Task-specific Skills Research Articles

Design and validation of a simulated multitasking environment for assessing the cognitive load on the infantry squad leader.

The increasing cognitive load on infantry squad leaders is a common challenge in modern military operations. As this can increase health and safety risks, there is a need to study the factors responsible for the increase in cognitive load. Ecological situations inherently lack strong experimental controls; therefore, microworlds that simulate real tasks are the usual alternative to field studies. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are currently no microworlds that reproduce the main tasks of the squad leader during operations. This article adresses this gap by describing the design and validation of a new microworld: the Simulated Multitasking Environment for the Squad leader (SMES). Qualitative research was firstly conducted to highlight several squad leader's generic tasks (i.e., common to many situations in the field) that guided the design of the SMES. Psychometric validation of the SMES was then based on two experiments: (i) the first evaluated the microworld's psychometric qualities when tasks were performed individually; and (ii) the second explored concurrent tasks, reflecting real-world complexity. The results showed that the parameters manipulated for each task were relevant for inducing cognitive load, measured using a secondary detection response task and the NASA-TLX questionnaire. The SMES demonstrated satisfactory convergent and content validity in multitasking but not in single-task conditions. Performance in multitasking situations therefore does not seem to depend on task-specific skills, suggesting the existence of an independent factor-multitasking ability. Theoretical and practical implications of the SMES validation are discussed.

Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning With Attention-Based Mixture of Experts

Multi-task learning is an important problem in reinforcement learning. Training multiple tasks together brings benefits from the shared useful information across different tasks and often achieves higher performance compared to single-task learning. However, it remains unclear how parameters in the network should be reused across tasks. Instead of naively sharing parameters across all tasks, we propose an attention-based mixture of experts multi-task reinforcement learning approach to learn a compositional policy for each task. The expert networks learn task-specific skills which specialize in different parts of multi-task representation space. To assemble the expert outputs, we propose an attention module to generate connections between tasks and experts to achieve the best performance automatically. The proposed approach can effectively learn task relationships from soft attention weights and alleviate mutual interference through independent expert networks. We use the proposed approach to improve both sample efficiency and overall performance over baseline algorithms in Meta-world, a benchmark for multi-task reinforcement learning containing 50 robotic manipulation tasks, and the multi-task MUJOCO environment, which contains four considerably different tasks with diverse state transition dynamics.

Injury Prevention Considerations for Drum Kit Performance.

For any skilled performer to deliver their optimal performance, preparation must extend beyond task-specific skill development to include psychological skills training, physical conditioning, and injury prevention. The keynote lecture upon which this article is based (delivered at the International Symposium on Performance Science 2021) explored current research that demonstrates the importance of physical conditioning and injury prevention for drummers (i.e., percussionists who play the drum kit). Early results revealed that professional drummers’ heart rates during live performances can reach similar levels to those of other professional athletes during competitions. They also established that playing-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) are very common in drummers, particularly those affecting the upper limbs such as tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Evidence from laboratory-based studies supports non-neutral postures, repetitive movements, and exposure to hand-arm vibration as risk factors for the development of these injuries in drummers. Embedding injury prevention education within drum kit curricula is a promising strategy for reducing the rates at which drummers report experiencing PRMDs, and the barriers and facilitators that drum kit educators encounter when attempting to do so are currently under investigation. When drummers include both physical conditioning and injury prevention within their overall preparation regimen, they will maximize their potential to deliver their peak performance.

Information, relative skill, and technology abandonment

We study the role of relative task-specific skill in explaining the heterogeneity in physicians’ technology abandonment decisions in response to negative information shocks. We show that after an unexpected FDA safety warning on the use of minimally invasive hysterectomies, physicians alter their procedural mix towards open procedures and away from the minimally invasive procedures. This effect is less pronounced for physicians more skilled in performing minimally invasive procedures relative to open procedures, highlighting relative skill as an explanation for differential technology abandonment. Since physicians with higher relative skill are more likely to use minimally invasive procedures before the FDA safety communication, we find that the FDA intervention led to a substantial increase in practice variation across physicians with different relative skill levels. These findings are consistent with a theoretical model that predicts physicians’ response to new information regarding the effectiveness of medical technology.

Serious Games Are Not Serious Enough for Myoelectric Prosthetics.

