Task Engagement Research Articles

The Unfolding of Cognitive Effort During Sentence Processing: Pupillometric Evidence From People With and Without Aphasia.

Arousal and cognitive effort are relevant yet often overlooked components of attention during language processing. Pupillometry can be used to provide a psychophysiological index of arousal and cognitive effort. Given that much is unknown regarding the relationship between cognition and language deficits seen in people with aphasia (PWA), pupillometry may be uniquely suited to explore those relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine arousal and the time course of the allocation of cognitive effort related to sentence processing in people with and without aphasia. Nineteen PWA and age- and education-matched control participants listened to relatively easy (subject-relative) and relatively difficult (object-relative) sentences and were required to answer occasional comprehension questions. Tonic and phasic pupillary responses were used to index arousal and the unfolding of cognitive effort, respectively, while sentences were processed. Group differences in tonic and phasic responses were examined. Group differences were observed for both tonic and phasic responses. PWA exhibited greater overall arousal throughout the task compared with controls, as evidenced by larger tonic pupil responses. Controls exhibited more effort (greater phasic responses) for difficult compared with easy sentences; PWA did not. Group differences in phasic responses were apparent during end-of-sentence and postsentence time windows. Results indicate that the attentional state of PWA in this study was not consistently supportive of adequate task engagement. PWA in our sample may have relatively limited attentional capacity or may have challenges with allocating existing capacity in ways that support adequate task engagement and performance. This work adds to the body of evidence supporting the validity of pupillometric tasks for the study of aphasia and contributes to a better understanding of the nature of language deficits in aphasia. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16959376.

Engaging in dialogue during collaborative writing: The role of affective, cognitive, and social engagement

Collaborative writing (CW) involves two or more students writing a single text together. Previous studies mainly focused on students’ cognitive engagement in CW and investigated their attention to various language-related problems during task interaction. However, little CW research to date has considered that engagement in language-related discussions can manifest from three dimensions: cognitive, social, and affective. Focusing on the multidimensional characteristics of engagement, this study investigated how Russian learners’ social and affective reactions influence their focus on language use while they completed a CW task. Drawing on Svalberg’s framework of engagement with language to identify the three dimensions of engagement, I conducted a mixed-method approach towards analysing the audio-recorded collaborative dialogues by three student pairs ( n = 6), along with a qualitative analysis of their responses to a five-point Likert scale questionnaire. The analyses showed that when learners were interactive and viewed the activity as useful, they noticed many linguistic problems and elaborated on them. In contrast, when learners demonstrated social disengagement and perceived disadvantages from CW, they were likely to withdraw their attention from resolving the language issues they encountered. These findings indicate the complex and dynamic nature of task engagement. They can provide second language (L2) teachers with an in-depth understanding of how to fully engage students in instructional activities to better foster their L2 learning.

The student's experience of teacher support in French vocational high-school classes with difficulties in school engagement in physical education: interest of mixed methods research

