Using video games to study the acquisition and performance of psychomotor skills

Understanding how humans learn complex skills is a fundamental aim of cognitive science. Digital games offer promising opportunities to study cognitive factors associated with skill acquisition and performance, as they motivate longitudinal engagement and produce rich, multivariate data sets. By applying mutlivariate analysis techniques to data arising from gameplay, this thesis extended the literature on cognition as it pertains to psychomotor skill. We describe three studies that were conducted in this regard. In the first study, we analyzed the relationship between the temporal distribution of play instances and performance in a commercial digital game (League of Legends). Using clustering techniques and big data, we demonstrated that players who cram gameplay into short time frames ultimately perform worse than those who space the same number of games over longer periods. In the second study, we examined an experimental data set of participants who played Meta-T, a laboratory version of Tetris. Using Principal Components Analysis and regression techniques, we identified cognitive-behavioural markers of performance, such as action-latency and motor coordination. We also applied Hidden Markov models (HMM) to time series of these markers, showing that moment-to-moment dynamics in performance can be segmented into behavioural states related to latent psychological states. In the third study, we investigated the neural correlates of behavioural states during performance. Using simultaneous MEG and behavioural recordings of participants playing Tetris, we segmented time series datasets of neural activity based on time stamps of behavioural epochs derived from HMMs. We compared behavioural epochs based on neural markers, showing that cognitive states derived from multivariate behavioural data correlate with neural activity in the alpha band power. Taken together, this thesis advances our understanding of using digital game data to study cognition and learning. It demonstrates the feasibility of recording high-density neuroimaging data during complex behavioural tasks and obtaining reliable measures of internal neuronal states during complex behaviour

Use of virtual reality environments to improve the learning of historical chronology.

Past evidence suggest that people acquire poor understanding of chronology during their education, and studies such as that of Masterman and Rogers (Instructional Science, 30, 2002) have suggested that technology might be employed to improve history teaching. The difficulty that children have with the concepts of time and chronology arise probably because of their abstract nature, and teachers indicated in questionnaire responses that they would welcome the availability of effective history teaching paradigms. A pioneering attempt was made to exploit a new paradigm, Virtual Environment (VE) technology that ought to engage high-capacity spatial memory, to improve participants’ learning of chronology. Three age groups (undergraduates, middle school, and primary school children) were trained in virtual space to learn sequences of events, visited successively as though travelling in a time machine. Controls saw the same events but as paper text/pictures or as PowerPoint slides. In the initial part of the project one nine-item time line was used. Undergraduates remembered more when tested immediately after training with a VE, especially when challenged to remember each up-coming event. Primary school children in UK, and Ukraine, (with, and without, regular computer experience) also did so, when provided with adequate pre-training with the medium. Only middle school children persistently failed to benefit from VE training, despite the use of a variety of materials and despite repeated training after one month on one occasion. Two and three parallel timelines were employed, depicting music and art history, and the history of psychology, art and general history, respectively. A substantial benefit was seen when undergraduates used a large spatial environment which allowed them to view across three parallel timelines. It was concluded that VEs have potential as a means of imparting better chronological knowledge than other media so long as they are sufficiently challenging. Alternative paradigms need to be developed which improve the longevity of historical learning from VEs

Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: Executive Guide

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities awaiting anyone in the field who wants to put intellectual property to work. This multi-volume work contains 153 chapters on a full range of IP topics and over 50 case studies, composed by over 200 authors from North, South, East, and West. If you are a policymaker, a senior administrator, a technology transfer manager, or a scientist, we invite you to use the companion site guide available at http://www.iphandbook.org/index.html The site guide distills the key points of each IP topic covered by the Handbook into simple language and places it in the context of evolving best practices specific to your professional role within the overall picture of IP management

Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices, Vol. 1

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities awaiting anyone in the field who wants to put intellectual property to work. This multi-volume work contains 153 chapters on a full range of IP topics and over 50 case studies, composed by over 200 authors from North, South, East, and West. If you are a policymaker, a senior administrator, a technology transfer manager, or a scientist, we invite you to use the companion site guide available at http://www.iphandbook.org/index.html The site guide distills the key points of each IP topic covered by the Handbook into simple language and places it in the context of evolving best practices specific to your professional role within the overall picture of IP management

Multimetal smithing : An urban craft in rural settings?

