Context Of Task Research Articles

Lexical material selection criteria for assessment of future bachelors’in applied mechanics English lexical competence

Abstract. Introduction. Successful professional communication of future bachelors in applied mechanicsrequires mastering lexical competence. Proper material selection is an essential prerequisite of the effectiveteaching and assessing process. In order to identify what lexicon needs to be taught and checked it is requiredto highlight the selection criteria. Purpose. To identify the unit of lexical material selection; to specify textselection criteria and select texts; to substantiate lexical items selection criteria and select terms that will formfuture bachelors’ in applied mechanics vocabulary. Methods. Thorough study of researches on lexical materialselection; selection and analysis of chosen authentic texts, selection, analysis and classification of terminologicalunits. Results. The research showed that future bachelors’ in applied mechanics vocabulary consists of generalEnglish lexicon and subject-specific vocabulary, i.e. terms. In teaching technical English it is relevant to focuson terminological units that need to be selected from specialism-related texts. Professional texts should beselected according to the criteria of authenticity, the professional value of texts, current relevance and novelty,interdisciplinarity, relation to topic, and terminological abundance. The selected texts are the source of terms that should be chosen following the criteria of relation to topic, frequency, professional and semantic value.The analysis of selected terminological units allows grouping them according to their types and structure.Conclusion. Thus, lexical material selection is a vital part in lexical competence teaching and assessment.Specialism-related texts chosen according to the abovementioned criteria are considered to be the source of futurebachelors’ in applied mechanics vocabulary and the context for test tasks. The selected terminological unitsare the basis of future experts’thesaurus that enables them to communicate effectively in professional situations.

Multisensory integration of musical emotion perception in singing

We investigated how visual and auditory information contributes to emotion communication during singing. Classically trained singers applied two different facial expressions (expressive/suppressed) to pieces from their song and opera repertoire. Recordings of the singers were evaluated by laypersons or experts, presented to them in three different modes: auditory, visual, and audio–visual. A manipulation check confirmed that the singers succeeded in manipulating the face while keeping the sound highly expressive. Analyses focused on whether the visual difference or the auditory concordance between the two versions determined perception of the audio–visual stimuli. When evaluating expressive intensity or emotional content a clear effect of visual dominance showed. Experts made more use of the visual cues than laypersons. Consistency measures between uni-modal and multimodal presentations did not explain the visual dominance. The evaluation of seriousness was applied as a control. The uni-modal stimuli were rated as expected, but multisensory evaluations converged without visual dominance. Our study demonstrates that long-term knowledge and task context affect multisensory integration. Even though singers’ orofacial movements are dominated by sound production, their facial expressions can communicate emotions composed into the music, and observes do not rely on audio information instead. Studies such as ours are important to understand multisensory integration in applied settings.

The Control of Event-File Management.

According to the Theory of Event Coding, both perceived and self-produced events are coded by binding codes of the features of these events into event files. Here I argue that distinguishing between the actual binding process and the retrieval of event files is empirically difficult but theoretically important. As a first step towards disentangling these processes, I provide a brief overview of what the available evidence tells us with respect to the control of the binding process and the control of the retrieval process. I argue that there is not much evidence for selectivity of the binding process: Various kinds of stimuli and actions seem to be spontaneously integrated under various conditions, and there is increasing evidence that emotions, task instructions, and task context are coded into event files as well. On the other hand, there is increasing evidence for a high degree of selectivity of the retrieval process, suggesting that most if not all observations of effective impact on event files reflect an impact on retrieval, but not binding proper. I conclude by pointing out open questions and issues.

