Verbal Directions Research Articles

Learning Problem-Solving Rules as Search Through a Hypothesis Space.

Learning to solve a class of problems can be characterized as a search through a space of hypotheses about the rules for solving these problems. A series of four experiments studied how different learning conditions affected the search among hypotheses about the solution rule for a simple computational problem. Experiment 1 showed that a problem property such as computational difficulty of the rules biased the search process and so affected learning. Experiment 2 examined the impact of examples as instructional tools and found that their effectiveness was determined by whether they uniquely pointed to the correct rule. Experiment 3 compared verbal directions with examples and found that both could guide search. The final experiment tried to improve learning by using more explicit verbal directions or by adding scaffolding to the example. While both manipulations improved learning, learning still took the form of a search through a hypothesis space of possible rules. We describe a model that embodies two assumptions: (1) the instruction can bias the rules participants hypothesize rather than directly be encoded into a rule; (2) participants do not have memory for past wrong hypotheses and are likely to retry them. These assumptions are realized in a Markov model that fits all the data by estimating two sets of probabilities. First, the learning condition induced one set of Start probabilities of trying various rules. Second, should this first hypothesis prove wrong, the learning condition induced a second set of Choice probabilities of considering various rules. These findings broaden our understanding of effective instruction and provide implications for instructional design.

Identifying Elements of the Health Care Environment That Contribute to Wayfinding

Identify aspects of the physical environment that inform wayfinding for visitors. Compare and contrast the identified elements in frequency of use. Gain an understanding of the role the different elements and attributes play in the wayfinding process. Wayfinding by patients and visitors is a documented problem in healthcare facilities. The few studies that have been conducted have identified some of the environmental elements that influence wayfinding. Moreover, literatures comparing different design strategies are absent. Currently there is limited knowledge to inform prioritization of strategies to optimize wayfinding within capital budget. A multi-method, non-experimental, qualitative, exploratory study design was adopted. The study was conducted in a large, acute care facility in Texas. Ten healthy adults in five age groups, representing both sexes, participated in the study as simulated visitors. Data collection included (a) verbal protocols during navigation; (b) questionnaire; and (c) verbal directions from hospital employees. Data were collected during Fall 2013. Physical design elements contributing to wayfinding include signs, architectural features, maps, interior elements (artwork, display boards, information counters, etc.), functional clusters, interior elements pairing, structural elements, and furniture. The information is used in different ways - some for primary navigational information, some for supporting navigational information, and some as familiarity markers. The physical environment has a critical role in aiding navigation in healthcare facilities. Architectural feature is the top contributor in the domain of architecture. Artwork (painting, sculpture, etc.) is the top contributor in the domain of interior design.

The Potential of Video in Patient Education Post Skin Biopsies

Plastic surgeons perform excisional skin biopsies that may be in aesthetically sensitive areas. Excisional biopsies are performed on an outpatient basis and therefore patients are expected to perform wound care at home. The current standard of patient education for post-procedural care is verbal information along with a written set of instructions to take home. However, a patient’s comprehension of verbal directions and literacy level can greatly affect the transmission of knowledge, and verbal instructions are not standardized across each patient encounter. The importance of patient education in self-care with the use of video has great potential in promoting improved outcomes.

C-40 * Computerized Neuroplasticity Training Increases Processing Speed of Verbal Information: A Pilot Study of Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective: Recent studies indicate that processing speed deficits form the basis for deficits of other higher order cognitive abilities. Therefore, improvements in auditory processing speed will likely positively impact multiple areas of cognition, including verbal learning and memory, working memory, and executive functions. This study examines the effect of a computerized training program to improve processing speed in adults with a TBI. Method: Twenty adults (mean age = 43.33, SD = 14.4) with a mild, moderate, or severe TBI were assigned to an experimental (n = 10) or control group (n = 10), and were matched on age and level of education. All participants underwent a baseline and follow-up neuropsychological testing. The neuropsychological battery assessed processing speed, executive functions, verbal memory, visual memory, working memory, and attention. Participants assigned to the experimental group underwent 40 hours of a structured computerized cognitive training with six separate training modules (Brain Fitness Program, Posit Science) over 10–12 weeks. Results: The results demonstrated that the experimental group had significant improvement on measures of auditory and visual processing speed (d = .89 and .56, respectively), set-shifting (d = .76), following verbal directions (d = .47), and non-verbal reasoning correct responses and reaction time (d = .44 and .50, respectively). Conclusion(s): The computerized neuroplasticity training program demonstrated moderate to large effect sizes in the changes in performance from pre- and post-intervention assessments in the experimental group compared to control group. As expected, the majority of the improvement was on measures of verbal skills due to the nature of the intervention.

