Goal-oriented Actions Research Articles

Communicative Approaches to Restoration Ecology: A case study from Dovre Mountain and Svalbard, Norway

Extensive damage to the vegetation cover in arctic and alpine landscapes has raised the question of restoration as a possible management strategy. Restoration is a goal-oriented activity, a technological undertaking wider than its parent science of ecology. Social science and planning concepts and methods are necessary to handle the value judgements implicit in restoration. It is argued that the notion of 'desired state' is a better reference point in defining restoration goals than the notion of 'original state'. Using qualitative methods, two areas with vulnerable arctic/alpine vegetation are investigated. Based on participants' statements, four possible scenarios or desired states for future management are constructed. The main focus in the scenarios is on participants' attitudes to restoration activity, and it is shown how these are influenced by participants' attachment to the area and their view of nature.

Modulation of motor and premotor activity during imitation of target-directed actions.

Behavioral studies reveal that imitation performance and the motor system are strongly influenced by the goal of the action to be performed. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the effect of explicit action goals on neural activity during imitation. Subjects imitated index finger movements in the absence and presence of visible goals (red dots that were reached for by the finger movement). Finger movements were either ipsilateral or contralateral. The pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus showed increased blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI signal bilaterally for imitation of goal-oriented actions, compared with imitation of actions with no explicit goal. In addition, bilateral dorsal premotor areas demonstrated greater activity for goal-oriented actions, for contralateral movements and an interaction effect such that goal-oriented contralateral movements yielded the greatest activity. These results support the hypothesis that areas relevant to motor preparation and motor execution are tuned to coding goal-oriented actions and are in keeping with single-cell recordings revealing that neurons in area F5 of the monkey brain represent goal-directed aspects of actions.

Ethics revisited in a society in transition: the case of the former East Germany

AbstractSince 1990, the German government has been demanding from the civil servants of the former East Germany a new adaptability and creativity that was never promoted in the GDR bureaucracy. The article analyses the change of ethics in the former East Germany after 1990. It looks at the development of the German civil service, discusses the economic disparity between East and West, and examines the ethical tradition in the former socialist country. It uses the case of the selection in 2001 of the city of Leipzig by BMW as the location of a new manufacturing plant as an illustration of the new goal‐oriented activities of the present Eastern bureaucracy. More than 250 European cities were competing for the new plant, which will create over 10,000 jobs. The level of performance of the Leipzig bureaucracy in the BMW case reveals the new efficiency and professionalism of the former Eastern civil service. In addition to Leipzig, virtually all the local and state administrations from the former East Germany have developed a sense of the necessities of the time, including globalization. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of the human mirror neuron system

In a portion of the premotor area of the macaque brain named F5 (human homologue of Brodmann's Area 44), there are neurons that are called “mirror neurons”, which fire when a primate performs or observes another person/animal performing a goal-oriented action. These neurons are active when performing and observing the same action, hence the term is “action observation/execution matching system”. This system may be a fundamental component of imitation, learning and social behavior since observing and understanding the actions of others is a way to understand their intentions and motivations. This paper will review studies that were recently conducted in our laboratory using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate the characteristics and specificity of this action observation/execution matching system in humans. In this series of studies, we addressed the following issues: effects of (1) visual-experience (i.e., when the subjects observe natural versus unnatural actions of their own hands or of other unknown hands), (2) perspective-taking, and (3) presence of a “goal” in action observation. The results show that motor facilitation during action observation is indeed due to the modulatory role of mirror neurons and studies of action observation have some implications in understanding social communication.

Keeping Resistance in View in an Activity Theory Analysis

In this article, I theorize resistance in cultural-historical terms, from an activity-based and semiotic perspective and argue for classroom practice that makes use of the resources deployed through resistance. Here, resistance is located below the level of goal-oriented action; the subject of resistance is a consumer of meanings made by others. To theorize resistance in these terms, I explore the role of negation in the development of cognition and semiosis and (re)introduce the problem of the subject of semiosis and, specifically, the role of mimesis-identification and resistance-in learning. Finally, I present empirical data that illustrates my argument and conclude that teachers must look below the level of goal-oriented action to recognize the resources deployed through resistance by marginalized students.

