Goal-oriented Actions Research Articles

Theta oscillations in observers’ temporal cortex index postural instability of point-light displays

This study investigates whether postural equilibration follows the same principles of motor resonance as goal-oriented actions, namely, whether an individual activates the same neuronal substrates when experiencing postural perturbation as when observing another individual in this condition. To address this question, we examined electroencephalographic dynamics while subjects observed point-light displays featuring an unstable human display, a stable human display, and their respective scrambled counterparts lacking shape information and biological motion. We focused on theta band (4–7 Hz), which is a fundamental frequency for modulating brain activity during challenging balance tasks and reflects postural stability monitoring. Rather than mirroring activity, our findings suggest an inhibitory response to postural instability. Theta event-related synchronization in the left temporal cortex was dampened for the unstable display as compared to its scramble counterpart and to the stable display. This low theta response coincided with an increase in left temporal-prefrontal connectivity, compatible with top-down inhibitory mechanisms. By contrast, the stronger theta response to the stable display as compared to the unstable one could be due to the difficulty of recognizing low-motion biological stimuli, or alternatively, to a facilitation of stimulus processing and strengthening of the mirroring response. The response facilitation for stable posture, coupled with a diminished response to the unstable display, could contribute to a broader mechanism mitigating postural threats and ensuring stable balance. Future investigations should leverage these findings to explore how posture-related responses correlate with perceptual and motor expertise, and to more clearly define these mechanisms during dynamic social interactions.

Hand-Jaw Coordination as Mice Handle Food Is Organized around Intrinsic Structure-Function Relationships.

Rodent jaws evolved structurally to support dual functionality, for either biting or chewing food. Rodent hands also function dually during food handling, for actively manipulating or statically holding food. How are these oral and manual functions coordinated? We combined electrophysiological recording of muscle activity and kilohertz kinematic tracking to analyze masseter and hand actions as mice of both sexes handled food. Masseter activity was organized into two modes synchronized to hand movement modes. In holding/chewing mode, mastication occurred as rhythmic (∼5 Hz) masseter activity while the hands held food below the mouth. In oromanual/ingestion mode, bites occurred as lower-amplitude aperiodic masseter events that were precisely timed to follow regrips (by ∼200 ms). Thus, jaw and hand movements are flexibly coordinated during food handling: uncoupled in holding/chewing mode and tightly coordinated in oromanual/ingestion mode as regrip-bite sequences. Key features of this coordination were captured in a simple model of hierarchically orchestrated mode-switching and intramode action sequencing. We serendipitously detected an additional masseter-related action, tooth sharpening, identified as bouts of higher-frequency (∼13 Hz) rhythmic masseter activity, which was accompanied by eye displacement, including rhythmic proptosis, attributable to masseter contractions. Collectively, the findings demonstrate how a natural, complex, and goal-oriented activity is organized as an assemblage of distinct modes and complex actions, adapted for the divisions of function arising from anatomical structure. These results reveal intricate, high-speed coordination of disparate effectors and show how natural forms of dexterity can serve as a model for understanding the behavioral neurobiology of multi-body-part coordination.

Variable agentivity: Polysemy or underspecification

Many English verbs typically used agentively allow non-agentive uses. Some recent approaches assume such verbs are unspecified for agentivity, although in principle, polysemy is also an option. We demonstrate the complexity of variable agentivity through an in-depth examination of the English verb sweep, which shows variable agentivity due to both underspecification and motivated polysemy. Drawing on corpus data, we identify two senses for sweep, each with unique argument realization options and interpretive properties. The prototypical uses of this verb, which involve the use of a broom, are obligatorily agentive; however, we claim they instantiate a specialized sense. We argue that the verb’s basic sense, which underlies all its other uses, is unspecified for agentivity, being found with agentive and non-agentive subjects. We formulate event structures for both senses that encode the grammatically relevant components of meaning common across all the verb’s uses: an entity moves along a surface while imparting a force via contact with it. We show that the event structure for the specialized sense, which fixes the moving entity to be a broom, is derived via established processes involving the lexicalization of instruments and routine goal-oriented activities. We demonstrate how the argument realization options and interpretive properties that the verb shows in each sense emerge from applying established principles of argument realization and semantic composition to these event structures.

