Consciousness as Recursive, Spatiotemporal Self-Location

At the phenomenal level, consciousness arises in a consistently coherent fashion as a singular, unified field of recursive self-awareness (subjectivity) with explicitly orientational characteristics—that of a subject located both spatially and temporally in an egocentrically-extended domain. Understanding these twin elements of consciousness begins with the recognition that ultimately (and most primitively), cognitive systems serve the biological self-regulatory regime in which they subsist. The psychological structures supporting self-located subjectivity involve an evolutionary elaboration of the two basic elements necessary for extending self-regulation into behavioral interaction with the environment: an orientative reference frame which consistently structures ongoing interaction in terms of controllable spatiotemporal parameters, and processing architecture that relates behavior to homeostatic needs via feedback. Over time, constant evolutionary pressures for energy efficiency have encouraged the emergence of anticipative feedforward processing mechanisms, and the elaboration, at the apex of the sensorimotor processing hierarchy, of self-activating, highly attenuated recursively-feedforward circuitry processing the basic orientational schema independent of external action output. As the primary reference frame of active waking cognition, this recursive self-locational schema processing generates a zone of subjective self-awareness in terms of which it feels like something to be oneself here and now. This is consciousness-as-subjectivity

Digital game involvement : a conceptual model

This article proposes a conceptual model for understanding game involvement and immersion on a variety of experiential dimensions corresponding to six broad categories of game features. The article ends with a proposal to replace the metaphor of immersion with one of incorporation. This reconceptualization seeks to replace the unidirectional plunge of player into game space implied by the term immersion with one of simultaneous assimilation of the digital environment and presence to others within it.peer-reviewe

Sight, touch and 'being there': the construction of presence in selected colonial landscape representations

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.This study places research detailing the scientific and political underpinnings of the kind of viewing employed in the British landscape painting tradition against its deployment in the British colonies of South Africa and Australia. This research was used to examine how sensing ‘home’ and sensing a ‘different place’ occur. The ‘embedded’ experience of a specific landscape as exemplified by the established artistic traditions of Aboriginal and San cultures is set against the practice of a distanced, externalized viewing developed in relation to optical technologies and the detached vision required of the colonial traveller. This thesis explores three modes of relating to the landscape via representation and their construction of home. It looks in detail at British landscape representation, then at San and Aborigine representations of their experiences of the landscape. I then follow the person of Thomas Baines, an expedition artist, in order to briefly explore the confrontation of the British settler with an unfamiliar, foreign landscape in the colony. Concomitant to this exploration is the consideration of the possible sensual biases at play in the articulation of landscape. The experience of spatiality is predominantly defined in terms of sight. Touch bears on this experience not only in its literalisation in the arts as a response to ‘texture’ or emotive feeling, but it has effects beyond this, or in the depth of this, specifically its involvement in constructions of ‘proximity’. Being cultivated are degrees of sensitivity to what comes to happen in ‘close space’ – where the event occurs, one that is hoped by the settler to be reciprocal, although never fully so, to his perception at that moment. The articulation of sensuality involved in constructing landscape representation traditions offers crucial insights into how present orientations to landscape operate.MT201

Appraising the Qualities of Social Work Students’ Theoretical Knowledge: A Qualitative Exploration

Van Bommel, M., Boshuizen, H. P. A., & Kwakman, K. (2012). Appraising the qualities of social work students' theoretical knowledge: A qualitative exploration. Vocations and Learning, 5, 277-295. doi:10.1007/s12186-012-9078-9Higher professional education aims to prepare students for entering practice with an adequate theoretical body of knowledge. In constructivist programmes, authentic learning contexts and self-directed learning are assumed to support knowledge learning and the transition from education to practice. Through an in-depth exploration, this case study aimed at defining and assessing the qualities of social work students’ theoretical knowledge at initial qualification. Participants were final-year bachelor’s students (n=18) in a constructivist professional programme of social work. Students’ knowledge concerning a real-life practical case was elicited through an interview and a form of concept mapping. A six-step procedure was used for a qualitative appraisal of students’ knowledge with the assistance of seven expert teachers. During this procedure an instrument for analysing knowledge qualities was developed, comprising 13 aspects representing four features of expert knowledge: extent, depth, structure, and critical control. Results showed that 13 students received high appraisals for their knowledge extent and depth. Only 4 students received high appraisals for knowledge structure and critical control. 5 Students who received overall lower appraisals seemed inhibited to show their knowledge qualities by preoccupations with self-concerns about their own professional role. Conclusion is that the majority of students needs more learning support for knowledge structure and critical control than offered by their constructivist programme. Further research is needed into the personal factors that influence students’ theoretical knowledge learning and which knowledge qualities can be reached by young adults in a four year educational programme.Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmege

Framing Professional Learning Analytics as Reframing Oneself

Central to imagining the future of technology-enhanced professional learning is the question of how data are gathered, analyzed, and fed back to stakeholders. The field of learning analytics (LA) has emerged over the last decade at the intersection of data science, learning sciences, human-centered and instructional design, and organizational change, and so could in principle inform how data can be gathered and analyzed in ways that support professional learning. However, in contrast to formal education where most research in LA has been conducted, much work-integrated learning is experiential, social, situated, and practice-bound. Supporting such learning exposes a significant weakness in LA research, and to make sense of this gap, this article proposes an adaptation of the Knowledge-Agency Window framework. It draws attention to how different forms of professional learning locate on the dimensions of learner agency and knowledge creation. Specifically, we argue that the concept of “reframing oneself” holds particular relevance for informal, work-integrated learning. To illustrate how this insight translates into LA design for professionals, three examples are provided: first, analyzing personal and team skills profiles (skills analytics); second, making sense of challenging workplace experiences (reflective writing analytics); and third, reflecting on orientation to learning (dispositional analytics). We foreground professional agency as a key requirement for such techniques to be used effectively and ethically

Consciousness and Mental Qualities for Auditory Sensations

The contribution of recent theories of sound and audition has been extremely significant for the development of a philosophy of auditory perception; however, none tackle the question of how our consciousness of auditory states arises. My goal is to show how consciousness about our auditory experience gets triggered. I examine a range of auditory mental phenomena to show how we are able to capture qualitative distinctions of auditory sensations. I argue that our consciousness of auditory states consists in having thoughts that organize our experience. Although my proposals could be adapted to fit with other theories of consciousness, here I expand David Rosenthal’s high-order-thought theory and his quality-space theory, and show their usefulness for analyzing our auditory experience. I use quality-space to account for pitch, timbre, loudness, and sound location. I further show that our high-order-thoughts capture qualitative aspects of our auditory sensations. I conclude by demonstrating how a hypothetical listener in possession of a refined vocabulary describes and reports her high-order-thoughts about her musical experience