Irrelevant Behavior Research Articles

Improving Graph Collaborative Filtering with Directional Behavior Enhanced Contrastive Learning

Graph Collaborative Filtering is a widely adopted approach for recommendation, which captures similar behavior features through Graph Neural Network (GNN). Recently, Contrastive Learning (CL) has been demonstrated as an effective method to enhance the performance of graph collaborative filtering. Typically, CL-based methods first perturb users’ history behavior data (e.g., drop clicked items), then construct a self-discriminating task for behavior representations under different random perturbations. However, for widely existing inactive users, random perturbation makes their sparse behavior information more incomplete, thereby harming the behavior feature extraction. To tackle the above issue, we design a novel directional perturbation-based CL method to improve the graph collaborative filtering performance. The idea is to perturb node representations through directionally enhancing behavior features. To do so, we propose a simple yet effective feedback mechanism, which fuses the representations of nodes based on behavior similarity. Then, to avoid irrelevant behavior preferences introduced by the feedback mechanism, we construct a behavior self-contrast task before and after feedback, to align the node representations between the final output and the first layer of GNN. Different from the widely adopted self-discriminating task, the behavior self-contrast task avoids complex message propagation on different perturbed graphs, which is more efficient than previous methods. Extensive experiments on three public datasets demonstrate that the proposed method has distinct advantages over other CL methods on recommendation accuracy.

How Not to Find Over-Imitation in Animals

While more species are being identified as cultural on a regular basis, stark differences between human and animal cultures remain. Humans are more richly cultural, with group-specific practices and social norms guiding almost every element of our lives. Furthermore, human culture is seen as cumulative, cooperative, and normative, in contrast to animal cultures. One hypothesis to explain these differences is grounded in the observation that human children across cultures appear to spontaneously over-imitate silly or causally irrelevant behaviors that they observe. The few studies on over-imitation in other species are largely taken as evidence that spontaneous over-imitation is not present in other species. This leads to the over-imitation hypothesis – that the differences between human culture and animal cultures can be traced to the human unique tendency to over-imitate. In this paper, we analyze the current state of the literature on animal over-imitation and challenge the adequacy of the over-imitation hypothesis for the differences between humans and animal cultures. To make this argument, we first argue that the function of human over-imitation is norm-learning and that over-imitation, like skill-learning, should be subject to selective social learning effects. Then we review the empirical evidence against animal over-imitation and argue that these studies do not take into account the relevant variables given the normative and selective nature of over-imitation. We then analyze positive empirical evidence of over-imitation in great apes and canids from the experimental literature and conclude that the current body of evidence suggests that some canids and primates may have the capacity for over-imitation. This paper offers a methodological suggestion for how to study animal over-imitation, and a theoretical suggestion that over-imitation might be much more widely found among species. The larger implication for claims about human uniqueness suggests that if we do find widespread evidence of over-imitation across species, many of the current theories of human uniqueness that focus on human hyper-cooperation or social norms may have only identified a difference of degree, not of kind, between humans and other animals.

To Study the Socio-Economic Profile of SBM Facilitate Respondents

The present study was conducted in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. India covered with 17.5 per cent of the world population. The condition of, hygiene and sanitation, facility of drinking water was very gigantic since large decades. The irrelevant behavior in order to address this challenge was responsible for the many risks were faced by respondents. Through the study, it was found that maximum respondents 42.00% were found in middle age group (35-50 years), followed by 34.00% in old age group (50 year and above) remaining 24.00% in young age group (up to 35 year).The found majority of respondents 62.00% were male and 38.00%% were female, maximum number of respondents 50.00% belonged to other backward caste followed by 37.00% Schedule caste and the remaining were 13.00% general caste, the majority of respondents 64.00% were found literate and 36.00% respondents were found illiterate. The categories of literacy were found as 32.00%, 24.00%, 6.00% and 2.00% found up to primary, high school, graduated and post graduate respectively.
 "Sanitation is more important than independence".
 Mahatma Gandhi
 
 Cleanliness and sanitation were an integral part of Gandhian way of living. His dream was total sanitation for all. He used to emphasize that cleanliness is the most important for physical wellbeing and a healthy environment.

