Cognitive Feedback Research Articles

Web-Enabled Feedback Control Over Energy Balance Promotes an Increase in Physical Activity and a Reduction of Body Weight and Disease Risk in Overweight Sedentary Adults

This study aims to investigate whether a Web-based tool will facilitate the adoption of feedback control over calorie balance in overweight individuals, thereby promoting an increase of physical activity and a reduction of body weight and cardiovascular risk factors. This is a prospective exercise intervention study, commencing with a minimum weekly 3 × 20-min requirement of high-intensity interval training and requirement for Web-based self-monitoring and self-reporting of exercise and body weight. Subjects of this study include 83 overweight, sedentary, otherwise healthy adults aged 26-68 years. Anthropometric parameters, body fat, peak oxygen consumption, self-reported physical activity, frequency of use of the Web-based tool are among the characters measured in this study. This 24-week intervention substantially increased time spent for exercise (mean and median of 135 and 170 min/week, respectively) among the 72 % of participants who had adopted cognitive feedback control vs. no increase in the remaining participants of nonadopters. Adopters witnessed significantly improved peak oxygen consumption of >1 metabolic equivalent vs. no improvement among nonadopters. Adopters also reduced body mass index, body weight, and body fat by 1.6 kg/m(2), 4.8 kg, and 3.6 kg, respectively vs. 0.4 kg/m(2), 1.4 kg, and 1.1 kg in the control group. The increase in physical activity came at virtually no intervention effort of the investigators. This study demonstrates for the first time that adoption of cognitive feedback control over energy balance is possible with the help of a simple Web-based tool and that overweight adopters self-regulate exercise volume to significantly reduce body weight and improve biomarkers of fitness and cardiovascular risk.

Oral Accuracy, Field Dependent/Independent Cognitive Styles and Corrective Feedback

This study examined the effect of two types of corrective feedback (prompts and recasts) on oral accuracy of 150 Iranian elementary EFL participants (18–25 years old) considering their cognitive styles as being field dependent/independent (FD/FI) measured by Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). We used the Key English Test 2 (KET) (2003) as a placement test. Of these participants, based on the scores taken from placement test and group embedded figures test, 60 participants (30 field dependents and 30 field independents) were selected and randomly assigned into three groups (prompt, recast, and control groups) each of them containing 20 FD and FI members. The study followed placement test, GEFT, pre-test, treatment sessions, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test design. A mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance (SPANOVA) was conducted to assess the impact of the two different interventions (prompts, recasts) on participants scores on oral accuracy, across three time periods (pre-intervention, post-intervention, three weeks follow-up). There was a statistically significant interaction between program types (corrective feedback) and the time, and also a substantial main effect for that, with both groups showing an increase on the scores of oral accuracy across three time periods. The main effect comparing the two types of intervention was statistically significant suggesting a significant difference in the effectiveness of the two teaching approaches showing the superiority of prompts over recasts in post-tests. In the meantime, the results didn’t show any interaction between cognitive types and feedback conditions in terms of target language accuracy.

Teaching English To Non-English Students' Department At Islamic University Of Indonesia Through Formula 33: Students' Reflections

Results of students' need analysis show that grammar (tenses) is the students' lowest ability that they wanted to learn at that time. In order to cope with that contextual situation, Formula 33 is proposed to be the main concern on the learning English for students of non-English deparment at Islamic University in the academic year 2012/2013. Students must write reflections - express their emotion and knowledge gain in the form of essay to e-learning provided - every time the class end. The students' reflections were considered as data. The data were classified based on some categories/themes descriptively. Those data are then read very carefully to find out the keywords that became the instruments to classify them into themes, while irrelevant data were sorted. The results show that learning English through Formula 33 addressed in three aspects - learning domain, teaching delivery, and students' best practice. In learning domain, students have positive and negative cognitive feedback. Formula 33 was considered improving their skills especially in writing English sentences with correct grammatical structure as well as they have excellent attitude toward Formula. In teaching delivery that consists of two keywords method and materials. Students said that both method and materials are super.Key words: Formula 33, positive and negative cognitive feedback, teaching delivery

The effects of experience, outcome feedback, and cognitive feedback on decision-making in child sexual abuse cases: A simulation study

We studied the impact of number of cases and feedback on decisions in simulated cases of alleged child sexual abuse (CSA). One hundred vignettes were given to 83 participants with no experience in investigating CSA. According to theoretical likelihood of CSA based on symptoms, that is, on the specificity of symptoms, the children were categorized as abused or not abused. The participants were divided into four groups: one got feedback on whether their decision was right or wrong, one got information about cognitive processes involved in decision-making, one got both, and one did not get feedback at all. Participants who got feedback on their performance made more correct positive decisions and participants who got information about decision-making processes made more correct negative decisions. Feedback and information combined decreased the number of correct positive decisions but increased the number of correct negative decisions. The number of read cases had in itself a positive effect on correct positive decisions.