ABSTRACT Background: Our study focuses on the work engagement in PE of French vocational high school students. Indeed, the work engagement of these students is a major concern of the teaching staff. The majority of these students have not chosen the vocational field to which they are assigned. This non-choice is one of the factors leading to disengagement from work and deviant behaviour [Arrighi, Jean-Jacques, and Céline Gasquet. 2010. “Orientation et affectation: la sélection dans l’enseignement professionnel du second degré.” Formation emploi 109 (March): 99–112. doi:10.4000/formationemploi.2814]. In order to encourage the engagement of these students, the social support of the teacher appears to be an important lever [Tennant, Jaclyn E., Michelle K. Demaray, Christine K. Malecki, Melissa N. Terry, Michael Clary, and Nathan Elzinga. 2015. “Students’ Ratings of Teacher Support and Academic and Social–Emotional Well-Being.” School Psychology Quarterly 30 (4): 494–512. doi:10.1037/spq0000106]. Purpose: This article aims to show the contribution of mixed methods research [Creswell, John W. 2015. A Concise Introduction to Mixed Methods Research. New York: Sage Publications; Smith, Brett, and Kerry R. McGannon. 2018. “Developing Rigor in Qualitative Research: Problems and Opportunities Within Sport and Exercise Psychology.” International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 11 (1): 101–121. doi:10.1080/1750984X.2017.1317357] to a study conducted within the Course-of-Action Research Programme [Theureau, Jacques. 2006. Le Cours d’action: Méthode Développée. Edited by Octares. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01107065; Theureau, Jacques. 2015. Le cours d’action : l’enaction & l’expérience. Toulouse: Octarès Editions. https://www.decitre.fr/livres/le-cours-d-action-l-enaction-l-experience-9782366300468.html]. It analyses the experience of French vocational high-school students in physical education over a school year to identify and understand the social support of the teacher in engaging the students. This enabled us to describe and understand the typical supports experienced by students to engage with the work. Methods: To do this, we completed the Course-of-Action observatory with the CASS-S questionnaire [Malecki, Christine, and Stephen Elliott. 1999. “Adolescents’ Ratings of Perceived Social Support and its Importance: Validation of the Student Social Support Scale.” Psychology in the Schools 36 (November): 473–483. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6807(199911)36:6 < 473::AID-PITS3 > 3.0.CO;2-0] to study the most significant experiences of support for students in the classroom during three teaching sequences of the year. Ten vocational high school classes with difficulties in engaging in school work were monitored during three teaching sequences. The teachers monitored were experts in teaching in vocational schools and had the characteristic of being highly invested in supporting the success of students with task engagement difficulties. The collection and processing of heterogeneous data (qualitative and quantitative). The first stage consisted of quantitative data collection using the CASS-S questionnaire in order to identify the teacher's social support as perceived by the students. The second stage consisted of conducting self-confrontation interviews enriched with the questionnaire with students who had a high perception of their teacher's support in order to understand their engagement in class. The data was processed in two stages: statistical analysis of the scores obtained in the questionnaires and analysis of the students’ verbatims by typification of the components of the experience. Results: The quantitative results showed a global perception of frequent and important class-wide teacher social support via the CASS-S questionnaire. Furthermore, a more in-depth analysis shows variations over the year. This overall analysis is complemented by qualitative findings that provide insight into the significance that students attach to teacher support in their engagement with school tasks. The analysis of students’ experience shows different kinds of typical-support paired with: the valorisation of students’ progress, the students’ concerns, the game action of the teacher, and teacher knowledge, promoting their engagement. Conclusion: Our study shows the contribution of mixed methods in understanding the meanings that these vocational high school students give to the teacher's support activity in a classroom. This contribution is to the Course-of-Action Research Programme by means of an articulation of heterogeneous data respecting the subjective viewpoint of the actors, and the enriched self-confrontation interview as a methodological device to help students’ verbalisation.

The Role of Teacher Autonomy Support on Students' Academic Engagement and Resilience.

Learners have internal motivational resources that, when maintained, can enhance engagement, enthusiasm, resilience, and success. Learner engagement in educational tasks is a remarkable issue supporting the overall success of learners in higher education. Furthermore, building resilience in learners necessarily requires teachers’ efforts. Therefore, teacher support for autonomy is critical for augmenting appropriate outcomes, and it is deemed as a strong predictor of learners’ particular resources along with their motivational styles and educational achievement. As there is a dearth of studies that have considered teacher autonomy support and its noteworthy influence on learners’ resilience and engagement, the current review endeavors to concentrate on this motivational style in higher education. Successively, several implications are offered to illuminate the issue for teachers, students, teacher trainers, and educational administrators.

Decoding Human Cognitive Control Using Functional Connectivity of Local Field Potentials.

Many patients with mental illnesses characterized by impaired cognitive control have no relief from gold-standard clinical treatments resulting in a pressing need for new alternatives. This paper develops a neural decoder to detect task engagement in ten human subjects during a conflict-based behavioral task known as the multi-source interference task (MSIT). Task engagement is of particular interest here because closed-loop brain stimulation during those states can augment decision-making. The functional connectivity patterns of the electrodes are extracted. A principal component analysis of these patterns is carried out and the ranked principal components are used as inputs to train subject-specific linear support vector machine classifiers. In this paper, we show that task engagement can be differentiated from background brain activity with a median accuracy of 89.7%. This was accomplished by constructing distributed functional networks from local field potentials recording during the task performance. A further challenge is that goal-directed efforts take place over higher temporal resolution. Task engagement must thus be detected at a similar rate for proactive intervention. We show that our algorithms can detect task engagement from neural recordings in less than 2 seconds; this can be further improved using an application-specific device.

