Digital Tasks Research Articles

Visual fatigue prediction using classification model based on physiological responses of occupants under office lightings

Appropriate management of visual fatigue is crucial for eye health as it significantly impacts life quality throughout an individual's life cycle. The shift to digital tasks in modern office environments has increased occupants' exposure to visual fatigue, leading to various social problems. This study aimed to develop visual fatigue prediction models based on physiological responses and classification algorithms. Experiments were conducted to collect physiological responses and subjective visual fatigue under various lighting environments. Collected data was refined and reorganized as predictor variables by different time windows and target variables by scales. Then, visual fatigue prediction models were developed using supervised machine learning algorithms (i.e., artificial neural network, support vector machine, gradient boosting machine, and random forest). And improved by feature selection and adding subject-label variables. The resulting two-scale and three-scale visual fatigue prediction models demonstrated an average performance of 93.73 % and 94.64 % respectively. This research can contribute to reducing societal costs and enhancing productivity by proposing visual fatigue prediction models that help manage eye health in office environments.

Cognitively engaging exercise predicts executive functioning on laboratory tasks

The cognitive engagement hypothesis claims that regular exercise must be cognitively engaging in order to benefit executive functioning. However, the available evidence for this hypothesis is circumstantial. Here we test it directly in two studies. In Study 1, 145 young adults first reported the extent to which their primary exercise and non-exercise leisure activities were cognitively engaging. They then completed two well-known laboratory tasks measuring executive function: a flanker task to index inhibitory control and a backward digit span task to assess working memory. Structural equation modeling revealed that when participants reported that their exercise relied on inhibitory cognitive control, they performed better on the flanker task, and, when their exercise demanded cognitive flexibility, they performed better on a backward digit task. These relationships did not hold for their primary reported leisure activity. Study 2 confirmed this finding with an independent sample of 227 undergraduates and two different executive function tasks: a stop-signal task to index inhibitory control and a trail making B task to assess cognitive flexibility. When participants reported that their regular exercise relied on inhibitory control they had faster stop-signal reaction times and made fewer trail making errors, and, when their exercise relied on cognitive flexibility, they had slower stop-signal reaction times and longer trail making B completion times. These relationships were again not found for participants’ leisure activities. These findings support the claim that exercise is associated with cognitive performance on laboratory tasks, provided the exercise is itself cognitively demanding.

Digital eye strain symptoms worsen during prolonged digital tasks, associated with a reduction in productivity

PurposeIt is often stated that digital eye strain can impact productivity and/or work accuracy, but the relationship between symptoms, productivity, and work accuracy has been unclear. Hence this study tracked the development of visuo-ocular symptoms during prolonged digital tasks and to explore the impact of higher and lower cognitive load levels on visuo-ocular symptoms, productivity, and work accuracy. MethodsThirty-five participants (23.2 ± 4.0 years) who had digital eye strain (diagnosed with the Computer Vision Syndrome Questionnaire) undertook an uninterrupted laptop adapted Eriksen Flanker task for 60 min on two separate days, once with a high cognitive load in randomised sequence. Symptoms were assessed at baseline and every 10 min throughout the task. ResultsAll visuo-ocular symptom scores significantly worsened (F = 87.783, p < 0.001) with time, with the symptom severity increasing faster with the higher cognitive load (F = 7.110, p < 0.001). The mean total number of tasks completed was greater for the lower (1060.8 ± 296.5) than the higher (532.2 ± 123.4) cognitive load tasks (F = 138.830, p < 0.001), reducing with time (F = 7.339, p < 0.001), but in a similar way for both cognitive loads (F = 1.795, p = 0.154). Task accuracy was not affected by the cognitive load of the task (F = 1.729, p = 0.197) and was consistent over time (F = 1.885, p = 0.135). ConclusionsSymptoms increased with task duration in individuals with digital eye strain, with a faster rate for more demanding tasks. This was associated with a decrease in the task completion rate (productivity), but not the work accuracy.