Comparison of individual answer and group answer with and without structured peer assessment

Background:Cooperative learning activities provide active participation of students leading to better learning. The literature suggests that cooperative learning activities need to be structured for a more effective and productive interaction.Purpose: This study aimed to test the differences among three instructional conditions in terms of science achievement.Sample:A total of 79 fifth-grade students, 42 males (53%) and 37 females (47%), participated in the study.Design and Methods:In the first condition, students answered the teacher’s questions individually by raising hands. In the second condition, students discussed the answer in groups and came up with a single group answer. In this condition, the teacher provided only verbal directions to the groups without using any strategy or material. In the third condition, students used a ‘peer assessment form’ before giving the group answer. A pre-/post-test experimental design was used. Multiple-choice and open-ended tests were used for data collection. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the differences in the test scores between the three groups (individual answer, unstructured group answer and structured group answer).Results:Results showed that there were no significant differences among the three learning conditions in terms of their multiple-choice test scores. In terms of the open-ended test scores, students in the structured group answer condition scored significantly higher than the students in the individual answer condition.Conclusions:Structuring the group work through peer assessment helped to monitor the group discussion, provided a better learning compared to the individual answer condition, and helped students to participate in the activity equally.

Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD) – The Polish version of a dual-axis system for the diagnosis of TMD. RDC/TMD Form

Aim of the study. To describe steps taken to conduct a formal forward translation/back-translation from English to Polish, and to establish the cultural equivalence of the Polish version of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD). This will be preceded by a brief historic overview of the insights into TMD, so as to provide a rationale for using this dual-axis diagnostic system. Methods. The Clinical Examination Form, the Specifications section, and the algorithms for axis I and II scoring of the RDC/TMD document were forward translated from English to Polish. In order to cross-culturally adapt the instrument, the History Questionnaire and the verbal directions for the patient (part of the Specifications section) were both forward translated and back-translated. Special attention was given to the questions from the History Questionnaire focusing on demographic characteristics. To that end, the official Translation Guidelines of the International RDC/TMD Consortium were followed. Results. No substantial difficulties in translating were encountered during either the forward translation process of the Clinical Examination Form, the Specifications section, and the algorithms, or during the forward and back- translation of the History Questionnaire and the verbal directives for the patient. Thus, a linguistically valid and culturally equivalent Polish translation resulted. Conclusions. Since the internationally established and accepted translation/adaptation Guidelines were used to establish the Polish version of RDC/TMD, this instrument is now available for the assessment of TMD in Poland.

Orientações de alta: cartões padronizados ajudam na compreensão dos pacientes do pronto socorro?

To determine whether the addition of discharge standard illustrated cards improves understanding of patients in the emergency room. We conducted a prospective, randomized, interventional study with 228 patients discharged from the emergency department. All patients were interviewed and tested for the level of understanding of discharge instructions. Some of them received the intervention, with the standard cards, and another did not, constituting the control group. The average of followed discharge guidelines of the group that received the cards was higher than the control group, with statistical significance (p=0.009). When segregated by age, the group between 16 and 35 years of both sexes had the best average of followed guidelines, statistically, than the average of the control group (p=0.01). The difference between the mean orientations between the control group and the card for patients undergoing procedures was statistically significant (p=0.02); as for the stratification according to the number of procedures, the significance increases when that is equal to 1 (p=0.001) and decreased the more procedures were carried out. The introduction of discharge standard orientation cards was associated with improvement in the understanding of patients. Without replacing the verbal directions, which establishes dialogue and doctor-patient bonding, cards appear as auxiliary elements, facilitating understanding and care guidelines.

What verbal orientation information do blind and partially sighted people need to find their way around? A study of everyday navigation strategies in people with impaired vision

For wayfinding at museums, galleries, and heritage sites, the majority of people who are blind or partially sighted favour verbal directions over tactile maps. Those who provide such directions are usually fully sighted. Can we assume that details considered important by those with vision are equally helpful to those without? This article presents a study comparing descriptions of familiar routes recalled by fully sighted, partially sighted, and blind participants, highlighting the differences in navigation strategies. All participants cited landmarks, but those with impaired vision also detailed significantly more objects, or ‘milestones’, en route. In the absence of such milestones, they relied on metrics that were often environmental or body-based. Distances were precisely specified, rather than ‘vague’. Landmarks and milestones were accessed multimodally by blind and partially sighted participants, or a combination of landmarks and milestones were sought for corroboration. In contrast, fully sighted participants reported predominantly unimodal information, that is, visual. The findings may have practical implications for improving the type of verbal orientation information provided to assist blind or partially sighted people.

