Regardless of intelligence, expertise or field, the types of human errors holding back research advancement are much the same

How do you measure the social impact of human error? Research is not immune from failed reasoning directly or indirectly resulting in negative impact. But experts’ knowledge isn’t always explicit or easily accessible. Gordon Rugg outlines the Verifier approach as a method for analysing expert reasoning. Human beings make much the same types of error regardless of their intelligence, expertise and field and this is demonstrated by applying the Verifier approach to previously undecipherable manuscripts

Navigating Knowledge: Nifty Tools for Nimble Networked Learning Researchers

In this workshop, we will demonstrate four research tools: 1) card sorting, 2) upward laddering, 3) think-aloud, and 4) a search visualizer.  Card sorting can be useful as an exploratory knowledge modelling method to gain insight into people’s understanding of their surrounding world. Derived from Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory (PCT) (Kelly, 1955, Herd, 2001), card sorting can help to explore peoples’ constructs and their perceptions of how the constructs relate to each other; in other words, card sorting can help to elucidate mental frameworks. Although there are many kinds of card sorting, we will guide participants through a hands-on exercise using single-criterion card sorting (using both digital and in person techniques). Participants will learn about text-based, image-based, and object-based options, when to use card sorting, how to collect data, and how to analyse card sorting data through visual-numeric ‘heat maps’ (co-occurrence matrices). The card sorting exercise will lead into upward laddering, a technique that is often used to complement card sorting. While card sorting provides evidence of how constructs are related, upward laddering allows exploration into goals and values (Rugg & Gerrard, 2023).  Workshop participants will have an opportunity to access a simple, robust, newly created online tool for upward laddering. Also used alongside card sorting is the think-aloud method which involves both observation to see how people perform a task and think-aloud to hear what people are thinking and noticing while they perform the task. This inexpensive, easy-to-use method allows researchers to tap into reasons and tacit knowledge. The fourth tool we will demonstrate is a newly launched search visualiser (SV). Using keywords, this search tool allows researchers to comb through specific databases and/or to access Google results. Rather than simply return a list of links to articles, the SV returns a visual depiction of the keywords within each text. Each key word is represented as a coloured square. A user can hover their mouse pointer over a given square to see the phrase within which the word appears. Using this tool, researchers can get a better, visual sense of whether the article is likely to offer useful content. There is now a version with audio for visually impaired users as well as a version that can explore synonyms to support textual-literary analysis.

Unveiling community needs and aspirations: card sorting as a research method for developing digital learning spaces

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Rhapsode. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.12973/ijem.10.4.609This pilot study is part of a larger “Decolonization of Digital Learning Spaces” project, which aims to develop research tools for communities that are remote and/or excluded geographically, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and linguistically. The project’s ultimate goal is to work alongside these communities to design their own digital learning tools, networks, and online educational environments by accessing and leveraging their knowledge and skills. Testing the single-criterion card sorting method is the first step toward this goal. Card sorting is an easy, enjoyable, and cost-effective method for data collection and analysis, particularly for researchers working in remote areas with limited access to electricity or the Internet. The pilot explored singlecriterion card sorting as a method to elicit knowledge from two diverse cultural and linguistic groups engaged in learning activities within their communities. These groups were from a Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community in Canada (engaged in a bowmaking workshop) and a rural Kabyle community in Algeria (engaged in a traditional cooking lesson). Despite low participant numbers, distinct patterns emerged, indicating the method's effectiveness. The results, though anticipated, were non-random, demonstrating the potential of card sorting in producing patterns indicative of how individuals and/or communities categorize their world(s). Kabyle sortings focused on ingredients, highlighting older individuals as teachers passing along knowledge, while the DHH sortings emphasized face-to-face contact and hand movements in communication. The findings, though modest, established relationships, provided insights into the research context and offered logistical understanding, paving the way for further work with DHH and Kabyle communities towards the design of digital learning spaces.This project is funded through a Partnership Pilot grant awarded through the Vice Provost, Research, University of Saskatchewan (ID #357122).Accepted versio

Knowledge Infrastructure

In this article, we outline the concept of knowledge infrastructure and describe how it differs from Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, with particular regard to the implications for education theory, practice and policy. We examine the inherent limits to growth for attempts to handle knowledge, as opposed to information, via the types of software and hardware likely to be available in the next few decades. We show how a simple process model can be used to identify pinch points where knowledge, as opposed to information, is a bottleneck. We also show how a simple model of knowledge types and knowledge locations can be combined with the process model to remove those bottlenecks via existing low-cost technology and a more efficient use of existing human expertise. We conclude that a minimal investment in knowledge infrastructure would provide significant human, social and economic benefits, by creating major added value from existing digital and organisational infrastructure

Effects of age on goal-dependent modulation of episodic memory retrieval

Retrieval gating refers to the ability to modulate the retrieval of features of a single memory episode according to behavioral goals. Recent findings demonstrate that younger adults engage retrieval gating by attenuating the representation of task-irrelevant features of an episode. Here, we examine whether retrieval gating varies with age. Younger and older adults incidentally encoded words superimposed over scenes or scrambled backgrounds that were displayed in one of three spatial locations. Participants subsequently underwent fMRI as they completed two memory tasks: the background task, which tested memory for the word's background, and the location task, testing memory for the word's location. Employing univariate and multivariate approaches, we demonstrated that younger, but not older adults, exhibited attenuated reinstatement of scene information when it was goal-irrelevant (during the location task). Additionally, in younger adults only, the strength of scene reinstatement in the parahippocampal place area during the background task was related to item and source memory performance. Together, these findings point to an age-related decline in the ability to engage retrieval gating

Affect Recognition using Psychophysiological Correlates in High Intensity VR Exergaming

User experience estimation of VR exergame players by recognising their affective state could enable us to personalise and optimise their experience. Affect recognition based on psychophysiological measurements has been successful for moderate intensity activities. High intensity VR exergames pose challenges as the effects of exercise and VR headsets interfere with those measurements. We present two experiments that investigate the use of different sensors for affect recognition in a VR exergame. The first experiment compares the impact of physical exertion and gamification on psychophysiological measurements during rest, conventional exercise, VR exergaming, and sedentary VR gaming. The second experiment compares underwhelming, overwhelming and optimal VR exergaming scenarios. We identify gaze fixations, eye blinks, pupil diameter and skin conductivity as psychophysiological measures suitable for affect recognition in VR exergaming and analyse their utility in determining affective valence and arousal. Our findings provide guidelines for researchers of affective VR exergames.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665992 </p

The unwritten rules of PhD research

This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention