Active versus passive acquisition of spatial knowledge while controlling a vehicle in a virtual urban space in drivers and non-drivers

Historically real world studies have indicated a spatial learning advantage for active explorers of environments over those whose experience is more passive; a common contrast is made between car drivers and passengers. An experiment was conducted to explore the dual hypotheses that active explorers learn more about the layout of a virtual environment than passive observers and that real world car drivers will learn more regardless of their experimental Active/Passive status. Consistent with earlier studies in VEs, there was no benefit from activity (controlling exploration/movement), arguably because input control competes with spatial information acquisition. However, the results showed that Drivers were more accurate than Non-Drivers at indicating the positions of target locations on a map, in both active and passive conditions and had better route scores than Non-Drivers in the passive condition. It is argued that driving experience may convey a spatial learning advantage over and above activity per se

Spatial demands of concurrent tasks can compromise spatial learning of a virtual environment: implications for active input control

While active explorers in a real-world environment typically remember more about its spatial layout than participants who passively observe that exploration, this does not reliably occur when the exploration takes place in a virtual environment (VE). We argue that this may be because an active explorer in a VE is effectively performing a secondary interfering concurrent task by virtue of having to operate a manual input device to control their virtual displacements. Six groups of participants explored a virtual room containing six distributed objects, either actively or passively while performing concurrent tasks that were simple (such as card turning) or that made more complex cognitive and motoric demands comparable with those typically imposed by input device control. Tested for their memory for virtual object locations, passive controls (with no concurrent task) demonstrated the best spatial learning, arithmetically (but not significantly) better than the active group. Passive groups given complex concurrent tasks performed as poorly as the active group. A concurrent articulatory suppression task reduced memory for object names but not spatial location memory. It was concluded that spatial demands imposed by input device control should be minimized when training or testing spatial memory in VEs, and should be recognized as competing for cognitive capacity in spatial working memory

Drawing maps and remembering landmarks after driving in a virtual small town environment

Participants were designated active drivers or passive passengers according to whether or not they had control over the displacements of a virtual vehicle, while taking 5, 10 or 15 tours of a virtual small town environment. When tested later, passive passengers were able to remember more landmarks than the active drivers. However, with successive tours, participants in both groups were able to draw better survey maps of the environment, though this effect was greater in passive passengers. Landmark memory and map drawing ability were positively correlated. The results support models of spatial cognition that emphasise survey representations as the end product of spatial learning in new environments, but also emphasise that the acquisition of landmark information is continuous throughout this process

Spatial reconstruction following virtual exploration in children aged 5–9 years: effects of age, gender and activity–passivity

Children of 6–7, 7–8, and 8–9 years explored a virtual environment (VE) consisting of eight buildings distributed in a square arena marked off into four quadrants, as employed in an earlier real-space study. The children twice experienced a virtual space model, actively exploring (operating an input device), passively observing (watching the displacements made by an active participant), or viewing from eight static, pre-set perimeter viewpoints. They then used cardboard models to reconstruct the environment. Consistent with the earlier real-space study, performance (judged from placement distance errors) improved with age and with learning across two successive trials. Also consistent was that no difference was obtained between males and females, despite this having been expected in the VE version of the task. However, dissimilarity from the earlier study was that participants in the active exploration condition showed no advantage over those who viewed the environment from the perimeter. Moreover, those who passively observed the displacements made by an active participant actually demonstrated significantly superior spatial learning. Reasons for the absence of any active advantage, and the presence of a passive advantage, were discussed

Active and passive spatial learning from a desk-top virtual environment in male and female participants: a comparison with guessing controls

Undergraduate students were asked to explore a single room virtual environment (VE) containing 6 objects at floor level, depicted on a desk-top monitor. Exploration was either active (using keyboard keys to control displacements) or passive (observing an active participant), with male-male or female-female active-passive pairings. Following exploration, all participants were asked to independently complete a map task, requiring them to indicate the positions of 5 of the floor objects using a map which showed the one remaining (reference) object. Guessing controls performed the same task but without experience of the room or VE. No gender differences were obtained. Both active and passive exploration groups were more accurate than guessing controls, and no significant difference was obtained between the two exploration groups. The results are in agreement with several previous studies, which found no active-passive differences in VEs. This finding contrasts with real world exploration, where active-passive differences are invariably found. This difference might be explained if VE learning is more explicit than real-world learning, or if a VE imposes greater working memory load

Dielectric tuning and coupling of whispering gallery modes using an anisotropic prism

Optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are a powerful and versatile tool used in many branches of science. Fine tuning of the central frequency and line width of individual resonances is however desirable in a number of applications including frequency conversion, optical communications and efficient light-matter coupling. To this end we present a detailed theoretical analysis of dielectric tuning of WGMs supported in axisymmetric resonators. Using the Bethe-Schwinger equation and adopting an angular spectrum field representation we study the resonance shift and mode broadening of high $Q$ WGMs when a planar dielectric substrate is brought close to the resonator. Particular focus is given to use of a uniaxial substrate with an arbitrarily aligned optic axis. Competing red and blue resonance shifts ($\sim 30$ MHz), deriving from generation of a near field material polarisation and back action from the radiation continuum respectively, are found. Anomalous resonance shifts can hence be observed depending on the substrate material, whereas mode broadening on the order of $\sim 50$ MHz can also be simply realised. Furthermore, polarisation selective coupling with extinction ratios of $> 10^4$ can be achieved when the resonator and substrate are of the same composition and their optic axes are chosen correctly. Double refraction and properties of out-coupled beams are also discussed

Interface familiarity restores active advantage in a virtual exploration and reconstruction task in children.

Active exploration is reportedly better than passive observation of spatial displacements in real environments, for the acquisition of relational spatial information, especially by children. However, a previous study using a virtual environment (VE) showed that children in a passive observation condition performed better than actives when asked to reconstruct in reality the environment explored virtually. Active children were unpractised in using the input device, which may have detracted from any active advantage, since input device operation may be regarded as a concurrent task, increasing cognitive load and spatial working memory demands. To examine this possibility, 7-8-year-old children in the present study were given 5 minutes of training with the joystick input device. When compared with passive participants for spatial learning, active participants gave a better performance than passives, placing objects significantly more accurately. The importance of interface training when using VEs for assessment and training was discussed

A Review of Third Sector Research in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: 1990–2016

This is the first comprehensive overview of third sector research in Australasia, prepared by leading researchers, Jenny Onyx in Australia and Garth Nowland-Foreman in Aotearoa New Zealand. It examines both the current state of knowledge of the sector and also the research infrastructure behind the sector. Part one documents the size and scope of the sector, as well as the development of the organisation ANZTSR and its journal. Part two examines relations with the state in each country, the rapid growth in funding services, but also effects of neo-liberal ideological and policy constraints. Part Three documents the current state of volunteering and philanthropy (giving) in both countries. Part Four examines the world of citizen action, building social capital within local communities, and also advocacy and political protest. The concluding Part Five examines some of the current developments in civil society, new emerging forms, and challenges for the future

A Search for New Physics with the BEACON Mission

The primary objective of the Beyond Einstein Advanced Coherent Optical Network (BEACON) mission is a search for new physics beyond general relativity by measuring the curvature of relativistic space-time around Earth. This curvature is characterized by the Eddington parameter \gamma -- the most fundamental relativistic gravity parameter and a direct measure for the presence of new physical interactions. BEACON will achieve an accuracy of 1 x 10^{-9} in measuring the parameter \gamma, thereby going a factor of 30,000 beyond the present best result involving the Cassini spacecraft. Secondary mission objectives include: (i) a direct measurement of the "frame-dragging" and geodetic precessions in the Earth's rotational gravitomagnetic field, to 0.05% and 0.03% accuracy correspondingly, (ii) first measurement of gravity's non-linear effects on light and corresponding 2nd order spatial metric's effects to 0.01% accuracy. BEACON will lead to robust advances in tests of fundamental physics -- this mission could discover a violation or extension of general relativity and/or reveal the presence of an additional long range interaction in physics. BEACON will provide crucial information to separate modern scalar-tensor theories of gravity from general relativity, probe possible ways for gravity quantization, and test modern theories of cosmological evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Harmonic Tidal Analysis of Long Time Series

A harmonic tided analysis program is developed for observational records of 18.61 years or longer. The amplitudes and phases of over five hundred astronomical and shallow water constituents are calculated using a least squares approach. The program is tested with 38 years of hourly observations at Victoria and the amplitudes and phases of satellite constituents whose amplitudes lie above the background noise level are generally found to be consistent with potential theory. Predictions based on the results of a 19-year analysis are found to be only slightly better than those based on averages from 19 one-year analyses, thereby confirming the accuracy of G odin’s [1972] satellite correction algorithm and satellite inference based on potential theory relationships. However it is demonstrated with constituents NO1, J1, N2, and L2, that results from the 38-year analysis can be used to improve the satellite inference calculations in shorter analyses. Based on the stability of the 38 one-year analyses, recommendations are also made for the inclusion of additional constituents in the standard prediction of tides at Victoria