Job training and search assistance for microwork: Evidence from Haiti

This paper presents the findings of a randomized experiment in Haiti aimed at improving online labor market outcomes through training individuals in microworking, a type of work involving small digital tasks completed via online platforms. Six months post-program, we observe significant positive impacts on platform-related microwork outcomes and some broader labor market outcomes. The treatment increases the likelihood of having a microwork profile, the number of tasks completed, hours worked, and microwork earnings, leading to a larger percentage of monthly income from microwork. The program also enhances socioemotional skills and English ability. However, we observe no significant effects on current employment and related outcomes, possibly as participants view microwork as a supplementary activity rather than employment.

Person organization fit to reduce employee turnover intention using digital task interdependence as a moderation variable at PT Saraswanti Anugerah Makmur, Indonesia

Person organization fit to reduce employee turnover intention using digital task interdependence as a moderation variable at PT Saraswanti Anugerah Makmur, Indonesia

Assessing Digital Leadership: Is the EU Losing Out to the US?

AbstractSince Leontief’s (Leontief 1953) seminal work on the factor content of trade, the validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin-model has been judged not only on the basis of formal tests of the theory but also tested against prior expectation. In this vein, this paper uses the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (HOV) approach to investigate whether supposed US leadership in the digital domain can be traced back to digital task endowments embodied in labour services. In a comparison between EU member states and the US, we find that the latter is more intensive in digital tasks than the EU and that this difference is explained by both an intensity-effect (US occupations being more digital-task intensive) and a structural component (relatively more digital-task intensive occupations). Viewed through the lens of the HOV theorem we find that the US is abundant in digital tasks relative to non-digital tasks, while the opposite is true for the EU. The standard tests for the predictive power of the HOV theorem are high and in line with the results for labour in previous literature.

Scalable photonic reservoir computing based on pulse propagation in parallel passive dispersive links

We propose and demonstrate a scalable photonic reservoir computing system based on pulse propagation in parallel passive dispersive links. The approach features a simple structure and is composed of passive components, such as dispersive elements and ring resonators. The system utilizes a pulsed laser and employs a multi-channel architecture with dispersive elements for pulse broadening and ring resonators for delay stacking. It is verified for its capability to handle both digital tasks (2-bit Boolean logic operations, header recognition) and analog tasks (Mackey-Glass time-series prediction, Lorenz 63 time-series prediction). A major advantage of the approach lies in its scalability. It has been confirmed that more complex tasks can be processed by using a system with more channels, along with dispersive elements and ring resonators with larger dispersion amounts and delays, respectively.

The effect of modality on reading comprehension of struggling and typical readers in the second and third grades

AbstractBackground“Screen inferiority” refers to a well‐established phenomenon observed among adults and teenagers, wherein they demonstrate higher reading comprehension when reading from paper compared to screens. However, there is limited research focusing on readers in the initial stages of reading development. The current study aims to investigate reading comprehension in both screen and paper settings, as well as modality preferences, among young typical and struggling readers in the second and third grades.MethodsThe study included 342 second graders and 284 third‐grade Hebrew readers. Their reading comprehension performance in both modalities and their preferences for a particular modality were assessed.ResultsThe results suggested no differences in reading comprehension between the two modalities in the second and third grades. The only group that showed numerically higher performance on paper over computer was struggling readers in the second grade. The numeric proportion of modality preferences was higher on the computer rather than on paper.ConclusionsThe current study did not find an effect of modality on reading comprehension in the second and third grades. We did find that children in these grades prefer to read on screens. It is essential to examine the specific characteristics of the digital task to determine when it benefits young readers and when it may be detrimental to them.

Cognitive and Emotional Effect of a Multi-species Probiotic Containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis in Healthy Older Adults: A Double-Blind Randomized Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial.