Intelligent mobile assistant for spatial design support

Abstract This paper describes the methodology behind intelligent mobile assistant for spatial design support. The assistant gathers data and provides computational support for spatial assistance system on the basis of making intelligent spatial decisions. The main idea behind the assistant is to create a semantic model of the environment and performing preliminary spatial reasoning to provide cognitive feedback. The main goal is to support the designer in his task by perceiving and evaluating spatial design intent. Simultaneously the assistant allows for on-line modeling of real structured environment. It improves the conception–modeling–evaluation–remodeling cycle. This paper also contains an empirical evaluation of the proposed methodology. The results of the experiments performed using the prototype of Mobile Spatial Assistance System (MSAS) are shown. To conclude, the article presents the new methodology behind spatial support systems, which provides designers with cognitive assistance.

The balanced scorecard: the effects of feedback on performance evaluation

PurposeThe use of a balanced scorecard (BSC) for performance evaluation is meant to help evaluators make more complete decisions, as they have a variety of financial and non‐financial measures to assess. The problem is that users have difficulty taking all of the measures into consideration. The tendency to place more weight on common measures (measures that are the same across divisions) while either ignoring or placing very little weight on unique measures (measures are unique to a particular division) has become known as a “common measures bias”. The purpose of this paper is to extend a line of research that works to understand how this common measures bias might be mitigated.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines whether the presence of task property feedback, a form of cognitive feedback, prior to a performance evaluation task, can help evaluators overcome the tendency to rely primarily on common measures. This study used a 2×2 experimental design where subjects were asked to evaluate the performance of two managers under either feedback or non‐feedback conditions. In the feedback condition, subjects were provided with their supervisor's suggestions about performance evaluation in the use of BSCs.FindingsThis study finds that when subjects were given task property feedback, a form of cognitive feedback, they tended to use more unique measures than if they were not given any feedback information at all.Practical implicationsIn practice, more straight forward and simple feedback information is likely easier for companies to implement and easier for evaluators to follow. Feedback information that is too complex or that requires too much effort may frustrate evaluators, at which point they may abandon the effort. The authors' findings also indicate that direct and clear guidance from the top manager of a business may be seen as pressure by lower‐level managers. It is important for top managers to create such a performance evaluation environment so that all BSC measures are considered.Originality/valueThe paper finds that when evaluators judge the performance of managers through the use of a BSC, they tend to weight common measures more heavily than they do unique measures, unless they are provided cognitive feedback to cue them into the importance of using all measures. This study is one of many, following LS (2000), documenting a finding of common measures bias in the use of BSCs. Where this study contributes to the literature is in the use of task property feedback, a form of cognitive feedback, to overcome this bias. Since the use of unique measures is a key attribute of BSCs as they help users capture the nuances of a specific division's or firm's strategy, it is crucial that performance evaluators pay careful attention to them.

Understanding the Effectiveness of Online Peer Assessment: A Path Model

Peer assessment has been implemented in schools as both a learning tool and an assessment tool. Earlier studies have explored the effectiveness of peer assessment from different perspectives, such as domain knowledge and skills, peer assessment skills, and attitude changes. However, there is no holistic model describing the effects of cognitive and affective feedback, grading, and prior knowledge, and earlier studies often discuss learning outcomes without ascribing them to particular causes. Moreover, few studies have differentiated between the effects of peer assessment on both assessors and assessees. This study used a path model to investigate how two online peer-assessment activities—rubric-based assessment and peer feedback—affected the learning performance of assessors and assessees. One hundred and eighty-one high school students engaged in peer assessment via an online system—iLAP. Several path models were tested and we found that the original model did not fit when the variable of cognitive feedback from peers was included. The best fit model was the one in which direct paths from cognitive feedback from peers and student exam scores in a prior Humanities course were removed.

