Different Sets Of Instructions Research Articles

Nonepisodic autobiographical memory details reflect attempts to tell a good story.

A persistent finding in the autobiographical memory (AM) literature is that older adults report more nonepisodic (or generalized/semantic) information than young adults. Since studies are usually focused on memory for episodic (or specific) autobiographical events, the reason for the age difference in nonepisodic AM remains understudied. This experiment investigated whether the higher rate of nonepisodic AM in older adults reflects (a) a difference incommunicative preferences or (b) cognitive decline, by way of either an inhibition deficit or as a means of compensating for a deficit in episodic AM. A sample of 54 young (N = 28, age range = 18-46) and older (N = 26, age range = 62-86) participants retrieved the same AM twice, under two different sets of instructions: to tell a good story for their autobiography, or to provide a detailed police witness statement. Both groups reported more general details when they were aiming to tell a good story. In addition, older adults also reported fewer specific details when the aim was to tell a good story. In a separate ranking task, young and older adults differed in their perceptions of what makes a good story; young adults ranked "detail," "grammar," and "full descriptions" more highly than older adults, whereas older ranked "linking ideas" and "explaining not just describing" more highly than young adults. The results suggest that age-related differences in nonepisodic AM might be explained by communicative preferences rather than cognitive decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Consciousness of Acting: The Effect of Divided and Unified Consciousness on Acting Performance

The art of acting, drama, or theatre has been largely excluded from the debate on the nature of consciousness in the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acting performance benefits from a divided or unified state of consciousness. Twenty-four acting students and professionals performed a monologue three times, twice with an interference task. Two different sets of instructions were provided for this task: one that asked participants to incorporate the interference into the world of their monologue (unified consciousness), and another that asked them to dissociate it from their theatrical performance (divided consciousness). The variables studied included an evaluation of performance on primary and secondary tasks, as well as responses on a creativity and dissociative experiences questionnaire and to open-ended questions. Two acting professors provided monologue ratings. There was a significant difference in interference task performance scores for the divided and unified conscious conditions, as well as for the primary rater's monologue scores. Participants performed better on both tasks when they were asked to incorporate the interference into the imagined world of their monologue. These results show that a unified conscious approach results in better performance on certain tasks, implying that unified consciousness may be more adaptive for certain daily functions such as multitasking.

Learning Together: Experimental Evidence on Promoting Connections in Remote Classes

ABSTRACTHow can instructors best foster connections among students when learning is fully remote? This article describes a pedagogical experiment conducted in two large introductory political science courses at a large public university in the 2020–2021 academic year. We randomly assigned groups of students to different sets of instructions on how to study together remotely for an exam. Our strongest finding is that almost any effort by an instructor prompting students to work together helps students to feel more connected to one another; however, students often need to see and hear one another to feel connected. We find this to be tremendously encouraging—relatively easy interventions can result in significant improvements in learning.

Optoception: Perception of Optogenetic Brain Perturbations.

How do animals experience brain manipulations? Optogenetics has allowed us to manipulate selectively and interrogate neural circuits underlying brain function in health and disease. However, little is known about whether mice can detect and learn from arbitrary optogenetic perturbations from a wide range of brain regions to guide behavior. To address this issue, mice were trained to report optogenetic brain perturbations to obtain rewards and avoid punishments. Here, we found that mice can perceive optogenetic manipulations regardless of the perturbed brain area, rewarding effects, or the stimulation of glutamatergic, GABAergic, and dopaminergic cell types. We named this phenomenon optoception, a perceptible signal internally generated from perturbing the brain, as occurs with interoception. Using optoception, mice can learn to execute two different sets of instructions based on the laser frequency. Importantly, optoception can occur either activating or silencing a single cell type. Moreover, stimulation of two brain regions in a single mouse uncovered that the optoception induced by one brain region does not necessarily transfer to a second not previously stimulated area, suggesting a different sensation is experienced from each site. After learning, they can indistinctly use randomly interleaved perturbations from both brain regions to guide behavior. Collectively taken, our findings revealed that mice’s brains could “monitor” perturbations of their self-activity, albeit indirectly, perhaps via interoception or as a discriminative stimulus, opening a new way to introduce information to the brain and control brain-computer interfaces.

