College Student Disposition and Academic Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conner, Timothy W., II; Skidmore, Ronald L.; Aagaard, Lola

2012-01-01

Dispositional optimism is an adopted orientation in which one believes that goals will generally be attained and that tasks can generally be successfully completed, whereas pessimists orient toward less belief in successful task or goal completion. A related concept, individuals with high self-efficacy believe they will be successful at particular…

Relationship between achievement goal orientations and the perceived purposes of playing rugby union for professional and amateur players.

PubMed

Treasure, D C; Carpenter, P J; Power, K T

2000-08-01

The recent professionalization of rugby union makes it an excellent achievement context in which to examine the relationship between achievement goal orientations and the perceived purposes of sport as a function of competitive standard. During the 1996-97 season, 73 professional and 106 amateur rugby players in England completed a series of questionnaires assessing their achievement goal orientations, beliefs about the purposes of rugby and demographic information. The results of a canonical correlation analysis revealed a conceptually coherent relationship between achievement goal orientations and purposes of rugby. Specifically, a high ego/moderate task orientation was positively related to fitness, aggression and financial remuneration as significant purposes of rugby. Professional players scored higher on those purposes of rugby related to aggression, financial remuneration and fitness, but lower on sportspersonship than amateur players. Professional players also reported higher task and ego goal orientations than amateur players. The findings are discussed in terms of the differences in lifestyle and motivation of professional and amateur rugby union players.

Assessing the Psychometric Properties of the Achievement Goals Questionnaire across Task Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muis, Krista R.; Winne, Philip H.

2012-01-01

A program of research is necessary to examine the psychometric properties of instruments designed to measure individuals' achievement goal orientations. Recently, research on achievement goal orientation has examined the stability of achievement goals to assess how context might influence individuals' achievement goals. Accordingly, studies are…

Using goal orientations to understand motivation in strength training.

PubMed

Gilson, Todd A; Chow, Graig M; Ewing, Martha E

2008-07-01

Despite the importance that today's athletics place on strength training, research exploring the motivation of athletes in this arena is sparse. It is known that not all athletes will use the same motivational cognitions as inspiration, and these differences can be explored through achievement goal orientations. Through questionnaire data and semistructured interviews, the present study investigated how collegiate athletes maintain high levels of motivation over a period of time during strength training and explored relationships among five goal orientations: task-orientation, self-enhancing ego-orientation, self-defeating ego-orientation, social-approval orientation, and work-avoidance orientation. Subjects (N = 133), comprising 90 men and 43 women, were current varsity collegiate athletes from 15 different sports at a major Midwestern university. In addition, using a screener survey to assess achievement goal orientations, 15 subjects from the sample group who demonstrated a stronger inclination to only one achievement goal orientation were interviewed to gain a more in-depth understanding of their motivation cognitions in strength training. Results showed that the strongest achievement goal orientations reported from all athletes were task-orientation and social-approval. Additionally, five higher-order themes (significant others, improvement, competitive demands, being stronger than others, and miscellaneous) were consistent among the interviewed athletes when describing how they stay motivated during strength training. Whereas all athletes were able to describe at least one motivational strategy they employed during strength training, the dominant achievement goal orientation of some athletes influenced their motivational strategy. By employing the T.A.R.G.E.T. model (), strength coaches can foster adaptive achievement goal orientations and thereby enhance intrinsic motivation for athletes engaging in strength training.

The Role of Goal Orientations in Students' Perceptions of Classroom Assessment in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaur, Amrita; Noman, Mohammad; Awang-Hashim, Rosna

2018-01-01

Students' perception of assessment methods plays a significant role in determining their effort towards learning and their assessment tasks. Similar to the role of goal orientation in predicting students' classroom learning, this study aims to examine how students' goal orientations influence their perception of classroom assessments. Using a…

The Role of Motivating Tasks and Personal Goal Orientations in Students' Coping Strategies in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subasi, Münevver; Tas, Yasemin

2016-01-01

This study aims to investigate coping strategies of middle school students in science classes in relation to students' goal orientations and motivating tasks conducted in the classroom environment. The study was conducted in spring semester of 2015-2016 academic year. Sample of the study consists of 316 middle school students receiving education…

Facilitating Goal-Oriented Behaviour in the Stroop Task: When Executive Control Is Influenced by Automatic Processing

PubMed Central

Parris, Benjamin A.; Bate, Sarah; Brown, Scott D.; Hodgson, Timothy L.

2012-01-01

A portion of Stroop interference is thought to arise from a failure to maintain goal-oriented behaviour (or goal neglect). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether goal- relevant primes could enhance goal maintenance and reduce the Stroop interference effect. Here it is shown that primes related to the goal of responding quickly in the Stroop task (e.g. fast, quick, hurry) substantially reduced Stroop interference by reducing reaction times to incongruent trials but increasing reaction times to congruent and neutral trials. No effects of the primes were observed on errors. The effects on incongruent, congruent and neutral trials are explained in terms of the influence of the primes on goal maintenance. The results show that goal priming can facilitate goal-oriented behaviour and indicate that automatic processing can modulate executive control. PMID:23056553

Does Goal Orientation Matter for Trait Anxiety, Self-Efficacy and Performance? An Investigation in University Athletes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sari, Ihsan

2015-01-01

In recent years, goal orientations have been examined in their relationship with other potential determinants of athletic performance. The relevant research showed that task orientation, compared to ego orientation, is linked to more adaptive outcomes (Behzadi, Hamzei, Nori and Salehian, 2011; Duda and Whitehead, 1998; Roberts, 2001; Biddle, 2001;…

The Negative Impact of Goal-Oriented Instructions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shatz, Itamar

2015-01-01

The phrasing of task instructions can facilitate or hinder the learning process. In this study, three groups of participants (N = 526) performed a foreign vocabulary memorization task, with modified instructions for each group. The instructions were either learning oriented, encouraging participants to improve their abilities; outcome oriented,…

Goal orientations and sport motivation, differences between the athletes of competitive and non-competitive rhythmic gymnastics.

PubMed

Koumpoula, M; Tsopani, D; Flessas, K; Chairopoulou, C

2011-09-01

The present study examines the sport motivation and the goal orientations in the competitive and non-competitive structure of rhythmic gymnastics. Participation of individuals in one or the other structure of the sport differs in line with the goals they want to achieve and possibly also with respect to the factors that impulse them to take part in one or the other. The purpose of this study is to examine how individuals who participate in different structures of the sport of rhythmic gymnastics differentiate with regard to the type of motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic, amotivation) and goal orientations. The study involved 98 young female rhythmic gymnastics athletes (aged 14 years and up), out of which 40 were athletes of competitive clubs or members of national teams, and 58 were athletes of non-competitive clubs. For the evaluation of motivation and goal orientations the following tools were used: the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) and the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ). Descriptive and inductive statistical data analysis was conducted. The results showed that the athletes of the non-competitive structure presented higher levels of introjected regulation (extrinsic motivation), amotivation and lower levels of ego orientation (P<0.05). Rhythmic gymnastics athletes' (regardless of the structure of the sport) presented high level in task orientation while the high levels of task orientation is positively associated with high levels of intrinsic motivation regardless of the levels of ego orientation. The intrinsic motivation of athletes participating in rhythmic gymnastics runs at high levels. The amotivation of rhythmic gymnastics athletes' is a phenomenon which is also presented in the the non-competitive sport structure. It is important that the two different structures of sports be determined with accurate criteria.

The impact of goal-oriented task design on neurofeedback learning for brain-computer interface control.

PubMed

McWhinney, S R; Tremblay, A; Boe, S G; Bardouille, T

2018-02-01

Neurofeedback training teaches individuals to modulate brain activity by providing real-time feedback and can be used for brain-computer interface control. The present study aimed to optimize training by maximizing engagement through goal-oriented task design. Participants were shown either a visual display or a robot, where each was manipulated using motor imagery (MI)-related electroencephalography signals. Those with the robot were instructed to quickly navigate grid spaces, as the potential for goal-oriented design to strengthen learning was central to our investigation. Both groups were hypothesized to show increased magnitude of these signals across 10 sessions, with the greatest gains being seen in those navigating the robot due to increased engagement. Participants demonstrated the predicted increase in magnitude, with no differentiation between hemispheres. Participants navigating the robot showed stronger left-hand MI increases than those with the computer display. This is likely due to success being reliant on maintaining strong MI-related signals. While older participants showed stronger signals in early sessions, this trend later reversed, suggesting greater natural proficiency but reduced flexibility. These results demonstrate capacity for modulating neurofeedback using MI over a series of training sessions, using tasks of varied design. Importantly, the more goal-oriented robot control task resulted in greater improvements.

Motivational predictors of prosocial and antisocial behaviour in football.

PubMed

Kavussanu, Maria

2006-06-01

This study examined (a) the main and interactive effects of goal orientations and perceived motivational climate on prosocial and antisocial behaviour, and (b) whether number of seasons one has played for the team interacts with motivational climate in predicting prosocial and antisocial behaviour in association football. Participants were 325 male association football players, whose age ranged from 12 to 17 years. Athletes completed questionnaires measuring frequency of prosocial and antisocial behaviours in football, goal orientation, motivational climate and social desirability, and indicated the number of seasons they had played for their current team. Regression analyses revealed that task orientation and mastery climate were positive predictors of prosocial behaviour, whereas ego orientation and performance climate were positive predictors of antisocial behaviour. In addition, task orientation negatively predicted antisocial behaviour, while ego orientation negatively predicted prosocial behaviour. No significant interactions between task and ego orientation and mastery and performance motivational climate were found. Finally, mastery climate negatively predicted antisocial behaviour for those who had played many seasons for the team. In conclusion, strengthening task orientation and mastery climate and weakening ego orientation may enhance prosocial behaviour. However, for antisocial conduct to be eliminated from the context of association football, ego orientation and performance climate need to be tempered, as these constructs exert unique independent effects on antisocial behaviour.

The Relationship between Goal Orientations, Motivational Climate and Selfreported Discipline in Physical Education

PubMed Central

Moreno-Murcia, Juan A.; Sicilia, Alvaro; Cervelló, Eduardo; Huéscar, Elisa; Dumitru, Delia C.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test a motivational model on the links between situational and dispositional motivation and self-reported indiscipline/discipline based on the achievement goals theory. The model postulates that a task-involving motivational climate facilitates self-reported discipline, either directly or mediated by task orientation. In contrast, an ego-involving motivational climate favors self-reported indiscipline, either directly or by means of ego orientation. An additional purpose was to examine gender differences according to the motivational model proposed. Children (n = 565) from a large Spanish metropolitan school district were participants in this study and completed questionnaires assessing goal orientations, motivational climates and self-reported discipline. The results from the analysis of structural equation model showed the direct effect of motivational climates on self-reported discipline and provided support to the model. Furthermore, the gender differences found in self-reported discipline were associated with the differences found in the students’ dispositional and situational motivation pursuant to the model tested. The implications of these results with regard to teaching instructional actions in physical education classes are discussed. Key points A task-involving motivational climate predicts self-reported discipline behaviors, either directly or mediated by task orientation. An ego-involving motivational climate favors self-reported undisciplined, either directly or mediated by ego orientation. A significant gender difference was found in the motivational disposition perceived climate and self-reported discipline. PMID:24149304

Goal-oriented robot navigation learning using a multi-scale space representation.

PubMed

Llofriu, M; Tejera, G; Contreras, M; Pelc, T; Fellous, J M; Weitzenfeld, A

2015-12-01

There has been extensive research in recent years on the multi-scale nature of hippocampal place cells and entorhinal grid cells encoding which led to many speculations on their role in spatial cognition. In this paper we focus on the multi-scale nature of place cells and how they contribute to faster learning during goal-oriented navigation when compared to a spatial cognition system composed of single scale place cells. The task consists of a circular arena with a fixed goal location, in which a robot is trained to find the shortest path to the goal after a number of learning trials. Synaptic connections are modified using a reinforcement learning paradigm adapted to the place cells multi-scale architecture. The model is evaluated in both simulation and physical robots. We find that larger scale and combined multi-scale representations favor goal-oriented navigation task learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Task-oriented rehabilitation robotics.

PubMed

Schweighofer, Nicolas; Choi, Younggeun; Winstein, Carolee; Gordon, James

2012-11-01

Task-oriented training is emerging as the dominant and most effective approach to motor rehabilitation of upper extremity function after stroke. Here, the authors propose that the task-oriented training framework provides an evidence-based blueprint for the design of task-oriented robots for the rehabilitation of upper extremity function in the form of three design principles: skill acquisition of functional tasks, active participation training, and individualized adaptive training. The previous robotic systems that incorporate elements of task-oriented trainings are then reviewed. Finally, the authors critically analyze their own attempt to design and test the feasibility of a TOR robot, ADAPT (Adaptive and Automatic Presentation of Tasks), which incorporates the three design principles. Because of its task-oriented training-based design, ADAPT departs from most other current rehabilitation robotic systems: it presents realistic functional tasks in which the task goal is constantly adapted, so that the individual actively performs doable but challenging tasks without physical assistance. To maximize efficacy for a large clinical population, the authors propose that future task-oriented robots need to incorporate yet-to-be developed adaptive task presentation algorithms that emphasize acquisition of fine motor coordination skills while minimizing compensatory movements.

Competence, achievement goals, motivational climate, and pleasant psychobiosocial states in youth sport.

PubMed

Bortoli, Laura; Bertollo, Maurizio; Comani, Silvia; Robazza, Claudio

2011-01-01

We examined the three-way interactions among competence (actual and perceived), individuals' dispositional goal orientation (task/ego), and perceived sport motivational climate (mastery/performance) in the prediction of pleasant psychobiosocial states (i.e. emotion, cognition, motivation, bodily reaction, movement, performance, and communication) as conceptualized by the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning model. The sample consisted of 320 Italian youths (160 girls and 160 boys) aged 13-14 years who were involved in individual or team sports. The assessment included a perceived competence scale, a goal orientation questionnaire, a motivational climate inventory, and pleasant psychobiosocial descriptors. An actual competence scale was also administered to coaches asking them to assess their youngsters. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis showed that perceived competence, actual competence, and task orientation were the strongest predictors of pleasant psychobiosocial states. Moreover, actual competence and perceived competence interacted in different ways with dispositional goal orientations and motivational climate perceptions in the prediction of psychobiosocial states. It is therefore recommended that both constructs be included in motivational research.

Conflicts between On-Task and Off-Task Behaviors in the Classroom: The Influences of Parental Monitoring, Peer Value Orientations, Students' Goals, and Their Value Orientations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilian, Britta; Hofer, Manfred; Kuhnle, Claudia

2013-01-01

Students in class are sometimes torn between following the lesson and engaging in off-task behavior. In this paper, instead of classifying it as a form of deviant behavior, off-task behavior is reconstructed as a manifestation of students multiple motivations in the classroom. The study examines whether parental monitoring, peer value…

Mastering social and organization goals: strategy use by two children with Asperger syndrome during cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance.

PubMed

Rodger, Sylvia; Vishram, Alysha

2010-11-01

Preliminary data supports the effectiveness of Cognitive Orientation to (daily) Occupational Performance (CO-OP) for children with Asperger syndrome (AS). Children with AS often experience social and organizational difficulties spanning daily occupations. This case study explored the pattern of Global Strategies and Domain-Specific Strategies (DSS) use, the type of guidance, and dimensions of time on task used by two children with AS (aged 10 and 12 years) in addressing social and organizational goals during the CO-OP intervention. Coding of the videotaped CO-OP sessions suggested that both children (a) utilized all the Global strategies, particularly "understanding the context” and "plan"; (b) used six common DSS, namely transitional supports, affective supports, attending, task-specification, task modification, and supplementing task knowledge, with task-specification being most prominent; (c) required minimal guidance while "doing"; and (d) engaged in considerable time "talking about the task.” The results provide initial insights into strategies that may enable children with AS to achieve social and organizational goals.

