Goal-oriented Actions Research Articles

Virtual reality as allocentric/egocentric technology for the assessment of cognitive decline in the elderly.

Wayfinding ability has a high adaptive value, allowing humans to efficiently explore an environment in order to have a goal-oriented activity. This is done thanks to the capacity of individuals to actively acquire knowledge during interaction. Recently, different studies examined the wayfinding performances of older adults in Virtual Reality. While these studies underlined a greater difficulty with the wayfinding task in the elderly subjects, the effects of age on specific aspects of navigational tasks are less well specified. More, a recent study (Konishi & Bohbot, 2013) suggested that older people who use spatial navigational strategies (navigation is achieved by orientating oneself in relation to an allocentic landmark map) in their everyday lives may have increased gray matter in the hippocampus and enhance their probability of healthy and successful aging. To evaluate this hypothesis we tested 176 subjects (from 20 to 89 years old) in wayfinding ability by using an interactive computer-based evaluation tool - the VR Maze spatial task - that requires the translation of the allocentric spatial knowledge to the corresponding egocentric one and its organization to perform a goal directed wayfinding. More, the study explored the relationships of these abilites with traditional paper and pencil measures of memory, executive and attentive functions. Data show how some aspects of spatial ability impairment are not clearly detectable using classical tests, whereas they become evident using the VR Maze spatial task. This difference is even more marked in the wayfinding ability evaluation of the elderly population. Finally, the VR Maze spatial task appears to be correlated with classical neuropsychological tests.

Model of the social–ecological system depends on model of the mind: Contrasting information-processing and embodied views of cognition

Two core concerns of ecological economists have for decades been to consider the economy as embedded in broader social–ecological systems (SESs) and to include multiple perspectives in knowledge production. To address these concerns, I argue, ecological economists need to return to the ontological question of what constitutes the SES and the epistemological question of how to obtain knowledge about it. The article shows that autopoiesis complemented with the theory of embodied cognition addresses (1) the ontological challenge by articulating socio-cultural artifacts and ecological artifacts as a single entity, and (2) the epistemological challenge with universally shared schemas that describe goal-oriented activity. The power of autopoiesis is illustrated by outlining an embodied SES model of reindeer management as an alternative framing to the predominant information-processing SES model. An environmental policy measure that from the information-processing perspective looks like an adjustment of a control variable may from the embodied perspective disrupt an interconnected structure of social–ecological interaction. The article proposes a way to integrate the information-processing and embodied models. The results pose significant challenges for future research and policy efforts by ecological economists.

The Role and Place of Achievement Motive in Modular Technology of Teaching Physics to Future Engineers

This article justifies the necessity of organization of goal-oriented activity in teaching physics to first-year students of engineering majors. It was shown that creation of conditions for the formation of motives helps students proceed to the scientific level of mental reflection adequate to the requirements of university training. The article provides examples of the organization of groups competitions when establishing personal and collective responsibility.

Hedonic Tone: A Bridge between the Psychobiology of Depression and its Comorbidities

Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), in many cases, offers less than optimal results, resulting in loss of function and remaining impairment. This is partially explained by the high prevalence of comorbid psychiatric illnesses that share common features, likely resulting in less than adequate treatment outcomes among patients receiving traditional psychiatric treatment. The term anhedonia does not sufficiently capture the complex and multifaceted reward-associated deficits seen in neuropsychiatric disorders. Deficits in reward-related processes can lead to behaviors that may appear to be the loss of interest or pleasure, and may preclude an individual from engaging in goal-oriented action. Investigators have identified a lifelong poor hedonic responsiveness, manifested as altered sensitivity to reinforcement, in patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and suggest it as a common endophenotype for depression and the inattentive symptoms of ADHD. Research into the neurobiology of anhedonia has focused on the centers in the brain related to reward and motivation, and has identified the dopaminergic and associated circuits as playing a key role. Studies have shown that lesions in reward and motivation circuits result in anhedonia, and that decreased activation in the medial frontal cortex is believed to underlie abnormal positive affect processing in patients. In this paper, we propose that a specific phenotype of depression, which is more likely to be described as “treatment resistant” is associated with high risk of comorbidity with dysthymia, ADHD, and substance abuse, specifically cocaine abuse. We believe these patients experience a chronically lower hedonic tone that results in chronic anhedonia (as opposed to acute state anhedonia noted in a major depressive episode) related to unique pathophysiology and requiring treatment of the dopaminergic deficiency that characterizes its unique collection of comorbidities.