Mutual relationships between the levels of and changes in interest, self-efficacy, and perceived difficulty during task engagement

This study examined how students' interest, self-efficacy, and perceived difficulty change during a task, how those changes relate to each other, and how they predict performance. Sixth-graders (N = 1024) rated their interest, self-efficacy, and perceived difficulty repeatedly during a dynamic problem-solving task. Results from the estimated non-linear and piecewise latent growth curve models showed interest and self-efficacy to decrease, and perceived difficulty first to increase, and then to decrease, over time. The levels of and changes in interest and self-efficacy correlated positively with each other, but negatively with perceived difficulty. Task performance was positively predicted by initial interest and less negative change in self-efficacy, and negatively by initial perceived difficulty and steeper increase in it. The results suggest perceived difficulty to have a distinctive role in the dynamics of task-specific motivation, and on-task changes to be relatively independent of more general motivation and competence.

Evaluation of the effects of food intake on task engagement based on psychophysiological states

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of food intake on performance and task engagement based on psychophysiological states. The experiment was conducted under two conditions: taking a break with his eyes opened between the repeated tracking tasks (Control), and taking a break with food intake (Intake). We found the rate of deterioration of the distance between target pointer and the mouse cursor, a performance index, showed significant differences between the two conditions. Significant differences were also found between the two conditions in all assessment items of subjective feelings. Considering the hemodynamic parameters and nasal skin temperature responses, it was found that the approach to the second task was different in the two conditions. Therefore, due to food intake between repeated tasks, psychological responses such as “Awareness” and “Refreshment” were maintained. Hence, it was confirmed that food intake stimulated positive task engagement in the task and maintained performance.

Finding balance: Offering a systematic method to explore the influence of technology on team-based learning

IntroductionTeam-based learning (TBL) is a small group active learning andragogy promoting the development of critical thinking, communication, and teamwork skills. Across higher education, the adoption of educational technology is often driven by many purported benefits, features, and conveniences, including learning from anywhere, easy access to materials and assessment, task automation, performance tracking, engagement monitoring, and higher fidelity for simulated experiences. Institutions may also choose to adopt technology to boost program reputation and visibility. However, unexpected effects following the adoption of new technology may interfere with active learning, trust, and cohesion between learner-learner or learner-instructor. PerspectiveIn many cases, the potential long-term impact of technology on teaching and learning is overlooked. This commentary calls awareness to and discusses the potential impact of adopting technology on active teaching and learning processes in the context of TBL. ImplicationsA systematic process for programs to explore the influence of technology on the essential elements of teaching and learning, to support decision making, and to focus on quality educational processes is proposed. Programs should systematically consider influences on quality, access, independent work, peer interactions, and contextual approach when adopting technology.

Electrophysiological Prints of Grit.

While scientific interest in understanding the grit trait has grown exponentially in recent years, one important gap in the grit literature relates to its biological and neural substrate. In the present study, we adopted a hypotheses-driven approach in a large sample of young adults (N = 120) with diverse educational backgrounds and work experiences in order to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of grit both during rest and while performing a learning task. Additionally, we selected a measure of impulsiveness to better understand the neural similarities and differences between grit and related self-control constructs. Based on previous work that implicated the prefrontal cortex in grit, we hypothesized that high grit participants would have lower frontal theta/beta ratio (a broadly used index that reflects prefrontally-mediated top–down processes, which might indicate better control over subcortical information). Furthermore, we expected the perseverance of effort facet of grit to be linked to higher complexity during task engagement because previous research has shown complexity indexes (entropy and fractal dimension) to be linked to effort while performing cognitive tasks. Our results revealed that although there were no differences at rest as a function of grit, the participants with high grit and high consistency of interest scores exhibited lower frontal theta/beta ratios during the learning task. This pattern suggests that individual differences in grit might be more evident when top-down control processes are at work. Furthermore, there was a positive association between perseverance of effort and entropy at task, which might indicate more effort and engagement in the task. Finally, no association was found between the neural indexes (frontal theta/beta ratio, entropy, or fractal dimension) and impulsiveness, neither impulsiveness mediated between grit and brain measures. Finally, when controlling for impulsiveness and demographic variables (gender, age, education, and work experience) the effects at the facet level remained statistically significant. While there is still a long way to fully understand the neural mechanisms of grit, the present work constitutes a step toward unveiling the electrophysiological prints of grit.

IEyeGASE: An Intelligent Eye Gaze-Based Assessment System for Deeper Insights into Learner Performance.

In the current education environment, learning takes place outside the physical classroom, and tutors need to determine whether learners are absorbing the content delivered to them. Online assessment has become a viable option for tutors to establish the achievement of course learning outcomes by learners. It provides real-time progress and immediate results; however, it has challenges in quantifying learner aspects like wavering behavior, confidence level, knowledge acquired, quickness in completing the task, task engagement, inattentional blindness to critical information, etc. An intelligent eye gaze-based assessment system called IEyeGASE is developed to measure insights into these behavioral aspects of learners. The system can be integrated into the existing online assessment system and help tutors re-calibrate learning goals and provide necessary corrective actions.