Fostering Creativity in the Classroom: Effects of Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs, Motivation, and Goal Orientation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Eunsook; Hartzell, Stephanie A.; Greene, Mary T.

2009-01-01

The relationships of teachers' epistemological beliefs, motivation, and goal orientation to their instructional practices that foster student creativity were examined. Teachers' perceived instructional practices that facilitate the development of multiple perspectives in problem solving, transfer, task commitment, creative skill use, and…

Prediction of intention to continue sport in athlete students: A self-determination theory approach

PubMed Central

Keshtidar, Mohammad; Behzadnia, Behzad

2017-01-01

Grounded on the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000) and achievement goals theory (Ames, 1992; Nicholls, 1989), this study via structural equation modelling, predicted intention to continue in sport from goal orientations and motivations among athlete students. 268 athlete students (Mage = 21.9), in Iranian universities completed a multi-section questionnaire tapping the targeted variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) offered an overall support for the proposed model. The results showed that there are positive relationships between intention to continue in sport and both orientations as well as both motivations. A task-involving orientation emerged as a positive predictor of the autonomous motivation, while an ego-involving orientation was a positive predictor controlled motivation as well as autonomous motivation. The results also support positive paths between autonomous motivation and future intention to participate in sport. Autonomous motivation also was a positive mediator in relationship between task orientation and the intentions. As a conclusion, the implications of the task-involving orientation are discussabled in the light of its importance for the quality and potential maintenance of sport involvement among athlete students. PMID:28178308

Prediction of intention to continue sport in athlete students: A self-determination theory approach.

PubMed

Keshtidar, Mohammad; Behzadnia, Behzad

2017-01-01

Grounded on the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000) and achievement goals theory (Ames, 1992; Nicholls, 1989), this study via structural equation modelling, predicted intention to continue in sport from goal orientations and motivations among athlete students. 268 athlete students (Mage = 21.9), in Iranian universities completed a multi-section questionnaire tapping the targeted variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) offered an overall support for the proposed model. The results showed that there are positive relationships between intention to continue in sport and both orientations as well as both motivations. A task-involving orientation emerged as a positive predictor of the autonomous motivation, while an ego-involving orientation was a positive predictor controlled motivation as well as autonomous motivation. The results also support positive paths between autonomous motivation and future intention to participate in sport. Autonomous motivation also was a positive mediator in relationship between task orientation and the intentions. As a conclusion, the implications of the task-involving orientation are discussabled in the light of its importance for the quality and potential maintenance of sport involvement among athlete students.

Goal orientation and well-being in college athletes: The importance of athletic social connectedness.

PubMed

Wayment, Heidi A; Walters, Andrew Schrack

2017-11-01

The present study examined the ability of an interpersonal construct called athletic connectedness to mediate the relationship between task and ego goal orientations and well-being. We operationalised athletic social connectedness as a sense of social belonging and sense of connection with teammates. We hypothesised that athletic social connectedness would be positively associated with task goals, negatively associated with ego goals, and would at least partially mediate the relationship between achievement goals and well-being. We administered questionnaires to female (N = 106; mean age = 20.47, SD = 1.12) and male (N = 100; mean age = 20.95, SD = 1.21) NCAA Division III college athletes. We tested our hypothesised model using structural equation modelling, which included testing a measurement model that specified four latent variables and then comparing the estimates generated by our hypothesised model with our data. We also tested three alternative models and found our hypothesised model to fit best. As predicted, there were significant indirect effects of task and ego motivation on well-being through athletic connectedness, demonstrating formal evidence of mediation. The r 2 coefficient indicated that the model explained 30% of the variance in well-being, a moderate effect size (Cohen, 1988). Discussion focuses on the importance of considering interpersonal constructs as a way to improve our understanding of relationship between task and ego goal orientations to well-being in athletes.

Both the "What" and "Why" of Youth Sports Participation Matter; a Conditional Process Analysis.

PubMed

Gjesdal, Siv; Appleton, Paul R; Ommundsen, Yngvar

2017-01-01

This study builds on previous research combining achievement goal orientation from Achievement Goal Theory and motivational regulation from Self-Determination Theory. The aim was to assess the combination of the "what" and "why" of youth sport activity, and how it relates to the need for competence and self-esteem. Achievement goal orientation, specifically task and ego, was employed to represent the "what", whilst intrinsic and external regulation reflected the "why". Based on a sample of 496 youth sports participants, structural equation modeling with a bootstrapping procedure was used to examine whether the indirect relationship between achievement goal orientation and self-esteem was conditional to motivational regulation. The results show partial support for the conditional process models. Specifically, task orientation was indirectly linked with self-esteem through competence need, and the relationship was stronger with higher levels of intrinsic regulation for sport. Furthermore, ego orientation was negatively associated with self-esteem through a positive relationship with competence frustration. However, this relationship emerged only for those higher in intrinsic regulation. External regulation did not emerge as a moderator, but presented a positive relationship with competence frustration. Findings are discussed in light of both Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory, and underline the importance of considering both the "what" and "why" when attempting to understand motivation in youth sport.

Proximal antecedents and correlates of adopted error approach: a self-regulatory perspective.

PubMed

Van Dyck, Cathy; Van Hooft, Edwin; De Gilder, Dick; Liesveld, Lillian

2010-01-01

The current study aims to further investigate earlier established advantages of an error mastery approach over an error aversion approach. The two main purposes of the study relate to (1) self-regulatory traits (i.e., goal orientation and action-state orientation) that may predict which error approach (mastery or aversion) is adopted, and (2) proximal, psychological processes (i.e., self-focused attention and failure attribution) that relate to adopted error approach. In the current study participants' goal orientation and action-state orientation were assessed, after which they worked on an error-prone task. Results show that learning goal orientation related to error mastery, while state orientation related to error aversion. Under a mastery approach, error occurrence did not result in cognitive resources "wasted" on self-consciousness. Rather, attention went to internal-unstable, thus controllable, improvement oriented causes of error. Participants that had adopted an aversion approach, in contrast, experienced heightened self-consciousness and attributed failure to internal-stable or external causes. These results imply that when working on an error-prone task, people should be stimulated to take on a mastery rather than an aversion approach towards errors.

Training in Goal-Oriented Attentional Self-Regulation Improves Executive Functioning in Veterans with Chronic TBI.

PubMed

Novakovic-Agopian, Tatjana; Kornblith, Erica S; Abrams, Gary; Burciaga-Rosales, Joaquin; Loya, Fred; D'Esposito, Mark; Chen, Anthony J-W

2018-05-02

Deficits in executive control functions are some of the most common and disabling consequences of both military and civilian brain injury. However, effective interventions are scant. The goal of this study was to assess whether cognitive rehabilitation training that was successfully applied in chronic civilian brain injury would be effective for military Veterans with TBI. In a prior study, participants with chronic acquired brain injury significantly improved after training in goal-oriented attentional self-regulation (GOALS) on measures of attention/executive function, functional task performance, and goal-directed control over neural processing on fMRI. The objective of this study was to assess effects of GOALS training in Veterans with chronic TBI. 33 Veterans with chronic TBI and executive difficulties in their daily life completed either five weeks of manualized Goal-Oriented Attentional Self-Regulation (GOALS) training or Brain-Health Education (BHE) matched in time and intensity. Evaluator-blinded assessments at baseline and post training included neuropsychological and complex functional task performance and self-report measures of emotional regulation. After GOALS, but not BHE training, participants significantly improved from baseline on primary outcome measures of: Overall Complex Attention/Executive Function composite neuropsychological performance score [F = 7.10, p =.01; partial 2 = .19], and on overall complex functional task performance (Goal Processing Scale Overall Performance) [F=6.92, p=.01, partial 2 =.20]. Additionally, post-GOALS participants indicated significant improvement on emotional regulation self-report measures [POMS Confusion Score F=6.05, p=.02, partial2=.20]. Training in attentional self-regulation applied to participant defined goals may improve cognitive functioning in Veterans with chronic TBI. Attention regulation training may not only impact executive control functioning in real world complex tasks, but may also improve emotional regulation and functioning. Implications for treatment of Veterans with TBI are discussed.

Goal orientations, motivational climate, equality, and discipline of Spanish physical education students.

PubMed

Cervelló, Eduardo M; Jiménez, Ruth; del Villar, Fernando; Ramos, Luis; Santos-Rosa, Francisco J

2004-08-01

This study analyzes how dispositional goal orientations and perception of different motivational climates are related to the students' perception of sex-related egalitarian treatment and the appearance of disciplined or undisciplined behaviors in physical education classes. Analyses showed that ego orientation is a predictor of undisciplined behavior. Task orientation was positively associated to discipline. The perception of task-involving motivational climate is related to the students' perception of equal treatment. On the contrary, the perception of ego-involving climate has been linked positively to the prediction of the perception of sex discrimination in physical education classes and negatively to the perception of equality and the appearance of disciplined behavior. This study discusses the implications of these results related to teaching instructional actions in physical education classes.

Is gaze following purely reflexive or goal-directed instead? Revisiting the automaticity of orienting attention by gaze cues.

PubMed

Ricciardelli, Paola; Carcagno, Samuele; Vallar, Giuseppe; Bricolo, Emanuela

2013-01-01

Distracting gaze has been shown to elicit automatic gaze following. However, it is still debated whether the effects of perceived gaze are a simple automatic spatial orienting response or are instead sensitive to the context (i.e. goals and task demands). In three experiments, we investigated the conditions under which gaze following occurs. Participants were instructed to saccade towards one of two lateral targets. A face distracter, always present in the background, could gaze towards: (a) a task-relevant target--("matching" goal-directed gaze shift)--congruent or incongruent with the instructed direction, (b) a task-irrelevant target, orthogonal to the one instructed ("non-matching" goal-directed gaze shift), or (c) an empty spatial location (no-goal-directed gaze shift). Eye movement recordings showed faster saccadic latencies in correct trials in congruent conditions especially when the distracting gaze shift occurred before the instruction to make a saccade. Interestingly, while participants made a higher proportion of gaze-following errors (i.e. errors in the direction of the distracting gaze) in the incongruent conditions when the distracter's gaze shift preceded the instruction onset indicating an automatic gaze following, they never followed the distracting gaze when it was directed towards an empty location or a stimulus that was never the target. Taken together, these findings suggest that gaze following is likely to be a product of both automatic and goal-driven orienting mechanisms.

Perceived parental beliefs about the causes of success in sport: relationship to athletes' achievement goals and personal beliefs.

PubMed

White, Sally A; Kavussanu, Maria; Tank, Kari M; Wingate, Jason M

2004-02-01

This study examined the relationship between perceived parental beliefs and young athletes' achievement goal orientations and personal beliefs about the causes of success in sport. Participants were 183 male and female athletes, 11-18 years old, involved in team sports. Athletes completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Beliefs about the Causes of Sport Success Questionnaire, and two modified versions of the latter inventory to assess their perceptions of their parents' beliefs. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that perceived parental beliefs were related to goal orientations and personal beliefs in a conceptually coherent fashion. Thus, the perceived parental belief that effort leads to success in sport was related to athletes' task orientation and personal belief that effort causes sport success. In contrast, the perceived parental beliefs that superior ability, external factors, and using deceptive tactics are precursors to success in sport corresponded to athletes' ego orientation and the same personal beliefs. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the socialization experiences of young athletes.

Effect of Delay on Search Decisions in a Task-Oriented Reading Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mañá, Amelia; Vidal-Abarca, Eduardo; Salmerón, Ladislao

2017-01-01

The goal of this study was to determine the effect of setting a delay between reading a text and answering comprehension questions on "when"-to-search and "what"-to-search decisions in a task-oriented reading environment. Fifty-five eighth-grade students were randomly divided into two groups. One group read one text, answered…

Staying with the Text: The Contribution of Gender, Achievement Orientations, and Interest to Students' Performance on a Literacy Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Jedda; Tisher, Ruth; Ainley, Mary; Kennedy, Gregor

2008-01-01

This study addresses concerns about boys' underperformance on literacy tasks compared to girls, by investigating male and females students' responses to narrative texts. Participants were 142 Grade 9 and 10 students. Achievement orientations, including goals, self-efficacy, and self-handicapping, were measured and approach and avoidance factors…

Causal relationships of sport and exercise involvement with goal orientations, perceived competence and intrinsic motivation in physical education: a longitudinal study.

PubMed

Papaioannou, Athanasios; Bebetsos, Evaggelos; Theodorakis, Yannis; Christodoulidis, Triantafyllos; Kouli, Olga

2006-04-01

Little information exists about the causal relationships of sport and exercise participation with goal orientations, perceived athletic competence and intrinsic motivation in physical education. A longitudinal study was conducted involving 882 Greek students who completed questionnaires on three occasions: 3 - 5 weeks into the academic year, 3 - 6 weeks before the end of the academic year, and 7 months later. The data were analysed using structural equation models, controlling for age. Task orientation and intrinsic motivation in physical education at the beginning of the academic year predicted sport and exercise participation 7 and 14 months later. Perceived athletic competence both at the beginning and end of the academic year predicted sport and exercise participation 7 and 14 months later, while ego orientation did not predict sport and exercise involvement at either time. Previous sport and exercise participation had positive effects on task orientation and perceived athletic competence 3 - 6 weeks before the end of the academic year and predicted all cognitive-affective constructs 7 months later. These results imply that the cultivation of task orientation, intrinsic motivation in physical education and perceived athletic competence will help to promote sport and exercise participation in adolescence.

School Reform and the Transition to Middle School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderman, Eric M.; And Others

This paper presents findings of a study that used goal orientation theory as a guiding framework for a collaborative effort with middle school principals, teachers, and parents over a 3-year period. The intervention sought to change policies and practices so that they would reflect more of a task-goal orientation and less of an ability-goal…

The Hows and Whys of Studying: The Relationship of Goals to Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nolen, Susan Bobbitt

A correlational study of 62 8th grade, 60 11th grade, and 58 college students investigated developmental differences in learning goals, study strategy beliefs and their inter-relationship for science classes. Questionnaires measured levels of task orientation, ego orientation, and work avoidance, as well as belief in the utility of two types of…

Goal orientations, motivational climate, and prosocial and antisocial behaviour in youth football: exploring their temporal stability and reciprocal relationships.

PubMed

Sage, Luke D; Kavussanu, Maria

2008-05-01

In this study, we examined the temporal stability and reciprocal relationships among task and ego orientation, task- and ego-involving climates, and prosocial and antisocial behaviour in youth football. Male (n = 156) and female (n = 24) footballers (mean age 14.1 years, s = 1.8) completed questionnaires towards the beginning and end of a regular season. Questionnaires measured goal orientation, perceived motivational climate, and frequency of prosocial and antisocial behaviours. Structural equation modelling indicated moderate covariance stability between the beginning and end of the season. Subsequent analyses revealed a significant decrease only in perceptions of task-involving climate. In the cross-lagged analyses, prosocial behaviour at the beginning of the season positively predicted task-involving climate at the end of the season. Antisocial behaviour at the beginning of the season positively predicted both ego orientation and ego-involving climate at the end of the season and a reciprocal relationship was revealed whereby ego orientation at the beginning of the season positively predicted antisocial behaviour at the end of the season. Task orientation at the beginning of the season negatively predicted ego-involving climate at the end of the season. All cross-lagged relationships were weak. This exploratory study offers limited support for bi-directional relationships between personal, environmental, and behavioural variables but provides useful insight into the covariance stability, change, and interrelationships between motivational and moral constructs over a competitive season.

