Arrangement Of Items Research Articles

Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) succeed in a test of quantity conservation

Nonhuman animals demonstrate a number of impressive quantitative skills such as counting sets of items, comparing sets on the basis of the number of items or amount of material, and even responding to simple arithmetic manipulations. In this experiment, capuchin monkeys were presented with a computerized task designed to assess conservation of discrete quantity. Monkeys first were trained to select from two horizontal arrays of stimuli the one with the larger number of items. On some trials, after a correct selection there was no feedback but instead an additional manipulation of one of those arrays. In some cases, this manipulation involved moving items closer together or farther apart to change the physical arrangement of the array but not the quantity of items in the array. In other cases, additional items were added to the initially smaller array so that it became quantitatively larger. Monkeys then made a second selection from the two arrays of items. Previous research had shown that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) succeeded with this task. However, there was no condition in that study in which items were added to the smaller array without increasing its quantity to a point where it became the new larger array. This new condition was added in the present experiment. Capuchin monkeys were sensitive to all of these manipulations, changing their selections when the manipulations changed which array contained the larger number of items but not when the manipulations changed the physical arrangement of items or increased the quantity in one array without also reversing which of the two arrays had more items. Therefore, capuchin monkeys responded on the basis of the quantity of items, and they were not distracted by non-quantitative manipulations of the arrays. The data indicate that capuchins are sensitive to simply arithmetic manipulations that involve addition of items to arrays and also that they can conserve quantity.

Legacy in flight: processing the Marlon D. Green collection

PurposeTwo graduate LIS students interested in archival studies describe their first effort processing a manuscript collection belonging to Marlon D. Green, the first African American commercial airline pilot in the US.Design/methodology/approachThe students locate introductory readings and seek the advice of professional archivists to organize the collection and write a finding aid that describes its contents. The novice archivists explore issues of appraisal, arrangement, description and preservation of items in the collection, and discuss the challenges archivists face in organizing collections objectively.FindingsThe students find organizing a manuscript collection to be a surprisingly collaborative and social process. Learning about Marlon Green's life directly from his family members gives the student archivists the advantage of knowing the context of his papers, which helps them order and group items more effectively.Practical implicationsArchivists will benefit from researching a collection's subject thoroughly at the beginning of the process. Collaborating with other archivists on processing collections may help archivists test and hone their methods and achieve greater consistency. The paper is an informal case study about organizing a manuscript collection or collection of family papers.Originality/valueThe discussion of an archivist's role may be useful to novice and student archivists or LIS professionals who have in their care a collection of papers that must be organized and described.

HOW DO STUDENTS OF CHEMISTRY TEACHING PROGNOSE THE IMPACT OF GRAPHICAL PART OF DIDACTICAL TESTS? SELECTED ASPECTS OF VISUALIZATION IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

For the first pilot research in the scope of the project Learning from graphical presentation in science education (GAČR 406/02/1165) there has been chosen investigation of the role of non-verbal elements of didactic tests. For solving of this task there was used comparison of the results of pupils of basic school performing two variants of the test with the same content and different form of formulation and arrangement of items (verbal form and form comprising visual information (pictures and graphs). In the contribution there are described starting points of the project, the interpretation obtained, experimental data from the point of view of typology of picture material as a part of didactic tests and mainly the point of view and the attitude of the students of chemistry teaching to the influence of graphical elements to the fruitfulness of students in didactic tests.

On A Special Case of the Quadratic Assignment Problem with an Application to Storage-and-Retrieval Devices

In a storage-and-retrieval device, items are retrieved on demand from a storage bank by a picking mechanism. Many varieties of these robotic devices are in use in manufacturing, logistics and computer peripherals. In printed circuit board manufacturing, storage-and-retrieval is intertwined with component placement and product clustering. Under certain circumstances, the problem of assigning items by type to storage slots to minimize the expected retrieval time is a quadratic assignment problem. Although such models are very difficult to solve to optimality, an important special case considered here admits an easy solution, namely, the well known “organ pipe” arrangement of items.