Structural disconnection of the posterior medial frontal cortex reduces speech error monitoring

Optimal performance in any task relies on the ability to detect and correct errors. The anterior cingulate cortex and the broader posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) are active during error processing. However, it is unclear whether damage to the pMFC impairs error monitoring. We hypothesized that successful error monitoring critically relies on connections between the pMFC and broader cortical networks involved in executive functions and the task being monitored. We tested this hypothesis in the context of speech error monitoring in people with post-stroke aphasia. Diffusion weighted images were collected in 51 adults with chronic left-hemisphere stroke and 37 age-matched control participants. Whole-brain connectomes were derived using constrained spherical deconvolution and anatomically-constrained probabilistic tractography. Support vector regressions identified white matter connections in which lost integrity in stroke survivors related to reduced error detection during confrontation naming. Lesioned connections to the bilateral pMFC were related to reduce error monitoring, including many connections to regions associated with speech production and executive function. We conclude that connections to the pMFC support error monitoring. Error monitoring in speech production is supported by the structural connectivity between the pMFC and regions involved in speech production, comprehension, and executive function. Interactions between pMFC and other task-relevant processors may similarly be critical for error monitoring in other task contexts.

Detecting Developers’ Task Switches and Types

Developers work on a broad variety of tasks during their workdays and constantly switch between them. While these task switches can be beneficial, they can also incur a high cognitive burden on developers, since they have to continuously remember and rebuild the task context–the artifacts and applications relevant to the task. Researchers have therefore proposed to capture task context more explicitly and use it to provide better task support, such as task switch reduction or task resumption support. Yet, these approaches generally require the developer to <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">manually</i> identify task switches. Automatic approaches for predicting task switches have so far been limited in their accuracy, scope, evaluation, and the time discrepancy between predicted and actual task switches. In our work, we examine the use of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">automatically</i> collected computer interaction data for detecting developers’ task switches as well as task types. In two field studies–a 4h observational study and a multi-day study with experience sampling–we collected data from a total of 25 professional developers. Our study results show that we are able to use temporal and semantic features from developers’ computer interaction data to detect task switches and types in the field with high accuracy of 84 percent and 61 percent respectively, and within a short time window of less than 1.6 minutes on average from the actual task switch. We discuss our findings and their practical value for a wide range of applications in real work settings.

Effects of Sentence Output Tasks on EFL Vocabulary Learning from a Bayesian Perspective

This article builds on the growing line of inquiry into the relative effectiveness of different tasks for vocabulary learning. Specifically, the study compares the efficacy of several sentence output tasks in EFL vocabulary learning through reading. To this end, evidence was weighed for one hypothesis over the alternative from a Bayesian perspective rather than in light of the commonly used null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), which depends heavily on the <i>p</i> values for statistical conclusions. Ninety-one EFL learners were randomly assigned to one of three word-focused sentence output tasks (i.e., L2-L1 translating, paraphrasing and writing), and were subsequently tested on their initial learning and retention of newly-encountered EFL words. Both Bayes factor analysis and Bayesian parameter estimation were employed to find evidence for task effects. With respect to initial word learning, moderate evidence was in favor of no difference between translating and paraphrasing, whilst weak evidence in favor of no difference between translating and writing as well as between paraphrasing and writing. For pedagogical purposes, no good evidence was for or against task effects. Regarding word retention, moderate evidence supported no task difference, and all the tasks fared equally well pedagogically. The results partially support the involvement load hypothesis and are discussed in terms of task difficulty, context generation and semantic elaboration.

Promoting collaborative innovation and disciplinary integration in maker education through augmented reality: a design-based research

Maker education in China's K-12 schools is facing several problems such as disconnection between theory and practice, shallow application of the maker spirit, and shortage of educational resources. To address those problems, this study proposed an innovative instructional model for maker education, which was enabled by augmented reality (AR) technology and was informed by the theories of collaborative learning and disciplinary integration. After three iterations of design, evaluation, and revision, the study empirically refined the proposed model of maker education and validated a set of instructional design principles, including relevant task context, general inquiry sequence, diverse scaffolding, flexible collaboration strategies, and extended instruction time. The study results indicated that AR can be used as a adhesive to integrate subject content from various disciplines, and thus can inspire creative thinking and collaborative inquiry for students. The study concluded with six validated instructional design principles for conducting AR-supported maker education in elementary school.

What children with and without ASD see: Similar visual experiences with different pathways through parental attention strategies.