Breakin’ Up is Hard to Do! - Standardized Pre-Operative Phone Call

<h3>Background Information</h3> The University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH CMC) operative services perioperative nursing and reception departments identified concerns related to patient complaints of day-of surgery delays and cancellations. At UH CMC there are over 130 surgeons representing 20 specialties that perform over 25,000 surgeries annually. Each surgeon's office would call the surgical patients the day prior to their surgery with a surgical time, arrival time, and where to report for registration. There are two adult surgery centers located at UH CMC on different floors quite far from one other. Different sets of instructions were given from each specialty with conflicting instructions related to NPO guidelines, arrival times, correct surgical center, registration location, and personal items needed day-of-surgery. <h3>Objectives of Project</h3> Pre-operative phone call ownership and standardization was needed to improve patient satisfaction, reduce day-of-surgery cancellations, optimize first case on-time starts, as well as ensure patients and families were properly instructed for their surgical procedures. <h3>Process of Implementation</h3> Urology patients were identified as the single-service pilot population. The perioperative nurses created a script based on this population's pre-operative questions and concerns during the pre-op calls. After 4 weeks, a script was developed by the nurses who conducted the calls. The nurses conducting the calls educated their peers, as well as the department secretaries. The information was then shared with each surgical specialty, to include a soft and hard rollout date. <h3>Statement of Successful Practice</h3> One month after the hard rollout date, the perioperative nurses and secretaries are conducting approximately 75 pre-operative phone calls to surgical patients daily. Outcomes to celebrate include improved first case on-time starts, decreased day-of-surgery cancellations, and increased patient satisfaction. <h3>Implications for Advancing the Practice of Perianesthesia Nursing</h3> Having one owner and a standardized process for pre-operative phone calls and communication with our patients may lead to improved quality, safety, and satisfaction.

The art gallery maze: a novel tool to assess human navigational abilities.

Humans differ widely in their ability to navigate effectively through the environment and in spatial memory skills. Navigation in the environment requires the analysis of many spatial cues, the construction of internal representations, and the use of various strategies. We present a novel tool to assess individual differences in human navigation, consisting of a virtual radial-arm maze presented as an art gallery to explore whether different sets of instructions (intentional or incidental) affect subjects' navigation performance. We furthermore tested the effect of the instructions on exploration strategies during both place learning and recall. We evaluated way-finding ability in 42 subjects, and individual differences in navigation were assessed through the analysis of navigational paths, which permitted the isolation and definition of a few strategies adopted by the incidental and intentional instructions groups. Our results showed that the intentional instruction group performed better than the other group: these subjects correctly paired each central statue and the two paintings in the adjacent arms, and they made less working and reference memory errors. Our analysis of path lengths showed that the intentional instruction group spent more time in the maze (thus being slower), specifically in the central hall, and covered more distance; the time spent in the main hall was, therefore, indicative of the quality of the following performance. Studying how environmental representations and the relative navigational strategies vary among "intentional" and "incidental" groups provides a new window into the acknowledgment of possible strategies to help subjects construct more efficient approaches in human navigation.

No impact of instructions and feedback on task integration in motor learning

This study examined the effect of instructions and feedback on the integration of two tasks. Task-integration of covarying tasks are thought to help dual-task performance. With complete task integration of covarying dual tasks, a dual task becomes more like a single task and dual-task costs should be reduced as it is no longer conceptualized as a dual task. In the current study we tried to manipulate the extent to which tasks are integrated. We covaried a tracking task with an auditory go/no-go task and tried to manipulate the extent of task-integration by using two different sets of instructions and feedback. A group receiving task-integration promoting instructions and feedback (N = 18) and a group receiving task-separation instructions and feedback (N = 20) trained on a continuous tracking task. The tracking task covaried with the auditory go/no-go reaction time task because high-pitch sounds always occurred 250 ms before turns, which has been demonstrated to foster task integration. The tracking task further contained a repeating segment to investigate implicit learning. Results showed that instructions, feedback, or participants’ conceptualization of performing a single task versus a dual task did not significantly affect task integration. However, the covariation manipulation improved performance in both the tracking and the go/no-go task, exceeding performance in non-covarying and single tasks. We concluded that task integration between covarying motor tasks is a robust phenomenon that is not influenced by instructions or feedback.

The Impact of Interruptions on Feature Change Detection within Dynamic Scenes

The goal of the present study was to examine how interruptions occurring in dynamic scenes affect the ability to detect perceptual changes during level 1 situation awareness (SA). Undergraduates were asked to watch 24 brief videos (half with interruptions) including 8 with perceptual feature changes. All videos were unique and contained multiple dynamic objects. Three different sets of instructions regarding the changes were given to successive groups: no information, limited information, and feature specific information. Of the eight changes, half occurred during a visual interruption and half with no interruption. Results showed that participants detected few changes, but detections increased when given more information about the nature of the changes in the absence of interruptions. The findings suggest that interruptions may facilitate the decay of an objects’ activation level in working memory and that level 1 SA may be particularly fragile when the visual scene is interrupted.

