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This paper presents an application of work-domain analysis (WDA) to the domain of the command and control of a multipurpose naval frigate--the Canadian Halifax Class frigate. This represents an application of this approach to a real system and, to the authors' knowledge, is the most extensive WDA of a naval work domain. In particular, and in contrast to other applications of cognitive work analysis, the authors extended the basic WDA framework to handle a multipurpose, loosely bound work domain. In addition, the naval domain is value driven, and this affects naval decision making. Values were incorporated as a social organizational analysis into the work-domain model and were represented as a type of soft constraint. A total of 38 submodels of the work domain were developed, whose primary models are discussed in this paper. From these models, 132 information requirements were extracted, substantiating that WDA is a worthwhile technique for supporting interface design. This paper makes a theoretical contribution by extending the WDA framework and a practical contribution by demonstrating the usefulness of the framework in a real design context. This paper concentrates on presenting WDA as a process, not as a finished product, showing intermediate levels of models and the design requirements that can be extracted from the early stages of the WDA. Index Terms--Cognitive work analysis (CWA), ecological interface design (EID), naval command and control, work-domain models.

Working memory (WM) is the system responsible for maintaining and manipulating information, in the face of ongoing distraction. In turn, WM span is perceived to be an individual-differences construct reflecting the limited capacity of this system. Recently, however, there has been some evidence to suggest that WM capacity can increase through training, raising the possibility that training can functionally alter the neural structures supporting WM. To address the hypothesis that the neural substrates underlying WM are targeted by training, we conducted a meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of WM training using Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE). Our results demonstrate that WM training is associated exclusively with decreases in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses in clusters within the fronto-parietal system that underlie WM, including the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (BA 39/40), middle (BA 9) and superior (BA 6) frontal gyri, and medial frontal gyrus bordering on the cingulate gyrus (BA 8/32). We discuss the various psychological and physiological mechanisms that could be responsible for the observed reductions in the BOLD signal in relation to WM training, and consider their implications for the construct of WM span as a limited resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Christian imago dei is discussed in relation to responsibility toward the environment. Topics include the imago dei in Genesis; the central role of imagination; fall and original sin; imago, imagination, and Jesus Christ; love, dominion and human culture; criteria for judging possibilities; creation and letting be.

Two experiments are presented which detail the relationship between body asymmetry and the creation of a spatial framework. Results include differences in the accessibility of location recall of spatial scenes as influenced by the asymmetry of the body axes.

The accessibility of objects in mental spatial frameworks depends on their relation to the spatial axes of the world and people's typical interactions with space. The current study investigated perception of space. Subjects viewed either a physical model of a person surrounded by objects (Exp. 1) or diagrams of scenes (Exp. 2). Subjects named objects at directions from their own external perspective. For physical scenes, subjects were faster to name objects at Above/Below locations, followed by Front/Behind locations, followed by Left/Right locations. This finding indicates that subjects used spatial frameworks to locate objects perceptually. For diagrams, response times to name objects did not conform to this pattern, perhaps because the spatial axes of a diagram do not correspond to stable spatial axes of the world.

We investigated the accuracy of haptic reproduction of line length and whether accuracy is influenced by line orientation. 13 blindfolded subjects felt along different line lengths at various orientations in the horizontal plane, then reproduced the line lengths in the same orientation as that felt. Efforts were made to equate learning and reproductive scanning movements. Reproductions of line lengths were a nonveridical power function of their true lengths, but the power function exponents did not differ across spatial orientations. It was concluded that people can encode line lengths across spatial orientations by a common power function if care is taken to equate proprioceptive information across learning and reproduction.

Four experiments investigated the use of cognitive strategies for encoding spatial location in visual figures. Subjects reproduced the position of a dot in a square figure that had distance markers placed along two sides. Subjects' responses were biased toward imaginary points of intersection formed by the distance markers when subjects responded from memory (Experiment 1) or while viewing the figures (Experiment 2). Dots located at an intersection point were reproduced more accurately than those located off an intersection. These findings demonstrate that empty regions of a figure can serve as subjective landmarks for spatial localization. In Experiment 3, dot relocation was found to be similarly distorted toward physical cross marks placed at the intersections of distance markers, supporting the landmark hypothesis. The attraction of dots to intersection points depends on the viewer employing a strategy of mentally projecting from distance markers to form imaginary intersections, which makes intersection points salient landmarks for coding location of nearby stimulus dots. In Experiment 4, attraction toward intersection points was observed only when subjects employed the projection strategy and not when instructed to use a different encoding strategy.