Although young children's gaze behaviors in experimental task contexts have been shown to be potential biobehavioral markers relevant to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we know little about their everyday gaze behaviors. The present study aims (1) to document early gaze behaviors that occur within a live, social interactive context among children with and without ASD and their parents, and (2) to examine how children's and parents' gaze behaviors are related for ASD and typically developing (TD) groups. A head-mounted eye-tracking system was used to record the frequency and duration of a set of gaze behaviors (such as sustained attention [SA] and joint attention [JA]) that are relevant to early cognitive and language development. Twenty-six parent-child dyads (ASD group = 13, TD group = 13) participated. Children were between the ages of 3 and 8 years old. We placed head-mounted eye trackers on parents and children to record their parent- and child-centered views, and we also recorded their interactive parent-child object play scene from both a wall- and ceiling-mounted camera. We then annotated the frequency and duration of gaze behaviors (saccades, fixation, SA, and JA) for different regions of interest (object, face, and hands), and attention shifting. Independent group t-tests and ANOVAs were used to observe group comparisons, and linear regression was used to test the predictiveness of parent gaze behaviors for JA. The present study found no differences in visual experiences between children with and without ASD. Interestingly, however, significant group differences were found for parent gaze behaviors. Compared to parents of ASD children, parents of TD children focused on objects and shifted their attention between objects and their children's faces more. In contrast, parents of ASD children were more likely to shift their attention between their own hands and their children. JA experiences were also predicted differently, depending on the group: among parents of TD children, attention to objects predicted JA, but among parents of ASD children, attention to their children predicted JA. Although no differences were found between gaze behaviors of autistic and TD children in this study, there were significant group differences in parents' looking behaviors. This suggests potentially differential pathways for the scaffolding effect of parental gaze for ASD children compared with TD children. The present study revealed the impact of everyday life, social interactive context on early visual experiences, and point to potentially different pathways by which parental looking behaviors guide the looking behaviors of children with and without ASD. Identifying parental social input relevant to early attention development (e.g., JA) among autistic children has implications for mechanisms that could support socially mediated attention behaviors that have been documented to facilitate early cognitive and language development and implications for the development of parent-mediated interventions for young children with or at risk for ASD.Note: This paper uses a combination of person-first and identity-first language, an intentional decision aligning with comments put forth by Vivanti (Vivanti, 2020), recognizing the complexities of known and unknown preferences of those in the larger autism community.

Context-specific activations are a hallmark of the neural basis of individual differences in general executive function

Common executive functioning (cEF) is a domain-general factor that captures shared variance in performance across diverse executive function tasks. To investigate the neural mechanisms of individual differences in cEF (e.g., goal maintenance, biasing), we conducted the largest fMRI study of multiple executive tasks to date (N=546). Group average activation during response inhibition (antisaccade task), working memory updating (keep track task), and mental set shifting (number-letter switch task) overlapped in classic cognitive control regions. However, there were no areas across tasks that were consistently correlated with individual differences in cEF ability. Although similar brain areas are recruited when completing different executive function tasks, activation levels of those areas are not consistently associated with better performance. This pattern is inconsistent with a simple model in which higher cEF is associated with greater or less activation of a set of control regions across different task contexts; however, it is potentially consistent with a model in which individual differences in cEF primarily depend on activation of domain-specific targets of executive function. Brain features that explain commonalities in executive function performance across tasks remain to be discovered.

Lower Cognitive Set Shifting Ability Is Associated With Stiffer Balance Recovery Behavior and Larger Perturbation-Evoked Cortical Responses in Older Adults.