Transitioning From Introductory to Professional Programming in Secondary Education: Comparing Learners’ Computational Thinking Skills, Behaviors, and Attitudes

Although previous research has provided some insights into the effects of block-based and text-based programming modalities, there is a dearth of a detailed, multi-dimensional analysis of the transition process from different introductory programming modalities to professional programming learning. This study employed a quasi-experimental design to address this gap, involving 64 secondary school students in two groups. For the beginning five weeks, the first group used an introductory block-based programming environment, while the second group used an introductory text-based programming environment. Then, both groups transitioned to professional text-based programming for the subsequent eight weeks. The results showed that participants who transitioned from introductory text-based programming to professional text-based programming (1) significantly outperformed in computational thinking skills; (2) had more code-writing and debugging behaviors and fewer irrelevant behaviors, and (3) had more interactions with the instructor. No significant differences were observed between the two groups regarding enjoyment, confidence, and interest in programming. Drawing on these findings, this study proposes pedagogical implications that could facilitate the adoption of programming modalities within the broader context of STEM education.

Pharmacological activation of the amygdala, but not single prolonged footshock-induced acute stress, interferes with cue-induced motivation toward food rewards in rats.

In the face of threats, animals adapt their behaviors to cope with the situation. Under such circumstances, irrelevant behaviors are usually suppressed. In this study, we examined whether food-seeking motivation would decrease under activation of the amygdala, an important nucleus in the regulation of stress response in the central nervous system, or after a physical acute stress session. In Experiment 1, we pharmacologically activated the basolateral nucleus (BLA) or the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) before a cue-induced reinstatement test in rats. Our results showed that activation of the BLA or the CeA abolished cue-induced motivation toward food rewards, while locomotor activity and free food intake were not affected. In Experiments 2 and 3, we further assessed anxiety and despair levels, as well as cue-induced reinstatement, after a single prolonged footshock-induced acute stress in rats. Behaviorally, acute stress did not affect anxiety level, despair level, or cue-induced motivation toward food rewards. Physiologically, there was no difference in cellular activities of the amygdala immediately after acute stress. To conclude, our results suggested that pharmacological activation of the amygdala decreased cue-induced motivation toward food reward. However, physiological acute stress did not immediately interfere with the negative emotions, motivation, or amygdala activities of the animals.

Effects of gender diversity on college students’ collaborative learning: From individual gender to gender pairing

This study investigated the effects of gender and gender pairing on behaviors and social interaction during collaborative learning in a blended learning environment. Three types of pairing (all-female, all-male, and mixed) were considered in an empirical study with 44 undergraduate students. The results revealed that, first, female students were more likely to perform well in listening, talking, and integrating during class, and in the quality of posts after class, whereas male students tended to engage more in irrelevant behavior in collaboration. Second, same-gender groups were more active in collaborative discussion, but all-male groups performed worst in quality of posts after class. Third, both male and female students were more active in same-gender groups than in mixed groups. Finally, same-gender groups tended to have greater interpersonal connectedness than mixed-gender groups. The paper ends with a list of practical implications for facilitating effective collaborative learning in co-educational college classrooms.

Functional Brain Connectivity and Inhibitory Control in Older Adults: A Preliminary Study.

According to the inhibition deficit hypothesis, the ability to inhibit unwanted or irrelevant thoughts and behaviors decreases with age, which can have a significant impact on cognitive and emotional processing. However, studies examining inhibition and age have shown mixed results, with some studies finding a decrease in inhibitory control as individuals age, while others have found no relationship. The goal of this proof-of-concept study was to examine the underlying neural mechanisms that may explain why some older adults are better than others at inhibitory control by investigating the relationship between resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the salience network, a network critical for detecting and focusing attention toward relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant information in the environment, and a behavioral measure of inhibitory control (Stroop Task interference score) in a sample of 65 healthy older individuals (ages 65+). Results revealed no direct effect of age on Stroop performance; however, there was an indirect effect of age on Stroop performance through rsFC. These results suggest that rsFC of the salience network may be an important factor to consider when it comes to understanding individual differences in inhibitory control behavior among older adults.

