M; Pinus, A

2000-03-01

The functional neuroanatomy of time estimation has not been well-documented. This research investigated the fMRI measured brain response to an explicit, prospective time interval production (TIP) task. The study tested for the presence of brain activity reflecting a primary time keeper function, distinct from the brain systems involved either in conscious strategies to monitor time or attentional resource and other cognitive processes to accomplish the task. In the TIP task participants were given a time interval and asked to indicate when it elapsed. Two control tasks (counting forwards, backwards) were administered, in addition to a dual task format of the TIP task. Whole brain images were collected at 1.5 Tesla. Analyses (n = 6) yielded a statistical parametric map (SPM ¿z¿) reflecting time keeping and not strategy (counting, number manipulation) or attention resource utilization. Additional SPM ¿z¿s involving activation associated with the accuracy and magnitude the of time estimation response are presented. Results revealed lateral cerebellar and inferior temporal lobe activation were associated with primary time keeping. Behavioral data provided evidence that the procedures for the explicit time judgements did not occur automatically and utilized controlled processes. Activation sites associated with accuracy, magnitude, and the dual task provided indications of the other structures involved in time estimation that implemented task components related to controlled processing. The data are consistent with prior proposals that the cerebellum is a repository of codes for time processing, but also implicate temporal lobe structures for this type of time estimation task. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

A Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler for High Performance Image Processing Workflows.

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Blattner, Timothy; Keyrouz, Walid; Bhattacharyya, Shuvra S; Halem, Milton; Brady, Mary

2017-12-01

Designing applications for scalability is key to improving their performance in hybrid and cluster computing. Scheduling code to utilize parallelism is difficult, particularly when dealing with data dependencies, memory management, data motion, and processor occupancy. The Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler (HTGS) improves programmer productivity when implementing hybrid workflows for multi-core and multi-GPU systems. The Hybrid Task Graph Scheduler (HTGS) is an abstract execution model, framework, and API that increases programmer productivity when implementing hybrid workflows for such systems. HTGS manages dependencies between tasks, represents CPU and GPU memories independently, overlaps computations with disk I/O and memory transfers, keeps multiple GPUs occupied, and uses all available compute resources. Through these abstractions, data motion and memory are explicit; this makes data locality decisions more accessible. To demonstrate the HTGS application program interface (API), we present implementations of two example algorithms: (1) a matrix multiplication that shows how easily task graphs can be used; and (2) a hybrid implementation of microscopy image stitching that reduces code size by ≈ 43% compared to a manually coded hybrid workflow implementation and showcases the minimal overhead of task graphs in HTGS. Both of the HTGS-based implementations show good performance. In image stitching the HTGS implementation achieves similar performance to the hybrid workflow implementation. Matrix multiplication with HTGS achieves 1.3× and 1.8× speedup over the multi-threaded OpenBLAS library for 16k × 16k and 32k × 32k size matrices, respectively.

The Use of Conjunctions in Cognitively Simple versus Complex Oral L2 Tasks

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Michel, Marije C.

2013-01-01

The present study explores the use of conjunctions in simple versus complex argumentative tasks performed by second language (L2) learners as a specific measure for the amount of reasoning involved in task performance. The Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2005) states that an increase in cognitive task complexity promotes improvements in L2…

Comparison of Physiological and Psychological Relaxation Using Measurements of Heart Rate Variability, Prefrontal Cortex Activity, and Subjective Indexes after Completing Tasks with and without Foliage Plants.

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Park, Sin-Ae; Song, Chorong; Oh, Yun-Ah; Miyazaki, Yoshifumi; Son, Ki-Cheol

2017-09-20

The objective of this study was to compare physiological and psychological relaxation by assessing heart rate variability (HRV), prefrontal cortex activity, and subjective indexes while subjects performed a task with and without foliage plants. In a crossover experimental design, 24 university students performed a task transferring pots with and without a foliage plant for 3 min. HRV and oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration in the prefrontal cortex were continuously measured. Immediately thereafter, subjective evaluation of emotions was performed using a modified semantic differential (SD) method and a profile of mood state questionnaire (POMS). Results showed that the natural logarithmic (ln) ratio of low frequency/high frequency, as an estimate of sympathetic nerve activity, was significantly lower while performing the task with foliage plants for the average 3 min measurement interval. Oxy-Hb concentration in the left prefrontal cortex showed a tendency to decrease in the 2-3 min interval in the task with foliage plants compared to the task without plants. Moreover, significant psychological relaxation according to POMS score and SD was demonstrated when the task involved foliage plants. In conclusion, the task involving foliage plants led to more physiological and psychological relaxation compared with the task without foliage plants.

Working memory and the control of action: evidence from task switching.

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Baddeley, A; Chincotta, D; Adlam, A

2001-12-01

A series of 7 experiments used dual-task methodology to investigate the role of working memory in the operation of a simple action-control plan or program involving regular switching between addition and subtraction. Lists requiring switching were slower than blocked lists and showed 2 concurrent task effects. Demanding executive tasks impaired performance on both blocked and switched lists, whereas articulatory suppression impaired principally the switched condition. Implications for models of task switching and working memory and for the Vygotskian concept of verbal control of action are discussed.

Post-error response inhibition in high math-anxious individuals: Evidence from a multi-digit addition task.

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Núñez-Peña, M Isabel; Tubau, Elisabet; Suárez-Pellicioni, Macarena

2017-06-01

The aim of the study was to investigate how high math-anxious (HMA) individuals react to errors in an arithmetic task. Twenty HMA and 19 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals were presented with a multi-digit addition verification task and were given response feedback. Post-error adjustment measures (response time and accuracy) were analyzed in order to study differences between groups when faced with errors in an arithmetical task. Results showed that both HMA and LMA individuals were slower to respond following an error than following a correct answer. However, post-error accuracy effects emerged only for the HMA group, showing that they were also less accurate after having committed an error than after giving the right answer. Importantly, these differences were observed only when individuals needed to repeat the same response given in the previous trial. These results suggest that, for HMA individuals, errors caused reactive inhibition of the erroneous response, facilitating performance if the next problem required the alternative response but hampering it if the response was the same. This stronger reaction to errors could be a factor contributing to the difficulties that HMA individuals experience in learning math and doing math tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Task Listings Resulting from the Vocational Competency Measures Project. Memorandum Report.

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American Institutes for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, CA.

This memorandum report consists of 14 task listings resulting from the Vocational Competency Measures Project. (The Vocational Competency Measures Project was a test development project that involved the writing and verification of task listings for 14 vocational occupational areas through over 225 interviews conducted in 27 states.) Provided in…

Care for a Patient With Cancer As a Project: Management of Complex Task Interdependence in Cancer Care Delivery.

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Trosman, Julia R; Carlos, Ruth C; Simon, Melissa A; Madden, Debra L; Gradishar, William J; Benson, Al B; Rapkin, Bruce D; Weiss, Elisa S; Gareen, Ilana F; Wagner, Lynne I; Khan, Seema A; Bunce, Mikele M; Small, Art; Weldon, Christine B

2016-11-01

Cancer care is highly complex and suffers from fragmentation and lack of coordination across provider specialties and clinical domains. As a result, patients often find that they must coordinate care on their own. Coordinated delivery teams may address these challenges and improve quality of cancer care. Task interdependence is a core principle of rigorous teamwork and is essential to addressing the complexity of cancer care, which is highly interdependent across specialties and modalities. We examined challenges faced by a patient with early-stage breast cancer that resulted from difficulties in understanding and managing task interdependence across clinical domains involved in this patient's care. We used team science supported by the project management discipline to discuss how various task interdependence aspects can be recognized, deliberately designed, and systematically managed to prevent care breakdowns. This case highlights how effective task interdependence management facilitated by project management methods could markedly improve the course of a patient's care. This work informs efforts of cancer centers and practices to redesign cancer care delivery through innovative, practical, and patient-centered approaches to management of task interdependence in cancer care. Future patient-reported outcomes research will help to determine optimal ways to engage patients, including those who are medically underserved, in managing task interdependence in their own care.

The Effects of Dimensional Salience, Pretraining Task, and Developmental Level Upon Bidimensional Processing in a Matching Task.

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Katsuyama, Ronald M.; Reid, Amy

Purposes of this study are to determine the effects of (1) preassessed dimensional salience upon performance in a bi-dimensional matching task, and (2) pretraining conditions expected to facilitate bi-dimensional processing. An additional aim was to elucidate a model of development involving changing salience hierarchies by comparing the effects…

Investigating Multitasking in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using the Virtual Errands Task

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Rajendran, Gnanathusharan; Law, Anna S.; Logie, Robert H.; van der Meulen, Marian; Fraser, Diane; Corley, Martin

2011-01-01

Using a modified version of the Virtual Errands Task (VET; McGeorge et al. in "Presence-Teleop Virtual Environ" 10(4):375-383, 2001), we investigated the executive ability of multitasking in 18 high-functioning adolescents with ASD and 18 typically developing adolescents. The VET requires multitasking (Law et al. in "Acta Psychol" 122(1):27-44,…

Coal-fueled high-speed diesel engine development: Task 2, Market assessment and economic analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kakwani, R. M.; Wilson, Jr., R. P.; Winsor, R. E.

1991-12-01

Based on the preliminary coal engine design developed, this task was conducted to identify the best opportunity(s) to enter the market with the future coal-fueled, high-speed diesel engine. The results of this market and economic feasibility assessment will be used to determine what specific heavy duty engine application(s) are most attractive for coal fuel, and also define basic economic targets for the engine to be competitive.

Implementation of a Self-Monitoring Application to Improve On-Task Behavior: A High-School Pilot Study

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Wills, Howard P.; Mason, Benjamin A.

2014-01-01

Technological innovations offer promise for improving intervention implementation in secondary, inclusive classrooms. A withdrawal design was employed with two high-school students in order to assess the effectiveness of a technologically delivered, self-monitoring intervention in improving on-task behavior in a science classroom. Two students…

A dynamic 3D biomechanical evaluation of the load on the low back during different patient-handling tasks.

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Skotte, J H; Essendrop, M; Hansen, A F; Schibye, B

2002-10-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the low-back loading during common patient-handling tasks. Ten female health care workers without formal training in patient handling performed nine patient-handling tasks including turning, lifting and repositioning a male stroke patient. The low-back loading was quantified by net moment, compression, and shear forces at the L4/L5 joint, measured muscle activity (EMG) in erector spinae muscles and rate of perceived exertion (RPE; Borg scale). The experiments were videotaped with a 50Hz video system using five cameras, and the ground and bedside reaction forces of the health care worker were recorded by means of force platforms and force transducers on the bed. The biomechanical load was calculated using a dynamic 3D seven-segment model of the lower part of the body, and the forces at the L4/L5 joint were estimated by a 14 muscles cross-sectional model of the low back (optimisation procedure). Compression force and torque showed high task dependency whereas the EMG data and the RPE values were more dependent on the subject. The peak compression during two tasks involving lifting the patient (4132/4433N) was significantly higher than all other tasks. Four tasks involving repositioning the patient in the bed (3179/3091/2932/3094N) did not differ, but showed higher peak compression than two tasks turning the patient in the bed (1618/2197N). Thus, in this study the patient-handling tasks could be classified into three groups-characterised by lifting, repositioning or turning-with different levels of peak net torque and compression at the L4/L5 joint.

Localised task-dependent motor-unit recruitment in the masseter.

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Schindler, H J; Hellmann, D; Giannakopoulos, N N; Eiglsperger, U; van Dijk, J P; Lapatki, B G

2014-07-01

Localised motor-unit (MU) recruitment in the masseter was analysed in this study. We investigated whether differential activation behaviour, which has already been reported for distant masseter regions, can also be detected in small muscle subvolumes at the level of single MUs. Two bipolar fine-wire electrodes and an intra-oral 3D bite-force transmitter were used to record intra-muscular electromyograms (EMG) resulting from controlled bite-forces of 10 healthy human subjects (mean age 24.1 ± 1.2 years). Two-hundred and seventeen decomposed MUs were organised into localised MU task groups with different (P < 0.001) force-direction-specific behaviour. Proportions of MUs involved in one, two, three or four examined tasks were 46%, 31%, 18% and 5%, respectively. This study provides evidence of the ability of the neuromuscular system to modify the mechanical output of small masseter subvolumes by differential control of adjacent MUs belonging to distinct task groups. Localised differential activation behaviour of the masseter may be the crucial factor enabling highly flexible and efficient adjustment of the muscle activity in response to complex local biomechanical needs, for example, continually varying bite-forces during the demanding masticatory process. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Different Reading Tasks on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition

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Xu, Jianping

2009-01-01

This empirical study was undertaken to test the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001) by examining the impact of three tasks on vocabulary acquisition. It was designed to test and develop the involvement load hypothesis by examining the impact of different reading tasks on the L2 vocabulary acquisition. The results show that…

Task Shifting in Dermatology: A Call to Action.

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Brown, Danielle N; Langan, Sinéad M; Freeman, Esther E

2017-11-01

Can task shifting be used to improve the delivery of dermatologic care in resource-poor settings worldwide? Task shifting is a means of redistributing available resources, whereby highly trained individuals train an available workforce to provide necessary care in low-resource settings. Limited evidence exists for task shifting in dermatology; however, studies from psychiatry demonstrate its efficacy. In the field of dermatology there is a need for high-quality evidence including randomized clinical trials to validate the implementation of task shifting in low-resource settings globally.

Autonomous Learning through Task-Based Instruction in Fully Online Language Courses

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Lee, Lina

2016-01-01

This study investigated the affordances for autonomous learning in a fully online learning environment involving the implementation of task-based instruction in conjunction with Web 2.0 technologies. To that end, four-skill-integrated tasks and digital tools were incorporated into the coursework. Data were collected using midterm reflections,…

The Role of Reading Strategies in Integrated L2 Writing Tasks

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Plakans, Lia

2009-01-01

Integrated second-language writing tasks elicit writing performances that involve other abilities such as reading or listening. Thus, understanding the role of these other abilities is necessary for interpreting performance on such tasks. This study used an inductive analysis of think-aloud protocol data and interviews to uncover the reading…

SU-E-I-40: New Method for Measurement of Task-Specific, High-Resolution Detector System Performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Loughran, B; Singh, V; Jain, A; Bednarek, D; Rudin, S [University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY (United States)

2014-06-01

Purpose: Although generalized linear system analytic metrics such as GMTF and GDQE can evaluate performance of the whole imaging system including detector, scatter and focal-spot, a simplified task-specific measured metric may help to better compare detector systems. Methods: Low quantum-noise images of a neuro-vascular stent with a modified ANSI head phantom were obtained from the average of many exposures taken with the high-resolution Micro-Angiographic Fluoroscope (MAF) and with a Flat Panel Detector (FPD). The square of the Fourier Transform of each averaged image, equivalent to the measured product of the system GMTF and the object function in spatial-frequency space, was then divided by the normalized noise power spectra (NNPS) for each respective system to obtain a task-specific generalized signal-to-noise ratio. A generalized measured relative object detectability (GM-ROD) was obtained by taking the ratio of the integral of the resulting expressions for each detector system to give an overall metric that enables a realistic systems comparison for the given detection task. Results: The GM-ROD provides comparison of relative performance of detector systems from actual measurements of the object function as imaged by those detector systems. This metric includes noise correlations and spatial frequencies relevant to the specific object. Additionally, the integration bounds for the GM-ROD can be selected to emphasis the higher frequency band of each detector if high-resolution image details are to be evaluated. Examples of this new metric are discussed with a comparison of the MAF to the FPD for neuro-vascular interventional imaging. Conclusion: The GM-ROD is a new direct-measured task-specific metric that can provide clinically relevant comparison of the relative performance of imaging systems. Supported by NIH Grant: 2R01EB002873 and an equipment grant from Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation.

Written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying: Different tasks, different pathways?

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Bonin, Patrick; Méot, Alain; Lagarrigue, Aurélie; Roux, Sébastien

2015-01-01

We report an investigation of cross-task comparisons of handwritten latencies in written object naming, spelling to dictation, and immediate copying. In three separate sessions, adults had to write down a list of concrete nouns from their corresponding pictures (written naming), from their spoken (spelling to dictation) and from their visual presentation (immediate copying). Linear mixed models without random slopes were performed on the latencies in order to study and compare within-task fixed effects. By-participants random slopes were then included to investigate individual differences within and across tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that written naming, spelling to dictation, and copying all involve a lexical pathway, but that written naming relies on this pathway more than the other two tasks do. Only spelling to dictation strongly involves a nonlexical pathway. Finally, the analyses performed at the level of participants indicate that, depending on the type of task, the slower participants are more or less influenced by certain psycholinguistic variables.

Two castes sizes of leafcutter ants in task partitioning in foraging activity

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Marcelo Arruda de Toledo

Full Text Available ABSTRACT: Task partitioning in eusocial animals is most likely an evolutionary adaptation that optimizes the efficiency of the colony to grow and reproduce. It was investigated indirect task partitioning in two castes sizes; this involves task partitioning in which the material transported is not transferred directly from one individual to another, but where it is dropped by one ant to be picked up by another. In two separate approaches, it was confirmed previous results pertaining to leaf caching activities among Atta colombica with task partitioning activities involving leaf dropping among Atta sexdens rubropilosa , in which there is a correlation between the size of an individual ant and the leaf fragment it transports. It was also suggested that this correlation exists only in individual ants that cut and transport (CaT the same fragment to the nest. When task partitioning occurs and individual ants transporting (T leaf fragments cut by other ants, the correlation becomes looser or disappears. We also observed that CaT ants are smaller than T ants.