The mechanisms underlying associations between cognitive set shifting impairments and balance dysfunction are unclear. Cognitive set shifting refers to the ability to flexibly adjust behavior to changes in task rules or contexts, which could be involved in flexibly adjusting balance recovery behavior to different contexts, such as the direction the body is falling. Prior studies found associations between cognitive set shifting impairments and severe balance dysfunction in populations experiencing frequent falls. The objective of this study was to test whether cognitive set shifting ability is expressed in successful balance recovery behavior in older adults with high clinical balance ability (N = 19, 71 ± 7 years, 6 female). We measured cognitive set shifting ability using the Trail Making Test and clinical balance ability using the miniBESTest. For most participants, cognitive set shifting performance (Trail Making Test B-A = 37 ± 20 s) was faster than normative averages (46 s for comparable age and education levels), and balance ability scores (miniBESTest = 25 ± 2/28) were above the threshold for fall risk (23 for people between 70 and 80 years). Reactive balance recovery in response to support-surface translations in anterior and posterior directions was assessed in terms of body motion, muscle activity, and brain activity. Across participants, lower cognitive set shifting ability was associated with smaller peak center of mass displacement during balance recovery, lower directional specificity of late phase balance-correcting muscle activity (i.e., greater antagonist muscle activity 200–300 ms after perturbation onset), and larger cortical N1 responses (100–200 ms). None of these measures were associated with clinical balance ability. Our results suggest that cognitive set shifting ability is expressed in balance recovery behavior even in the absence of profound clinical balance disability. Specifically, our results suggest that lower flexibility in cognitive task performance is associated with lower ability to incorporate the directional context into the cortically mediated later phase of the motor response. The resulting antagonist activity and stiffer balance behavior may help explain associations between cognitive set shifting impairments and frequent falls.

Context-dependent persistency as a coding mechanism for robust and widely distributed value coding

Task-related information is widely distributed across the brain with different coding properties, such as persistency. We found in mice that coding persistency of action history and value was variable across areas, learning phases, and task context, with the highest persistency in the retrosplenial cortex of expert mice performing value-based decisions where history needs to be maintained across trials. Persistent coding also emerged in artificial networks trained to perform mouse-like reinforcement learning. Persistency allows temporally untangled value representations in neuronal manifolds where population activity exhibits cyclic trajectories that transition along the value axis after action outcomes, collectively forming cylindrical dynamics. Simulations indicated that untangled persistency facilitates robust value retrieval by downstream networks. Even leakage of persistently maintained value through non-specific connectivity could contribute to the brain-wide distributed value coding with different levels of persistency. These results reveal that context-dependent, untangled persistency facilitates reliable signal coding and its distribution across the brain.

Task dynamics define the contextual emergence of human corralling behaviors.

Social animals have the remarkable ability to organize into collectives to achieve goals unobtainable to individual members. Equally striking is the observation that despite differences in perceptual-motor capabilities, different animals often exhibit qualitatively similar collective states of organization and coordination. Such qualitative similarities can be seen in corralling behaviors involving the encirclement of prey that are observed, for example, during collaborative hunting amongst several apex predator species living in disparate environments. Similar encirclement behaviors are also displayed by human participants in a collaborative problem-solving task involving the herding and containment of evasive artificial agents. Inspired by the functional similarities in this behavior across humans and non-human systems, this paper investigated whether the containment strategies displayed by humans emerge as a function of the task's underlying dynamics, which shape patterns of goal-directed corralling more generally. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the strategies naïve human dyads adopt during the containment of a set of evasive artificial agents across two disparate task contexts. Despite the different movement types (manual manipulation or locomotion) required in the different task contexts, the behaviors that humans display can be predicted as emergent properties of the same underlying task-dynamic model.

