A Vision of Scientific Communication

Chapter in the book The Future of Scholarly Publishing: Open Access and the Economics of Digitisation

Microsaccade-induced prolongation of saccade latencies depends on microsaccade amplitude

Fixations consist of small movements including microsaccades, i.e., rapid flicks in eye position that replace the retinal image by up to 1 degree of visual angle. Recently, we showed in a delayed-saccade task (1) that the rate of microsaccades decreased in the course of saccade preparation and (2) that microsaccades occurring around the time of a go signal were associated with prolonged saccade latencies (Rolfs et al., 2006). A re-analysis of the same data set revealed a strong dependence of these findings on microsaccade amplitude. First, microsaccade amplitude dropped to a minimum just before the generation of a saccade. Second, the delay of response saccades was a function of microsaccade amplitude: Microsaccades with larger amplitudes were followed by longer response latencies. These finding were predicted by a recently proposed model that attributes microsaccade generation to fixation-related activity in a saccadic motor map that is in competition with the generation of large saccades (Rolfs et al., 2008). We propose, therefore, that microsaccade statistics provide a behavioral correlate of fixation-related activity in the oculomotor system

Conditional co-occurrence probability acts like frequency in predicting fixation durations

The predictability of an upcoming word has been found to be a useful predictor in eye movement research, but is expensive to collect and subjective in nature. It would be desirable to have other predictors that are easier to collect and objective in nature if these predictors were capable of capturing the information stored in predictability. This paper contributes to this discussion by testing a possible predictor: conditional co-occurrence probability. This measure is a simple statistical representation of the relatedness of the current word to its context, based only on word co-occurrence patterns in data taken from the Internet. In the regression analyses, conditional co-occurrence probability acts like lexical frequency in predicting fixation durations, and its addition does not greatly improve the model fits. We conclude that readers do not seem to use the information contained within conditional co-occurrence probability during reading for meaning, and that similar simple measures of semantic relatedness are unlikely to be able to replace predictability as a predictor for fixation durations. Keywords: Co-occurrence probability, Cloze predictability, frequency, eye movement, fixation duration

Justice judgements of student-teacher-interactions in inclusive classrooms—an experimental study considering special needs

Gerechtigkeitserleben spielt eine zentrale Rolle für produktives Wohlbefinden in der Schule und trägt zum Zugehörigkeitsgefühl bei. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht in einem experimentellen Design, wie die Berücksichtigung sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarfe im Sinne des Bedarfsprinzips Gerechtigkeitsbeurteilungen von SchülerInnen-Lehrkraft-Interaktionen beeinflusst. Eine Stichprobe von 275 Lehramtsstudierenden gab an, wie gerecht sie die in Textvignetten beschriebenen Unterrichtssituationen beurteilte. Es zeigte sich ein bedeutsamer Einfluss des Vorhandenseins sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarfe im „Förderschwerpunkt emotionale-soziale Entwicklung“ sowie ein signifikanter Einfluss aus der Kombination von Förderbedarfen im Bereich „Lernen“ und des gerechtigkeitstheoretischen Fokus’ der Vignetten (Verteilungsfragen oder zwischenmenschliche Gerechtigkeitsfragen). Eine Nichtbeachtung des Bedarfsprinzips in inklusiven Unterrichtssituationen führte tendenziell zu einer weniger gerechten Unterrichtswahrnehmung. Eine zusätzliche Information über eine explizite Diagnose beeinflusste die Gerechtigkeitsurteile der Befragten nicht. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass das Bedarfsprinzip in der Beurteilung schulischer Interaktionen bereits bei Lehramtsstudierenden eine Rolle spielt.The perceived justice of interactions is especially important in inclusive classrooms as it fosters the students’ sense of belonging and community. In an experimental design, the present study examines how the perception of special educational needs influences the justice judgements of student-teacher-interactions in terms of the principle of need. A sample of 275 student teachers assessed the perceived justice of classroom situations described in text vignettes. There was a significant influence of the student’s special educational need on justice ratings, specifically behaviorally problems as well as a significant influence from the combination of learning difficulties and the theoretical focus on justice of the vignettes (distributive justice or interpersonal justice). Results indicated that a disregard of the need principle in inclusive teaching situations can lead to a lower justice rating of student teacher interactions. Additional information about a diagnosis did not influence the justice judgements of the participants. The results suggest that teacher students already apply the principle of need when assessing interactions in school.Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1034)Peer Reviewe