Amount Of Information Processing Research Articles

Implicit learning of non-verbal regularities by deaf children with cochlear implants: An investigation with a dynamic temporal prediction task.

Some deaf children continue to show difficulties in spoken language learning after cochlear implantation. Part of this variability has been attributed to poor implicit learning skills. However, the involvement of other processes (e.g. verbal rehearsal) has been underestimated in studies that show implicit learning deficits in the deaf population. In this study, we investigated the relationship between auditory deprivation and implicit learning of temporal regularities with a novel task specifically designed to limit the load on working memory, the amount of information processing, and the visual-motor integration skills required. Seventeen deaf children with cochlear implants and eighteen typically hearing children aged 5 to 11 years participated. Our results revealed comparable implicit learning skills between the two groups, suggesting that implicit learning might be resilient to a lack of early auditory stimulation. No significant correlation was found between implicit learning and language tasks. However, deaf children’s performance suggests some weaknesses in inhibitory control.

ORGANIZATION OF HEALTH RELATED AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF SENIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN IN OUT-OF-SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS OF TOURISM AND REGIONAL DIRECTION

The article presents the results of studying the features of organization of health related and recreational activities of senior schoolchildren as components for the development of the program of health related and recreational classes. Objective. Develop approaches to improving the organizational and methodological support of health related and recreational activities of students in out-of-school educational establishments. Меthods. Analysis of scientific and methodological literature and documentary materials, anthropometric, physiological, pedagogical methods of research, methods of mathematical statistics. Results. The study involved 50 15-year-old students (33 boys and 17 girls) and 49 16-year-old students (34 boys and 15 girls). As a result of a comprehensive study of senior schoolchildren, it was found that the age average indices of physical development, functional status of the cardiorespiratory system and physical work capacity were within the physiological norm. An analysis of the daily motor activity of boys and girls aged 15–16 indicates a significant advantage of baseline and sedentary levels compared to other types of activities. Analyzing cognitive functions, such as short-term memory, attention, and the amount of information processing in boys and girls 15–16 years old, we conclude that the vast majority of individuals had low scores, although there was a positive trend in improvement with age. The results obtained should be taken into account when designing programs of health related and recreational activities for the specified contingent.

Extended Abstract: Utilizing Event Rate As a Manipulation of Task Difficulty in Vigilance

Vigilance refers to the ability of an observer to maintain attention over extended periods of time, and to respond to critical signals that occur (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982). Vigilance has been ex...

Loanable Funds, Risk, and Bank Service Output

This paper develops a unified theory of bank operations that integrates theories of financial intermediation, asset pricing, and production. In a simple dynamic model, banks maximize the present value of future profits generated through three categories of qualitatively distinct functions: (1) resolving information asymmetry in order to make loans, (2) providing transaction services, and (3) financing loans with borrowed funds. Risk determines the rate of return on the funds and in turn the discount rate for future profits. But risk affects the quantity of bank services generated in the first two functions only to the extent that assets of different risk require different amounts of information processing. The model thus coherently accounts for portfolio risk in measuring bank service output. It then recognizes that only functions (1) and (2) create bank value added, whereas the borrowed funds are merely an intermediate input in the provision of bank services. Furthermore, the funds and the production function for value added are separable in a bank's optimization solution. This model can resolve some long-standing debates in the literature on bank production, such as distinguishing between the input and output roles of deposits. It also provides a theoretical basis for measuring banking output in the National Income Accounts. This banking model implies a new measure of bank output that imputes the implicitly priced services as the part of net interest income that is free of risk-related returns on loanable funds. The new measure differs significantly from the ones commonly used, suggesting a need to reexamine the conclusions of a large body of empirical literature.

The Role of Idealism and Relativism as Dispositional Characteristics in the Socially Responsible Decision-Making Process

This study investigated how decision-makers differ in processing their organizational environment (peers and organizational control systems), depending on the levels of their idealism and relativism. Focusing on socially responsible buying/sourcing issues, responses from buying/sourcing professionals from U.S. apparel and shoe companies were analyzed, using a series of regression analyses. The results generally supported the proposition that the degrees of idealism and relativism determine involvement levels that, in turn, result in varying levels of reactions to the organizational environment and corresponding amounts of information processing. Highly idealistic (relativistic) individuals were influenced by only idealistic (relativistic) signals of organizational environment. Further analysis showed highly idealistic and relativistic individuals were more likely to evaluate the organizational environment in terms of its business merit. The results suggest that organizations need to carefully plan how to communicate underlying meanings of organizational initiatives with their employees, knowing that individuals who have strong ethical opinions will only react to what they believe and elaborate its value for business. Further theoretical and practical implications and suggestions are discussed.

Autonomic physiological activity in mental rotation tasks.

The electrodermal response (EDR) during a mental rotation (MR) task performance was investigated. For 6 males and 8 females (16-25 years old) there was a progressive increase in the number of EDRs as the angle of rotation (complexity) of the task was increased. These results support previous findings that autonomic physiological activity varies with the amount of information processing or its difficulty.