Effect of task-oriented training and high-variability practice on gross motor performance and activities of daily living in children with spastic diplegia.

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Kwon, Hae-Yeon; Ahn, So-Yoon

2016-10-01

[Purpose] This study investigates how a task-oriented training and high-variability practice program can affect the gross motor performance and activities of daily living for children with spastic diplegia and provides an effective and reliable clinical database for future improvement of motor performances skills. [Subjects and Methods] This study randomly assigned seven children with spastic diplegia to each intervention group including that of a control group, task-oriented training group, and a high-variability practice group. The control group only received neurodevelopmental treatment for 40 minutes, while the other two intervention groups additionally implemented a task-oriented training and high-variability practice program for 8 weeks (twice a week, 60 min per session). To compare intra and inter-relationships of the three intervention groups, this study measured gross motor performance measure (GMPM) and functional independence measure for children (WeeFIM) before and after 8 weeks of training. [Results] There were statistically significant differences in the amount of change before and after the training among the three intervention groups for the gross motor performance measure and functional independence measure. [Conclusion] Applying high-variability practice in a task-oriented training course may be considered an efficient intervention method to improve motor performance skills that can tune to movement necessary for daily livelihood through motor experience and learning of new skills as well as change of tasks learned in a complex environment or similar situations to high-variability practice.

Patterns of brain and cardiovascular activation while solving rule-discovery and rule-application numeric tasks.

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Sosnowski, Tytus; Rynkiewicz, Andrzej; Wordecha, Małgorzata; Kępkowicz, Anna; Majewska, Adrianna; Pstrągowska, Aleksandra; Oleksy, Tomasz; Wypych, Marek; Marchewka, Artur

2017-07-01

It is known that solving mental tasks leads to tonic increase in cardiovascular activity. Our previous research showed that tasks involving rule application (RA) caused greater tonic increase in cardiovascular activity than tasks requiring rule discovery (RD). However, it is not clear what brain mechanisms are responsible for this difference. The aim of two experimental studies was to compare the patterns of brain and cardiovascular activity while both RD and the RA numeric tasks were being solved. The fMRI study revealed greater brain activation while solving RD tasks than while solving RA tasks. In particular, RD tasks evoked greater activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus and selected areas in the parietal, and temporal cortices, including the precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and the superior temporal gyrus, and the cingulate cortex. In addition, RA tasks caused larger increases in HR than RD tasks. The second study, carried out in a cardiovascular laboratory, showed greater increases in heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) while solving RA tasks than while solving RD tasks. The results support the hypothesis that RD and RA tasks involve different modes of information processing, but the neuronal mechanism responsible for the observed greater cardiovascular response to RA tasks than to RD tasks is not completely clear. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A rodent version of the Iowa Gambling Task: 7 years of progress

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Ruud eVan Den Bos

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT subjects need to find a way to earn money in a context of variable wins and losses, conflicting short-term and long-term pay-off, and uncertainty of outcomes. In 2006, we published the first rodent version of the IGT (r-IGT; Behavior Research Methods 38, 470-478. Here, we discuss emerging ideas on the involvement of different prefrontal-striatal networks in task-progression in the r-IGT, as revealed by our studies thus far. The emotional system, encompassing, among others, the orbitofrontal cortex, infralimbic cortex and nucleus accumbens (shell and core area, may be involved in assessing and anticipating the value of different options in the early stages of the task, i.e. as animals explore and learn task contingencies. The cognitive control system, encompassing, among others, the prelimbic cortex and dorsomedial striatum, may be involved in instrumental goal-directed behaviour in later stages of the task, i.e. as behaviour towards long-term options is strengthened (reinforced and behaviour towards long-term poor options is weakened (punished. In addition, we suggest two directions for future research: (1 the role of the internal state of the subject in decision-making, and (2 studying differences in task-related costs. Overall, our studies have contributed to understanding the interaction between the emotional system and cognitive control system as crucial to navigating human and non-human animals alike through a world of variable wins and losses, conflicting short-term and long-term pay-offs, and uncertainty of outcomes.

Cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading.

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Roux, F-E; Lubrano, V; Lauwers-Cances, V; Giussani, C; Démonet, J-F

2008-01-15

Distinct functional pathways for processing words and numbers have been hypothesized from the observation of dissociated impairments of these categories in brain-damaged patients. We aimed to identify the cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading process in patients operated on for various brain lesions. Direct cortical electrostimulation was prospectively used in 60 brain mappings. We used object naming and two reading tasks: alphabetic script (sentences and number words) and Arabic number reading. Cortical areas involved in Arabic number reading were identified according to location, type of interference, and distinctness from areas associated with other language tasks. Arabic number reading was sustained by small cortical areas, often extremely well localized (area (Brodmann area 45), the anterior part of the dominant supramarginal gyrus (Brodmann area 40; p area (Brodmann area 37; p areas.

Masticatory muscle activity during deliberately performed oral tasks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farella, M; Palla, S; Erni, S; Gallo, L M; Michelotti, A

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate masticatory muscle activity during deliberately performed functional and non-functional oral tasks. Electromyographic (EMG) surface activity was recorded unilaterally from the masseter, anterior temporalis and suprahyoid muscles in 11 subjects (5 men, 6 women; age = 34.6 ± 10.8 years), who were accurately instructed to perform 30 different oral tasks under computer guidance using task markers. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, repeated measurements analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical cluster analysis. The maximum EMG amplitude of the masseter and anterior temporalis muscles was more often found during hard chewing tasks than during maximum clenching tasks. The relative contribution of masseter and anterior temporalis changed across the tasks examined (F ≥ 5.2; p ≤ 0.001). The masseter muscle was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more active than the anterior temporalis muscle during tasks involving incisal biting, jaw protrusion, laterotrusion and jaw cupping, the difference being statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05). The anterior temporalis muscle was significantly (p ≤ 0.01) more active than the masseter muscle during tasks performed in intercuspal position, during tooth grinding, and during hard chewing on the working side. Based upon the relative contribution of the masseter, anterior temporalis, and suprahyoid muscles, the investigated oral tasks could be grouped into six separate clusters. The findings provided further insight into muscle- and task-specific EMG patterns during functional and non-functional oral behaviors

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY IN PRESCHOOLERS’ DRAWINGS THROUGH TASK-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihai-Bogdan Iovu

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The goal of this paper is to plan working task for preschool children in order to deliver original and creative outputs. The theoretical background of the paper is set in defining creativity as the capacity to create something new, original, and adequate to reality (Roco, 2004; Jaoui, 1975; Roşca, 1981; Boden, 1992. The research hypothesis states that if preschoolers are asked to comply with some predefined working rules in drawing they will deliver original outputs. The independent variable is the working task and the dependent variable is the output. The empirical research involved children enrolled in preparatory group from Floreşti Kindergarten (Cluj. The learning content involved elements from Math, Biology, and Decorative Art: circle, square, triangle, leaves, flowers. Children were involved 13 comparative experimental contexts. Therefore, their progress for each output was monitored. Preschoolers delivered original drawings, different from their peers’ but similar in using the same decorative element. The research hypothesis confirmed. Results are to be judged with caution as future researches should use fewer tasks as the independent variable

Overview of the interactive task in BioCreative V.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qinghua; S Abdul, Shabbir; Almeida, Lara; Ananiadou, Sophia; Balderas-Martínez, Yalbi I; Batista-Navarro, Riza; Campos, David; Chilton, Lucy; Chou, Hui-Jou; Contreras, Gabriela; Cooper, Laurel; Dai, Hong-Jie; Ferrell, Barbra; Fluck, Juliane; Gama-Castro, Socorro; George, Nancy; Gkoutos, Georgios; Irin, Afroza K; Jensen, Lars J; Jimenez, Silvia; Jue, Toni R; Keseler, Ingrid; Madan, Sumit; Matos, Sérgio; McQuilton, Peter; Milacic, Marija; Mort, Matthew; Natarajan, Jeyakumar; Pafilis, Evangelos; Pereira, Emiliano; Rao, Shruti; Rinaldi, Fabio; Rothfels, Karen; Salgado, David; Silva, Raquel M; Singh, Onkar; Stefancsik, Raymund; Su, Chu-Hsien; Subramani, Suresh; Tadepally, Hamsa D; Tsaprouni, Loukia; Vasilevsky, Nicole; Wang, Xiaodong; Chatr-Aryamontri, Andrew; Laulederkind, Stanley J F; Matis-Mitchell, Sherri; McEntyre, Johanna; Orchard, Sandra; Pundir, Sangya; Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul; Van Auken, Kimberly; Lu, Zhiyong; Schaeffer, Mary; Wu, Cathy H; Hirschman, Lynette; Arighi, Cecilia N

2016-01-01

Fully automated text mining (TM) systems promote efficient literature searching, retrieval, and review but are not sufficient to produce ready-to-consume curated documents. These systems are not meant to replace biocurators, but instead to assist them in one or more literature curation steps. To do so, the user interface is an important aspect that needs to be considered for tool adoption. The BioCreative Interactive task (IAT) is a track designed for exploring user-system interactions, promoting development of useful TM tools, and providing a communication channel between the biocuration and the TM communities. In BioCreative V, the IAT track followed a format similar to previous interactive tracks, where the utility and usability of TM tools, as well as the generation of use cases, have been the focal points. The proposed curation tasks are user-centric and formally evaluated by biocurators. In BioCreative V IAT, seven TM systems and 43 biocurators participated. Two levels of user participation were offered to broaden curator involvement and obtain more feedback on usability aspects. The full level participation involved training on the system, curation of a set of documents with and without TM assistance, tracking of time-on-task, and completion of a user survey. The partial level participation was designed to focus on usability aspects of the interface and not the performance per se In this case, biocurators navigated the system by performing pre-designed tasks and then were asked whether they were able to achieve the task and the level of difficulty in completing the task. In this manuscript, we describe the development of the interactive task, from planning to execution and discuss major findings for the systems tested.Database URL: http://www.biocreative.org. Published by Oxford University Press 2016. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Final Technical Report Transport Task Force Activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

P.W. Terry

2006-01-01

The Transport Task Force has functioned as the primary scientific organization in the area of magnetic-fusion confinement and transport since its inception in 1988. It has defined and set research directions, coordinated broad research efforts, advocated new funding initiatives, and created a highly successful and widely admired interactive culture between experiment, theory and modeling. The Transport Task Force carries out its activities under the direction of its chair and the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is comprised of the leaders and deputy leaders of the scientific working groups. The working groups are structured and organized according to research needs and priorities and have been organized around the areas of Core Transport, H Mode and Pedestal, Fast Particle Transport, Transient Transport Phenomena, and Modeling and Simulation. A steering committee provides advise on TTF activities. Further information on the working groups and the structure and management of the TTF can be found at http://psfcwww2.psfc.mit.edu/ttf/index.html. The TTF holds an annual workshop. A summary of the workshops held during the period of this report is given in Appendix I. During the period of this report the Transport Task Force was involved in several significant activities. Foremost of these was a sweeping review of the status of transport science, the key research tasks for progress during the next 5-10 years, and a proposal for a funding initiative to ensure application of adequate resources to these problems. The conclusions of this study were incorporated into a white paper, which is copied below in Appendix II. Other significant activities have included the introduction of an extended, ongoing discussion on verification and validation as a requisite for defining and codifying the path toward predictive capability, the orchestration of a gradual shift of focus from ion thermal confinement to electron thermal confinement, and a joining of efforts on edge

Effects of cognitive appraisal and mental workload factors on performance in an arithmetic task.

Science.gov (United States)

Galy, Edith; Mélan, Claudine

2015-12-01

afternoon (i.e. high alertness). Taken together, these findings indicate that mental overload can be the result of a combination of subject-related characteristics, including alertness and cognitive appraisal, in addition to well-documented task-related components (intrinsic and extraneous load). As the factors investigated in the study are known to be critically involved in a number of real job-activities, the findings suggest that solutions designed to reduce incidents and accidents at work should consider the situation from a global perspective, including individual characteristics, task parameters, and work organization, rather than dealing with each factor separately.

Are gamers better crossers? An examination of action video game experience and dual task effects in a simulated street crossing task.

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Gaspar, John G; Neider, Mark B; Crowell, James A; Lutz, Aubrey; Kaczmarski, Henry; Kramer, Arthur F

2014-05-01

A high-fidelity street crossing simulator was used to test the hypothesis that experienced action video game players are less vulnerable than non-gamers to dual task costs in complex tasks. Previous research has shown that action video game players outperform nonplayers on many single task measures of perception and attention. It is unclear, however, whether action video game players outperform nonplayers in complex, divided attention tasks. Experienced action video game players and nongamers completed a street crossing task in a high-fidelity simulator. Participants walked on a manual treadmill to cross the street. During some crossings, a cognitively demanding working memory task was added. Dividing attention resulted in more collisions and increased decision making time. Of importance, these dual task costs were equivalent for the action video game players and the nongamers. These results suggest that action video game players are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task. Perceptual and attentional benefits associated with action video game experience may not translate to performance benefits in complex, real-world tasks.

Job Characteristics, Work Involvement, and Job Performance of Public Servants

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Johari, Johanim; Yahya, Khulida Kirana

2016-01-01

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to assess the predicting role of job characteristics on job performance. Dimensions in the job characteristics construct are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. Further, work involvement is tested as a mediator in the hypothesized link. Design/methodology/approach: A…

Distinguishing Reconfiguration and Compound-cue Retrieval in Task Switching

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Gordon D Logan

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Many researchers claim that task switching requires reconfiguration of the cognitive system. Others claim that task switching involves cue-based memory retrieval processes and not reconfiguration. We evaluate these competing claims by developing both reconfiguration and cue-based memory models in a common theoretical framework and by fitting the models to' target functions', which show how performance on individual target stimuli varies depending on the task subjects perform on the targets. Our analyses show that the process of compound-cue retrieval – using the task cue and the target as joint retrieval cues to select a response from memory – is sufficient to explain target functions for parity and magnitude judgments of digits and that reconfiguration does not seem to add anything to the explanation. We address the generality of this conclusion and speculate about the conditions under which reconfiguration may be necessary for task switching.

Differential regulation of the foraging gene associated with task behaviors in harvester ants

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Kleeman Lindsay

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The division of labor in social insect colonies involves transitions by workers from one task to another and is critical to the organization and ecological success of colonies. The differential regulation of genetic pathways is likely to be a key mechanism involved in plasticity of social insect task behavior. One of the few pathways implicated in social organization involves the cGMP-activated protein kinase gene, foraging, a gene associated with foraging behavior in social insect species. The association of the foraging gene with behavior is conserved across diverse species, but the observed expression patterns and proposed functions of this gene vary across taxa. We compared the protein sequence of foraging across social insects and explored whether the differential regulation of this gene is associated with task behaviors in the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Results Phylogenetic analysis of the coding region of the foraging gene reveals considerable conservation in protein sequence across insects, particularly among hymenopteran species. The absence of amino acid variation in key active and binding sites suggests that differences in behaviors associated with this gene among species may be the result of changes in gene expression rather than gene divergence. Using real time qPCR analyses with a harvester ant ortholog to foraging (Pofor, we found that the brains of harvester ant foragers have a daily fluctuation in expression of foraging with mRNA levels peaking at midday. In contrast, young workers inside the nest have low levels of Pofor mRNA with no evidence of daily fluctuations in expression. As a result, the association of foraging expression with task behavior within a species changes depending on the time of day the individuals are sampled. Conclusions The amino acid protein sequence of foraging is highly conserved across social insects. Differences in foraging behaviors associated with this gene among

Color-word matching stroop task: separating interference and response conflict.

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Zysset, S; Müller, K; Lohmann, G; von Cramon , D Y

2001-01-01

The Stroop interference task requires a person to respond to a specific dimension of a stimulus while suppressing a competing stimulus dimension. Previous PET and fMRI studies using the Color Stroop paradigm have shown increased activity in the "cognitive division" of the cingulate cortex. In our fMRI study with nine subjects, we used a Color-Word Matching Stroop task. A frontoparietal network, including structures in the lateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar region, the intraparietal sulcus, as well as the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus, was activated when contrasting the incongruent vs the neutral condition. However, no substantial activation in either the right or left hemisphere of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was detected. In accordance with a series of recent articles, we argue that the ACC is not specifically involved in interference processes. The ACC seems rather involved in motor preparation processes which were controlled in the present Color-Word Matching Stroop task. We argue that the region around the banks of the inferior frontal sulcus is required to solve interference problems, a concept which can also be seen as a component of task set management. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Ego involvement increases doping likelihood.

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Ring, Christopher; Kavussanu, Maria

2018-08-01

Achievement goal theory provides a framework to help understand how individuals behave in achievement contexts, such as sport. Evidence concerning the role of motivation in the decision to use banned performance enhancing substances (i.e., doping) is equivocal on this issue. The extant literature shows that dispositional goal orientation has been weakly and inconsistently associated with doping intention and use. It is possible that goal involvement, which describes the situational motivational state, is a stronger determinant of doping intention. Accordingly, the current study used an experimental design to examine the effects of goal involvement, manipulated using direct instructions and reflective writing, on doping likelihood in hypothetical situations in college athletes. The ego-involving goal increased doping likelihood compared to no goal and a task-involving goal. The present findings provide the first evidence that ego involvement can sway the decision to use doping to improve athletic performance.