The Taxonomy of Goal-oriented Actions in Virtual Training Environments

With the shift of training scenarios to virtual worlds and assessment being an inevitable part of any teaching and learning process, we require sophisticated assessment methods to analyze action-sequences of learners according to reference solutions defined by experts and provide automated formative feedback. We propose the ‘Action-based Learning Assessment Method’ (ALAM) using an action taxonomy to classify recognized actions performed by the user in the virtual world. Most of these taxonomies were developed to model the behavior and performance of users. Yet, current taxonomies of human actions were developed based on need in specific research, still lacking a general taxonomy. The taxonomy of goal-oriented actions in virtual training environments was developed to overcome this problem and will be discussed in this paper.

Brain lateralization of complex movement: Neuropsychological evidence from unilateral stroke

Complex movement (CM) refers to the representation of a goal-oriented action and is classified as either transitive (use of tools) or intransitive (communication gestures). Both types of CM have three specific components: temporal, spatial, and content, which are subdivided into specific error types (SET). Since there is debate regarding the contribution of each brain hemisphere for the types of CM, our objective was to describe the brain lateralization of components and SET of transitive and intransitive CM. We studied 14 patients with a left hemisphere stroke (LH), 12 patients with a right hemisphere stroke (RH), and 16 control subjects. The Florida Apraxia Screening Test-Revised (FAST-R, Rothi et al., 1988) was used for the assessment of CM. Both clinical groups showed a worse performance than the control group on the total FAST-R and transitive movement scores (p<0.001). Failures in Spatial and Temporal components were found in both clinical groups, but only LH patients showed significantly more Content errors (p<0.01) than the control group. Also, only the LH group showed a higher number of errors for intransitive movements score (p=0.017), due to lower scores in the content component, compared to the control group (p=0.04). Transitive and intransitive CMs differ in their neurocognitive representation; transitive CM shows a bilateral distribution of its components when compared to intransitive CM, which shows a preferential left hemisphere representation. This could result from higher neurocognitive demands for movements that require use of tools, compared with more automatic communication gestures.

Static and Dynamic Characteristics of Cerebral Blood Flow During the Resting State in Schizophrenia

The cerebral network that is active during rest and is deactivated during goal-oriented activity is called the default mode network (DMN). It appears to be involved in self-referential mental activity. Atypical functional connectivity in the DMN has been observed in schizophrenia. One hypothesis suggests that pathologically increased DMN connectivity in schizophrenia is linked with a main symptom of psychosis, namely, misattribution of thoughts. A resting-state pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) study was conducted to measure absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) in 34 schizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls. Using independent component analysis (ICA), the DMN was extracted from ASL data. Mean CBF and DMN connectivity were compared between groups using a 2-sample t test. Schizophrenia patients showed decreased mean CBF in the frontal and temporal regions (P < .001). ICA demonstrated significantly increased DMN connectivity in the precuneus (x/y/z = -16/-64/38) in patients than in controls (P < .001). CBF was not elevated in the respective regions. DMN connectivity in the precuneus was significantly correlated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores (P < .01). In schizophrenia patients, the posterior hub--which is considered the strongest part of the DMN--showed increased DMN connectivity. We hypothesize that this increase hinders the deactivation of the DMN and, thus, the translation of cognitive processes from an internal to an external focus. This might explain symptoms related to defective self-monitoring, such as auditory verbal hallucinations or ego disturbances.