General self-concept and life satisfaction for boys with differing levels of physical coordination: the role of goal orientations and leisure participation.

PubMed

Poulsen, Anne A; Ziviani, Jenny M; Cuskelly, Monica

2006-12-01

Participation in leisure-time activities, self-concept perceptions and individual dispositional goal orientations were examined as mediators of relationships between physical coordination and self-evaluations of life satisfaction and general self-concept for 173 boys aged 10-13 years. Participants completed seven-day activity diaries and 12-month retrospective recall questionnaires recording participation in leisure-time activities. Self-report measures of self-concept, global life satisfaction and dispositional goal orientations were also completed. Results showed that boys with moderate to severe physical coordination difficulties had significantly lower self-concept perceptions of physical ability and appearance, peer and parent relations and general self-concept, as well as lower life satisfaction than boys with medium to high levels of physical coordination. The relationships between boys' physical coordination and their self-perceptions of life satisfaction and general self-concept were significantly influenced by individual self-concept appraisals of physical ability and appearance, peer and parent relations. Adopting task-oriented goals was found to positively change the relationship between physical coordination and both general self-concept and life satisfaction. Team sport participation positively mediated the relationship between physical coordination and life satisfaction. The potential for team sport participation and adoption of task-oriented goals to influence life satisfaction for boys with differing levels of physical coordination was discussed.

Both the “What” and “Why” of Youth Sports Participation Matter; a Conditional Process Analysis

PubMed Central

Gjesdal, Siv; Appleton, Paul R.; Ommundsen, Yngvar

2017-01-01

This study builds on previous research combining achievement goal orientation from Achievement Goal Theory and motivational regulation from Self-Determination Theory. The aim was to assess the combination of the “what” and “why” of youth sport activity, and how it relates to the need for competence and self-esteem. Achievement goal orientation, specifically task and ego, was employed to represent the “what”, whilst intrinsic and external regulation reflected the “why”. Based on a sample of 496 youth sports participants, structural equation modeling with a bootstrapping procedure was used to examine whether the indirect relationship between achievement goal orientation and self-esteem was conditional to motivational regulation. The results show partial support for the conditional process models. Specifically, task orientation was indirectly linked with self-esteem through competence need, and the relationship was stronger with higher levels of intrinsic regulation for sport. Furthermore, ego orientation was negatively associated with self-esteem through a positive relationship with competence frustration. However, this relationship emerged only for those higher in intrinsic regulation. External regulation did not emerge as a moderator, but presented a positive relationship with competence frustration. Findings are discussed in light of both Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory, and underline the importance of considering both the “what” and “why” when attempting to understand motivation in youth sport. PMID:28491048

The impact of goal setting and goal orientation on performance during a clerkship surgical skills training program.

PubMed

Gardner, Aimee K; Diesen, Diana L; Hogg, Deborah; Huerta, Sergio

2016-02-01

The purpose of this study was to integrate relevant goal-setting theory and to identify if trainees' goal orientations have an impact on the assigned goals-performance relationship. Trainees attended 1 of the 3 goal-training activities (do your best, performance, or learning goals) for knot tying (KT) and camera navigation (CN) during the 3rd-year clerkship rotation. Questionnaires and pretests and/or post-tests were completed. One twenty-seven 3rd-year medical students (age: 25 ± 2.6; 54% women) participated in the training program. Pretraining to post-training performance changes were significant for all groups on both tasks (P < .01), but the increase was significantly greater (P < .01) for the learning goals group (do your best: KTΔ = 2.14, CNΔ = 1.69; performance: KTΔ = 2.49, CNΔ = 2.24; learning: KTΔ = 3.04 CNΔ = 2.76). Correlations between goal orientations and improvement were examined, revealing a unique role of goal orientation for performance improvement. These data indicate that consideration of goal type and trainee goal orientation must be considered during curriculum development to maximize educational value. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bivariate and Multivariate Associations between Trait Listening Goals and Trait Communicator Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keaton, Shaughan A.; Keteyian, Robert V.; Bodie, Graham D.

2014-01-01

This article provides validity evidence for a measure of listening goals by showing theoretically consistent relationships with an existing communication preference questionnaire. Participants (N = 257) were administered trait measures for listening goals and communicator preferences. The four listening goals--relational, task-oriented,…

When do chronic differences in self-regulation count? Regulatory focus effects in easy and difficult soccer tasks.

PubMed

Vogel, Tobias; Genschow, Oliver

2013-04-01

Research on regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) suggests that performance increases if instructions fit with sportspersons' dispositions. Sportspersons who chronically focus on wins (i.e., promotion-oriented individuals) perform best if instructions frame the objective as a promotion goal (e.g., "Try to hit!"). By contrast, sportspersons who chronically focus on losses (i.e., prevention-oriented individuals) perform best if instructions frame the objective as a prevention goal (e.g., "Try not to miss!"). Recent theorizing also suggests that regulatory focus interacts with task difficulty. In an experiment, we assessed soccer performance as a function of chronic focus, instructional focus, and task difficulty. Results support that task difficulty moderates the effects of fit on performance; fitting instructions to match the sportsperson's chronic regulatory focus improved performance in the easy rather than the difficult task. Findings are discussed regarding the role of regulatory fit in altering subjective pressure during sports performance.

Student goal orientation in learning inquiry skills with modifiable software advisors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimoda, Todd A.; White, Barbara Y.; Frederiksen, John R.

2002-03-01

A computer support environment (SCI-WISE) for learning and doing science inquiry projects was designed. SCI-WISE incorporates software advisors that give general advice about a skill such as hypothesizing. By giving general advice (rather than step-by-step procedures), the system is intended to help students conduct experiments that are more epistemologically authentic. Also, students using SCI-WISE can select the type of advice the advisors give and when they give advice, as well as modify the advisors' knowledge bases. The system is based partly on a theoretical framework of levels of agency and goal orientation. This framework assumes that giving students higher levels of agency facilitates higher-level goal orientations (such as mastery or knowledge building as opposed to task completion) that in turn produce higher levels of competence. A study of sixth grade science students was conducted. Students took a pretest questionnaire that measured their goal orientations for science projects and their inquiry skills. The students worked in pairs on an open-ended inquiry project that requires complex reasoning about human memory. The students used one of two versions of SCI-WISE - one that was modifiable and one that was not. After finishing the project, the students took a posttest questionnaire similar to the pretest, and evaluated the version of the system they used. The main results showed that (a) there was no correlation of goal orientation with grade point average, (b) knowledge-oriented students using the modifiable version tended to rate SCI-WISE more helpful than task-oriented students, and (c) knowledge-oriented pairs using the nonmodifiable version tended to have higher posttest inquiry skills scores than other pair types.

Goal orientations of health profession students throughout the undergraduate program: a multilevel study.

PubMed

Kool, Ada; Mainhard, Tim; Brekelmans, Mieke; van Beukelen, Peter; Jaarsma, Debbie

2016-03-31

The achievement goal theory defines two major foci of students' learning goals (1) primarily interested in truly mastering a task (mastery orientation), and (2) striving to show ones competences to others (performance orientation). The present study is undertaken to better understand if and how health profession students' goal orientations change during the undergraduate program and to what degree gender, academic achievement, and self-efficacy are associated with mastery and performance orientation between students and within students over time. By means of an online questionnaire, students of medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary sciences (N = 2402) were asked to rate themselves on mastery orientation, performance orientation, and self-efficacy at the beginning of five consecutive semesters. Data on grades and gender were drawn from university's files. Multilevel analyses were used for data analysis. Students' goal orientations showed relative stability over time, but substantial fluctuations within individual students were found. These fluctuations were associated with fluctuations in self-efficacy. Students' gender, high school grades, study grades, and self-efficacy were all associated with differences in mastery or performance orientation between students. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor for mastery orientation and grades for performance orientation. The relatively strong association between the goal orientations and students' self-efficacy found in this study emphasizes the potential of enhancing self-efficacy in health profession students. Also, for educators and researchers, fluctuations of both goal orientations within individual students are important to consider.

Effects of Causal Attributions Following Mathematics Tasks on Student Cognitions about a Subsequent Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seegers, Gerard; Van Putten, Cornelis M.; Vermeer, Harriet J.

2004-01-01

The authors investigated the effects of former learning experiences on how students adapt to challenging mathematics tasks. A distinction has been made between domain-specific variables (goal orientation, self-concept of mathematics ability) and task- (or context-) specific appraisals (estimated competence for, attractiveness and relevance of the…

Influence of Psychosocial Classroom Environment on Students' Motivation and Self-Regulation in Science Learning: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velayutham, Sunitadevi; Aldridge, Jill M.

2013-04-01

The primary aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to identify salient psychosocial features of the classroom environment that influence students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning; and 2) to examine the effect of the motivational constructs of learning goal orientation, science task value and self-efficacy in science learning on students' self-regulation in science classrooms. Data collected from 1360 science students in grades 8, 9 and 10 in five public schools in Perth, Western Australia were utilized to validate the questionnaires and to investigate the hypothesized relationships. Structural Equation Modeling analysis suggested that student cohesiveness, investigation and task orientation were the most influential predictors of student motivation and self-regulation in science learning. In addition, learning goal orientation, task value and self-efficacy significantly influenced students' self-regulation in science. The findings offer potential opportunities for educators to plan and implement effective pedagogical strategies aimed at increasing students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning.

Goal-orientation, epistemological beliefs towards intrinsic motivation among engineering students: A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benlahcene, Abderrahim; Lashari, Sana Anwar; Lashari, Tahira Anwar

2017-08-01

An aspect that has been exhaustively researched in the motivation of the higher education discipline is the engineering students’ process of goal-orientation, epistemological beliefs towards intrinsic motivation. However, the focus of those researchers as commonly the influence of goal orientations and epistemological beliefs on intrinsic motivation; they have not combined the two factors and examined relationships among goal orientation, epistemological beliefs, and intrinsic motivation. Therefore, although there is a plethora of research on the matter in related disciplines, the researchers commonly do not have consensus on a term that could be used to discuss how engineering students are motivation. This paper identifies literature whose characteristics have focused on the concept of motivation. Attempts were made to retrieve related lietarure empirically examined motivation, extrinsic motivation, Goal orientation, Epistemological beliefs, and intrinsic motivation to gain insight information. It is believed that the present study may help educators in organizing content, preparing curriculum, and evaluate student tasks, so that students can begin to develop more mature and effective epistemological beliefs and design their proper goals for their learning process.

The Relationship between Mastery Orientation Goals, Student Self-Efficacy for Reading and Reading Achievement in Intermediate Level Learners in a Rural School District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waleff, Marci Lyn

2010-01-01

Some fourth, fifth and sixth grade students in a rural Pennsylvania school district are not achieving at a proficient level and have low self-efficacy in reading. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between teacher implemented mastery orientation goals, students' judgment of their ability to perform the task of reading…

Use of the Occupational Therapy Task-Oriented Approach to optimize the motor performance of a client with cognitive limitations.

PubMed

Preissner, Katharine

2010-01-01

This case report describes the use of the Occupational Therapy Task-Oriented Approach with a client with occupational performance limitations after a cerebral vascular accident. The Occupational Therapy Task-Oriented Approach is often suggested as a preferred neurorehabilitation intervention to improve occupational performance by optimizing motor behavior. One common critique of this approach, however, is that it may seem inappropriate or have limited application for clients with cognitive deficits. This case report demonstrates how an occupational therapist working in an inpatient rehabilitation setting used the occupational therapy task-oriented evaluation framework and treatment principles described by Mathiowetz (2004) with a person with significant cognitive limitations. This approach was effective in assisting the client in meeting her long-term goals, maximizing her participation in meaningful occupations, and successfully transitioning to home with her daughter.

Gender, level of participation, and type of sport: differences in achievement goal orientation and attributional style.

PubMed

Hanrahan, Stephanie J; Cerin, Ester

2009-07-01

Findings regarding gender differences in achievement goal orientations and attributional style have been somewhat inconsistent. One possible explanation for varied findings is that potentially confounding variables such as level of participation and type of sport have not been considered. Athletes (108 males and 164 females) from team and individual sports, competing at recreational and competitive levels, completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, the Sport Attributional Style Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Athletes competing in individual sports had a higher ego orientation than those from team sports, and females scored higher in task orientation than males. Individual sport athletes made more internal, stable, and global, and less externally controllable attributions for positive events, and more internal attributions for negative events than team sport athletes. Competitive female athletes made less global attributions for positive events than did recreational female athletes. This difference was not observed in male athletes. Competitive individual, but not team, athletes made less global attributions than recreational individual athletes. The significant interactions regarding globality suggest that the tradition in sport psychology attribution research to focus solely on internality, stability, and controllability may be inadequate. From an applied perspective, sport psychologists and coaches may find it beneficial to target individual sport athletes and males for interventions designed to enhance task orientation. Similarly, team sport athletes may be appropriate as a focus for attribution retraining programs.

Training demands on clerk burnout: determining whether achievement goal motivation orientations matter.

PubMed

Lin, Chia-Der; Lin, Blossom Yen-Ju

2016-08-22

In the education field, learning experiences are considered learners' properties and are viewed as a key determinant in explaining learners' learning processes, especially for training novices such as clerks with varying levels of commitment to the medical profession. This study explored whether clerks' achievement goal motivation orientations might buffer the negative well-being to a certain extent, considering their training demands during clinical training. Ninety-four clerks at a tertiary medical center were longitudinally traced during their 2-year clerkship spanning from September 2013 to April 2015. Web-based, validated, structured, self-administered questionnaires were used to evaluate the clerks' properties of achievement goal motivation orientation and personal background at the beginning of the clerkship. Regular surveys were conducted to evaluate their perceptions of training demands and burnout at each specialty rotation. Overall, 2230 responses were analyzed, and linear mixed-effects models were used to examine the repeated measures of the clerks. The results revealed that higher perceived psychological and physical demands of training were related to higher perceived burnout during the 2-year clerkship. Although both the clerks' task and ego orientations were related to reduced burnout (direct effects), only task orientation was indicated to exert a buffering effect on their perception of physical demands on burnout in the 1st year of the clerkship. Considering the negative effects of training demands (psychological and physical), we observed a limited effect of the task achievement motivation orientation of medical students; therefore, additional studies might focus on strategies to facilitate medical students in clerkships in addressing both the psychological and physical demands inherent in training workplaces to improve their learning experience and well-being.