Information-based TMS to mid-lateral prefrontal cortex disrupts action goals during emotional processing

The ability to respond to emotional events in a context-sensitive and goal-oriented manner is essential for adaptive functioning. In models of behavioral and emotion regulation, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is postulated to maintain goal-relevant representations that promote cognitive control, an idea rarely tested with causal inference. Here, we altered mid-LPFC function in healthy individuals using a putatively inhibitory brain stimulation protocol (continuous theta burst; cTBS), followed by fMRI scanning. Participants performed the Affective Go/No-Go task, which requires goal-oriented action during affective processing. We targeted mid-LPFC (vs. a Control site) based on the individualized location of action-goal representations observed during the task. cTBS to mid-LPFC reduced action-goal representations in mid-LPFC and impaired goal-oriented action, particularly during processing of negative emotional cues. During negative-cue processing, cTBS to mid-LPFC reduced functional coupling between mid-LPFC and nodes of the default mode network, including frontopolar cortex—a region thought to modulate LPFC control signals according to internal states. Collectively, these results indicate that mid-LPFC goal-relevant representations play a causal role in governing context-sensitive cognitive control during emotional processing.

Negotiating epistemic asymmetries during crisis management exercises: Pre-emptive and corrective practices

Abstract This study investigates interactional practices to negotiate epistemic asymmetries in multinational crisis management training in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF). More specifically, we focus on exercises that include patrolling as well as other activities in which the trainees move by and interact in a vehicle. These exercises can be seen as “high stakes” environments that make orientation to urgency and safety issues relevant in the coordination of social conduct. Drawing on video recordings and ethnographic field notes from two United Nations military observer courses and using conversation analysis (CA), we examine moments in the exercises where the trainees orient to knowledge-related (i.e., epistemic) asymmetries in the upcoming or ongoing task. The analysis shows how these moments emerge and become solved in the moment-by-moment organization of interaction via utilization of verbal, linguistic and multimodal resources. We illustrate how some moments in the exercises allow the implementation of pre-emptive practices, whereas others call for corrective strategies and halting the ongoing task-related activity. The study sheds light on the situated practices the trainees use to establish mutual understanding and to advance goal-oriented activities in a mobile environment, and it promotes the temporal and sequential organization of social actions as key for collaborative work in crisis management training.

Dissociable encoding of motivated behavior by parallel thalamo-striatal projections

The successful pursuit of goals requires the coordinated execution and termination of actions that lead to positive outcomes. This process relies on motivational states that are guided by internal drivers, such as hunger or fear. However, the mechanisms by which the brain tracks motivational states to shape instrumental actions are not fully understood. The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is a midline thalamic nucleus that shapes motivated behaviors via its projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc)1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and monitors internal state via interoceptive inputs from the hypothalamus and brainstem.3,9,10,11,12,13,14 Recent studies indicate that the PVT can be subdivided into two major neuronal subpopulations, namely PVTD2(+) and PVTD2(-), which differ in genetic identity, functionality, and anatomical connectivity to other brain regions, including the NAc.4,15,16 In this study, we used fiber photometry to investigate the invivo dynamics of these two distinct PVT neuronal types in mice performing a foraging-like behavioral task. We discovered that PVTD2(+) and PVTD2(-) neurons encode the execution and termination of goal-oriented actions, respectively. Furthermore, activity in the PVTD2(+) neuronal population mirrored motivation parameters such as vigor and satiety. Similarly, PVTD2(-) neurons also mirrored some of these parameters, but to a much lesser extent. Importantly, these features were largely preserved when activity in PVT projections to the NAc was selectively assessed. Collectively, our results highlight the existence of two parallel thalamo-striatal projections that participate in the dynamic regulation of goal pursuits and provide insight into the mechanisms by which the brain tracks motivational states to shape instrumental actions.

