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This action research study has two aims: (i) to develop a wearable virtual reality language-learning platform for English for specific purposes and (ii) to examine student learning effectiveness and the relationship between self-efficacy and behavioral intention. The participants are 131 university students in Taiwan. A model of wearable virtual reality language-learning based on structural equation modeling is built. A path analysis indicates that self-efficacy directly influences students' perceptions of ease of use of the wearable virtual reality technology and indirectly influences perceived usefulness, attitude, and behavioral intention. Student self-efficacy is slightly above the moderate level. Gender and English proficiency have an effect on student self-efficacy and behavioral intention, whereas students' online and virtual reality learning experiences have no significant effect on these variables. This new environment is shown to facilitate student learning: the pretest and posttest results indicate improvements in lexical and semantic knowledge, reading comprehension, and syntax. The study implies that since self-efficacy is a crucial determinant in student technology use, educators should enhance student self-efficacy in order to encourage them to try innovative technology., Author(s): Chun-Chia Hsu [sup.1] , Yu-Li Chen [sup.2] , Chih-Yung Lin [sup.1] , Wei-chih Lien [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.445089.4, 0000 0004 0639 3159, Department of Multimedia and Game Science, [...]

A driving simulator was used to examine the effects on driving performance of auditory cues in an in-vehicle information search task. Drivers' distraction by the search tasks was measured on a peripheral detection task. The difficulty of the search task was systematically varied to test the distraction caused by a quantified visual load. 58 participants completed the task. Performance on both search tasks and peripheral detection tasks was measured by mean response time and percent error. Analyses indicated that in-vehicle information search performance can be severely degraded when a target is located within a group of diverse distractors. Inclusion of an auditory cue in the visual search increased the mean response time as a result of a change in modality from auditory to visual. Inclusion of such an auditory cue seemed to influence distraction as measured by performance on the peripheral detection task; accuracy was lower when auditory cues were provided, and responses were slower when no auditory cues were provided. Distraction by the auditory cue varied according to the difficulty of the search task. DOI 10.2466/03.13.20.24.26.PMS.111.5.503-516

This action research created an application system using robots as a tool for training English-language tour guides. It combined artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to develop content for tours and a 3D VR environment using the AI Unity plug-in for programming. Students learned to orally interact with the robot and act as a guide to various destinations. The qualitative methods included observation, interviews, and self-reporting of learning outcomes. Two students voluntarily participated in the study. The intervention lasted for ten weeks. The results indicated the teaching effectiveness of robot-assisted language learning (RALL). The students acknowledged the value of RALL and had positive attitudes toward it. The contextualized VR learning environment increased their motivation and engagement in learning, and students perceived that RALL could help develop autonomy, enhance interaction, and provide an active learning experience. The implications of the study are that RALL has potential and that it provides an alternative learning opportunity for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photophysical properties and the organic synthesis using effective palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reactions from a series of carbazole derivatives are described and the relationships of the donor and acceptor groups are also investigated. The purification of the materials and its applications along with the corresponding photo-physical characterizations were presented. With the advantages gained from 2D-COSY spectra, which provide more correlated information between immediate atoms than 1H-NMR spectra and a series of further investigations were undertaken including powder X-ray diffraction analysis, Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, constructing the composition conformation and chemical structure of the materials is more easily to achieve. Additionally, the optimized structure of the minimized energy geometries and spatial distributions of carbazole derivatives was calculated using density functional theory (DFT), new materials can be developed and designed selectively based on the method proposed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have set up a wide-viewing-zone light field display with low crosstalk by simply using projectors and a diffusion screen, and we also figure out a method to define the perceptual depth for human with subjective experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of various injection molding process parameters and fiber amount on the tensile properties of short fiber-reinforced polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). The parameters that govern injection molding process are filling time, melt temperature, mold temperature, and packing pressure. The tensile properties of neat PBT, 15 wt%, and 30 wt% short fiber-reinforced PBT are obtained using a computerized closed-loop servohydraulic testing system. The frozen core morphology is observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which can define the layer thickness. The observation can explain the influence of fiber orientation on the tensile properties. The fracture surfaces are also observed by SEM to understand the fracture mechanisms of different fiber orientations. It is found that the addition of short glass fibers can significantly strengthen neat PBT. The strength depends on the thickness of the layer where fibers are oriented in the loading direction. The layer thickness is strongly affected by the injection molding parameters and pin gate locations. Also, the fracture mechanisms of fiber pullout and across-matrix crack dominate the failure process in the layer where fibers are parallel to the direction of applied load. However, the failure of fiber–matrix interface dominates the fracture mechanism of the layer where fibers are mostly perpendicular to the applied load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various studies over the past few decades have been exploring the educational advantages and potential of virtual reality (VR) and the idea that students engage with their learning materials more effectively when using their own devices. This study uses a newly created VR game-based English mobile learning application and investigates student English learning effectiveness, student game engagement, and self-regulated learning from a cognitive and psychological perspective. In total, 274 students from a Taiwan university of science and technology participated in this study. Statistical results indicate that both game engagement and game experience were significantly influenced by self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and test anxiety. Immersion, flow, and presence enhanced self-efficacy while absorption and immersion enhanced self-regulation. Self-efficacy and self-regulation affected each other. Student self-regulation in the learning environment was at a moderate level. The results imply that the interaction feature of the VR application and the challenges of game-based design enable students to enter the state of flow easily and enhance their motivation to learn. • Game engagement and game experience were significantly influenced by self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and test anxiety. • Student perceptions of immersion and absorption enhanced self-regulated learning. • Student perceptions of immersion, flow, and presence enhanced self-efficacy. • Self-efficacy and self regulation affected each other in mobile game-based virtual reality environment. • Student self-regulated leaning was at a moderate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used a driving simulator to investigate whether the presence of pedestrians and traffic engineering designs that reported to have reduction effects on overall traffic speed at intersections can facilitate drivers adopting lower impact speed behaviors at pedestrian crossings. Twenty-eight men (M age = 39.9 yr., SD = 11.5) with drivers' licenses participated. Nine studied measures were obtained from the speed profiles of each participant. A 14-km virtual road was presented to the participants. It included experimental scenarios of base intersection, pedestrian presence, pedestrian warning sign at intersection and in advance of intersection, and perceptual lane narrowing by hatching lines. Compared to the base intersection, the presence of pedestrians caused drivers to slow down earlier and reach a lower minimum speed before the pedestrian crossing. This speed behavior was not completely evident when adding a pedestrian warning sign at an intersection or having perceptual lane narrowing to the stop line. Additionally, installing pedestrian warning signs in advance of the intersections rather at the intersections was associated with higher impact speeds at pedestrian crossings., (© The Author(s) 2016.)