Proprioceptive accuracy in Immersive Virtual Reality: A developmental perspective

Proprioceptive development relies on a variety of sensory inputs, among which vision is hugely dominant. Focusing on the developmental trajectory underpinning the integration of vision and proprioception, the present research explores how this integration is involved in interactions with Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) by examining how proprioceptive accuracy is affected by Age, Perception, and Environment. Individuals from 4 to 43 years old completed a self-turning task which asked them to manually return to a previous location with different sensory modalities available in both IVR and reality. Results were interpreted from an exploratory perspective using Bayesian model comparison analysis, which allows the phenomena to be described using probabilistic statements rather than simplified reject/not-reject decisions. The most plausible model showed that 4\u20138-year-old children can generally be expected to make more proprioceptive errors than older children and adults. Across age groups, proprioceptive accuracy is higher when vision is available, and is disrupted in the visual environment provided by the IVR headset. We can conclude that proprioceptive accuracy mostly develops during the first eight years of life and that it relies largely on vision. Moreover, our findings indicate that this proprioceptive accuracy can be disrupted by the use of an IVR headset

Evaluating the Impact of Intersecting Research and Outreach Marine Science Programs on Elementary and Undergraduate Students

Climate change is one of the most destructive forces our ocean is currently experiencing. Despite this, many students are not taught the basics of climate change science and ocean literacy in public school systems. My work seeks to combat these deficits through educational experiences in marine science for undergraduate and local elementary students through three studies incorporating marine-science based research and outreach. (1) Through undergraduate marine science research and outreach, students enrolled for long durations or with positive mentorship increased their conceptual understanding of marine science concepts, altered their attitudes towards climate change and science, and were more likely to pursue STEM careers. (2) In an online marine science, project-based learning (PBL) setting, undergraduates increased their conceptual understanding and developed vital research and communication skills, although their attitudes towards science and climate change did not change. (3) Finally, elementary students engaged in citizen science did not exhibit any changes in their science identity or conceptual understanding, although more data is needed to fully interpret these findings. Collectively, these studies show that experiential learning can be an effective way to integrate students into marine science and help them understand the impacts of climate change. However, further research is needed to understand if PBL and citizen science specifically can be used to change student understanding and attitudes

Spatial Cognition in Children With Physical Disability; What Is the Impact of Restricted Independent Exploration?

Given the developmental inter-relationship between motor ability and spatial skills, we investigated the impact of physical disability (PD) on spatial cognition. Fifty-three children with special educational needs including PD were divided into those who were wheelchair users (n = 34) and those with independent locomotion ability (n = 19). This division additionally enabled us to determine the impact of limited independent physical exploration (i.e., required wheelchair use) on spatial competence. We compared the spatial performance of children in these two PD groups to that of typically developing (TD) children who spanned the range of non-verbal ability of the PD groups. Participants completed three spatial tasks; a mental rotation task, a spatial programming task and a desktop virtual reality (VR) navigation task. Levels of impairment of the PD groups were broadly commensurate with their overall level of non-verbal ability. The exception to this was the performance of the PD wheelchair group on the mental rotation task, which was below that expected for their level of non-verbal ability. Group differences in approach to the spatial programming task were evident in that both PD groups showed a different error pattern from the TD group. These findings suggested that for children with both learning difficulties and PD, the unique developmental impact on spatial ability of having physical disabilities, over and above the impact of any learning difficulties, is minimal

Cinematic Voyages: Québécois Transnational Filmmaking and Cuban Domesticity

This dissertation follows scholarship on transnational film studies, tourism studies, and film and media ethnography to examine Québécois feature films that directly address the issue of international tourism to the island while proposing alternatives to both translocal filmmaking and touristic practices. I investigate the involvement of domestic hospitality businesses in Cuba (paladares, private restaurants located in family households, and casas particulares, bed-and-breakfast-type hostels) as unofficial partners in transnational film productions between Québec and Cuba, namely in the films All you can eat Buddha (Ian Lagarde, 2017), Cuba Merci Gracias (Alex B. Martin, 2018) and Sur les toits Havane (Pedro Ruiz, 2019). I contend that these films constitute cinematic voyages, i.e., the intuitive application of entrepreneurial tactics to leisure and cultural travels, personal affective relations, and domestic spaces and activities in Cuba towards the completion of independent transnational film projects. Each chapter foregrounds Cuban domesticity in the different capacities it interacts with foreign film and media productions originating from Québec. The first chapter traces the antecedents of these practices and how domesticity appears as an infrastructure and thematic preoccupation that propitiates grassroots forms of cultural diplomacy based predominantly on the creative labor of migrant women. The second chapter examines the flexibility of casas particulares in Cuba as they develop skills, adapt their spaces, and employ local knowledges and workforces to meet the needs of foreign film enterprises. This flexibility results from performing multiple gestures of transborder and transcultural, gendered identifications, acts of solidarity and material care between otherwise unrelated laboring subjects working on location. In the third chapter, I analyze a Québécois road movie and how it turns the domestic into a gendered transnational social space with a matrifocal character. The fourth chapter argues that the process of Latinx-Québécois transnational filmmaking exists in a continuum with the spectral position imposed by the Cuban socialist regime on homosexual identities, transcultural/multiracial affective and sexual arrangements, private tourism venues, and para-legal domestic practices. I contend that latinidad/latinité in Québec and queer/alternative domesticities in Cuba appear as translocal objects negotiated and refashioned through a distinctive Afro-Queer-Caribbean positionality against their respective hostile environments