Behavior Sampling and Ethnography: Complementary Methods for Understanding Home-School Connections among Latino Immigrant Families

Both ethnography and experience-sampling methods (ESMs) are effective for assessing children's home activities. The authors combined them to examine home activities that were school-like, complementary to school, or unrelated to school. The activities were then related to children's school achievement in a sample of low-income Latino immigrant families and their tento eleven-year-old children at risk for low school achievement. Children reported a wide variety of types of activities in their evening routines. Children with higher school achievement were engaged in chores; homework; monitored outside activities; family social activities and hobbies; and self-directed, goal-oriented activities. Children with lower levels of school achievement tended to be engaged in more television, video games, peer and solitary play, and resting. ESMs are a valuable and effective complement to ethnographic and school achievement data in the study of home activities and home-school relationships.

Maternal Scaffolding in the Child's Zone of Proximal Development Across Tasks: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

This study examined cultural differences in the amount and type of maternal scaffolding of children's learning and their effects on children's independent performance across two distinct activities: goal-oriented vs. free play. Twenty Iranian immigrant and 20 Anglo-American mothers with their preschool children participated in this study. Analyses of maternal scaffolding revealed that Iranian immigrant mothers were more directive in their teaching strategies than Anglo-American mothers in the goal-oriented activity. These differences disappeared in the free play, however. Furthermore, maternal sensitivity was examined in relation to task demand and children's level of competence. No cultural differences were observed between the two groups of mothers' sensitivity to their children's level of competence: Both groups altered their teaching strategies to adjust to the task demand, as well as to the child's level of competence. An examination of children's independent performance revealed no cultural differences: The children performed equally well. The authors observed a clear connection between culture and mothers' selection of particular scaffolding strategies in relation to the activity type and the child's level of competence. The study suggests that maternal sensitivity to the child's level of competence may carry a greater weight in terms of instructional outcomes than does the maternal communicative pattern. The findings specifically recommend the need for re-evaluating parental scaffolding strategies to 1) include an appreciation of their effectiveness and appropriateness, and 2) differentiate parental directives from parental intrusiveness and control.

Economic Habitus and Management of Needs: The Example of the Gypsies

From its very beginnings economic anthropology had to tackle a major obstacle: the very nature of its object of study. What in fact is meant by the use of the term ‘economics’ or its corresponding adjective? Does ‘economics’ refer to a specific relationship between ends and means, as some think, or is it defined, more prosaically, as the satisfaction of material needs? Is it a category of specific facts or a praxeology of goal-oriented action? Some interesting debates on the matter, which have brought formalist, substantivist, and Marxist writers into conflict, have revealed marked ideological distortions, some reductionism, and finally epistemological positions that were difficult to reconcile.

The interaction between the self and the environment – a two way traffic due to the brain

Affective processes fuel and orient social behaviour throughout life; if they did not exist, there would be no striving, no goal-pursuit, no goal-oriented action. Two interconnected brain regions are deeply involved in the socially adaptive functions of affect and emotion. Both the maturation and functioning of the brain mechanisms involved undergo the shaping influence of the manifold experience that is derived from social interactions.

The Hidden Abode: Sociology as Analysis of the Unexpected

Purposive social action has provided the bedrock for theoretical developments and model building in several social sciences. Since its beginnings, however, sociology has harbored, a “contrarian” vocation based on examining the unrecognized, unintended, and emergent consequences of goal-oriented activity. I present several examples of the sociological practice of bashing myths based on the logic of purposive action and offer a typology of alternative goals, means, and outcomes illustrated by both classic sociological writings and contemporary research. The multiple contingencies documented by sociologists in the past cautions against attempts to build institutions or implement programs grounded on grand blueprints. The cautionary tale supported by sociological analysis of concealed goals, shifts in mid-course, and unexpected effects does not lead, however, to the conclusion that scientific prediction and practical intervention are futile endeavors. It leads instead to an emphasis on the dialectics of social life, and on the need to take into account the definitions of the situation of relevant actors. I offer some illustrations of successful mid-range theories that are based on the analysis of dilemmas in social processes and the importance of sensitivity to the unexpected in the implementation of programmatic interventions.