The Role of Sleep and Attention in the Etiology and Maintenance of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a prevalent, debilitating condition characterized by widespread, intense pain experienced as emanating from in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Other symptoms include disabling fatigue, poor sleep quality, gastrointestinal complaints, cognitive difficulties and often depression. Lack of apparent muscle pathology or other obvious physiological causes of FM pain make the etiology of FM unclear. This manuscript reviews extant FM literature and integrates research on sleep and the burgeoning literature from the domain of cognitive neuroscience to formulate the Sleep and Pain Diatheses (SAPD) model of FM. This model proposes that a wide range of biopsychosocial stressors can set the stage for FM by activating diatheses for sleep disruption and pain sensitivity. Sleep disruption in those most sensitive to pain initiates a cascade of symptoms that are codified as FM. Once this process is initiated, the symptoms of FM are perpetuated and aggravated by increased vigilance to a broad range of threat-related biopsychosocial stimuli. Thus, it is proposed that sleep is integral to the etiology of FM and also energizes a cognitive feedback loop that maintains or amplifies symptom severity over time.

Cognitive feedback may cause "Tool Effects": An attempted replication of Witt (in press)

Cognitive feedback may cause "Tool Effects": An attempted replication of Witt (in press)

After renaissance: China’s multilateral offensive in the developing world

Why does a re-emerging China pursue institutional strategies to expand its multilateral ties all over the world? This study explains the genesis of China’s new multilateral diplomacy toward Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. The central argument of the study is that many strands of structural arguments drawn from realist, liberal, and constructivist insights cannot provide complete explanations about China’s multilateral activism without recourse to cognitive feedback dynamics. China fed its regional experiences of multilateralism back into its global policy formation. This experiment-based approach has been a pervasive feature in Chinese multilateral diplomacy as well as Chinese domestic reforms during the post-Mao period. The cognitive feedback model developed in this study intends to complement the prominent structural explanations by identifying micro-level dynamics and seeks to contribute to today’s debate over power transition and international order.

Employees’ Subjective Valuations of Their Stock Options: Evidence on the Distribution of Valuations and the Use of Simple Anchors*

Although prior research presents employees‘ subjective valuations of their stock options as being either below or above firms‘ opportunity cost of issuing options, we examine subjective valuations in terms of their distribution around cost. We argue that variation of subjective valuations within this distribution is at least partly attributable to employees‘ failure to fully incorporate the timevalue component of options and their tendency to, instead, anchor on readily-available components of option value. Using both ―real-world‖ and experiment data, we show that a significant proportion of both employees (30 percent) and experiment participants (47 percent) anchor on three readily-available values, two of which lie below cost (zero value, intrinsic value) and one of which lies above (stock price). We further find that a stock option education program aimed at mitigating the tendency to disregard the time-value component leads to a significant change in valuations (in terms of both median values and dispersion) and lower reliance on simple anchors. Education in the form of cognitive feedback has a greater effect on subjective valuations of additional options with differing characteristics as compared to education in the form of outcome feedback on the original option holdings.

Toward an Affective Aesthetics: Cognitive-Driven Interaction in the Affective Environment of the Mind Cupola

This article presents two interactive artworks that represent a shift in artistic practice in their approach to active spectatorship. This approach to interaction incorporates the cognitive processes of the participant through an aesthetic interconnection between technological effect and affective human response. The discussion of the artworks seeks to demonstrate how this aesthetic interconnection creates a novel approach to an engagement with interaction, while suggesting a new forum for addressing the philosophical problem of the relationship between body and mind. This aesthetic interconnection between technology and human cognition, which will be referred to as affective aesthetics, is stimulated by introducing a novel application of emerging technologies that dynamically effect and evaluate the participant's affective responses through cognitive feedback loops within interactive artworks.