Examination of Test Anxiety in a Sample of 18 to 26 year-old Singapore and U.S. Undergraduate Male and Female Students on the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students-Short Form

A cross-national study was conducted on a new test anxiety measure, the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students-Short Form (TAMC-SF) in a sample of 1,023 Singapore and U.S. students, aged 18-26. The TAMC-SF consists of one facilitating anxiety scale and five test anxiety (Worry, Cognitive Interference, Social Concerns, Physiological Hyperarousal, and Task Irrelevant Behaviors) scales. The measure was administered to the sample of higher education students online. The results of single-group confirmatory factor analyses found support for the TAMC-SF six-factor model for Singapore students, U.S. students, male students, and female students. In addition, the results of multi-group, mean and covariance structure analysis found support for the construct equivalency of the TAMC-SF scores across country and gender. Latent mean factor analyses followed and the results of these analyses indicated Singapore students had significantly higher levels of social concerns and significantly lower levels of cognitive interference and worry than U.S. students. The findings also indicated females had significantly higher levels of test anxiety than males on all five TAMC-SF test anxiety scales. Evidence supporting the construct validity of the TAMC-SF scores with the scores of math anxiety, social phobia, and self-critical perfectionism was also reported. Implications of the study’s findings for researchers and clinicians are discussed.

Fast Distributed Simulation of “Defect-Irrelevant” Behaviors of No-Insulation HTS Coil

This paper proposes a new equivalent circuit model to calculate current distribution in an NI (no-insulation) high temperature superconductor (HTS) coil that contains a defect. When the well-known defect irrelevant behaviors of an NI HTS coil are analyzed, the so-called partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) technique has been commonly adopted. However, the PEEC technique often takes an extremely long time, days or even weeks, for just a single simulation depending on the number of internal elements within the target NI coil. Here we propose an alternative method that may substantially reduce computation time and load in distributed simulation of the defect-irrelevant behaviors of an NI HTS coil. We showed that the current sharing region of an NI coil containing a defect could be divided into 5 segments, and an equivalent circuit, which is named “B model” as the equivalent circuit resembles the alphabet “B,” could be constructed using circuit parameters in each segment. Using the proposed method that significantly simplifies the existing PEEC model, we successfully simulated the defect-irrelevant behaviors of an NI HTS single pancake coil, essentially the local current sharing between the defect spot and its healthy neighboring turns.

The Test Anxiety Measure for College Students-Short Form: Development and Examination of Its Psychometric Properties

A short form of the 43-item Test Anxiety Measure for College Students (TAM-C) was developed in the present study. The TAM-C consists of six (social concerns, cognitive interference, worry, physiological hyperarousal, task irrelevant behaviors, and facilitating anxiety) scales. Twenty-four items from the TAM-C were selected for the short form. Single-group confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and correlational analyses were conducted with the responses of 728 U.S. college students to the TAM-C Short Form. Results of the single-group CFAs supported a six-factor model for the TAM-C Short Form. Concurrent and convergent validity evidence was found for the TAM-C Short Form scores. Overall, the findings suggest the TAM-C Short Form is an economical measure with unique features to assess test and facilitating anxiety in the college student population.

An intervention designed to investigate habit formation in a novel health behaviour

Objectives Understanding how to help people form habits is important in improving health interventions. The impact of two behaviour change techniques on behaviour (cues and monitoring) was tested, and the role of psychosocial factors that may predict behaviour change and habit formation were investigated. Methods: Participants (N = 186) were randomised to one of six conditions (behaviour monitoring vs habit monitoring vs irrelevant behaviour monitoring and cued vs not cued) and instructed to engage in a specific, novel behaviour every day for the following 3 weeks. Participants completed measures of behaviour, habit strength, prospective memory, attitude, intention, self-efficacy and motivation at three time points (pre-, post- and one-week follow-up). Results: All participants increased habit strength and behaviour. Post-hoc, it was found that community members, compared to students, developed stronger habits and maintained the behaviour and habit strength at one-week follow-up. Intention, behaviour and habit strength post-intervention moderated behaviour and habit strength maintenance. Conclusion: This research furthers our understanding of how to help people form healthy habits. It was found that any intervention seems to be effective in forming a habit and changing behaviour. Moreover, intention, habit and behaviour were the most important predictors of behaviour change and habit formation maintenance.