A complexity-based classification for multiprocessor synchronization

For many years, Herlihy’s elegant computability-based Consensus Hierarchy has been our best explanation of the relative power of various objects. Since real multiprocessors allow the different instructions they support to be applied to any memory location, it makes sense to consider combining the instructions supported by different objects, rather than considering collections of different objects. Surprisingly, this causes Herlihy’s computability-based hierarchy to collapse. In this paper, we suggest an alternative: a complexity-based classification of the relative power of sets of multiprocessor synchronization instructions, captured by the minimum number of memory locations of unbounded size that are needed to solve obstruction-free consensus when using different sets of instructions.

Testing SCM questionnaire instructions using cognitive interviews

Abstract The aim of the research was to find out whether participants completing an SCM questionnaire to assess attitudes towards the Roma would give different answers in response to different sets of instructions. Three sets of instructions were tested using cognitive interviews: answer from your personal viewpoint, from the viewpoint of the majority of Slovaks, from the viewpoint of those close to you. The research sample comprised 24 respondents, of whom 12 were upper secondary school students and 12 working adults. Responses from the personal viewpoint differed markedly from responses from the viewpoint of the majority of Slovaks, but were very similar to responses from the viewpoint of those close to the person. In the research, internal and external motivation to respond with/without prejudice was also investigated. Participants with internalised unbiased beliefs showed a preference for assessing the Roma minority from their own viewpoint, while participants with internalised biased beliefs thought the instructions were unimportant.

Reading Proofs for Validation and Comprehension: an Expert-Novice Eye-Movement Study

Does reading a mathematical proof for validation engender different behaviors from reading it for comprehension? Experts and novices each read two mathematical proofs under different sets of instructions: they were asked to understand one proof, and to assess the validity of the other. Their eye movements were recorded while they read and were analyzed to investigate possible differences in attention allocation, in cognitive demand and in the mathematical reading process. We found negligible differences in reading behaviors under the two sets of instructions, and we discuss the implications of this for theoretical development, research methodology and pedagogical practice.

The Role of Emotion Regulation in Reducing Emotional Distortions of Duration Perception.

Emotional events, especially negative ones, are consistently reported to last longer than neutral events. Previous studies suggested that this distortion of duration perception is linked to arousal and attention bias in response to emotional events. Reappraisal and suppression, arguably the most effective strategies for emotion regulation, have been demonstrated to decrease such arousal and attention bias. The present study investigated whether reappraisal and suppression can reduce emotional distortions of duration perception. Seventy-eight Chinese undergraduates were recruited as paid participants and randomly assigned to nonregulation, reappraisal, and suppression groups. Before they performed a temporal bisection task involving presentation of emotional pictures for different durations, the groups were each given one of three different sets of instructions requiring them to passively perceive, reappraise, or suppress the emotions of the pictures. The results indicated that the distortion of duration perception occurred only in the nonregulation group, suggesting that it can be effectively reduced by reappraisal and suppression.

The Impact of Implicit Self-Theory on Rated Creativity in Third- and Sixth-Graders

A total of 114 3rd- and 6th-graders from a suburban elementary school participated in a study examining the influence of implicit self-theories on rated creativity in the domains of art and literature in a quasi-experiment. Creativity was measured via the Consensual Assessment Technique. Participants were divided into two groups and received different sets of instructions emphasizing either an incremental or entity-implicit theory of creativity, before completing a drawing task and a writing task. Implicit theories of creativity of participants were measured before and after the instructions were given. The results indicated that participants in the incremental group showed increased incremental views following the manipulation; participants in the entity group showed no significant change. The writing (but not the artwork) from the incremental group was rated as more creative than those from the entity group. This effect was stronger for third graders than for sixth graders, suggesting that implicit theory interventions are more effective with younger children. Implications are discussed.

Brief report: Collecting self‐defining memories outside therapy

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to test the Self‐Defining Memory Task (SDM Task)—i.e., the possibility to retrieve personally meaningful memories in an experimental context.MethodsA sample of young adults (N = 36) were asked to recall personal memories in response to different sets of instructions: self‐defining memory instructions versus detailed/non‐detailed autobiographical memory instructions. Participants' subjective ratings of memory qualities and behavioural measures were considered, such as latency and narrative duration times.ResultsSelf‐defining memories were rated as more important and emotionally intense compared to other autobiographical memories. The use of detailed memory instructions, however, increased the time of retrieval and the duration of the narrative, eliciting more remote memories, compared to non‐detailed instructions.ConclusionsThe SDM Task seemed to be more likely to elicit the personally meaningful memories that might be shared with a significant other or in a therapeutic context. Research in autobiographical memory processes constitutes valuable material for clinical psychologists.

A new method for characterizing hand dysfunction in cervical spondylotic myelopathy: a preliminary study.