As the population ages, cognitive decline becomes more common. Strategies targeting the gut-brain axis using probiotics are emerging to achieve improvements in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. However, the beneficial role of probiotics on brain function in healthy older adults remains unclear. Our aim was to evaluate a multi-species probiotic formulation as a therapeutic approach to reduce emotional and cognitive decline associated with aging in healthy adults. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trial was conducted. The study involved a 10-week intervention where participants consumed the assigned probiotic product daily, followed by a 4-week washout period before the second condition started. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Psychological Experiments Construction Language Test Battery. At the emotional level, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used. Thirty-three participants, recruited between July 2020 and April 2022, ingested a multispecies probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis). After the intervention, noticeable enhancements were observed in cognitive function (mean difference 1.90, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.70, p < 0.005), memory (mean difference 4.60, 95% CI 2.91 to 6.29, p < 0.005) by MMSE and digit task, and depressive symptoms (mean difference 4.09, 95% CI 1.70 to 6.48, p < 0.005) by BDI. Furthermore, there were significant improvements observed in planning and problem-solving skills, selective attention, cognitive flexibility, impulsivity, and inhibitory ability. Probiotics administration improved cognitive and emotional function in older adults. Limited research supports this, requiring more scientific evidence for probiotics as an effective therapy for cognitive decline. This study has been prospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04828421; 2020/July/17).

Digital Skills, STEM Occupation, and Job Automation Risks Among the Older Workers in the United States.

Advancing automation technologies are replacing certain occupations such as those involving simple food preparation more than occupations such as those in STEM fields (e.g., engineering and health care). Older workers generally face higher job automation risks in part due to their lower levels of digital skills. A better understanding of the associations between job automation risk, digital skills, and type of occupation (e.g., STEM vs non-STEM) can facilitate preparations for job automation and workforce population aging. We analyzed a nationally representative sample (N = 1,560) of middle-aged and older U.S. workers aged 50-74 years from the 2012/2014/2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) restricted-use file. The estimated job automation risks (i.e., percentage of jobs to be automated in the next decades) were derived from the previous studies. PIAAC digital problem-solving skills proficiency (measured on a scale of 0-500 points) was assessed based on a series of practical digital tasks (e.g., finding a job research website that does not require registration). Linear regression analysis showed that greater digital skill proficiency (b = -0.04, p < .05) and STEM occupations (b = -17.78, p < .001) each were associated with lower job automation risks, even after adjusting for a series of demographic, socioeconomic, and civic engagement characteristics. Education and labor policy interventions to promote digital skills among older workers and non-STEM workers may better prepare an aging workforce for the dynamic labor market needs in the United States.

Digitalization and care relationships of people living alone in old age: acritical analysis of policy documents

Digitalization is transforming social life and relationships. New cultural ideas of care, cooperation and reciprocity are emerging that can create challenges for older people. These are particularly poignant for older people living alone, who use digital devices less frequently and rely on support to manage the increasing number of digital tasks (appointments, bookings, financial matters). This article explores the relationship between digitalization and care relationships among older people living alone using acritical document analysis approach according to Bacchi. This approach makes it possible to look at the understanding behind the terms living alone, care relationships, and digitalization, each in relation to older people and in interaction as well as to render gaps visible. The analysis of laws and social policies as well as of political and civil society orientated documents leads to two key findings: Firstly, an individual responsibility to deal with needs arising from gaining access to and handling of digitalization is expected of older people and their social networks. This is striking as digitalization is presented as ameans of dealing with the large-scale social challenges, such as demographic change and shortage of care staff. Secondly, the analysis shows that legal documents that set out the structure for policies do not focus on digitalization in later life. With older people not being atarget group of policy of digitalization, fewer strategies are put into practice.

Enhancing Informal Education with Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a cutting-edge technology that empowers software robots to perform repetitive digital tasks based on predefined rules. Traditionally, these tasks are carried out by humans interacting with various software applications through mouse and keyboard actions. RPA robots excel at emulating human actions with exceptional precision, speed, and consistency. RPA has gained widespread popularity across industries for its capacity to streamline business processes, increase productivity, and reduce operational costs. In educational settings, RPA is becoming an integral part of broader digital transformations. The related work discussed in this paper highlights that RPA is commonly utilized to automate administrative tasks for university staff, teachers, and occasionally students, while its potential applications in the learning process remain largely unexplored. Addressing this research gap, we introduce an innovative approach to leverage RPA in informal learning. Our method focuses on automating the course search process on e-learning platforms. The proposed algorithm includes interaction with platform interface, extraction of essential course details, storing retrieved data, and generating structured reports, all while communicating with various systems. Subsequently, we present a solution developed based on this approach, along with its outcomes, evaluation, and discussion of findings.