The Hidden Abode: Sociology as Analysis of the Unexpected: 1999 Presidential Address

Purposive social action has provided the bedrock for theoretical developments and model building in several social sciences. Since its beginnings, however, sociology has harbored, a “contrarian” vocation based on examining the unrecognized, unintended, and emergent consequences of goal-oriented activity. I present several examples of the sociological practice of bashing myths based on the logic of purposive action and offer a typology of alternative goals, means, and outcomes illustrated by both classic sociological writings and contemporary research. The multiple contingencies documented by sociologists in the past cautions against attempts to build institutions or implement programs grounded on grand blueprints. The cautionary tale supported by sociological analysis of concealed goals, shifts in midcourse, and unexpected effects does not lead, however, to the conclusion that scientific prediction and practical intervention are futile endeavors. It leads instead to an emphasis on the dialectics of social life, and on the need to take into account the definitions of the situation of relevant actors. I offer some illustrations of successful mid-range theories that are based on the analysis of dilemmas in social processes and the importance of sensitivity to the unexpected in the implementation of programmatic interventions.

Hierarchical Image and Reality: The Construction of a Tribal Chiefship

Image and reality interplay in chiefship of Basseri tribe of southern Iran. We know Basseri through and rightly esteemed ethnography, Nomads of South Persia, by Fredrik Barth. Barth's account of Basseri chief is vivid and striking, and, in placing chiefship within complex society of Iran, was an original contribution to ethnographic literature. And yet there appear to be certain subtleties of Basseri chiefship, which, while implied in historical and ethnographic information provided by Barth, are not included in his explicit description. As a result, Barth overstates, I believe, degree of Basseri chief's power, and underestimates extent to which chief depended upon consent of his tribemen. Image and reality interplay in social life because people present themselves and describe others pragmatically, in ways that help them to achieve their objectives and goals. The images that people thusly present of themselves and others-the clever student, influential professor, honest used-car salesman, public-spirited politician, well known to us all-may be partial, incomplete, or totally false, but usually involve some degree of misrepresentation. To extent that claims people make in constructing their and others' images do not correspond to their actions and activities, to their practice and practices, images diverge from reality. This is criterion we apply in our everyday lives, and I believe it is appropriate for understanding other people's lives. But story does not end with simple distinction between words and actions, between image and reality. For while referent of an image may be all or partly illusory, presentation of that image to other people is itself social, intentional, goal-oriented action; it can and does lead others to act, and so construction and management of images is itself part of reality. To this extent, image presentation shapes worlds we wish to understand, and is thus a legitimate and necessary focus of our attention. Among Basseri, the chief

Evaluating the usability of virtual reality user interfaces

A walkthrough method for evaluating virtual reality (VR) user interfaces is described and illustrated with a usability assessment of a virtual business park application. The method is based on a theory of interaction that extends Norman's model of action. A walkthrough analysis method uses three models derived from the theory. The first model describes goal-oriented task action, the second exploration and navigation in virtual worlds, while the third covers interaction in response to system initiative. Each stage of the model is associated with generic design properties that specify the necessary support from the system for successful interaction. The evaluation method consists of a checklist of questions using the properties and following the model cycle. Use of the method uncovered several usability problems. Approaches to evaluation of VR applications and future work are discussed.

Neural activity of supplementary and primary motor areas in monkeys and its relation to bimanual and unimanual movement sequences

