Visual Models for Social Media Image Analysis: Groupings, Engagement, Trends, and Rankings

With social media image analysis, one collects and interprets online images for the study of topical affairs. This analytical undertaking requires formats for displaying collections of images that enable their inspection. First, we discuss features of social media images to make a case for studying them in groups (rather than individually): multiplicity, circulation, modification, networkedness, and platform specificity. In all, these offer reasons and means for an approach to social media image research that privileges the collection of images as its analytical object. Second, taking the 2019 Amazon rainforest fires as a case study, we present four visual models for analyzing collections of social media images. Each visual model matches a distinctive spatial arrangement with a type of analysis: grouping images by theme with clusters, surfacing dominant images and their engagement with treemaps, following image trends with plots, and comparing image rankings across platforms with grids

The Power of Imagination and Perspective in Learning From Science Text

In 2 experiments, college students read a 4-paragraph text on how the human circulatory system works and were instructed to form a mental image of the events described in each paragraph from the perspective of their own body (first-person perspective group) or from the perspective of a fictitious person facing them (third-person perspective group), or were given no imagination instructions (control group). Students who imagined from a first-person perspective outperformed the control group on solving transfer problems, retaining important material, and not retaining unimportant material in Experiments 1 and 2, confirming the benefits of combining imagination and perspective into a powerful learning strategy. Students who imagined from a first-person perspective outperformed students who imagined from a third-person perspective on solving transfer problems in Experiments 1 and 2, indicating the value of adding first-person perspective to imagination for fostering deeper understanding. Students who imagined from a third-person perspective outperformed the control group on solving transfer problems and on not retaining unimportant material in Experiment 1 (which included specific prompts for which items to include in one's images), whereas they did not perform significantly better than the control group on any measures in Experiment 2 (which did not include specific prompts). This finding suggests that imagination without first-person perspective can be ineffective when there is not support for imagining during learning. These findings have theoretical implications for the role of embodiment in generative learning theory, and practical implications for modifying the imagination principle to recommend imagining from a first-person perspective

Cognitive processing of spatial relations in Euclidean diagrams

Health and self-regulatio

Diagrams of the past: How timelines can aid the growth of historical knowledge

Historians occasionally use timelines, but many seem to regard such signs merely as ways of visually summarizing results that are presumably better expressed in prose. Challenging this language-centered view, I suggest that timelines might assist the generation of novel historical insights. To show this, I begin by looking at studies confirming the cognitive benefits of diagrams like timelines. I then try to survey the remarkable diversity of timelines by analyzing actual examples. Finally, having conveyed this (mostly untapped) potential, I argue that neglecting timelines might mean neglecting significant aspects of reality that are revealed only by those signs. My overall message is that once we accept that relations are as important for the mind as what they relate, we have to pay closer attention to any semiotic device that enables or facilitates the discernment of new relations

Pensar o lugar: a apropriação mental na conceção do espaço

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em ArquiteturaEsta dissertação apresenta os resultados de um projeto de investigação centrado na problemática da cognição espacial, assente na análise da relação ativa entre o ser humano e o espaço, procurando identificar possíveis mecanismos mentais facilitadores da apreensão do espaço e da arquitetura. Na primeira parte, procura-se fazer um enquadramento de conceitos gerais – espaço, perceção e memória - para a compreensão dos demais capítulos. De modo cronológico, é feita uma revisão da literatura considerada relevante para a elaboração de um estado da arte sintetizado sobre estes conceitos. A segunda parte consiste numa análise mais aprofundada da memória, especificamente no processo de construção pessoal e espacial do sujeito. De forma resumida, é abordado o tema da experiência enquanto catalisador da formação de conhecimento sobre o espaço, o seu papel na construção identitária do indivíduo, e, consequentemente, na produção de conhecimento, sobretudo na área da arquitetura. Na terceira parte do trabalho, procura-se compreender como a relação entre espaço, tempo e memória produzem o conceito de ‘deformação espacial’; de que forma a carga sentimental e a sensação afetam esta apropriação; e o impacto das perceções e representações de determinada realidade no processo cognitivo e criativo. De seguida, na quarta parte, disserta-se sobre a utilização de tecnologias de informação e comunicação e os seus efeitos na alteração e no condicionamento da perceção do lugar que, por sua vez, afetam o estudo e a conceção de arquitetura. No derradeiro capítulo apresenta-se o resultado de um estudo, que procura explicar de que modo a ocupação, carreira ou atividade afetam a cognição espacial, descodificando diferentes formas de pensar e descrever o espaço, destacando, de forma particular, as dissemelhanças entre arquitetos e outros profissionais.This dissertation presents the results of a research project whose central axis is spatial cognition, based on the analysis of the active relation between human beings and space, trying to identify possible mental mechanisms that facilitate the apprehension of space and architecture. In the first part, the aim is to make a contextualization of general concepts – space, perception and memory – for the understanding of the following chapters. Chronologically, a review is made of the literature considered relevant for the elaboration of a synthesized state of the art on these concepts. The second part consists in a deeper analysis of memory, specifically in the process of personal and spatial construction of the subject. In brief, the topic is experience as a catalyst for the formation of knowledge about space, its role in the identity construction of the individual, and, consequently, in the production of knowledge, especially in architecture. In the third part of the paper, the purpose is to understand how the relation between space, time and memory produce the concept of ‘spatial deformation’; how the sentimental burden and sensation affect this appropriation, and the impact of the perceptions and representations of a given reality on the cognitive and creative process. Then, in the fourth part, we discourse on the use of information and communication technologies and their effects on the alteration and conditioning of perception of places that, in turn, affect the study and creation of architecture. In the last chapter, results of a study are presented, aiming to explain in which way occupation, career or activity affects spatial cognition, decoding different ways of thinking and describing space, and highlighting, in a specific way, the dissimilarities between architects and other professionals