PhyLab - a virtual reality laboratory for experiments in physics: a pilot study on intervention effectiveness and gender differences.

New technologies have great potential to facilitate students' understanding and appreciation of one of the most abstract and challenging school subjects - physics. This study aimed to examine the effects of a game-based virtual reality teaching method on secondary school students' self-beliefs, interest, and performance in physics through a quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-test data. The evaluation is based on the systemic actiotope model that explains a person's goal-oriented actions by an interplay of their environment, action repertoire (i.e., students' performance and interest in physics), and subjective action space (i.e., students' self-efficacy, self-concept, and implicit theories regarding physics). A game-based virtual reality App to be used with Google cardboards was developed containing 10 teaching units from the secondary school physics class curriculum. Participants in the control group were taught using traditional teaching methods, while students in the experimental group went through the VR with the teacher and conducted the prepared VR experiments in addition to the traditionally presented content. Three tests measured students' physics performance during the semester. In addition, students answered questionnaires assessing their interest, self-efficacy, self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics before and after the intervention, resulting in a Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design. There were no significant differences between the control and experimental group in test scores on the first and second tests but compared to the control group, the experimental group achieved higher scores on the third test. In addition, the results indicate differential effects of the game-based virtual reality teaching method on students' interest and self-efficacy regarding physics to the advantage of students identifying as male, but no effects on students' self-concept, and entity implicit theories regarding physics. The results of our pilot study suggest that incorporating innovative didactic methods into secondary school physics classes could potentially contribute to higher performance in and motivation for physics during this crucial period of adolescence when students develop educational and career aspirations. However, game-based virtual reality teaching methods seem to favor students identifying as male, which should be considered in their development and presentation. Other practical implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

Teaching action competence in education for sustainable development – a qualitative study on teachers’ ideas, opinions, attitudes and self-conceptions

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a policy guideline which has a significant impact on the teaching of geography in Germany. A central element of this model is to impart and develop in students a goal-oriented action competence to solve sustainability problems. However, action competence in ESD has not yet been scientifically defined or sufficiently researched. This raises the question of how teachers currently teach action competence to students as a central element of ESD. This article examines teachers’ understanding of ESD, action competence and their own role in this context. To this end, a literature-based model of geographical action competence in ESD is presented. Subsequently, a qualitative triangulated teacher study is presented, which is analysed with the help of the model. It is shown that teachers generally have a high level of knowledge about ESD and are highly motivated to teach action competence. However, it becomes clear that the teachers seem to differ in their understanding of sustainable action competence as well as in their understanding of their own role.

Impact of a 36-hour Nonstop Training Course on Academic, Physical, and Mental Skills as well as Psychological Stress Perception in Cardiac Surgery Residents.

Making the right decision in stressful situations is required for goal-oriented action in cardiac surgery. Current labor laws prevent residents to be subjected to situations that test their stress tolerance. These situations often occur only later in the career. We simulated such conditions in a structured non-stop 36-hour cardiac surgical training course and assessed the participant's performance. Fourteen advanced residents/junior staff surgeons were selected. The course was conducted in collaboration with the national antiterror police forces that provided coaching for teamplay, leadership, and responsibility awareness. The candidates attended graded and evaluated workshops/lectures and performed academic and surgical tasks. Psychological and surgical skill assessments were conducted at times 0, 12, 24, 36 hours. Progressive reductions in individual motivation, associated with increased stress and irritability levels, worsening mood, and fatigue were observed. Long- and short-term memory functions were unaffected and practical surgical performance even increased over time. Among the candidates, 36 hours of sleep deprivation did not lead to relevant changes in the skills required from a cardiac surgeon in daily life. Importantly, group dynamics substantially improved during the course, suggesting advances in the perception of responsibility and teamwork.