The Effects of a Picture Activity Schedule for Students With Intellectual Disability to Complete a Sequence of Tasks Following Verbal Directions

We investigated instruction of independent creation of picture activity schedules (PASs) and how four middle school students with intellectual disability used them to complete tasks independently. A withdrawal design (A-BC-B-A-B) was used to evaluate whether the intervention had an effect on the dependent variable and to test for generalization to a community setting in a pre/post format. After instruction on the PAS, participants learned to self-manage a strategy that served as a reminder for the tasks they needed to complete. All participants exhibited increased abilities to complete a sequence of three or five tasks following verbal directions when using the PAS as compared with the conditions where no PAS was utilized. In addition, these results generalized to the community setting of a mall food court. Our findings have implications for enhancing the independent functioning of individuals with intellectual disability and reducing reliance on others, with the potential for greater levels of self-determination.

The role of the conductor’s goal orientation and use of shared performance cues on collegiate instrumentalists’ motivational beliefs and performance in large musical ensembles

This study examined the effects of the conductor’s goal orientation (mastery vs. performance) and use of shared performance cues (basic vs. interpretive vs. expressive) on instrumentalists’ self-efficacy, collective efficacy, attributions, and performance. Eighty-one college instrumentalists from two musical ensembles participated in the study. It was hypothesized that instrumentalists who undergo a mastery goal-oriented rehearsal and experience a conductor’s use of expressive shared performance cues would report higher levels in all measures than those who undergo a performance goal-oriented rehearsal and are exposed to interpretive performance cues, which in turn surpass those who experience basic performance cues. Results indicated that participants in the mastery goal orientation condition reported higher levels of collective and self-efficacy beliefs and attributed the success or failure of the ensemble most frequently to the conductor’s use of rehearsal strategies (i.e., baton technique, verbal directions regarding the music). In addition, the conductor’s use of expressive shared performance cues had a significant impact on instrumentalists’ collective efficacy, self-efficacy, performance, and attributions. Findings of this study may provide some guidance on how conductors can create effective rehearsal environments.

Common retrieval processes in producers and comprehenders of spatial information in a non-interactive task

This study explores spatial representations generated by people playing either the producer's or the comprehender's role in non-interactive settings, under identical manipulations of the communication modality (pointing vs. verbal directions) and the type of body rotation (physical vs. imagined). Results showed that these manipulations consistently modulated the accessibility of the target locations in similar ways for both producers and comprehenders, indicating a common retrieval process of spatial information in the absence of alignment cues. In both roles, the accessibility pattern to directions obtained when using the pointing gesture was heavily dependent on the rotation type, whereas that was less so when using verbal directions. The results also demonstrated that the differences in the accessibility patterns arise at the response encoding stage (in production) and at the response decoding stage (in comprehension), suggesting a functional parallelism in the response system between the two communication roles. The commonality in the retrieval processes is a genuine phenomenon that should be taken into account when attributing exclusively the phenomenon of spatial alignment to the interactive efforts performed by producers and comprehenders.

Voluntary Restraint of Body Movement Potentially Reduces Overall SPL Without Reducing SPL Range in Western Contemporary Popular Singing

Voluntary restriction of body movement is associated with the reduction of sound pressure level (SPL) peaks in western contemporary popular singing. This paper investigated whether overall SPL and SPL range are affected when singers voluntarily restrain their movement during performance. Six professional singers performed a section of a song in two performance modes: first with no constraints placed on their body behaviour and again when directed to stand still. Overall SPL and SPL range were compared for the two conditions. The calculation of percentiles revealed reductions in SPL in the no movement condition across all SPL levels for all singers. With respect to absolute range, contrary to expectation, the SPL minima were reduced by a degree equivalent to the reduction in SPL maxima in the majority of singers. To our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been noted previously, possibly because this compensatory effect disguises the overall reduction in SPL. This effect may be automatic and beyond the conscious control of singers. It remains to be studied whether this effect exists in other styles of singing and what aspect of movement restraint triggers this effect. Verbal directions curbing body movement may have detrimental effects on acoustic output even in experienced singers.

Spiking and LFP activity in PRR during symbolically instructed reaches.

