Effects of Working Memory and Presentation Condition on Narrative Production and Inferencing Skills in Children with Language-Learning Impairment

Ten children with language-learning impairment (LLI, M = 11;2 years) were compared to chronological age- (CA, M = 11;2 years) and language age- (LA, M = 8;4 years) matched peers to examine presentation condition effects on level of syntactic complexity and number of story grammar components recalled for stories that were at or below the children’s reading level. Children were also compared on their ability to correctly answer information, value, and logical inferencing questions based on the stories. In addition, verbal and non-verbal working memory skills were assessed for group differences, and to determine the degree to which verbal and/or non-verbal working memory skills correlated with narrative recall measures and inferencing scores. No presentation effect was found for any of the measures. Children in the LLI group recalled fewer story grammar components than their CA and LA peers, although the pattern of story grammar responses was similar for all groups. Recalled narratives of children with LLI yielded lower DSS scores than the LA and CA peers, and the LA peers earned significantly lower DSS scores than the CA peers. Children with LLI answered fewer inferencing questions correctly compared to LA and CA peers, but a similar hierarchy of inferencing skills emerged for all of the groups: more children answered information inferencing questions correctly, followed by value and logic inferencing questions. Finally, children in the LLI group earned lower verbal working memory scores than their CA peers, but all groups earned similar non-verbal working memory scores. Verbal working memory scores significantly correlated with ten of the twelve language variables, but no correlation was found for the non-verbal working memory measure and the language variables. For story grammar, syntactic complexity and inferencing skills, children in the LLI group produced a delayed, and not a developmentally unique, pattern of responses compared to CA and LA peers. Possible contributors to the difficulties children with LLI face during story recall and comprehension are discussed, including reading comprehension disorders, incomplete situational models, and inefficient working memory. Treatment techniques that target story grammar organization, cohesive devices, and activation of previously learned and experienced knowledge are suggested

Evaluation of a videotape designed to reduce computer anxiety in preservice teachers

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1132106

Serious Game Design Principles: The Impact of Game Design on Learning Outcomes

This dissertation examines the research question How do video game design principles affect learning outcomes in serious games? This research first develops a theoretical foundation concerning the meaning of the terms game and serious game . This conceptual clarification is broken down into analytic propositions, which state that games have participants, rules, goals and challenges, and synthetic propositions, which state that the games should be intrinsically compelling, provide meaningful choices, and be self encapsulated. Based on these synthetic propositions, three hypotheses were developed. The hypotheses are that games with an enhanced aesthetic presentation, more meaningful choices, or provide player competition will elicit higher learning outcomes than identical games without these factors. These hypotheses were tested via a quantitative experiment involving 172 undergraduate students in the Old Dominion University Chemistry Department. The students were asked to play a chemistry-oriented serious game entitled Element Solitaire©, which was created by the research author. The students were randomly given different treatments of the Element Solitaire© game to play, and the difference between their learning outcomes were compared. The experimental results demonstrated that the aesthetic presentation of a game can have a significant impact upon the learning outcome. The experiment was not able to discern significant effects from the choice or competition conditions, but further examination of the experimental data did reveal some insight into these aspects of serious game design. Choices need to provide the player with options that have a sufficient value that they will be considered and the application of competition within games needs to be judiciously implemented to promote a positive affect for all players. The results of the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence were then combined with additional theoretical research to develop a set of design principles and a proposed serious game development process. These guidelines were researched and examined via the design and development process of several serious game prototypes and the examination of a large body of existing serious games. The end result is a practical procedure that is rooted in theory and quantitative experimentation

Theories of anterior cingulate cortex function : opportunity cost

The target article highlights the role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in conflict monitoring, but ACC function may be better understood in terms of the hierarchical organization of behavior. This proposal suggests that the ACC selects extended goal-directed actions according to their learned costs and benefits and executes those behaviors subject to depleting resources

Patterns of pleasure--the design and development of customer satisfaction

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1994.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (leaves [130-133]).by Douglas W. Lamm.M.S

Individual decision making and the evolutionary roots of institutions

Just as many aspects of individual decisions are sometimes called unconscious or automatic, we know that some institutions have evolved through unconscious, nondeliberative mechanisms. Their function can also be largely nondeliberative, as in the case of some institutions that may structure behavior without requiring any reflection on the part of the participants. On the other hand, political institutions exist for the purpose of bringing deliberative mechanisms to bear on institutions in the hope of changing them for the better. The immense project of building an integrated explanation of institutions from individual brains to nations-has only barely begun. In this chapter, we report on our discussions that attempted to sketch the mechanisms that connect individuals to large-scale institutions. We begin with a discussion of current thought on the design of individual decision making. If institutions regulate behavior, then presumably the mechanisms that have evolved to produce individual behavior will be relevant to the broader enterprise of integrating these two scales of explanation. Then we explore ways in which institutions may have evolved, both as a result of individual decision making and as a result of processes distinct from those that govern individual behavior. We approach this topic from two perspectives. Seen one way, unconscious psychological forces constrain the design of institutions, sometimes powerfully. Seen another way, unconscious population-level processes create functional institutional design that few social architects could conceive of with their individual deliberate faculties

Attuning the viewfinder

As there are many mobile apps designed to pull your attention, these interactions have become a kind of normalized addictiveness, such as doom scrolling. I am working on the topic of attention and a meditation app using augmented reality because I want to understand how this technology can be useful from beyond the screen and into a physical space

Black Girl Magic: How Black Women Administrators Navigate the Intersection of Race and Gender in Workspace Silos at Predominantly White Institutions

In choosing to look at the impact of white racially homogeneous work environments, if any, in relation to Black women higher education administrators, this research was grounded in Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought. Utilizing Black Feminist Thought, rooted in intersectionality, provided a sturdy foundation for one interested in conducting research specific to Black women, whether the discourse is race, gender, and/or any other intersecting identities. Black Feminist Thought conveys the message that Black women have similar yet different experiences from White women and similar yet different experiences from Black men, while simultaneously having shared yet different experiences than other Black women in all aspects of life, racially, sexually, gender-wise, socially and politically. Through eight (8) semi-structured interviews, a demographic survey, self-selected organizational and departmental perception, the researcher aimed to capture the essence of what it like to work in higher education administration at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) as a Black woman, as a double minority, with limited or no daily interaction with other Black women, Black men, or Black students. Through the course of interviews and subsequent data analysis, four themes emerged: (1) Increased desire to connect with other Black women, (2) Recognized pervasiveness of intersectional discrimination, (3) Racially-influenced decision-making, and (4) Adherence to a spiritual belief. Additionally, the researcher has compiled recommendations for hiring, supporting and retaining Black women administrators at PWIs, specifically those in non-ethnic or culturally-centered areas

The accessibility of spatial information: Two competing views

The experiments reported in this thesis were designed to investigate factors involved in the reactivation of spatial information. Participants read passages that described a protagonist and a target object in a spatial location. In Experiment 1, naming times demonstrated that the target object was active immediately after reading the introduction whereas the target object was no longer active in memory after reading filler information that did not remention the target object. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to read a cuing sentence immediately following the filler information. The results showed that this cue served to reactivate the target object. In Experiment 3, the protagonist spatially moved away from the previous location. The results indicated that even after the situation model shifted, the cuing sentence still reactivated the target object. The overall pattern of results suggest that contextual cuing rather than spatial information determined accessibility of objects during reading