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Organizational tasks and processes are preconditions for organizing professional learning teams but are often neglected in research. In nine schools, we examined which organizational tasks and processes were set up for lesson study, a form of a professional learning team, and in what way. Schools set up three organizational tasks and processes: recruiting participants, giving credit for time-investment, and scheduling meetings. Recruitment of participants was sometimes difficult when potential participants worked autonomously within their departments or teams. Credit for time-investment was often constrained as schools gave credit in a way that made lesson study an additional workload. Scheduling meetings was very challenging. The scheduled meetings were considered satisfactory in only one school. Here, the school leader collaborated and communicated with her teachers to plan useful and uninterrupted meetings in the timetable. Our results show that organizational work is not mundane and simple but complex and vital for embedding professional development in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, about half of the school-leavers – irrespective of their school-leaving certificate – start an apprenticeship instead of entering the labour market or university. Firms act as gatekeepers who influence which school-leavers start an apprenticeship. Previous studies have provided important information on the reasons firms train. By analysing tasks, I consider an additional characteristic that probably influences firms' training decisions. The aim of my study is twofold: I examine whether tasks performed in a firm first correlate with the decision to provide apprenticeship training and second with the school-leaving certificate of newly hired apprentices. I use the BIBB Establishment Panel on Training and Competence Development to estimate hybrid models with the task shares of firms as the main independent variables. The results suggest that firms' task composition affects their decisions concerning vocational education and training (VET). Firms with a high share of routine or manual tasks are more likely to be involved in VET. Moreover, high shares of manual and routine tasks are accompanied by a higher demand for apprentices with lower secondary certificates, and high shares of interactive tasks by a high demand for apprentices with the highest secondary school-leaving certificate (i.e. the Abitur). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The study aimed to explore six public service users’ perspectives on the impact their upper limb injury or condition has on their everyday lives while receiving occupational therapy intervention at a public hospital in the context of the Northern Cape of South Africa. An interpretivist phenomenological approach was employed. Data was collected using reflexive photography and semi-structured interviews. Three main themes were generated during inductive reasoning, namely the impact on role fulfillment, change in occupational task performance and the factors impacting performance in preferred occupations. Participants confirmed that to present a contextually relevant and responsive service, Occupation-Based Hand Therapy (OBHT) approaches must be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines what it takes for a state of knowledge-how to be extended (i.e. partly constituted by entities external to the organism) within an anti-intellectualist approach to knowledge-how. I begin by examining an account of extended knowledge-how developed by Carter, J. Adam, and Boleslaw Czarnecki. 2016 ["Extended Knowledge-How." Erkenntnis 81 (2): 259–273], and argue that it fails to properly distinguish between cognitive outsourcing and extended knowing-how. I then introduce a solution to this problem which rests on the distribution of tasks between agent and non-biological entity. On closer inspection, I show that this solution is ultimately unsatisfactory, though its failure is instructive as it illuminates the important role played by an agent's skilled interaction with an external entity. Drawing on key anti-intellectualist ideas, as well as on insight from cognitive psychology, I propose an account according to which what ultimately matters for extending knowledge-how is whether a hybrid ability is self-regulated. In closing, I illuminate the practical value of extended knowledge-how vis-à-vis cognitive outsourcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are increasingly surrounded by talk of digitalization. Yet, we remain unsure about what impact this digitalization will have upon socio-economic institutions, how the introduction of this digitalization will be contested, the likely role of the state in managing the adoption of digital technology, and the likely consequences for the broader political economy if and when it is introduced. This article examines the process of digitalization as it has unfolded in the service sector in Japan. Based on qualitative interviews with managers in the hospitality industry and union officials, the paper depicts a process that contrasts starkly with the more optimistic view adopted by some commentators, according to which digitalization has the potential to improve working conditions and contribute to a more stable form of growth. Instead, the paper draws on Regulation Theory to argue that the introduction of digitalization is part of a wider process of neoliberalization. As such, digitalization has contributed to deskilling, the fragmentation of work tasks, a digital divide, the intensification of work, and higher levels of workplace surveillance. This represents a further dismantling of the social compromise that underpinned Japan's earlier period of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies were conducted to develop primes that activate differing beliefs about God and to determine if these activated beliefs impact scrupulosity symptoms. In Study 1, potential positive, negative, and neutral primes were created from Bible verses and rated on arousal, valence, familiarity, and complexity. In Study 2, the selected primes were tested to determine if they differentially activated positive and negative beliefs about God. In Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to read one of three primes (positive, negative, or neutral). Participants then completed a thought-induction task and measures of scrupulosity and thought-action fusion. There were no significant differences in reactions to the thought-induction task or self-report measures of scrupulosity or thought-action fusion between conditions. An exploratory analysis revealed that participants in the negative condition had higher state anxiety following the prime compared to participants in the positive condition. Results demonstrate the potential of the primes to activate negative beliefs about God and highlight the possible detrimental impact negative beliefs about God may have on state anxiety. However, they do not suggest that the primes impact scrupulosity and related constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective assessment of near viewing behaviours performed in a laboratory setting showed that children demonstrate differing viewing distances and angles based on the type of task. Findings will contribute to our understanding of how near work influences myopia. Evidence suggests that near working distance and viewing breaks are associated with myopia. The purpose of this study was to use an objective, continuously measuring range finding device to examine these viewing behaviours in children. Viewing distance, number of breaks, and head and eye angles were assessed in 16 non-myopic and 19 myopic children (ages 13.38 ± 4.14 years) using the Clouclip, an objective rangefinder, during five 15-minute near tasks, including (a) passive reading and (b) active writing on printed material, (c) passive viewing and (d) active engagement on an iPad, and (e) active engagement on a cell phone. Height and Harmon distance were measured. Viewing behaviours were analysed by task, refractive error group, and gender. Mean viewing distances significantly differed by task (P < 0.001) and were highly correlated with children's Harmon distance and height for all near tasks (P < 0.05), except for the active printed task (P > 0.05). Viewing distances did not differ by gender or refractive error group. During each task, mean number of viewing breaks was 2.6 ± 4.1 and did not vary between task (P = 0.92) or refractive error group (P = 0.65). Head declination and total viewing angle varied by type of near task (P < 0.001 for both). Children demonstrated differing viewing distances and viewing angles based on the type of near task they were performing. Viewing behaviours did not vary between myopic and non-myopic children. Findings will contribute to a better understanding of how near viewing behaviours can be quantified objectively and relationships with myopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a stock handling system that combines an automatic shelf and a picking robot with the aim of reducing the labor required for stocking and disposing of items. The robot system was developed by referring to the rules of the robot competition WRS2020 F.C.S.C. The picking robot is a standard single-arm mobile manipulation robot and the automatic shelf is characterized by the fact that the shelves move up and down and back and forth automatically. Automatic movement of the shelves in the pull-out direction allows the end-effector of the manipulator to approach the item from above and select the grasping position from a number of candidates. This improves the stability of the grasping of the item and is expected to prevent the item from falling during transportation. When there are tall items at the front of the shelf, the end-effector can directly approach the items at the back of the shelf from above the shelf as the shelf plate automatically moves in the pull-out direction. We report the mechanical configuration of the automatic shelf and basic experimental results for stocking and disposal work by the proposed robot system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATO's 2010 Strategic Concept established three core tasks for the Alliance: collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security. While those tasks remain sound, the 2010 Concept reflected a different geopolitical, geostrategic, and security environment from today's, characterized by renewed conflict with Russia, concerns about China's strategic and economic ambitions, and new security challenges like hybrid threats and disinformation. Considering the changed strategic landscape and emerging challenges, we argue that NATO should make several refinements to its core tasks. European Allies must improve defense capabilities, ensuring their ability to help NATO meet its core tasks. In conjunction with the other Allied nuclear powers (the United Kingdom and France), the U.S. must renew its commitment to maintaining NATO as a nuclear alliance. NATO should adopt a more rigorous operational definition of crisis management, and a more systematic emphasis on the early warning and pre-crisis phases. Finally, while national "resilience" is already implied in Article 3ʹs requirement for member states to "maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack," adding it as a fourth core task would powerfully emphasize the need for allies to address new elements of resilience, to include both technological threats and democratic backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first framework (up to the authors' knowledge) to address time-varying objectives in finite-horizon Deep Reinforcement Learning (DeepRL), based on a switching control solution developed on the ground of Bellman's principle of optimality. By augmenting the state space of the system with information on its visit time, the DeepRL agent is able to solve problems in which its task dynamically changes within the same episode. To address the scalability problems caused by the state space augmentation, we propose a procedure to partition the episode length to define separate sub-problems that are then solved by specialised DeepRL agents. Contrary to standard solutions, with the proposed approach the DeepRL agents correctly estimate the value function at each time-step and are hence able to solve time-varying tasks. Numerical simulations validate the approach in a classic RL environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed an evaluation method using image analysis for reaching tasks. Using this method, we studied forearm function during the reaching task in rats that received a unilateral injection of 6-OHDA into the striatum. The success ratio of the reaching task reduced to 40.5% seven days after the injection. In addition, significant changes were observed in the pronation angle of the forearm, posture control, and targeting (i.e., the distance between all fingertips and the center of the target pellet). Thus, unilateral injection of 6-OHDA reduces dopaminergic function in the brain and causes deterioration of forearm function and posture control in the reaching task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, allocating tasks to resources is often tackled in (near) real-time due to the latency of the task information and sudden task arrivals into a system. Therefore, the problem must be solved within a very short time budget, when tasks are urgent or idle resources are critical to the system's performance. Local search algorithms could be a good solution to this issue. These algorithms usually focus the search on limited solution areas by applying local updates on an incumbent solution. To investigate the feasibility and performance of applying a local search algorithm to resource allocation, a special case of the Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP) is modelled, where task profits are independent of the resources assigned and resources' capacities are identical. Then the performance of a local search algorithm to the target problems is examined empirically, characterizing the