A GRASP Approach to the Container-Loading Problem

The container-loading problem aims to determine the arrangement of items in a container. We present GRMODGRASP, a new algorithm for the CLP based on the GRASP (greedy randomized adaptive search procedure) paradigm. We evaluate GRMODGRASP'S performance in terms of volume use and load stability and by comparing it with nine well-known algorithms. Our approach produces solutions that surpass other approaches' solutions in terms of volume use and cargo stability.

User‐process model approach to improve user interface usability

AbstractOur purpose in this study is to inductively reorganize software interface menu items based on a user's process model. The proposed menu interface in this study used direct users' input, such as goals and strategies for solving their information needs, to reorganize and re‐label menus. To assess its effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction with actual users, we implemented and compared this new menu version to the original interface that was based upon a traditional categorical menu organization. The significance of this study is that it incorporates user process modeling into the design of the user interface, providing insights into the impact of such modeling on the usability of an information system. Results from the usability testing do indicate that the proposed menu and the traditional menu are similarly effective for users in terms of task completion time and accuracy. User preferences and debriefing comments from usability testing also indicate users preferred the user‐process based arrangement of menu items as displayed. However, the types of tasks (different problem type) suggest significant differences for results in task completion time and in accuracy, sometimes favoring the new version. In other words, usable and effective menu organization depends more on the types of tasks and the domain of knowledge than mere menu organization, although menu organization is a factor in the process.

Homing behaviour of juvenile Australian raspy crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae)

Abstract. Juvenile gryllacridid Orthoptera, known as raspy crickets, build nests or burrows as soon as they hatch. Both juveniles and adults are central place foragers that search for food at night and return to the same nest each morning. This study examines the homing abilities of juveniles of an undescribed species of gryllacridid from Western Australia. Juveniles were placed in a simple maze, which consisted of two chambers, one containing the nest and the other empty, linked by wide glass tubes to a central chamber containing food. The food was placed in this chamber with a consistent orientation relative to the exit tubes leading to the nest and empty chambers. Juveniles appeared to learn which chamber contained their nest and thereafter ignored the route towards the empty chamber. By exchanging the connecting glass tubes, it could be established that juvenile crickets were not using chemical trails to find their home. The positions of the empty and nest chambers with respect to the central chamber were exchanged and, in a separate manipulation, the spatial configuration of the food in the central chamber was also changed. Both manipulations resulted in a decrease in successful returns to the nest chamber, the former because the nest had been relocated, the latter presumably because the spatial arrangement of items within the food chamber now presented orientation cues, which led to the empty chamber. Furthermore, juveniles were able to estimate distance travelled, despite the absence of chemical or visual cues. Juvenile raspy crickets appear to be able to maintain nest fidelity from a very early age by using spatial landmarks and appear capable of measuring translational displacement intrinsically.

Evaluating spatial memory in two and three dimensions

Prior research has shown that the efficient use of graphical user interfaces is strongly dependent on human capabilities for spatial cognition. One facet of spatial cognition is the ability to quickly and accurately recall and access the location of objects in a spatial arrangement. This paper describes a series of experiments aimed at determining whether three-dimensional user interfaces better support spatial memory than their more traditional two-dimensional counterparts. The experiments are conducted using both computer-supported systems and physical models that vary the depth and perspective cues in spatial arrangements of interface items. The physical models were used to escape some of the dimensional ambiguities that are hard to control using computer displays. Results strongly suggest that adding a third dimension to computer displays does not aid users’ spatial memory. Although there were no significant differences between the effectiveness of spatial memory when using two- and three-dimensional computer interfaces, participants’ memory for the location of cards representing web-pages was reliably better when using a two-dimensional physical model than when using an equivalent three-dimensional physical model.

