A study of the cognitive diffusion model: facilitating students’ high level cognitive processes with authentic support

For this study the researchers designed learning activities to enhance students’ high level cognitive processes. Students learned new information in a classroom setting and then applied and analyzed their new knowledge in familiar authentic contexts by taking pictures of objects found there, describing them, and sharing their homework with peers. An experiment was carried out in which 58 junior high school students were divided into a control (n = 30) and an experimental (n = 28) group. The control group studied and completed learning activities with traditional textbooks while the experimental group used electronic textbooks and a learning system, Virtual Pen for Tablet PC (VPenTPC), in order to gauge the feasibility of the proposed approach. The post-test results show a significant difference between the control and experimental groups. In our analysis of the various approaches students took to complete the task, we were able to identify thirty cognitive and metacognitive strategies for using mobile technology, from which we selected the ten most frequently used ones. The results show that low ability students make better use of strategies than their high ability peers, resulting in significant learning gains. The results also show that most students perceive VPenTPC positively. Based on these results, we suggest some implications along with conclusions and directions for future research.     

Emergence and constructvalidation of the big five factors in early childhood: a longitudinal analysis of their ontogeny in Sweden

Researchers have shown that the five major dimensions of personality (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and two additional factors (irritability and positive activity) are evident from adolescence. This study attempted to replicate and extend these results in a longitudinal study of 102 Swedish children, followed from 2.3 to 15.2 years of age. Item analyses revealed consistently reliable irritability, conscientiousness, and positive activity factors, whereas the internal reliability of the extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience factors increased over time. Irritability and positive activity were not independent of the other factors. Scores on most of the personality factors were fairly stable over time. Over time, children became less extraverted, more agreeable, and more conscientious. Neuroticism and openness to experience increased in Phase III, although openness then decreased in Phase V. Validity of the original factors was demonstrated by correlations with independent assessments of the children's cognitive performance and adjustment to school.     

Automatic index construction for multimedia digital libraries

Indexing remains one of the most popular tools provided by digital libraries to help users identify and understand the characteristics of the information they need. Despite extensive studies of the problem of automatic index construction for text-based digital libraries, the construction of multimedia digital libraries continues to represent a challenge, because multimedia objects usually lack sufficient text information to ensure reliable index learning. This research attempts to tackle the problem of automatic index construction for multimedia objects by employing Web usage logs and limited keywords pertaining to multimedia objects. The tests of two proposed algorithms use two different data sets with different amounts of textual information. Web usage logs offer precious information for building indexes of multimedia digital libraries with limited textual information. The proposed methods generally yield better indexes, especially for the artwork data set.     

Enhanced discrimination of normal oocytes using optically induced pulling-up dielectrophoretic force

We present a method to discriminate normal oocytes in an optoelectrofluidic platform based on the optically induced positive dielectrophoresis (DEP) for in vitro fertilization. By combining the gravity with a pulling-up DEP force that is induced by dynamic image projected from a liquid crystal display, the discrimination performance could be enhanced due to the reduction in friction force acting on the oocytes that are relatively large and heavy cells being affected by the gravity field. The voltage condition of 10 V bias at 1 MHz was applied for moving normal oocytes. The increased difference of moving velocity between normal and starved abnormal oocytes allows us to discriminate the normal ones spontaneously under the moving image pattern. This approach can be useful to develop an automatic and interactive selection tool of fertilizable oocytes.     

Scandal and social inequality: how young Koreans feel relative deprivation to sport celebrities

Abstract

It is often observed that when sport celebrities are involved in scandals they continue to reap a variety of benefits once the scandal fades. While it may appear they suffer little consequence for their misdeed, consequences do of course ensue. One of these is relative deprivation, particularly for young groups. This study examines how young South Koreans differently shape relative deprivation according to the type of scandal. A sample of 262 Korean university students were subjected to a priming scenario technique that showed examples of Korean sport celebrities’ real scandals. This study finds that Korean university students’ cognition, affect, and behaviour of relative deprivation were positively correlated to one another. Only the behavioural dimension was significantly different according to the type of scandal. The results could be implemented toward customising sport organisation’s communication message and a sport celebrity’s image repairing strategy when the scandal is related to social equity.     

Relations as the aim of education in Joseon neo-Confucianism: The case of the Five Relationships

Abstract

This article attempts to explain through the lens of the Five Relationships the meaning of Joseon neo-Confucian view which emphasized relationship development as the aim and contents of education. In neo-Confucianism, education is the task of guiding learners in cultivating and unfolding capabilities in the relationships of everyday life. Within the context of neo-Confucianism, the development of competency in relationships was another expression of the educational goal of actualizing the ‘original nature’ including of the four virtues. Understanding the nature of education to be the embodiment of the original nature, neo-Confucian scholars sought its actual manifestation in everyday life, taking the practice of five particular relationships to be the core method. Encompassing both ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ while progressing from the Elementary Learning into the Great Learning, neo-Confucian education characteristically takes the Five Relationships as both its foundation and its outcome. Despite the pre-modern limitations involved in the history of the practice of the Five Relationships, this neo-Confucian view of education prompts us to consider plainly the meaning of relationship development as the core contents and aim of education. Furthermore, this view affords prospects especially valuable for critically supplementing upon the discussion of a ‘pedagogy of relation’ introduced in academic circles in the West.