The spiking activity in the parietal reach region (PRR) represents the spatial goal of an impending reach when the reach is directed toward or away from a visual object. The local field potentials (LFPs) in this region also represent the reach goal when the reach is directed to a visual object. Thus PRR is a candidate area for reading out a patient's intended reach goals for neural prosthetic applications. For natural behaviors, reach goals are not always based on the location of a visual object, e.g., playing the piano following sheet music or moving following verbal directions. So far it has not been directly tested whether and how PRR represents reach goals in such cognitive, nonlocational conditions, and knowing the encoding properties in various task conditions would help in designing a reach goal decoder for prosthetic applications. To address this issue, we examined the macaque PRR under two reach conditions: reach goal determined by the stimulus location (direct) or shape (symbolic). For the same goal, the spiking activity near reach onset was indistinguishable between the two tasks, and thus a reach goal decoder trained with spiking activity in one task performed perfectly in the other. In contrast, the LFP activity at 20-40 Hz showed small but significantly enhanced reach goal tuning in the symbolic task, but its spatial preference remained the same. Consequently, a decoder trained with LFP activity performed worse in the other task than in the same task. These results suggest that LFP decoders in PRR should take into account the task context (e.g., locational vs. nonlocational) to be accurate, while spike decoders can robustly provide reach goal information regardless of the task context in various prosthetic applications.

Clinical and autonomic functions: a study of childhood anxiety disorders

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Childhood and adolescent anxiety is generally associated with a varied somatic symptom pattern thought to reflect autonomic system activity. Few studies have examined the autonomic characteristics of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). This omission is at odds with contemporary models of autonomic cardiovascular control. The current study aimed to find differences in autonomic functions between children with a diagnosis of childhood anxiety disorder and a control group using a case-control design.DESIGN AND SETTING:A cross sectional experimental study conducted in the years 2004-2005 in the psycho-physiology lab of a tertiary care multi-speciality teaching hospital.METHODS:Assessments were carried out using a semistructured interview, K-SADS (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for Children and Adolescents); STAIC (State and Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children); CDRS (Childhood Depression Rating Scales); SCARED (Self-Report for Childhood Anxiety–Related Disorders). Autonomic reactivity was tested using the standard battery of tests.RESULTS:There were differences between 34 children and adolescents (age range, 8-18 years) with a diagnosis of childhood anxiety disorder and a control group of 30 age- and sex-matched subjects from a nearby school in autonomic activity and reactivity between individuals with anxiety disorder and non-anxious control subjects. Our finding is suggestive of autonomic rigidity or diminished physiologic flexibility in children with anxiety disorderCONCLUSIONS:The study is probably the first of its kind to look into the issue in detail using a detailed battery of the autonomic function tests, and the results are of help in better understanding the condition. The result of the present experiment supports differences in autonomic activity and reactivity between individuals with anxiety disorder and non-anxious control subjects.

Becoming Commuters: Teaching Students Traveling to Work Using Public Transportation

As a teacher of visually impaired students at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind, I regularly traveled with my students to their off-campus jobs by school van. In my sixth year of teaching, I realized that transportation to the work site is also an important component of successful employment. During the five years before my epiphany, my students would pile into the large, accessible van owned by the school and be driven to their jobs at the local pizza shop, department store, or other workplace. I realized my students might be missing a learning opportunity by being driven to work when I participated in a summer orientation and mobility (O&M) internship at Perkins School for the Blind. There, I observed my Perkins students gain valuable information as they traveled on public buses. These students had to figure out what buses to take and how many stops were passed before their destination. They also needed to decide whether they had enough money on their bus cards to take the bus, or if they needed exact change. They had to speak assertively and organize their questions clearly. As the summer progressed, I began to think of how I could bring the model of instruction I had learned at Perkins back to my students in Arizona. My goal was to teach my students in Arizona consistent use of public transportation to get to their workplace. This article delineates the learning experiences that resulted from the regular use of bus transportation to and from the work site. The change from riding in the school van to using public buses was important for several reasons. When riding the van, the students paid little attention to the route or the direction of their travel unless the driver gave verbal directions. Using buses constantly enhanced the students' learning capacities in six areas, including directionality, advocacy, organization, motivation, safety, and involvement. The students were all high school or postgraduate students. Two of them had a good deal of usable vision and the other two had no light perception. They all communicated through speech, although each of them fell in the spectrum of mild to moderate mental retardation with a severe sensory impairment. DIRECTIONALITY AND ADVOCACY Directionality involves forming a mental image of how one will get from one place to another. In this case, the students needed to envision how they would physically get from the school to the local market where they worked. Before the trip, we modeled and practiced the following questions in the classroom: * What is the number of the bus you will take? * In what direction will that bus travel? * At what stop will you get off? When the students needed to take two buses, I also had them articulate the route they would travel to get to the second bus. They knew what buses they would be riding and in what directions the bus travels (east to west or north to south, for example). If the students understood they were heading east then north on the initial trip, then on the way back to school they could comprehend that they would be traveling south then west. These steps need to be repeated many times for the route to meaningful for the student. Life skills students also learned to advocate for themselves. Many had become so reliant on prompts that they had come to expect others to complete tasks or ask questions of others. Riding the bus provided experiences in advocacy. The students learned to be ready to ask short but pertinent questions and to provide information to the bus driver. When the bus pulled up, the first student to get on would ask whether it is the correct bus. If it was, then the student told the driver where they were getting off. The student round the slot for a bus pass and inserted the card. If taking two buses, he or she would ask for a transfer, which could be used for intrabus travel in the same direction. At first these steps were accomplished with the assistance of a teacher, mobility instructor, or paraeducator. …