Topic-Based Document-Level Sentiment Analysis Using Contextual Cues

Document-level Sentiment Analysis is a complex task that implies the analysis of large textual content that can incorporate multiple contradictory polarities at the phrase and word levels. Most of the current approaches either represent textual data using pre-trained word embeddings without considering the local context that can be extracted from the dataset, or they detect the overall topic polarity without considering both the local and global context. In this paper, we propose a novel document-topic embedding model, DocTopic2Vec, for document-level polarity detection in large texts by employing general and specific contextual cues obtained through the use of document embeddings (Doc2Vec) and Topic Modeling. In our approach, (1) we use a large dataset with game reviews to create different word embeddings by applying Word2Vec, FastText, and GloVe, (2) we create Doc2Vecs enriched with the local context given by the word embeddings for each review, (3) we construct topic embeddings Topic2Vec using three Topic Modeling algorithms, i.e., LDA, NMF, and LSI, to enhance the global context of the Sentiment Analysis task, (4) for each document and its dominant topic, we build the new DocTopic2Vec by concatenating the Doc2Vec with the Topic2Vec created with the same word embedding. We also design six new Convolutional-based (Bidirectional) Recurrent Deep Neural Network Architectures that show promising results for this task. The proposed DocTopic2Vecs are used to benchmark multiple Machine and Deep Learning models, i.e., a Logistic Regression model, used as a baseline, and 18 Deep Neural Networks Architectures. The experimental results show that the new embedding and the new Deep Neural Network Architectures achieve better results than the baseline, i.e., Logistic Regression and Doc2Vec.

Motor Variability Prior to Learning does not Facilitate the Ability to Adopt new Movement Solutions

Many contexts in motor learning require a learner to change from an existing movement solution to a novel movement solution to perform the same task. Recent evidence has pointed to motor variability prior to learning as a potential marker for predicting individual differences in motor learning. However, it is not known if this variability is predictive of the ability to adopt a new movement solution for the same task. Here, we examined this question in the context of a redundant precision task requiring control of motor variability. Fifty young adults learned a precision task that involved throwing a virtual puck toward a target using both hands. Because the speed of the puck depended on the sum of speeds of both hands, this task could be achieved using multiple solutions. Participants initially performed a baseline task where there was no constraint on the movement solution, and then performed a novel task where they were constrained to adopt a specific movement solution requiring asymmetric left and right hand speeds. Results showed that participants were able to learn the new solution, and this change was associated with changes in both the amount and structure of variability. However, increased baseline motor variability did not facilitate initial or final task performance when using the new solution – in fact, greater variability was associated with higher errors. These results suggest that motor variability is not necessarily indicative of flexibility and highlight the role of the task context in determining the relation between motor variability and learning.

Benefits and costs of self-paced preparation of novel task instructions.

Rapidly executing novel instructions is a critical ability. However, it remains unclear whether longer preparation of novel instructions improves performance, and if so, whether this link is modulated by performance benefits and costs of preparation. Regarding the first question, we reanalysed previous data on novel instruction implementation and ran Experiment 1. Experiment 1 consisted of multiple mini-blocks, in which participants prepared four novel stimulus–response (S-R) mappings in a self-paced instruction phase. After participants indicated they were ready, one of the four stimuli was presented and they responded. The reanalysis and Experiment 1 showed that longer preparation indeed led to better performance. To examine if preparation was modulated when the benefits of preparation were reduced, we presented the correct response with the stimulus on some trials in Experiments 2 and 3. Preparation was shorter when the probability that the correct response was presented with the stimulus increased. In Experiment 4, we manipulated the costs of preparation by changing the S-R mappings between the instruction and execution phases on some trials. This had only limited effects on preparation time. In conclusion, self-paced preparation of novel instructions comes with performance benefits and costs, and participants adjust their preparation strategy to the task context.

Dynamics Versus Development in Numerosity Estimation: A Computational Model Accurately Predicts a Developmental Reversal.

Perceptual judgments result from a dynamic process, but little is known about the dynamics of number-line estimation. A recent study proposed a computational model that combined a model of trial-to-trial changes with a model for the internal scaling of discrete numbers. Here, we tested a surprising prediction of the model-a situation in which children's estimates of numerosity would be better than those of adults. Consistent with the model simulations, task contexts led to a clear developmental reversal: children made more adult-like, linear estimates when to-be-estimated numbers were descending over trials (i.e., backward condition), whereas adults became more like children with logarithmic estimates when numbers were ascending (i.e., forward condition). In addition, adults' estimates were subject to inter-trial differences regardless of stimulus order. In contrast, children were not able to use the trial-to-trial dynamics unless stimuli varied systematically, indicating the limited cognitive capacity for dynamic updates. Together, the model adequately predicts both developmental and trial-to-trial changes in number-line tasks.