Shared Leadership Improves Team Novelty: The Mechanism and Its Boundary Condition

PubMed Central

Sun, Xiaomin; Jie, Yuan; Wang, Yilu; Xue, Gang; Liu, Yan

2016-01-01

Previous research has revealed the significant impact of shared leadership on team creativity, yet the mechanism underlying this relationship has rarely been investigated. The current research examined how shared leadership influenced team creativity (novelty and usefulness) across 3 studies using both long-term project teams and temporal task teams in the laboratory. The results showed that shared leadership enhanced the novelty dimension of team creativity by improving constructive controversy. Furthermore, team goal orientation moderated this effect. The indirect effect of constructive controversy holds for teams with learning goal orientation but not for those with performance goal orientation. Such patterns were not found in the usefulness dimension of team creativity. PMID:28066289

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Burnside, Kimberly; Wright, Kristyn; Poulin-Dubois, Diane

2017-11-01

According to the social motivation theory of autism, children who develop Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have early deficits in social motivation, which is expressed by decreased attention to social information. These deficits are said to lead to impaired socio-cognitive development, such as theory of mind (ToM). There is little research focused on the relation between social motivation and ToM in this population. The goal of the present study was to investigate the link between one aspect of social motivation, social orienting, and ToM in preschoolers with ASD. It was expected that, in contrast to typically developing (TD) children, children with ASD would show impaired performance on tasks measuring social orienting and ToM. It was also expected that children's performance on the social orienting tasks would be correlated with their performance on the ToM task. A total of 17 children with ASD and 16 TD children participated in this study. Participants completed two social orienting tasks, a face preference task and a biological motion preference task, as well an implicit false belief task. Results reveal that TD children, but not children with ASD, exhibited social preference as measured by a preference for faces and biological motion. Furthermore, children with ASD tended to perform worse on the ToM task compared to their TD counterparts. Performance on the social motivation tasks and the ToM task tended to be related but only for the TD children. These findings suggest that ToM is multifaceted and that motivational deficits might have downstream effects even on implicit ToM. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1834-1844. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The goal of the present study was to examine the link between poor attention to social information and mindreading abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Results demonstrated that children with ASD tended to perform worse than neurotypical children on both social orienting and theory of mind tasks. Preference for human faces and motion tended to be related but only for the neurotypical children. These findings provide partial support for the social motivation theory. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Identification of canonical neural events during continuous gameplay of an 8-bit style video game.

PubMed

Cavanagh, James F; Castellanos, Joel

2016-06-01

Cognitive neuroscience suffers from a unique and pervasive problem of generalizability. Since neural findings are often interpreted in the context of a specific manipulation during a carefully controlled task, it is hard to transfer knowledge from one task to another. In this report we address problems of generalizability with two methodological advancements. First, we aimed to transcend status quo experimental procedures with a continuous, engaging task environment. To this end, we created a novel 8-bit style continuous space shooter video game that elicits a multitude of goal-oriented events, such as crashing into a wall or blowing up an enemy with a missile. Second, we aimed to objectively define the psychological significance of these events. To achieve this aim, we used pattern classification of EEG data to derive predictive weights from carefully controlled pre-game exemplar events (oddball target detection and gambling wins and losses) and transferred those weights to EEG activities during video game events. All major goal-oriented events (crashes into the wall, crashes into an enemy, missile hit on an enemy) had a significant between-task transfer bias towards oddball target weights in the time range of the canonical P3, indicating the presence of similar salience detection processes. Missile hits on an enemy were specifically identified as gambling wins, confirming the hypothesis that this goal-oriented event was appetitive. These findings suggest that it is possible to identify the contribution of canonical neural activities during otherwise ambiguous and uncontrolled task performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Default Mode Network Engagement Beyond Self-Referential Internal Mentation.

PubMed

Vatansever, Deniz; Manktelow, Anne; Sahakian, Barbara J; Menon, David K; Stamatakis, Emmanuel A

2018-05-01

The default mode network (DMN) is typically associated with off-task internal mentation, or with goal-oriented tasks that require self-referential processing such as autobiographical planning. However, recent reports suggest a broader involvement of the DMN in higher cognition. In line with this view, we report global connectivity changes that are centered on the main DMN hubs of precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex during a functional magnetic resonance imaging-based visuospatial version of the Tower of London planning task. Importantly, functional connectivity of these regions with the left caudate shows a significant relationship with faster reaction time to correct responses only during the high-demand planning condition, thus offering further evidence for the DMN's engagement during visuospatial planning. The results of this study not only provide robust evidence against the widely held notion of DMN disengagement during goal-oriented, attention-demanding, externally directed tasks but also support its involvement in a broader cognitive context with a memory-related role that extends beyond self-referential, internally directed mentation.

Motivational climate, goal orientation, perceived sport ability, and enjoyment within Finnish junior ice hockey players.

PubMed

Jaakkola, T; Ntoumanis, N; Liukkonen, J

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the relations among situational motivational climate, dispositional approach and avoidance achievement goals, perceived sport ability, and enjoyment in Finnish male junior ice hockey players. The sample comprised 265 junior B-level male players with a mean age of 17.03 years (SD = 0.63). Players filled questionnaires tapping their perceptions of coach motivational climate, achievement goals, perceived sport ability, and enjoyment. For the statistical analysis, players were divided into high and low perceived sport ability groups. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed an indirect path from task-involving motivational climate via task-approach goal to enjoyment. Additionally, SEM demonstrated four other direct associations, which existed in both perceived ability groups: from ego-involving motivational climate to ego-approach and ego-avoidance goals; from ego-approach goal to ego-avoidance goal; and from task-avoidance goal to ego-avoidance goal. Additionally, in the high perceived sport ability group, there was an association from task-involving motivational climate to enjoyment. The results of this study reveal that motivational climate emphasizing effort, personal development and improvement, and achievement goal mastering tasks are significant elements of enjoyment in junior ice hockey. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Psyching Out the Science Teacher: Student Motivation, Perceived Teacher Goals and Study Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nolen, Susan Bobbitt; Haladyna, Thomas M.

This paper describes a model of the influence of personal and environmental factors on students' valuing of two deep-processing strategies for studying expository texts. In the model, task orientation (a form of intrinsic motivation in which learning and understanding are the major goals) interacts with perceptions of the teacher's goals to…

Academic self-efficacy mediates the effects of school psychological climate on academic achievement.

PubMed

Høigaard, Rune; Kovač, Velibor Bobo; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Haugen, Tommy

2015-03-01

This study investigated the effects of proximal and distal constructs on adolescent's academic achievement through self-efficacy. Participants included 482 ninth- and tenth- grade Norwegian students who completed a questionnaire designed to assess school-goal orientations, organizational citizenship behavior, academic self-efficacy, and academic achievement. The results of a bootstrapping technique used to analyze relationships between the constructs indicated that school-goal orientations and organizational citizenship predicted academic self-efficacy. Furthermore, school-goal orientation, organizational citizenship, and academic self-efficacy explained 46% of the variance in academic achievement. Mediation analyses revealed that academic self-efficacy mediated the effects of perceived task goal structure, perceived ability structure, civic virtue, and sportsmanship on adolescents' academic achievements. The results are discussed in reference to current scholarship, including theories underlying our hypothesis. Practical implications and directions for future research are suggested.

Goal Profiles, Mental Toughness and its Influence on Performance Outcomes among Wushu Athletes

PubMed Central

Roy, Jolly

2007-01-01

This study examined the association between goal orientations and mental toughness and its influence on performance outcomes in competition. Wushu athletes (n = 40) competing in Intervarsity championships in Malaysia completed Task and Ego Orientations in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) and Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI). Using cluster analysis techniques including hierarchical methods and the non-hierarchical method (k-means cluster) to examine goal profiles, a three cluster solution emerged viz. cluster 1 - high task and moderate ego (HT/ME), cluster 2 - moderate task and low ego (MT/LE) and, cluster 3 - moderate task and moderate ego (MT/ME). Analysis of the fundamental areas of mental toughness based on goal profiles revealed that athletes in cluster 1 scored significantly higher on negative energy control than athletes in cluster 2. Further, athletes in cluster 1 also scored significantly higher on positive energy control than athletes in cluster 3. Chi-square (χ2) test revealed no significant differences among athletes with different goal profiles on performance outcomes in the competition. However, significant differences were observed between athletes (medallist and non medallist) in self- confidence (p = 0.001) and negative energy control (p = 0.042). Medallist’s scored significantly higher on self-confidence (mean = 21.82 ± 2.72) and negative energy control (mean = 19.59 ± 2.32) than the non-medallists (self confidence-mean = 18.76 ± 2.49; negative energy control mean = 18.14 ± 1.91). Key points Mental toughness can be influenced by certain goal profile combination. Athletes with successful outcomes in performance (medallist) displayed greater mental toughness. PMID:24198700

Importance of the Motivational Climate in Goal, Enjoyment, and the Causes of Success in Handball Players.

PubMed

Granero-Gallegos, Antonio; Gómez-López, Manuel; Rodríguez-Suárez, Nuria; Abraldes, J Arturo; Alesi, Marianna; Bianco, Antonino

2017-01-01

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the motivational climate created by the coach and perceived by a group of young handball players on their goal orientations, their beliefs regarding reasons for success and their self-satisfaction. The study participants were 159 young handball players. Players were administered a battery composed of tests to measure the above-mentioned motivational constructs. Results showed that a perceived mastery-oriented motivational climate was positively related to a task-centered goal orientation, enjoyment, and a belief that success may be achieved through effort. In contrast, a perceived performance-orientated training climate was linked to an ego-centered goal orientation, boredom, or lack of enthusiasm, and a belief that the routes of success in this sport are the abilities and the use of deception techniques. On the whole, this study underlines the educational role of the coach in young handball players. Specifically, the coach's socializing role influences both handball player's commitment and positive motivational profile as well as sport performance.

Importance of the Motivational Climate in Goal, Enjoyment, and the Causes of Success in Handball Players

PubMed Central

Granero-Gallegos, Antonio; Gómez-López, Manuel; Rodríguez-Suárez, Nuria; Abraldes, J. Arturo; Alesi, Marianna; Bianco, Antonino

2017-01-01

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the motivational climate created by the coach and perceived by a group of young handball players on their goal orientations, their beliefs regarding reasons for success and their self-satisfaction. The study participants were 159 young handball players. Players were administered a battery composed of tests to measure the above-mentioned motivational constructs. Results showed that a perceived mastery-oriented motivational climate was positively related to a task-centered goal orientation, enjoyment, and a belief that success may be achieved through effort. In contrast, a perceived performance-orientated training climate was linked to an ego-centered goal orientation, boredom, or lack of enthusiasm, and a belief that the routes of success in this sport are the abilities and the use of deception techniques. On the whole, this study underlines the educational role of the coach in young handball players. Specifically, the coach’s socializing role influences both handball player’s commitment and positive motivational profile as well as sport performance. PMID:29250011

Requirements Modeling with the Aspect-oriented User Requirements Notation (AoURN): A Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mussbacher, Gunter; Amyot, Daniel; Araújo, João; Moreira, Ana

The User Requirements Notation (URN) is a recent ITU-T standard that supports requirements engineering activities. The Aspect-oriented URN (AoURN) adds aspect-oriented concepts to URN, creating a unified framework that allows for scenario-based, goal-oriented, and aspect-oriented modeling. AoURN is applied to the car crash crisis management system (CCCMS), modeling its functional and non-functional requirements (NFRs). AoURN generally models all use cases, NFRs, and stakeholders as individual concerns and provides general guidelines for concern identification. AoURN handles interactions between concerns, capturing their dependencies and conflicts as well as the resolutions. We present a qualitative comparison of aspect-oriented techniques for scenario-based and goal-oriented requirements engineering. An evaluation carried out based on the metrics adapted from literature and a task-based evaluation suggest that AoURN models are more scalable than URN models and exhibit better modularity, reusability, and maintainability.

Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL). Volume 5: Application Studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The Ground Operations Aerospace Language (GOAL) was designed to be used by test oriented personnel to write procedures which would be executed in a test environment. A series of discussions between NASA LV-CAP personnel and IBM resulted in some peripheral tasks which would aid in evaluating the applicability of the language in this environment, and provide enhancement for future applications. The results of these tasks are contained within this volume. The GOAL vocabulary provides a high degree of readability and retainability. To achieve these benefits, however, the procedure writer utilizes words and phrases of considerable length. Brief form study was undertaken to determine a means of relieving this burden. The study resulted in a version of GOAL which enables the writer to develop a dialect suitable to his needs and satisfy the syntax equations. The output of the compiler would continue to provide readability by printing out the standard GOAL language. This task is described.

How Does Awareness Modulate Goal-Directed and Stimulus-Driven Shifts of Attention Triggered by Value Learning?

PubMed Central

Bourgeois, Alexia; Neveu, Rémi; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2016-01-01

In order to behave adaptively, attention can be directed in space either voluntarily (i.e., endogenously) according to strategic goals, or involuntarily (i.e., exogenously) through reflexive capture by salient or novel events. The emotional or motivational value of stimuli can also strongly influence attentional orienting. However, little is known about how reward-related effects compete or interact with endogenous and exogenous attention mechanisms, particularly outside of awareness. Here we developed a visual search paradigm to study subliminal value-based attentional orienting. We systematically manipulated goal-directed or stimulus-driven attentional orienting and examined whether an irrelevant, but previously rewarded stimulus could compete with both types of spatial attention during search. Critically, reward was learned without conscious awareness in a preceding phase where one among several visual symbols was consistently paired with a subliminal monetary reinforcement cue. Our results demonstrated that symbols previously associated with a monetary reward received higher attentional priority in the subsequent visual search task, even though these stimuli and reward were no longer task-relevant, and despite reward being unconsciously acquired. Thus, motivational processes operating independent of conscious awareness may provide powerful influences on mechanisms of attentional selection, which could mitigate both stimulus-driven and goal-directed shifts of attention. PMID:27483371

Sex-Role Orientation and Leadership Styles: Further Exploration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korabik, Karen

Studies have shown that, in small groups, two types of leaders generally emerge, i.e., a task specialist concerned with achieving the group's goals and a social-emotional specialist concerned with the morale and cohesiveness of the group. To determine if leadship style is related to sex role orientation, rather than to biological sex, to…

Structured self-reflection as a tool to enhance perceived performance and maintain effort in adult recreational salsa dancers

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of structured self-reflection in community dance classes would influence achievement goal orientations, levels of intrinsic motivation, or perceived dance performance. The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) and the Intrinsic...

A comparison of visuomotor cue integration strategies for object placement and prehension.

PubMed

Greenwald, Hal S; Knill, David C

2009-01-01

Visual cue integration strategies are known to depend on cue reliability and how rapidly the visual system processes incoming information. We investigated whether these strategies also depend on differences in the information demands for different natural tasks. Using two common goal-oriented tasks, prehension and object placement, we determined whether monocular and binocular information influence estimates of three-dimensional (3D) orientation differently depending on task demands. Both tasks rely on accurate 3D orientation estimates, but 3D position is potentially more important for grasping. Subjects placed an object on or picked up a disc in a virtual environment. On some trials, the monocular cues (aspect ratio and texture compression) and binocular cues (e.g., binocular disparity) suggested slightly different 3D orientations for the disc; these conflicts either were present upon initial stimulus presentation or were introduced after movement initiation, which allowed us to quantify how information from the cues accumulated over time. We analyzed the time-varying orientations of subjects' fingers in the grasping task and those of the object in the object placement task to quantify how different visual cues influenced motor control. In the first experiment, different subjects performed each task, and those performing the grasping task relied on binocular information more when orienting their hands than those performing the object placement task. When subjects in the second experiment performed both tasks in interleaved sessions, binocular cues were still more influential during grasping than object placement, and the different cue integration strategies observed for each task in isolation were maintained. In both experiments, the temporal analyses showed that subjects processed binocular information faster than monocular information, but task demands did not affect the time course of cue processing. How one uses visual cues for motor control depends on the task being performed, although how quickly the information is processed appears to be task invariant.