We Can All Participate! Adapting Circle Time for Children With Autism

Perla, a 4.5-year-old girl with autism, attended an inclusive child care center. She had 12 classmates, but she was the only child with autism. Perla used three-and four-word sentences to communicate, followed simple verbal directions during most classroom routines, and imitated teacher and peer behaviors when prompted. Perla rarely interacted with her peers unless prompted by her teacher, Sahalie. She used a picture schedule with some adult help throughout daily routines. However, her participation in circle time was inconsistent. Most days, she started crying during the transition to circle time and did not stop whimpering until the end of it. Perla avoided peers and sat on the edge of the carpet. She often disrupted circle

The Effect of Comprehension Feedback and Listener Age on Speech Complexity

Forty college-aged participants told a story and gave verbal walking directions to either a same-age peer or a 75-year-old adult. The listeners gave some participants comprehension feedback and gave other participants mixed comprehension and noncomprehension feedback. Analyses examined length of utterance immediately preceding or following feedback cues. Participants did not globally simplify their speech when talking to the older compared with the young adult. However, speech was sensitive to comprehension feedback from both listeners, and listener age affected speech complexity by influencing the magnitude of this fine tuning effect. Participants simplified their speech more in response to feedback cues from the older than the young listener. Taken together, these results suggest that fine tuning applies to conversations between adults and speech accommodations may be further “fine tuned” based on other factors such as listener age.

Evaluating a GPS-Based Transportation Device to Support Independent Bus Travel by People With Intellectual Disability

We examined the utility of a PDA-based software system with integrated GPS technology for providing location-aware visual and auditory prompts to enable people with intellectual disability to successfully navigate a downtown bus route. Participants using the system were significantly more successful at completing a bus route than were people in a control group, who used a map and verbal directions. Further, when using the GPS-based system, 73% of participants successfully rang the bell and exited the bus at the right stop compared with only 8% of the control group. This finding was observed for individuals attempting to follow a new bus route for the first time and get off the bus at a previously unknown location.

Lenguaje oral en un grupo de niños con trastornos de aprendizaje yun grupo control

The oral language is a communicative conduct that is specifically human, having at the same time and important role in the process of scholar learning in children. The principal objective went determine if differences exists in the oral Language between a group of school age children diagnosed with a learning disability compared to a control group. The sample went 8 children with learning disabilities and 8 children from a control group, with an age range of 7 to 9 years that were currently enrolled in elementary school in private schools of middle-high socioeconomic status in the city of Cali. For the diagnosis of learning disability, the CEPA (Learning disability questionnaire), the reading, writing, and math subtests from the ENI (Neuropsychological Infantile Assessment), The international mini neuropsychiatricinterviewfor children and adolescent, also the Wechsler Intelligence children scaleWISC-R; the subscale of oral language from the neuropsychological infantile assessment (ENI) was applied to both groups. We found significant differences between groups in repetition task (words and non words) following verbal directions and sentence repetition. The findings of this study suggest that children with learning disability present a deficit in auditive-verbal retention and failure in the phonologic conscience as the primary defect of the disability. CITE AS:Quijano Martínez, M.C., Aponte Henao, M., León Muñoz, S. & Romero Echeverry, A.H. (2010). Lenguaje oral en un grupo de niños con trastornos de aprendizaje y un grupo control. Apuntes de Psicología, 28, 403-413.

This is the tricky part: When directions become difficult

Automated route guidance systems, both web-based systems and en-route systems, have become commonplace in recent years. These systems often replace human- generated directions, which are often incomplete, vague, or in error. However, human- generated directions have the ability to differentiate between easy and complex steps through language in a way that is more difficult in automated systems. This article examines a set of human-generated verbal directions to better understand why some parts of directions are perceived as being more difficult than the remaining steps. Insights from this analysis will lead to recommendations to improve the next generation of automated route guidance systems.