Time Course of Visual Attention in Infant Categorization of Cats Versus Dogs: Evidence for a Head Bias as Revealed Through Eye Tracking

Previous looking time studies have shown that infants use the heads of cat and dog images to form category representations for these animal classes. The present research used an eye-tracking procedure to determine the time course of attention to the head and whether it reflects a preexisting bias or online learning. Six- to 7-month-olds were familiarized with cats or dogs in upright or inverted orientations and then tested with a novel cat and novel dog in the same orientation. In the upright orientation, infants fixated head over body throughout familiarization; with inversion, no head preference was observed. These findings suggest that infant reliance on the head to categorize cats versus dogs results from a bias that pushes attention to the head.     

Identification of beneficial mass-included inerter-based vibration suppression configurations

Vibration suppression capabilities of linear passive vibration absorbers, such as traditional tuned mass damper (TMD), and recently proposed inerter-based vibration absorbers, have been studied for multiple mechanical systems. In particular, significant performance advantages have been obtained with a specific device making use of both inerter and mass elements, namely the tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI). However, there are still countless mass-included inerter-based configurations that have not been studied, which can potentially provide more preferred dynamic properties. In this paper, an immittance-function-layout (IFL) is introduced, which can cover a large range of topological connection possibilities with both mass and inerter elements. With the recently proposed structural immittance format, a systematic approach is established to identify the most beneficial IFL type mass-included inerter-based configurations with pre-determined number of each element type. Vibration suppression performance with single-IFL type device and two parallel-connected IFLs (i.e. dual-IFL) type devices are investigated in this paper. Three optimal configurations are identified for mitigating the maximum inter-storey drift of an example 3-storey building model subjected to base excitation. With this 3-storey building model, results show that, for the optimum single-IFL configuration, the performance improvement is 7.3% compared with the optimum TMDI, and with identified beneficial dual-IFL configurations, up to 34.9% performance advantages are obtained. Furthermore, consistent performance gains are shown under real-life earthquake inputs and with a 10-storey building model using identified absorber configurations.     

Aesthetics and credibility in web site design

Web sites often provide the first impression of an organization. For many organizations, web sites are crucial to ensure sales or to procure services within. When a person opens a web site, the first impression is probably made in a few seconds, and the user will either stay or move on to the next site on the basis of many factors. One of the factors that may influence users to stay or go is the page aesthetics. Another reason may involve a user’s judgment about the site’s credibility. This study explores the possible link between page aesthetics and a user’s judgment of the site’s credibility. Our findings indicate that when the same content is presented using different levels of aesthetic treatment, the content with a higher aesthetic treatment was judged as having higher credibility. We call this the amelioration effect of visual design and aesthetics on content credibility. Our study suggests that this effect is operational within the first few seconds in which a user views a web page. Given the same content, a higher aesthetic treatment will increase perceived credibility.     

Automating the Construction of Internet Portals with Machine Learning

Domain-specific internet portals are growing in popularity because they gather content from the Web and organize it for easy access, retrieval and search. For example, www.campsearch.com allows complex queries by age, location, cost and specialty over summer camps. This functionality is not possible with general, Web-wide search engines. Unfortunately these portals are difficult and time-consuming to maintain. This paper advocates the use of machine learning techniques to greatly automate the creation and maintenance of domain-specific Internet portals. We describe new research in reinforcement learning, information extraction and text classification that enables efficient spidering, the identification of informative text segments, and the population of topic hierarchies. Using these techniques, we have built a demonstration system: a portal for computer science research papers. It already contains over 50,000 papers and is publicly available at www.cora.justresearch.com. These techniques are widely applicable to portal creation in other domains.     