The Prefrontal Cortex and Neurological Impairments of Active Thought

This article reviews the effects of lesions to the frontal cortex on the ability to carry out active thought, namely, to reason, think flexibly, produce strategies, and formulate and realize plans. We discuss how and why relevant neuropsychological studies should be carried out. The relationships between active thought and both intelligence and language are considered. The following basic processes necessary for effective active thought are reviewed: concentration, set switching, inhibiting potentiated responses, and monitoring and checking. Different forms of active thought are then addressed: abstraction, deduction, reasoning in well-structured and ill-structured problem spaces, novel strategy generation, and planning. We conclude that neuropsychological findings are valuable for providing information on systems rather than networks, especially information concerning prefrontal lateralization of function. We present a synthesis of the respective roles of the left and right lateral prefrontal cortex in active thought

Las bases neurales de la deducción elemental y su cambio con la edad. Estudio eléctrico cerebral de la implicación lógica de primer orden = The neural bases of elementary deduction and its change with age. Brain electrical study of first order logical implication

221 p.Introducción. La inferencia deductiva se puede entender desde una perspectiva flexible o restrictiva. En esta investigación se opta por la segunda, que se caracteriza por considerar la validez como una característica necesaria y suficiente para hablar de razonamiento deductivo. Objetivo. El objeto de esta Tesis Doctoral persigue estudiar los tres niveles de análisis del fenómeno de razonamiento deductivo: nivel físico, algorítmico y computacional. Metodología. Para llevar a cabo este trabajo, la investigación se estructura en tres grandes secciones. 1. Identificar las variables que conforman la medida de razonamiento deductivo a partir de una revisión sistemática de test psicológicos. 2. Diseño de un paradigma congruente/incongruente para identificar, si es posible, un potencial evocado asociado al razonamiento deductivo. 3. Finalmente, se propone el diseño y aplicación de un programa de entrenamiento en razonamiento deductivo a adultos jóvenes y mayores. Además, se evalúa el efecto del programa en el procesamiento cognitivo y cerebral. Resultados. Se recopilan en tres artículos científicos. En el primero de ellos se validó un instrumento de medida psicológica para el razonamiento deductivo. El test constaba de 60 ítems categorizados en: formalidad, integrabilidad, complejidad y modalidad. La fiabilidad del test de razonamiento deductivo obtuvo un alpha de Cronbach .775 y un índice de validación .850 en el nivel de inteligencia no verbal. En el segundo, se constató un reprocesamiento en tareas de razonamiento deductivo asociadas a un potencial N400 y P600. Finalmente, se verificó el efecto psicológico y cerebral de un programa de entrenamiento de razonamiento deductivo. En particular, después del entrenamiento, en el grupo de adultos jóvenes se focaliza la activación de la actividad cerebral en el lóbulo frontal izquierdo mientras que en el grupo de adultos mayores se genera activación bilateral en áreas frontales y occipitales. Además, tanto en el grupo de adultos jóvenes como en el grupo de adultos mayores, después del entrenamiento se confirma un incremento en el número de aciertos de las tareas de razonamiento (40% y 20% respectivamente) y un incremento de los tiempos de reacción (1000 ms y 178 ms respectivamente). Conclusiones. Este trabajo de investigación resuelve en parte el concepto metafórico de procesamiento del razonamiento deductivo a nivel psicológico y cerebral. A nivel psicológico, el procesamiento se operativiza a partir de las variables cómo formalidad, integrabilidad, complejidad y modalidad. A nivel cerebral, se operativiza con los operadores lógicos de identidad, repetición, orden y negación. Dado que los resultados ponen de manifiesto que no existen recursos explícitos para representar la negación, se puede decir que a nivel cerebral hay indicios de semicomputabilidad en lugar de computabilidad. En futuras investigaciones, se hace necesario replicar los resultados en soportes lingüísticos y agentuales. Además, corrobar los hallazgos de esta investigación con técnicas de neuroimagen con mayor resolución espacial

Can humain association norm evaluate latent semantic analysis?

This paper presents the comparison of word association norm created by a psycholinguistic experiment to association lists generated by algorithms operating on text corpora. We compare lists generated by Church and Hanks algorithm and lists generated by LSA algorithm. An argument is presented on how those automatically generated lists reflect real semantic relations