Engineering experiences in biofeedback interfaces: Interaction as a cognitive feedback loop

ABSTRACTThis article introduces a new modality of interaction for art that produces meaning through cognitively inclusive sensorimotor capacities of the user. This application, which builds upon the psychophysical1 capacities of biofeedback interfaces, explores the potentiality of technological feedback for the affection and evaluation of the user. Through this the concept of the ‘cognitive feedback loop’ will be applied in order to produce more effective aesthetic experiences. This proposal will be exemplified with the affective environment of the Mind Cupola. Finally, the article anticipates that such a cognitive-driven2 approach to interaction might serve to enhance self-awareness through self-regulating processes.The core investigation of this article emphasizes a rigorously trans-disciplinary approach (Nowotny at al. 2003; Gibson 2008), drawing on philosophy, aesthetics, cognitive sciences and technology, that investigates an emerging issue in art and technology. It takes an experimental approach to technology, with a critical perspective on scientific approaches, that often subject users to limited interactions with computers. As a proposition responding to this issue, it will take a phenomenological approach to interaction that attempts to comprehend the user through a technological analysis of his or her psychophysical action (Andreassi 2000). As such, it tackles the philosophical problem of the body-mind nexus, and aims to understand the correlation between the extracted information of the body and cognitive states. In order to present a potential solution, this investigation launches an aesthetic enquiry into user experience, which serves as the foundation of the presented practical outcome of the Mind Cupola. It will be suggested that this aesthetic enquiry into the user experience might produce a more comprehensive cognitive-driven model of the user.

LDPC-Coded OFDM Transmission Based on Adaptive Power Weights in Cognitive Radio Systems

In this paper, we propose a new scheme to improve the performance of an LDPC-coded OFDM based cognitive radio (CR) link by applying adaptive power weights. To minimize estimation errors of detected signals in all the CR subcarriers, power weights are allocated to the CR subcarriers at the secondary transmitter. Some constraints for the power weights are considered, such as keeping the interference power introduced by the CR to primary users below a given interference threshold and also keeping sum of transmission powers in all CR subcarriers within a total transmission power. The LDPC decoder applies these power weights in the Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) used in message passing scheme at the secondary receiver to achieve more reliable communications. So, the received signal in each CR subcarrier will be decoded with the knowledge of transmission power weights, which come from the cognitive feedback channel without additional cost. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheme achieves a lower bit error rate and a higher transmission rate compared with those of the same scheme without applying power weights.

Knowledge production in consulting teams

Summary The central thesis of this paper is that the production of knowledge in consulting teams can neither be understood as the result of an internal interaction between clients and consultants decoupled from the wider socio-political environment nor as externally determined by socially constructed industry recipes or management fashions detached from the cognitive uniqueness of the client–consultant team. Instead, we argue that knowledge production in consulting teams is intrinsically linked to the institutional environment that not only provides resources such as funding, manpower, or legitimacy but also offers cognitive feedback through which knowledge production is influenced. By applying the theory of self-organization to the knowledge production in consulting teams, we explain how consulting teams are structured by the socio-cultural environment and are structuring this environment to continue their work. The consulting team's knowledge is shaped and influenced by cognitive feedback loops that involve external collective actors such as the client organization, practice groups of consulting firms, the academic/professional community, and the general public who essentially become co-producers of consulting knowledge.

Effect Of Teleoanticipation On Intensity Self-regulation Error During Cycle Exercise In Females

A teleoanticipation practice trial is hypothesized to reduce exercise intensity self-regulation error. Self-regulation error occurs when a prescribed oxygen consumption (VO2) is not attained. In addition to teleoanticipation, cognitive feedback (CF) provides guidance in subjectively adjusting exercise intensity to produce a Target rating of perceived exertion (RPE), further reducing self-regulation errors. PURPOSE: To examine the effect of teleoanticipation with and without CF on intensity self-regulation error during cycle exercise in females. METHODS:: Thirty-one recreationally-active females (mean age: 21.6±3.1 yrs; mean VO2peak: 35.5±4.8 mL·kg-1·-1) were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 (N = 13) and Group 2 (N = 9) completed four separate exercise trials presented in the following order: 1) Estimation, 2) Just Noticeable Difference (JND), 3) Calibration (Teleoanticipation), 4) Production. Calibration and Production trials were 21 minutes with subjects instructed to regulate intensity to produce a target RPE of 5 (OMNI 0-10 Scale). During the Calibration, CF was provided to Group 1 but not to Group 2. Group 3 (Control; N = 9) completed the Estimation, JND and Production trials. The VO2 analog of each subject's perceived exertion JND was used to identify self-regulation error, i.e. VO2 above or below the JND-VO2 range. The unsigned value was then calculated as the total mean error (ΔVO2; L·min-1). RESULTS: Total mean error for responses across the Production trial was: With CF = 0.09±0.014; Without CF = 0.17±0.017; Control = 0.11±0.017. The "error" was: a) lower for With CF than Without CF (p<0.05); b) lower for Control than Without CF (p<0.05); c) equal between With CF and Control. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the female cohort contrasted from a previous investigation involving male subjects. However, similar general conclusions were derived for the female subjects. A teleoanticipation calibration trial with cognitive feedback improved ability to self-regulate intensity at a target RPE of 5 during 21 minutes of cycle exercise. The self-regulation error was similar between the With CF and Control group. For young females, self-regulation practice may be all that is required to produce a Target RPE during cycling.