Sustaining Optimal Motivation: A Longitudinal Analysis of Interventions to Broaden Participation of Underrepresented Students in STEM

PubMed Central

Hernandez, Paul R.; Schultz, P. Wesley; Estrada, Mica; Woodcock, Anna; Chance, Randie C.

2013-01-01

The underrepresentation of racial minorities and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a national concern. Goal theory provides a useful framework from which to understand issues of underrepresentation. We followed a large sample of high-achieving African American and Latino undergraduates in STEM disciplines attending 38 institutions of higher education in the United States over 3 academic years. We report on the science-related environmental factors and person factors that influence the longitudinal regulation of goal orientations. Further, we examine how goal orientations in turn influence distal academic outcomes such as performance and persistence in STEM. Using SEM-based parallel process latent growth curve modeling, we found that (a) engagement in undergraduate research was the only factor that buffered underrepresented students against an increase in performance-avoidance goals over time; (b) growth in scientific self-identity exhibited a strong positive effect on growth in task and performance-approach goals over time; (c) only task goals positively influenced students' cumulative grade point average, over and above baseline grade point average; and (d) performance-avoidance goals predicted student attrition from the STEM pipeline. We discuss the implications of these findings for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. PMID:24273342

Relationship between achievement goal constructs and physical self-perceptions in a physical activity setting.

PubMed

Newton, Maria; Detling, Nicole; Kilgore, Jennifer; Bernhardt, Paul

2004-12-01

The relations of achievement goal theory constructs and physical self-perceptions were explored with 225 students (91 men, 109 women, and 25 nonindicators; M age=23.5 yr., SD=9.2), enrolled in basic physical activity classes (aerobics, weight training, modern dance, badminton, yoga, tai chi, basketball, racquetball, gymnastics, bowling, aquatone, and step aerobics) in a university setting. Goal orientations (Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire), perceptions of the motivational climate (Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2), and physical self-perceptions (Physical Self-perception Profile) were assessed. Data were analyzed separately by sex. Ego orientation was the only predictor of Physical Self-perceptions in men, accounting for between 12 and 15% of the variance in Physical Self-worth, Sport Competence, Physical Conditioning, and Body Attractiveness. Constructs of achievement goal theory were not predictive of Physical Self-perceptions in the women. The results are discussed in light of achievement goal theory and the nature of the sample.

Error affect inoculation for a complex decision-making task.

PubMed

Tabernero, Carmen; Wood, Robert E

2009-05-01

Individuals bring knowledge, implicit theories, and goal orientations to group meetings. Group decisions arise out of the exchange of these orientations. This research explores how a trainee's exploratory and deliberate process (an incremental theory and learning goal orientation) impacts the effectiveness of individual and group decision-making processes. The effectiveness of this training program is compared with another program that included error affect inoculation (EAI). Subjects were 40 Spanish Policemen in a training course. They were distributed in two training conditions for an individual and group decision-making task. In one condition, individuals received the Self-Guided Exploration plus Deliberation Process instructions, which emphasised exploring the options and testing hypotheses. In the other condition, individuals also received instructions based on Error Affect Inoculation (EAI), which emphasised positive affective reactions to errors and mistakes when making decisions. Results show that the quality of decisions increases when the groups share their reasoning. The AIE intervention promotes sharing information, flexible initial viewpoints, and improving the quality of group decisions. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Task-oriented display design - Concept and example

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, Terence S.

1989-01-01

The general topic was in the area of display design alternatives for improved man-machine performance. The intent was to define and assess a display design concept oriented toward providing this task-oriented information. The major focus of this concept deals with the processing of data into parameters that are more relevant to the task of the human operator. Closely coupled to this concept of relevant information is the form or manner in which this information is actually presented. Conventional forms of presentation are normally a direct representation of the underlying data. By providing information in a form that is more easily assimilated and understood, a reduction in human error and cognitive workload may be obtained. A description of this proposed concept with a design example is provided. The application for the example was an engine display for a generic, twin-engine civil transport aircraft. The product of this concept was evaluated against a functionally similar, traditional display. The results of this evaluation showed that a task-oriented approach to design is a viable concept with regard to reducing user error and cognitive workload. The goal of this design process, providing task-oriented information to the user, both in content and form, appears to be a feasible mechanism for increasing the overall performance of a man-machine system.

Task-oriented display design: Concept and example

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, Terence S.

1989-01-01

The general topic was in the area of display design alternatives for improved man-machine performance. The intent was to define and assess a display design concept oriented toward providing this task-oriented information. The major focus of this concept deals with the processing of data into parameters that are more relevant to the task of the human operator. Closely coupled to this concept of relevant information is the form or manner in which this information is actually presented. Conventional forms of presentation are normally a direct representation of the underlying data. By providing information in a form that is more easily assimilated and understood, a reduction in human error and cognitive workload may be obtained. A description of this proposed concept with a design example is provided. The application for the example was an engine display for a generic, twin-engine civil transport aircraft. The product of this concept was evaluated against a functionally similar, traditional display. The results of this evaluation showed that a task-oriented approach to design is a viable concept with regard to reducing user error and cognitive workload. The goal of this design process, providing task-oriented information to the user, both in content and form, appears to be a feasible mechanism for increasing the overall performance of a man-machine system.

Mind Wandering and Online Learning: A Latent Variable Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollis, R. Benjamin

2013-01-01

Thoughts drift in everyday life and in the classroom. The goal of this study was to investigate how often students reported off-task thinking while watching online lectures. These findings were related to working memory capacity, topic interest, and achievement goal orientations. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate how all of these…

Identification of Resting State Networks Involved in Executive Function.

PubMed

Connolly, Joanna; McNulty, Jonathan P; Boran, Lorraine; Roche, Richard A P; Delany, David; Bokde, Arun L W

2016-06-01

The structural networks in the human brain are consistent across subjects, and this is reflected also in that functional networks across subjects are relatively consistent. These findings are not only present during performance of a goal oriented task but there are also consistent functional networks during resting state. It suggests that goal oriented activation patterns may be a function of component networks identified using resting state. The current study examines the relationship between resting state networks measured and patterns of neural activation elicited during a Stroop task. The association between the Stroop-activated networks and the resting state networks was quantified using spatial linear regression. In addition, we investigated if the degree of spatial association of resting state networks with the Stroop task may predict performance on the Stroop task. The results of this investigation demonstrated that the Stroop activated network can be decomposed into a number of resting state networks, which were primarily associated with attention, executive function, visual perception, and the default mode network. The close spatial correspondence between the functional organization of the resting brain and task-evoked patterns supports the relevance of resting state networks in cognitive function.

The Development and Coherence of Future-Oriented Behaviors during the Preschool Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atance, Cristina M.; Jackson, Laura K.

2009-01-01

Although previous research has identified a number of interesting aspects of future thinking in adults, little is known about the developmental trajectory and coherence of future-oriented behaviors during early childhood. The primary goal of this study was to explore these issues by administering a battery of tasks assessing different aspects of…

A meta-analytic examination of the goal orientation nomological net.

PubMed

Payne, Stephanie C; Youngcourt, Satoris S; Beaubien, J Matthew

2007-01-01

The authors present an empirical review of the literature concerning trait and state goal orientation (GO). Three dimensions of GO were examined: learning, prove performance, and avoid performance along with presumed antecedents and proximal and distal consequences of these dimensions. Antecedent variables included cognitive ability, implicit theory of intelligence, need for achievement, self-esteem, general self-efficacy, and the Big Five personality characteristics. Proximal consequences included state GO, task-specific self-efficacy, self-set goal level, learning strategies, feedback seeking, and state anxiety. Distal consequences included learning, academic performance, task performance, and job performance. Generally speaking, learning GO was positively correlated, avoid performance GO was negatively correlated, and prove performance GO was uncorrelated with these variables. Consistent with theory, state GO tended to have stronger relationships with the distal consequences than did trait GO. Finally, using a meta-correlation matrix, the authors found that trait GO predicted job performance above and beyond cognitive ability and personality. These results demonstrate the value of GO to organizational researchers. 2007 APA, all rights reserved

To have or to learn? The effects of materialism on British and Chinese children's learning.

PubMed

Ku, Lisbeth; Dittmar, Helga; Banerjee, Robin

2014-05-01

This article presents a systematic attempt to examine the associations of materialism with learning in 9- to 11-year-old children in 2 countries of similar economic development but different cultural heritage. Using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental methods, we test a theoretically driven model of associations among materialism, learning motivations, and learning outcomes. Convergent findings suggest that a materialist orientation in elementary school children lowers intrinsic learning motivations, fosters extrinsic learning motivations, and leads to poorer learning outcomes. Materialism was linked directly to lower exam performance, and this link was mediated by lower mastery and heightened performance goals, with patterns not differing between British and Hong Kong Chinese children (Study 1). A follow-up showed that initial materialism predicted worse exam grades 1 year later, suggesting a detrimental long-term effect on Chinese children's school performance (Study 2). We then tested relationships between materialism and learning experimentally, by priming a momentary (state) orientation toward materialism. Writing about material possessions and money affected Chinese children's learning motivations, so that they endorsed lower mastery and higher performance goals (Study 3). A video-diary materialism prime had significant effects on actual learning behaviors, leading British children to (a) choose a performance-oriented learning task over a mastery-oriented task and (b) give up on the task more quickly (Study 4). This research has important implications for personality psychology, educational policy, and future research.

Intrinsic motivation towards sports in Singaporean students: the role of sport ability beliefs.

PubMed

Wang, C K John; Biddle, Stuart J H

2003-09-01

This study investigated determinants of active lifestyles in Singaporean university students. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a measure of lay beliefs concerning athletic ability was confirmed. Other results confirmed hypotheses that beliefs reflecting that athletic ability can be developed over time (incremental beliefs) predict an achievement task (self-referenced) orientation, while beliefs reflecting that athletic ability is relatively stable (entity beliefs) predict an ego (other-person, comparative) orientation. Goal orientations directly affect perceived competence which, in turn, influence intrinsic motivation to be physically active. A task orientation had a direct link to intrinsic motivation. Results suggest that intrinsic motivation towards sport and physical activity might be enhanced through interventions that focus on self-referenced and self-improvement notions of ability as well as perceived competence.

Rehabilitation of executive functioning with training in attention regulation applied to individually defined goals: a pilot study bridging theory, assessment, and treatment.

PubMed

Novakovic-Agopian, Tatjana; Chen, Anthony J-W; Rome, Scott; Abrams, Gary; Castelli, Holli; Rossi, Annemarie; McKim, Ryan; Hills, Nancy; D'Esposito, Mark

2011-01-01

To assess feasibility and effects of training in goal-oriented attentional self-regulation for patients with brain injury and chronic executive dysfunction. Sixteen individuals with chronic brain injury and mild to moderate executive dysfunction. Participants were divided into 2 groups: one group completed goal-oriented attentional self-regulation training during the first 5 weeks, followed by a brief (2-hour) educational instruction session as a control midway through the second 5 weeks; the other group participated in reverse order. Neuropsychological and functional performance assessed at baseline and at weeks 5 and 10. Participants found training in goal-oriented attentional self-regulation engaging, incorporated some trained strategies into daily life, and reported subjective improvements in personal functioning. At week 5, participants who completed goals training significantly improved on tests of attention and executive function and had fewer functional task failures, while performance did not change after educational instruction. At week 10, participants who crossed over from educational instruction to goals training also significantly improved on attention and executive function tests. Participants who crossed from goals training to educational instruction maintained their week 5 gains. Training in goal-oriented attentional self-regulation is theoretically driven and feasible in a research setting. Pilot results suggest improvements in cognitive and functional domains targeted by the intervention.

The role of different types of instrumentality in motivation, study strategies, and performance: know why you learn, so you'll know what you learn!

PubMed

Simons, Joke; Dewitte, Siegfried; Lens, Willy

2004-09-01

Two theories in the field of motivation and achievement, namely the future time perspective theory and goal theory, result in conflicting recommendations for enhancing students' motivation, because of their differential emphasis on the task at hand and on the future consequences of a task. We will present a framework consisting of four types of instrumentality that combines both perspectives. The implications of those different types for goal orientation, motivation, cognitive strategies, study habits and performance are investigated. Participants were a group of 184 first-year nurse students with ages ranging from 18 to 45 years. Questionnaires were administered that measured instrumentality, goal orientation, motivation, deep and surface level learning strategies, study habits, and a manipulation check. At the end of the year, exam scores were collected. The results showed that different types of instrumentality are related differently to the motivational, cognitive and achievement measures. Being internally regulated and perceiving the utility of the courses resulted both in a more adaptive goal orientation and higher intrinsic motivation, which led to the use of more adaptive cognitive strategies and to better study habits, which ultimately enhanced performance. Linking performance to extrinsic rewards and not seeing the utility of the course for the future yielded the opposite pattern. Type of instrumentality has indeed a differential influence on motivational, cognitive, and behavioural variables.

Motor Learning of a Bimanual Task in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Ya-Ching; Gordon, Andrew M.

2013-01-01

Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) have been shown to improve their motor performance with sufficient practice. However, little is known about how they learn goal-oriented tasks. In the current study, 21 children with unilateral CP (age 4-10 years old) and 21 age-matched typically developed children (TDC) practiced a simple bimanual…

The Development of Creativity in Preschoolers' Drawings through Task-Oriented Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dulama, Maria Eliza; Iovu, Mihai-Bogdan; Vanea, Cornelia

2011-01-01

The goal of this paper is to plan working task for preschool children in order to deliver original and creative outputs. The theoretical background of the paper is set in defining creativity as "the capacity to create something new, original, and adequate to reality" (Roco, 2004; Jaoui, 1975; Rosca, 1981; Boden, 1992). The research…

Distributed Attentional Deficits in Chronic Methamphetamine Abusers: Evidence from the Attentional Network Task (ANT)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salo, Ruth; Gabay, Shai; Fassbender, Catherine; Henik, Avishai

2011-01-01

Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine distributed attentional functions in long-term but currently abstinent methamphetamine (MA) abusers using a task that measures attentional alertness, orienting, and conflict resolution. Methods: Thirty currently abstinent MA abusers (1 month-5 years) and 22 healthy non-substance using adults…

Personal and Social Responsibility among Athletes: the Role of Self-Determination, Achievement Goals and Engagement

PubMed Central

Martins, Paulo; Rosado, António; Ferreira, Vítor; Biscaia, Rui

2017-01-01

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between motivation, engagement and personal and social responsibility among athletes. Based on the literature, a survey was conducted including measures of motivation, considering task orientation and ego orientation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. We also measured the components of engagement (dedication, confidence, vigor and enthusiasm) and the components of personal and social responsibility. A total of 517 athletes from different types of sports participated in the study. The results gathered through a structural equation model revealed that task orientation had the strongest relationship with personal responsibility and social responsibility, followed by engagement. Self-determination levels were not associated with personal and social responsibility. These results suggest that monitoring of task orientation and engagement levels should be performed by coaches as a strategy to develop personal and social responsibility among their athletes. Moreover, findings from this study provide scholars with a tool to aid them in managing athletes’ levels of personal and social responsibility. PMID:28713457

Personal and Social Responsibility among Athletes: the Role of Self-Determination, Achievement Goals and Engagement.