Serious games show a lot of potential for use in movement rehabilitation (eg, after a stroke, injury to the spinal cord, or limb loss). However, the nature of this research leads to diversity both in the background of the researchers and in the approaches of their investigation. Our close examination and categorization of virtual training software for upper limb prosthetic rehabilitation found that researchers typically followed one of two broad approaches: (1) focusing on the game design aspects to increase engagement and muscle training and (2) concentrating on an accurate representation of prosthetic training tasks, to induce task-specific skill transfer. Previous studies indicate muscle training alone does not lead to improved prosthetic control without a transfer-enabling task structure. However, the literature shows a recent surge in the number of game-based prosthetic training tools, which focus on engagement without heeding the importance of skill transfer. This influx appears to have been strongly influenced by the availability of both software and hardware, specifically the launch of a commercially available acquisition device and freely available high-profile game development engines. In this Viewpoint, we share our perspective on the current trends and progress of serious games for prosthetic training.

Association of Performance in Strength and Plyometric Tests with Change of Direction Performance in Young Female Team-Sport Athletes.

The change of direction (COD) ability is a task-specific skill dependent on different factors such as the degree of the turn, which has led to differentiating CODs as more force- (>90°) or velocity-oriented (<90°). Considering force and velocity requirements is of importance when designing sport-specific training programs for enhancing COD performance. Thus, 25 female handball and soccer players participated in this study, which investigated the association between three different strength and plyometric exercises and force- and velocity-oriented COD performance. By utilizing the median split analysis, the participants were further divided into a fast (n = 8) and a slow (n = 8) COD group, to investigate differences in step kinematics between fast and slow performers. The correlational analysis revealed that the bilateral back squat and unilateral quarter squat were significantly associated with several force- and velocity-oriented COD performance (r = −0.46 to −0.64), while the association between plyometric and COD performance was limited (r < 0.44). The fast COD group revealed higher levels of strength, jump height, peak velocities, higher step frequencies, shorter ground contact times, and greater acceleration and braking power (d > 1.29, p < 0.03). It was concluded that the observed correlation between strength and COD performance might be due to stronger athletes being able to produce more workload in a shorter time, which was supported by the step kinematics.

Health Care Worker Burnout and Perceived Capacity to Address Social Needs.

Health care organizations are increasingly incorporating social care programs into medical care delivery models. Recent studies have identified burnout as a potential unintended consequence of this expansion. Successful implementation of these programs requires investment in the health care team, although understanding the impact of this expansion on nonphysician team members remains limited. Utilizing a theory-informed model for organizational behavior change, the authors aim to characterize the perceived elements of capacity to address patients' social needs within a heterogenous group of health care workers, and to examine the association of these behavioral conditions with burnout. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of a survey of ∼1900 health care staff from 46 organizations in a large delivery system. Exploratory factor analysis identified factors contributing to the "Perceived Capacity to Address Social Needs" domain; Motivation, Organizational Reinforcement, and 3 task-specific capacities (Identification of social needs, Providing care for patients with social needs, and Linkage to social needs resources). Logistic regression found both a lower sense of motivation (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.59-0.86), and organizational reinforcement (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.42-0.62) associated with a higher rate of burnout. These associations with burnout differed by organizational role, suggesting role-specific relationships between these behavioral conditions. As health care has evolved into team-based interventions, staff across the care spectrum are now tasked with addressing larger social issues that affect their patients. A systems approach, aligning organizational priorities and staff motivations, in addition to task-specific skill sets is likely necessary to prevent burnout in this setting.

A novel online assessment of pragmatic and core language skills: An attempt to tease apart language domains in children.

It remains unclear whether pragmatic language skills and core language skills (grammar and vocabulary) are distinct language domains. The present work aimed to tease apart these domains using a novel online assessment battery administered to almost 400 children aged 7 to 13 years. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that pragmatic and core language domains could be measured separately, but that both domains were highly related (r = .79). However, zero-order correlations between pragmatic tests were quite small, indicating that task-specific skills played an important role in performance, and follow-up exploratory factor analysis suggested that pragmatics might be best understood as a family of skills rather than a domain. This means that these different pragmatic skills may have different cognitive underpinnings and also need to be assessed separately. However, our overall results supported the idea that pragmatic and core aspects of language are closely related during development, with one area scaffolding development in the other.