From interactional manifestations to interpersonal motives: A pragmatic study of attentiveness by Chinese doctors during online medical consultations

This paper examined the attentiveness demonstrated by doctors to e-patients during online medical consultations (OMCs). Drawing upon data retrieved from www.chunyuyisheng.com (Chunyu Doctor), this study attempts to explore how doctors display attentiveness to e-patients and how attentiveness contributes to patient-centeredness during OMCs in China. It was found that three strategies (reformulation, mitigation, and empathy) were deployed by doctors to demonstrate attentiveness to e-patients during OMCs. Moreover, these three attentiveness-constructing strategies reveal the efforts of doctors toward patient-centeredness regarding communicative gaps in information, solidarity, and pathos. Notably, this paper discussed doctors’ demonstration of attentiveness as a joint goal-oriented activity, with the common goal of solving problems shared by doctors and e-patients. The findings above not only problematize the endemic idea that attentiveness is an intrapsychic essence from an interpersonal pragmatic perspective but also extend the line of doctor-patient communication by highlighting OMCs as a joint goal-oriented activity.

How children learn to understand language meanings: a neural model of adult-child multimodal interactions in real-time.

This article describes a biological neural network model that can be used to explain how children learn to understand language meanings about the perceptual and affective events that they consciously experience. This kind of learning often occurs when a child interacts with an adult teacher to learn language meanings about events that they experience together. Multiple types of self-organizing brain processes are involved in learning language meanings, including processes that control conscious visual perception, joint attention, object learning and conscious recognition, cognitive working memory, cognitive planning, emotion, cognitive-emotional interactions, volition, and goal-oriented actions. The article shows how all of these brain processes interact to enable the learning of language meanings to occur. The article also contrasts these human capabilities with AI models such as ChatGPT. The current model is called the ChatSOME model, where SOME abbreviates Self-Organizing MEaning.

Star rating of driver’s behavior as a tool to prevent risky behavior

Driver behavior is a key determinant of road safety. Risky behaviors can be measured and quantified using traditional and modern methods, which enables the assessment of the driver’s behavior. Following lessons from safety science, it is important to analyse and manage risks factors to optimize interventions in the transport context at the territory. The main objective of the paper is to explore the star rating of the driver’s behavior to provide credible road safety monitoring and identification of the factors that most contribute to risky driving behaviors. The Data Envelopment Analysis method for selection of most significant factors is used for star rating of driver’s behavior. The subject of the analysis encompasses 18 factors for 27 police administration units (PAUs) in the Republic of Serbia. The results are analysed regarding the following aspects: 1) star rating of driver’s behavior and 2) defining the stages of the periodic factors monitoring for each PAU analysed. Using a mobile phone while driving, not using child restraints system, alcohol drunk driving during the night and seat belt use at rear seats of passenger vehicles were identified as the most significant factors associated with risky driving behaviors. Monitoring a broader set of factors helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a territory’s road safety system. Star rating of driver’s behavior as a tool intended for decision-makers ensures monitoring, management, the exchange of evidence-based and customized best practices and defining earlier goal-oriented actions to manage driver’s behavior and to prevent risky driving.

The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is part of the modular working memory system: A functional neuroanatomical perspective.

For many years, the functional role of the ventrolateral Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) was associated with executive functions, specifically in the context of non-affective cognitive processes. However, recent research has suggested that the ventrolateral PFC is also involved in the attention system. The Ben Shalom model of the functional organization of the prefrontal cortex (2019) posits that the ventrolateral PFC selects perceptual stimuli after integration by the adjacent ventromedial PFC. This article reviews the state-of-the-art findings to better understand the role of the ventrolateral PFC in the selection of perceptual information as grounded in the Ben Shalom model. Numerous studies have reported converging evidence for the selective role of this area. However, most argue that this perceptual selection takes place through the active updating of information values linked to goal-oriented actions. These studies thus view the ventrolateral PFC as part of a system that actively manipulates and changes processed information such as the working memory function, rather than being part of the attention system. In agreement with this view, this review suggests that this area is part of a complex and modular working memory system and illustrates with reference to Diamond's work on ADD. This working memory system is functionally and anatomically dispersed and includes the dorsolateral PFC, the ACC, the parietal cortex, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum. Hence, future research should continue to explore the specific neurofunctional roles of these areas in working memory systems, and the connections between the different subareas in this complex array.