A chronic single-unit study of motor cortical activity was undertaken in two monkeys trained to perform a bimanually coordinated task. The hypothesis was tested that the supplementary motor area plays a specific role in coordinating the two hands for common goal-oriented actions. With this objective, a special search was made for neurons that might exhibit properties exclusively related to bimanual task performance. Monkeys learned to reach for and to pull open a spring-loaded drawer with one hand, while the other hand reached out to grasp food from the drawer recess. The two hands were precisely coordinated for achievement of this goal. Monkeys also performed, in separate blocks of trials, only the pulling or grasping movements, using the same hands as in the bimanual task. Task-related activity of 348 neurons from the supplementary motor area and 341 neurons from the primary motor area, each examined in the bimanual and in both unimanual tasks, was recorded in the two hemispheres. Most neurons from the supplementary motor area were recorded within its caudal microexcitable portion. Contrary to expectation, the proportion of neurons with activity patterns related exclusively to the bimanual task was small, but somewhat higher in the supplementary motor area (5%) than in the primary motor cortex (2%). Another group of neurons that were equally modulated during the bimanual as well as to both unimanual task components might also contribute in controlling bimanual actions. Such “task-dependent” rather than “effector-dependent” activity patterns were more common in neurons of the supplementary motor area (19%) than of the primary motor cortex (5%). Bilateral receptive fields were also more numerous among the supplementary motor area neurons. However, a large majority of neurons from primary and supplementary motor areas had activity profiles clearly related only to contralateral hand movements (65% in the primary motor and 51% in the supplementary motor area). A similar group of neurons showed an additional slight modulation with ipsilateral movements; they were equally common in the two areas (14% and 16%, respectively) and their significance for bimanual coordination is questionable. Summed activity profiles of all neurons recorded in the primary and supplementary motor areas of the same hemisphere were compared. The modulations of the three histograms, corresponding to the two unimanual and the bimanual tasks, were similar for the two motor areas, i.e. prominent with bimanual and contralateral movements and weak with ipsilateral movements. It is concluded that the supplementary motor area is likely to contribute to bimanual coordination, perhaps more than the primary motor cortex, but that it is not a defining function for the former cortical area. Instead, it is suggested that the supplementary motor area is part of a callosally interconnected and distributed network of frontal and parietal cortical areas that together orchestrate bimanual coordination.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders

1. Karen J. Miller, MD* 2. F. Xavier Castellanos, MD† 1. 2. *Developmental Unit, The Genesee Hospital, Rochester, NY. 3. 4. †Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD. 1. Careful, comprehensive evaluation is crucial for appropriate management and follow-up of children and adolescents who have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders. 2. Medication can be highly effective as one component of a multimodal treatment plan. 3. A team approach that incorporates the child as a key member is essential because self-management is the goal. Children who are impulsive, inattentive, or overactive frequently are referred to pediatricians for evaluation and treatment. Approximately 5% of girls and 10% of boys of elementary age may qualify for a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), but some will have problems that mimic AD/HD or are comorbid with it. An appropriate diagnostic evaluation is the foundation for a management program that integrates parent/patient education, behavior management, interventions for social/emotional issues, academic programming, and medication when indicated. AD/HDs are chronic neuro-behavioral disorders that can interfere with an individual’s ability to inhibit behavior (impulsivity), function efficiently in goal-oriented activities (inattention), or regulate the activity level (hyperactivity) in developmentally appropriate ways. The plural term AD/HDs is used in this article to emphasize the heterogeneity of this population. Core symptoms and related problems occur along a continuum and manifest in various combinations and within specific family, academic, and social contexts. Multiple etiologic factors are implicated, with strong evidence for a genetic predisposition that interacts dynamically with the environment to produce the clinical features. Comorbidity is common and has a substantial impact on functioning, treatment, and prognosis. Symptoms of AD/HD emerge in early childhood and continue to be present into adulthood in up to 70% of cases. The underlying deficit remains unclear. Several theories are being debated, including AD/HD as a disorder of central behavioral disinhibition, an information processing dysfunction, or a poor adaptation to a particular environment. Although neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies support the central role of the prefrontal lobes and basal ganglia in …

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders

The Effect of High-Impact Writing on Decision Making Within a Public Sector Bureaucracy