Spatial context and top-down strategies in visual search

Marvin M. Chun and Yuhong Jiang (1998) investigated the role of spatial context on visual search. They used two display conditions. In the Old Display condition, the spatial arrangement of items in the search display was kept constant throughout the experiment. In the New Display condition, the spatial arrangement of items was always novel from trial to trial. The results showed better performance with Old Displays than with New Displays. The authors proposed that repeated spatial context help guiding attention to the target location, thus they termed this effect Contextual Cueing. We present three attempts to reproduce this effect. Experiments 1 and 2 were near exact replications of experiments in Chun and Jiang's report, where we failed to obtain Contextual Cueing. Post-experimental interviews revealed that participants used different search strategies when performing the task: an 'active' strategy (an active effort to find the target), or a 'passive' strategy (intuitive search). In Experiment 3, we manipulated task instructions to bias participants into using active or passive strategies. A robust Contextual Cueing Effect was obtained only in the passive instruction condition.

Spinal Cord Medicine: Principles and Practice

Spinal cord injury, whether due to trauma, neoplasia or medical conditions, is devastating for the patient, affecting every aspect of physical, social and psychological life. No one who regularly treats such patients can fail to be moved by their struggle to adjust. Since most of the aetiologies are either traumatic or benign, the patient will have a near normal life expectancy if medical complications are avoided. The very existence of Lin's huge textbook testifies to the major advances in spinal cord medicine achieved over the past three decades. This is dramatically illustrated by mortality rates among traumatic paraplegics due to renal complications which stood at 80% for those injured in World War One, fell to 25% during the Korean war and reached very low percentages for the Vietnam conflict. Whereas renal complications formerly prevailed as the cause of death, the main reason for concern in the first six months after injury are now suicide and accidental self-harm. This highlights both the success of medical therapies and the importance of psychological support as an active component of rehabilitation. The manifold physical, medical and psychosocial aspects of spinal cord medicine require the attention of an experienced multidisciplinary team, and in the UK there are several spinal injury units with excellent facilities and experienced dedicated staff. Unfortunately, places are severely restricted and a large proportion of patients with spinal cord injury will never be offered inpatient treatment at such units. For the clinicians struggling to manage spinal cord conditions in a conventional hospital environment Lin's textbook provides an authoritative and contemporary source of knowledge. With seventy-four chapters by 128 authors (most of them from the USA), it proceeds logically from the basic sciences to clinical management including psychosocial issues. The introductory section includes the anatomy and physiology of the spinal cord, imaging and overviews of epidemiology and outcomes. These chapters are necessary for completeness but are rather general and superficial. The second section on acute management of cord injury deals well with the decision-making process and controversies of surgical decompression and stabilization in spinal cord injury, but naturally does not cover the detail of surgical procedures. The third section entitled ‘Medical Management’ addresses the wide range of medical complications that occur with great regularity in spinal cord injury, dealing with each in turn in good detail. This section includes chapters on frequently overlooked complications such as disordered thermoregulation and the immune system response as well as the commonly appreciated problems of respiratory dysfunction and thromboembolism. Section four deals with bladder, bowel and sexual dysfunction and provides comprehensive advice on all aspects of these difficult management issues. Section five, on the neurological aspects of spinal cord care, is a miscellaneous arrangement of items on physiology, investigations, management of spasticity, various myelopathies and autonomic dysfunction. Whilst some of these provide only an overview others offer in-depth insight into aspects of spinal cord injury that are otherwise not dealt with in detail elsewhere. Section six, on musculoskeletal care, provides an excellent set of chapters about this very important aspect of secondary prevention. Section seven, self-evidently vital, addresses rehabilitation from every angle. Section eight deals with recent advances in spinal cord research, providing analyses of progress in neural regeneration, cord repair and retraining among others. Section nine concerns special topics in spinal cord medicine and incorporates further miscellaneous chapters that demonstrate the comprehensive nature of this text. The final section, on psychosocial issues and support environment, is perhaps the most important and instructive part of the book and is done well. The breadth, detail and inclusiveness of this text is impressive. Whichever aspect of spinal cord medicine one is faced with, this text will offer management advice and clinical information. In my practice I regularly see patients with spinal cord injury secondary to trauma, neoplasia and inflammatory processes who have to be managed in the neurosurgical unit. With the advice of these experts readily to hand, I shall feel more confident in managing these patients during their lengthy stays.