Self-Regulation and Task Engagement as Predictors of Emergent Language and Literacy Skills

Research Findings: A growing emphasis in the literature on children’s self-regulation signals the need for increased understanding of the ways in which young children become active players in the acquisition of knowledge. In particular, self-regulation may be linked to subsequent academic achievement through greater engagement with the learning tasks and activities made available in the preschool classroom. This study tested preschoolers’ (N = 603) observed task engagement in the classroom as mediating the relations between directly assessed self-regulation and changes in their language and literacy outcomes during the preschool year. Findings indicate that self-regulation is directly related to observed task engagement as well as changes in a host of language and literacy skills. Engagement with tasks and activities in the classroom also partially mediates the association between self-regulation and changes in expressive vocabulary. Mediation through task engagement was not found for receptive language or early literacy skills. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that the development and evaluation of clearly articulated preschool curricula designed to promote academic achievement by fostering self-regulation is an important direction for future research.     

The Construction,Reliability and Validity of a Stress Inventory for Children

A universally acceptable definition of stress has so far remained elusive (e.g. McMichael, 1978; Rutter, 1981), though a widely accepted, general definition is that of McGrath (1970), who suggested that stress is “a (perceived) substantial imbalance between demand and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet demand has important (perceived) consequences” (p. 20). In his definition of occupational stress, Kyriacou (1980, p. 3) referred to “the experience... of unpleasant emotions, such as tension, anxiety, anger or depression”.

Evidence of stress among sixth formers and older students (e.g. Dobson, 1980; Dobson & Alban Metcalfe, 1982) is consistent with the suggestion that it is multidimensional in nature, and not exclusively related to examination pressures. The relatively sparse evidence concerning stress in children suggests that life events such as admission to hospital, birth of a sib, or parental divorce, may be associated with subsequent conditions requiring medical or psychiatric treatment (e.g. Rutter, 1981).

The research reported here was concerned with determining sources of perceived stress among 13‐year‐old boys and girls attending ‘normal’ schools, and the reliability and validity of an inventory designed to measure such stress.     

A Needs-Assessment Process for Designing Geospatial Data Management Systems within Federal Agencies

Many federal agencies face challenges with designing geospatial data management systems. This paper presents and documents a needs-assessment process that can be employed to prioritize agencies’ geospatial information needs; identify agencies’ capacity to manage a centralized geodatabase; determine agencies’ capacity to deliver Web-mapping services to the public; and identify barriers, such as data security and limited financial resources, that constrain agencies’ ability to design and manage a geospatial data management system. The paper details the needs-assessment process and documents its application to the National Park Service (NPS) Conservation and Outdoor Recreation (COR) Branch programs. The NPS COR Branch is comprised of nine disparate programs, such as the National Trails System and the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program, each of which has specific geospatial data management and delivery needs. The needs-assessment process, tested through its application to the NPS COR Branch programs, provides a comprehensive and logical workflow for system developers and administrators to use as they create or refine geospatial data management systems.     

Enhancing Anatomical Instruction: Impact of a Virtual Canine Anatomy Program on Student Outcomes

Innovative reforms in medical education will require instructional tools to support these changes and to give students more flexibility in where and how they learn. At Colorado State University, the software program Virtual Canine Anatomy (VCA) was developed to assist student learning both inside and outside the anatomical laboratory. The program includes interactive anatomical photographs of dissected canine cadavers, dissection instructions with accompanying videos and diagrams, radiographs, and three-dimensional models. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional tools like VCA so that decisions on pedagogical delivery can be evidence-based. To measure the impact of VCA on student outcomes in a dissection laboratory, this study compared student attitudes, quiz scores, dissection quality and accuracy, and instructor reliance between students with and without access to VCA. Students with VCA needed less time with teaching assistants (P < 0.01), asked teaching assistants fewer questions (P = 0.04), felt that the dissection was easier (P = 0.02), and were in stronger agreement that they had access to adequate resources (P = 0.02). No differences were found in the dissection quality or accuracy, quiz scores, or attitudes regarding overall enjoyment of the activity between the two groups. This study shows that VCA increases student independence and can be used to enhance anatomical instruction.