PubMed

Martins, Paulo; Rosado, António; Ferreira, Vítor; Biscaia, Rui

2017-06-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between motivation, engagement and personal and social responsibility among athletes. Based on the literature, a survey was conducted including measures of motivation, considering task orientation and ego orientation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. We also measured the components of engagement (dedication, confidence, vigor and enthusiasm) and the components of personal and social responsibility. A total of 517 athletes from different types of sports participated in the study. The results gathered through a structural equation model revealed that task orientation had the strongest relationship with personal responsibility and social responsibility, followed by engagement. Self-determination levels were not associated with personal and social responsibility. These results suggest that monitoring of task orientation and engagement levels should be performed by coaches as a strategy to develop personal and social responsibility among their athletes. Moreover, findings from this study provide scholars with a tool to aid them in managing athletes' levels of personal and social responsibility.

Individual differences in regulatory focus predict neural response to reward.

PubMed

Scult, Matthew A; Knodt, Annchen R; Hanson, Jamie L; Ryoo, Minyoung; Adcock, R Alison; Hariri, Ahmad R; Strauman, Timothy J

2017-08-01

Although goal pursuit is related to both functioning of the brain's reward circuits and psychological factors, the literatures surrounding these concepts have often been separate. Here, we use the psychological construct of regulatory focus to investigate individual differences in neural response to reward. Regulatory focus theory proposes two motivational orientations for personal goal pursuit: (1) promotion, associated with sensitivity to potential gain, and (2) prevention, associated with sensitivity to potential loss. The monetary incentive delay task was used to manipulate reward circuit function, along with instructional framing corresponding to promotion and prevention in a within-subject design. We observed that the more promotion oriented an individual was, the lower their ventral striatum response to gain cues. Follow-up analyses revealed that greater promotion orientation was associated with decreased ventral striatum response even to no-value cues, suggesting that promotion orientation may be associated with relatively hypoactive reward system function. The findings are also likely to represent an interaction between the cognitive and motivational characteristics of the promotion system with the task demands. Prevention orientation did not correlate with ventral striatum response to gain cues, supporting the discriminant validity of regulatory focus theory. The results highlight a dynamic association between individual differences in self-regulation and reward system function.

Early socialization of prosocial behavior: Patterns in parents' encouragement of toddlers' helping in an everyday household task.

PubMed

Waugh, Whitney; Brownell, Celia; Pollock, Brianna

2015-05-01

Patterns in parents' socialization of prosocial behavior in 18- and 24-month-olds (n=46) were investigated during an everyday household chore that parents were asked to complete with their toddlers. Two socialization approaches were distinguished, one focused on specific requests for concrete actions needed to complete an immediate, concrete goal ("action-oriented"), and a second focused on the more abstract needs and emotions of the parent and the child's role as a helper ("need-oriented'). Parents were equally active at both ages in trying to elicit children's help but used different strategies with younger and older toddlers. With 18-month-olds they used more action-oriented approaches, whereas with 24-month-olds they increased their use of need-oriented approaches. They also regulated the attention of younger toddlers more, and more often socially approved older toddlers' helping. Thus, how parents prompt, support, and encourage prosocial behavior changes over the second year from utilizing primarily concrete, goal-directed requests in the service of the immediate task, to increasingly emphasizing more abstract needs and emotions of the recipient and the child's role as a helper. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mirror Therapy and Task-Oriented Training for People With a Paretic Upper Extremity.

PubMed

Bondoc, Salvador; Booth, Julie; Budde, Grace; Caruso, Katelyn; DeSousa, Michelle; Earl, Brittany; Hammerton, Kaitlynn; Humphreys, Jill

This study investigates the effect of mirror therapy and task-oriented training on the paretic upper extremity function and occupational performance of people with stroke. This study used a repeated-measures, case-series design in which 4 participants completed a 4-wk intervention consisting of mirror therapy and task-specific training. The intervention was conducted 2×/wk in the clinic and 4×/wk at home. All participants displayed clinically meaningful improvements in self-identified goals at the end of the intervention and at follow-up. Three participants showed clinically meaningful changes in motor function. Although only 1 participant improved in his reported amount of use, all participants showed clinically meaningful improvements in perceived movement quality at varying points of assessment. Mirror therapy, when used as priming for task-oriented training, can produce clinical improvements in upper extremity function and occupational performance in people with hemiparesis. Copyright © 2018 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Relations and effects of transformational leadership: a comparative analysis with traditional leadership styles.

PubMed

Molero, Fernando; Cuadrado, Isabel; Navas, Marisol; Morales, J Francisco

2007-11-01

This study has two main goals: (a) to compare the relationship between transformational leadership and other important leadership styles (i.e., democratic versus autocratic or relations- and task-oriented leadership) and (b) to compare the effects of transformational leadership and the other styles on some important organizational outcomes such as employees' satisfaction and performance. For this purpose, a sample of 147 participants, working in 35 various work-teams, was used. Results show high correlations between transformational leadership, relations-oriented, democratic, and task-oriented leadership. On the other hand, according to the literature, transformational leadership, especially high levels, significantly increases the percentage of variance accounted for by other leadership styles in relevant organizational outcome variables (subordinates' performance, satisfaction and extra effort).

Relationships among values, achievement orientations, and attitudes in youth sport.

PubMed

Lee, Martin J; Whitehead, Jean; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Hatzigeorgiadis, Antonis

2008-10-01

This research examines the value-expressive function of attitudes and achievement goal theory in predicting moral attitudes. In Study 1, the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire (YSVQ; Lee, Whitehead, & Balchin, 2000) was modified to measure moral, competence, and status values. In Study 2, structural equation modeling on data from 549 competitors (317 males, 232 females) aged 12-15 years showed that moral and competence values predicted prosocial attitudes, whereas moral (negatively) and status values (positively) predicted antisocial attitudes. Competence and status values predicted task and ego orientation, respectively, and task and ego orientation partially mediated the effect of competence values on prosocial attitudes and of status values on antisocial attitudes, respectively. The role of sport values is discussed, and new research directions are proposed.

Markov Task Network: A Framework for Service Composition under Uncertainty in Cyber-Physical Systems.

PubMed

Mohammed, Abdul-Wahid; Xu, Yang; Hu, Haixiao; Agyemang, Brighter

2016-09-21

In novel collaborative systems, cooperative entities collaborate services to achieve local and global objectives. With the growing pervasiveness of cyber-physical systems, however, such collaboration is hampered by differences in the operations of the cyber and physical objects, and the need for the dynamic formation of collaborative functionality given high-level system goals has become practical. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer automation and management model for cyber-physical systems. This models the dynamic formation of collaborative services pursuing laid-down system goals as an ontology-oriented hierarchical task network. Ontological intelligence provides the semantic technology of this model, and through semantic reasoning, primitive tasks can be dynamically composed from high-level system goals. In dealing with uncertainty, we further propose a novel bridge between hierarchical task networks and Markov logic networks, called the Markov task network. This leverages the efficient inference algorithms of Markov logic networks to reduce both computational and inferential loads in task decomposition. From the results of our experiments, high-precision service composition under uncertainty can be achieved using this approach.

Academic goals and learning quality in higher education students.

PubMed

Valle, Antonio; Núñez, José C; Cabanach, Ramón G; González-Pienda, Julio A; Rodríguez, Susana; Rosário, Pedro; Muñoz-Cadavid, María A; Cerezo, Rebeca

2009-05-01

In this paper, the relations between academic goals and various indicators that define the quality of the learning process are analyzed. The purpose was to determine to what extent high, moderate, or low levels of academic goals were positively or negatively related to effort regulation, the value assigned to academic tasks, meta-cognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs about learning control, and management of time and study environment. The investigation was carried out with a sample of 632 university students (70% female and 30% male) and mean age of 21.22 (SD=2.2).The results show that learning goals, or task orientation, are positively related to all the indictors of learning quality considered herein. Although for other kinds of goals-work-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals-significant relations were not found with all the indicators, there was a similar tendency of significant results in all cases; the higher the levels of these goals, the lower the levels of the indicators of learning quality.

Job Knowledge Test Design: A Cognitively-Oriented Approach. Institute Report No. 241.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuBois, David; And Others

Selected cognitive science methods were used to modify existing test development procedures so that the modified procedures could in turn be used to improve the usefulness of job knowledge tests as a proxy for hands-on performance. A plan-goal graph representation was used to capture the knowledge content and goal structure of the task of using a…

Peer relationships in adolescent competitive soccer: associations to perceived motivational climate, achievement goals and perfectionism.

PubMed

Ommundsen, Yngvar; Roberts, Glyn C; Lemyre, Pierre-Nicolas; Miller, Blake W

2005-09-01

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the perceived motivational climate, achievement goals, perfectionism and indices of peer relationships in a sample of young male and female Norwegian soccer players. The sample consisted of 1719 experienced soccer players (1231 males, 488 females) aged 12-19 years (mean = 14.9 years) participating in the Norway Cup international youth soccer competition. The players responded to a questionnaire measuring perceived peer acceptance and quality of friendship in soccer, perceived motivational climate, achievement goals and perfectionism in soccer. Canonical correlation analyses revealed that young female players who perceived the motivational climate as predominantly mastery oriented, and who were moderately task oriented and scored negatively on maladaptive perfectionism, reported better relations with their peers in soccer. Constructive peer relations were evident in that they scored positively on companionship with their best friend in soccer; they perceived this friend as being loyal and allowing of free discussion, and they reported being socially accepted by their peers in soccer. Mirroring these findings, young male players who perceived the motivational climate as predominantly performance oriented, who had a moderately negative score on task orientation but a quite strong positive score on maladaptive perfectionism, reported negative relationships with peers in terms of these aspects. They also reported being in conflict with their best soccer friend. The findings suggest that the qualities of motivation have a systematic relationship with peer acceptance and the quality of friendship in male and female youth soccer.

Relationships among constructivist learning environment perceptions, motivational beliefs, self-regulation and science achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kingir, Sevgi; Tas, Yasemin; Gok, Gulsum; Sungur Vural, Semra

2013-11-01

Background. There are attempts to integrate learning environment research with motivation and self-regulation research that considers social context influences an individual's motivation, self-regulation and, in turn, academic performance. Purpose. This study explored the relationships among constructivist learning environment perception variables (personal relevance, uncertainty, shared control, critical voice, student negotiation), motivational beliefs (self-efficacy, intrinsic interest, goal orientation), self-regulation, and science achievement. Sample. The sample for this study comprised 802 Grade 8 students from 14 public middle schools in a district of Ankara in Turkey. Design and methods. Students were administered 4 instruments: Constructivist Learning Environment Survey, Goal Achievement Questionnaire, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Science Achievement Test. LISREL 8.7 program with SIMPLIS programming language was used to test the conceptual model. Providing appropriate fit indices for the proposed model, the standardized path coefficients for direct effects were examined. Results. At least one dimension of the constructivist learning environment was associated with students' intrinsic interest, goal orientation, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and science achievement. Self-efficacy emerged as the strongest predictor of both mastery and performance avoidance goals rather than the approach goals. Intrinsic value was found to be significantly linked to science achievement through its effect on self-regulation. The relationships between self-efficacy and self-regulation and between goal orientation and science achievement were not significant. Conclusion. In a classroom environment supporting student autonomy and control, students tend to develop higher interest in tasks, use more self-regulatory strategies, and demonstrate higher academic performance. Science teachers are highly recommended to consider these findings when designing their lessons. For the creation of such a learning environment, teachers can design open-ended inquiry activities in which students have opportunities to take responsibility, reflect on their views, and accomplish challenging tasks.

Passion and coping: relationships with changes in burnout and goal attainment in collegiate volleyball players.

PubMed

Schellenberg, Benjamin J I; Gaudreau, Patrick; Crocker, Peter R E

2013-06-01

This study examined the relationship between harmonious and obsessive passion and coping, and assessed whether coping mediated the relationship between passion types and changes in burnout and goal attainment. College- and university-level volleyball players (N = 421) completed measures of passion, coping, burnout, and goal attainment at the start and end of a season. Results of structural equation modeling, using a true latent change approach, supported a model whereby types of passion were indirectly related to changes in burnout and goal attainment via coping. Harmonious passion was positively related to task-oriented coping which, in turn, was positively associated with change in goal attainment. Obsessive passion was positively associated with disengagement-oriented coping which, in turn, was positively and negatively associated with changes in burnout and goal attainment, respectively. This study identifies coping as a reason why passionate athletes may experience changes in burnout and goal attainment over the course of a season.

When Teams Fail to Self-Regulate: Predictors and Outcomes of Team Procrastination Among Debating Teams.

PubMed

Van Hooft, Edwin A J; Van Mierlo, Heleen

2018-01-01

Models of team development have indicated that teams typically engage in task delay during the first stages of the team's life cycle. An important question is to what extent this equally applies to all teams, or whether there is variation across teams in the amount of task delay. The present study introduces the concept of team procrastination as a lens through which we can examine whether teams collectively engage in unplanned, voluntary, and irrational delay of team tasks. Based on theory and research on self-regulation, team processes, and team motivation we developed a conceptual multilevel model of predictors and outcomes of team procrastination. In a sample of 209 student debating teams, we investigated whether and why teams engage in collective procrastination as a team, and what consequences team procrastination has in terms of team member well-being and team performance. The results supported the existence of team procrastination as a team-level construct that has some stability over time. The teams' composition in terms of individual-level trait procrastination, as well as the teams' motivational states (i.e., team learning goal orientation, team performance-approach goal orientation in interaction with team efficacy) predicted team procrastination. Team procrastination related positively to team members' stress levels, especially for those low on trait procrastination. Furthermore, team procrastination had an indirect negative relationship with team performance, through teams' collective stress levels. These findings add to the theoretical understanding of self-regulatory processes of teams, and highlight the practical importance of paying attention to team-level states and processes such as team goal orientation and team procrastination.

Situational theory of leadership.

PubMed

Waller, D J; Smith, S R; Warnock, J T

1989-11-01

The situational theory of leadership and the LEAD instruments for determining leadership style are explained, and the application of the situational leadership theory to the process of planning for and implementing organizational change is described. Early studies of leadership style identified two basic leadership styles: the task-oriented autocratic style and the relationship-oriented democratic style. Subsequent research found that most leaders exhibited one of four combinations of task and relationship behaviors. The situational leadership theory holds that the difference between the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the four leadership styles is the appropriateness of the leader's behavior to the particular situation in which it is used. The task maturity of the individual or group being led must also be accounted for; follower readiness is defined in terms of the capacity to set high but attainable goals, willingness or ability to accept responsibility, and possession of the necessary education or experience for a specific task. A person's leadership style, range, and adaptability can be determined from the LEADSelf and LEADOther questionnaires. By applying the principles of the situational leadership theory and adapting their managerial styles to specific tasks and levels of follower maturity, the authors were successful in implementing 24-hour pharmacokinetic dosing services provided by staff pharmacists with little previous experience in clinical services. The situational leadership model enables a leader to identify a task, set goals, determine the task maturity of the individual or group, select an appropriate leadership style, and modify the style as change occurs. Pharmacy managers can use this model when implementing clinical pharmacy services.

Examining Motivational Orientation and Learning Strategies in Computer-Supported Self-Directed Learning (CS-SDL) for Mathematics: The Perspective of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lao, Andrew Chan-Chio; Cheng, Hercy N. H.; Huang, Mark C. L.; Ku, Oskar; Chan, Tak-Wai

2017-01-01

One-to-one technology, which allows every student to receive equal access to learning tasks through a personal computing device, has shown increasing potential for self-directed learning in elementary schools. With computer-supported self-directed learning (CS-SDL), students may set their own learning goals through the suggestions of the system…

Interaction between Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Factors: The Influences of Academic Goal Orientation and Working Memory on Mathematical Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Kerry; Ning, Flora; Goh, Hui Chin

2014-01-01

Although the effects of achievement goals and working memory on academic performance are well established, it is not clear whether they jointly affect academic performance. Children from Primary 4 and 6 (N = 608) were administered (a) measures of working memory and updating from the automated working memory battery and a running span task, (b)…

A flexible telerobotic system for space operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sliwa, N. O.; Will, R. W.