Area activation: a computational model of saccadic selectivity in visual search

AbstractThe Area Activation Model (Pomplun, Reingold, Shen, & Williams, 2000) is a computational model predicting the statistical distribution of saccadic endpoints in visual search tasks. Its basic assumption is that saccades in visual search tend to foveate display areas that provide a maximum amount of task‐relevant information for processing during the subsequent fixation. In the present study, a counterintuitive prediction by the model is empirically tested, namely that saccadic selectivity towards stimulus features depends on the spatial arrangement of search items. We find good correspondence between simulated and empirically observed selectivity patterns, providing strong support for the Area Activation Model.

Area activation: a computational model of saccadic selectivity in visual search

The Area Activation Model (Pomplun, Reingold, Shen, & Williams, 2000) is a computational model predicting the statistical distribution of saccadic endpoints in visual search tasks. Its basic assumption is that saccades in visual search tend to foveate display areas that provide a maximum amount of task-relevant information for processing during the subsequent fixation. In the present study, a counterintuitive prediction by the model is empirically tested, namely that saccadic selectivity towards stimulus features depends on the spatial arrangement of search items. We find good correspondence between simulated and empirically observed selectivity patterns, providing strong support for the Area Activation Model.

Efficient Search for Size Targets on a Background Texture Gradient: Is Detection Guided by Discontinuities in the Retinal-Size Gradient of Items?

Six visual search experiments were carried out to investigate the processing of size information in early vision. The apparent size of display items was manipulated independently of their retinal size by placing items on a textured surface which altered the perceived distance in depth of the items. Overall, these experiments demonstrate that a target item differing from non-target items in terms of apparent size can be detected efficiently. However, the pattern of results indicates that, rather than deriving apparent-size information, target detection is guided by discontinuities in the 'retinal-size gradient' of items, in particular between items at the same 'depth'. Although the arrangement of items on the texture surface strongly influenced search, this was largely due to the retinal size of items and the retinal separation between items. The implications of these experiments for the nature of the pre-attentive representation of size are discussed.

Visualizing recognition memory

Recognition memory – indicated by the judgment of the familiarity versus the novelty of an event – has been the target of many recent neuropsychological investigations, using a variety of techniques in several different species. Although much progress has been made, there exist between studies significant points of disagreement. In particular, it remains unclear whether all regions of the medial temporal lobe, such as the hippocampus, perirhinal cortex and parahippocampal cortex, contribute equally to recognition memory. One reason for these discrepancies might be that these different regions are involved in different kinds of recognition. Accordingly, Wan, Aggleton and Brown1 investigated the neural substrates of two kinds of recognition memory: that for single objects, and that for the spatial arrangements of objects. Using an ingenious paradigm that takes advantage of a fortuitous property of the rat visual system – that information from each eye is transmitted predominantly to the contralateral hemisphere – these experimenters were able to present different computerized images to each eye, and hence to each hemisphere. Thus, they presented a novel and a familiar stimulus separately and simultaneously to each eye. Activity of individual brain regions in each hemisphere was then assessed using immunohistochemistry for the protein products of the immediate early gene c-fos. The activity in hemispheres of individual animals could be compared, thus providing tight within-subject control. It was found that whereas perirhinal cortex and area TE were activated more by pictures of novel than by pictures of familiar single objects, postrhinal cortex (thought to be the rat homologue of primate parahippocampal cortex) and hippocampal area CA1 were activated more by novel than by familiar arrangements of individually familiar objects. This double dissociation suggests that these different regions support different kinds of recognition memory. Specifically, perirhinal cortex and area TE appear to be important for the recognition of individual objects, whereas the postrhinal cortex and hippocampus appear to be important for the recognition of the spatial arrangement of items in ‘scenes’. Wan, Aggleton and Brown suggest that the different properties of these regions might underlie the role of the hippocampal system in ‘episodic memory’, by which the scene in which an episode is set can be used to retrieve the memory of that episode. Further research will be necessary to test this theory and elucidate the mechanisms by which such a retrieval system might operate.

