Concept Of Affordances Research Articles

Experiencing an art education program through immersive virtual reality or iPad: Examining the mediating effects of sense of presence and extraneous cognitive load on enjoyment, attention, and retention.

Sense of presence and extraneous cognitive load (ECL) are the two psychological effects widely employed to explain the cognitive outcomes caused by high-immersive media (e. g., virtual reality). This study identified the concepts of both technological affordance (i.e., immersion) and the psychological effects of VR learning. It investigated the mechanism by which immersion leads to better or worse communication in the context of art education. We operationalized the concept of immersion into two levels: a high-immersive VR system (HTC VIVE Cosmos) and a low-immersive tablet system (iPad). Through a between-subject experiment, we found that higher immersion not only led to a greater sense of presence but also lowered extraneous cognitive load. Enjoyment and attention increased as a sense of presence rose but were not necessarily predicted by extraneous cognitive load. This study found that sense of presence was a more robust explanatory variable than ECL and that cognitive load could be lower in a high-immersive environment with content specifically designed for VR.

Implementing Affordance-Based Design Review Method Using Virtual Reality in Architectural Design Studio

In recent years, researchers in the architecture field have explored VR technology for various purposes in the architectural design process. Current efforts have supported the growing knowledge of VR utilization, specifically for the architectural design review process. In this study, we adapt the affordance concept from the ecological psychology study to add further evidence on VR utilization for the design review process. This study aims to develop an affordance-based design review method in architectural design by utilizing immersive VR technology. It sits at the crossroads of architecture design, virtual reality, and affordance research. This project aimed to create an affordance-based review method framework, a VR system to support the method, test both the method and the VR system, and assess the VR system’s effectiveness as a companion system for the affordance-based design method process. The study was conducted in the scope of architectural education settings only. It used a third-year architectural design studio course as a case. This study confirms that the affordance-based design review method using virtual reality helps students improve their design work. The method reveals the presence of positive and negative affordances in their work. It also shows the differences between a student and supervisor in perceiving the affordances for reviewing design works.

Musical Affordances and the Transformation Into Structure: How Gadamer can Complement Enactivist Perspectives on Music

AbstractThis paper investigates the phenomenological status of musical affordances through a Gadamerian focus on human communication. With an extra emphasis on Reybrouck’s much-cited affordance-driven theory, I locate fundamental premises in the affordance concept. By initiating a dialogue with Gadamer’s perspective, I suggest a slight yet important shift of perspective that allows us to see an autonomous, transformative, and intrinsically active ‘ideality’ potentially emerging in music. In the final section, I try to demonstrate how Gadamer’s perspective is supported by recent empirical studies on communicative musicality and child development, and allows us to see how protoversions of the transformative ‘ideality’ are already present at the beginning of human life.

How the 5G Enabled the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control: Materiality, Affordance, and (De-)Spatialization.

5G, the most disruptive innovation, had played a significant role in the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control. However, as a novel technology and context, we have little knowledge about how 5G enabled pandemic prevention and control. This study collected 212 cases and conducted qualitative research to explore how the 5G worked in prevention and control. Based on the concepts of materiality and affordance, we grounded two affordances of spatialization and de-spatialization from the data. Spatialization provides non-contact ways to complete the tasks which are supposed to be completed in contact, and de-spatialization provides remote operations to complete the tasks which are supposed to be completed on-site. Spatialization and de-spatialization enabled the diagnosis and treatment of the infectors to relieve the unbalance of medical staff, cutting the infectious route to contain the viral spread, and logistic supply to support the prevention and control. Our study offers theoretical contributions to digital pandemic prevention and control, and the literature on 5G also offers practical implications.