1987-01-01

The objective and design of a proposed goal-oriented knowledge-based telerobotic system for space operations is described. This design effort encompasses the elements of the system executive and user interface and the distribution and general structure of the knowledge base, the displays, and the task sequencing. The objective of the design effort is to provide an expandable structure for a telerobotic system that provides cooperative interaction between the human operator and computer control. The initial phase of the implementation provides a rule-based, goal-oriented script generator to interface to the existing control modes of a telerobotic research system, in the Intelligent Systems Research Lab at NASA Research Center.

Paint Bucket Polygons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Michael Todd; Harper, Suzanne R.

2010-01-01

During a two-week summer professional development workshop, teams of intermediate-level school teachers and college methods instructors crafted mathematics learning modules--activities, lesson plans, work sheets, and technology-oriented tasks--with the primary goal of strengthening students' understanding of various geometric concepts. They recast…

Student Perceptions of Teacher Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolan, Alyson Lavigne; McCaslin, Mary

2008-01-01

Background/Context: Working theories about student goal orientation, understanding of intelligence, and affective mediation of task engagement inform current beliefs about students and learning and motivation. Much research has focused on identifying effective teaching strategies to raise the achievement of disadvantaged students; however, less is…

Job Knowledge Test Design: A Cognitively-Oriented Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-07-01

protocol analyses and related methods. We employed a plan-goal graph representation to capture the knowledge content and goal structure of the studied task...between job knowledge and hands-on performance from previous studies was .38. For the subset of Marines in this sample who had recently been examined...the job knowledge test provided similar results to conventional, total number correct scoring. Conclusion The evidence provided by this study supports

Motivation and value influences in the relative balance of goal-directed and habitual behaviours in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

PubMed

Voon, V; Baek, K; Enander, J; Worbe, Y; Morris, L S; Harrison, N A; Robbins, T W; Rück, C; Daw, N

2015-11-03

Our decisions are based on parallel and competing systems of goal-directed and habitual learning, systems which can be impaired in pathological behaviours. Here we focus on the influence of motivation and compare reward and loss outcomes in subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) on model-based goal-directed and model-free habitual behaviours using the two-step task. We further investigate the relationship with acquisition learning using a one-step probabilistic learning task. Forty-eight OCD subjects and 96 healthy volunteers were tested on a reward and 30 OCD subjects and 53 healthy volunteers on the loss version of the two-step task. Thirty-six OCD subjects and 72 healthy volunteers were also tested on a one-step reversal task. OCD subjects compared with healthy volunteers were less goal oriented (model-based) and more habitual (model-free) to reward outcomes with a shift towards greater model-based and lower habitual choices to loss outcomes. OCD subjects also had enhanced acquisition learning to loss outcomes on the one-step task, which correlated with goal-directed learning in the two-step task. OCD subjects had greater stay behaviours or perseveration in the one-step task irrespective of outcome. Compulsion severity was correlated with habitual learning in the reward condition. Obsession severity was correlated with greater switching after loss outcomes. In healthy volunteers, we further show that greater reward magnitudes are associated with a shift towards greater goal-directed learning further emphasizing the role of outcome salience. Our results highlight an important influence of motivation on learning processes in OCD and suggest that distinct clinical strategies based on valence may be warranted.

The growing importance of costs and ways to maintain cost control on a large program in today's competitive environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, J. J.; Grimes, D. W.; Gaetano, F. W.

1973-01-01

Discussion of management techniques that make it possible to overcome inflationary and developmental cost rises while holding schedule and performance fixed in scientific space programs. The techniques reviewed pertain to high personnel motivation, continual review of contract rigidity for de facto modification by senior judgment, standardization vs design innovation, cooperative customer/contractor goal orientation vs task orientation, and deep real-time management visibility.

When Teams Fail to Self-Regulate: Predictors and Outcomes of Team Procrastination Among Debating Teams

PubMed Central

Van Hooft, Edwin A. J.; Van Mierlo, Heleen

2018-01-01

Models of team development have indicated that teams typically engage in task delay during the first stages of the team’s life cycle. An important question is to what extent this equally applies to all teams, or whether there is variation across teams in the amount of task delay. The present study introduces the concept of team procrastination as a lens through which we can examine whether teams collectively engage in unplanned, voluntary, and irrational delay of team tasks. Based on theory and research on self-regulation, team processes, and team motivation we developed a conceptual multilevel model of predictors and outcomes of team procrastination. In a sample of 209 student debating teams, we investigated whether and why teams engage in collective procrastination as a team, and what consequences team procrastination has in terms of team member well-being and team performance. The results supported the existence of team procrastination as a team-level construct that has some stability over time. The teams’ composition in terms of individual-level trait procrastination, as well as the teams’ motivational states (i.e., team learning goal orientation, team performance-approach goal orientation in interaction with team efficacy) predicted team procrastination. Team procrastination related positively to team members’ stress levels, especially for those low on trait procrastination. Furthermore, team procrastination had an indirect negative relationship with team performance, through teams’ collective stress levels. These findings add to the theoretical understanding of self-regulatory processes of teams, and highlight the practical importance of paying attention to team-level states and processes such as team goal orientation and team procrastination. PMID:29674991

Selection history alters attentional filter settings persistently and beyond top-down control.

PubMed

Kadel, Hanna; Feldmann-Wüstefeld, Tobias; Schubö, Anna

2017-05-01

Visual selective attention is known to be guided by stimulus-based (bottom-up) and goal-oriented (top-down) control mechanisms. Recent work has pointed out that selection history (i.e., the bias to prioritize items that have been previously attended) can result in a learning experience that also has a substantial impact on subsequent attention guidance. The present study examined to what extent goal-oriented top-down control mechanisms interact with an observer's individual selection history in guiding attention. Selection history was manipulated in a categorization task in a between-subjects design, where participants learned that either color or shape was the response-relevant dimension. The impact of this experience was assessed in a compound visual search task with an additional color distractor. Top-down preparation for each search trial was enabled by a pretrial task cue (Experiment 1) or a fixed, predictable trial sequence (Experiment 2). Reaction times and ERPs served as indicators of attention deployment. Results showed that attention was captured by the color distractor when participants had learned that color predicted the correct response in the categorization learning task, suggesting that a bias for predictive stimulus features had developed. The possibility to prepare for the search task reduced the bias, but could not entirely overrule this selection history effect. In Experiment 3, both tasks were performed in separate sessions, and the bias still persisted. These results indicate that selection history considerably shapes selective attention and continues to do so persistently even when the task allowed for high top-down control. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Scheduling techniques in the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zoch, David R.

1991-01-01

Scheduling techniques in the ROSE are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: agenda; ROSE summary and history; NCC-ROSE task goals; accomplishments; ROSE timeline manager; scheduling concerns; current and ROSE approaches; initial scheduling; BFSSE overview and example; and summary.

Regulatory focus moderates the relationship between task control and physiological and psychological markers of stress: a work simulation study.

PubMed

Parker, Stacey L; Laurie, Kaitlan R; Newton, Cameron J; Jimmieson, Nerina L

2014-12-01

This experiment examined whether trait regulatory focus moderates the effects of task control on stress reactions during a demanding work simulation. Regulatory focus describes two ways in which individuals self-regulate toward desired goals: promotion and prevention. As highly promotion-focused individuals are oriented toward growth and challenge, it was expected that they would show better adaptation to demanding work under high task control. In contrast, as highly prevention-focused individuals are oriented toward safety and responsibility they were expected to show better adaptation under low task control. Participants (N=110) completed a measure of trait regulatory focus and then three trials of a demanding inbox activity under either low, neutral, or high task control. Heart rate variability (HRV), affective reactions (anxiety & task dissatisfaction), and task performance were measured at each trial. As predicted, highly promotion-focused individuals found high (compared to neutral) task control stress-buffering for performance. Moreover, highly prevention-focused individuals found high (compared to low) task control stress-exacerbating for dissatisfaction. In addition, highly prevention-focused individuals found low task control stress-buffering for dissatisfaction, performance, and HRV. However, these effects of low task control for highly prevention-focused individuals depended on their promotion focus. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Young Athletes’ Motivational Profiles

PubMed Central

Murcia, Juan Antonio Moreno; Gimeno, Eduardo Cervelló; Coll, David González-Cutre

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between motivational characteristics and dispositional flow. In order to accomplish this goal, motivational profiles emerging from key constructs within Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory were related to the dispositional flow measures. A sample of 413 young athletes (Age range 12 to 16 years) completed the PMCSQ-2, POSQ, SMS and DFS measures. Cluster analysis results revealed three profiles: a “self-determined profile ”characterised by higher scores on the task-involving climate perception and on the task orientation; a “non-self-determined profile”, characterised by higher scores on ego-involving climate perception and ego orientation; and a “low self-determined and low non-self-determined profile ”which had the lowest dispositional flow. No meaningful differences were found between the “self-determined profile ”and the “non-self-determined profile ”in dispositional flow. The “self-determined profile ”was more commonly associated with females, athletes practising individual sports and those training more than three days a week. The “non-self-determined profile ”was more customary of males and athletes practising team sports as well as those training just two or three days a week. Key pointsThe “self-determined profile ”was characterized by high task orientation, high task-involving climate perception and was more commonly associated with females, athletes practising individual sports and those training more than three days a week.The “non-self-determined profile ”was characterized by high ego orientation, high ego-involving climate perception and was more customary of males and athletes practising team sports as well as those training two or three days a week.Both profiles revealed a moderate tendency toward dispositional flow, with no significant differences between the two profiles.The “low self-determined and low non-self-determined profile ”had low scores on all of the variables in the study. PMID:24149326

Goal Management Training and Mindfulness Meditation improve executive functions and transfer to ecological tasks of daily life in polysubstance users enrolled in therapeutic community treatment.

PubMed

Valls-Serrano, Carlos; Caracuel, Alfonso; Verdejo-Garcia, Antonio

2016-08-01

We have previously shown that Goal Management Training+Mindfulness Meditation (GMT+MM) improves executive functions in polysubstance users enrolled in outpatient treatment. The aim of this study was to establish if GMT+MM has similar positive effects on executive functions in polysubstance users in residential treatment, and if executive functions' gains transfer to more ecologically valid goal-oriented tasks. Thirty-two polysbustance users were randomly allocated to eight weeks of GMT+MM (n=16) or control, i.e., no-intervention (n=16); both groups received treatment as usual. Outcome measures included performance in laboratory tasks of basic and complex executive functions (i.e., basic: working memory and inhibition; complex: planning and self-regulation) and in an ecological task of goal-directed behavior (the Multiple Errands Test - contextualized version, MET-CV) measured post-interventions. Results showed that GMT+MM was superior to control in improving basic measures of working memory (Letter-number sequencing; F=4.516, p=0.049) and reflection impulsivity (Information Sampling Test; F=6.217, p=0.018), along with initial thinking times during planning (Zoo Map Test; F=8.143, p=0.008). In addition, GMT+MM was superior to control in improving performance in the MET-CV (task failures; F=8.485, p=0.007). Our findings demonstrate that GMT+MM increases reflective processes and the achievement of goals in daily activities, furthermore ecological test can detects changes easily than laboratory tasks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Struggling toward reward: Recent experience of anhedonia interacts with motivation to predict reward pursuit in the face of a stressful manipulation.

PubMed

Bryant, Jessica; Winer, E Samuel; Salem, Taban; Nadorff, Michael R

2017-01-01

Anhedonia, or the loss of interest and/or pleasure, is a core symptom of depression. Individuals experiencing anhedonia have difficulty motivating themselves to pursue rewarding stimuli, which can result in dysfunction. Action orientation is a motivational factor that might interact with anhedonia to potentially buffer against this dysfunction, as action-oriented individuals upregulate positive affect to quickly motivate themselves to complete goals in the face of stress. The Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT) is a promising new method for examining differences in motivation in individuals experiencing anhedonia. In the EEfRT, participants choose either easier tasks associated with smaller monetary rewards or harder tasks associated with larger monetary rewards. We examined the relationship between action orientation and EEfRT performance following a negative mood induction in a sample with varying levels of anhedonia. There were two competing hypotheses: (1) action orientation would act as a buffer against anhedonia such that action-oriented individuals, regardless of anhedonic symptoms, would be motivated to pursue greater rewards despite stress, or (2) anhedonia would act as a debilitating factor such that individuals with elevated anhedonic symptoms, regardless of action orientation, would not pursue greater rewards. We examined these hypotheses via Generalized Estimating Equations and found an interaction between anhedonia and action orientation. At low levels of anhedonia, action orientation was associated with effort for reward, but this relationship was not present at high levels of anhedonia. Thus, at low levels of anhedonia, action orientation acted as a buffer against stress, but at high levels, anhedonia debilitated action orientation so that it was no longer a promotive factor.

For the Love of Science: Learning Orientation and Physical Science Success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazari, Zahra; Potvin, Geoff; Tai, Robert; Almarode, John

2010-02-01

An individual's motivational orientation serves as a drive to action and can influence their productivity. This study examines how the goal orientation of students towards the pursuit of their graduate degree in physics and chemistry influences their future success outcomes as practicing scientists. Two main orientations are focused on: performance (or ego/ability) orientation and learning (or task/mastery) orientation. The data was obtained as part of Project Crossover, which applied a mixed methodological approach to studying the transition from graduate student to scientist in the physical sciences. Using regression analysis on survey data from 2353 PhD holders in physics and chemistry, we found that individuals exhibiting a learning orientation were more productive than those exhibiting a performance orientation in terms of first-author publications and grant funding. Furthermore, given equal salary, learning-oriented physical scientists produced more first-author publications than average. )

Self-handicapping in school physical education: The influence of the motivational climate.

PubMed

Standage, Martyn; Treasure, Darren C; Hooper, Katherine; Kuczka, Kendy

2007-03-01

Self-handicapping is an attribution-related process whereby individuals create performance impediments/excuses to protect self-worth in socially evaluative environments. Thus, the prevailing motivational climate would appear to be an important factor when attempting to understand the situational self-handicapping process within school physical education. Drawing from achievement goal theory, the study examined the effect of experimentally induced conditions (viz. task vs. ego) on situational self-handicapping. Seventy British secondary school students (36 females and 34 males; M age = 11.98; SD=0.31). Participants were randomly assigned to partake in a running endurance task in either an ego-involving (20 male students and 16 female students) or a task-involving (14 male students and 20 female students) condition. Prior to completing the experimental task, participants were given the opportunity to claim situational self-handicaps. Data for goal orientations, subjective climate perceptions, perceived ability and perceived task importance were also obtained. After determining the effectiveness of the experimental manipulation, results revealed participants in the ego-involving condition to report significantly more situational self-handicapping claims. Further, and after controlling for individual difference variables, the results of moderated hierarchical regression analysis revealed subjective perceptions of an ego-involving climate to be the main positive predictor of situational self-handicapping. Although a weaker contributor to the percentage of variance explained, task orientation emerged as a negative predictor of situational self-handicapping. The findings suggest that PE teachers would be prudent to minimize ego-involving situations should they wish to reduce situational self-handicapping.