Parenting style in a schizophrenic patient: a case report

Both genetic and environmental factors including parenting style are responsible for the causation of schizophrenia. A young adult developed delusion regarding alien as well as some characters of the computer games he used to play. Later he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. There was evidence of intrafamilial conflict with lack of good relationship with father. His introverted nature, lack of social interactions and some irrelevant behavior were found as being reinforced by her mother. There may be an association of schizophrenia with parenting style which may be modifiable.
 Bang J Psychiatry June 2018; 32(1): 22-23

Expression and Level of Test Anxiety in a Sample of Elementary Students

This study examined the expression and level of test anxiety in a sample of 1221 elementary school students. The Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E), a new multidimensional measure developed based on recent conceptualizations of the test anxiety construct, was administered to elementary school-age students. The TAS-E consists of four test anxiety (Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behaviors, and Worry) subscales and a Total Test Anxiety scale. The results of four multi-group confirmatory factor analyses and latent mean analyses supported invariance between groups in the four multi-group comparisons conducted and found grade and gender differences in the level and expression of test anxiety among elementary students in grades 2-5 on the TAS-E. This is the first measurement invariance study to include students as young as grade 2 on a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety. Implications of the findings of the study for mental health professionals and educators who work with elementary school-age students are discussed.

The Test Anxiety Measure for College Students: Examination of Its Psychometric Properties Using an Online Survey With a Canadian Sample

The psychometric properties of a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students (TAM-C), based on theory and current research were examined in a sample of 312 Canadian college students online. The TAM-C consists of a Facilitating Anxiety scale and five test anxiety (Cognitive Interference, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behaviors, and Worry) scales. Results of confirmatory factor analyses validated the TAM-C six-factor structure. In addition, composite reliabilities were reported to be adequate. Furthermore, convergent and discriminant evidence of validity was found for the TAM-C scores. These findings are the first to be reported on the psychometric properties of the TAM-C scores outside the United States. Although additional research is needed with the TAM-C, it has the potential to become a useful measure to Canadian mental health professionals in their work with test-anxious college students.

The Test Anxiety Measure for Adolescents (TAMA)

A new multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for Adolescents (TAMA), specifically designed for U.S. adolescents in Grades 6 to 12 was developed and its psychometric properties were examined. The TAMA consists of five scales (Cognitive Interference, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behavior, and Worry). The results of confirmatory factor analyses on the responses of a sample of middle and high school students to the TAMA indicated that a five-factor (target) model provided a better fit to the data than a one-factor model. Results also indicated that the TAMA scores had adequate internal consistency reliability. Evidence supporting the convergent and discriminant validity of the TAMA scores was found. Implications of the findings for school personnel who work with adolescent students are discussed.

History matching for exploring and reducing climate model parameter space using observations and a large perturbed physics ensemble

We apply an established statistical methodology called history matching to constrain the parameter space of a coupled non-flux-adjusted climate model (the third Hadley Centre Climate Model; HadCM3) by using a 10,000-member perturbed physics ensemble and observational metrics. History matching uses emulators (fast statistical representations of climate models that include a measure of uncertainty in the prediction of climate model output) to rule out regions of the parameter space of the climate model that are inconsistent with physical observations given the relevant uncertainties. Our methods rule out about half of the parameter space of the climate model even though we only use a small number of historical observations. We explore 2 dimensional projections of the remaining space and observe a region whose shape mainly depends on parameters controlling cloud processes and one ocean mixing parameter. We find that global mean surface air temperature (SAT) is the dominant constraint of those used, and that the others provide little further constraint after matching to SAT. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) has a non linear relationship with SAT and is not a good proxy for the meridional heat transport in the unconstrained parameter space, but these relationships are linear in our reduced space. We find that the transient response of the AMOC to idealised CO2 forcing at 1 and 2 % per year shows a greater average reduction in strength in the constrained parameter space than in the unconstrained space. We test extended ranges of a number of parameters of HadCM3 and discover that no part of the extended ranges can by ruled out using any of our constraints. Constraining parameter space using easy to emulate observational metrics prior to analysis of more complex processes is an important and powerful tool. It can remove complex and irrelevant behaviour in unrealistic parts of parameter space, allowing the processes in question to be more easily studied or emulated, perhaps as a precursor to the application of further relevant constraints.

