Gamification of Visual Search in Real World Scenes

Gamification, or the application of game-like features in non-game contexts, has been growing in popularity over the last five years. Specifically, the successful gamification of applications (such as Waze, Foursquare, and Fitocracy) has begun a spike in gamification of more complex tasks, such as learning to use AutoCAD or Photoshop. However, much is unknown about the psychological mapping of gamification or how it translates to behavioral outcomes. This dissertation aims to compare three distinct styles of gamification (avatars, points and feedback, and leaderboards) onto the three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). It will assess behavioral outcomes on a visual search task when gamification styles are used separately, compared against all three styles used in concert. The task chosen is a camouflage visual search task. This task was selected because it is both boring (as indicated by the Flow Short Scale) and difficult (as indicated by previous work). These features make it the ideal task to gamify. Results indicated that only in the full gamification condition was response time significantly faster than in the control condition, or no gamification. However, ANOVA evaluating differences in enjoyment, motivation, and stress indicated differences among the groups, suggesting that gamification may elicit psychological outcomes that may not necessarily manifest into behavioral outcomes. ANCOVA were used to evaluate group differences using relevant survey measures as covariates. These tests indicated differences among groups in all behavioral measures, though these differences were most pronounced in response time measures. Future directions involving gamification based on personality type, as well as suggestions on best practice for gamification in the future are discussed

The ghost of Patrick Geddes:civics as applied sociology

In 1904 and 1905 Patrick Geddes (1905, 1906) read his famed, but today little-read, two-part paper, 'Civics: as Applied Sociology', to the first meetings of the British Sociological Society. Geddes is often thought of as a 'pioneer of sociology' (Mairet, 1957;Meller, 1990) and for some (egDevine, 1999: 296) as 'a seminal influence on sociology'. However, little of substance has been written to critically assess Geddes's intellectual legacy as a sociologist. His work is largely forgotten by sociologists in Britain (Abrams, 1968;Halliday, 1968;Evans, 1986). Few have been prepared to follow Geddes's ambition to bridge the chasm between nature and culture, environment and society, geography, biology and sociology. His conception of 'sociology', oriented towards social action from a standpoint explicitly informed by evolutionary theory. A re-appraisal of the contemporary relevance of Geddes's thinking on civics as applied sociology has to venture into the knotted problem of evolutionary sociology. It also requires giving some cogency to Geddes's often fragmentary and inconsistent mode of address. Although part of a post-positivist, 'larger modernism' Geddes remained mired in nineteenth century evolutionary thought and fought shy of dealing with larger issues of social class or the breakthrough work of early twentieth century sociology of Simmel, Weber and Durkheim. His apolitical notion of 'civics' limits its relevance to academic sociology today

The public sphere and network democracy: Social movements and political change?

The article critically examines the democratic possibilities of technological innovations associated with Web 2.0 tools and in this context it address the first and second ‘waves’ of academic debates concerning the social media and the public sphere in the networked society. It argues that the initial optimism associated with a virtual public sphere has been replaced by doubts about whether this model was appropriate for the development of democratic values. It assesses whether the information communications networks have constructed a more personalised form of politics and it is concerned with the application of the networked power relations with reference to grassroots or social revolutionary movements. New communications environments were seen to be instrumental in forging the conditions for the ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions and the Turkish protests within Istanbul’s Taksim square during the summer of 2013. These Middle Eastern case examples are discussed along with the calls for political and economic change in Southern Europe within financially constrained countries of Spain and Greece. Based on such studies the article theorizes on the key question concerning whether the social media can contribute to democracy, revolution and expansion of the public sphere, or whether they remain instruments of control and power

Facing the Future: Encouraging Critical Cartographic Literacies In Indigenous Communities

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.acme-journal.org/volume4-1.html.As Indigenous academics researching and participating with various mapping initiatives, we have began to perceive that while many Indigenous communities have a long history of using Western cartographic techniques, including GIS, in their efforts to establish land claims, map culturally important sites and protect community resources, they were not critically aware of the science with which they are engaged. We have established our goal to assist and encourage the development of a critical literacy in cartography within Indigenous communities. We use the term literacy not to imply an ability to read and write, rather we are engaging the part of the word’s etymology which recognizes having competence in a system of knowledge. Western cartography is a complex knowledge system with a long history, much of its last 500 years being involved in furthering the colonial exploits of European crowns. Using the work of Paulo Freire (2000) on critical consciousness as a foundation, we have taken this concept a step further to describe a critical cartographic literacy which recognizes that as J. B. Harley states, “[m]aps are never value-free images… [c]artography can be ‘a form of knowledge and a form of power’ (1988).” Our article explores our development of a critical cartographic consciousness in order to aid Indigenous communities in how they engage with one of the most prevalent informational technologies currently in use in many of these communities’ modern cartography/GIS

The Ghost of Patrick Geddes: Civics As Applied Sociology

In 1904 and 1905 Patrick Geddes (1905, 1906) read his famed, but today little-read, two-part paper, \'Civics: as Applied Sociology\', to the first meetings of the British Sociological Society. Geddes is often thought of as a \'pioneer of sociology\' (Mairet, 1957; Meller, 1990) and for some (eg Devine, 1999: 296) as \'a seminal influence on sociology\'. However, little of substance has been written to critically assess Geddes\'s intellectual legacy as a sociologist. His work is largely forgotten by sociologists in Britain (Abrams, 1968; Halliday, 1968; Evans, 1986). Few have been prepared to follow Geddes\'s ambition to bridge the chasm between nature and culture, environment and society, geography, biology and sociology. His conception of \'sociology\', oriented towards social action from a standpoint explicitly informed by evolutionary theory. A re-appraisal of the contemporary relevance of Geddes\'s thinking on civics as applied sociology has to venture into the knotted problem of evolutionary sociology. It also requires giving some cogency to Geddes\'s often fragmentary and inconsistent mode of address. Although part of a post-positivist, \'larger modernism\' Geddes remained mired in nineteenth century evolutionary thought and fought shy of dealing with larger issues of social class or the breakthrough work of early twentieth century sociology of Simmel, Weber and Durkheim. His apolitical notion of \'civics\' limits its relevance to academic sociology today.History of Sociology, Civics, Patrick Geddes, Scottish Generalism, Urban Sociology