Modeling Causal Relationships Among Giftedness Structure Variables

The present research aimed at identifying the interrelationships between cognitive, meta-cognitive, and extra-cognitive abilities, and exploring the paths of causal relationships between the constituent variables of the model, as well as verifying the suitability of the structural model with its various components in the interpretation of giftedness. The research sample consisted of (130) male and female students in secondary grades one and two in Technology and Sciences School for gifted in Cairo (STEM Egypt), (32) female students, and (98) male students. The sample's aged between (15-17) years with an average of 15.87 years and a standard deviation of 1.13 degree. The instruments of the study were applied on them after checking their psychometric properties. These tools were: Raven's Progressive Matrices test (Abu Hatab, 1977), and Torrance creative thinking test (photo B) (Sulaiman &amp; Abu Hatab, 1976), as well as a computerized battery that includes a computerized task specific metacognitive skills test, and a computerized Extra-cognitive abilities scale. The research concluded that there is a high impact of meta-cognitive abilities on cognitive abilities, except achievement, and high impact of extra-cognitive abilities on meta-cognitive skills. The results also showed the relevance of the proposed model with its variables in the interpretation of giftedness structure.&#x0D; Keywords: giftedness structure model, developmental cognitive theory of giftedness, meta cognitive abilities, extra-cognitive abilities.

Modeling Causal Relationships Among Giftedness Structure Variables

The present research aimed at identifying the interrelationships between cognitive, meta-cognitive, and extra-cognitive abilities, and exploring the paths of causal relationships between the constituent variables of the model, as well as verifying the suitability of the structural model with its various components in the interpretation of giftedness. The research sample consisted of (130) male and female students in secondary grades one and two in Technology and Sciences School for gifted in Cairo (STEM Egypt), (32) female students, and (98) male students. The sample's aged between (15-17) years with an average of 15.87 years and a standard deviation of 1.13 degree. The instruments of the study were applied on them after checking their psychometric properties. These tools were: Raven's Progressive Matrices test (Abu Hatab, 1977), and Torrance creative thinking test (photo B) (Sulaiman &amp; Abu Hatab, 1976), as well as a computerized battery that includes a computerized task specific metacognitive skills test, and a computerized Extra-cognitive abilities scale. The research concluded that there is a high impact of meta-cognitive abilities on cognitive abilities, except achievement, and high impact of extra-cognitive abilities on meta-cognitive skills. The results also showed the relevance of the proposed model with its variables in the interpretation of giftedness structure.&#x0D; Keywords: giftedness structure model, developmental cognitive theory of giftedness, meta cognitive abilities, extra-cognitive abilities.

A Research-Informed Training Course for Interlingual Respeaking

As audiovisual material is increasingly and globally streamed live, there is a growing demand for this live content to be made accessible in a foreign language. This calls for interlingual live subtitling, which is intended for both foreign-language and hearing-impaired viewers, illustrating the wide and inclusive notion of Media Accessibility (MA) where access is needed for audiences with and without disabilities (Romero-Fresco, 2018). This paper begins with an overview of interlingual respeaking including research, demand and training. Empirical results of interlingual respeaking experiments are presented with an emphasis on the task-specific skills required, which have been validated through experimental research. Then, a research-informed training model for interlingual respeaking is presented that acts as a framework upon which to base the proposal of a training course. This is regarded as an essential step to help consolidate interlingual respeaking as a viable access service and to produce quality live subtitles to benefit a wide audience.

Association of strength and plyometric exercises with change of direction performances.

The change of direction (COD) ability is an important task-specific skill for success in team sports, dependent on both strength and reactive strength. The sprint approaching the COD and degrees of the turn are factors influencing the specificity of the COD. Thus, CODs have been suggested to be categorized as force- (> 90°) and velocity-dominant (< 90°) dependent on the degree of the turn. When training programmes fail to provide a significant increase in COD performance, it is often due to neglecting the task-specific demands of the COD. As such, 23 male football players volunteered to complete a randomized controlled trial, investigating the association of maximal strength and power performance with performance in a force- (180°) and velocity-dominant (45°) COD, with a 4 m and 20 m sprint approach. Three strength and three plyometric exercises, matched in movement patterns, were used. Muscle activity of the different conditions was also compared. The correlational analysis revealed that better performance in the plyometric tests were associated with less time to complete both force- and velocity-dominant CODs, supported by similarities in muscle activation. None of the performances in strength exercises correlated to COD performance, due to the slow contraction velocity of maximal lifts. It was concluded that plyometrics share more physical similarities with CODs than the strength exercises.