Children's Attention and Self-Regulatory Behavior Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The goal of this study was to investigate changes in children's self-regulatory behavior before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were parents of children aged 4 to 13 years (n = 45, mean 7.5, SD: 2.6) who participated in the Baltimore Generations Study before the pandemic. They reported on their child's self-regulation (SR) using the Parent Observation of Child Adaptation. During the pandemic, they were recontacted to report on child SR, disruptions to family life (Coronavirus Impact Scale), and parenting stress (Parenting Stress Index). Prepandemic to pandemic changes in SR were compared with repeated measures analysis of variance. There were significant decreases in child SR (poorer concentration, attention, task engagement and persistence, and greater impulsivity) prepandemic to pandemic. During the pandemic, parenting stress was correlated with lower child SR (r range = -0.52 to -0.34, p < 0.05). Pandemic-related family disruptions were associated with changes in children's impulsivity (F [1, 42] = 5.28, p = 0.03); children with 4 or more disruptions (67%) showed less ability to wait their turn during the pandemic compared with prepandemic (M [SD] = 3.34 [0.93] vs. 4.41 [1.21], t [28] = 3.93, p < 0.001). There was no change in SR for children with fewer than 4 disruptions. Results highlight modest pandemic-associated decreases in child attention, task persistence, and task engagement alongside increases in impulsivity. We did not find evidence of broad or severe impacts; however, children whose families have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic may need focused support in school and at home to avoid widening prepandemic health and educational disparities.

The impact of lecture chunking format on university student vigilance: Implications for classroom pedagogy

Consistent with capacity theories of attention, attention can be sustained to the extent that spare mental resources remain available. The traditional lecture in higher education has received criticism for being too long to hold a student’s attention. This is based on several author’s claims that there is a measurable decrement in student attention after approximately 10-15 minutes of sustained content delivery. The present research aimed to investigate if providing small, separate units of an asynchronous lecture is able to enhance motivation for task engagement through perceived achievability of the learning outcomes, and consequently, enhance sustained attention amongst postgraduate university students. Utilising a quasi-experimental design, 51 postgraduate psychology students were recruited by opportunistic sampling from a cognitive psychology lecture on an MSc Psychology course, and given the option to watch either a long, single-video version of a lecture, or the same lecture delivered as smaller separate video chunks. Key findings indicate that presenting the material as smaller separate video units increased the perceived achievability of the learning outcomes and reduced the number of attention lapses experienced, but not the duration of those lapses, all measured via self-report single-item measures. The shorter separate videos condition also saw greater levels of break taking compliance. Looking at the sample as a whole using a hierarchical regression analysis, whilst controlling for student mind wandering tendencies as measured by the Mind Excessively Wandering Scale (MEWS), taking breaks was a significant negative predictor of attention lapses. Taken together, this suggests taking breaks is an integral part of sustained attention, and that chunking lectures into separate video units increases break taking compliance. Therefore, when designing online asynchronous learning material, lecturers should consider the value of chunking learning material for its potential direct and indirect effect on sustained attention.

Exploitation–Exploration Model of Media Multitasking

Abstract. Media multitasking has been long considered as a distraction, as something that is inherently negative or irrational. Yet, casual observations and study findings indicate that in the current permanently online, permanently connected society, people still media multitask frequently, sometimes in spite of their knowledge of the costs. In this article, we introduce the exploitation–exploration model of media multitasking (EEMMM), which proposes that media multitasking occurs as a natural part of the waxing and waning of our task engagement: When primary task engagement (exploitation) begins to wane, alternative tasks become more attractive (exploration). In the first part of this paper, we delineate the limitations of the current perspective of media multitasking as a distraction. The second part provides an exposition for our model: What defines behavior exploitation and exploration, and why maintaining an optimal trade-off between the two is important; the everyday, media-related cues for exploiting and exploring; and the neurobiological evidence of a brain system that supports the transition from exploitation to exploration. Lastly, we show how our approach may explain why people media multitask spontaneously and in spite of their knowledge of the costs, and why not all media multitaskers are able to multitask optimally. We conclude the paper with an agenda for future media multitasking research based on the proposed framework.

