Behaviourally meaningful representations from normalisation and context-guided denoising

Many existing independent component analysis algorithms include a preprocessing stage where the inputs are sphered. This amounts to normalising the data such that all correlations between the variables are removed. In this work, I show that sphering allows very weak contextual modulation to steer the development of meaningful features. Context-biased competition has been proposed as a model of covert attention and I propose that sphering-like normalisation also allows weaker top-down bias to guide attention

The vocational ID : connecting life design counselling and personality systems interaction theory

We introduce the Vocational ID that integrates linguistic and visual representations of a career counselling client’s self. Based upon findings from the Life Design paradigm and the Personality Systems Interaction theory, the Vocational ID facilitates working on clients' vocational identity. In this article, we present the theoretical framework, its practical applications, and a case study

Active Learning: Effects of Core Training Design Elements on Self-Regulatory Processes, Learning, and Adaptability

This research describes a comprehensive examination of the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying active learning approaches, their effects on learning and transfer, and the core training design elements (exploration, training frame, emotion-control) and individual differences (cognitive ability, trait goal orientation, trait anxiety) that shape these processes. Participants (N = 350) were trained to operate a complex computer-based simulation. Exploratory learning and error-encouragement framing had a positive effect on adaptive transfer performance and interacted with cognitive ability and dispositional goal orientation to influence trainees’ metacognition and state goal orientation. Trainees who received the emotion-control strategy had lower levels of state anxiety. Implications for developing an integrated theory of active learning, learner-centered design, and research extensions are discussed