Gender Segregation, Occupational Sorting, and Growth of Wage Disparities Between Women.

Average female wages in traditionally male occupations have steeply risen over the past couple of decades in Germany. This trend led to a new and substantial pay gap between women working in male-typed occupations and other women. I dissect the emergence of these wage disparities between women, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992-2015). Compositional change with respect to education is the main driver for growing inequality. Other factors are less influential but still relevant: marginal returns for several wage-related personal characteristics have grown faster in male-typed occupations. Net of individual-level heterogeneity, traditionally male occupations have also become more attractive because of rising returns to task-specific skills. Discrimination of women in typically male lines of work seems to have declined, too, which erased part of the wage penalty these women had previously experienced. In sum, I document changes in the occupational sorting behavior of women as well as shifts in occupation-level reward mechanisms that have had a profound impact on the state of inequality between working women.

Increasing resistance to globalization: The role of trade in tasks

Based on empirical evidence from cross-country survey data, we argue that the surge of trade in tasks over the last decades can explain increasing resistance to globalization in industrialized countries. In a traditional trade model of a small open economy, we demonstrate that public education provides protection against losses from trade in goods and services if trade increases the relative price of skill-intensive goods. Furthermore, increasing public schooling expenditure may help securing support for trade reform by a majority of voters. However, if education provides task-specific skills and trade in tasks makes some of these skills obsolete in the open economy, raising public schooling expenditure is of limited help to secure support for trade reform by a majority of voters, even if the reform is welfare-improving. Therefore, our analysis indicates that, in contrast to past episodes of globalization, public education does not shield workers from losses from trade in tasks and that drastic changes of the education system are needed in order to counter the increase of protectionist sentiments. To preserve majority support for trade reform, policy makers should adjust public education to provide broader, less-specialized skills. Although broader skills are less productive in a closed economy, acquiring them pays off as they increase the likelihood that a proposal for welfare-improving trade reform can be successful in a referendum.

Synchronized job transfer and task-specific human capital

Recent evidence suggests that frequent and broad lateral transfers increase the possibility of promotion. A question is how firms save the costs of these frequent lateral transfers given the existence of job-specific skills. This paper proposes a new theory of the transition across jobs based on the assumption that each job consists of tasks and that each of these tasks requires specific skills. This shows that firms synchronize the promotions and lateral transfers of their employees to reduce the cost of transferring to the employee those task-specific skills required for a new position. We find that this unique prediction is broadly supported by a large personnel data set in Japan.

Feasibility, Quality and Assessment of Interlingual Live Subtitling

Intralingual respeaking has been widely practiced since 2001 (Romero-Fresco, 2011), however, interlingual respeaking (from one language into another) is yet to take off. As a hybrid form of subtitling and interpreting, interlingual respeaking calls upon skills used in both professions. To transform this mode of audiovisual translation (AVT) within Media Accessibility (MA), a programme must be created to train future interlingual live subtitlers (ILSers). This paper presents the results of the first ever study on interlingual live subtitling (ILS), in which 10 participants interlingually respoke three short videos using a language combination of English and Spanish. The main areas of research in this project are feasibility, quality and training. Before expanding training in this area, ILS must be deemed feasible and an effective method of assessment must be in place to determine its quality. The average accuracy rate of the study is 97.17%, with the highest accuracy rate reaching the 98% threshold with 98.33%. The initial results point to ILS as feasible providing a training programme is put in place to build upon existing task-specific skills and develop new ones to ensure interlingual live subtitles of good quality are produced.

Increasing reward prospect motivates switching to the more difficult task.

