Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Asian Studies Scholars

Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services Program investigates how the research support needs of scholars vary by discipline and includes reports on history, chemistry, art history, religious studies, agriculture, and public health. In 2017-2018, Ithaka S+R examined the changing research methods and practices of Asian studies scholars conducting research through U.S. institutions. This project was undertaken collaboratively with research teams at 11 academic libraries with the goal of identifying services to better support Asian studies scholars. This report aims to provide actionable findings for the organizations, institutions, and professionals who support the research process of Asian studies scholars. One hundred and sixty-nine scholars were interviewed during the project, and Ithaka S+R sampled 50 of the resulting transcripts for the analysis presented in this report. These transcripts yielded findings in several thematic areas in which Asian studies would benefit from new or improved services, including its position within the academy, discovering and accessing information, managing research workflows, and producing outputs that reach target audiences and have the desired impact

Mediating factors in the arousal-performance relationship

The arousal-performance relationship was investigated within a social facilitation experiment, in which two major task dimensions (cognitive-motor and difficulty) were manipulated and two arousal measures (palmar sweat and self-reports) were taken. Subjects (75 male and 75 female introductory psychology students) were randomly assigned to one of five audience conditions and one of three task difficulty levels. Each subject performed three tasks, which varied as to cognitive and motor requirements, under a uniform difficulty level. No significant differences were found on any arousal or performance measure due to the audience manipulation. Females were found to be more aroused by the audiences than males, on both arousal measures. When self-reported arousal scores were quintiled to create five post hoc arousal conditions, significant interactions between these conditions and task difficulty level were obtained for both the cognitive and motor tasks. (No significant differences were found using quintiled palmar sweat scores.) On the basis of the similar pattern of these interactions, it was concluded that the inverted-U function was obtained only on high-difficulty tasks.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45366/1/11031_2004_Article_BF00992589.pd

Am I better in VR with a real audience?

International audienceWe present an experimental study using virtual reality (VR) to investigate the effects of a real audience on social inhibition. The study compares a multiuser application, locally or remotely shared. The application engages one user and a real audience (i.e., local or remote conditions) and a control condition where the user is alone (i.e., alone condition). The differences have been explored by analyzing the objective performance (i.e., type and answering time) of users when performing a categorization of numbers task in VR. Moreover, the subjective feelings and perceptions (i.e., perceptions of others, stress, cognitive workload, presence) of each user have been compared in relation to the location of the real audience. The results showed that in the presence of a real audience (in the local and remote conditions), user performance is affected by social inhibitions. Furthermore, users are even more influenced when the audience does not share the same room, despite others are less perceived

Do Distant or Colocated Audiences Affect User Activity in VR?

International audienceWe explore the impact of distant or colocated real audiences on social inhibition through a user study in virtual reality (VR). The study investigates, in an application, the differences among two multi-user configurations (i.e., the local and distant conditions) and one control condition where the user is alone (i.e., the alone condition). In the local condition, a single user and a real audience share the same real room. Conversely, in the distant condition, the user and the audience are separated into two different real rooms. The user performed a categorization of numbers task in VR, for which the users’ performance results (i.e., type and answering time) are extracted as subjective feelings and perceptions (i.e., perceptions of others, stress, cognitive workload, presence). The differences between the local and distant configurations are explored. Furthermore, we investigate any gender biases in the objective and subjective results. During the local and distant conditions, the presence of a real audience affects the user’s performance due to social inhibition. The users are even more influenced when the audience does not share the same room, despite the audience being less directly perceived in this condition