Implementing continuous assessment in an academic English writing course: An exploratory study

Although continuous assessment is often used in different disciplines, its implementation in L2 writing is underexplored. Adopting the framework of learning-oriented assessment (Carless, 2015) and the concept of affordances (Gibson, 1986), this exploratory study examined a case study of how one teacher and her students perceived and shaped/utilized the motivational and learning affordances of regular low-stakes continuous assessment in a tertiary academic English writing course. Data were collected from classroom observation, teacher and student interviews, student writing, and pre- and post-course surveys. The findings revealed a complex picture of the differing degrees to which the teacher harmonized the AoL and AfL aspects of CA across the three dimensions of learning-oriented assessment based on the various ways she perceived and shaped its classroom affordances. The students’ perceptions and utilization of the learning affordances of CA largely converged with those that were perceived and shaped by the teacher. However, difference was found in how the motivational affordances of CA were perceived and shaped/utilized. A model of learning-oriented continuous assessment in L2 writing is proposed and pedagogical implications are discussed. • Teacher showed differing extents of perceiving and creating affordances for CA. • Teacher views of affordances for CA largely converged with student views. • Students perceived more affordances regarding CA task engagement than teacher.

Enacting cross-platform (buy/boy)cotts: Yellow Economic Circle and the new citizen-consumer politics in Hong Kong

While existing studies assert that citizens actively use digital media to exert their political agency, the various roles and impacts of digital media should be further unpacked. Building on the notions of ‘digital democratic affordance’ and ‘cross-platform play’, this article uniquely theorises political consumerism as a multi-scalar mode of human–non-human interactions. The concept of multi-scalar cross-platform affordances is formulated to demonstrate how different digital platforms – large or small, corporate or amateur, global or local – co-constitute an environment in which citizens are progressively channelled to engage in multiple platforms, reinvent them in concert with one another and participate in political consumption across time and space. In the case of the Yellow Economic Circle, against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s 2019–2020 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) movement, we examine such cross-platform dynamics and their multi-scalar enactment of everyday political consumption practices across four stages: deliberation, crowdsourcing, materialisation and habituation.

Developing multimodal communicative competence: adolescent English learners' multimodal composition in an after‐school programme

AbstractThis qualitative study aimed to investigate adolescent English learners' multimodal communicative competence. Grounded upon a social semiotic approach with the concepts of affordances and transmediation, this research was carried out in an after‐school programme at a secondary school in Korea. Three high school students participated in the multimodal composition project and produced narrative and argumentative multimodal texts. Multiple sources of data were gathered from interviews, video recordings with fieldnotes and student artefacts. The data were analysed using an inductive and deductive approach, along three orientations: modes as social action; modes as framing devices; and modes as agency representation. The students' multimodal texts were analysed based on multimodal text analysis. This study demonstrated that the participants personalised, avoided, modified and orchestrated semiotic modes to engage in multimodal composition. The study also revealed that the students' selection and use of semiotic modes were influenced by their audience awareness, genre knowledge and identities, and vice versa, all of which contributed to developing their multimodal communicative competence. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications for multimodal composition practices and suggestions for future multimodal composition studies.

Disturbance of Ecological Self and Impairment of Affordance Perception.

Affordance, a radical concept James Gibson introduced in the 1970s, remains controversial today. Defined as environmental properties taken with reference to an animal’s anatomy and action capabilities, affordances are opportunities for action the environment offers. By perceiving affordances, organisms hold meaningful relationships with their surroundings. Affordance is not just a theoretical concept but, as the embodiment of meanings and values, has serious psychological implications. We contend that the lack of these meanings and values underlies the irrational behavior seen in patients with self disorders such as schizophrenia. We reason that it is by perceiving affordances that individuals keep in touch with their surroundings and stay mentally healthy. Using contrapositive reasoning, the reverse could also be true. That is, when individuals experience difficulty maintaining meaningful relations with their surroundings and suffer from mental health problems, we might anticipate that their affordance detection systems are impaired. In two studies conducted in our laboratory, patients with schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease were shown to have impaired capacity to perceive affordances, a result qualifying as contra-positive evidence corroborating the affordance concept. In addition, our results provide support for accepting contra-positive evidence as a complementary tool to positive evidence for empirically validating concepts such as affordance and meaning.

Murradambirra Dhangaang (make food secure): Aboriginal community and stakeholder perspectives on food insecurity in urban and regional Australia

BackgroundIt is widely acknowledged that the invasion by colonial powers of the Australian continent had profound and detrimental impacts on Aboriginal Communities, including food security. Policies of successive governments since European arrival have since further exacerbated the situation, with food insecurity now affecting 20–25% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Food insecurity contributes to long-term impacts on health, in particular diet-sensitive chronic diseases. This study aimed to describe Aboriginal community and stakeholder perspectives on food insecurity to get a better understanding of the key contributing factors and recommendations for potential strategies to address this issue in Aboriginal communities in urban and regional Australia.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 participants who were purposively selected. This included Aboriginal people in two communities and both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal stakeholders from local food relief agencies, food suppliers, schools, and government in an urban and regional location in NSW. A conceptual framework was developed from literature on food security, and sensitizing concepts of availability, affordability, accessibility and acceptability or the lack thereof of healthy food were used to elicit responses from the participants. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically.ResultsAll participants felt strongly that food insecurity was a major problem experienced in their local Aboriginal communities. Five core areas impacting on food security were identified: trapped in financial disadvantage; gaps in the local food system; limitations of non-Aboriginal food relief services; on-going impacts of colonization; and maintaining family, cultural and community commitments and responsibilities. Participants suggested a number of actions that could help ease food insecurity and emphasized that Aboriginal values and culture must be strongly embedded in potential programs.ConclusionsThis study found Aboriginal families in urban and regional Australia are experiencing food insecurity on a regular basis, which is impacted by a range of socio-economic, environmental, systemic and cultural factors, as reported by the participants. Study findings highlight the need to address system level changes in the food environment and acknowledge Aboriginal history, culture and food preferences when considering the development of programs to alleviate food insecurity among Aboriginal people.

Ecological perceptual holism – unity of the individual and the environment in perception

In the second half of the 20th century, ecological theory of perception presented a new concept of perception according to which it is not a one-sided process within the perceiver, in the form of representation and interpretation of sensory data obtained from the environment, but a process within direct and continuous interaction between the percipient and the environment. Opposing the almost intuitive acceptance of numerous dualities based on the traditionally accepted separation of subject and object, ecological theory introduces an innovative concept of affordance. At about the same time, the initial ideas of an equally innovative theory of the organism-environment system arise, and in this paper they are connected in the context of the interpretation of perception. The goal of the paper is to present the concept of affordance and point out its affinity with the theory of the unity of organism and environment, as well as the need for further introduction of similar theoretical concepts, and with this intention, the concept of ecological perceptual holism is proposed.

Digital Artefacts and The Role of Digital Affordance

AbstractThis work investigates how the concept of affordance should be revised following the digital evolution. Starting from a review of the literature about affordance, the most acknowledged constructs are compared with the variegated definitions of digital artefacts. The paper proposes a definition of digital affordance, overcoming the inconsistencies identified in the literature. The study is enriched by a series of interviews to investigate the final users' perception of affordance. Finally, the paper shows the application of the proposed model with a case study related to food delivery services.

A method to facilitate affordance perception and actualization for improving the usability of smart plugs

Smart plugs are attracting attention as smart devices that enable energy savings by providing functions such as standby power cut-off, energy usage monitoring, and remote power control. The majority of research on smart plugs has applied a technology-focused approach to improve efficiency and performance, but a user-centered approach is also required. Regardless of the method used to apply advanced technologies, energy savings cannot be expected if users are reluctant to use smart plugs owing to difficulties in use. Therefore, it is essential to improve the usability of smart plugs through the application of user-friendly design to promote energy-saving behaviors. This study aims to suggest methods to improve the usability by facilitating affordance perception and actualization of smart plugs. To achieve this, we first examined the concept of affordance and presented the role of informational and physical elements in perceiving and actualizing affordances. Thereafter, we constructed a checklist for facilitating affordance perception and actualization of smart plugs after reviewing several guidelines and design principles for usability improvement. Subsequently, we conducted in-depth interviews with 26 smart plug users to explore user experience (UX) for the checklist items. Finally, based on the interview results, we suggested a design direction for smart plugs that facilitates the perception and actualization of affordances.