Representation of Spatial- and Object-Specific Behavioral Goals in the Dorsal Globus Pallidus of Monkeys during Reaching Movement

The dorsal aspect of the globus pallidus (GP) communicates with the prefrontal cortex and higher-order motor areas, indicating that it plays a role in goal-directed behavior. We examined the involvement of dorsal GP neurons in behavioral goal monitoring and maintenance, essential components of executive function. We trained two macaque monkeys to choose a reach target based on relative target position in a spatial goal task or a target shape in an object-goal task. The monkeys were trained to continue to choose a certain behavioral goal when reward volume was constant and to switch the goals when the volume began to decrease. Because the judgment for the next goal was made in the absence of visual signals, the monkeys were required to monitor and maintain the chosen goals during the reaching movement. We obtained three major findings. (1) GP neurons reflected more of the relative spatial position than the shape of the reaching target during the spatial goal task. During the object-goal task, the shape of the reaching object was represented more than the relative position. (2) The selectivity of individual neurons for the relative position was enhanced during the spatial goal task, whereas the object-shape selectivity was enhanced during the object-goal task. (3) When the monkeys switched the goals, the selectivity for either the position or shape also switched. Together, these findings suggest that the dorsal GP is involved in behavioral goal monitoring and maintenance during execution of goal-oriented actions, presumably in collaboration with the prefrontal cortex.

Silencing The Brain May Be Better Than Stimulating it. The GABA Effect

Cases of recovery from vegetative and minimally conscious state after the administration of various pharmacological agents have been recently reported. These agents include CNS depressants (zolpidem, baclofen, lamotrigine) and CNS stimulants (tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, dopaminergic agents, methylphenidate). The action of CNS depressants as awakening agents sounds paradoxical, as they are commonly prescribed to slow down brain activity in the management of anxiety, muscle tension, pain, insomnia and seizures. How these drugs may improve the level of consciousness in some brain-injured patients is the subject of intense debate. Here we hypothesize that CNS depressants may promote consciousness recovery by reversing a condition of GABA impairment in the injured brain, restoring the normal ratio between synaptic excitation and inhibition, which is the prerequisite for any transition from a resting state to goal-oriented activities (GABA impairment hypothesis). Alternative or complementary mechanisms underlying the improvement of consciousness may include the reversal of a neurodormant state within areas affected by diaschisis (diaschisis hypothesis) and the modulation of an informative overload to the cortex as a consequence of filter failure in the injured brain (informative overload hypothesis). A better understanding of how single agents act on neural networks, whose functioning is critical for recovery, may help to advance a tailored pharmacological approach in the treatment of severely brain injured patients.

Anticipating the course of an action: evidence from corticospinal excitability

BackgroundAnticipatory planning, the ability to anticipate future perceptual-motor demands of a goal-oriented action sequence, is essential for flexible, purposeful behavior. Once an action goal has been defined, movement details necessary to achieve that goal can be selected. Here, we investigate if anticipatory planning takes place even when multi-step actions are being carried out. How, we may ask, are the cerebral circuits involved in movement selection influenced by anticipated object-center task demands? Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to investigate how changes in corticospinal excitability (CSE) are dependent on anticipated task variables of intended future actions. Specifically, single- and paired-pulse TMS was used to evaluate corticospinal excitability during the action selection phase preparatory to grasp execution.ResultsWe found that during the premovement phase, there is an object- and muscle-specific modulation in the intrinsic hand muscle that will be used during a forthcoming grasping action. Depending on whether the participants were instructed to perform a single- or double-step movement sequence, modulation of the corticospinal output to the appropriate hand muscles was dependent on what object was to be grasped and what type of movement was being prepared. No modulation in excitability was observed during one-step movements.ConclusionsAnticipation of intended task demands plays an important role in controlling multi- step actions during which ongoing behavior may need to be adjusted. This finding supports the notion that the cortico-cortical mechanism involving movement planning is specific for an object’s properties as well as for the goal of the movement sequence.