Involving construction in the preliminary engineering process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahoney, D.T. Jr.; Boccieri, S.V. Jr.

1994-01-01

With today's high cost associated with modifications in nuclear power plants, it is imperative that the authors continue to investigate ways to cut costs but at the same time improve efficiency and reduce radiation exposure to those directly associated with the implementation of modifications. The success associated with involving construction in the preliminary engineering process will not only cut costs and improve efficiency but will establish a Team Building concept to provide accountability to all those associated with the implementation of the task. This form of partnering focuses on the solutions rather than highlighting the difficulties. This paper will demonstrate techniques to implement such ideas and provide examples to corroborate actual successes already achieved

Preferential processing of task-irrelevant beloved-related information and task performance: Two event-related potential studies.

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Langeslag, Sandra J E; van Strien, Jan W

2017-09-18

People who are in love have better attention for beloved-related information, but report having trouble focusing on other tasks, such as (home)work. So, romantic love can both improve and hurt cognition. Emotional information is preferentially processed, which improves task performance when the information is task-relevant, but hurts task performance when it is task-irrelevant. Because beloved-related information is highly emotional, the effects of romantic love on cognition may resemble these effects of emotion on cognition. We examined whether beloved-related information is preferentially processed even when it is task-irrelevant and whether this hurts task performance. In two event-related potential studies, participants who had recently fallen in love performed a visuospatial short-term memory task. Task-irrelevant beloved, friend, and stranger faces were presented during maintenance (Study 1), or encoding (Study 2). The Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) reflecting early automatic attentional capturing and the Late Positive Potential (LPP) reflecting sustained motivated attention were largest for beloved pictures. Thus, beloved pictures are preferentially processed even when they are task-irrelevant. Task performance and reaction times did not differ between beloved, friend, and stranger conditions. Nevertheless, self-reported obsessive thinking about the beloved tended to correlate negatively with task performance, and positively with reaction times, across conditions. So, although task-irrelevant beloved-related information does not impact task performance, more obsessive thinking about the beloved might relate to poorer and slower overall task performance. More research is needed to clarify why people experience trouble focusing on beloved-unrelated tasks and how this negative effect of love on cognition could be reduced. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Task switching costs in preschool children and adults.

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Peng, Anna; Kirkham, Natasha Z; Mareschal, Denis

2018-08-01

Past research investigating cognitive flexibility has shown that preschool children make many perseverative errors in tasks that require switching between different sets of rules. However, this inflexibility might not necessarily hold with easier tasks. The current study investigated the developmental differences in cognitive flexibility using a task-switching procedure that compared reaction times and accuracy in 4- and 6-year-olds with those in adults. The experiment involved simple target detection tasks and was intentionally designed in a way that the stimulus and response conflicts were minimal together with a long preparation window. Global mixing costs (performance costs when multiple tasks are relevant in a context), and local switch costs (performance costs due to switching to an alternative task) are typically thought to engage endogenous control processes. If this is the case, we should observe developmental differences with both of these costs. Our results show, however, that when the accuracy was good, there were no age differences in cognitive flexibility (i.e., the ability to manage multiple tasks and to switch between tasks) between children and adults. Even though preschool children had slower reaction times and were less accurate, the mixing and switch costs associated with task switching were not reliably larger for preschool children. Preschool children did, however, show more commission errors and greater response repetition effects than adults, which may reflect differences in inhibitory control. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Daily Access to Sucrose Impairs Aspects of Spatial Memory Tasks Reliant on Pattern Separation and Neural Proliferation in Rats

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Reichelt, Amy C.; Morris, Margaret J.; Westbrook, Reginald Frederick

2016-01-01

High sugar diets reduce hippocampal neurogenesis, which is required for minimizing interference between memories, a process that involves "pattern separation." We provided rats with 2 h daily access to a sucrose solution for 28 d and assessed their performance on a spatial memory task. Sucrose consuming rats discriminated between objects…

Poorer divided attention in children born very preterm can be explained by difficulty with each component task, not the executive requirement to dual-task.

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Delane, Louise; Campbell, Catherine; Bayliss, Donna M; Reid, Corinne; Stephens, Amelia; French, Noel; Anderson, Mike

2017-07-01

Children born very preterm (VP, ≤ 32 weeks) exhibit poor performance on tasks of executive functioning. However, it is largely unknown whether this reflects the cumulative impact of non-executive deficits or a separable impairment in executive-level abilities. A dual-task paradigm was used in the current study to differentiate the executive processes involved in performing two simple attention tasks simultaneously. The executive-level contribution to performance was indexed by the within-subject cost incurred to single-task performance under dual-task conditions, termed dual-task cost. The participants included 77 VP children (mean age: 7.17 years) and 74 peer controls (mean age: 7.16 years) who completed Sky Search (selective attention), Score (sustained attention) and Sky Search DT (divided attention) from the Test of Everyday Attention for Children. The divided-attention task requires the simultaneous performance of the selective- and sustained-attention tasks. The VP group exhibited poorer performance on the selective- and divided-attention tasks, and showed a strong trend toward poorer performance on the sustained-attention task. However, there were no significant group differences in dual-task cost. These results suggest a cumulative impact of vulnerable lower-level cognitive processes on dual-tasking or divided attention in VP children, and fail to support the hypothesis that VP children show a separable impairment in executive-level abilities.

Comparison of Physiological and Psychological Relaxation Using Measurements of Heart Rate Variability, Prefrontal Cortex Activity, and Subjective Indexes after Completing Tasks with and without Foliage Plants

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Sin-Ae Park

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to compare physiological and psychological relaxation by assessing heart rate variability (HRV, prefrontal cortex activity, and subjective indexes while subjects performed a task with and without foliage plants. In a crossover experimental design, 24 university students performed a task transferring pots with and without a foliage plant for 3 min. HRV and oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb concentration in the prefrontal cortex were continuously measured. Immediately thereafter, subjective evaluation of emotions was performed using a modified semantic differential (SD method and a profile of mood state questionnaire (POMS. Results showed that the natural logarithmic (ln ratio of low frequency/high frequency, as an estimate of sympathetic nerve activity, was significantly lower while performing the task with foliage plants for the average 3 min measurement interval. Oxy-Hb concentration in the left prefrontal cortex showed a tendency to decrease in the 2–3 min interval in the task with foliage plants compared to the task without plants. Moreover, significant psychological relaxation according to POMS score and SD was demonstrated when the task involved foliage plants. In conclusion, the task involving foliage plants led to more physiological and psychological relaxation compared with the task without foliage plants.

The application of subjective job task analysis techniques in physically demanding occupations: evidence for the presence of self-serving bias.

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Lee-Bates, Benjamin; Billing, Daniel C; Caputi, Peter; Carstairs, Greg L; Linnane, Denise; Middleton, Kane

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to determine if perceptions of physically demanding job tasks are biased by employee demographics and employment profile characteristics including: age, sex, experience, length of tenure, rank and if they completed or supervised a task. Surveys were administered to 427 Royal Australian Navy personnel who characterised 33 tasks in terms of physical effort, importance, frequency, duration and vertical/horizontal distance travelled. Results showed no evidence of bias resulting from participant characteristics, however participants who were actively involved in both task participation and supervision rated these tasks as more important than those involved only in the supervision of that task. This may indicate self-serving bias in which participants that are more actively involved in a task had an inflated perception of that task's importance. These results have important implications for the conduct of job task analyses, especially the use of subjective methodologies in the development of scientifically defensible physical employment standards. Practitioner Summary: To examine the presence of systematic bias in subjective job task analysis methodologies, a survey was conducted on a sample of Royal Australian Navy personnel. The relationship between job task descriptions and participant's demographic and job profile characteristics revealed the presence of self-serving bias affecting perceptions of task importance.

Investigation of crew performance in a multi-vehicle supervisory control task

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Miller, R. A.; Plamondon, B. D.; Jagacinski, R. J.; Kirlik, A. C.

1986-01-01

Crew information processing and decision making in a supervisory control task which is loosely based on the mission of future generation helicopters is measured and represented. Subjects control the motion and activities of their own vehicle and direct the activities of four additional craft. The task involves searching an uncertain environment for cargo and enemies, returning cargo to home base and destroying enemies while attempting to avoid destruction of the scout and the supervised vehicles. A series of experiments with two-person crews and one-person crews were performed. Resulting crew performance was modeled with the objective of describing and understanding the information processing strategies utilized. Of particular interest are problem simplification strategies under time stress and high work load, simplification and compensation in the one-person cases, crew coordination in the two-person cases, and the relationship between strategy and errors in all cases. The results should provide some insight into the effective use of aids, particularly aids based on artificial intelligence, for similar tasks. The simulation is described which is used for the study and some preliminary results from the first two-person crew study are discussed.

Task activation and functional connectivity show concordant memory laterality in temporal lobe epilepsy.

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Sideman, Noah; Chaitanya, Ganne; He, Xiaosong; Doucet, Gaelle; Kim, Na Young; Sperling, Michael R; Sharan, Ashwini D; Tracy, Joseph I

2018-04-01

In epilepsy, asymmetries in the organization of mesial temporal lobe (MTL) functions help determine the cognitive risk associated with procedures such as anterior temporal lobectomy. Past studies have investigated the change/shift in a visual episodic memory laterality index (LI) in mesial temporal lobe structures through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task activations. Here, we examine whether underlying task-related functional connectivity (FC) is concordant with such standard fMRI laterality measures. A total of 56 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (Left TLE [LTLE]: 31; Right TLE [RTLE]: 25) and 34 matched healthy controls (HC) underwent fMRI scanning during performance of a scene encoding task (SET). We assessed an activation-based LI of the hippocampal gyrus (HG) and parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) during the SET and its correspondence with task-related FC measures. Analyses involving the HG and PHG showed that the patients with LTLE had a consistently higher LI (right-lateralized) than that of the HC and group with RTLE, indicating functional reorganization. The patients with RTLE did not display a reliable contralateral shift away from the pathology, with the mesial structures showing quite distinct laterality patterns (HG, no laterality bias; PHG, no evidence of LI shift). The FC data for the group with LTLE provided confirmation of reorganization effects, revealing that a rightward task LI may be based on underlying connections between several left-sided regions (middle/superior occipital and left medial frontal gyri) and the right PHG. The FCs between the right HG and left anterior cingulate/medial frontal gyri were also observed in LTLE. Importantly, the data demonstrate that the areas involved in the LTLE task activation shift to the right hemisphere showed a corresponding increase in task-related FCs between the hemispheres. Altered laterality patterns based on mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) pathology manifest as several

The impact of task demand on visual word recognition.

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Yang, J; Zevin, J

2014-07-11

The left occipitotemporal cortex has been found sensitive to the hierarchy of increasingly complex features in visually presented words, from individual letters to bigrams and morphemes. However, whether this sensitivity is a stable property of the brain regions engaged by word recognition is still unclear. To address the issue, the current study investigated whether different task demands modify this sensitivity. Participants viewed real English words and stimuli with hierarchical word-likeness while performing a lexical decision task (i.e., to decide whether each presented stimulus is a real word) and a symbol detection task. General linear model and independent component analysis indicated strong activation in the fronto-parietal and temporal regions during the two tasks. Furthermore, the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and insula showed significant interaction effects between task demand and stimulus type in the pseudoword condition. The occipitotemporal cortex showed strong main effects for task demand and stimulus type, but no sensitivity to the hierarchical word-likeness was found. These results suggest that different task demands on semantic, phonological and orthographic processes can influence the involvement of the relevant regions during visual word recognition. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Robot Learning from Demonstration: A Task-level Planning Approach

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Staffan Ekvall

2008-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we deal with the problem of learning by demonstration, task level learning and planning for robotic applications that involve object manipulation. Preprogramming robots for execution of complex domestic tasks such as setting a dinner table is of little use, since the same order of subtasks may not be conceivable in the run time due to the changed state of the world. In our approach, we aim to learn the goal of the task and use a task planner to reach the goal given different initial states of the world. For some tasks, there are underlying constraints that must be fulfille, and knowing just the final goal is not sufficient. We propose two techniques for constraint identification. In the first case, the teacher can directly instruct the system about the underlying constraints. In the second case, the constraints are identified by the robot itself based on multiple observations. The constraints are then considered in the planning phase, allowing the task to be executed without violating any of them. We evaluate our work on a real robot performing pick-and-place tasks.

Increasing On-Task Behavior in Students in a Regular Classroom: Effectiveness of a Self-Management Procedure Using a Tactile Prompt

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Dennis W.; Anderson, Angelika; Glassenbury, Michele; Lang, Russell; Didden, Robert

2013-01-01

Self-management strategies have been shown to be widely effective. However, limited classroom-based research exists involving low performing but developmentally normal high school-aged participants. This study examined the effectiveness of a self-management strategy aimed at increasing on-task behavior in general education classrooms with students…

Cockpit task management: A preliminary, normative theory

Science.gov (United States)

Funk, Ken

1991-01-01

Cockpit task management (CTM) involves the initiation, monitoring, prioritizing, and allocation of resources to concurrent tasks as well as termination of multiple concurrent tasks. As aircrews have more tasks to attend to due to reduced crew sizes and the increased complexity of aircraft and the air transportation system, CTM will become a more critical factor in aviation safety. It is clear that many aviation accidents and incidents can be satisfactorily explained in terms of CTM errors, and it is likely that more accidents induced by poor CTM practice will occur in the future unless the issue is properly addressed. The first step in understanding and facilitating CTM behavior was the development of a preliminary, normative theory of CTM which identifies several important CTM functions. From this theory, some requirements for pilot-vehicle interfaces were developed which are believed to facilitate CTM. A prototype PVI was developed which improves CTM performance and currently, a research program is under way that is aimed at developing a better understanding of CTM and facilitating CTM performance through better equipment and procedures.

Applying genetic algorithms for programming manufactoring cell tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Efredy Delgado

2005-05-01

Full Text Available This work was aimed for developing computational intelligence for scheduling a manufacturing cell's tasks, based manily on genetic algorithms. The manufacturing cell was modelled as beign a production-line; the makespan was calculated by using heuristics adapted from several libraries for genetic algorithms computed in C++ builder. Several problems dealing with small, medium and large list of jobs and machinery were resolved. The results were compared with other heuristics. The approach developed here would seem to be promising for future research concerning scheduling manufacturing cell tasks involving mixed batches.

Exploring individual differences in task switching: Persistence and other personality traits related to anterior cingulate cortex function.

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Umemoto, A; Holroyd, C B

2016-01-01

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in cognitive control and decision-making but its precise function is still highly debated. Based on evidence from lesion, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies, we have recently proposed a critical role for ACC in motivating extended behaviors according to learned task values (Holroyd and Yeung, 2012). Computational simulations based on this theory suggest a hierarchical mechanism in which a caudal division of ACC selects and applies control over task execution, and a rostral division of ACC facilitates switches between tasks according to a higher task strategy (Holroyd and McClure, 2015). This theoretical framework suggests that ACC may contribute to personality traits related to persistence and reward sensitivity (Holroyd and Umemoto, 2016). To explore this possibility, we carried out a voluntary task switching experiment in which on each trial participants freely chose one of two tasks to perform, under the condition that they try to select the tasks "at random" and equally often. The participants also completed several questionnaires that assessed personality trait related to persistence, apathy, anhedonia, and rumination, in addition to the Big 5 personality inventory. Among other findings, we observed greater compliance with task instructions by persistent individuals, as manifested by a greater facility with switching between tasks, which is suggestive of increased engagement of rostral ACC. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pretraining Cortical Thickness Predicts Subsequent Perceptual Learning Rate in a Visual Search Task.

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Frank, Sebastian M; Reavis, Eric A; Greenlee, Mark W; Tse, Peter U

2016-03-01

We report that preexisting individual differences in the cortical thickness of brain areas involved in a perceptual learning task predict the subsequent perceptual learning rate. Participants trained in a motion-discrimination task involving visual search for a "V"-shaped target motion trajectory among inverted "V"-shaped distractor trajectories. Motion-sensitive area MT+ (V5) was functionally identified as critical to the task: after 3 weeks of training, activity increased in MT+ during task performance, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. We computed the cortical thickness of MT+ from anatomical magnetic resonance imaging volumes collected before training started, and found that it significantly predicted subsequent perceptual learning rates in the visual search task. Participants with thicker neocortex in MT+ before training learned faster than those with thinner neocortex in that area. A similar association between cortical thickness and training success was also found in posterior parietal cortex (PPC). © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

An approach to integrating surveillance and maintenance tasks to prevent the dominant failure causes of critical components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martorell, S.; Munoz, A.; Serradell, V.

1995-01-01

Surveillance requirements and maintenance activities in a nuclear power plant aim to preserve components' inherent reliability. Up to now, predictive and preventive maintenance mainly concerned plant staff, but the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Maintenance Rule released in July 1991 will have significant impact on how nuclear power plants perform and document this maintenance. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a systematic methodology to establish maintenance tasks for critical components in plant with a high degree of compliance with the goals of the Rule. RCM pursues the identification of applicable and efficient tasks to prevent these components from developing their dominant failure causes, and, in turn, towards achieving proper levels of components availability with low cost. In this paper, we present an approach for identifying the most suitable set of tasks to achieve this goal, which involves the integration of maintenance activities and surveillance requirements for each critical component based on the unavailability and cost associated with each individual task which is performed on it

Effects of noise and task loading on a communication task loading on a communication task

Science.gov (United States)

Orrell, Dean H., II

Previous research had shown the effect of noise on a single communication task. This research has been criticized as not being representative of a real world situation since subjects allocated all of their attention to only one task. In the present study, the effect of adding a loading task to a standard noise-communication paradigm was investigated. Subjects performed both a communication task (Modified Rhyme Test; House et al. 1965) and a short term memory task (Sternberg, 1969) in simulated levels of aircraft noise (95, 105 and 115 dB overall sound pressure level (OASPL)). Task loading was varied with Sternberg's task by requiring subjects to memorize one, four, or six alphanumeric characters. Simulated aircraft noise was varied between levels of 95, 105 and 115 dB OASPL using a pink noise source. Results show that the addition of Sternberg's task and little effect on the intelligibility of the communication task while response time for the communication task increased.