Expectation of self-generated sounds drives predictive processing in mouse auditory cortex

Behavior exerts a strong influence over sensory responses in the brain. In the auditory cortex, neural responses to self-generated sounds are suppressed, suggesting that prediction may play a critical role in local sensory processing. However, it is unclear whether this phenomenon derives from a precise movement-based prediction or how it affects the neural representation of incoming stimuli. We address these questions by designing a behavioral paradigm where mice learn to expect the predictable acoustic consequences of a simple forelimb movement. Dense neuronal recordings from auditory cortex revealed suppression of neural responses that was strongest for the expected tone during a narrow time window surrounding the specific sound-associated movement. Predictive suppression was concentrated in layers 2/3 and 5, preceded by the arrival of movement information in deep layers, and driven by motor-sensory coupling rather than task engagement, behavioral relevance, or reward association. Despite large-scale suppression at the population level, the auditory cortex retained a sparse representation of the expected self-generated sounds, while a substantial population of auditory cortex neurons in L2/3 and L5 encoded prediction errors. These findings illustrate that expectation, learned through motor-sensory experience, drives layer-specific predictive processing in the mouse auditory cortex.

High school students’ epistemic knowledge profiles and their multifaceted learning engagement in science

ABSTRACT Background The role of students’ epistemic understanding of science in mediating their engagement in learning activities and tasks has been highlighted in the literature. Although researchers recognize epistemic knowledge of science as a multi-faceted framework, the so-called person-centered approach that aims to generate meaningful and distinct profiles has not been widely adopted. Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore Taiwanese high school students’ epistemic knowledge profiles and learning engagements in science. Sample 631 high school students from six senior high schools in Taiwan were invited to participate in the study. There were 375 males and 256 females. The age of these students ranged from 15 to 18 years, with an average age of 16.84. Design and methods The students’ epistemic knowledge profiles were surveyed and categorized in terms of three critical dimensions of epistemic understanding of scientific knowledge (Uncertainty of Knowledge, Development of Knowledge, and Purpose of Knowledge). Besides, five forms of science learning engagement (Cognitive, Behavioral, Emotional, Social, and Agentic engagement) were evaluated and then compared based on the classified epistemic knowledge profiles. Results Three epistemic profiles, namely Highly uncertain yet low purpose, Informed yet highly certain, and Uninformed, were identified. Furthermore, the students of the Informed yet highly certain profile had the highest scores on all the five forms of engagement. Yet, the students in the Highly uncertain yet low purpose and Uninformed profiles did not show significant differences in terms of Behavioral, Agentic, Emotional, or Social engagement. Conclusion The findings suggest that none of the students in any profiles demonstrated fully sophisticated epistemic understanding of scientific knowledge, and this had different effects on their multifaceted science learning engagement. Moreover, the students demonstrated highly uncertain orientation toward scientific knowledge which may hinder their science learning engagement.

Now you see me, now you don't: Adapting practice through target exclusion negatively impacts motor learning.

How to optimize practice through scheduling of different task components or skills is a question that has received a lot of attention in motor learning research. Consistently, schedules with high variability in the order that skills are practiced elicit better learning outcomes than schedules with low variability. Another idea is that learners should seek to reduce the uncertainty of practice outcomes, by avoiding well-learned, low error components in acquisition. To test this idea, we used a target exclusion method to prevent learners from returning to task components with low error and studied how individuals given choice over practice choose to allocate time to components of varying difficulty. In a multi-target adaptation paradigm, we compared exclusion with no exclusion methods in random-schedule, self-control and yoked, matched-schedule groups (6 groups total). To manipulate uncertainty, we excluded targets from practice once participants attained a criterion error score (mean<5o) from the last 5 trials to the same target. Contrary to our predictions, groups that practiced without target exclusion were more accurate in retention compared to exclusion groups; irrespective of practice schedule. Self-control groups adopted uncertainty-based practice, spending more time at difficult targets and less time at easier targets. However, there were no group differences in error, based on schedule-type (random, self-control and yoked). In conclusion, target exclusion was not an effective method for learning and did not support the efficacy of uncertainty-based practice for learning novel skills. There were benefits from keeping easier/low error skills in practice for later retention. These benefits did not appear to be related to the increased switching between skills, but could be related to increased task engagement and more optimal challenge associated with practice on a range of target difficulties, rather than the most difficult.