Directional and spatial motor intentional disorders in patients with right versus left hemisphere strokes.

Motor intentional disorders (MIDs) are characterized by dysfunction in the preparation, initiation, maintenance, and termination of goal-oriented actions. In this study, we investigated (1) whether patients with right hemisphere strokes (RHS) and left hemisphere strokes (LHS) differ in the frequency of delayed action initiation (hypokinesia) and motor impersistence; (2) whether there is a directional or hemispatial component of hypokinesia or motor impersistence; (3) whether there is an association between the presence of hemispatial neglect and tests for MID; and (4) the location of injury associated with MID. Thirty-two patients with acute unilateral stroke (21 with RHS and 11 with LHS) and 12 age-matched healthy controls participated in the study. To determine the presence and severity of directional and spatial hypokinesia and impersistence we used a new apparatus, the Directional Movement Tester (DMT). While being tested with the DMT, the participants held a static bar located either in the right or left hemispace using either their right or left hand and upon stimulus onset pushed the bar either leftward or rightward and maintained a given force for 10 sec. The frequency of hypokinesia and impersistence was higher in the RHS group than in the LHS group, but there were no hypokinetic directional or spatial asymmetries. The RHS group did demonstrate left contralesional directional impersistence, but there were no spatial asymmetries of impersistence. Signs of hemispatial neglect were not associated with these measures of MID. Participants with frontal or subcortical lesions were significantly more likely to demonstrate hypokinesia and impersistence than those with posterior lesions.

Musical Ecologies in Video Games

What makes video games unique as an audiovisual medium is not just that they are interactive, but that this interactivity is rule bound and goal oriented. This means that player experience, including experience of the music, is somehow shaped or structured by these characteristics. Because of its emphasis on action in perception, James Gibson’s ecological approach to psychology—particularly his concept of affordances—is well suited to theorise the role of music in player experience. In a game, players perceive the environment and gameplay situations in terms of the goal-oriented actions they afford. Nondiegetic music, not tied to any place in the digital game world, can play a unique role in the structuring of these affordances. Through a series of case studies, I will show that music creates and structures situations both in the game environment (such as the appearance of enemies in Unreal) and beyond the game environment (such as the death of an avatar and the restart of a level in Super Mario Bros.).

Journey “During” Crime

The aim of this study was to test whether there is a relationship between situational and modus operandi characteristics and criminal mobility during the sexual assault event. Data collected from both police files and semistructured interviews with 72 serial sex offenders who have committed 361 sexual assaults have been used. Negative binomial regression was used to identify the relationships between the situational and modus operandi characteristics and the criminal mobility exhibited during the sexual assault. Events that involved child or adolescent victims, those where the offender did not use pornography prior to crime, and those where victim resistance was observed exhibited more criminal mobility. Moreover, crimes in which the victim was selected, the victim was alone when approached by the offender, and the assault was characterized by sexual penetration and a lack of premeditation exhibited more criminal mobility. Results seem to suggest that criminal mobility is a goal-oriented action taken by serial sex offenders to successfully complete their crime and to avoid detection and apprehension.

Constructions of purpose: A corpus-based analysis of corporate mission statements

AbstractThe various incarnations of cognitive linguistics can be characterized by a common contextualized view on linguistic structure. Emerging from this philosophical cornerstone of the cognitive-linguistic enterprise is a growing body of research that systematically inquires into the intricate interplay of the cognitive, social and situational dimensions determining grammatical and lexical choice. The present paper ties in with current explorations of the interface between cognition, pragmatics and grammar through a corpus-based study of the grammatical and discursive construction of purpose. We argue that constructions marking such goal-oriented actions provide a valuable resource for the study of the grammar-discourse interface, because they (implicitly or explicitly) involve a positioning on various axes, including modal, temporal, force-dynamic and interpersonal.In order to answer the onomasiological question of how purpose is expressed in discourse, and how the above axes interact in motivating the choice for a specific grammatical construction, we conducted an exploratory corpus study, based on authentic German data. The specific text genre that we selected for our analysis is that of corporate mission statements (

СТИЛЕВЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ САМОРЕГУЛЯЦИИ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ ЛИЧНОСТИ В СТАРШЕМ ПОДРОСТКОВОМ ВОЗРАСТЕ

The results of the study on stylistic peculiarities of personality behavior self-regulation in late adolescence are stated. The data of analysis of psychological concepts of conscious activity and behavior self-regulation are given (after C. Sherrington, I. M. Sechenov, L. S. Vygotsky, O. A. Konopkin, V. I. Morosanova). The work concentrates on understanding of stylistic peculiarities of self-regulation as being typical for a person and most essential individual peculiarities of self-organization and controlling external and internal goal-oriented activity which consistently shows itself in different types of one. Empiric research is made on the sample of senior school children of general educational schools of Saratov (n = 180, age 15–16). Complex of methods was applied: sixteen personality factor questionnaire by Cattel, Bass - Darky questionnaire, Zung Depression Scale (adapted by T. I. Balashova), “Anxiety state” test (C. D. Spielberg, L. Yu. Khanin), “Style of behavior selfregulation” questionnaire by V. I. Morosanova; method of correlative analysis allowed pointing out the structure of self-regulation stylistic peculiarities depending on personal characteristics of adolescent. The peculiarities of interrelations between self-regulation components and a variety of personal characteristics are represented. Thus, for instance, it is typical for the adolescents with high rate of distrust to other people to carefully premeditate his/her ways of actions towards objectives, circumstantiate and expand programs under development with account of significance of the external and internal conditions of his/her activity. The applied aspect of the problem under study can be actualized by solving tasks of psychological follow-up for school children’s personal development.

An activity theory analysis of boundary objects in cross-border information systems development for disaster management

Abstract One of the main challenges in cross-border disaster management is the development and use of information systems that cater the needs of heterogeneous relief agencies, policies, activities and cultures. Drawing upon activity theory, this paper examines cross-border information systems development for disaster management. We infuse the concept of boundary objects into activity theory by the characterization of the artifacts. This allows articulating how the socio-technical objects are meshed with the process of cross-border collaboration for systems development. Our longitudinal ethnographic field study on a cross-border flood management project, VIKING, revealed how the project was empowered and developed by four key boundary objects, i.e. the governance structure of the program, two information systems (a disaster management information system and an online collaboration portal), and recurring cross-border exercises as an evaluation and feedback mechanism. The selective institutionalizations of these key boundary objects helped the participants overcome various contradictions existed in the systems development. The study results also show that both goal-oriented actions and boundary objects can affect the outcomes of long-term large-scale disaster management systems development.

Psychometric evaluation of the DSM-IV criterion B mania symptoms in an Australian national sample

Although numerous studies have examined the latent structure of major depression, less attention has focused on mania. This paper presents the first investigation outside the USA to evaluate the psychometric properties of the DSM-IV criterion B mania symptoms using item response theory (IRT). Data were drawn from the Australian 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being (NSMHWB, n = 8841). The psychometric performance of the mania symptoms was evaluated using a two-parameter logistic model. Because substance use disorders (SUDs) frequently co-occur with mania and can influence manic symptom expression, differential item functioning (DIF) between mania respondents with/without a SUD diagnosis was also assessed. Factor analysis supported a unidimensional trait underlying mania. The grandiosity symptom displayed the highest discrimination whereas discrimination was lowest for decreased need for sleep. Relatively speaking, grandiosity tapped the severe end and increased goal-oriented activities tapped the mild end of the mania severity continuum. The symptoms generally performed equivalently between those with/without a SUD diagnosis, with one exception; the activities with painful consequences symptom was endorsed at lower levels of severity, and hence more frequently, by those with a SUD diagnosis versus those without a SUD diagnosis. Accurate conceptualization of latent structure has crucial theoretical, statistical and clinical implications. The symptoms generally performed well in distinguishing between respondents with differing levels of liability, but others did not, suggesting modification is warranted to ensure optimal use in epidemiological samples. Given the dearth of psychometric evaluation studies of mania, further research replicating these results is necessary.