features of the GAP that make the problem hard for heuristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various interpretations and parameters have been proposed to assess spinal stability such as antagonist muscle coactivity, trunk stiffness and spinal buckling load; however, the correlation between these parameters remains unknown. We evaluated spinal stability during different tasks while changing the external moment and load height and investigated likely relationships between different EMG- and model-based parameters (e.g., EMG coactivity ratio, trunk stiffness, force coactivity ratio) and stability margins. EMG and kinematics of 40 young healthy subjects were recorded during various quasi-static tasks. Muscle forces, trunk stiffness and stability margins were calculated by a nonlinear subject-specific EMG-assisted-optimization musculoskeletal model of the trunk. The load elevation and external moment increased muscle activities and trunk stiffness while all stability margins (i.e., buckling loads) decreased. The force coactivity ratio was strongly correlated with the hand-load stability margin (i.e., additional weight in hands to initiate instability; R2 = 0.54) demonstrating the stabilizing role of abdominal muscles. The total trunk stiffness (Pearson's r = 0.96) and the sum of EMGs of back muscles (Pearson's r = 0.65) contributed the most to the T1 stability margin (i.e., additional required load at T1 for instability/buckling). Force coactivity ratio and trunk stiffness can be used as alternative spinal stability metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative priming refers to the delayed response to a probe target that was previously a prime distractor. Memory retrieval has been proposed as one critical mechanism for the manifestation of negative priming. This perspective perpetuates that the contextual similarity between prime and probe trials should modulate memory retrieval, and therefore, affect negative priming. However, evidence for the contextual similarity effect in negative priming is mixed. The present study tested the hypothesis that attended contextual cues are more likely to be encoded into a distractor representation, and thus, are more likely to modulate the negative priming effect. By manipulating whether the contextual cues were relevant to the task demand in Section 1, and by manipulating whether cues had an abrupt or simultaneous onset, and by analysing reaction time (RT) distributions of the data in Section 2, our results demonstrated that attended cues produced the contextual similarity effect in negative priming, especially when RTs were long. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective effects on breadth of attention have been related to aspects of different components of affective states such as the arousal and valence of affective experience and the motivational intensity of action tendency. As none of these explanations fully aligns with existing evidence, we hypothesised that affective effects on breadth of attention may arise from the appraisal component of affective states. Based on this reconceptualisation, we tested the effects of conduciveness and power appraisals on two measures of breadth of attention. In two web-based experiments, we manipulated these appraisals in a 2 × 2 design using a game-like arithmetic task where participants could (1) gain or lose rewards (goal conducive vs. obstructive) based on (2) either their action or the actions of a "robot" (high vs. low power). Breadth of attention was assessed using the flanker task (Experiment 1; n = 236) and the Navon task (Experiment 2; n = 215). We found that appraisals did not directly influence breadth of attention even though high power appraisal significantly improved the overall performance in both experiments indicating successful appraisal manipulation. We discuss ways in which these findings inform future efforts to explain the origins of affective effects on attentional breadth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some research has highlighted how teachers prepare their course materials, little is known about how future teachers design support for their students, and thus plan and anticipate what can and will happen in the classroom. We have therefore sought to investigate whether identifiable learner profiles emerge when regular primary school students are offered a complex task: How students respond to the task? How well they perform? The ambition was to develop a typology of profiles concerning student task engagement that would allow any teacher to anticipate regulatory actions that would be matched as closely as possible to the realities of the classroom. To do this, we observed 282 French-speaking Belgian students aged 10–12 years old in the first moments of performing a complex reading task. The data analysis revealed that six learner profiles can be used to plan teaching activities: the 'regular' student, the student who gets discouraged because the task seems too complex, the one who gets blocked during the task, the one who bypasses the actual task without achieving the learning objectives, the one who does not engage in the task and the high-performing student who finishes faster than the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Often, second/foreign (L2) language learners receive little opportunity to interact orally in the target language. Interactive, conversation-based spoken dialog systems (SDSs) that use automated speech recognition and natural language processing have the potential to address this need by engaging learners in meaningful, goal-oriented speaking practice. However, these technology-based learning tools are often developed without input from teaching professionals. As part of a larger development effort, this study examined English as a second language (ESL) teachers' perceptions regarding SDS-based speaking tasks, addressing the following research questions: (a) What do teachers think about the SDS-based tasks? (b) How would they use them in the context of their English instruction? Overall, 16 ESL instructors in an intensive English program in the United States were asked to interact with four SDS-based speaking tasks designed to elicit specific linguistic phenomena (e.g. making requests; wh-questions). The teachers completed a survey after each task to gauge their user experience, level of engagement, and perceptions of the usefulness of the tasks for their teaching contexts. A subgroup of instructors (n = 7) also participated in audio-recorded focus group meetings. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each survey item and the open-ended responses from the surveys and focus groups were analyzed qualitatively for major themes. The findings show that teachers had positive views of the SDS tasks' potential for speaking practice and diagnostic purposes, primarily in a flipped classroom model. Their perceptions seemed to be related to their own user experience and, in particular, to the perceived authenticity of a given task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider non-clairvoyant task offloading for random tasks in mobile edge computing within the framework of combinatorial optimisation. For offline non-clairvoyant task offloading, we propose a non-clairvoyant task offloading algorithm, which is able to determine a task offloading strategy without knowing the amount of computation and communication of any task. For online non-clairvoyant task offloading, we propose a randomised online task offloading algorithm, which is able to make an offloading decision for an arrival task without knowing anything about future tasks and other tasks. For both algorithms, we analyse the probability of certain performance guarantee. We also demonstrate numerical data. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first paper which considers both offline and online non-clairvoyant task offloading in mobile edge computing, together with analytical results on performance guarantee with high probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study deals with the influence of specific motor experiences on efficient grasp planning. Forty 5- to 6-year-old children learned to use an unfamiliar tool with either a thumb-up or a thumb-down grip to accomplish a task. Before and after training, the extent to which children would rotate the tool using an awkward initial grip (thumb-down) to ensure a comfortable end-grip (end-state comfort), a pattern that has been interpreted as representing efficient grasping, was measured. The number of thumb-down grips increased only in the group that had trained to use the tool with this specific grip, but did not change after a training with an incongruent thumb-up grip. This demonstrates how the experience with specific tool-use-related grips influences efficient grasping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wh-phrases in Mandarin have an interrogative (like English what) and an indefinite (like English a/some) interpretation. Previous comprehension studies find that children can access both interpretations around 4.5 years old; studies with younger children focus on production and find that children between 2 and 4.5 do not reliably produce the indefinite interpretation in naturalistic speech or in elicited imitation tasks. In this article, we use comprehension tasks to examine 3-year-olds' interpretation of wh-phrases. We find that they have adult-like interpretations of wh-phrases in two different contexts: in dou -sentences (Experiment 1), where the indefinite interpretation is the only available interpretation and the whole sentence receives a universal reading (roughly equivalent to English any), and in negated sentences (Experiment 2), where the interpretation of wh-phrases depends on prosodic prominence and the indefinite interpretation leads to an existential reading of the sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learners' monitoring judgments during reading are based on a variety of cues, and the roles of task features in promoting and constraining judgment accuracy are beginning to be understood. This work examined task and item characteristics influencing adults' monitoring of performance during reading and study tasks. In Study 1a, adults (N = 242) read an expository text, provided text ratings, completed comprehension items, and provided confidence judgments during testing. Readers' text complexity ratings predicted their item-level confidence, while their ratings of interest and cohesion predicted their bias scores. In Study 1b, the roles of linguistic features in predicting item-level monitoring estimates were examined using the comprehension items (item n = 23) from Study 1a. Selected item features, including length, ease, density, concreteness, and meaningfulness, were examined. Item ease significantly predicted item-level bias, while ease, density, concreteness, and meaningfulness predicted item-level confidence. Study 2 (N = 68) applied similar procedures to examine the effect of item feedback on the contributions of item features to learners' monitoring. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two item feedback conditions. Item density emerged as a significant predictor of item-level confidence, but only for those who first received item-by-item correctness feedback followed by massed feedback. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to examine the difference between cheating and persistence during a persistence task to advance persistence measurement. Through a within-subject design (N = 78, mean age: 5.2 years), two different versions of the puzzle box task were administered. The original puzzle box task was administered in condition I (i.e., open version). Children could exhibit three types of behavior: persistence, cheating, and off-task. In condition II (i.e., the fixed version), the box was manipulated to make it impossible to cheat. Hence, children could only exhibit persistence or off-task behavior. The results revealed that while persistence remained stable across the two conditions, the amount of off-task increased substantially when there was no possibility to cheat. These findings indicate that persistence and cheating can be reliably distinguished and provide an empirical basis for analyzing behavioral dynamics between persistence, cheating, and off-task in the puzzle box task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has demonstrated that a minimum ratio of 5 affirmative to 1 constructive interactions is correlated with successful long-term intimate relationships, and similar (i.e., 4:1) ratios have been suggested in the context of supervisory relationships in employment settings. However, research has yet to examine methods of increasing interactional ratios to achieve such levels. In the current study, we analyzed the effects of task clarification and, if necessary, self-monitoring on ratios of affirmative to constructive feedback statements made by three supervisors of direct care staff during in-situ supervision at an early intensive behavioral intervention clinic. Results show that two supervisors achieved the criterion for ratios of affirmative to constructive statements with task clarification, while the third participant required self-monitoring to achieve the criterion. A social validity measure indicated that both supervisors and direct care staff members approved of the procedures and the outcome of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the connection between children's language skills, creativity, and play. The participants were 151 (76 boys and 75 girls) primarily middle-income, European American children. Ages ranged from 4 to 6 years. This project employed mixed methods approaches. Children engaged in several tasks. These included: creating a story about their drawing while completing the Goodenough Harris Draw a Person Task, creating an original story with the opportunity to incorporate props; and completing the TELD- 3 receptive and expressive language task. We also recorded children's social and cognitive play behaviours using a modified version of Rubin's (2001) Play Observation Scale (POS). We found