Enriched learning : Behavior, brain, and computation

Open Access via the Elsevier Agreement Funder: German Research Foundation: KR 3735/3-1,MA 9552/1-1 Acknowledgments We thank Agnieszka Konopka, Antje Proske, Joost Rommers, and Anna Zamm for providing useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript; Mingyuan Chu for feedback on Figure 1; and Stefan Kiebel for feedback on Box 3. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (grants KR 3735/3-1, KR 3735/3-2, and MA 9552/1-1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The effect of repertoire, routinization and enacted complexity: Explaining task performance through patterns of action

We use pattern mining tools from computer science to engage a classic problem in organizational theory: the relation between routinization and task performance. We develop and operationalize new measures of two key characteristics of organizational routines: repertoire and routinization. Repertoire refers to the number of recognizable patterns in a routine, and routinization refers to the fraction of observed actions that fit those patterns. We use these measures to develop a novel theory that predicts task performance based on the size of repertoire, the degree of routinization, and enacted complexity. We test this theory in two settings that differ in their programmability: crisis management and invoice management. We find that repertoire and routinization are important determinants of task performance in both settings, but with opposite effects. In both settings, however, the effect of repertoire and routinization is mediated by enacted complexity. This theoretical contribution is enabled by the methodological innovation of pattern mining, which allows us to treat routines as a collection of sequential patterns or paths. This innovation also allows us to clarify the relation of routinization and complexity, which are often confused because the terms routine and routinization connote simplicity. We demonstrate that routinization and enacted complexity are distinct constructs, conceptually and empirically. It is possible to have a high degree of routinization and complex enactments that vary each time a task is performed. This is because enacted complexity depends on the repertoire of patterns and how those patterns are combined to enact a task.publishedVersio

Concreteness and imageability differentially predict judgments of manual and visual similarity

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Incentives for Organizational Participation: A Recruitment Experiment in Mexico

While the presence of a strong civil society is recognized as desirable for democracies, an important question is what motivates citizens to join organizations. This article presents novel experimental evidence on the conditions under which citizens join interest organizations. We presented 1,400 citizens in two Mexican states with fliers promoting a new local interest organization. These fliers contain one of four randomly selected recruitment appeals. We find evidence that both brokerage of state patronage and demand-making for local public goods are effective recruitment appeals. The effect for patronage brokerage is especially pronounced among respondents with prior organizational contact, supporting our hypothesis of a “particularistic socialization” effect wherein organizational experience is associated with greater response to selective material benefits. Our findings suggest that under some conditions, rather than generating norms of other-regarding, interest organizations can reinforce members’ individualistic tendencies

Auditory N1 reveals planning and monitoring processes during music performance

The current study investigated the relationship between planning processes and feedback monitoring during music performance, a complex task in which performers prepare upcoming events while monitoring their sensory outcomes. Theories of action planning in auditory‐motor production tasks propose that the planning of future events co‐occurs with the perception of auditory feedback. This study investigated the neural correlates of planning and feedback monitoring by manipulating the contents of auditory feedback during music performance. Pianists memorized and performed melodies at a cued tempo in a synchronization‐continuation task while the EEG was recorded. During performance, auditory feedback associated with single melody tones was occasionally substituted with tones corresponding to future (next), present (current), or past (previous) melody tones. Only future‐oriented altered feedback disrupted behavior: Future‐oriented feedback caused pianists to slow down on the subsequent tone more than past‐oriented feedback, and amplitudes of the auditory N1 potential elicited by the tone immediately following the altered feedback were larger for future‐oriented than for past‐oriented or noncontextual (unrelated) altered feedback; larger N1 amplitudes were associated with greater slowing following altered feedback in the future condition only. Feedback‐related negativities were elicited in all altered feedback conditions. In sum, behavioral and neural evidence suggests that future‐oriented feedback disrupts performance more than past‐oriented feedback, consistent with planning theories that posit similarity‐based interference between feedback and planning contents. Neural sensory processing of auditory feedback, reflected in the N1 ERP, may serve as a marker for temporal disruption caused by altered auditory feedback in auditory‐motor production tasks.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136038/1/psyp12781_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136038/2/psyp12781.pd

Benefits of Enacting and Observing Gestures on Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Funding S.N. is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) as part of Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC 2050/1—Project ID 390696704—Cluster of Excellence “Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop” (CeTI) of Technische Universität Dresden. B.M. is supported by a Research Incentive Grant (RIG)—Project 012506—from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Visual recognition of words learned with gestures induces motor resonance in the forearm muscles

Acknowledgements We thank Sabrina Füreder and Edanur Aktan for their contribution to the data collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Environmental Social Work in the Disciplinary Literature, 1991–2015

Despite increasing acknowledgment that the social work profession must address environmental concerns, relatively little is known about the state of scholarship on environmental social work. This study provides a scientometric summary of peer-reviewed articles (N=497) pertaining to environmental topics in social work journals between 1991 and 2015. We find that theoretical and empirical scholarship on environmental social work is growing, though this growth remains limited to specific geographical regions and topics. We note the need to clarify the relationship between environmental social work as a theoretical paradigm and as a research topic

Learning foreign language vocabulary with gestures and pictures enhances vocabulary memory for several months post-learning in eight-year-old school children

Funding Information: This work was funded by the German Research Foundation grant KR 3735/3-1, a Schulbezogene Forschung grant from the Saxony Zentrum für Lehrerbildung und Schulforschung (ZLS), and an Erasmus Mundus Postdoctoral Fellowship in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience. B.M. is also supported by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant SENSOCOM 647051 to K.v.K. Acknowledgments Open access funding provided by Projekt DEAL. We thank Julia Schwerin for assistance with planning and preparing the study, as well as serving as a teacher to the children in two experiments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Grasping Virtual Objects Benefits Lower Aptitude Learners’ Acquisition of Foreign Language Vocabulary

Acknowledgements Special thanks go to the Ars Electronica Centre, Linz, and to co-workers who aided in the study implementation, particularly Christoph Kremer, Erika Mondria, and the staff of the Future Lab. Supported by the Johannes Kepler Open Access Publishing Fund. Funding Open access funding provided by Johannes Kepler University Linz.Peer reviewedPublisher PD