Dentatorubral Pallidoluysian Atrophy (DRPLA)-A Rare Neurological Disorder

Dentatorubral pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) is a rare type of an autosomal dominant progressive late onset cerebellar ataxia. It is caused by a defect in a gene [CAG repeat in atrophin-1 (ATN1) on chromosome 12] and results in damage to the cerebellum, and to its connections within the central nervous system. It is also known as Haw River Syndrome and Naito-Oyanagi disease. This disorder seems to be very rare except in Japan. Patients with DRPLA can exhibit a variety of psychiatric symptoms in addition to extrapyramidal and cerebellar symptoms. We report a case who was 28 years old unmarried man presented at BSMMU, Dhaka in 2010. The present work highlights the variable mode of presentation of DRPLA and the difficulty of an early diagnosis without facility of genetic analysis. The aim of our report was to describe typical clinical presentations of the disease without positive family history. Our patient presented with unsteadiness during walking, irrelevant behavior and talking, incontinence of urine and stool with occasional myoclonic seizure and dementia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v30i1.11367 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2012; 30: 48-52

How specific is source memory for faces of cheaters? Evidence for categorical emotional tagging.

Two experiments designed to examine the specificity of emotional source memory are reported. In the encoding phase, participants saw faces along with emotional context information, that is, descriptions of cheating, trustworthy, or irrelevant behavior. In the test phase, participants were required to complete a source classification test and a cued recall test. In both experiments, the source memory advantage for faces characterized by negative context information (cheating) was replicated. Extending previous research, a multinomial source-monitoring model was applied to distinguish between specific source memory for individual behavior descriptions and partial source memory in the sense of only a rough classification of the behavior as belonging to a particular emotional category--cheating, trustworthy, or neither of these. The results indicate that the source memory advantage for the emotional context information is not always accompanied by enhanced recollection of the specific details of the learning episode and might rather reflect unspecific memory for categorical emotional information.

Collaborative Problem Solving in Young Typical Development and HFASD

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) requires sharing goals/attention and coordinating actions-all deficient in HFASD. Group differences were examined in CPS (HFASD/typical), with a friend versus with a non-friend. Participants included 28 HFASD and 30 typical children aged 3-6years and their 58 friends and 58 non-friends. Groups were matched on CA, MA, IQ, and maternal education. The CPS task was placing pairs of blocks to balance scales. HFASD preschoolers solved the problem slower, showed more irrelevant behaviors, shared less, and used fewer coordinative gestures than TYP. But they were more responsive and had more fun with friends versus non-friends. In addition, they solved the problem more efficiently during their second attempt. Implications are discussed, regarding the social deficit of HFASD.

Cross-cultural examination of test anxiety among US and Singapore students on the Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E)

In the present study, the similarity of the factor structure of the Test Anxiety Scale for Elementary Students (TAS-E) and cultural and gender differences in test anxiety were examined in a sample of 1322 US and Singapore elementary students. The similarity of the factor structure of the TAS-E, a measure of test anxiety, was examined to determine whether the same test score interpretation could be made across culture and gender. Coefficient of congruence and salient variable similarity index values indicated that the pairs of matched factors (Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behaviour, Worry and Total Test Anxiety factors) of the TAS-E were similar across culture and gender. Results of a 2 × 2 ANOVA and 2 × 2 MANOVA with follow-up ANOVAs revealed that Singapore males scored higher than US males and US females scored higher than Singapore females on the TAS-E Total Test Anxiety scale and the Physiological Hyperarousal subscale. Singapore males also scored higher than US males on the TAS-E Worry subscale. Implications of the findings are discussed.