Students’ Self-Organization of the Learning Environment during a Blended Knowledge Creation Course

Learner-centered blended learning approaches, such as Knowledge Creation, emphasize the self-organizing characteristic of thought and action, and value the students’ autonomy and self-regulation during the engagement in collaborative learning tasks. In blended contexts, the students need to organize their learning paths within a complex environment, including multiple online and offline learning spaces. This process of self-organization during courses based on the Knowledge Creation approach is currently an overlooked topic of research. The present case study is aimed at addressing this research gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the collaborative self-organization of a group of five undergraduate students participating in an interdisciplinary media design course. The course was designed according to the Knowledge Creation approach and was carried out before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dialogical theory of the chronotope and the theory of cultural models constitute the main theoretical tools for the research. We used qualitative methods inspired by ethnography, including participant observation, in addition to the collection and analysis of audio-visual records, stimulated recall interviews, and learning diaries completed by the students. The findings show that the group self-organization changed across different phases of the collaborative task and involved the development of specific practices of self-organization. Cultural models associated with the task contributed to determine the students’ choices related to self-organization.

Leveraging electrophysiologic correlates of word encoding to map seizure onset zone in focal epilepsy: Task-dependent changes in epileptiform activity, spectral features, and functional connectivity.

Verbal memory dysfunction is common in focal, drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). Unfortunately, surgical removal of seizure-generating brain tissue can be associated with further memory decline. Therefore, localization of both the circuits generating seizures and those underlying cognitive functions is critical in presurgical evaluations for patients who may be candidates for resective surgery. We used intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings during a verbal memory task to investigate word encoding in focal epilepsy. We hypothesized that engagement in a memory task would exaggerate local iEEG feature differences between the seizure onset zone (SOZ) and neighboring tissue as compared to wakeful rest ("nontask"). Ten participants undergoing presurgical iEEG evaluation for DRE performed a free recall verbal memory task. We evaluated three iEEG features in SOZ and non-SOZ electrodes during successful word encoding and compared them with nontask recordings: interictal epileptiform spike (IES) rates, power in band (PIB), and relative entropy (REN; a functional connectivity measure). We found a complex pattern of PIB and REN changes in SOZ and non-SOZ electrodes during successful word encoding compared to nontask. Successful word encoding was associated with a reduction in local electrographic functional connectivity (increased REN), which was most exaggerated in temporal lobe SOZ. The IES rates were reduced during task, but only in the non-SOZ electrodes. Compared with nontask, REN features during task yielded marginal improvements in SOZ classification. Previous studies have supported REN as a biomarker for epileptic brain. We show that REN differences between SOZ and non-SOZ are enhanced during a verbal memory task. We also show that IESs are reduced during task in non-SOZ, but not in SOZ. These findings support the hypothesis that SOZ and non-SOZ respond differently to task and warrant further exploration into the use of cognitive tasks to identify functioning memory circuits and localize SOZ.

“But at the age of 85? Forget it!”: Internalized ageism, a barrier to technology use

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how everyday information and communication technology (EICT), such as online banking, e-shopping, or e-mail, are essential for individuals of all ages to maintain activity engagement, health, and well-being. Yet, older adults are often stereotypically portrayed as incapable, technophobic, or unwilling to engage in EICT. This may further contribute to the digital divide, as age stereotypes have the power to act like self-fulfilling prophecies and impede older adults' engagement in complex everyday life tasks. This study aimed to shed light on internalized ageism as manifested in older non-users' narrations about EICT use. It further explored how age stereotypes in the context of EICT are constructed and perpetuated through disempowering and ageist environments. A qualitative approach was applied, performing semi-structured interviews in participants' homes (N = 15). Data were analyzed following the principles of qualitative content analysis, applying both deductive categorization and inductive coding. Internalized ageism appeared to be an omnipresent element in older adults' narrations about EICT non-use. This was reflected in the four subcategories “competence and learning”, “relevance and use”, “technology design”, and “intergenerational contact”. Ageism, as manifested in the social environment and the design of technology, seemingly contributed to the internalization of age stereotypes and low EICT engagement. This research calls for inclusive technology designs, ageism-free EICT learning settings, and awareness campaigns about lifelong learning to help close the digital divide and ensure optimal aging experiences for older people.

Course-Based Versus Field Undergraduate Research Experiences

This paper compares undergraduate course-based research experiences to field-based research experiences to understand the relationship between these different forms of experiential learning. I study undergraduate research experiences across an economics department at a large Canadian research university. Statistical analysis indicates there are not large differences between field- and course-based experiences. The main differences favour course-based instruction, with course-based experiences associated with more independent thinking and relevant task engagement. Overall, I conclude curriculum designers should focus attention on proper course-based curriculum design rather than simply trying to adapt “research-like” experiences into the classroom.