Old English Wisdom Poetry (review)

Reviews 261 One quibble I had was with the choice of illustration for the front cover (Fra Filippo Lippi's Portrait ofa Man and a Woman at a Casement). When there are abundant pictures of Christine available in manuscripts, why not use one of them? The British Library's Harley manuscript illustrations spring immediately to mind (and one tiny portrait of Christine from Harley 4431 is provided on the back cover), though there are many others in the Bibliotheque Nationale's Pizan manuscripts. When w e k n o w that Pizan commissioned some of these extant manuscripts editions containing her portrait, w e can conclude that visual representation was an important part of her authorial selfrepresentation . W h y not include, at least as the cover illustration, her own choice of authorial portrait? It m a y seem a minor point, but such an inclusion would go some w a y towards recognising the importance of alternative or marginal aspects of text presentation with which authors were also concerned. This collection is a worthy contribution to studies of Christine de Pizan and her works. It provides affordable access to valuable material which reflects the diversity of Pizan's appeal, demonstrating her literary talents as well as providing a wealth of primary source material for historians. O n e can expect that through this reader Pizan will be increasingly included in history, literature and French studies course syllabi. Susan Broomhall c/-School of European Languages University of Western Australia Poole, Russell, ed., Old English Wisdom Poetry. (Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English 5), Cambridge, D. S. Brewer; cloth; pp. xi, 418; R.R.P. £55.00, $US95.00. The present volume is the fifth to be published in the scholarly seri Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English. It offers a remarkably comprehensive introduction to the scholarship published between 1800 and 1990 on Old English wisdom poetry, appraising in all more than 1100 items, the bulk of them representing learned articles, but many of the relevant insights into the stances taken on these poems 262 Reviews occur in various more standard literary histories and the like. The genre of wisdom verse is itself defined much as in the AngloSaxon Poetic Records, and so it includes the Metrical Charms, the Metrical Proverbs (all), the Exeter Book Riddles, as well as the ten poems normally grouped here. Both the opening chapters, concerned with bibliographies, are arranged chronologically, as are the following thirteen concerned withtexts.Full identification of items is afforded, as well as salient content in precis, and appropriate characterising and evaluative comment. Each of the main chapters, numbers three to thirteen, contains a brief introduction, in which an overview of published research from m a n y languages on the relevant text is provided. These introductory sections discuss: the manuscript provenance; editorial policies and controversies; datings, localisations and attributions; sources and analogues; genre type and/or affiliations; literary-critical evaluations; (present) place/'genre' in the content of Anglo-Saxon poetry; and contribution to our better understanding of Anglo-Saxon culture. The indices treat separately the Scholars and Subjects. Quite certainly this is a powerful reference tool likely to generate and refine the thought of numerous studies in the next generation and beyond. The General Editor, T. L. Burton, has here commented justly on the use of annotated bibliographies, of which this is a shining example. He has also stressed the chronological arrangement of items as an important feature of the compilation, and the non-intrusiveness of the compiler and reporter. But, very properly, Burton also draws our attention to the introductory sections, stressing that these show the major trends of scholarship, the most influential approaches, and those aspects in need of further development. As the compiler himself has told us in his 'Acknowledgements' and elsewhere, he has been able to embrace certain overviews of the field of wisdom texts, focusing on a core type of item that is 'secular, impersonal, and non-narrative', such a consideration thus excluding Soul and Body, Deor, and Beowulf, among many others. Yet narrative creeps in, as does Christian doctrine,—as in Solomon and Saturn—while a personalised speaker is to be found in the...