A replication of the amount and equivocality of information processing in organizational work units

Replicates the Daft and Macintosh (1981) research that related the amount and equivocality of information processing to the variety and analysability of work unit activities. Conducted across 38 different work units in a single Fortune 500 firm, identifies some contradictions, but confirms Daft and Macintosh’s unhypothesized findings and suggests that within an organizational context the amount of information processed by work units serves as an uncertainty reducing mechanism. Thus, more information intensive work units are able to clarify equivocal information and increase the precision and analysability of their task work.

Health professional workstations and their integration in a hospital information system: the pragmatic approach MEDIAS

Within the daily workload at a ward there is a considerable amount of information processing. It is the task of a systematic management of hospital information systems to provide health professionals with the right information in the right place at the right time. This paper deals with the consequences for the management of hospital information systems if health professional workstations are introduced as a means for this information logistic and with the experiences gained in the Heidelberg University Hospital. Health professional workstations are formally defined in the context of a three level graph-based model of hospital information systems. It is found that health professional workstations have communication needs not only on the physical level of computer systems in the hospital information system but also on the logical tool level, which is the level of application systems. On this level communication servers or brokers are of considerable importance. In Heidelberg there are about 200 health professional workstations (MEDIAS) in routine use.

Affect in computer-mediated and face-to-face work groups: The construction and testing of a general model

The present study examines the role of affect, or emotion, in the performance of computer-mediated and face-to-face work groups. Past research has focussed on the role of affect in either individual information processing or behavior in settings requiring interpersonal interaction. Little research has examined the role of affect in groups, especially those in a work group setting. Even less is known about the role that the communication medium plays in the expression or impact of group members' affect. To integrate these domains, a general model of affect in work group settings is proposed. Predictions are derived from the relevant affect, group interaction, and group performance literatures. In addition, predictions about the moderating role of the communication system are discussed. Results from a path analysis suggest that affect has a substantial impact intragroup on processes as well as on work group performance. In face-to-face groups, the affect experienced by group members had an impact on the group's cohesiveness, the amount members participated in the task, and the degree to which members processed information relevant to the task. These factors, in turn, had implications for the group's performance. In computer-mediated groups, affect had an effect on the group's cohesiveness and the amount of information processing, though these were unrelated to any performance measures for these groups. Similarities and differences between communication media are discussed in terms of their importance for extending our understanding about the role of affect in a group performance context.

Physiological activity in an attribute learning task

The relationship between the amount of information processing in an Attribute Learning task and autonomic activity, measured by skin conductance response (SCR), was investigated. The amount of information processing was manipulated by type of concept and feedback. Furthermore, the influence of practice and verbalization was studied. Three types of concepts were used: conjunction, exclusion and joint denial. The stimulus population consisted of four three-valued dimensions. The results showed that (1) SCR did not differ among concepts; (2) SCR varied with type of feedback, it being smallest at blanks and largest at infirming feedback; (3) SCR was related to the number of confirmations preceding infirmation; (4) subjects mainly used the strategy ‘reject hypothesis only after infirmation’; (5) subjects usually selected not-yet-tested hypotheses; (6) practice influenced performance; (7) verbalization did not result in more efficient use of information; however, the appropriateness of the experimental set-up to study this factor was questioned; (8) conjunction was easier to learn than the other concepts. The results were discussed in terms of uncertainty reduction, resulting from testing hypotheses in a concept learning task.

Relationship between SCR, heart rate and information processing

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between the amount of information processing in concept learning (CL) and autonomic physiological activity as measured by skin conductance response (SCR). Heart rate (HR) was also measured. Two conceptual rules were used: a conjunctive and an inclusive disjunctive concept. The results indicated that the SCR rose with increasing amount of information processing at the feedback during CL. Furthermore, it was shown that SCR increased with increasing difficulty of the conceptual rule. HR appeared not to vary with amount of information processing, nor with type of concept. In the conjunctive series, however, there was a significant difference between HR at stimulus presentation and HR at feedback.

Evaluation of hypotheses in concept identification

The aim of this paper is to investigate the nature of hypothesis evaluation in conceptual tasks, especially in the identification of bidimensional concepts. In such tasks, hypothesis testing is seen as being composed of sampling and evaluation stages. With complex problems only one hypothesis seems likely to be sampled on each trial, and it is suggested that this hypothesis is evaluated according to a statistical decision-making process. In Experiment I, Ss were given an initial hypothesis involving one of eight rules and required to test it in an attempt to find a concept. When this given hypothesis was true (i.e., the concept), no difference was found between rules for the number of instances selected to the criterion of solution. Moreover, there was a tendency for Ss to choose instances which were predicted to be positive according to the hypothesis under test. Experiment II examined the role of memory in hypothesis testing. Immediate recall of instances selected revealed no difference between true and false hypotheses. Both primacy and recency effects were evident in recall. The number of instances correctly recalled was more than expected by models of hypothesis sampling and evaluation, and this was attributed to Ss having a low criterion for recall without intrusions. Examination of intrusions suggested that Ss may have retained some, but not all, of the features of the stimuli selected. Some differences were found between rules and between positive and netative instances on recall. These effects were suggested to be due to different amounts of information processing when classifying each type of instance for each rule; the results of Experiment III supported this suggestion.