A case-control investigation. The objective of this study was to quantitatively study impaired ability to appropriately adjust pinch strength while holding a small object in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Kochi Medical School Hospital, Japan. The subjects consisted of 19 CSM patients who had frequent episodes of failing to grasp and hold small objects in their daily life (Group A), 13 CSM patients who did not experience such episodes (Group B) and 16 healthy subjects (Control Group). We continuously measured the dynamic internal pressure of a pneumatic rubber object called a blower pinched by the subject, following two different sets of instructions: (1) pinching with eyes open and with the minimal strength required to prevent dropping; and (2) maintaining a constant pinch strength at given levels with eyes closed. Compared with the other two groups, Group A subjects used a significantly (P<0.01) greater pinch strength to avoid dropping the blower held with eyes open and showed a significantly (P<0.01) greater deviation in pinch strength from the baseline values with eyes closed. These tendencies in Group A showed a significant correlation with the tactile perception threshold of the digits (P<0.01) but not with impairment of rapid repetitive movements of the digits that reflects spasticity. Our technique applied to CSM patients helps assess functional integrity primarily, if not exclusively, of the fasciculus cuneatus mediating the feedback signals from proprioceptive and cutaneous receptors in the digits, which are otherwise difficult to evaluate quantitatively.

Hilbert's Axiomatics as ‘Symbolic Form’?

According to Ernst Cassirer, symbolic forms “are not different modes in which an independent reality manifests itself to the human spirit but roads which the spirit proceeds towards its objectivization, i.e., its self-revelation” (1923, p. 78). Can Hilbert's axiomatics be viewed as a symbolic form? The aim of this introductory essay is to frame the question in a ‘map’ and to provide a few signs to orient it. Each of the essays collected in this volume may contribute a different set of instructions to reach an answer.

An information-theoretic approach to estimate the capacity of processing units

We suggest a concept of processor capacity and entropy efficiency, which give a possibility to compare processors with different sets of instructions, different kinds of memory and different numbers of cores. A simple method of estimation of the processor capacity is presented. The suggested methods can be generalized to devices similar to computer processors (like processors of mobile telephones, etc.)

The effects of instruction and hand dominance on grip-to-load force coordination in manipulation tasks

The force applied upon a vertically oriented hand-held object could be decomposed into two orthogonal and highly coordinated components: the grip force (GF; the component perpendicular to the hand–object contact area that provides friction) and the load force (LF; the parallel component that can move the object or support the body). The aim of this study was to investigate the underexplored effects of task instruction and hand dominance on GF–LF coordination. Sixteen right-handed subjects performed bimanual manipulation against a horizontally oriented instrumented device under different sets of instructions. The tasks involved exertion of ramp-and-hold or oscillation patterns of LF performed symmetrically with two hands, while the instructions regarding individual actions were either similar (pull with both hands) or dissimilar (pull with one hand and hold with another). The results revealed that the instruction “to pull” leads to higher indices of GF–LF coordination than the instruction “to hold”, as evidenced by a lower GF–LF ratio, higher GF–LF coupling, and higher GF modulation. The only effect of hand dominance was a moderate time lag of GF relative to LF changes observed in the non-dominant hand. We conclude that the instructions could play an important role in GF–LF coordination and, therefore, they should be taken into account when exploring or routinely testing hand function. Additionally, the results suggest that the neural control of GF of the non-dominant hand could involve some feedback mechanisms.

Using Information Theory to Study Efficiency and Capacity of Computers and Similar Devices

We address the problem of estimating the efficiency and capacity of computers. The main goal of our approach is to give a method for comparing the capacity of different computers, which can have different sets of instructions, different kinds of memory, a different number of cores (or processors), etc. We define efficiency and capacity of computers and suggest a method for their estimation, which is based on the analysis of processor instructions and their execution time. How the suggested method can be applied to estimate the computer capacity is shown. In particular, this consideration gives a new look at the organization of the memory of a computer. Obtained results can be of some interest for practical applications.

The influence of instruction on verbatim and content text recall

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight‐ and nine‐year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and content recall might indicate separate storage of verbatim and gist information, and could provide evidence for two subprocesses of text processing – that is, for construction and integration. The instructions were administered either before or after hearing the text, and recall was tested again one week later. The results showed differential instruction effects on verbatim and content recall. These effects depended on the time of instruction. Verbatim instruction had an enhancing effect on verbatim recall, both when instructions were given before and when given after text presentation. Content instruction given after text presentation had a suppressing effect on verbatim recall, but involved no advantage for content recall. Content recall was not suppressed by verbatim instruction at any time of instruction. Thus, the processing of content seems to be less situated than the processing of verbatim information.