Error treatment in students' written assignments in discourse analysis

In an attempt to highlight the need for lecturers to adopt clear strategies for treating language usage errors in written assignments, the writer of this article analysed selected students' essays to determine some of the error handling strategies that can be used at tertiary level. The suggestions made at the end of the study were based on the analysis of data collected from student's written work in Discourse Analysis. Although there is generally no consensus on how lecturers should treat students' errors in written assignments, observations in this study enabled the researcher to provide certain strategies that lecturers can adopt. Key words: Error treatment; error handling; corrective feedback, positive cognitive feedback; negative cognitive feedback; global errors; local errors; Terminable Units (T-Units) [Jnl for Language Teaching 37(2) 2003: 224-236]

Functional Significance of Striatal Responses during Episodic Decisions: Recovery or Goal Attainment?

Memory retrieval is typically a goal-directed behavior, and as such, potentially influenced by reinforcement and motivation processes. Although striatal activation is often evident during memory retrieval, its functional significance remains unclear because typical memory paradigms do not control the motivational significance of memory decisions. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate striatal activation during recognition with and without performance-linked monetary incentives. During initial performance in the absence of incentives, dorsal striatal activation for "Old" memory conclusions nonetheless exceeded that for "New" conclusions regardless of the accuracy of these conclusions. In contrast, subsequent scans paired incentives with either "Old" or "New" conclusions and demonstrated greater activation for whichever judgment was potentially rewarded, both with and without performance feedback. The data demonstrate that striatal activation during recognition judgments does not signal monetary reward receipt, cognitive feedback, or successful episodic retrieval. Instead, it is heavily dependent upon satisfaction of the subjective goals of the observer.

Comparison Between a Real Sequential Finger and Imagery Movements: An fMRI Study Revisited

Recently, much discussion has been centered on the brain networks of recall, memory, and execution. This study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare activation between a simple sequential finger movement (real task) and recalling the same task (imagery task) in 15 right-handed normal subjects. The results demonstrated a greater activation in the contralateral motor and somatosensory cortex during the real task, and a higher activation in the contralateral inferior frontal cortex, ipsilateral motor, somatosensory cortex, and midbrain during the imagery task. These real task-specific areas and imagery-specific areas, including the ipsilateral motor and somatosensory cortex, are consistent with recent studies. However, this is the first report to demonstrate that the imagery-specific regions involve the ipsilateral inferior frontal cortex and midbrain. Directly comparing the activation between real and imagery tasks demonstrated the inferior frontal cortex and midbrain to therefore play important roles in cognitive feedback.

Comparing the Neural Basis of Monetary Reward and Cognitive Feedback during Information-Integration Category Learning

The dopaminergic system is known to play a central role in reward-based learning (Schultz, 2006), yet it was also observed to be involved when only cognitive feedback is given (Aron et al., 2004). Within the domain of information-integration category learning, in which information from several stimulus dimensions has to be integrated predecisionally (Ashby and Maddox, 2005), the importance of contingent feedback is well established (Maddox et al., 2003). We examined the common neural correlates of reward anticipation and prediction error in this task. Sixteen subjects performed two parallel information-integration tasks within a single event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging session but received a monetary reward only for one of them. Similar functional areas including basal ganglia structures were activated in both task versions. In contrast, a single structure, the nucleus accumbens, showed higher activation during monetary reward anticipation compared with the anticipation of cognitive feedback in information-integration learning. Additionally, this activation was predicted by measures of intrinsic motivation in the cognitive feedback task and by measures of extrinsic motivation in the rewarded task. Our results indicate that, although all other structures implicated in category learning are not significantly affected by altering the type of reward, the nucleus accumbens responds to the positive incentive properties of an expected reward depending on the specific type of the reward.