Responding to Literature Through Student–Author Interviews: Eighth-Grade Students Challenge Chris Crowe’s Mississippi Trial, 1955

This study explores virtual, student–author interviews eighth-grade students led with Chris Crowe in response to his young adult novel Mississippi Trial, 1955. The opportunity to interview the author motivated students to read the novel. Through their text-world development, students connected with the fictional and nonfictional characters, Hiram Hillburn and Emmett Till, respectively. Through their critical reader-responses, students sought truth about Emmett Till’s case as they questioned Crowe about the choices he made as an author and researcher, which supported students’ understanding of character development and historical significance of Emmett Till’s case. Crowe’s answers to the students’ critical questions were not easy, but through the student–author interview preparation and implementation process, participants captured a shared understanding of Emmett Till’s case and how its connection to the U.S. civil rights movement impacted history and is pertinent today. Ultimately, this article advocates for reader-response pedagogy to include virtual or in-person student–author interviews

Transfer Effects in Auditory Temporal Preparation Occur Using an Unfilled but not Filled Foreperiod

How quickly participants respond to a “go” after a “warning” signal is partly determined by the time between the two signals (the foreperiod) and the distribution of foreperiods. According to Multiple Trace Theory of Temporal Preparation (MTP), participants use memory traces of previous foreperiods to prepare for the upcoming go signal. If the processes underlying temporal preparation reflect general encoding and memory principles, transfer effects (the carryover effect of a previous block’s distribution of foreperiods to the current block) should be observed regardless of the sensory modality in which signals are presented. Despite convincing evidence for transfer effects in the visual domain, only weak evidence for transfer effects has been documented in the auditory domain. Three experiments were conducted to examine whether such differences in results are due to the modality of the stimulus or other procedural factors. In each experiment, two groups of participants were exposed to different foreperiod distributions in the acquisition phase and to the same foreperiod distribution in the transfer phase. Experiment 1 used a choice-reaction time (RT) task, and the warning signal remained on until the go signal, but there was no evidence for transfer effects. Experiments 2 and 3 used a simple- and choice-RT task, respectively, and there was silence between the warning and go signals. Both experiments revealed evidence for transfer effects, which suggests that transfer effects are most evident when there is no auditory stimulation between the warning and go signals

EEG Pattern Analysis for Physiological Indicators of Mental Fatigue in Simulated Air Traffic Control Tasks

Objective: This study was designed to identify potential neurophysiologic markers and patterns of mental fatigue among air traffic controllers in their work environment.Background: The monitoring of mental fatigue in air traffic controllers has been of interest as their tasks involve high cognitive workload and are also critical to the safety of the public.Method: High-density electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to record 2-hour long air traffic control studies in eleven participants. Participants were asked to perform realistic tasks in a simulation, to operate a virtual air traffic control system. Fourier Transforms were used to estimate EEG power spectrum, statistical tests were implemented to reveal EEG spatial pattern changes caused by the time-on-task. The concept of mental state transition was introduced to study the development of certain mental states which are related to the mental fatigue. Results: The observation of EEG spectral data over a period of time revealed statistically significant changes spatially localized to central and parietal cortices. Rhythmic EEG activity within theta, alpha, and beta bands indicates transitions among mental states, which appear to be promising indicators for the development of mental fatigue. Mental fatigue indicated by the transition of mental states was estimated to approximately 70 minutes after the time on task. Application: This study can build the foundation to develop promising technologies for real time monitoring of mental fatigue, which will increase public safety and proper human resource planning.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

New approaches to the analysis of eye movement behaviour across expertise while viewing brain MRIs

Abstract Brain tumour detection and diagnosis requires clinicians to inspect and analyse brain magnetic resonance images. Eye-tracking is commonly used to examine observers’ gaze behaviour during such medical image interpretation tasks, but analysis of eye movement sequences is limited. We therefore used ScanMatch, a novel technique that compares saccadic eye movement sequences, to examine the effect of expertise and diagnosis on the similarity of scanning patterns. Diagnostic accuracy was also recorded. Thirty-five participants were classified as Novices, Medics and Experts based on their level of expertise. Participants completed two brain tumour detection tasks. The first was a whole-brain task, which consisted of 60 consecutively presented slices from one patient; the second was an independent-slice detection task, which consisted of 32 independent slices from five different patients. Experts displayed the highest accuracy and sensitivity followed by Medics and then Novices in the independent-slice task. Experts showed the highest level of scanning pattern similarity, with medics engaging in the least similar scanning patterns, for both the whole-brain and independent-slice task. In the independent-slice task, scanning patterns were the least similar for false negatives across all expertise levels and most similar for experts when they responded correctly. These results demonstrate the value of using ScanMatch in the medical image perception literature. Future research adopting this tool could, for example, identify cases that yield low scanning similarity and so provide insight into why diagnostic errors occur and ultimately help in training radiologists