Assessing the impact of a construction virtual reality game on design review skills of construction student

Being able to perform an effective design review is a fundamental skill that every design or construction student should possess. Performing a design review requires critical thinking, analysis, and communication skills. To support the acquisition of these skills, this study investigated the impact of a virtual reality game, the design review simulator (DRS), in a classroom environment. To assess the impact of the game, the authors performed a crossover experiment with 120 students. The students were split into groups and were asked to perform design reviews in two treatment conditions, 2D drawings or the DRS. A knowledge test was administered at the end of different treatments to collect quantitative data on the students’ performance. Results from this research indicate that the DRS supported students in identifying a higher number of design mistakes. Furthermore, students that played with the DRS after performing 2D drawings reviews scored significantly higher in the knowledge test. The research results contribute to the growing knowledge base on the implementation of VR in the classroom and in supporting students in meeting learning objectives related to design review skills. In particular, the research illustrated that the benefits of VR found in the construction industry in terms of improved communication, user involvement, and feedback collection could be translated into the classroom environment

Emotive concept-nouns and motor responses: Attraction or repulsion?

Two experiments investigate whether the triadic interaction between objects, ourselves and other agents modulates the motor system activation during language comprehension. Participants were presented with a sentence formed by a descriptive part referring to an emotional connoted object (positive, negative) and an action part composed of an imperative verb implying a motion toward the self or toward another person (e.g., “The object is nice/ugly. Bring it toward yourself/Give it to another person”). Participants judged whether each sentence made sense by moving the mouse toward or away from their body. Results show that the direction of the performed movement is influenced by the direction of the motion implied by the sentence and by the stimuli valence. More crucially, stimulus valence had a different impact depending on the relational context described by the sentence (action involving another agent or just oneself). Implications of the results for theories of social cognition are discussed

Gabbiani rossi volano nel bianco tramonto... C’è qualcosa che non va?

none4noneV. Bazzarin; L. Freina; A.M. Borghi; R. NicolettiV. Bazzarin; L. Freina; A.M. Borghi; R. Nicolett

Emotive concept-nouns and motor responses: Attraction or repulsion?

Two experiments investigate whether the triadic interaction between objects, ourselves and other agents modulates the motor system activation during language comprehension. Participants were presented with a sentence formed by a descriptive part referring to an emotional connoted object (positive, negative) and an action part composed of an imperative verb implying a motion toward the self or toward another person (e.g., “The object is nice/ugly. Bring it toward yourself/Give it to another person”). Participants judged whether each sentence made sense by moving the mouse toward or away from their body. Results show that the direction of the performed movement is influenced by the direction of the motion implied by the sentence and by the stimuli valence. More crucially, stimulus valence had a different impact depending on the relational context described by the sentence (action involving another agent or just oneself). Implications of the results for theories of social cognition are discussed