Impact of reduced contrast sensitivity function in the elderly

ABSTRACT Contrast sensitivity is a visual function associated with recognizing objects in low light. Objective: to review the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) in the elderly, the changes related to it with aging and the impact of its decline on daily activities. Methods: Search in PubMed/MEDLINE and SciELO, using the descriptors “contrast sensitivity” AND “seniors” OR “Elder*” OR “older adults” OR aged. Inclusion criteria: age ≥ 60 years or “elderly” and reference to CSF assessment. Results: elderly people have reduced CSF, leading to the risk of falls. CSF is useful for balance, performance on digital tasks, movement processing and quality of life, as well as it is important in cognitive and neuropsychological tests. Impairment of CSF is associated with loss of driving performance of motor vehicles, especially at low luminance. Elderly people who have a decrease in CSF have less social interaction and a lower quality of life. Conclusion: the reduction in CSF occurs with aging and is associated with postural imbalance, in addition to an increase in fall rates and impact on the activities of daily living of the elderly, influencing mobility and social interaction.

Transitioning from paper to touch interface: Phoneme-grapheme recognition testing and gamification in primary school classrooms

Phonological processing of written characters has been recognized as a crucial element in acquiring literacy in any language, both native and foreign. This study aimed to assess Japanese primary school students' phoneme-grapheme recognition skills using both paper-based and touch-interface tests. Differences between the two test formats and the relationship between phoneme-grapheme recognition skills and interaction with gamified digital tests were investigated. Participants were sixth-grade students from two public schools. The results of comparison tests indicated that the touch-interface test had lower success rates compared to the paper-based test for most items, suggesting a difference in performance patterns. A consistent relationship between tested phoneme-grapheme knowledge and successful gamified interaction was found. Findings highlight the potential of touch-interface assessments for assessing phoneme-grapheme recognition skills in primary school classrooms and suggest incorporating more digital tasks to enhance student adaptation.

Entity Footprinting: Modeling Contextual User States via Digital Activity Monitoring

Our digital life consists of activities that are organized around tasks and exhibit different user states in the digital contexts around these activities. Previous works have shown that digital activity monitoring can be used to predict entities that users will need to perform digital tasks. There have been methods developed to automatically detect the tasks of a user. However, these studies typically support only specific applications and tasks, and relatively little research has been conducted on real-life digital activities. This article introduces user state modeling and prediction with contextual information captured as entities, recorded from real-world digital user behavior, called entity footprinting —a system that records users’ digital activities on their screens and proactively provides useful entities across application boundaries without requiring explicit query formulation. Our methodology is to detect contextual user states using latent representations of entities occurring in digital activities. Using topic models and recurrent neural networks, the model learns the latent representation of concurrent entities and their sequential relationships. We report a field study in which the digital activities of 13 people were recorded continuously for 14 days. The model learned from this data is used to (1) predict contextual user states and (2) predict relevant entities for the detected states. The results show improved user state detection accuracy and entity prediction performance compared to static, heuristic, and basic topic models. Our findings have implications for the design of proactive recommendation systems that can implicitly infer users’ contextual state by monitoring users’ digital activities and proactively recommending the right information at the right time.

A spatial digit task for assessing binaural function in individuals with hearing loss

Spatial hearing is crucial in occupational tasks, yet until 2019, US Army fitness-for-duty requirements only considered hearing thresholds in the better ear. The regulation change introduced the Military Operational Hearing Test (MOHT) for those with worse-ear thresholds exceeding 40 dB HL at 0.5 or 1 kHz, or 60 dB HL at 2 kHz. This led to the development of the Spatial Digit Test (SDT) to assess binaural function in individuals with poor hearing in one ear but sufficiently good hearing in the other ear to pass a speech-in-noise test. The SDT involves digit pairs presented with Interaural Time Delays (ITDs) of +/−800 μs. Two studies were conducted: a validation study with over 200 individuals, and a verification study with more than 130 undergoing MOHT exams. Results show that individuals with normal auditory thresholds perform very well on the SDT, with about 95% correctly identifying at least 8 digits and 75% correctly identifying all 10. In contrast, only about 50% of individuals with monaural losses who took the SDT as part of the MOHT identified 8 or more digits. Results of the SDT were correlated both with subjective hearing complaints and with the Binaural Masking Level Difference. In conclusion, the SDT proves valuable for identifying individuals struggling using ITD cues to segregate and localize simultaneously presented speech signals.