Microsaccade-rate indicates absorption by music listening

The power of music is a literary topos, which can be attributed to intense and personally significant experiences, one of them being the state of absorption. Such phenomenal states are difficult to grasp objectively. We investigated the state of musical absorption by using eye tracking. We utilized a load related definition of state absorption: multimodal resources are committed to create a unified representation of music. Resource allocation was measured indirectly by microsaccade rate, known to indicate cognitive processing load. We showed in Exp. 1 that microsaccade rate also indicates state absorption. Hence, there is cross-modal coupling between an auditory aesthetic experience and fixational eye movements. When removing the fixational stimulus in Exp. 2, saccades are no longer generated upon visual input and the cross-modal coupling disappeared. Results are interpreted in favor of the load hypothesis of microsaccade rate and against the assumption of general slowing by state absorption

Bring Consciousness to Mobile Robot Being Localized

Mobile robot localization is one of the most important problems in robotics research. A number of successful localization solutions have been proposed, among them, the well-known and popular Monte Carlo Localization (MCL) method. However, in all these methods, the robot itself does not carry a notion whether it has or has not been localized, and the success or failure of localization is judged by normally a human operator of the robot. In this paper, we put forth a novel method to bring consciousness to a mobile robot so that the robot can judge by itself whether it has been localized or not without any intervention from human operator. In addition, the robot is capable to notice the change between global localization and position tracking, hence, adjusting itself based on the status of localization. A mobile robot with consciousness being localized is obviously more autonomous and intelligent than one without

Xiqu and modernisation: the transformations of the Chinese traditional theatre in the process of social formation of modern China.

There is an inherent sociality and collectivity in the theatre. Theatrical activities, like other cultural productions, involve a great many elements seeping through, in and out and between the theatrical institutions and other vectors of the social space. Theatre is both a result of and simultaneously one of the many constitutive factors in the process of social formation. This thesis examines the conventions of xiqu and its transformations in relation to the modernisation in China since the second half of the 19th Century. The introduction of Western theatre architecture in the last decade of the 19th Century in Chinese cities was probably the most important catalyst for the metamorphosis of xiqu into its present form. The changed parameters of the newly constructed theatres injected new possibilities into productions and changed the theatrical consciousness of the audience. The jingju form provides a particular case in point. It was initially developed into a distinctive regional xiqu as a consequence of the merging of a number of existing regional forms, the performances of which in the capital were only made possible by modern communications and transportation. Its subsequent popularity in the principal cities was inseparable from its development in the modern theatres. The cinema was introduced to China at about the same time as Western theatre architecture. Xiqu films were first produced as records of performances to extend the commercial possibilities of the xiqu market. As film language improved in its refinement and aesthetic grammar, cinematic aesthetics took over and xiqu films started to take another direction. As more features of its stage aesthetics were replaced by camera treatment, xiqu films ceased to be a genre of xiqu and became instead a genre of cinema. This clear-cut distinction was especially obvious in the xiqu films produced in Hong Kong, where market forces were relentlessly fierce. Nowadays xiqu is facing the same challenges as all other theatre forms in the globalised market-place. To survive it must find a way to remain competitive and commercially viable. At the same time, it must rediscover its artistic edge by offering experimental and innovative productions in order to make itself artistically relevant and attractive to its contemporary audience

Utilization of Religious Education for Effective Inculturation of the Gospel

‘‘Go therefore make disciples of all the nations baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and to teach them to observe all the command I gave you’’ (Mt: 28:19), is a mandate given by Christ to preach the Gospel message to every nook and cranny of the world. The success of this mandate however depends on the degree to which the preaching of the Gospel is adapted to local cultures. To make it succeed, these is every need of the incarnation of Christian life and Christian message in a particular cultural context, in such a way that this experience not only find expression through elements proper to the culture in question, but becomes a principle that animates, direct and unites the culture, transform it and remaking it so as to bring about ‘New Creation’’ The gospel, therefore should penetrate the very life of culture, becomes incarnate in them, overcoming those cultural elements that are incompatible with the faith and Christian living and raising their values to the mystery of salvation which comes from Christ. The crux of this paper is to ascertain how religious education can be employed as a medium for the enculturation of the gospel message in Africa. Quantitative data collection was carried out in South East Geo-Political Zone (among the Igbo people) of Nigeria to investigate into the role of religious education in acculturating the gospel message in Africa. The outcome of the study revealed that religious education plays outstanding role in promoting enculturation of the gospel message. It has the specific vocation of bringing the gospel message to the heart of culture and enables all to understand for themselves and commit to the concrete living of Christian meaning and living. It makes possible, the conversion of persons, cultures and Christianization of ethos of the people’s cultures and through enculturation encourages evangelization to respect and preserve what is good in a culture. Recommendations included that those who are pastorally responsible for culture should resolutely be committed to finding ways of evangelization to reach minds and hearts, and to transform cultures in a way which also enrich them. The study was conducted in Igbo speaking states of South East zone of Nigeria. The findings were generalized to cover Africa as it is the same Gospel of Christ dialoguing with the various cultures of Africa. Keywords: Religious Education, Inculturation, Gospel Message, Cultur