positive interactions between story creativity and play behaviours, story creativity and language, creativity (drawing) and language, creativity (drawing) and play behaviours, and play behaviours and language. These findings support the connection between creativity, language, and play and the benefits these skills and abilities have on children's learning and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preponderance of evidence in the literature suggests that intermittent tasks reduce productivity and quality of work. In a task switching study, with intermittent tasks appearing once a minute or once every three minutes, we examined attention allocation and the effect of switching on the quantity and novelty of work. Self-reported estimates matched attention allocation obtained from eye fixations, indicating awareness and volitional control of attention. Arousal, quantity, and novelty of work were higher in the switching conditions in comparison to the single task condition. The findings point to the possibility of a quickening effect induced by switching that may be beneficial for work under specific task conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For complex tasks such as tying a knot, simply creating a robot hand with many degrees of freedom is insufficient. It is also important to extract the requirements of the task, design the hand based on these requirements, and implement functions to use the hand effectively. Thus, in this study, we have designed a robot hand with three fingers each having three degrees of freedom and developed basic functions to realize rope-knotting tasks. In experiments, the designed robot hand and functions were applied to performing various manipulations during rope-knotting tasks, and the redundancy provided by the structure could be utilized to generate motions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative problem solving is often conceptualised as a process of search. However, little is known about the difficulties of carrying out this search process. We conducted three studies examining how strongly different task characteristics impact creative problem-solving performance. In Study 1, regression analyses on normative data of Remote Associates Test (RAT) problems identified key task characteristics that best predict performance. We replicated these findings in a sample that was more diverse with respect to age and education background and proposed that two key factors may interact in predicting RAT problem difficulty (Study 2). We then confirmed this prediction in a pre-registered study (Study 3). Our results suggest that (a) the semantic distance between the cues and the answer and (b) the number of strong but irrelevant associates are important determinants of RAT problem difficulty, and that their influence is interdependent. Implications for theories and for studies aimed at improving creative problem-solving performance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty six empirical investigations have now established that children and adults with DSM-defined Attention deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) of the Hyperactive type (ADHD-H) or, more commonly, Combined Hyperactive/Inattentive types (ADHD-C) manifest a small but significant visual attentional bias to the right side (left subclinical neglect), consistently suggesting the existence of a subtle right hemisphere dysfunction or hemispheric imbalance in hyperactive people. Only one research team has investigated and compared the DSM-defined Inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) to the Hyperactive subtype (ADHD-H), confirming that line bisection is biased to the right in ADHD-H and discovering that it is biased to the left in ADHD-I. We aimed to test whether a similar crossed double dissociation would extend to Rey's Complex Figure Copy Task (RCF-CT), a simple visuospatial-constructive task. Clinical files of 205 juvenile clients from 6 to 16 years of age from a neuropsychological private clinic specialized in ADHD were analysed. Extreme scores on the Connors-3 Hyperactivity vs Inattention Parent Rating scales associated, respectively, with significant rightward and significant leftward emplacement of the drawing on the page on the RCF-CT. These results replicate previous findings and extend the "energetics" model of hemispheric specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research compared hand selection in a preferential reaching paradigm with unimanual (i.e., pick-up cup) and bimanual (pick-up cup and pour from pitcher) tasks. In addition, relationships between self-report, questionnaire-based hand preference (unimanual and bimanual) and patterns of hand selection were assessed. Data offer support for a division of labour between the hands in at the midline; however, bimanual selection otherwise reflects consideration of object proximity (i.e., location) and comfort (i.e., biomechanical constraints). When grasping cups in right space, the right-hand was used to stabilize the cup and left-hand to mobilize the pitcher, whereas the opposite pattern was observed in left-space. Unimanual hand selection was also driven by object location. Subsequent analyses revealed a relationship between unimanual measures, but not bimanual measures of hand preference. Overall, findings support the notion that questionnaire data are associated with hand preference for grasping to a certain extent; however, use of a comprehensive battery of assessments is recommended when assessing and/or predicting handedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that students benefit from opportunities to interpret and create different representations (e.g., diagrams, graphs, tables, symbols) of mathematical ideas. Employing Marton's Variation theory as a lens, I argue for an expansion of the use of multiple representations in task design for graphs: Incorporate two different forms of the same type of graph to represent a relationship between variables in a situation. With this approach, designers, teachers, and researchers can engineer opportunities for students to discern, or separate, features of representation systems, such as the Cartesian coordinate system, and in turn, promote students' mathematical reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of the article, the central role of theory in emotion psychology is underscored and reasons are given why more theoretical psychology of emotion is needed. In the second part, nine tasks for the theoretical psychology of emotion are defined, by refining and extending three of the general tasks of theoretical psychology proposed 70 years ago by Sigmund Koch [Theoretical psychology, 1950: An overview. Psychological Review, 58(4), 295. ]. The nine tasks are: (1) Analysis, rational reconstruction and critique of existing emotion theories. (2) Comparison of different theories. (3) Systematization and integration of theories. (4) Reconstruction of the development of theories over time. (5) Analysis, reconstruction and critique of theory-data and data-theory inferences. (6) Analysis, reconstruction