Task demand, task management, and teamwork

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Braarud, Per Oeivind; Brendryen, Haavar

2001-03-15

The current approach to mental workload assessment in process control was evaluated in 3 previous HAMMLAB studies, by analysing the relationship between workload related measures and performance. The results showed that subjective task complexity rating was related to team's control room performance, that mental effort (NASA-TLX) was weakly related to performance, and that overall activity level was unrelated to performance. The results support the argument that general cognitive measures, i.e., mental workload, are weakly related to performance in the process control domain. This implies that other workload concepts than general mental workload are needed for valid assessment of human reliability and for valid assessment of control room configurations. An assessment of task load in process control suggested that how effort is used to handle task demand is more important then the level of effort invested to solve the task. The report suggests two main workload related concepts with a potential as performance predictors in process control: task requirements, and the work style describing how effort is invested to solve the task. The task requirements are seen as composed of individual task demand and team demand. In a similar way work style are seen as composed of individual task management and teamwork style. A framework for the development of the concepts is suggested based on a literature review and experiences from HAMMLAB research. It is suggested that operational definitions of workload concepts should be based on observable control room behaviour, to assure a potential for developing performance-shaping factors. Finally an explorative analysis of teamwork measures and performance in one study indicated that teamwork concepts are related to performance. This lends support to the suggested development of team demand and teamwork style as elements of a framework for the analysis of workload in process control. (Author)

Task planning systems with natural language interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kambayashi, Shaw; Uenaka, Junji

1989-12-01

In this report, a natural language analyzer and two different task planning systems are described. In 1988, we have introduced a Japanese language analyzer named CS-PARSER for the input interface of the task planning system in the Human Acts Simulation Program (HASP). For the purpose of a high speed analysis, we have modified a dictionary system of the CS-PARSER by using C language description. It is found that the new dictionary system is very useful for a high speed analysis and an efficient maintenance of the dictionary. For the study of the task planning problem, we have modified a story generating system named Micro TALE-SPIN to generate a story written in Japanese sentences. We have also constructed a planning system with natural language interface by using the CS-PARSER. Task planning processes and related knowledge bases of these systems are explained. A concept design for a new task planning system will be also discussed from evaluations of above mentioned systems. (author)

Task A: direct photon production (R807/808) and lepton production (NA34). Task B: direct photon production at the Tevatron (E-706). Task C: search for fractional charge particles in semiconductors. Progress report, June 1, 1984-May 31, 1985

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleland, W.E.; Coon, D.D.; Engels, E. Jr.; Shepard, P.F.; Thompson, J.A.

1984-12-01

Task A started as the support of Pitt contingent of the Axial Field Spectrometer Collaboration, performing experiment R807/808 at CERN. Last year we joined a collaboration which was formed around the same basic group to perform an experiment at the SPS, using many of the R807/808 components to set up an experiment to study lepton production (NA34). We are therefore involved both in the setting up of the new experiment, for which we have taken a major responsibility for the trigger system, and in the analysis of data from the AFS experiment. The R807/808 experiment has probed several topics related to study of high P/sub T/ phenomena such as production of jets at high E/sub T/ [1, 2, 3, 4] and a comparison of their properties with jets seen in e + e - . Task B supports the Pitt contingent of the E706 collaboration, which is studying prompt photon production in πp and pp collisions at the Tevatron. The major contribution of the Pitt effort to the experiment is the provision of the array of semiconductor detectors required for the charged particle spectrometer to be used in the study of correlated hadronic jets. Because of the physics overlap between tasks A and B, our active participation in R807/808 strengthens our contribution to E706. In particular, the πp/pp comparison in E706 complements the anti pp/pp comparison in R807/808. Task C is the search for fractional-charge in semiconductors. The major effort is the development of a new experimental technique which combines field ionization and low background infrared spectroscopy using a liquid helium cooled monochromator and a computer controlled data acquisition. 87 references

Distributed Task Rescheduling With Time Constraints for the Optimization of Total Task Allocations in a Multirobot System.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Joanna; Meng, Qinggang; Schaefer, Gerald; Whitbrook, Amanda; Soltoggio, Andrea

2017-09-28

This paper considers the problem of maximizing the number of task allocations in a distributed multirobot system under strict time constraints, where other optimization objectives need also be considered. It builds upon existing distributed task allocation algorithms, extending them with a novel method for maximizing the number of task assignments. The fundamental idea is that a task assignment to a robot has a high cost if its reassignment to another robot creates a feasible time slot for unallocated tasks. Multiple reassignments among networked robots may be required to create a feasible time slot and an upper limit to this number of reassignments can be adjusted according to performance requirements. A simulated rescue scenario with task deadlines and fuel limits is used to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method compared with existing methods, the consensus-based bundle algorithm and the performance impact (PI) algorithm. Starting from existing (PI-generated) solutions, results show up to a 20% increase in task allocations using the proposed method.

The Influence of Levels of Processing on Recall from Working Memory and Delayed Recall Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Loaiza, Vanessa M.; McCabe, David P.; Youngblood, Jessie L.; Rose, Nathan S.; Myerson, Joel

2011-01-01

Recent research in working memory has highlighted the similarities involved in retrieval from complex span tasks and episodic memory tasks, suggesting that these tasks are influenced by similar memory processes. In the present article, the authors manipulated the level of processing engaged when studying to-be-remembered words during a reading…

Hippocampal NMDA receptors are involved in rats' spontaneous object recognition only under high memory load condition.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugita, Manami; Yamada, Kazuo; Iguchi, Natsumi; Ichitani, Yukio

2015-10-22

The possible involvement of hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in spontaneous object recognition was investigated in rats under different memory load conditions. We first estimated rats' object memory span using 3-5 objects in "Different Objects Task (DOT)" in order to confirm the highest memory load condition in object recognition memory. Rats were allowed to explore a field in which 3 (3-DOT), 4 (4-DOT), or 5 (5-DOT) different objects were presented. After a delay period, they were placed again in the same field in which one of the sample objects was replaced by another object, and their object exploration behavior was analyzed. Rats could differentiate the novel object from the familiar ones in 3-DOT and 4-DOT but not in 5-DOT, suggesting that rats' object memory span was about 4. Then, we examined the effects of hippocampal AP5 infusion on performance in both 2-DOT (2 different objects were used) and 4-DOT. The drug treatment before the sample phase impaired performance only in 4-DOT. These results suggest that hippocampal NMDA receptors play a critical role in spontaneous object recognition only when the memory load is high. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Novel Method for Assessing Task Complexity in Outpatient Clinical-Performance Measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Hysong, Sylvia J; Amspoker, Amber B; Petersen, Laura A

2016-04-01

Clinical-performance measurement has helped improve the quality of health-care; yet success in attaining high levels of quality across multiple domains simultaneously still varies considerably. Although many sources of variability in care quality have been studied, the difficulty required to complete the clinical work itself has received little attention. We present a task-based methodology for evaluating the difficulty of clinical-performance measures (CPMs) by assessing the complexity of their component requisite tasks. Using Functional Job Analysis (FJA), subject-matter experts (SMEs) generated task lists for 17 CPMs; task lists were rated on ten dimensions of complexity, and then aggregated into difficulty composites. Eleven outpatient work SMEs; 133 VA Medical Centers nationwide. Clinical Performance: 17 outpatient CPMs (2000-2008) at 133 VA Medical Centers nationwide. Measure Difficulty: for each CPM, the number of component requisite tasks and the average rating across ten FJA complexity scales for the set of tasks comprising the measure. Measures varied considerably in the number of component tasks (M = 10.56, SD = 6.25, min = 5, max = 25). Measures of chronic care following acute myocardial infarction exhibited significantly higher measure difficulty ratings compared to diabetes or screening measures, but not to immunization measures ([Formula: see text] = 0.45, -0.04, -0.05, and -0.06 respectively; F (3, 186) = 3.57, p = 0.015). Measure difficulty ratings were not significantly correlated with the number of component tasks (r = -0.30, p = 0.23). Evaluating the difficulty of achieving recommended CPM performance levels requires more than simply counting the tasks involved; using FJA to assess the complexity of CPMs' component tasks presents an alternate means of assessing the difficulty of primary-care CPMs and accounting for performance variation among measures and performers. This in turn could be used in designing

Perception of chemesthetic stimuli in groups who differ by food involvement and culinary experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Byrnes, Nadia; Loss, Christopher R; Hayes, John E

2015-12-01

In the English language, there is generally a limited lexicon when referring to the sensations elicited by chemesthetic stimuli like capsaicin, allyl isothiocyanate, and eugenol, the orally irritating compounds found in chiles, wasabi, and cloves, respectively. Elsewhere, experts and novices have been shown to use language differently, with experts using more precise language. Here, we compare perceptual maps and word usage across three cohorts: experts with formal culinary education, naïve individuals with high Food Involvement Scale (FIS) scores, and naïve individuals with low FIS scores. We hypothesized that increased experience with foods, whether through informal experiential learning or formal culinary education, would have a significant influence on the perceptual maps generated from a sorting task conducted with chemesthetic stimuli, as well as on language use in a descriptive follow-up task to this sorting task. The low- and highFIS non-expert cohorts generated significantly similar maps, though in other respects the highFIS cohort was an intermediate between the lowFIS and expert cohorts. The highFIS and expert cohorts generated more attributes but used language more idiosyncratically than the lowFIS group. Overall, the results from the expert group with formal culinary education differed from the two naïve cohorts both in the perceptual map generated using MDS as well as the mean number of attributes generated. Present data suggest that both formal education and informal experiential learning result in lexical development, but the level and type of learning can have a significant influence on language use and the approach to a sorting task.

The planetary water drama: Dual task of feeding humanity and curbing climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Rockström, J.; Falkenmark, M.; Lannerstad, M.; Karlberg, L.

2012-08-01

This paper analyses the potential conflict between resilience of the Earth system and global freshwater requirements for the dual task of carbon sequestration to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, and food production to feed humanity by 2050. It makes an attempt to assess the order of magnitude of the increased consumptive water use involved and analyses the implications as seen from two parallel perspectives; the global perspective of human development within a “safe operating space” with regard to the definition of the Planetary Boundary for freshwater; and the social-ecological implications at the regional river basin scale in terms of sharpening water shortages and threats to aquatic ecosystems. The paper shows that the consumptive water use involved in the dual task would both transgress the proposed planetary boundary range for global consumptive freshwater use and would further exacerbate already severe river depletion, causing societal problems related to water shortage and water allocation. Thus, strategies to rely on sequestration of CO2 as a mitigation strategy must recognize the high freshwater costs involved, implying that the key climate mitigation strategy must be to reduce emissions. The paper finally highlights the need to analyze both water and carbon tradeoffs from anticipated large scale biofuel production climate change mitigation strategy, to reveal gains and impact of this in contrast to carbon sequestration strategies.

Attention improves encoding of task-relevant features in the human visual cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Jehee, Janneke F.M.; Brady, Devin K.; Tong, Frank

2011-01-01

When spatial attention is directed towards a particular stimulus, increased activity is commonly observed in corresponding locations of the visual cortex. Does this attentional increase in activity indicate improved processing of all features contained within the attended stimulus, or might spatial attention selectively enhance the features relevant to the observer’s task? We used fMRI decoding methods to measure the strength of orientation-selective activity patterns in the human visual cortex while subjects performed either an orientation or contrast discrimination task, involving one of two laterally presented gratings. Greater overall BOLD activation with spatial attention was observed in areas V1-V4 for both tasks. However, multivariate pattern analysis revealed that orientation-selective responses were enhanced by attention only when orientation was the task-relevant feature, and not when the grating’s contrast had to be attended. In a second experiment, observers discriminated the orientation or color of a specific lateral grating. Here, orientation-selective responses were enhanced in both tasks but color-selective responses were enhanced only when color was task-relevant. In both experiments, task-specific enhancement of feature-selective activity was not confined to the attended stimulus location, but instead spread to other locations in the visual field, suggesting the concurrent involvement of a global feature-based attentional mechanism. These results suggest that attention can be remarkably selective in its ability to enhance particular task-relevant features, and further reveal that increases in overall BOLD amplitude are not necessarily accompanied by improved processing of stimulus information. PMID:21632942

Improving multi-tasking ability through action videogames.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiappe, Dan; Conger, Mark; Liao, Janet; Caldwell, J Lynn; Vu, Kim-Phuong L

2013-03-01

The present study examined whether action videogames can improve multi-tasking in high workload environments. Two groups with no action videogame experience were pre-tested using the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB). It consists of two primary tasks; tracking and fuel management, and two secondary tasks; systems monitoring and communication. One group served as a control group, while a second played action videogames a minimum of 5 h a week for 10 weeks. Both groups returned for a post-assessment on the MATB. We found the videogame treatment enhanced performance on secondary tasks, without interfering with the primary tasks. Our results demonstrate action videogames can increase people's ability to take on additional tasks by increasing attentional capacity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Dynamic Involvement of Real World Objects in the IoT: A Consensus-Based Cooperation Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Pilloni, Virginia; Atzori, Luigi; Mallus, Matteo

2017-03-01

A significant role in the Internet of Things (IoT) will be taken by mobile and low-cost unstable devices, which autonomously self-organize and introduce highly dynamic and heterogeneous scenarios for the deployment of distributed applications. This entails the devices to cooperate to dynamically find the suitable combination of their involvement so as to improve the system reliability while following the changes in their status. Focusing on the above scenario, we propose a distributed algorithm for resources allocation that is run by devices that can perform the same task required by the applications, allowing for a flexible and dynamic binding of the requested services with the physical IoT devices. It is based on a consensus approach, which maximizes the lifetime of groups of nodes involved and ensures the fulfillment of the requested Quality of Information (QoI) requirements. Experiments have been conducted with real devices, showing an improvement of device lifetime of more than 20 % , with respect to a uniform distribution of tasks.

High precision frequency estimation for harpsichord tuning classification

OpenAIRE

Tidhar, D.; Mauch, M.; Dixon, S.

2010-01-01

We present a novel music signal processing task of classifying the tuning of a harpsichord from audio recordings of standard musical works. We report the results of a classification experiment involving six different temperaments, using real harpsichord recordings as well as synthesised audio data. We introduce the concept of conservative transcription, and show that existing high-precision pitch estimation techniques are sufficient for our task if combined with conservative transcription. In...

Task analysis: a detailed example of stepping up from JSA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banks, W.W.; Paramore, B.A.; Buys, J.R.

1984-10-01

This paper discusses a pilot task analysis of operations in a proposed facility for the cutting and packaging of radioactively contaminated gloveboxes, for long-term storage or burial. The objective was to demonstrate how task analysis may be used as a tool for planning and risk management. Two specific products were generated - preliminary operating procedures and training requirements. The task data base, procedures list and training requirements developed were intended as first order categorizations. The analysis was limited to tasks that will be performed within the boundaries of the operational facility and the associated load-out area. The analysis documents tasks to be performed by D and D (Decontamination and Decommissioning) Workers. However, the analysis included all tasks identified as an integral part of glovebox processing within the facility. Thus tasks involving Radiation Protection Technicians (RPTs) are included. Based on hazard assessments, it is planned that at least two RPTs will be assigned full-time to the facility, so they may be considered part of its crew. Similarly, supervisory/administrative tasks are included where they were determined to be directly part of process sequences, such as obtaining appropriate certification. 11 tables

Set-based Tasks within the Singularity-robust Multiple Task-priority Inverse Kinematics Framework: General Formulation, Stability Analysis and Experimental Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Signe eMoe

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Inverse kinematics algorithms are commonly used in robotic systems to transform tasks to joint references, and several methods exist to ensure the achievement of several tasks simultaneously. The multiple task-priority inverse kinematicsframework allows tasks to be considered in a prioritized order by projecting task velocities through the nullspaces of higherpriority tasks. This paper extends this framework to handle setbased tasks, i.e. tasks with a range of valid values, in addition to equality tasks, which have a specific desired value. Examples of set-based tasks are joint limit and obstacle avoidance. The proposed method is proven to ensure asymptotic convergence of the equality task errors and the satisfaction of all high-priority set-based tasks. The practical implementation of the proposed algorithm is discussed, and experimental results are presented where a number of both set-based and equality tasks have been implemented on a 6 degree of freedom UR5 which is an industrial robotic arm from Universal Robots. The experiments validate thetheoretical results and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Task analysis and support for problem solving tasks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bainbridge, L.