A changing trajectory of proof learning in the geometry inquiry classroom

The purpose of this study is to explore how students changes through learning to construct mathematical proofs in an inquiry-based middle school geometry class in Korea. Although proof has long been considered as one of the most important aspects of mathematics education, it is well-known that it is one of the most difficult areas of school mathematics for students. The geometry inquiry classroom (GIC) is an experimental class designed to teach geometry, especially focusing on teaching proof, based on students’ own inquiry. Based on a 2-year participant observation in the GIC, this study was conducted to address the following research question: how has students’ practice of mathematical proof been changed through their participation in the GIC? The in-depth analysis of the classroom discourse identified three stages through which the students’ practice of mathematical proof was transformed in the GIC: ‘emergent understanding of proof’, ‘proof learning as a goal-oriented activity’, ‘experiencing proof as the practice of mathematics’. The study found that as learning evolved through these stages, so the mathematics teacher’s role shifted from being an instructor to a mediator of communication. Most importantly, this research showed that the GIC has created a learning environment where students develop their competence in constructing meaningful mathematical proof and grow to be ‘a human who proves’, ultimately ‘a person who playfully engages with mathematics’.

Awareness affects motor planning for goal-oriented actions

We studied pre-movement cortical activity related to praxic actions performed at self-paced rate and having ecological meanings and functions. Motor-related cortical potentials were recorded using 64-channels EEG in two experiments. Experiment 1 included 15 subjects performing in separate blocks two object-oriented actions: grasping a tea-cup and impossible grasping of a tea-cup (same goal but the grasp was mechanically hindered). Experiment 2 included a subset of 7 subjects from Exp. 1 and the action was reaching a tea-cup; this control condition had a different goal but was kinematically similar to impossible grasping. Different activity patterns in terms of onset, amplitude, duration and, at least in part, sources were recorded in the preparation phase (BP component) according to the specific action and to the possibility of accomplishing it. The main result is that parietal areas were involved in grasping preparation (called “posterior” BP) and not in reaching and impossible grasping preparation. The anterior frontal-central activity (called “anterior” BP) during preparation for grasping started earlier than the other two conditions. The cortical activity during preparation for reaching was similar to that for impossible grasping, except for a frontal activity only detected in the latter condition. It is concluded that the action preparation, even in its early phase, is affected by action meaning and by the awareness of being able to perform the requested action.

Naturalistic fMRI Mapping Reveals Superior Temporal Sulcus as the Hub for the Distributed Brain Network for Social Perception

Despite the abundant data on brain networks processing static social signals, such as pictures of faces, the neural systems supporting social perception in naturalistic conditions are still poorly understood. Here we delineated brain networks subserving social perception under naturalistic conditions in 19 healthy humans who watched, during 3-T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a set of 137 short (approximately 16 s each, total 27 min) audiovisual movie clips depicting pre-selected social signals. Two independent raters estimated how well each clip represented eight social features (faces, human bodies, biological motion, goal-oriented actions, emotion, social interaction, pain, and speech) and six filler features (places, objects, rigid motion, people not in social interaction, non-goal-oriented action, and non-human sounds) lacking social content. These ratings were used as predictors in the fMRI analysis. The posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) responded to all social features but not to any non-social features, and the anterior STS responded to all social features except bodies and biological motion. We also found four partially segregated, extended networks for processing of specific social signals: (1) a fronto-temporal network responding to multiple social categories, (2) a fronto-parietal network preferentially activated to bodies, motion, and pain, (3) a temporo-amygdalar network responding to faces, social interaction, and speech, and (4) a fronto-insular network responding to pain, emotions, social interactions, and speech. Our results highlight the role of the pSTS in processing multiple aspects of social information, as well as the feasibility and efficiency of fMRI mapping under conditions that resemble the complexity of real life.