Spatial planning reimagined: rekindling the founding spirit for the future

This paper reviews the lifetime achievements and unrealised visions of Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie to stimulate discussions on the unprecedented challenges and opportunities facing the field of spatial planning. By revealing the founding spirit of the profession – compassion, selflessness and creativity – the author argues that the need for change is both external and internal. Thus, planners need to make behavioural changes within the profession to meet the demands of the future. The paper outlines various actions and strategies for the systemic transformation of spatial planning, including rebuilding the creativity and civic support pillars, equipping planners with adequate capabilities and skills and implementing methodological changes. Additionally, the paper introduces the vision of the newly formed Digital Task Force for Planning, which aims to harness the power of digital technology and scientific innovation to modernise the profession. Ultimately, the paper encourages planners to be proactive in adapting to a rapidly changing world and to pave the way for a more confident, creative and impactful profession for the future.

Multimodal blame attributions in technology-supported peer interaction

ABSTRACT This study investigates the multimodal construction of blame attributions in peer interaction during digital tasks in English as a Foreign Language classrooms. Drawing on multimodal conversation analysis (CA), we examine how the force of blamings is manifested in and through the variety of resources used, and the role of digital devices in the emergence and resolution of blaming sequences. The analysis shows that children’s blame attributions can be bold and involve a lamination of several multimodal resources, often without an explicit verbal formulation. Additionally, participants may build on the actions of the digital application to allocate blame, using the affordances of the technology to avoid direct verbal attributions. The study thus elaborates on the sequential structure of blamings and highlights their context-bound and multimodal nature. It contributes to research on multimodality in technology-supported classroom interactions, shedding light on the merging of the embodied and the digital in action formation.

Validation of new tablet-based problem-solving tasks in primary school students.

Problem-solving is an important skill that is associated with reasoning abilities, action control and academic success. Nevertheless, empirical evidence on cognitive correlates of problem-solving performance in childhood is limited. Appropriate assessment tools are scarce and existing analog tasks require extensive coding. Thus, we developed and validated new tablet-based versions of existing analog tasks assessing technical problem-solving with gear construction tasks. To validate these tasks, 215 children (6-8 years) performed the problem-solving tasks in both modalities (analog, digital). To investigate whether performances in both modalities were correlated with other cognitive abilities, participants performed three additional tasks assessing language, reasoning and problem-solving. Structural equation modelling showed that performance was substantially correlated across modalities and also correlated with language, reasoning and another problem-solving task, showing the convergent validity of the digital tasks. We also found scalar measurement invariance across task modalities indicating that both task versions can be used interchangeably. We conclude that both versions (analog and digital) draw on similar cognitive resources and abilities. The analog tasks were thus successfully transferred to a digital platform. The new tasks offer the immense benefits of digital data collection, provide a valid measuring tool advancing problem-solving research in childhood and facilitate the application in the field, e.g., in the classroom.

Moving into the Post-pandemic Realm: Authentic Digital Tasks for Integrated Language Skills

This paper presents and discusses a revised template for encouraging student autonomy in decision-making over the content to be studied in an integrated English skills lesson or class. The challenge of teaching during a pandemic, mostly in online settings, became an opportunity to redevelop a template for student autonomy in language learning. Prior to the pandemic, this task focused on analog, print materials from authentic sources such as newspapers and magazines. The challenge and opportunity presented by the pandemic was to convert this template into using online videos in small discussion groups, with students taking turns at being responsible for the content to be studied and discussed. By taking turns as leaders of small discussion groups, and by using authentic digital video resources as ‘texts’, students can select, view, listen to, discuss, and write about, content and topics that they find appealing and interesting. This task can also be embedded into class assessment, however the rise of AI-powered sites such as ChatGPT, for example, also presents some challenges for teachers assessing written reactions to the authentic materials.