1987-01-01

This paper is concerned with Task Analysis as the basis for ergonomic design to reduce human error rates, rather than for predicting human error rates. Task Analysis techniques usually provide a set of categories for describing sub tasks, and a framework describing the relations between sub-tasks. Both the task type categories and their organisation have implications for optimum interface and training design. In this paper, the framework needed for considering the most complex tasks faced by operators in process industries is discussed such as fault management in unexpected situations, and what is likely to minimise human error in these circumstances. (author)

Integrating the Use of Interdisciplinary Learning Activity Task in Creating Students' Mathematical Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Mahanin, Hajah Umisuzimah Haji; Shahrill, Masitah; Tan, Abby; Mahadi, Mar Aswandi

2017-01-01

This study investigated the use of interdisciplinary learning activity task to construct students' knowledge in Mathematics, specifically on the topic of scale drawing application. The learning activity task involved more than one academic discipline, which is Mathematics, English Language, Art, Geography and integrating the Brunei Darussalam…

Dynamic, continuous multitasking training leads to task-specific improvements but does not transfer across action selection tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Bender, Angela D.; Filmer, Hannah L.; Naughtin, Claire K.; Dux, Paul E.

2017-12-01

The ability to perform multiple tasks concurrently is an ever-increasing requirement in our information-rich world. Despite this, multitasking typically compromises performance due to the processing limitations associated with cognitive control and decision-making. While intensive dual-task training is known to improve multitasking performance, only limited evidence suggests that training-related performance benefits can transfer to untrained tasks that share overlapping processes. In the real world, however, coordinating and selecting several responses within close temporal proximity will often occur in high-interference environments. Over the last decade, there have been notable reports that training on video action games that require dynamic multitasking in a demanding environment can lead to transfer effects on aspects of cognition such as attention and working memory. Here, we asked whether continuous and dynamic multitasking training extends benefits to tasks that are theoretically related to the trained tasks. To examine this issue, we asked a group of participants to train on a combined continuous visuomotor tracking task and a perceptual discrimination task for six sessions, while an active control group practiced the component tasks in isolation. A battery of tests measuring response selection, response inhibition, and spatial attention was administered before and immediately after training to investigate transfer. Multitasking training resulted in substantial, task-specific gains in dual-task ability, but there was no evidence that these benefits generalized to other action control tasks. The findings suggest that training on a combined visuomotor tracking and discrimination task results in task-specific benefits but provides no additional value for untrained action selection tasks.

Brain circuitries involved in semantic interference by demands of emotional and non-emotional distractors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Chechko

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Previous studies have indicated that the processes leading to the resolution of emotional and non-emotional interference conflicts are unrelated, involving separate networks. It is also known that conflict resolution itself suggests a considerable overlap of the networks. Our study is an attempt to examine how these findings may be related. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to study neural responses of 24 healthy subjects to emotional and non-emotional conflict paradigms involving the presentation of congruent and incongruent word-face pairs based on semantic incompatibility between targets and distractors. In the emotional task, the behavioral interference conflict was greater (compared to the non-emotional task and was paralleled by involvement of the extrastriate visual and posterodorsal medial frontal cortices. In both tasks, we also observed a common network including the dorsal anterior cingulate, the supplemental motor area, the anterior insula and the inferior prefrontal cortex, indicating that these brain structures are markers of experienced conflict. However, the emotional task involved conflict-triggered networks to a considerably higher degree. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings indicate that responses to emotional and non-emotional distractors involve the same systems, which are capable of flexible adjustments based on conflict demands. The function of systems related to conflict resolution is likely to be adjusted on the basis of an evaluation process that primarily involves the extrastriate visual cortex, with target playing a significant role.

Automatic-heuristic and executive-analytic processing during reasoning: Chronometric and dual-task considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

De Neys, Wim

2006-06-01

Human reasoning has been shown to overly rely on intuitive, heuristic processing instead of a more demanding analytic inference process. Four experiments tested the central claim of current dual-process theories that analytic operations involve time-consuming executive processing whereas the heuristic system would operate automatically. Participants solved conjunction fallacy problems and indicative and deontic selection tasks. Experiment 1 established that making correct analytic inferences demanded more processing time than did making heuristic inferences. Experiment 2 showed that burdening the executive resources with an attention-demanding secondary task decreased correct, analytic responding and boosted the rate of conjunction fallacies and indicative matching card selections. Results were replicated in Experiments 3 and 4 with a different secondary-task procedure. Involvement of executive resources for the deontic selection task was less clear. Findings validate basic processing assumptions of the dual-process framework and complete the correlational research programme of K. E. Stanovich and R. F. West (2000).

Information and processes underlying semantic and episodic memory across tasks, items, and individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Cox, Gregory E; Hemmer, Pernille; Aue, William R; Criss, Amy H

2018-04-01

The development of memory theory has been constrained by a focus on isolated tasks rather than the processes and information that are common to situations in which memory is engaged. We present results from a study in which 453 participants took part in five different memory tasks: single-item recognition, associative recognition, cued recall, free recall, and lexical decision. Using hierarchical Bayesian techniques, we jointly analyzed the correlations between tasks within individuals-reflecting the degree to which tasks rely on shared cognitive processes-and within items-reflecting the degree to which tasks rely on the same information conveyed by the item. Among other things, we find that (a) the processes involved in lexical access and episodic memory are largely separate and rely on different kinds of information, (b) access to lexical memory is driven primarily by perceptual aspects of a word, (c) all episodic memory tasks rely to an extent on a set of shared processes which make use of semantic features to encode both single words and associations between words, and (d) recall involves additional processes likely related to contextual cuing and response production. These results provide a large-scale picture of memory across different tasks which can serve to drive the development of comprehensive theories of memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effects of a Concurrent Task on Human Optimization and Self Control

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Phil; Thompson, Caitlin; Osborne, Lisa A.; McHugh, Louise

2011-01-01

Memory deficits have been shown to hamper decision making in a number of populations. In two experiments, participants were required to select one of three alternatives that varied in reinforcer amount and delay, and the effect of a concurrent task on a behavioral choice task that involved making either an impulsive, self-controlled, or optimal…

Non-interfering effects of active post-encoding tasks on episodic memory consolidation in humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Varma, S.; Takashima, A.; Krewinkel, S.C.; Kooten, M.E. van; Fu, L.; Medendorp, W.P.; Kessels, R.P.C.; Daselaar, S.M.

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have only used tasks involving complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant

Exploring the role of task performance and learning style on prefrontal hemodynamics during a working memory task.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Afrouz A; Parsa, Kian; Geiger, Sydney; Zaragoza, Rachel; Kermanian, Riley; Miguel, Helga; Dashtestani, Hadis; Chowdhry, Fatima A; Smith, Elizabeth; Aram, Siamak; Gandjbakhche, Amir H

2018-01-01

Existing literature outlines the quality and location of activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during working memory (WM) tasks. However, the effects of individual differences on the underlying neural process of WM tasks are still unclear. In this functional near infrared spectroscopy study, we administered a visual and auditory n-back task to examine activation in the PFC while considering the influences of task performance, and preferred learning strategy (VARK score). While controlling for age, results indicated that high performance (HP) subjects (accuracy > 90%) showed task dependent lower activation compared to normal performance subjects in PFC region Specifically HP groups showed lower activation in left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) region during performance of auditory task whereas during visual task they showed lower activation in the right DLPFC. After accounting for learning style, we found a correlation between visual and aural VARK score and level of activation in the PFC. Subjects with higher visual VARK scores displayed lower activation during auditory task in left DLPFC, while those with higher visual scores exhibited higher activation during visual task in bilateral DLPFC. During performance of auditory task, HP subjects had higher visual VARK scores compared to NP subjects indicating an effect of learning style on the task performance and activation. The results of this study show that learning style and task performance can influence PFC activation, with applications toward neurological implications of learning style and populations with deficits in auditory or visual processing.

Task-specific impairments and enhancements induced by magnetic stimulation of human visual area V5.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, V; Ellison, A; Battelli, L; Cowey, A

1998-03-22

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to simulate the effects of highly circumscribed brain damage permanently present in some neuropsychological patients, by reversibly disrupting the normal functioning of the cortical area to which it is applied. By using TMS we attempted to recreate deficits similar to those reported in a motion-blind patient and to assess the specificity of deficits when TMS is applied over human area V5. We used six visual search tasks and showed that subjects were impaired in a motion but not a form 'pop-out' task when TMS was applied over V5. When motion was present, but irrelevant, or when attention to colour and form were required, TMS applied to V5 enhanced performance. When attention to motion was required in a motion-form conjunction search task, irrespective of whether the target was moving or stationary, TMS disrupted performance. These data suggest that attention to different visual attributes involves mutual inhibition between different extrastriate visual areas.

Callosal involvement in a lateralized stroop task in alcoholic and healthy subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, T; Müller-Oehring, E M; Salo, R; Pfefferbaum, A; Sullivan, E V

2006-11-01

To investigate the role of interhemispheric attentional processes, 25 alcoholic and 28 control subjects were tested with a Stroop match-to-sample task and callosal areas were measured with magnetic resonance imaging. Stroop color-word stimuli were presented to the left or right visual field (VF) and were preceded by a color cue that did or did not match the word's color. For matching colors, both groups showed a right VF advantage; for nonmatching colors, controls showed a left VF advantage, whereas alcoholic subjects showed no VF advantage. For nonmatch trials, VF advantage correlated with callosal splenium area in controls but not alcoholic subjects, supporting the position that information presented to the nonpreferred hemisphere is transmitted via the splenium to the hemisphere specialized for efficient processing. The authors speculate that alcoholism-associated callosal thinning disrupts this processing route.

Generic cognitive adaptations to task interference in task switching

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poljac, E.; Bekkering, H.

2009-01-01

The present study investigated how the activation of previous tasks interferes with the execution of future tasks as a result of temporal manipulations. Color and shape matching tasks were organized in runs of two trials each. The tasks were specified by a cue presented before a task run, cueing

An overview of the BioCreative 2012 Workshop Track III: interactive text mining task.

Science.gov (United States)

Arighi, Cecilia N; Carterette, Ben; Cohen, K Bretonnel; Krallinger, Martin; Wilbur, W John; Fey, Petra; Dodson, Robert; Cooper, Laurel; Van Slyke, Ceri E; Dahdul, Wasila; Mabee, Paula; Li, Donghui; Harris, Bethany; Gillespie, Marc; Jimenez, Silvia; Roberts, Phoebe; Matthews, Lisa; Becker, Kevin; Drabkin, Harold; Bello, Susan; Licata, Luana; Chatr-aryamontri, Andrew; Schaeffer, Mary L; Park, Julie; Haendel, Melissa; Van Auken, Kimberly; Li, Yuling; Chan, Juancarlos; Muller, Hans-Michael; Cui, Hong; Balhoff, James P; Chi-Yang Wu, Johnny; Lu, Zhiyong; Wei, Chih-Hsuan; Tudor, Catalina O; Raja, Kalpana; Subramani, Suresh; Natarajan, Jeyakumar; Cejuela, Juan Miguel; Dubey, Pratibha; Wu, Cathy

2013-01-01

In many databases, biocuration primarily involves literature curation, which usually involves retrieving relevant articles, extracting information that will translate into annotations and identifying new incoming literature. As the volume of biological literature increases, the use of text mining to assist in biocuration becomes increasingly relevant. A number of groups have developed tools for text mining from a computer science/linguistics perspective, and there are many initiatives to curate some aspect of biology from the literature. Some biocuration efforts already make use of a text mining tool, but there have not been many broad-based systematic efforts to study which aspects of a text mining tool contribute to its usefulness for a curation task. Here, we report on an effort to bring together text mining tool developers and database biocurators to test the utility and usability of tools. Six text mining systems presenting diverse biocuration tasks participated in a formal evaluation, and appropriate biocurators were recruited for testing. The performance results from this evaluation indicate that some of the systems were able to improve efficiency of curation by speeding up the curation task significantly (∼1.7- to 2.5-fold) over manual curation. In addition, some of the systems were able to improve annotation accuracy when compared with the performance on the manually curated set. In terms of inter-annotator agreement, the factors that contributed to significant differences for some of the systems included the expertise of the biocurator on the given curation task, the inherent difficulty of the curation and attention to annotation guidelines. After the task, annotators were asked to complete a survey to help identify strengths and weaknesses of the various systems. The analysis of this survey highlights how important task completion is to the biocurators' overall experience of a system, regardless of the system's high score on design, learnability and

Interference Control in Preschoolers: Factors Influencing Performance on the Day-Night Task

Science.gov (United States)

Montgomery, Derek E.; Anderson, Maren; Uhl, Elizabeth

2008-01-01

Two experiments investigated preschoolers' interference control in variants of the day-night task. The day-night task involves instructing children across 16 trials to say the word "day" when viewing a card depicting a nighttime sky and to say "night" when shown a picture of the daytime sky. The purpose of the experiments was to investigate…

A comparative analysis of multiple-choice and student performance-task assessment in the high school biology classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Cushing, Patrick Ryan

This study compared the performance of high school students on laboratory assessments. Thirty-four high school students who were enrolled in the second semester of a regular biology class or had completed the biology course the previous semester participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to examinations of two formats, performance-task and traditional multiple-choice, from two content areas, using a compound light microscope and diffusion. Students were directed to think-aloud as they performed the assessments. Additional verbal data were obtained during interviews following the assessment. The tape-recorded narrative data were analyzed for type and diversity of knowledge and skill categories, and percentage of in-depth processing demonstrated. While overall mean scores on the assessments were low, elicited statements provided additional insight into student cognition. Results indicated that a greater diversity of knowledge and skill categories was elicited by the two microscope assessments and by the two performance-task assessments. In addition, statements demonstrating in-depth processing were coded most frequently in narratives elicited during clinical interviews following the diffusion performance-task assessment. This study calls for individual teachers to design authentic assessment practices and apply them to daily classroom routines. Authentic assessment should be an integral part of the learning process and not merely an end result. In addition, teachers are encouraged to explicitly identify and model, through think-aloud methods, desired cognitive behaviors in the classroom.

Working Memory Training Improves Dual-Task Performance on Motor Tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Takehide; Kaneko, Fuminari; Nagahata, Keita; Shibata, Eriko; Aoki, Nobuhiro

2017-01-01

The authors investigated whether working memory training improves motor-motor dual-task performance consisted of upper and lower limb tasks. The upper limb task was a simple reaction task and the lower limb task was an isometric knee extension task. 45 participants (age = 21.8 ± 1.6 years) were classified into a working memory training group (WM-TRG), dual-task training group, or control group. The training duration was 2 weeks (15 min, 4 times/week). Our results indicated that working memory capacity increased significantly only in the WM-TRG. Dual-task performance improved in the WM-TRG and dual-task training group. Our study provides the novel insight that working memory training improves dual-task performance without specific training on the target motor task.

Tritium tasks for the net fusion technology program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hircq, B.

1990-01-01

Six Tritium Technology tasks have been undertaken in the BRUYERES-LE-CHATEL Research Center of the French Atomic Energy Commission, in June 1986, as part of the NET Tritium Technology Program. Four of these six studies concern the torus exhaust gas purification and two of them are more specific of the involved materials. In 1988, the studies themselves have begun and the objective of this document is to indicate, for each task, the main results which have been obtained during the period 1988-89, for allowing a global valuation of the progress state as well as an anticipation for carrying out the works

Risk assessments using the Strain Index and the TLV for HAL, Part I: Task and multi-task job exposure classifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Kapellusch, Jay M; Bao, Stephen S; Silverstein, Barbara A; Merryweather, Andrew S; Thiese, Mathew S; Hegmann, Kurt T; Garg, Arun

2017-12-01

The Strain Index (SI) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Value for Hand Activity Level (TLV for HAL) use different constituent variables to quantify task physical exposures. Similarly, time-weighted-average (TWA), Peak, and Typical exposure techniques to quantify physical exposure from multi-task jobs make different assumptions about each task's contribution to the whole job exposure. Thus, task and job physical exposure classifications differ depending upon which model and technique are used for quantification. This study examines exposure classification agreement, disagreement, correlation, and magnitude of classification differences between these models and techniques. Data from 710 multi-task job workers performing 3,647 tasks were analyzed using the SI and TLV for HAL models, as well as with the TWA, Typical and Peak job exposure techniques. Physical exposures were classified as low, medium, and high using each model's recommended, or a priori limits. Exposure classification agreement and disagreement between models (SI, TLV for HAL) and between job exposure techniques (TWA, Typical, Peak) were described and analyzed. Regardless of technique, the SI classified more tasks as high exposure than the TLV for HAL, and the TLV for HAL classified more tasks as low exposure. The models agreed on 48.5% of task classifications (kappa = 0.28) with 15.5% of disagreement between low and high exposure categories. Between-technique (i.e., TWA, Typical, Peak) agreement ranged from 61-93% (kappa: 0.16-0.92) depending on whether the SI or TLV for HAL was used. There was disagreement between the SI and TLV for HAL and between the TWA, Typical and Peak techniques. Disagreement creates uncertainty for job design, job analysis, risk assessments, and developing interventions. Task exposure classifications from the SI and TLV for HAL might complement each other. However, TWA, Typical, and Peak job exposure techniques all have

Critical Analysis on the Defeat of Task Force Ranger

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Day, Clifford

1997-01-01

.... The final stage, UNOSOM II, involved a peace enforcement and nation building mission. On Sunday, 3 October 1993, the relative success of UNOSOM II suddenly turned violent when a US Task Force came under heavy fire from Somali gunmen...