Writing within organizations is generally a purposeful, goal-oriented activity (Gieselman, 1982). When generating documents, organizational writers usually wish to achieve specific outcomes, such as increasing readers' knowledge to improve their performance of tasks, disseminating information so organizational members can make informed decisions, persuading decision makers to approve a particular course of action, or building rapport and gaining trust. These outcomes are affected by readers' interpretations of a document's linguistic, intra-textual cues. In turn, these interpretations may be steered by readers' constructions of their organizational environments. This reader-text-environment interaction generates a context that influences how readers process documents to complete tasks and achieve personal and organizational goals. Rogers and Brown (1993) and Smeltzer and Thomas (1994) observe that there is a paucity of research conducted within complex organizational settings that directly investigates the relationship between writing style and readers' relative abilities to comprehend and use information to complete complex organizational tasks. This study, conducted in a medium-size federal government agency, examines whether readers interpreting reports written in what Fielden and Dulek (1987, 1990) call a high-impact (HI) style - a style that communication researchers claim reflects effective writing- make better decisions than readers interpreting the same report written in a bureaucratic, low-impact (LI) style that is the organization's norm. To understand these readers' report interpretation processes, their decisions, and their attitude toward the HI and LI reports, this research examines organizational context factors: perceived work roles, job design, organizational structure, report genre expectations, and organizational language norms. In particular, the study focuses on how readers working in an organization with well-established language norms react to and assess reports that differ significantly from those norms in organization, style, and document design - resulting in what Rorty (1989) and Bruffee (1984) call organizational discourse. Although the HI reports are theoretically easier to understand, this new, abnormal discourse may challenge organizational knowledge about what an effective report is and deflect attention from interpretation and analysis of report content, thus affecting readers' assessments of the report. Literature Review As Rogers and Brown (1993) and Smeltzer and Thomas (1994) have pointed out, limited research exists on the relationship between writing style and organizational effectiveness as defined by reader-based, organizationally specific outcome measures. Both practical and epistemological factors account for this paucity of research. First, doing research within complex organizational settings is time-consuming, an important consideration for junior faculty who must produce a significant number of articles to please tenure committees and review boards. Another practical problem is that gaining access to organizations can be difficult, particularly for researchers in departments that lack close ties to the business community. Furthermore, the research methods this work often requires - for example, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and protocol analysis - themselves require substantial organizational support to gather, transcribe, code, and analyze data. Second, and more importantly, many business communication researchers, still influenced (often tacitly) by the Shannon-Weaver communication model and its many outgrowths, unwittingly continue to locate the source of writing effectiveness in the document itself or readers' reactions to the document rather than in the complex interplay of document, reader, and the organizational context that strongly influences readers' interpretive practices. Researchers' continued use of readability formulas to evaluate document effectiveness indicates the dominance of this tacit mental model that the document is the locus of effective writing and that a metric can be used to determine if the document is comprehensible and useable (Campbell & Hollmann, 1985; Courtis, 1987; Haar & Kossack, 1990; Heath & Phelps, 1984; Schroeder & Gibson, 1990). …

Beleid – A Very Dutch Legal Term

Beleid is a Dutch term which is hard to translate. In German or French one has to use a whole sentence in order to produce the same meaning, while the English equivalent policy covers only part of its significance. As a legal term in the technical sense it is unique. It is generally used to describe the policy which a (public) body follows. The government, a community, a public transport corporation, the police, the public prosecutor all conduct activities which are legitimated on the ground that they implement law, but at the same time they follow beleid. The phenomenon per se occurs universally in relation to all written law. Legality seldom means simply and implicitly following the letter of statutes and regulations whenever the conditions they specify are met. It always involves additional guidelines of goal-oriented action. It also needs organization, which by its internal priorities and its very set-up entails the selection of those aspects of written law which are to be put into effect. Such implementation infrastructures are not only selective. They also shift the goals of the written legal texts, partly because they pursue their own interests, but also and to a greater extent because they seek more socially adequate and more realistic ends. Legal language usually neglects these practical necessities of implementation in the interest of the predictability of law. (Rechtssicherheit is the German term for the goal which in the continental legal tradition is often given priority over considerations of social equity).

Physics, Theoretical Knowledge and Weinberg's Grand Reductionism

The two main points of this contribution are the following: (1) Applied mathematical theories might complement physical theories in an essential way; some applied mathematical theories allow us to understand phenomena we are unable to explain by resorting to physical theories alone, (2) In the case of social sciences it might be necessary to account for examined phenomena by resorting to the idea of goal-oriented activity (the causal approach typical for natural science might be unsatisfactory). Weinberg's idea of grand reductionism ignores the two above mentioned facts and hence overestimates the foundational role of physics and its methodology.

On the theory of virtual organization

Virtual organization is a way of structuring and managing goal-oriented activities. This innovative approach to organization is based on a categorical distinction between the requirements of a task and the elements capable of satisfying them. The distinction supports dynamic switching between satisfiers for the same requirement. Switching, used properly and systematically, can yield dramatic improvements in task performance. Although conceivable without computer communications, virtual organization would not be practicable without the technology; and the concept itself is closely related to constructs such as virtual memory and virtual reality. This paper is intended as a contribution to the development of a theory of virtual organization. The focus is on the nature and inner workings of this innovative approach to organization; social consequences are not considered here. Using the framework presented in an earlier article by the author, the definition, applicability, and socio-technical foundations of virtual organization are elaborated. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.