초등학교 5학년 학생들의 가능성 비교 전략 분석

The purpose of this study is to analyze 5th graders’ strategies for comparison of chance. Based on some prior research, we developed eight chance comparison tasks in four types, two tasks per type. These tasks were applied for fifty 5th graders who didn’t learn the lesson ‘ratios and rates’ but ‘chance’. We analyzed the types and the features of the students’ strategies in problem solving. The students have been shown to try more part-part comparisons than part-whole comparisons. Part-part comparisons included the strategy to compare part-part rates, the strategy to compare the compositions of marbles in a multiplicative way, the strategy to eliminate the same colour and compare the rests, and the strategy to compare the number of each colour etc. Of which the strategy to compare the compositions of marbles in a multiplicative way was the most preferred and successful strategy for the students when they couldn’t solve the problem in an additive way. We can confirm that the students chose different strategies depending on the types and the contexts of tasks, and that the strategy to focus on one colour was misguided to improper reasoning to solve the tasks. From these results, we proposed some didactical implications including an overall review of the teaching timing, contents, and methods of ‘chance’.

Flexible constraint hierarchy during the visual encoding of tool-object interactions.

Tools and objects are associated with numerous action possibilities that are reduced depending on the task-related internal and external constraints presented to the observer. Action hierarchies propose that goals represent higher levels of the hierarchy while kinematic patterns represent lower levels of the hierarchy. Prior work suggests that tool-object perception is heavily influenced by grasp and action context. The current study sought to evaluate whether the presence of action hierarchy can be perceptually identified using eye tracking during tool-object observation. We hypothesize that gaze patterns will reveal a perceptual hierarchy based on the observed task context and grasp constraints. Participants viewed tool-objects scenes with two types of constraints: task-context and grasp constraints. Task-context constraints consisted of correct (e.g., frying pan-spatula) and incorrect tool-object pairings (e.g., stapler-spatula). Grasp constraints involved modified tool orientations, which requires participants to understand how initially awkward grasp postures can help achieve the task. The visual scene contained three areas of interests (AOIs): the object, the functional tool-end (e.g., spoon handle) and the manipulative tool-end (e.g., spoon bowl). Results revealed two distinct processes based on stimuli constraints. Goal-oriented encoding, the attentional bias towards the object and manipulative tool-end, was demonstrated when grasp did not lead to meaningful tool-use. In images where grasp postures were critical to action performance, attentional bias was primarily between the object and functional tool-end, which suggests means-related encoding of the graspable properties of the object. This study expands from previous work and demonstrates a flexible constraint hierarchy depending on the observed task constraints.

Visual Communication of Object Concepts at Different Levels of Abstraction

People can produce drawings of specific entities (e.g., Garfield), as well as general categories (e.g., "cat"). What explains this ability to produce such varied drawings of even highly familiar object concepts? We hypothesized that drawing objects at different levels of abstraction depends on both sensory information and representational goals, such that drawings intended to portray a recently seen object preserve more detail than those intended to represent a category. Participants drew objects cued either with a photo or a category label. For each cue type, half the participants aimed to draw a specific exemplar; the other half aimed to draw the category. We found that label-cued category drawings were the most recognizable at the basic level, whereas photo-cued exemplar drawings were the least recognizable. Together, these findings highlight the importance of task context for explaining how people use drawings to communicate visual concepts in different ways.

When Does Status Transfer between People? A Crowdsourced Experiment on the Scope of Status by Association

It is well known in social psychology that people are judged by the company they keep, but when and how does that company affect how individuals are evaluated? This article extends expectation states theory to explain associative status. The theory predicts that the status value of former coworkers will “spill over” to positively predict a person’s status position in a new task with new coworkers. A series of crowdsourced experiments finds that status spreads to a person from a former interaction partner. The status of one’s associates predicts deference behavior only when the previous and current task contexts rely on similar abilities. Meanwhile, explicitly evaluated status and performance expectations respond to the status of associates regardless of how interaction contexts are related. The present findings highlight the importance of role relationships and task contexts as moderators that regulate whether status transfers from one person to another.