As we move about and interact in the world, we keep track of different spaces, among them the space of navigation, the space immediately around the body, and the space of the body. We review research showing that these spaces are conceptualized differently. Knowledge of the space of navigation is systematically distorted. For example, people mentally rotate roads and land masses to greater correspondence with global reference frames, they mentally align roads and land masses, they overestimate distances near the viewpoint relative to those far from it. These and other distortions indicate that the space of navigation is schematized to elements and spatial relations relative to reference frames and perspective. The space around the body is organized into a mental framework consisting of extensions of the major axes of the body. Times to report objects around the body suggest that the relative accessibility of the axes depends on their perceptual and functional properties and the relation of the body to the world. Finally, times to verify named or depicted body parts indicate that body schemas depend on perceptual and functional significance. Thus, these spaces (and they are not the only ones important to human interaction) differ from one another and are not conceptualized as Euclidean. Rather they are schematized into elements and spatial relations that reflect perceptual and conceptual significance. Key Words: cognitive map, body schema, mental model, spatial thinking.

Preadaptation for language is an unnecessary assumption because intermediate stages of linguistic ability are possible and adaptive. Language could have evolved through gradual selection from structures exhibiting few features associated with modern structures. Without physical evidence pertaining to language ability in prehabilis hominids, it remains possible that selective pressures for language use preceded and necessitated modern neurolinguistic structures.

A commentary on Landau and Jackendoff's (L&J) research findings on spatial cognition and spatial language seeks to extend L&J's analysis that a common spatial representation system is solely responsible for human perception and language description, using distinct 'what' and 'where' systems. This is accomplished through an extensive discussion of the properties of the spatial system and provision of additional proof that facilitate the understanding of L&J's conclusive analysis.

Christian ecotheology tends to emphasize human identity with the rest of nature while also arguing that human society requires transformation through appreciation of intrinsic value in non-human nature. Since this sets up a tension between notions of humans as natural beings and as free to choose among alternative motivations, it would benefit Christian ecotheology to think more consistently about implications of humanity's belonging to nature. Science has provided compelling reasons for thinking that egoism is an incorrigible dimension of human life, thereby suggesting that abusive exploitation of nature has deeper roots than cultural constructs. This realization calls for fundamental rethinking of several traditional Christian doctrines, including the Fall, original sin, and free will. In fact, some theologies already anticipate these revisions, though more remains to be done. Moreover, Christian ecotheology's attention to concepts of connections between humans and nature and of nature's value remains important, but some of its emphases need to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined the effectiveness of blue force tracking (BFT) decision support for dismounted infantry soldiers.Background: Technologies to support combat identification (CID) are rapidly evolving and may be deployable to dismounted soldiers in the future. BFT systems are designed to mitigate the risk of fratricide by supplying positional information regarding friendly units to enhance situation awareness.Method: Participants played the role of a dismounted infantry soldier in a first-person perspective gaming environment and made engagement decisions for a series of simulated targets, half of which were enemies and half of which were friends.Results: Participants performed better overall when they were able to use a BFT system than when they performed the task without assistance. When a 10-s latency was added to the updating of position information in the BFT, participants made significantly more false alarms (engaged a friendly target) regardless of whether they knew about the latency.Conclusion: The results indicate the promise of a personal BFT device to reduce the likelihood of fratricide by dismounted infantry soldiers. The results, however, also indicate that the effectiveness of such a device can be dramatically reduced when it does not provide real-time data.Application: Potential applications of this research include development of performance standards for BFT devices and assessment of decision support for dismounted soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In three experiments, subjects learned to classify simulated aircraft using four probabilistic cues then classified test sets designed to contrast predictions of several compensatory and non-compensatory heuristics. Results indicated that a proportion of subjects appeared to use a non-compensatory fast and frugal heuristic but that significant proportions used less frugal compensatory decision rules. The relative proportions of subjects exhibiting responses consistent with the fast and frugal heuristic versus other decision rules was largely unaffected by manipulations of time pressure and perceived cue uncertainty. An extreme time constraint, however, did result in significant differences in the proportions of subjects who preferred non-compensatory to compensatory decision rules. These results suggest that it is possible to model multi-attribute decision tasks like threat assessment with a fast and frugal heuristic although no single heuristic is a general model for the simulated threat assessment task. Copyright © 2006 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediaeval encyclopaedias described nonhuman animals in terms of their corporeality and cosmic significance by combining zoological and theological knowledge. Such descriptions were therefore prescriptions of normative parameters for how animals were supposed to function within Christian society, rather than objective observations. As mediaeval conceptualisations of species were highly malleable, particular animals that shared no biological relation could be considered kin, and animals who behaved against their prescribed nature could become a different animal altogether. This paper investigates how several species were implicated in the mediaeval invention of what it meant to be (like) a pig. My counter-hegemonic reading of the Livre des propriétés des choses, a fifteenth-century French encyclopaedia, draws attention to how late mediaeval Christian scripts of porcinity simultaneously defined the nonhumanity of pigs and of 'other' humans. These render the idea of the pig inseparable from what it meant to be human. I contend that the Livre des propriétés des choses employs discourses of porcinity to self-define and -stabilise particular notions of human identity by debasing and othering human and nonhuman animals with seemingly porcine traits. Additionally, I underline how such fabrications of humanity are often mired in practices that devaluate and harm real animals, including other humans. Mediaeval studies need to further address the crucial roles of animal suffering in human history. This way, historians can add valuable insights to present debates about anthropocentrism and its devastating socio-ecological consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]