Machines in the Triangle: a Pragmatic Interactive Approach to Information

A recurrent theme of human–machine interaction is how interaction is defined and what kind of information is relevant for successful communication. In accordance with the theoretical strategies of social cognition and technical philosophy, we propose a pragmatic interactive approach, to understand the concept of information in human–machine interaction. We start with the investigation of interpersonal interaction and human–machine interaction by concerning triangulation as guiding principle. To illustrate human–machine interaction, we will mainly focus on the interactive relationship between human cognitive skills and their technological environments. In triadic interaction, the concept of information cannot only be understood as a syntactic transformation as in the dyadic relationship. We argue that information as pragmatic action patterns can be understood as physically embodied units that is not purely formal but generated in interactive processes and stabilized in use. By exploring how the concept of affordance is applied in psychology, anthropology and human-centered design, we provide a notion of pragmatic information, focusing on users in the development and use of machines or software systems. The triadic interaction of end user, development team, and product leads to a successful human–machine interaction. This theoretical framework enables us to understand how the new socio-technological environments expand our scope of action and how we form, interpret, and learn to deal with patterns of action among ourselves and with machines.

Decentring archaeology: Indigenizing GIS models of movement on the plains

Avenues of travel employed by past people have often become obscured by both natural and human processes. Relocating them with traditional archaeological field methods is thus difficult, and other approaches, such as relying on historic documents or uncritically employing GIS analyses have often been found to be problematic due to their colonizing impacts. That does not mean, however, that all archaeological approaches need to be cast aside. A decolonizing lens can be applied to existing methods to reveal a past that privileges Indigenous perspectives. By incorporating the concept of relational affordances, and identifying past significant places, this paper takes just such an approach when using GIS to reconstruct past avenues of travel along the Red Deer River in southern Alberta. By critically examining archaeological data and historic documents with a decolonizing perspective, significant places to past people are discovered, and a long-forgotten river crossing is relocated.

Probabilistic Spatio-Temporal Fusion of Affordances for Grasping and Manipulation

Robust vision-based grasping and manipulation of unknown objects in unstructured scenes requires the extraction of action candidates based on visual information while taking into account noise and occlusions in such scenes. We address this problem by combining the concept of affordances and <i>Bayesian Recursive State Estimation</i>. We propose to extract affordances using heuristics on the averaged local surface information of supervoxels in a point cloud. Based on a local, geometry-aware coordinate frame, we define a uniform state for different affordances. Using Bayesian statistics, this state is fused across multiple observations of the scene to improve the estimates for the pose and existence certainty of actions. This facilitates the extraction of robust grasping and manipulation actions independent of the segmentation of a scene. The proposed approach is evaluated in grasping experiments with more than 900 grasp executions using the humanoid robot ARMAR-6 in an unstructured scene with a variable number of unknown objects. The experimental results show that the grasping success rate is improved by over 10&#x0025; compared to a state-of-the-art approach.

Language learning affordances of Instagram and TikTok

ABSTRACT This study examines creative uses of emerging image-based social media for informal language learning. Adopting the ecological concept of affordances, it investigates new technological features on Instagram and TikTok and how they are utilised as resources for language learning. Using public data of Instagram photo/video and TikTok video posts, the study is based on 200 posts from each application collected over two months. A qualitative content analysis was conducted based on four key dimensions of technological innovation: multimodality, mobility, instantaneous participation, and interactivity. The findings show how language learners’ use of the new technological features employed on the two platforms are related to these dimensions, and how they use agency and creativity to perceive affordances for language learning in features not originally designed for this purpose. The study contributes to understanding of the ways in which online informal language learning is adapting to technological innovation in new image-based social media.

Text Materialities, Affordances, and the Embodied Turn in the Study of Reading.

Digital texts have for decades been a challenge for reading research, creating a range of questions about reading and a need for new theories and concepts. In this paper, we focus on materialities of texts and suggest an embodied, enacted, and extended approach to the research on digital reading. We refer to findings showing that cognitive activities in reading are grounded in bodily and social experiences, and we explore the cognitive role of the body in reading, claiming that–influenced by tacit knowledge and the task at hand–textual meaning is enacted through a mental and physical engagement with text. Further, applying the concept of affordances, we examine how digital technologies have induced new ways of physically handling and mentally interpreting text, indicating that brain, body, text, and technologies are integrated parts of an extended process of reading. The aim of the paper is to encourage empirical research on the interplay between body (including brain), text, and text materialities, a focus we argue will deepen our understand of the current transformation of reading.