Multimetal smithing should be defined as the use of more than one metal and/or different metalworking techniques within thesame crafts-milieu. This complex metalworking has long been linked to centrality, central places and urbanity in Scandinavia.It has been extensively argued that fine casting and smithing, as well as manufacture utilizing precious metals was exclusivelyundertaken within early urban settings or the “central places” pre-dating these. Furthermore, the presence of complex metalcraftsmanship has been used as a driving indicator of the political, social and economic superiority of certain sites, therebyenhancing their identity as “centralities”.Recent research has come to challenge the universality of this link between urbanity, centrality and complex metalworkingas sites in rural settings with evidence of multimetal smithing are being identified. This shows that the relationship between thecraft and centrality (urbanity) must be nuanced and that perhaps multimetal craftsmanship should be reconsidered as an urbanindicator.The thesis project “From Crucible and onto Anvil” started in 2015 and focuses on sites housing remains of multimetalcraftsmanship dating primarily from 500-1000 AD. Within the project a comprehensive survey of sites will be used to evaluate thepresence of multimetal craftsmanship in the landscape. Sites in selected target areas will also be subject to intra-site analysisfocusing on workshop organisation, production output, metalworking techniques and chronological variances.A key aim in the project is to elucidate the conceptual aspects of complex metalworking. The term multimetality is used toanalytically frame all the societal and economic aspects of multimetal craftsmanship. Through this inclusive perspective both thecraftsmanship and the metalworkers behind it are positioned within the overall socioeconomic framework. The metalworkers,their skills and competences as well as the products of their labour are viewed as dynamic actors in the landscape and on thearenas of political economy of the Late Iron Age.The survey has already revealed interesting aspects concerning multimetal smithing and urbanity. Although the multimetalsites do cluster against areas of early urban development there are also other patterns emerging. Multimetal craftsmanship – both as practice and concept – was well represented in both rural peripheral settings and urban crafts-milieus. This means that therole of multimetality as part of an “urban conceptual package” is crucial to investigate. Such an approach will have the dual endsof properly understanding the craft and its societal implications, but also further the knowledge of the phenomenon of urbanityas a whole. Was multimetal smithing part of an “urban package” that spread into the rural landscape? Did the multimetality differbetween urban and rural crafts-milieus? How does early urbanity relate to the chronology of multimetal craftsmanship?This paper aims to counter these questions using examples from the survey of multimetal sites conducted within the thesisproject. A comparison between selected sites will be presented. The purpose of this is to evaluate the role of multimetality withinthe “urban package” and discuss the role of complex metalworking in the establishment of urban arenas of interaction in LateIron Age Scandinavia

Optimo piscatu, Fish and fish-related finds from Roman Southern Pannonia and Upper Moesia as the evidence of global trade and local customs

Literary, documentary, and archaeological sources for fish preservation and fishing during the Roman period are quite big but the story about fish, fishing and imports of fish products in Pannonia and Moesia is untold. Fishing and fish processing are culturally defined, its context is complex and aspects of the economic significance are multilayered. A significant number of Roman fishing implements from Siscia, a representative amount of fish remains from Viminacium and evidence gathered from amphorae and pottery from both provinces present the basis for understanding its economic role. The social context of consumption of fish and fish products can be seen in the light of the global trade (e.g. Hispanic garum documented by amphorae) and the local customs (freshwater fish remains within the archaeological context). Analysis of fish and fish-related finds are excellent tool for understanding the long distance trade and local supply, as well as data on the nutrition of different classes within society of Roman provinces

Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires

What is the role of the material world in shaping the tensions and paradoxes of imperial sovereignty? Scholars have long shone light on the complex processes of conquest, extraction, and colonialism under imperial rule. But imperialism has usually been cast as an exclusively human drama, one in which the world of matter does not play an active role. Lori Khatchadourian argues instead that things—from everyday objects to monumental buildings—profoundly shape social and political life under empire. Based on the archaeology of ancient Persia and the South Caucasus, Imperial Matter advances powerful new analytical approaches to the study of imperialism writ large and should be read by scholars of empire across the humanities and social sciences

Speaking of faith at work: towards a trinitarian hermeneutic

This thesis presents a theological exploration of the problems and potentialities of speaking about Christian faith in the context of working life. It is based on a qualitative investigation of the experience of Christians working in secular institutions. The argument is that the discursive interface between work and worship raises critical questions of identity, of power and of language which challenge the integrity of Christian discipleship. The practice of articulating faith-talk in the working context is analyzed in the light of a trinitarian hermeneutic. The thesis addresses the practical theological question: How may a Christian speak adequately and appropriately of their faith at work? This question is explored through an integration of qualitative-representational analysis and theological-evaluative critique. An ethnographic method is developed, based on extended immersion in the field of secular work, and focused in a series of research conversations and reflective meetings. Analyzed from the perspective of a Christian woman who has struggled and continues to struggle to forge an adequate and contextual articulation of faith in workplace settings, the problematic is described through the metaphor of ‘a life in two languages’. A faithful resolution of the problem is approached through the contextual discovery of three trinitarian practices: of engagement, fluency and communion. The thesis makes a contribution to academic knowledge in the practical theology of working life. By addressing the communicative dimension of working life, and exploring the experience of Christians in the workplace using the resources of cultural theory and discourse analysis, the thesis presents a contemporary and practical perspective on work. In a field which attracts a large volume of popular and motivational writing, the study contributes a sustained and critical reflection and offers a creative map for interpreting the challenge of Christian witness at work in the light of a trinitarian understanding of faithful practice