Restart errors reaction time of a two-step inhibition process account for the violation of the race model's independence in multi-effector selective stop signal task.

Goal-oriented actions often require the coordinated movement of two or more effectors. Sometimes multi-effector movements need to be adjusted according to a continuously changing environment, requiring stopping an effector without interrupting the movement of the others. This form of control has been investigated by the selective Stop Signal Task (SST), requiring the inhibition of an effector of a multicomponent action. This form of selective inhibition has been hypothesized to act through a two-step process, where a temporary global inhibition deactivating all the ongoing motor responses is followed by a restarting process that reactivates only the moving effector. When this form of inhibition takes place, the reaction time (RT) of the moving effector pays the cost of the previous global inhibition. However, it is poorly investigated if and how this cost delays the RT of the effector that was required to be stopped but was erroneously moved (Stop Error trials). Here we measure the Stop Error RT in a group of participants instructed to simultaneously rotate the wrist and lift the foot when a Go Signal occurred, and interrupt both movements (non-selective Stop version) or only one of them (selective Stop version) when a Stop Signal was presented. We presented this task in two experimental conditions to evaluate how different contexts can influence a possible proactive inhibition on the RT of the moving effector in the selective Stop versions. In one context, we provided the foreknowledge of the effector to be inhibited by presenting the same selective or non-selective Stop versions in the same block of trials. In a different context, while providing no foreknowledge of the effector(s) to be stopped, the selective and non-selective Stop versions were intermingled, and the information on the effector to be stopped was delivered at the time of the Stop Signal presentation. We detected a cost in both Correct and Error selective Stop RTs that was influenced by the different task conditions. Results are discussed within the framework of the race model related to the SST, and its relationship with a restart model developed for selective versions of this paradigm.

A longitudinal approach to understanding boredom during pandemics: The predictive roles of trauma and emotion dysregulation.

Research during the COVID-19 pandemic and prior outbreaks suggest that boredom is linked to poor compliance with critical lifesaving social distancing and quarantine guidelines, as well as to numerous mental health difficulties. As such, continued understanding on what contributes to boredom is imperative. Extending beyond the roles of constraint, monotony, and trait dispositions (e.g., individual differences in boredom propensity), and informed by prior theories on the emotional contributors of boredom, the current longitudinal study examined the predictive role of "pandemic trauma" on people's boredom, with a focus on how emotion dysregulation mediates this relationship. Community participants (N = 345) completed questionnaires three times across an average of 3 1/2 weeks, rating their pandemic trauma, emotion dysregulation, and boredom over the past week each time. Pandemic trauma was assessed with items querying exposure to coronavirus, as well as the financial, resource-related, and interpersonal pandemic stressors that participants experienced. Emotion dysregulation was assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Boredom was assessed with the short-form Multidimensional State Boredom Scale. The results of a theory-informed mediation model showed that participants' pandemic trauma at Time 1 positively and modestly predicted their boredom at Time 3 and that this relationship was partially and moderately mediated by participants' lack of emotional clarity and difficulties with engaging in goal-directed behaviors at Time 2. When people experience pandemic-related trauma, they subsequently struggle to understand their feelings and engage in goal-oriented actions, and, in turn, feel more bored. Theoretical and clinical implications as related to the emotional underpinnings of boredom are discussed.

