Assessing the effectiveness of direct gesture interaction for a safety critical maritime application

Multi-touch interaction, in particular multi-touch gesture interaction, is widely believed to give a more natural interaction style. We investigated the utility of multi-touch interaction in the safety critical domain of maritime dynamic positioning (DP) vessels. We conducted initial paper prototyping with domain experts to gain an insight into natural gestures; we then conducted observational studies aboard a DP vessel during operational duties and two rounds of formal evaluation of prototypes - the second on a motion platform ship simulator. Despite following a careful user-centred design process, the final results show that traditional touch-screen button and menu interaction was quicker and less erroneous than gestures. Furthermore, the moving environment accentuated this difference and we observed initial use problems and handedness asymmetries on some multi-touch gestures. On the positive side, our results showed that users were able to suspend gestural interaction more naturally, thus improving situational awareness

Targeting the expressive language of children with Down syndrome who are minimally verbal : bridging research and practice

textChildren with Down syndrome present with an array of physical and cognitive sequelae that can hinder speech and language development. These individuals can constitute a considerable portion of a speech-language pathologist’s caseload. Based on the principles of best evidence, clinicians are ethically responsible for providing the most effective treatment for their clients. The available literature focuses mainly on describing the linguistic characteristics in this population, while relatively less focus is placed on effective intervention programs. This paper investigates the available evidence regarding speech and language interventions for children with Down syndrome who are in the mild to moderate range of linguistic functioning, and provides an outlook for future research based on best evidence.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Don't look now... I'm trying to think

What was the name of your first headteacher? Stop and think for a while... did you just look to the heavens for the answer? During difficult cognitive activity, for example remembering information, thinking of an answer to a question, planning what we are going to say, and speaking, we often close our eyes, look up at the sky, or look away from the person we are in conversation with. Adults are very good at switching off from environmental stimulation (both live faces and other sorts of visual display) in order to concentrate better. Until recently we knew very little about whether children use gaze aversion in a similar way. This is a potentially important omission, since the efficiency with which children process information influences many aspects of their development, including school progress. In this article I'll describe what our research team at stirling has been doing to investigate children's gaze aversion, including past and current work. children's patterns of gaze promise to yield important cues to their thinking, concentration and mental processing that will be useful to paretns, teachers, psychologists and anyone engaged in assessing children's knowledge and development

How to study the mind: An introduction to embodied cognition

Embodied Cognition (EC) is a comprehensive approach to, and framework for, the study of the mind. EC treats cognition as a coordinated set of tools evolved by organisms for coping with their environments. Each of the key terms in this characterization-tool, evolved, organism, coping, and environment-has a special significance for understanding the mind that is discussed in this article

The nature of gestures’ beneficial role in spatial problem solving

Peer reviewedPostprin