Different Contributions of the Hippocampus and Perirhinal Cortex to Recognition Memory

Brain regions involved in visual recognition memory, including the hippocampus, have been investigated by measuring differential neuronal activation produced by novel and familiar pictures. Novel and familiar pictures were presented simultaneously, one to each eye, using a paired viewing procedure. Differential neuronal activation was determined using immunohistochemistry for the protein products of c-fos as an imaging technique. The results establish that the regions of the rat brain associated with discriminating the novelty or familiarity of an individual item (such as a single object) differ from those responding to a spatial array of items (such as a scene). Perirhinal cortex and area TE of the temporal lobe are activated significantly more by pictures of novel than of familiar individual objects, but the hippocampus is not differentially activated. In contrast, pictures of novel arrangements of familiar items produce significantly greater activation than familiar arrangements of these items in postrhinal cortex and subfield CA1 of the hippocampus but significantly less activation in the dentate gyrus and subiculum; perirhinal cortex and area TE are not differentially activated. Thus, the hippocampus is importantly involved in processing information essential to recognition memory concerning the relative familiarity of arrangements of items, as needed for episodic memory of scenes, whereas the perirhinal cortex processes such information for individual items.

Performance Demands in the Selection of Objects for Counting

This paper considers the visual processes in object counting among children. Experiment 1 presented identical objects to 7- and 8-year-old children and found that spatially random configurations were counted more quickly than linear arrays, illustrating the difficulty of isolating objects grouped together in rows. However, the younger children were more prone to miscounting these random arrays than rows. The study also established a spatial proximity effect, with a dense arrangement of items being difficult to count. Experiment 2 revealed that this proximity effect can be removed by differentiating objects by color, providing further evidence that object counting involves overcoming Gestalt grouping forces and arguing against fine-motor control as a limiting factor in counting.

The performance of the move-to-front scheme under some particular forms of Markov requests

The move-to-front scheme is studied taking into account some forms of Markov dependence for the way items are requested. One of the dependences specifically rules out two consecutive requests for the same item. The other is the so-calledp-correlation. An expression for the stationary distribution of the sequence of arrangements of items is given in each case. A necessary and sufficient condition for these distributions to belong to a particular class of distributions is also given. The mean search time for an item is calculated for each form of dependence and these are compared with the value obtained in the case of independent requests. Some properties of the sequence of requests are given. Finally, an expression for the variance of the search time is obtained.

The performance of the move-to-front scheme under some particular forms of Markov requests

The move-to-front scheme is studied taking into account some forms of Markov dependence for the way items are requested. One of the dependences specifically rules out two consecutive requests for the same item. The other is the so-called p-correlation. An expression for the stationary distribution of the sequence of arrangements of items is given in each case. A necessary and sufficient condition for these distributions to belong to a particular class of distributions is also given. The mean search time for an item is calculated for each form of dependence and these are compared with the value obtained in the case of independent requests. Some properties of the sequence of requests are given. Finally, an expression for the variance of the search time is obtained.

The intelligent use of space

The objective of this essay is to provide the beginning of a principled classification of some of the ways space is intelligently used. Studies of planning have typically focused on the temporal ordering of action, leaving as unaddressed, questions of where to lay down instruments, ingredients, work-in-progress, and the like. But, in having a body, we are spatially located creatures: we must always be facing some direction, have only certain objects in view, be within reach of certain others. How we manage the spatial arrangement of items around us, is not an afterthought; it is an integral part of the way we think, plan and behave. The proposed classification has three main categories: spatial arrangements that simplify choice; spatial arrangements that simplify perception; and spatial dynamics that simplify internal computation. The data for such a classification is drawn from videos of cooking, assembly and packing, everyday observations in supermarkets, workshops and playrooms, and experimental studies of subjects playing Tetris, the computer game. This study, therefore, focusses on interactive processes in the medium and short term: on how agents set up their workplace for particular tasks, and how they continuously manage that workplace.