High School Sports Involvement Diminishes the Association Between Childhood Conduct Disorder and Adult Antisocial Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Samek, Diana R; Elkins, Irene J; Keyes, Margaret A; Iacono, William G; McGue, Matt

2015-07-01

Life course-persistent antisocial behavior manifests as a display of aggressive and antisocial behavior beginning in childhood (conduct disorder [CD]) and lasting through adulthood (adult antisocial personality disorder). This study aimed to build on prior research by evaluating whether involvement in high school sports helped attenuate the association between CD and subsequent adult antisocial behavior (AAB). A prospective sample of 967 male and female adolescents (56% adopted) was used. Structured interviews were used to assess CD (symptoms before the age of 15 years), involvement in sports during high school, and past-year adult antisocial personality disorder symptoms in young adulthood (M age = 22.4 years). As expected, the association between CD and AAB was significantly less for those involved in sports (β = .28; p antisocial behavior in the model (age, gender, adoption status), and results were consistent across males and females. Involvement in other extracurricular activities (e.g., student government, plays, clubs) did not significantly moderate the relationship between CD and AAB. Although selection effects were evident (those with more CD symptoms were less likely to be involved in sports), findings nevertheless suggest high school sports involvement may be a notable factor related to disrupting persistent antisocial behavior beginning in childhood and adolescence and lasting through young adulthood. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

D4.2. Report on citizen involvement and ethics

OpenAIRE

Baruh, Lemi; Watson, Hayley; Hagen, Kim; Wadhwa, Kush; Gunel, Zeynep; Bal, Haluk Mert; Scifo, Salvatore; Salman, Yusuf

2015-01-01

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In Task 4.2, entitled “Citizens’ Involvement and Ethics”, COSMIC seeks to examine the opportunities, risks (threats), and ethical issues that are brought about by utilization of new media technologies during crises. Additionally, through this task, COSMIC aims to detail the potential consequences, for individuals and the society, of the threats and ethical issues that arise from utilization of new media technologies during crisis. With respect to the opportunities th...

The role of domain-general frontal systems in language comprehension: evidence from dual-task interference and semantic ambiguity.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodd, Jennifer M; Johnsrude, Ingrid S; Davis, Matthew H

2010-12-01

Neuroimaging studies have shown that the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) plays a critical role in semantic and syntactic aspects of speech comprehension. It appears to be recruited when listeners are required to select the appropriate meaning or syntactic role for words within a sentence. However, this region is also recruited during tasks not involving sentence materials, suggesting that the systems involved in processing ambiguous words within sentences are also recruited for more domain-general tasks that involve the selection of task-relevant information. We use a novel dual-task methodology to assess whether the cognitive system(s) that are engaged in selecting word meanings are also involved in non-sentential tasks. In Experiment 1, listeners were slower to decide whether a visually presented letter is in upper or lower case when the sentence that they are simultaneously listening to contains words with multiple meanings (homophones), compared to closely matched sentences without homophones. Experiment 2 indicates that this interference effect is not tied to the occurrence of the homophone itself, but rather occurs when listeners must reinterpret a sentence that was initially misparsed. These results suggest some overlap between the cognitive system involved in semantic disambiguation and the domain-general process of response selection required for the case-judgement task. This cognitive overlap may reflect neural overlap in the networks supporting these processes, and is consistent with the proposal that domain-general selection processes in inferior frontal regions are critical for language comprehension. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating the visual span in comparative search: the effects of task difficulty and divided attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Pomplun, M; Reingold, E M; Shen, J

2001-09-01

In three experiments, participants' visual span was measured in a comparative visual search task in which they had to detect a local match or mismatch between two displays presented side by side. Experiment 1 manipulated the difficulty of the comparative visual search task by contrasting a mismatch detection task with a substantially more difficult match detection task. In Experiment 2, participants were tested in a single-task condition involving only the visual task and a dual-task condition in which they concurrently performed an auditory task. Finally, in Experiment 3, participants performed two dual-task conditions, which differed in the difficulty of the concurrent auditory task. Both the comparative search task difficulty (Experiment 1) and the divided attention manipulation (Experiments 2 and 3) produced strong effects on visual span size.

Can cardiovascular indices be used to adapt the ambulance dispatch worker’s task?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Waard, D.; Mulder, L.J.M.; Pikaar, R N; Koningsveld, E A P; Settels, P J M

2006-01-01

Adaptive automation is currently seen as a good way to keep an operator optimally motivated, involved, and able to perform a task. It certainly is better than rigid automation where tasks are taken over while the operator is taken out of the loop to supervise the process. Ideally, automation can be

Pulmonary leukemic involvement: high-resolution computed tomography evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira, Ana Paola de; Marchiori, Edson; Souza Junior, Arthur Soares

2004-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the role of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in patients with leukemia and pulmonary symptoms, to establish the main patterns and to correlate them with the etiology. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of the HRCT of 15 patients with leukemia and pulmonary symptoms. The examinations were performed using a spatial high-resolution protocol and were analyzed by two independent radiologists. Results: The main HRCT patterns found were ground-glass opacity (n=11), consolidation (n=9), airspace nodules (n=3), septal thickening (n=3), tree-in-bud pattern (n=3), and pleural effusion (n=3). Pulmonary infection was the most common finding seen in 12 patients: bacterial pneumonia (n=6), fungal infection (n = 4), pulmonary tuberculosis (n=1) and viral infection (n=1). Leukemic pleural infiltration (n=1), lymphoma (n=1) and pulmonary hemorrhage (n=1) were detected in the other three patients. Conclusion: HRCT is an important tool that may suggest the cause of lung involvement, its extension and in some cases to guide invasive procedures in patients with leukemia. (author)

Task Switching in a Hierarchical Task Structure: Evidence for the Fragility of the Task Repetition Benefit

Science.gov (United States)

Lien, Mei-Ching; Ruthruff, Eric

2004-01-01

This study examined how task switching is affected by hierarchical task organization. Traditional task-switching studies, which use a constant temporal and spatial distance between each task element (defined as a stimulus requiring a response), promote a flat task structure. Using this approach, Experiment 1 revealed a large switch cost of 238 ms.…

Assessing the integrity of the cognitive processes involved in belief reasoning by means of two nonverbal tasks: Rationale, normative data collection and illustration with brain-damaged patients.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurélie Biervoye

Full Text Available Every day, we engage in social interactions with other people which require understanding their as well as our own mental states. Such capacity is commonly referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM. Disturbances of ToM are often reported in diverse pathologies which affect brain functioning and lead to problems in social interactions. Identifying ToM deficits is thus crucial to guide the clinicians in the establishment of adequate rehabilitation strategies for patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that ToM is not a unitary function yet currently there are very few standardized tests which allow identifying the type of cognitive processes affected when a patient exhibits a ToM deficit. In the current study, we present two belief reasoning tasks which have been used in previous research to disentangle two types of processes involved in belief reasoning: self-perspective inhibition and the spontaneous inference of another person's belief. A three-step procedure was developed to provide clinicians with the tools to interpret the patients' performances on the tasks. First, these tasks were standardized and normative data was collected on a sample of 124 healthy participants aged between 18 and 74. Data collected showed a decrease in performance as a function of age only in the task that loaded most in spontaneous other-perspective demands. There was however no effect of gender or educational level. Cut-off scores to identify deficits were then calculated for the different age groups separately. Secondly, the three-step procedure was applied to 21 brain-damaged patients and showed a large diversity of profiles, including selective deficits of the two targeted ToM processes. The diversity of profiles shows the importance to take into account the multiple facets of ToM during the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with suspected ToM deficits.

Assessing the integrity of the cognitive processes involved in belief reasoning by means of two nonverbal tasks: Rationale, normative data collection and illustration with brain-damaged patients

Science.gov (United States)

Biervoye, Aurélie; Meert, Gaëlle; Apperly, Ian A.; Samson, Dana

2018-01-01

Every day, we engage in social interactions with other people which require understanding their as well as our own mental states. Such capacity is commonly referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM). Disturbances of ToM are often reported in diverse pathologies which affect brain functioning and lead to problems in social interactions. Identifying ToM deficits is thus crucial to guide the clinicians in the establishment of adequate rehabilitation strategies for patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that ToM is not a unitary function yet currently there are very few standardized tests which allow identifying the type of cognitive processes affected when a patient exhibits a ToM deficit. In the current study, we present two belief reasoning tasks which have been used in previous research to disentangle two types of processes involved in belief reasoning: self-perspective inhibition and the spontaneous inference of another person’s belief. A three-step procedure was developed to provide clinicians with the tools to interpret the patients’ performances on the tasks. First, these tasks were standardized and normative data was collected on a sample of 124 healthy participants aged between 18 and 74. Data collected showed a decrease in performance as a function of age only in the task that loaded most in spontaneous other-perspective demands. There was however no effect of gender or educational level. Cut-off scores to identify deficits were then calculated for the different age groups separately. Secondly, the three-step procedure was applied to 21 brain-damaged patients and showed a large diversity of profiles, including selective deficits of the two targeted ToM processes. The diversity of profiles shows the importance to take into account the multiple facets of ToM during the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with suspected ToM deficits. PMID:29381730

Control of force during rapid visuomotor force-matching tasks can be described by discrete time PID control algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Dideriksen, Jakob Lund; Feeney, Daniel F; Almuklass, Awad M; Enoka, Roger M

2017-08-01

Force trajectories during isometric force-matching tasks involving isometric contractions vary substantially across individuals. In this study, we investigated if this variability can be explained by discrete time proportional, integral, derivative (PID) control algorithms with varying model parameters. To this end, we analyzed the pinch force trajectories of 24 subjects performing two rapid force-matching tasks with visual feedback. Both tasks involved isometric contractions to a target force of 10% maximal voluntary contraction. One task involved a single action (pinch) and the other required a double action (concurrent pinch and wrist extension). 50,000 force trajectories were simulated with a computational neuromuscular model whose input was determined by a PID controller with different PID gains and frequencies at which the controller adjusted muscle commands. The goal was to find the best match between each experimental force trajectory and all simulated trajectories. It was possible to identify one realization of the PID controller that matched the experimental force produced during each task for most subjects (average index of similarity: 0.87 ± 0.12; 1 = perfect similarity). The similarities for both tasks were significantly greater than that would be expected by chance (single action: p = 0.01; double action: p = 0.04). Furthermore, the identified control frequencies in the simulated PID controller with the greatest similarities decreased as task difficulty increased (single action: 4.0 ± 1.8 Hz; double action: 3.1 ± 1.3 Hz). Overall, the results indicate that discrete time PID controllers are realistic models for the neural control of force in rapid force-matching tasks involving isometric contractions.

A Heuristic Task Scheduling Algorithm for Heterogeneous Virtual Clusters

OpenAIRE

Weiwei Lin; Wentai Wu; James Z. Wang

2016-01-01

Cloud computing provides on-demand computing and storage services with high performance and high scalability. However, the rising energy consumption of cloud data centers has become a prominent problem. In this paper, we first introduce an energy-aware framework for task scheduling in virtual clusters. The framework consists of a task resource requirements prediction module, an energy estimate module, and a scheduler with a task buffer. Secondly, based on this framework, we propose a virtual ...

IMPROVING STUDENTS‟ ABILITY IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXTS BY USING AUTHENTIC TASK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Yusri

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study uncovers the improvement of the students‘ ability through authentic task in writing recount text. It is used to look for and write down what they have seen in real world. This study is Classroom Action Research. It is planned as well as possible. Moreover, the subject of the study was a class of the tenth grade students of Islamic Boarding High School ―Hikmatusysyarief” MA NW Salut in the School Year 2010/2011. It was conducted in two cycles. Then, the instruments utilized were observation checklist, questionnaire, and students‘ writing product. The result of this study indicates that authentic task as a technique has improved the students‘ ability in writing recount text as well as plan. In the first cycle, there is 57% students‘ who gained score higher than 60% and the students who gained score less than 60 are 52%, meanwhile the students score at the second cycle shown 81% of the students get higher than 60 (17 out of 21 students and 19% of the students gained score less than 60 (4 out of 21 students. It is also to indicate that the students‘ involvement in teaching and learning process was surely active, particularly when they worked in group. In short, this technique is believed to improve the students‘ ability in writing recount text and their involvement in teaching and learning processes.

Narrative transportation and product involvement : how narrativity factors are used to enchance transportive experience in advertising for high vs. low involvement products

OpenAIRE

Phusapan, Panida

2013-01-01

This paper examines and presents how narrativity factors are used to enhance consumers‟ transportive experience when advertising for high and low involvement products. It specifically looks at processing experiences among Thai online consumers when viewing TV commercials available on a YouTube channel. The paper brings the theory of product involvement into a field of narrative transportation. Results show that narrativity factors should be used with the right balance across all narrativity l...

Alternating Dynamics of Segregation and Integration in Human EEG Functional Networks During Working-memory Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Zippo, Antonio G; Della Rosa, Pasquale A; Castiglioni, Isabella; Biella, Gabriele E M

2018-02-10

Brain functional networks show high variability in short time windows but mechanisms governing these transient dynamics remain unknown. In this work, we studied the temporal evolution of functional brain networks involved in a working memory (WM) task while recording high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in human normal subjects. We found that functional brain networks showed an initial phase characterized by an increase of the functional segregation index followed by a second phase where the functional segregation faded after the prevailing the functional integration. Notably, wrong trials were associated with different or disrupted sequences of the segregation-integration profiles and measures of network centrality and modularity were able to identify crucial aspects of the oscillatory network dynamics. Additionally, computational investigations further supported the experimental results. The brain functional organization may respond to the information processing demand of a WM task following a 2-step atomic scheme wherein segregation and integration alternately dominate the functional configurations. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

To predict or not to predict: influences of task and strategy on the processing of semantic relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Roehm, Dietmar; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Rösler, Frank; Schlesewsky, Matthias

2007-08-01

We report a series of event-related potential experiments designed to dissociate the functionally distinct processes involved in the comprehension of highly restricted lexical-semantic relations (antonyms). We sought to differentiate between influences of semantic relatedness (which are independent of the experimental setting) and processes related to predictability (which differ as a function of the experimental environment). To this end, we conducted three ERP studies contrasting the processing of antonym relations (black-white) with that of related (black-yellow) and unrelated (black-nice) word pairs. Whereas the lexical-semantic manipulation was kept constant across experiments, the experimental environment and the task demands varied: Experiment 1 presented the word pairs in a sentence context of the form The opposite of X is Y and used a sensicality judgment. Experiment 2 used a word pair presentation mode and a lexical decision task. Experiment 3 also examined word pairs, but with an antonymy judgment task. All three experiments revealed a graded N400 response (unrelated > related > antonyms), thus supporting the assumption that semantic associations are processed automatically. In addition, the experiments revealed that, in highly constrained task environments, the N400 gradation occurs simultaneously with a P300 effect for the antonym condition, thus leading to the superficial impression of an extremely "reduced" N400 for antonym pairs. Comparisons across experiments and participant groups revealed that the P300 effect is not only a function of stimulus constraints (i.e., sentence context) and experimental task, but that it is also crucially influenced by individual processing strategies used to achieve successful task performance.

The modulatory role of second language proficiency on performance monitoring: evidence from a saccadic countermanding task in high and low proficient bilinguals.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Niharika; Mishra, Ramesh K

2014-01-01

We compared Hindi-English bilinguals differing in their L2 proficiency on a saccadic countermanding task which taps inhibitory control as well as monitoring. We particularly explored whether response inhibition and performance monitoring within the oculomotor domain are affected by language proficiency in bilinguals. There were two different oculomotor redirect tasks: Visually Guided Redirect (VGR) task (Experiment1) and Memory Guided Redirect (MGR) task (Experiment 2). In the redirect task, typically a target is presented and the subject is required to make a saccade (no-step trials), unless a new target appears on a different location after some delay from the first target onset (step trials). On such trials participants are required to inhibit and cancel the saccade to the first target and programme a saccade to the new target. Using trial switch reaction time (TSRT), the time taken to inhibit the initiated saccade to the first target as a measure of response inhibition and post-step slowing as a measure of performance monitoring. The results showed the high proficient bilinguals displayed more post-step slowing on the no-step trials as compared to the low proficient bilinguals for both VGR and MGR versions of the task. Secondly, both the high and low proficient bilinguals exhibited comparable TSRT in both VGR and MGR task, showing no modulatory effects of language proficiency on the response inhibition. These results suggest that language proficiency may have an effect on performance monitoring, but not the inhibitory control per se. Thus, we infer that higher proficiency may lead to superior cognitive flexibility and an ability to adjust behavior that facilitates the attainment of the cognitive goal. These findings are in consonance with other current studies that suggest a top-down effect of bilingualism on action control systems.

Increasing Working Memory Load Reduces Processing of Cross-Modal Task-Irrelevant Stimuli Even after Controlling for Task Difficulty and Executive Capacity.

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, Sharon S; Tusch, Erich S; Holcomb, Phillip J; Daffner, Kirk R

2016-01-01

The classic account of the load theory (LT) of attention suggests that increasing cognitive load leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant stimuli due to competition for limited executive resource that reduces the ability to actively maintain current processing priorities. Studies testing this hypothesis have yielded widely divergent outcomes. The inconsistent results may, in part, be related to variability in executive capacity (EC) and task difficulty across subjects in different studies. Here, we used a cross-modal paradigm to investigate whether augmented working memory (WM) load leads to increased early distracter processing, and controlled for the potential confounders of EC and task difficulty. Twenty-three young subjects were engaged in a primary visual WM task, under high and low load conditions, while instructed to ignore irrelevant auditory stimuli. Demands of the high load condition were individually titrated to make task difficulty comparable across subjects with differing EC. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to measure neural activity in response to stimuli presented in both the task relevant modality (visual) and task-irrelevant modality (auditory). Behavioral results indicate that the load manipulation and titration procedure of the primary visual task were successful. ERPs demonstrated that in response to visual target stimuli, there was a load-related increase in the posterior slow wave, an index of sustained attention and effort. Importantly, under high load, there was a decrease of the auditory N1 in response to distracters, a marker of early auditory processing. These results suggest that increased WM load is associated with enhanced attentional engagement and protection from distraction in a cross-modal setting, even after controlling for task difficulty and EC. Our findings challenge the classic LT and offer support for alternative models.