You Don’t Have to Re-invent the Wheel to Implement Technology Activities in Early Childhood Education

AbstractThis study on technology education in preschool aims to explore how technology activities in preschool are enacted and what knowledge, related to the five dimensions of the nature of technology, is made possible for the children to learn when intersubjectivity is established in the interaction between the participants. The empirical data encompass three video-documented technology activities, involving five children and one preschool teacher. Drawing on the five dimensions of the nature of technology by DiGironimo, the participants’ interactions were analysed using interaction analysis. The results showed that the teacher, through well-defined and sensitive orchestration, enacted goal-oriented activities by allowing a play-oriented approach, and that intersubjectivity on technology was established related to four of the five dimensions of technology. The lack of knowledge related to the historical dimension of technology suggests further scrutiny and is discussed as essential in ECE technology education for contemporary children, growing up in high-tech societies.

Forecasting Goal-Oriented Activities: A Deep Learning Approach Leveraging Cross-Activity Relationships

Forecasting Goal-Oriented Activities: A Deep Learning Approach Leveraging Cross-Activity Relationships

BASIC SCIENCE CONCEPTS IN THE LENS OF DAVYDOV’S DEVELOPMENTAL INSTRUCTION: INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY FOR 6-7 GRADERS

The Developmental Instruction considers scientific concepts as mental tools with the main function to guide human actions in a certain domain. According to the Developmental Instruction, each concept stems from a goal-oriented activity that should be reconstructed for students from scratch if we want them to learn the concept properly. As Davydov emphasized, this helps students explore all necessary internals and limitations that can hardly be learned in a different way. Fundamental chemistry concepts such as “chemical element” and “chemical reaction” have a long history, and their predecessors underwent several turns and twists on the way to their modern forms. These pre-concepts originated in ancient times and guided the craft of substance transformations, and their modern descendants still do it. The goal-oriented actions of substance transformations are in the focus of our introductory curriculum. Students name the substances they work with using their own words and understanding. Students’ “provisional language” helps them discuss the results of their simple experiments and plan the follow-ups. As the work goes on, students develop their understanding toward the idea of conservation of elements in chemical reactions. Short essays containing no chemical names and formulas describe the relevant chemical transformations and provide the cultural or historical background. Our teaching experience shows that such kind of introduction turns the systematic chemistry course into the answer to the reasonable questions that the students have about substances and their transformations.

Time-Geographic Project of Household Food Provision: Conceptualization and a Pilot Case Study

Geographers and health researchers routinely analyze data on food-related behaviors to understand potential relationships between the food environment and diet. Analytical uncertainties arise, however, from discounting the sequential connections and household coordination of various food tasks. This study employed the time-geographic construct of the project, which is defined as a series of goal-oriented activities conducted by one or more individuals, to understand the composition and influencing factors of household food provision. To demonstrate the usefulness of the project concept, this study delineated how food activities were woven into a select couple’s daily life paths with the aid of sequence visualizations, and developed an analytical test case using time-use diaries of coupled adults living in Toronto, Canada. Ten dinner project archetypes were identified with distinct characteristics of activity composition and coordination. The study further explored how the dinner project archetypes were related to geographic food environments and meal consumption. By employing the project concept in research on food environments, the interconnectedness between various diet-related activities and diverse patterns of coordination between household members can be captured. Finally, a discussion on how the project perspective can improve the understanding of food environments and healthy eating was presented.

‘Pleasure with a purpose’: datafication and a phallocentric logic to sexual pleasure in the Lioness vibrator

ABSTRACT The Lioness vibrator is a so-called ‘smart vibrator’, as the vibrator is equipped with biosensors that measure the contractions of the pelvic floor muscles and the intensity of the clitoral motor. The vibrator is sold with the explicit goal for users to learn more about their sexual pleasure. In this article, I will argue that the assumed neutral perspective of knowledge production through datafication can be understood as a phallocentric perspective on sexual pleasure. In the Lioness, this logic can be seen in the way its design privileges quantitative knowledge over qualitative knowledge and logos over pathos while centring penetration and clitoral stimulation. Furthermore, the focus of the Lioness on improving your orgasm turns sexual pleasure into a phallocentric goal-oriented activity. I will show how well-meaning companies using a feminist predicate are unintentionally still privileging phallocentric ways of thinking about sexual pleasure over alterative ways of thinking.