Computerized working-memory training (WM), despite typically yielding large practice effects in the training task, transfers reliably almost only to similar tasks and barely transfers to Fluid Intelligence (Gf). We hypothesized that WM training tasks gradually become less related to Gf due to the development of task-specific skills that reduce reliance on WM. As a result, what is being trained in the advanced stages of training is weakly related to WM and Gf. This hypothesis leads to predicting that with training progression, there would be a gradual change in the rank-ordering of individuals (quasi-simplex) in the per-session scores of the training task coupled with a trend in reduction in Gf loadings of these scores. We reanalyzed individual differences in persession scores in the training task from two moderately large-scale published studies. Results show that, as predicted, the correlations between per-session scores decreased with increasing temporal distance between sessions, suggesting a quasi-simplex pattern indicative of a gradual change in the rank-ordering of individuals. However, contrary to the prediction, the training tasks maintained or even tended to increase their Gf loading with training progression. We provide post-hoc accounts for these results, some which challenge prevalent assumptions beyond the attempt to improve Gf through improving WM.

Reactive and eccentric strength contribute to stiffness regulation during maximum velocity sprinting in team sport athletes and highly trained sprinters

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the role of reactive and eccentric strength in stiffness regulation during maximum velocity sprinting (Vmax) in team sport athletes compared with highly trained sprinters. Thirteen team sport athletes and eleven highly trained sprinters were recruited. Vmax was measured using radar, and stiffness regulation was inferred from modelled vertical and leg spring stiffness. Reactive strength (RSI) was determined from a 0.50 m drop jump, and an eccentric back squat was used to assess maximum isoinertial eccentric force. Trained sprinters attained a higher Vmax than team sport athletes, partly due to a briefer contact time and higher vertical stiffness. Trained sprinters exhibited a moderately higher RSI via the attainment of a briefer and more forceful ground contact phase, while RSI also demonstrated large to very large associations with vertical stiffness and Vmax, respectively. Isoinertial eccentric force was largely correlated with Vmax, but only moderately correlated with vertical stiffness. Reactive and eccentric strength contribute to the ability to regulate leg spring stiffness at Vmax, and subsequently, the attainment of faster sprinting speeds in highly trained sprinters versus team sport athletes. However, stiffness regulation appears to be a task-specific neuromuscular skill, reinforcing the importance of specificity in the development of sprint performance.

Valuation of Human Capital and the Gender Wage Gap in Europe

This paper investigates the gender wage gap in relation to the multi-dimensional human capital measure across 17 European countries. To date, the role of cognitive and task-specific skills had a limited empirical evidence in the gender wage gap literature. We narrow this research gap by relying on PIAAC (Program of International Assessment of Adult Competencies) data and applying Gelbach’s (2016) decomposition methodology. The analysis reveals that occupation-/industry-specific work experience and task-specific cognitive and non-cognitive skills are the most rewarding human capital attainments. Work experience largely decreases the gender wage disparity in all analysed countries. Cognitive numeracy skill is another strong predictor of gender wage disparity. The effect of numeracy is rather homogeneous across countries, namely, controlling for numeracy reduces the wage gap. Unlike studies that stress the decreasing importance of human capital in gender wage gap assessments, we argue that a narrow definition of human capital may undermine the actual effect of the latter. Therefore, we conclude that human capital should be viewed as a combination of multiple characteristics and traits, each having specific valuation on the labour market, and thus, a particular role in explaining the gender wage gap.

Modeling Driver Take-Over Reaction Time and Emergency Response Time using an Integrated Cognitive Architecture

Drivers’ take-over reaction time in partially automated vehicles is a fundamental component of automated vehicle design requirements, and take-over reaction time is affected by many factors such as distraction and drivers’ secondary tasks. This study built cognitive architecture models to simulate drivers’ take-over reaction time in different secondary task conditions. Models were built using the queueing network-adaptive control of thought rational (QN-ACTR) cognitive architecture. Drivers’ task-specific skills and knowledge were programmed as production rules. A driving simulator program was connected to the models to produce prediction of reaction time. Model results were compared with human results in both single-task and multi-task conditions. The models were built without adjusting any parameter to fit the human data. The models could produce simulation results of take-over reaction time similar to the human results in take-over conditions with visual or auditory concurrent tasks, as well as emergency response time in a manual driving condition. Overall, R square was 0.96, root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.5 s, and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was 9%. The models could produce simulation results of reaction time similar to the human results from different task conditions. The production rules are plausible representations of drivers’ strategies and skills. The models provide a useful tool for the evaluation of take-over alert design and the prediction of driver performance.