Increasing working memory load reduces processing of cross-modal task-irrelevant stimuli even after controlling for task difficulty and executive capacity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharon Sanz Simon

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The classic account of the Load Theory (LT of attention suggests that increasing cognitive load leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant stimuli due to competition for limited executive resource that reduces the ability to actively maintain current processing priorities. Studies testing this hypothesis have yielded widely divergent outcomes. The inconsistent results may, in part, be related to variability in executive capacity (EC and task difficulty across subjects in different studies. Here, we used a cross-modal paradigm to investigate whether augmented working memory (WM load leads to increased early distracter processing, and controlled for the potential confounders of EC and task difficulty. Twenty-three young subjects were engaged in a primary visual WM task, under high and low load conditions, while instructed to ignore irrelevant auditory stimuli. Demands of the high load condition were individually titrated to make task difficulty comparable across subjects with differing EC. Event-related potentials (ERPs were used to measure neural activity in response to stimuli presented in both the task relevant modality (visual and task-irrelevant modality (auditory. Behavioral results indicate that the load manipulation and titration procedure of the primary visual task were successful. ERPs demonstrated that in response to visual target stimuli, there was a load-related increase in the posterior slow wave, an index of sustained attention and effort. Importantly, under high load, there was a decrease of the auditory N1 in response to distracters, a marker of early auditory processing. These results suggest that increased WM load is associated with enhanced attentional engagement and protection from distraction in a cross-modal setting, even after controlling for task difficulty and EC. Our findings challenge the classic LT and offer support for alternative models.

Haptic-Based Perception-Empathy Biofeedback Enhances Postural Motor Learning During High-Cognitive Load Task in Healthy Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Yasuda, Kazuhiro; Saichi, Kenta; Iwata, Hiroyasu

2018-01-01

Falls and fall-induced injuries are major global public health problems, and sensory input impairment in older adults results in significant limitations in feedback-type postural control. A haptic-based biofeedback (BF) system can be used for augmenting somatosensory input in older adults, and the application of this BF system can increase the objectivity of the feedback and encourage comparison with that provided by a trainer. Nevertheless, an optimal BF system that focuses on interpersonal feedback for balance training in older adults has not been proposed. Thus, we proposed a haptic-based perception-empathy BF system that provides information regarding the older adult's center-of-foot pressure pattern to the trainee and trainer for refining the motor learning effect. The first objective of this study was to examine the effect of this balance training regimen in healthy older adults performing a postural learning task. Second, this study aimed to determine whether BF training required high cognitive load to clarify its practicability in real-life settings. Twenty older adults were assigned to two groups: BF and control groups. Participants in both groups tried balance training in the single-leg stance while performing a cognitive task (i.e., serial subtraction task). Retention was tested 24 h later. Testing comprised balance performance measures (i.e., 95% confidence ellipse area and mean velocity of sway) and dual-task performance (number of responses and correct answers). Measurements of postural control using a force plate revealed that the stability of the single-leg stance was significantly lower in the BF group than in the control group during the balance task. The BF group retained the improvement in the 95% confidence ellipse area 24 h after the retention test. Results of dual-task performance during the balance task were not different between the two groups. These results confirmed the potential benefit of the proposed balance training regimen in

Haptic-Based Perception-Empathy Biofeedback Enhances Postural Motor Learning During High-Cognitive Load Task in Healthy Older Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kazuhiro Yasuda

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Falls and fall-induced injuries are major global public health problems, and sensory input impairment in older adults results in significant limitations in feedback-type postural control. A haptic-based biofeedback (BF system can be used for augmenting somatosensory input in older adults, and the application of this BF system can increase the objectivity of the feedback and encourage comparison with that provided by a trainer. Nevertheless, an optimal BF system that focuses on interpersonal feedback for balance training in older adults has not been proposed. Thus, we proposed a haptic-based perception-empathy BF system that provides information regarding the older adult's center-of-foot pressure pattern to the trainee and trainer for refining the motor learning effect. The first objective of this study was to examine the effect of this balance training regimen in healthy older adults performing a postural learning task. Second, this study aimed to determine whether BF training required high cognitive load to clarify its practicability in real-life settings. Twenty older adults were assigned to two groups: BF and control groups. Participants in both groups tried balance training in the single-leg stance while performing a cognitive task (i.e., serial subtraction task. Retention was tested 24 h later. Testing comprised balance performance measures (i.e., 95% confidence ellipse area and mean velocity of sway and dual-task performance (number of responses and correct answers. Measurements of postural control using a force plate revealed that the stability of the single-leg stance was significantly lower in the BF group than in the control group during the balance task. The BF group retained the improvement in the 95% confidence ellipse area 24 h after the retention test. Results of dual-task performance during the balance task were not different between the two groups. These results confirmed the potential benefit of the proposed balance training

Task-set inertia and memory-consolidation bottleneck in dual tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, Iring; Rumiati, Raffaella I

2006-11-01

Three dual-task experiments examined the influence of processing a briefly presented visual object for deferred verbal report on performance in an unrelated auditory-manual reaction time (RT) task. RT was increased at short stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs) relative to long SOAs, showing that memory consolidation processes can produce a functional processing bottleneck in dual-task performance. In addition, the experiments manipulated the spatial compatibility of the orientation of the visual object and the side of the speeded manual response. This cross-task compatibility produced relative RT benefits only when the instruction for the visual task emphasized overlap at the level of response codes across the task sets (Experiment 1). However, once the effective task set was in place, it continued to produce cross-task compatibility effects even in single-task situations ("ignore" trials in Experiment 2) and when instructions for the visual task did not explicitly require spatial coding of object orientation (Experiment 3). Taken together, the data suggest a considerable degree of task-set inertia in dual-task performance, which is also reinforced by finding costs of switching task sequences (e.g., AC --> BC vs. BC --> BC) in Experiment 3.

No psychological effect of color context in a low level vision task [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/202

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Pedley

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Background: A remarkable series of recent papers have shown that colour can influence performance in cognitive tasks. In particular, they suggest that viewing a participant number printed in red ink or other red ancillary stimulus elements improves performance in tasks requiring local processing and impedes performance in tasks requiring global processing whilst the reverse is true for the colour blue. The tasks in these experiments require high level cognitive processing such as analogy solving or remote association tests and the chromatic effect on local vs. global processing is presumed to involve widespread activation of the autonomic nervous system. If this is the case, we might expect to see similar effects on all local vs. global task comparisons. To test this hypothesis, we asked whether chromatic cues also influence performance in tasks involving low level visual feature integration. Methods: Subjects performed either local (contrast detection or global (form detection tasks on achromatic dynamic Glass pattern stimuli. Coloured instructions, target frames and fixation points were used to attempt to bias performance to different task types. Based on previous literature, we hypothesised that red cues would improve performance in the (local contrast detection task but would impede performance in the (global form detection task.  Results: A two-way, repeated measures, analysis of covariance (2×2 ANCOVA with gender as a covariate, revealed no influence of colour on either task, F(1,29 = 0.289, p = 0.595, partial η2 = 0.002. Additional analysis revealed no significant differences in only the first attempts of the tasks or in the improvement in performance between trials. Discussion: We conclude that motivational processes elicited by colour perception do not influence neuronal signal processing in the early visual system, in stark contrast to their putative effects on processing in higher areas.

Teachers’ teaching practices and beliefs regarding context-based tasks and their relation with students’ difficulties in solving these tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijaya, Ariyadi; Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M.; Doorman, Michiel

2015-01-01

In this study, we investigated teachers’ teaching practices and their underlying beliefs regarding context-based tasks to find a possible explanation for students’ difficulties with these tasks. The research started by surveying 27 Junior High School teachers from seven schools in Indonesia through

Indiana University High Energy Physics Group, Task C

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bower, C.; Heinz, R.; Mufson, S.; Musser, J.

1993-01-01

The Indiana University Task C group is participating in the experiments GEM at the SSC and MACRO at the Gran Sasso. After an introduction to GEM in paragraph II, a detailed report is presented on the work done during the current contract period on the design of the outer region of the GEM Central Tracker. The Central Tracker Monte Carlo, which was the other significant GEM activity by the group, is included. In paragraph III is introduced MACRO and a brief status report is given. Muon Astronomy analysis done using MACRO data is also presented

Ability of aphasic individuals to perform numerical processing and calculation tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela De Luccia

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Objective To compare performance on EC301 battery calculation task between aphasic subjects and normal controls of the same sex, age, and education. Method Thirty-two aphasic patients who had suffered a single left hemisphere stroke were evaluated. Forty-four healthy volunteers were also selected. All subjects underwent a comprehensive arithmetic battery to assess their numerical and calculation skills. Performances on numerical processing and calculation tasks were then analyzed. Results Aphasic individuals showed changes in their ability to perform numerical processing and calculation tasks that were not observed in the healthy population. Conclusion Compared with healthy subjects of the same age and education level, individuals with aphasia had difficulty performing various tasks that involved numerical processing and calculation.

Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maxim S Kuschpel

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i eyes-open resting, (ii listening to music and (iii playing the video game Angry Birds before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the Angry Birds video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity.

Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuschpel, Maxim S; Liu, Shuyan; Schad, Daniel J; Heinzel, Stephan; Heinz, Andreas; Rapp, Michael A

2015-01-01

The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game "Angry Birds" before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the "Angry Birds" video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity.

Differential effects of wakeful rest, music and video game playing on working memory performance in the n-back task

Science.gov (United States)

Kuschpel, Maxim S.; Liu, Shuyan; Schad, Daniel J.; Heinzel, Stephan; Heinz, Andreas; Rapp, Michael A.

2015-01-01

The interruption of learning processes by breaks filled with diverse activities is common in everyday life. We investigated the effects of active computer gaming and passive relaxation (rest and music) breaks on working memory performance. Young adults were exposed to breaks involving (i) eyes-open resting, (ii) listening to music and (iii) playing the video game “Angry Birds” before performing the n-back working memory task. Based on linear mixed-effects modeling, we found that playing the “Angry Birds” video game during a short learning break led to a decline in task performance over the course of the task as compared to eyes-open resting and listening to music, although overall task performance was not impaired. This effect was associated with high levels of daily mind wandering and low self-reported ability to concentrate. These findings indicate that video games can negatively affect working memory performance over time when played in between learning tasks. We suggest further investigation of these effects because of their relevance to everyday activity. PMID:26579055

Linking neuroscientific research on decision making to the educational context of novice students assigned to a multiple-choice scientific task involving common misconceptions about electrical circuits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrice ePotvin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the brain-based mechanisms of uncertainty and certainty associated with answers to multiple-choice questions involving common misconceptions about electric circuits. Twenty-two (22 scientifically novice participants (humanities and arts college students were asked, in an fMRI study, whether or not they thought the light bulbs in images presenting electric circuits were lighted up correctly, and if they were certain or uncertain of their answers. When participants reported that they were unsure of their responses, analyses revealed significant activations in brain areas typically involved in uncertainty (anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula cortex, and superior/dorsomedial frontal cortex and in the left middle/superior temporal lobe. Certainty was associated with large bilateral activations in the occipital and parietal regions usually involved in visuospatial processing. Correct-and-certain answers were associated with activations that suggest a stronger mobilization of visual attention resources when compared to incorrect-and-certain answers. These findings provide insights into brain-based mechanisms of uncertainty that are activated when common misconceptions, identified as such by science education research literature, interfere in decision making in a school-like task. We also discuss the implications of these results from an educational perspective.

Monkeys Exhibit Prospective Memory in a Computerized Task

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Theodore A.; Beran, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) involves forming intentions, retaining those intentions, and later executing those intended responses at the appropriate time. Few studies have investigated this capacity in animals. Monkeys performed a computerized task that assessed their ability to remember to make a particular response if they observed a PM cue embedded…

Final Report of the National Black Health Providers Task Force on High Blood Pressure Education and Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Public Health Service (DHHS), Rockville, MD.

This is the final report of National Black Health Providers Task Force (NBHPTF) on High Blood Pressure Education and Control. The first chapter of the report recounts the history of the NBHPTF and its objectives. In the second chapter epidemiological evidence is presented to demonstrate the need for a suggested 20 year plan aimed at controlling…

Brain functional network changes following Prelimbic area inactivation in a spatial memory extinction task.

Science.gov (United States)

Méndez-Couz, Marta; Conejo, Nélida M; Vallejo, Guillermo; Arias, Jorge L

2015-01-01

Several studies suggest a prefrontal cortex involvement during the acquisition and consolidation of spatial memory, suggesting an active modulating role at late stages of acquisition processes. Recently, we have reported that the prelimbic and infralimbic areas of the prefrontal cortex, among other structures, are also specifically involved in the late phases of spatial memory extinction. This study aimed to evaluate whether the inactivation of the prelimbic area of the prefrontal cortex impaired spatial memory extinction. For this purpose, male Wistar rats were implanted bilaterally with cannulae into the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex. Animals were trained during 5 consecutive days in a hidden platform task and tested for reference spatial memory immediately after the last training session. One day after completing the training task, bilateral infusion of the GABAA receptor agonist Muscimol was performed before the extinction protocol was carried out. Additionally, cytochrome c oxidase histochemistry was applied to map the metabolic brain activity related to the spatial memory extinction under prelimbic cortex inactivation. Results show that animals acquired the reference memory task in the water maze, and the extinction task was successfully completed without significant impairment. However, analysis of the functional brain networks involved by cytochrome oxidase activity interregional correlations showed changes in brain networks between the group treated with Muscimol as compared to the saline-treated group, supporting the involvement of the mammillary bodies at a the late stage in the memory extinction process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking

OpenAIRE

Sanbonmatsu, David M.; Strayer, David L.; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Watson, Jason M.

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are ...

Lexical Cues of Interaction Involvement in Dyadic Instant Messaging Conversations

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Duyen T.; Fussell, Susan R.

2014-01-01

We explore how people express and interpret lexical cues of interaction involvement in dyadic conversations via instant messaging (IM) in two studies. In Study 1, an experiment with 60 participants, we manipulated level of involvement in a conversation with a distraction task. We examined how participants' uses of verbal cues such as pronouns…

Evaluation of a task-shifting strategy involving peer educators in HIV care and treatment clinics in Lusaka, Zambia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lonny J. Born

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Rapid expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART and a shortage of health care workers (HCWs required the implementation of a peer educator (PE model as part of a task-shifting strategy in Lusaka District clinics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient and staff perceptions regarding whether the PE program: a relieved the workload on professional HCWs; and b delivered services of acceptable quality. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from five primary care clinics delivering ART in Lusaka, Zambia. Closed surveys were conducted with 148 patients receiving ART, 29 PEs, and 53 HCWs. Data was imported into Microsoft Excel to calculate descriptive statistics. Six focus group discussions and eight key informant (KI interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed, and coded to extract relevant data. Survey results demonstrated that 50 of 53 (96.1% HCWs agreed PEs reduced the amount of counseling duties required of HCWs. HCWs felt that PEs performed as well as HCWs in counseling patients (48 of 53; 90.6% and that having PEs conduct counseling enabled clinical staff to see more patients (44 of 53; 83%. A majority of patients (141 of 148; 95.2% agreed or strongly agreed that PEs were knowledgeable about ART, and 89 of 144 (61.8% expressed a high level of confidence with PEs performing counseling and related tasks. Focus group and KI interviews supported these findings. PEs helped ease the work burden of HCWs and provided effective counseling, education talks, and adherence support to patients in HIV care. Consideration should be given to formalizing their role in the public health sector.

Context-Sensitive Adjustment of Cognitive Control in Dual-Task Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Rico; Gottschalk, Caroline; Dreisbach, Gesine

2014-01-01

Performing 2 highly similar tasks at the same time requires an adaptive regulation of cognitive control to shield prioritized primary task processing from between-task (cross-talk) interference caused by secondary task processing. In the present study, the authors investigated how implicitly and explicitly delivered information promotes the…

Early visual cortex reflects initiation and maintenance of task set

Science.gov (United States)

Elkhetali, Abdurahman S.; Vaden, Ryan J.; Pool, Sean M.