and critique of the complete set of arguments for and against specific emotion-theoretic assumption and whole theories. (7) Analysis, reconstruction and critique of measurement theories for emotions. (8) Development of new emotion theories and theories of emotion measurement. (9) Information about theoretical and methodological developments of interest to emotion psychology in other subdisciplines of psychology and in neighbouring sciences, and export of theories and methods to other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial influences may be introduced to an experimental task by manipulations performed on the stimulus or the response or by virtue of the type of stimuli under study. Identification of spatial influences is especially pertinent in investigations of laterality, as isolation of processing to one hemisphere may inadvertently introduce spatial confounds. Because, however, space is not a relevant task feature, it may not always be obvious that it should be taken into consideration. Failure to anticipate these spatial influences can affect the conclusions drawn from results. The current work examines potential spatial influences in an experimental paradigm previously used to investigate perceptual asymmetries for duration estimation in which both stimulus presentation and response selection were lateralized. Potential spatial influences (including the spatial-temporal association of response codes – STEARC, spatial attention, and the Simon effect) are identified and systematically tested over 5 experiments. Results suggest that previously observed perceptual asymmetries in this experimental paradigm may be the result of a spatial confound, specifically, that of the Simon effect. Using vertical response options with the lateral stimulus presentation, however, mitigated the spatial influence. Altogether, the current work demonstrates the importance of carefully considering potential spatial confounds prior to commencement of laterality studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple object tracking (MOT) and goal-directed movements are both based on attentional processes. This study focused on the instant effect of attentive tracking with respect to pointing performance. We measured the precision of pointing to the targets of an MOT task immediately after the tracking period when all the objects were still in motion, and to the precision of pointing to moving objects in the task without attentional tracking. The results demonstrated that an increase in the attentional tracking load was the primary factor that decreased pointing precision, although visual load may also contribute to this influence. We also manipulated the relationship between the number of targets and the density of the MOT display (the total number of objects displayed), which affected the MOT accuracy but not the pointing precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long-held view that discrete movements aimed to a target are composed of a sequence of movement units (sub-movements) that have different roles in motor control (e.g., initial impulse, error correction and movement termination) depending on the task constraints (e.g., spatial-temporal requirements). Here we report findings from the manipulation of vision/no-vision on the prevalence and type of sub-movements in discrete movement tasks over a range of space-time task criteria. The presence of vison resulted in longer movement times compared to the no-vision counterpart in time-matching tasks. A similar vision effect was observed in the highest Index of Difficulty for time-minimization tasks. Conditions that resulted/required longer movement times demonstrated more pre-velocity-peak and post-velocity-peak types of sub-movements whereas short movement times increased the likelihood of overshooting sub-movements. The present study results are consistent with the idea that movement time is the variable associated with changes in sub-movement profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well-known that ageing is associated with a decrease in working memory abilities. It is not so clear at what age the decline begins and if there are differences in the decline of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory. This study investigates the effect of ageing on verbal and visuo-spatial working memory by comparing the performance of 880 subjects aged between 15- and 80-year old who were subdivided into five groups. The results show that age is negatively correlated with performance on both verbal and visuo-spatial working memory tasks. Specifically, we observed a gradual deterioration in performance with increasing age starting at 36-year old. Comparing the performance of the five groups, it is possible to observe a clear decline in both verbal and visuo-spatial working memory domains in subjects over 66-year old. However, in the next youngest age group, it is possible to notice differences in performance depending on the type of material being processed and the cognitive load required. This variability is discussed by analyzing the factors that may have influenced test performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence exists that people's brains respond differently to stimuli that violate social expectations. However, there are inconsistencies between studies in the event-related potentials (ERP) on which differential brain responses are found, as well as in the direction of the differences. Therefore, the current paper examined which of the two most frequently used tasks, the Impression Formation Task (IFT) or Implicit Association Test (IAT), provided more robust ERP components in response to the violation of gendered expectations. Both IFT and IAT paradigms were administered in a counter-balanced way among 25 young adults (age 22–31, 56% male), while brain activity was assessed with electroencephalography. The IFT and IAT specifically measured the violation of gendered expectations with regard to toy preferences and behavioral tendencies of young children. The results showed that both tasks were able to elicit relevant ERP components. Yet, the IFT evoked ERP effects of the violation of gendered expectations on all but one of the selected ERP components; the P1, N1, and LPP. The IAT only elicited different P3 amplitudes when expectations were violated. We recommend the use of IFT paradigms when studying neural processes underlying the violation of social expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To stand out among the large variations of websites that exist, users should have a good experience. Earlier research found that a good experience influences important user behavior statistics, such as further use of the website. Complexity seems to play a role in the usability of websites and a blockage or delay in reaching the goal leads to negative feelings such as frustration. In this study, FaceReader Online, a tool to measure facial expressions via the internet, was used to measure the effect of the complexity of website design and website tasks on the facial expression anger. Because the expression scores had a low intensity, we calculated a metric for the peak expression. The results indicated that in the more complex tasks the facial expression of anger was higher. These results suggest that the automatically detected facial expression anger could be used to measure usability aspects of a website. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported here investigated the effects of recasts on L2 development in terms of promoting EFL learners' accuracy in using English articles during mobile-mediated audio and video interactions. Fifty-two Iranian EFL learners were randomly assigned into two audio and video recasts conditions as well as two audio and video control groups. During five treatment sessions, the participants in the audio recasts group performed several online communicative tasks via their smartphones with their interlocutor and received recasts in response to their errors during audio interactions. The participants in the video recasts group performed the same tasks and received recasts during video interactions. The analyses of the learners' post-test scores indicated the benefits of recasts provided during both audio and video interactions for L2 development although recasts provided during audio interactions proved to be more effective than recasts delivered during video interactions. The analyses of learners' perceptions of recasts and also their responses to recasts revealed that the learners had more accurate perceptions of audio recasts and that the participants produced more target-like modified output in response to audio recasts compared to the video recasts. The implications for language teaching, especially technology-based and distance education, will be discussed in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although regulation has become a critical method to improve the effect of collaborative writing in L2 classes, it is still not clear how the regulation activities influence peer interactions, which is important for improvement of regulation itself. This case study examined dynamic interactions of several small teams of ESL students when they performed two collaborative argument writing tasks without and with regulation. Interaction patterns were identified in terms of 'equality' and 'mutuality' and different interaction patterns occurred when these learners switched between tasks. The dynamic features of peer interactions were explained according to an extended activity model. This study enriched the observation of how regulation affected peer interactions through sociocultural factors. The result can provide insights into how regulation activity should be designed and improved for web-based collaborative writing activities in L2 classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examines how the order of messaging during parent–child interactions at a museum exhibit affects children's engagement with the exhibit. Parents and 4-7-year-olds (N = 64) played at a circuit block exhibit. They were first given blocks with descriptive (e.g., "This is a battery.") or discovery-prompting (e.g., "There is no wrong way to play.") messages, and after 90 seconds, given more blocks with the other message type. Children who received discovery-prompting messages second – after being allowed to explore the affordances of the circuit blocks with the descriptive messages – played at the exhibit longer, and participated in more circuit-building challenges on their own. Parents were also sensitive to the order of the messaging; it related to the ways in which they interacted with their children at the exhibit. We conclude by considering how the timing of messages families receive at an exhibit relates to the way they engage with the exhibit. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2021.2015948. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 3 (secondary task: none, related, unrelated) x 2 (ad-video congruence: high/low) between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, participants (N = 153) watched a 9-minute video documentary segment containing one mid-roll video ad while their visual attention to the screen was recorded. Participants in two-thirds of the conditions also read two online articles on a mobile device during the video. Results show effects for both multitasking and task relatedness on attention to the ad and attitudes toward the ad, through distinct pathways. Specifically, multitasking reduced attention to the ad. Moreover, multitasking on an unrelated task lowered attitudes toward the ad by decreasing program involvement and the subsequent attention to the ad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether positive emotions interacted with task instructions and topic beliefs to influence processing and memory of a dual-position text. Participants provided emotion and belief ratings, were instructed to focus on one position in a dual-position text while reading silently (Experiment 1) or thinking-aloud (Experiment 2), and then orally remembered the text. Independently of beliefs, higher positive emotion was associated with assimilative processes (backward inferences and elaborations). However, participants with higher positive emotion used more inferential processes for belief-consistent text, but spent more time reading and rehearsing belief-inconsistent text. Participants with lower positive emotion used more inferential processes for belief-inconsistent text, but spent more time reading and rehearsing belief-consistent text. Finally, participants in all groups provided supportive evaluations for belief-consistent text and refutational evaluations for belief-inconsistent text. The results are discussed in the context of theories of emotion and discourse comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly interesting but unimportant seductive details are commonly added to scientific texts, harming reader comprehension and memory for important content while also potentially evoking a strong emotional response. In two experiments, the effects of seductive details on participants' memory and emotional responses to seductive and nonseductive scientific texts were explored. In Experiment 1, participants read two scientific texts on related scientific topics with embedded seductive details and rated the sentences for importance and interest. In Experiment 2, participants read and then recalled one seductive and one nonseductive scientific text and rated the emotional responses they experienced during one reading task and one recall task. Participants rated seductive details as more interesting than important and recalled fewer scientific concepts from seductive texts compared to nonseductive texts. Although negative emotions were predictive of better recall of scientific concepts, the presence of seductive details and positive emotions were predictive of a reduced recall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, content assessments have been carried out through written language. However, the latest standards in U.S. K-12 education expect all students, including