Familiarity with digital twin totality: Exploring the relation and perception of affordances through a Heideggerian perspective

AbstractThe concept of affordances has become central in information systems literature. However, existing perspectives fall short in providing details on the relational aspect of affordances, which can influence actors' perception of them. To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that it be supplemented with other concepts or theories. In this article, we argue that the Heideggerian concepts of ‘familiarity’ and ‘referential totality’ are well suited for increasing our understanding of the relational aspects of affordances in information systems research. To explore this idea, we conducted a case study of a project concerning the development of a digital twin (i.e., digital representation of a physical asset) in the Norwegian grid sector. We found that users' familiarity with the digital twin totality enabled them to perceive digital twin affordances, and that without this familiarity, affordances remained latent for the users. Through our study, we offer a nuanced perspective on the relational aspect of affordance perception, contributing to affordance theory in that regard. Further, we contribute to practice and information systems research by providing valuable insights into how digital twins are understood and applied in practice.

Streaming code across audiences and performers: An analysis of computer science communities of inquiry on Twitch.tv

AbstractLive streaming platforms like Twitch.tv count millions of viewers and performers, pointing to novel practices and interactions. Instructional applications of this phenomenon are rising with thematic channels and shows aimed at teaching and debating a variety of subjects ranging from art to programming. However, few research publications have specifically explored trends in pedagogical strategies and learning behaviours of viewing audiences. This study responded to this need by analysing computer science shows on Twitch.tv. A total of 40 hours of live streaming were analysed within a Community of Inquiry framework using the concepts of social affordances, computational thinking, and teaching style. Data collected from both expert and novice streamers included streamers' actions, on‐screen activity, and online discussions. Results pointed to specific tactics employed by both performers and viewers for exploring computer science issues and dynamics together, with instances of peer‐tutoring, construed learning, and significant transparency, even when top‐down instruction was staged. Practitioners notesWhat is already known about this topic Live streaming is a popular media practice all around the world, with Twitch.tv as the leading hosting platform. A rising number of live streaming shows are focusing on education and learning topics, from STEM to art. What this paper adds A first exploration of instructional streaming focused on computer science education. An analysis of best practices in instructional streaming in terms of community building, teaching style, and computational thinking processes. A better understanding of how communities of inquiry can be hosted on Twitch.tv. Implications for practice and/or policy Practitioners can harness this study's results for informing better educational streaming. Educators may refer to this article's highlights for selecting and evaluating educational streaming shows. Policy makers will be able to use this article's insights for monitoring and re‐applying effective computer science activities in other educational environments.

Integrated healthcare services for HIV, diabetes mellitus and hypertension in selected health facilities in Kampala and Wakiso districts, Uganda: A qualitative methods study.

Health policies in Africa are shifting towards integrated care services for chronic conditions, but in parts of Africa robust evidence on effectiveness is limited. We assessed the integration of vertical health services for HIV, diabetes and hypertension provided in a feasibility study within five health facilities in Uganda. From November 2018 to January 2020, we conducted a series of three in-depth interviews with 31, 29 and 24 service users attending the integrated clinics within Kampala and Wakiso districts. Ten healthcare workers were interviewed twice during the same period. Interviews were conducted in Luganda, translated into English, and analysed thematically using the concepts of availability, affordability and acceptability. All participants reported shortages of diabetes and hypertension drugs and diagnostic equipment prior to the establishment of the integrated clinics. These shortages were mostly addressed in the integrated clinics through a drugs buffer. Integration did not affect the already good provision of anti-retroviral therapy. The cost of transport reduced because of fewer clinic visits after integration. Healthcare workers reported that the main cause of non-adherence among users with diabetes and hypertension was poverty. Participants with diabetes and hypertension reported they could not afford private clinical investigations or purchase drugs prior to the establishment of the integrated clinics. The strengthening of drug supply for non-communicable conditions in the integrated clinics was welcomed. Most participants observed that the integrated clinic reduced feelings of stigma for those living with HIV. Sharing the clinic afforded privacy about an individual's condition, and users were comfortable with the waiting room sitting arrangement. We found that integrating non-communicable disease and HIV care had benefits for all users. Integrated care could be an effective model of care if service users have access to a reliable supply of basic medicines for both HIV and non-communicable disease conditions.