Empirical Results on Interactive E-learning Using Knowledge Acquisition Based Learning

This paper presents empirical results on the efficiency of e-Learning systems which deploy and use knowledge acquisition based method (KA-LMS) for enhancing the learning capabilities of students. A new e-Learning method, which was developed by the author, is used to measure the impact of the new method on the learning achievements of the students. The method utilizes learning management systems, which restricts the ability of a learning student to advance from one topic to the next one unless he/she has acquired a minimum set of learning outcomes and knowledge. The data is collected from relatively large class rooms, where students attend online classes using the knowledge acquisition based method, and then the same set of students go through physical face to face exams. The results show that on the average students were able to score in the physical exam similar or higher grades compared to the results obtained automatically using the e-Learning KA-LMS. The effectiveness of KA-LMS was shown to be effective during the Covid-19 lockdown

Efficient Decision Support Systems

This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers

Eye movements and scanpaths in the perception of real-world scenes

The way we move our eyes when viewing a scene is not random, but is influenced by both bottom-up (low-level), and top-down (cognitive) factors. This Thesis investigates not only what these influences are and how they effect eye movements, but more importantly how they interact with each other to guide visual perception of real-world scenes. Experiments 1 and 2 show that the sequences of fixations and saccades - ‘scanpaths’ - generated when encoding a picture are replicated both during imagery and at recognition. Higher scanpath similarities at recognition suggest that low-level visual information plays an important role in guiding eye movements, yet the above-chance similarities at imagery argue against a purely bottom-up explanation and imply a link between eye movements and visual memory. This conclusion is supported by increased scanpath similarities when previously seen pictures are described from memory (experiment 3). When visual information is available, areas of high visual saliency attract attention and are fixated sooner than less salient regions. This effect, however, is reliably reduced when viewers possess top-down knowledge about the scene in the form of domain proficiency (experiments 4-6). Enhanced memory, as well as higher scanpath similarity, for domain-specific pictures exists at recognition, and in the absence of visual information when previously seen pictures are described from memory, but not when simply imagined (experiment 6). As well as the cognitive override of bottom-up saliency, domain knowledge also moderates the influence of top-down incongruence during scene perception (experiment 7). Object-intrinsic oddities are less likely to be fixated when participants view pictures containing other domain-relevant semantic information. The finding that viewers fixate the most informative parts of a scene was extended to investigate the presence of social (people) and emotional information, both of which were found to enhance recognition memory (experiments 8 and 9). However, the lack of relationship between string similarity and accuracy, when viewing ‘people’ pictures, challenges the idea that the reproduction of eye movements alone is enough to create this memory advantage (experiment 8). It is therefore likely that the semantically informative parts of a scene play a large role in guiding eye movements and enhancing memory for a scene. The processing of emotional features occurs at a very early stage of perception (even when they are still in the parafoveal), but once fixated only emotionally negative (not positive) features hold attention (experiment 9). The presence of these emotionally negative features also reliably decreases the influence of saliency on eye movements. Lastly, experiment 10 illustrates that although the fixation sequence is important for recognition memory, the influence of visually salient and semantically relevant parafoveal cues in real-world scenes decreases the necessity to fixate in the same order. These experiments combine to conclude that eye movements are neither influenced by purely top-down nor bottom-up factors, but instead a combination of both, which interact to guide attention to the most relevant parts of the picture

Eye movements and scanpaths in the perception of real-world scenes

The way we move our eyes when viewing a scene is not random, but is influenced by both bottom-up (low-level), and top-down (cognitive) factors. This Thesis investigates not only what these influences are and how they effect eye movements, but more importantly how they interact with each other to guide visual perception of real-world scenes. Experiments 1 and 2 show that the sequences of fixations and saccades - ‘scanpaths’ - generated when encoding a picture are replicated both during imagery and at recognition. Higher scanpath similarities at recognition suggest that low-level visual information plays an important role in guiding eye movements, yet the above-chance similarities at imagery argue against a purely bottom-up explanation and imply a link between eye movements and visual memory. This conclusion is supported by increased scanpath similarities when previously seen pictures are described from memory (experiment 3). When visual information is available, areas of high visual saliency attract attention and are fixated sooner than less salient regions. This effect, however, is reliably reduced when viewers possess top-down knowledge about the scene in the form of domain proficiency (experiments 4-6). Enhanced memory, as well as higher scanpath similarity, for domain-specific pictures exists at recognition, and in the absence of visual information when previously seen pictures are described from memory, but not when simply imagined (experiment 6). As well as the cognitive override of bottom-up saliency, domain knowledge also moderates the influence of top-down incongruence during scene perception (experiment 7). Object-intrinsic oddities are less likely to be fixated when participants view pictures containing other domain-relevant semantic information. The finding that viewers fixate the most informative parts of a scene was extended to investigate the presence of social (people) and emotional information, both of which were found to enhance recognition memory (experiments 8 and 9). However, the lack of relationship between string similarity and accuracy, when viewing ‘people’ pictures, challenges the idea that the reproduction of eye movements alone is enough to create this memory advantage (experiment 8). It is therefore likely that the semantically informative parts of a scene play a large role in guiding eye movements and enhancing memory for a scene. The processing of emotional features occurs at a very early stage of perception (even when they are still in the parafoveal), but once fixated only emotionally negative (not positive) features hold attention (experiment 9). The presence of these emotionally negative features also reliably decreases the influence of saliency on eye movements. Lastly, experiment 10 illustrates that although the fixation sequence is important for recognition memory, the influence of visually salient and semantically relevant parafoveal cues in real-world scenes decreases the necessity to fixate in the same order. These experiments combine to conclude that eye movements are neither influenced by purely top-down nor bottom-up factors, but instead a combination of both, which interact to guide attention to the most relevant parts of the picture