English learners (ELs), to demonstrate their content learning using multiple modalities. This study examined the performance of fifth-grade students at varying levels of English proficiency on four science tasks that elicited responses in visual, written, and oral modalities. Findings revealed that approximately half of students performed differently in visual versus written modalities on each task. However, performance did not consistently favor the visual modality for ELs, likely due to challenges related to visual representation in some areas of science. Additionally, triangulating students' visual and written responses with their oral responses yielded more accurate interpretations of their science understanding. Collectively, these findings indicate the potential of multimodal assessment for providing more complete and accurate information about what ELs and their peers know and can do in the content areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body movements during perceptual tasks can be considered as exploratory activity that facilitate perception. In the present study we tested whether the complexity of postural sway is related to perception of affordances. Effort-to-compress (ETC), a novel measure of complexity, was shown to be related to perception as compared to gross measures of body sway (mean magnitude and variability). Specifically, complexity was related to perceptual responses in a behavioral task (judge "standonableness" of sloped terrain), but not when numerical angle judgments of slope were solicited. Furthermore, ETC was extreme at the action boundary of standonableness whereas magnitude and variability of body sway were not. This provides further evidence that the purpose of perception is to guide meaningful behavior (perceive affordances) via active exploration, and not to estimate abstract numerical quantities such as slope angles of ramps. We concluded that moving the body in ways that produces complex exploratory activity is necessary to perceive affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compared automation monitoring evolution of static or adaptive automation for four different reliability levels over 90 minutes. Previous studies have demonstrated degraded human performance when monitoring automation and that it is possible to mitigate this monitoring performance drop by using adaptive automation. We used the Open Multi-Attribute Task Battery to manipulate two type of automation (static automation without manual take-over sessions and adaptive automation with planned take-over sessions) and four levels of reliability. Participants performed three simultaneous tasks, one of which was automated. Our results suggest that a perfectly reliable or a totally unreliable automation led to different strategies by the participants in terms of visual allocation policy. Under static automation, the time spent looking at the automated task in the 0% reliability level increased over the duration of the experiment; however, the opposite was observed for the 100% reliability level. Although similar, the magnitude of this pattern of results was largely diminished under adaptive automation. For static automation, the reported data also showed a direct link between trust in automation and visual scanning strategies. The more the trust increased, the less the automated task was looked at. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite organizational behavior management placing a great deal of emphasis on interventions that alter consequences for performance, antecedent interventions play an important role in the practice of our field. Antecedent interventions utilizing variables such as goal setting, task clarification, and job aids are common. Each of these variables are examined in terms of research findings and potential behavioral functions. Being well-versed in such outcomes should inform both researchers and practitioners in their efforts to identify efficient and cost-effective solutions for workplace performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A technology-based problem-solving test can automatically capture all the actions of students when they complete tasks and save them as process data. Response sequences are the external manifestations of the latent intellectual activities of the students, and it contains rich information about students' abilities and different problem-solving strategies. This study adopted the mixture Rasch measurement models (MRMs) in analyzing the success of technology-based tasks while automatically classifying the different response patterns based on the characteristics of the response process. The Olive Oil task from the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project (ATC21S) is taken as an example to illustrate the use of MRMs and the interpretation of the process data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the motor control strategies adopted when performing two jumping tasks with different task demands when analysed at an individual and group level. Twenty-two healthy individuals performed two jumping tasks: jumping without the use of an arm swing (CMJnas) and jumping starting in a plantar flexed position with the use of an arm swing (PF). Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using hip, knee and ankle joint moment data on individual (PCAi) and group data (PCAc). The results demonstrate that a greater number of PCs are required to explain the majority of variance within the dataset in the PF condition at both an individual and group level, compared to CMJnas condition. Although common control strategies were observed between the two jumping conditions, differences in the organisation of the movement (PC loading coefficients) were observed. Results from the group analysis did not completely reflect the individual strategies used to perform each jumping task and highlight the value in performing individual analysis to determine emergent control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether task instruction affected comprehension of multiple conflicting-view texts after controlling for a number of individual difference variables and whether the effects of task instruction varied as a result of post-reading assessment tasks. Recruited from a First-Year Composition course, 64 participants received a task instruction that set the goal of seeking an alternative explanation and reframed argument as a process of conversation and exploration. Multiple-text comprehension was measured by a synthesis writing task and an argument writing task. The results showed that participants given the instruction outperformed participants in the control condition, as reflected in their argument writing. Among the control variables, beliefs about argumentation, need for cognition and topic interest were positively correlated with comprehension measures. These results highlight the importance of cultivating divergent thinking of multiple perspectives rather than dichotomous thinking of pros and cons. Pedagogical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]