Cross-cultural influence on communication effectiveness and user interface design

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of cultural diversity on communication effectiveness with different communication styles and to apply the results in the field of user interface design for computer-based communication systems. The scope of this study was limited to the relationship between context and verbal/nonverbal communication, and also the relationship between power distance and communication interaction. The results indicated that high context people (HCP) had better communication effectiveness in comprehending nonverbal clues than low context people (LCP), while LCP had better communication effectiveness in verbal communication than their counterparts. It was also found that high power distance people (HPDP) could not communicate as effectively as low power distance people (LPDP) during communication with interaction, but there was no significant difference between HPDP and LPDP in dealing with communication without interaction.     

How Does It Look? Level 2 Perspective‐Taking at 36 Months of Age

Previous research has found that children engage in Level 2 visual perspective-taking, that is, the understanding that others may see things in a different way, between 4 and 5 years of age (e.g., J. H. Flavell, B. A. Everett, K. Croft, & E. R. Flavell, 1981). This ability was reexamined in 36-month-olds using color filters. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), children had to recognize how an object looked to an adult when she saw it through a color filter. In Experiment 2 (N = 24), a novel production test was applied. Results of both studies show that 36-month-olds know how an object looks to another person. The discussion focuses on the psychological requirements of visual perspective-taking and its relation to other "theory of mind" abilities, such as the distinction between appearance and reality and understanding false belief.     

Peer Feedback Improves Students’ Academic Self-Concept in Higher Education

Research in Higher Education - Peer feedback has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve academic achievement. However, little evidence is available about the effects of peer feedback on...     

Attitudes toward Face-to-Face and Online Counseling: Roles of Self-Concealment,Openness to Experience,Loss of Face,Stigma, and Disclosure Expectations among Korean College Students

This study examined attitudes toward face-to-face (f2f) and online counseling among 228 Korean college students. In addition, it tested a hypothesized model proposing that general propensities (i.e., self-concealment, openness to experience, and loss of face) would influence counseling-specific expectations (i.e., self-stigma and disclosure expectations), which, in turn, would predict attitudes toward f2f and online counseling. Findings mirrored the results of earlier studies revealing that self-concealment was negatively related to attitudes toward both f2f and online counseling, while openness to experience and disclosure expectations were positively related. However, whereas self-stigma was associated with negative attitudes toward f2f counseling, it was not related to attitudes toward online counseling. In addition, disclosure expectations accounted for f2f attitudes more than online attitudes.     

Interaction Devices and Web Design for Novice Older Users

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of interaction devices on the Internet performance of novice older users, and ways to provide appropriate voice assistance to enhance browsing and searching performance of such users. Three experiments were designed and conducted to test three hypotheses. The results indicated that touch screen and handwriting recognition are better than mouse and keyboard in browsing time in the third trial. Touch screen was also found to be better in terms of performance time for keyword search tasks than mouse and voice input in the second trial, and is better in terms of user error for keyword search tasks than mouse and voice input in the first trial. Learning effects were found for using touch screen and handwriting recognition, and mouse and keyboard for browsing and searching tasks. Furthermore, voice-menu assistance was associated with higher satisfaction for browsing tasks.     

2.5‐Year‐Olds Express Suspense When Others Approach Reality With False Expectations

The study investigated if 2.5‐year‐olds are susceptible to suspense and express tension when others' false expectations are about to be disappointed. In two experiments (N = 32 each), children showed more tension when a protagonist approached a box with a false belief about its content than when she was ignorant. In Experiment 2, children also expressed more tension when the protagonist's belief was false than when it was true. The findings reveal that toddlers affectively anticipate the “rude awakening” of an agent who is about to discover unexpected reality. They thus not only understand false beliefs per se but also grasp the affective implications of being mistaken. The results are discussed with recourse to current theories about early understanding of false beliefs.     

The Cognitive Process of Chinese Abacus Arithmetic

Based on the literature review about abacus arithmetic, this study proposes a model of the cognitive process of Chinese abacus arithmetic. This model describes three methods for solving abacus arithmetic problems: retrieval method, procedure method, and mental arithmetic method and three external factors that affect the choice of those methods: level of expertise, level of difficulty, and type of operation. The experiment in the study invited 36 participants including 12 vocational high-school students as junior experts, 12 ordinary high-school students as novices, and 12 bank clerks as senior experts to validate the 3 × 3 × 2 experiment. The results of this study indicate that (1) the retrieval method, procedure method, and mental arithmetic method are the three main calculation methods of abacus arithmetic, each of them having some variations; (2) experts tend to use the retrieval method, while novices tend to use the mental arithmetic method; (3) the retrieval method and mental arithmetic method are applied more for simple operations and addition problems, while the procedure method is applied more for complicated operations and subtraction problems.     

A Study of Disciplinary, Structural, and Behavioral Effects on Course Outcomes in Online MBA Courses

This article reports the results of a 2‐year study examining the effects of subject matter, course structure, and participant behaviors on students' perceived learning and satisfaction with delivery medium in Web‐based courses of an MBA program in the midwestern United States. Using finance as the referent discipline, we found statistically significant differences in the mean course outcomes (students' perceived learning and satisfaction with delivery medium) associated with 13 business disciplines. Although most of these disciplinary differences ceased to be significant predictors of student perceived learning as structural and behavioral characteristics were incorporated into the model, these differences remained significant predictors of perceived delivery medium satisfaction. We also found that some structural and behavioral characteristics were significant predictors of course outcomes, but in opposite directions. For instance, media variety was a positive predictor of delivery medium satisfaction but a negative predictor of perceived learning, while learner–learner interaction positively predicted perceived learning but negatively predicted delivery medium satisfaction. These findings suggest that instructors of online graduate courses must manage trade‐offs in balancing students' learning with their perceptions of the internet as a course delivery medium.     

Making connections among multiple graphical representations of fractions: sense-making competencies enhance perceptual fluency,but not vice versa

Prior research shows that representational competencies that enable students to use graphical representations to reason and solve tasks is key to learning in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains. We focus on two types of representational competencies: (1) sense making of connections by verbally explaining how different representations map to one another, and (2) perceptual fluency that allows students to fast and effortlessly use perceptual features to make connections among representations. Because these different competencies are acquired via different types of learning processes, they require different types of instructional support: sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. In a prior experiment, we showed benefits for combining sense-making activities and fluency-building activities. In the current work, we test how to combine these two forms of instructional support, specifically, whether students should first work on sense-making activities or on fluency-building activities. This comparison allows us to investigate whether sense-making competencies enhance students’ acquisition of perceptual fluency (sense-making-first hypothesis) or whether perceptual fluency enhances students’ acquisition of sense-making competencies (fluency-first hypothesis). We conducted a lab experiment with 74 students from grades 3–5 working with an intelligent tutoring system for fractions. We assessed learning processes and learning outcomes related to representational competencies and domain knowledge. Overall, our results support the sense-making-first hypothesis, but not the fluency-first hypothesis.