2014-01-01

The human brain is able to process information flexibly, depending on a person's task. The mechanisms underlying this ability to initiate and maintain a task set are not well understood, but they are important for understanding the flexibility of human behavior and developing therapies for disorders involving attention. Here we investigate the differential roles of early visual cortical areas in initiating and maintaining a task set. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we characterized three different components of task set-related, but trial-independent activity in retinotopically mapped areas of early visual cortex, while human participants performed attention demanding visual or auditory tasks. These trial-independent effects reflected: (1) maintenance of attention over a long duration, (2) orienting to a cue, and (3) initiation of a task set. Participants performed tasks that differed in the modality of stimulus to be attended (auditory or visual) and in whether there was a simultaneous distractor (auditory only, visual only, or simultaneous auditory and visual). We found that patterns of trial-independent activity in early visual areas (V1, V2, V3, hV4) depend on attended modality, but not on stimuli. Further, different early visual areas play distinct roles in the initiation of a task set. In addition, activity associated with maintaining a task set tracks with a participant's behavior. These results show that trial-independent activity in early visual cortex reflects initiation and maintenance of a person's task set. PMID:25485712

Decoding task-based attentional modulation during face categorization.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Yu-Chin; Esterman, Michael; Han, Yuefeng; Rosen, Heather; Yantis, Steven

2011-05-01

Attention is a neurocognitive mechanism that selects task-relevant sensory or mnemonic information to achieve current behavioral goals. Attentional modulation of cortical activity has been observed when attention is directed to specific locations, features, or objects. However, little is known about how high-level categorization task set modulates perceptual representations. In the current study, observers categorized faces by gender (male vs. female) or race (Asian vs. White). Each face was perceptually ambiguous in both dimensions, such that categorization of one dimension demanded selective attention to task-relevant information within the face. We used multivoxel pattern classification to show that task-specific modulations evoke reliably distinct spatial patterns of activity within three face-selective cortical regions (right fusiform face area and bilateral occipital face areas). This result suggests that patterns of activity in these regions reflect not only stimulus-specific (i.e., faces vs. houses) responses but also task-specific (i.e., race vs. gender) attentional modulation. Furthermore, exploratory whole-brain multivoxel pattern classification (using a searchlight procedure) revealed a network of dorsal fronto-parietal regions (left middle frontal gyrus and left inferior and superior parietal lobule) that also exhibit distinct patterns for the two task sets, suggesting that these regions may represent abstract goals during high-level categorization tasks.

Integration of safety in management tasks in onshore transport SME´s

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Kirsten

2015-01-01

with animals and the risk of violence and robbery. To create a high level of safety in an enterprise is a difficult task that demands a great degree of management engagement. It is not only a question of having the right equipment, procedures and organization etc.; it is also necessary for everyone...... in the enterprise to have an understanding of safety and feel obligated to take responsibility for safety in all work at all times. Accident research shows that safety must be integrated in the whole enterprise and function on all levels of management, while it must also involve all employees in their daily work...... prevention. The result is a realistic strategy for integration safety, quality and environmental factors in an SME and procedures for how to go from strategy to action. Different tools were developed to fulfil the strategy ranging from risk identification, involvement of the employee and motivational...

IGT-Open: An open-source, computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Dancy, Christopher L; Ritter, Frank E

2017-06-01

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is commonly used to understand the processes involved in decision-making. Though the task was originally run without a computer, using a computerized version of the task has become typical. These computerized versions of the IGT are useful, because they can make the task more standardized across studies and allow for the task to be used in environments where a physical version of the task may be difficult or impossible to use (e.g., while collecting brain imaging data). Though these computerized versions of the IGT have been useful for experimentation, having multiple software implementations of the task could present reliability issues. We present an open-source software version of the Iowa Gambling Task (called IGT-Open) that allows for millisecond visual presentation accuracy and is freely available to be used and modified. This software has been used to collect data from human subjects and also has been used to run model-based simulations with computational process models developed to run in the ACT-R architecture.

Classification of dual language audio-visual content: Introduction to the VideoCLEF 2008 pilot benchmark evaluation task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larson, M.; Newman, E.; Jones, G.J.F.; Köhler, J.; Larson, M.; de Jong, F.M.G.; Kraaij, W.; Ordelman, R.J.F.

2008-01-01

VideoCLEF is a new track for the CLEF 2008 campaign. This track aims to develop and evaluate tasks in analyzing multilingual video content. A pilot of a Vid2RSS task involving assigning thematic class labels to video kicks off the VideoCLEF track in 2008. Task participants deliver classification

The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Internally and Externally Guided Task Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Orr, Joseph M.; Banich, Marie T.

2013-01-01

While some prior work suggests that medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) regions mediate freely chosen actions, other work suggests that the lateral frontal pole (LFP) is responsible for control of abstract, internal goals. The present study uses fMRI to determine whether the voluntary selection of a task in pursuit of an overall goal relies on MFC regions or the LFP. To do so, we used a modified voluntary task switching (VTS) paradigm, in which participants choose an individual task to perform on each trial (i.e., a subgoal), under instructions to perform the tasks equally often and in a random order (i.e. the overall goal). In conjunction, we examined patterns of activation in the face of irrelevant, but task-related external stimuli that might nonetheless influence task selection. While there was some evidence that the MFC was involved in voluntary task selection, we found that the LFP and anterior insula (AI) were crucial to task selection in the pursuit of an overall goal. In addition, activation of the LFP and AI increased in the face of environmental stimuli that might serve as an interfering or conflicting external bias on voluntary task choice. These findings suggest that the LFP supports task selection according to abstract, internal goals, and leaves open the possibility that MFC may guide action selection in situations lacking in such top-down biases. As such, the current study represents a critical step towards understanding the neural underpinnings of how tasks are selected voluntarily to enable an overarching goal. PMID:23994316

Performance Measure Analysis of Command and Control Organizational and Task Structures

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Smith, Neil

1996-01-01

.... The purpose of the initial A2C2 experiment was to examine the relationships between organizational structures and task structures involving competition for scarce assets, to serve as an integration...

Trait Mindfulness and Cognitive Task Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emalee J. W. Quickel

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Mindfulness meditation (MM training has been shown to have positive effects on working memory and focused attention tasks. Clarifying the construct of mindfulness is important so that mindfulness can be studied effectively in individual differences and cognition research. The current study tested whether trait mindfulness alone explains any of the variability on task performance. Five commonly used mindfulness scales, as well as six standardized and experimental attention and working memory tasks were administered to 164 participants with no meditation experience. Confirmatory factor analysis found that the common variance denoted by measures of trait mindfulness is unrelated to the common variance among tasks requiring focused attention. These results indicate that mindfulness scales may not be capturing the attentional aspects of mindfulness. Individuals who score high on mindfulness scales do not perform better on focused attention tasks than those who score lower on mindfulness scales. These results have implications for defining and operationalizing mindfulness.

A comparative critical analysis of modern task-parallel runtimes.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wheeler, Kyle Bruce; Stark, Dylan; Murphy, Richard C.

2012-12-01

The rise in node-level parallelism has increased interest in task-based parallel runtimes for a wide array of application areas. Applications have a wide variety of task spawning patterns which frequently change during the course of application execution, based on the algorithm or solver kernel in use. Task scheduling and load balance regimes, however, are often highly optimized for specific patterns. This paper uses four basic task spawning patterns to quantify the impact of specific scheduling policy decisions on execution time. We compare the behavior of six publicly available tasking runtimes: Intel Cilk, Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB), Intel OpenMP, GCC OpenMP, Qthreads, and High Performance ParalleX (HPX). With the exception of Qthreads, the runtimes prove to have schedulers that are highly sensitive to application structure. No runtime is able to provide the best performance in all cases, and those that do provide the best performance in some cases, unfortunately, provide extremely poor performance when application structure does not match the schedulers assumptions.

Impact of Prefrontal Theta Burst Stimulation on Clinical Neuropsychological Tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Viejo-Sobera

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Theta burst stimulation (TBS protocols hold high promise in neuropsychological rehabilitation. Nevertheless, their ability to either decrease (continuous, cTBS or increase (intermittent, iTBS cortical excitability in areas other than the primary motor cortex, and their consistency modulating human behaviors with clinically relevant tasks remain to be fully established. The behavioral effects of TBS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC are particularly interesting given its involvement in working memory (WM and executive functions (EF, often impaired following frontal brain damage. We aimed to explore the ability of cTBS and iTBS to modulate WM and EF in healthy individuals, assessed with clinical neuropsychological tests (Digits Backward, 3-back task, Stroop Test, and Tower of Hanoi. To this end, 36 participants were assessed using the four tests 1 week prior to stimulation and immediately following a single session of either cTBS, iTBS, or sham TBS, delivered to the left dlPFC. No significant differences were found across stimulation conditions in any of the clinical tasks. Nonetheless, in some of them, active stimulation induced significant pre/post performance modulations, which were not found for the sham condition. More specifically, sham stimulation yielded improvements in the 3-back task and the Color, Color-Word, and Interference Score of the Stroop Test, an effect likely caused by task practice. Both, iTBS and cTBS, produced improvements in Digits Backward and impairments in 3-back task accuracy. Moreover, iTBS increased Interference Score in the Stroop Test in spite of the improved word reading and impaired color naming, whereas cTBS decreased the time required to complete the Tower of Hanoi. Differing from TBS outcomes reported for cortico-spinal measures on the primary motor cortex, our analyses did not reveal any of the expected performance differences across stimulation protocols. However, if one considers independently

Dynamics of the central bottleneck: dual-task and task uncertainty.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariano Sigman

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Why is the human brain fundamentally limited when attempting to execute two tasks at the same time or in close succession? Two classical paradigms, psychological refractory period (PRP and task switching, have independently approached this issue, making significant advances in our understanding of the architecture of cognition. Yet, there is an apparent contradiction between the conclusions derived from these two paradigms. The PRP paradigm, on the one hand, suggests that the simultaneous execution of two tasks is limited solely by a passive structural bottleneck in which the tasks are executed on a first-come, first-served basis. The task-switching paradigm, on the other hand, argues that switching back and forth between task configurations must be actively controlled by a central executive system (the system controlling voluntary, planned, and flexible action. Here we have explicitly designed an experiment mixing the essential ingredients of both paradigms: task uncertainty and task simultaneity. In addition to a central bottleneck, we obtain evidence for active processes of task setting (planning of the appropriate sequence of actions and task disengaging (suppression of the plan set for the first task in order to proceed with the next one. Our results clarify the chronometric relations between these central components of dual-task processing, and in particular whether they operate serially or in parallel. On this basis, we propose a hierarchical model of cognitive architecture that provides a synthesis of task-switching and PRP paradigms.

Rhythmic Firing of Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus Neurons in Monkeys during Eye Movement Task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ken-Ichi Okada

Full Text Available The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTN has been thought to be involved in the control of behavioral state. Projections to the entire thalamus and reciprocal connections with the basal ganglia nuclei suggest a potential role for the PPTN in the control of various rhythmic behaviors, including waking/sleeping and locomotion. Recently, rhythmic activity in the local field potentials was recorded from the PPTN of patients with Parkinson's disease who were treated with levodopa, suggesting that rhythmic firing is a feature of the functioning PPTN and might change with the behaving conditions even within waking. However, it remains unclear whether and how single PPTN neurons exhibit rhythmic firing patterns during various behaving conditions, including executing conditioned eye movement behaviors, seeking reward, or during resting. We previously recorded from PPTN neurons in healthy monkeys during visually guided saccade tasks and reported task-related changes in firing rate, and in this paper, we reanalyzed these data and focused on their firing patterns. A population of PPTN neurons demonstrated a regular firing pattern in that the coefficient of variation of interspike intervals was lower than what would be expected of theoretical random and irregular spike trains. Furthermore, a group of PPTN neurons exhibited a clear periodic single spike firing that changed with the context of the behavioral task. Many of these neurons exhibited a periodic firing pattern during highly active conditions, either the fixation condition during the saccade task or the free-viewing condition during the intertrial interval. We speculate that these task context-related changes in rhythmic firing of PPTN neurons might regulate the monkey's attentional and vigilance state to perform the task.

One Night of Sleep Deprivation Affects Reaction Time, but Not Interference or Facilitation in a Stroop Task

Science.gov (United States)

Cain, Sean W.; Silva, Edward J.; Chang, Anne-Marie; Ronda, Joseph M.; Duffy, Jeanne F.

2011-01-01

The Stroop color-naming task is one of the most widely studied tasks involving the inhibition of a prepotent response, regarded as an executive function. Several studies have examined performance on versions of the Stroop task under conditions of acute sleep deprivation. Though these studies revealed effects on Stroop performance, the results…

Involvement in Childrearing and Mothers' and Fathers' Adjustment

Science.gov (United States)

Riina, Elizabeth M.; Feinberg, Mark E.

2012-01-01

Combining social construction of gender and equity perspectives on parents' division of labor, this study extended research on associations between parents' childrearing involvement and adjustment by (a) differentiating between types of childrearing activities (task focused vs. relationship focused), (b) examining patterns of differences in these…

Biological pathways and genetic variables involved in pain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shi, Qiuling; Cleeland, Charles S.; Klepstad, Pål; Miaskowski, Christine; Pedersen, Nancy L.; Abernethy, Amy P.; Baas, Frank; Barsevick, Andrea M.; Bartels, Meike; Boomsma, Dorret I.; Chauhan, Cynthia; Dueck, Amylou C.; Frost, Marlene H.; Hall, Per; Halyard, Michele Y.; Martin, Nicholas G.; Mosing, Miriam; Movsas, Benjamin; van Noorden, Cornelis J. F.; Patrick, Donald L.; Ropka, Mary E.; Shinozaki, Gen; Singh, Jasvinder A.; Sloan, Jeff A.; Sprangers, Mirjam A. G.; Veenhoven, Ruut; Yang, Ping; Zwinderman, Ailko H.

2010-01-01

Purpose This paper summarizes current knowledge of pain-related and analgesic-related pathways as well as genetic variations involved in pain perception and management. Methods The pain group of the GENEQOL Consortium was given the task of summarizing the current status of research on genetic

The effects of stimulus modality and task integrality: Predicting dual-task performance and workload from single-task levels

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, S. G.; Shively, R. J.; Vidulich, M. A.; Miller, R. C.

1986-01-01

The influence of stimulus modality and task difficulty on workload and performance was investigated. The goal was to quantify the cost (in terms of response time and experienced workload) incurred when essentially serial task components shared common elements (e.g., the response to one initiated the other) which could be accomplished in parallel. The experimental tasks were based on the Fittsberg paradigm; the solution to a SternBERG-type memory task determines which of two identical FITTS targets are acquired. Previous research suggested that such functionally integrated dual tasks are performed with substantially less workload and faster response times than would be predicted by suming single-task components when both are presented in the same stimulus modality (visual). The physical integration of task elements was varied (although their functional relationship remained the same) to determine whether dual-task facilitation would persist if task components were presented in different sensory modalities. Again, it was found that the cost of performing the two-stage task was considerably less than the sum of component single-task levels when both were presented visually. Less facilitation was found when task elements were presented in different sensory modalities. These results suggest the importance of distinguishing between concurrent tasks that complete for limited resources from those that beneficially share common resources when selecting the stimulus modalities for information displays.

User involvement in care work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dybbroe, Betina; Kamp, Annette

In recent years user involvement has become a paradigm for transforming the health and social care sector. This development–also labelled empowerment, co-creation, partnership, patient-centeredness - is seen as a means to reform organizations in ways that enhance quality, economic cost effectiven...... forms of professionalism, and imply tensions in health and social care work.......In recent years user involvement has become a paradigm for transforming the health and social care sector. This development–also labelled empowerment, co-creation, partnership, patient-centeredness - is seen as a means to reform organizations in ways that enhance quality, economic cost...... addressed the way this paradigm affects the users, in specific sectors. However user involvement also affects working life. It may imply change and redistribution of tasks and identities between users and professionals, and may also transform the relations of care. In this paper we explore the possible...

The Curvilinear Relationship between State Neuroticism and Momentary Task Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Debusscher, Jonas; Hofmans, Joeri; De Fruyt, Filip

2014-01-01

A daily diary and two experience sampling studies were carried out to investigate curvilinearity of the within-person relationship between state neuroticism and task performance, as well as the moderating effects of within-person variation in momentary job demands (i.e., work pressure and task complexity). In one, results showed that under high work pressure, the state neuroticism–task performance relationship was best described by an exponentially decreasing curve, whereas an inverted U-shaped curve was found for tasks low in work pressure, while in another study, a similar trend was visible for task complexity. In the final study, the state neuroticism–momentary task performance relationship was a linear one, and this relationship was moderated by momentary task complexity. Together, results from all three studies showed that it is important to take into account the moderating effects of momentary job demands because within-person variation in job demands affects the way in which state neuroticism relates to momentary levels of task performance. Specifically, we found that experiencing low levels of state neuroticism may be most beneficial in high demanding tasks, whereas more moderate levels of state neuroticism are optimal under low momentary job demands. PMID:25238547

Task relevance modulates the cortical representation of feature conjunctions in the target template.

Science.gov (United States)

Reeder, Reshanne R; Hanke, Michael; Pollmann, Stefan

2017-07-03

Little is known about the cortical regions involved in representing task-related content in preparation for visual task performance. Here we used representational similarity analysis (RSA) to investigate the BOLD response pattern similarity between task relevant and task irrelevant feature dimensions during conjunction viewing and target template maintenance prior to visual search. Subjects were cued to search for a spatial frequency (SF) or orientation of a Gabor grating and we measured BOLD signal during cue and delay periods before the onset of a search display. RSA of delay period activity revealed that widespread regions in frontal, posterior parietal, and occipitotemporal cortices showed general representational differences between task relevant and task irrelevant dimensions (e.g., orientation vs. SF). In contrast, RSA of cue period activity revealed sensory-related representational differences between cue images (regardless of task) at the occipital pole and additionally in the frontal pole. Our data show that task and sensory information are represented differently during viewing and during target template maintenance, and that task relevance modulates the representation of visual information across the cortex.

A study of existing experimental data and validation process for evaluated high energy nuclear data. Report of task force on integral test for JENDL High Energy File in Japanese Nuclear Data Committee