Overcoming Executive Function Deficits with Students with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Joseph; Reid, Robert

2011-01-01

Academic problems are common among students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One reason for academic problems is the difficulties in executive functions (EF) that are necessary for complex goal-oriented behaviors. Students with ADHD often exhibit EF deficits and as a result have difficulties with tasks that require planning,…

Teaching Technical Skills through Play.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gullion, Laurie

The value of light-hearted play in teaching technical recreational sport skills is immense. Children as well as adults can learn more quickly and completely with a games-oriented approach. Often without realizing the hidden goal of excellent skiing or paddling, participants respond to intriguing tasks in a game, immerse themselves in good…

Marketing: Key to Institutional Survival and Success.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grossman, Robert J.

1987-01-01

The marketing concept holds that the primary task of an institution is to determine the needs, wants, and values of its target constituencies and to adapt itself to delivering desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than its competitors. Student orientation, marketing research, mission and goals, and institutional commitment are…

Fostering a Lifelong Love of Music: Instruction and Assessment Practices that Make a Difference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Susan K.; Hale, Connie L.

2011-01-01

Music educators can nurture students' lifelong musical involvement, both as consumers and as participants. Orienting musical instructional practices around classroom elements suggested by achievement goal theory can foster lifelong musical connections. Practices related to using meaningful and challenging tasks, evaluations that decrease emphasis…

Career Preparation: A Longitudinal, Process-Oriented Examination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stringer, Kate; Jennifer Kerpelman; Vladimir Skorikov

2011-01-01

Preparing for an adult career through careful planning, choosing a career, and gaining confidence to achieve career goals is a primary task during adolescence and early adulthood. The current study bridged identity process literature and career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) by examining the commitment component of career adaptability,…

Multidimensional and Hierarchical Assessment of School Motivation: Cross-Cultural Validation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McInerney, Dennis M.; Ali, Jinnat

2006-01-01

This study examines the multidimensional and hierarchical structure of achievement goal orientation measured by the Inventory of School Motivation. The instrument consists of eight different scales with 43 survey items (ranging from three to seven items each). Each scale reflects one of eight specific dimensions: task, effort, competition, social…

Presenting the Students’ Academic Achievement Causal Model based on Goal Orientation

PubMed Central

NASIRI, EBRAHIM; POUR-SAFAR, ALI; TAHERI, MAHDOKHT; SEDIGHI PASHAKY, ABDULLAH; ASADI LOUYEH, ATAOLLAH

2017-01-01

Introduction: Several factors play a role in academic achievement, individual's excellence and capability to do actions and tasks that the learner is in charge of in learning areas. The main goal of this study was to present academic achievement causal model based on the dimensions of goal orientation and learning approaches among the students of Medical Science and Dentistry courses in Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2013. Methods: This study is based on a cross-sectional model. The participants included 175 first and second students of the Medical and Dentistry schools in Guilan University of Medical Sciences selected by random cluster sampling [121 persons (69%) Medical Basic Science students and 54 (30.9%) Dentistry students]. The measurement tool included the Goal Orientation Scale of Bouffard and Study Process Questionnaire of Biggs) and the students’ Grade Point Average. The study data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equations modeling. SPSS 14 and Amos were used to analyze the data. Results: The results indicated a significant relationship between goal orientation and learning strategies (P<0.05). In addition, the results revealed that a significant relationship exists between learning strategies[Deep Learning (r=0.37, P<0.05), Surface Learning (r=-0.21,P<0.05)], and academic achievement.The suggested model of research is fitted to the data of the research. Conclusion: Results showed that the students' academic achievement model fits with experimental data, so it can be used in learning principles which lead to students’ achievement in learning. PMID:28979914

Looking ahead? Computerized maze task performance by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), and human children (Homo sapiens).

PubMed

Beran, Michael J; Parrish, Audrey E; Futch, Sara E; Evans, Theodore A; Perdue, Bonnie M

2015-05-01

Human and nonhuman primates are not mentally constrained to the present. They can remember the past and-at least to an extent-anticipate the future. Anticipation of the future ranges from long-term prospection such as planning for retirement to more short-term future-oriented cognition such as planning a route through a maze. Here we tested a great ape species (chimpanzees), an Old World monkey species (rhesus macaques), a New World monkey species (capuchin monkeys), and human children on a computerized maze task. All subjects had to move a cursor through a maze to reach a goal at the bottom of the screen. For best performance on the task, subjects had to "plan ahead" to the end of the maze to move the cursor in the correct direction, avoid traps, and reverse directions if necessary. Mazes varied in difficulty. Chimpanzees were better than both monkey species, and monkeys showed a particular deficit when moving away from the goal or changing directions was required. Children showed a similar pattern to monkeys regarding the effects of reversals and moves away from the goal, but their overall performance in terms of correct maze completion was similar to the chimpanzees. The results highlight similarities as well as differences in planning across species and the role that inhibitory control may play in future-oriented cognition in primates. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of topic choice in project-based instruction on undergraduate physical science students' interest, ownership, and motivation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milner-Bolotin, Marina

2001-07-01

Motivating nonscience majors in science and mathematics studies became one of the most interesting and important challenges in contemporary science and mathematics education. Therefore, designing and studying a learning environment, which enhances students' motivation, is an important task. This experimental study sought to explore the implications of student autonomy in topic choice in a project-based Physical Science Course for nonscience majors' on students' motivational orientation. It also suggested and tested a model explaining motivational outcomes of project-based learning environment through increased student ownership of science projects. A project, How Things Work, was designed and implemented in this study. The focus of the project was application of physical science concepts learned in the classroom to everyday life situations. Participants of the study (N = 59) were students enrolled in three selected sections of a Physical Science Course, designed to fulfill science requirements for nonscience majors. These sections were taught by the same instructor over a period of an entire 16-week semester at a large public research university. The study focused on four main variables: student autonomy in choosing a project topic, their motivational orientation, student ownership of the project, and the interest in the project topic. Achievement Goal Orientation theory became the theoretical framework for the study. Student motivational orientation, defined as mastery or performance goal orientation, was measured by an Achievement Goal Orientation Questionnaire. Student ownership was measured using an original instrument, Ownership Measurement Questionnaire, designed and tested by the researchers. Repeated measures yoked design, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and multivariate regression analysis were implemented in the study. Qualitative analysis was used to complement and verify quantitative results. It has been found that student autonomy in the project choice did not make a significant impact on their motivational orientation, while their initial interest in the project topic did. The latter was found to be related to students' ownership of the project, which was found to lead to improved mastery goal orientation. These findings indicate that incorporating project-based learning in science teaching may lead to increased student mastery goal orientation, and may result in improved science learning.

Self-guided strategy-adaption training for older adults: Transfer effects to everyday tasks.

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Vecchi, Tomaso; Hertzog, Christopher

2017-09-01

The goal of the present research was to examine the potential of a learner-oriented approach to improving older adults' performance in tasks that are similar to real-life situations that require strategic deployment of cognitive resources. A crucial element of this approach involves encouraging older adults to explicitly analyze tasks to consider how to adapt trained skills to a new task context. In an earlier study, a specialist-directed intervention produced training gains and transfer to some untrained memory tasks. In the present study, older adults received a manual instructing them about principles of task analysis, two memory strategies, and strategy adaptation. Self-guided strategy-adaption training involved practicing some memory tasks as well as instructions on how the trained skills could be applied to new tasks that were not practiced. The criterion tasks involved practice tasks, non-practiced tasks that were discussed in the manual, and transfer tasks that were never mentioned in the manual. Two of the tests were from the Everyday Cognition Battery (inductive reasoning and working memory). As compared to a waiting-list control group, older adults assigned to self-guided strategy-adaption training showed memory improvements on tasks that were practiced or discussed during training. Most important, the learner-oriented approach produced transfer to the everyday tasks. Our findings show the potential of instructing task appraisal processes as a basis for fostering transfer, including improving older adults' performance in simulated everyday tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integrating Writing Skills and Ethics Training in Business Communication Pedagogy: A Resume Case Study Exemplar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conn, Cynthia E.

2008-01-01

An integrated approach to teaching resume construction in the business communication classroom focuses on simultaneously (a) emphasizing writing-related proficiencies and (b) encouraging ethical and moral orientations to this task. This article provides a resume construction exemplar that operationalizes these two pedagogical goals. The techniques…

Achievement Motivational Characteristics of University Foreign Language Learners: From the Classroom to the Tutoring Table

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Paul H.

2008-01-01

What influences who seeks foreign language tutoring? Using expectancy value theory, the present study researches the characteristics of university foreign language students in the language classroom (n = 258) and seeking tutoring (n = 29). Students' performance and mastery goal orientations, achievement task values, self-efficacy for foreign…

How Undergraduate First-Year Composition Students Revise in Relationship to Their Learning Goal Orientations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kodman, Annalee

2013-01-01

Previous research showed that motivation influences writing in school settings (Hidi & Boscolo, 2006), but further empirical research is needed to understand how motivation influences specific writing tasks (Bruning & Horn, 2000; Haswell, 2006). This study addresses that gap in research by investigating how the motivational construct of…

Coral-View: A Network-Based Design Environment for Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Lin, Sunny S. J.

2004-01-01

The vast majority of complex engineering tasks in today's business world are completed using a team-oriented approach. Therefore, teaching collaborative skills to university students can be viewed as a practical means of enhancing their employability. With these goals in mind, the authors developed a network environment that helps Taiwanese…

Teacher Talk: Cognitive Goals Inferred from Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Verna M.

To suggest that activity in the classroom shift from a focus on memorizing procedures to using mathematical reasoning is to suggest a shift in the classroom environment accompanied by shifts in teacher talk. The task of this report was to introduce the idea of teachers' orienting behaviors aimed at facilitating student cognition, and to suggest…

Improving Students' Predisposition towards Physical Education by Optimizing Their Motivational Processes in an Acrosport Unit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abós, Ángel; Sevil, Javier; Julián, José Antonio; Abarca-Sos, Alberto; García-González, Luis

2017-01-01

Grounded in self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, this quasi-experimental study evaluated the effectiveness of a teaching intervention programme to improve predisposition towards physical education based on developing a task-oriented motivational climate and supporting basic psychological needs. The final sample consisted of 35…

Community College Transfer. Presentation to the Little Hoover Commission (Sacramento, CA, March 25, 1999).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaskin, Fred

This presentation discusses community college transfer and the Cerritos College (California) President's Emphasis on Transfer (PET) Task Force, a project committed to making Cerritos College a transfer-oriented institution. Among the goals PET has accomplished are: (1) creating the Scholars Honors Program, which sent three of its first six…

Global-local processing relates to spatial and verbal processing: implications for sex differences in cognition.

PubMed

Pletzer, Belinda; Scheuringer, Andrea; Scherndl, Thomas

2017-09-05

Sex differences have been reported for a variety of cognitive tasks and related to the use of different cognitive processing styles in men and women. It was recently argued that these processing styles share some characteristics across tasks, i.e. male approaches are oriented towards holistic stimulus aspects and female approaches are oriented towards stimulus details. In that respect, sex-dependent cognitive processing styles share similarities with attentional global-local processing. A direct relationship between cognitive processing and global-local processing has however not been previously established. In the present study, 49 men and 44 women completed a Navon paradigm and a Kimchi Palmer task as well as a navigation task and a verbal fluency task with the goal to relate the global advantage (GA) effect as a measure of global processing to holistic processing styles in both tasks. Indeed participants with larger GA effects displayed more holistic processing during spatial navigation and phonemic fluency. However, the relationship to cognitive processing styles was modulated by the specific condition of the Navon paradigm, as well as the sex of participants. Thus, different types of global-local processing play different roles for cognitive processing in men and women.

Task-oriented training with computer gaming in people with rheumatoid arthritisor osteoarthritis of the hand: study protocol of a randomized controlled pilot trial.

PubMed

Srikesavan, Cynthia Swarnalatha; Shay, Barbara; Robinson, David B; Szturm, Tony

2013-03-09

Significant restriction in the ability to participate in home, work and community life results from pain, fatigue, joint damage, stiffness and reduced joint range of motion and muscle strength in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. With modest evidence on the therapeutic effectiveness of conventional hand exercises, a task-oriented training program via real life object manipulations has been developed for people with arthritis. An innovative, computer-based gaming platform that allows a broad range of common objects to be seamlessly transformed into therapeutic input devices through instrumentation with a motion-sense mouse has also been designed. Personalized objects are selected to target specific training goals such as graded finger mobility, strength, endurance or fine/gross dexterous functions. The movements and object manipulation tasks that replicate common situations in everyday living will then be used to control and play any computer game, making practice challenging and engaging. The ongoing study is a 6-week, single-center, parallel-group, equally allocated and assessor-blinded pilot randomized controlled trial. Thirty people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis affecting the hand will be randomized to receive either conventional hand exercises or the task-oriented training. The purpose is to determine a preliminary estimation of therapeutic effectiveness and feasibility of the task-oriented training program. Performance based and self-reported hand function, and exercise compliance are the study outcomes. Changes in outcomes (pre to post intervention) within each group will be assessed by paired Student t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test and between groups (control versus experimental) post intervention using unpaired Student t test or Mann-Whitney U test. The study findings will inform decisions on the feasibility, safety and completion rate and will also provide preliminary data on the treatment effects of the task-oriented training compared with conventional hand exercises in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01635582.

Postural orientation and equilibrium: what do we need to know about neural control of balance to prevent falls?

PubMed

Horak, Fay B

2006-09-01

Postural control is no longer considered simply a summation of static reflexes but, rather, a complex skill based on the interaction of dynamic sensorimotor processes. The two main functional goals of postural behaviour are postural orientation and postural equilibrium. Postural orientation involves the active alignment of the trunk and head with respect to gravity, support surfaces, the visual surround and internal references. Sensory information from somatosensory, vestibular and visual systems is integrated, and the relative weights placed on each of these inputs are dependent on the goals of the movement task and the environmental context. Postural equilibrium involves the coordination of movement strategies to stabilise the centre of body mass during both self-initiated and externally triggered disturbances of stability. The specific response strategy selected depends not only on the characteristics of the external postural displacement but also on the individual's expectations, goals and prior experience. Anticipatory postural adjustments, prior to voluntary limb movement, serve to maintain postural stability by compensating for destabilising forces associated with moving a limb. The amount of cognitive processing required for postural control depends both on the complexity of the postural task and on the capability of the subject's postural control system. The control of posture involves many different underlying physiological systems that can be affected by pathology or sub-clinical constraints. Damage to any of the underlying systems will result in different, context-specific instabilities. The effective rehabilitation of balance to improve mobility and to prevent falls requires a better understanding of the multiple mechanisms underlying postural control.

Coping as a building mechanism to explain the unique association of affect and goal motivation with changes in affective states.

PubMed

Blouin-Hudon, Eve-Marie C; Gaudreau, Patrick; Gareau, Alexandre

2016-09-01

In this study, we examined the mediating role of university students' coping strategies in the unique/additive influence of affective states and goal motivation on upward changes in affect during a midterm exam period. Using a short-term prospective design, key assumptions from the self-concordance model and the broaden-and-build theory were drawn upon to determine whether coping strategies are influenced by goal motivation and affective states, while also subsequently influencing short-term changes in affective states during a semester. A sample of 272 students (79% females and 21% males) participated in a study in which they completed questionnaires twice during the semester. Results of structural equation modeling, using a true latent change approach, have generally supported our hypotheses. Positive affective states and autonomous goal motivation prospectively predicted task-oriented coping which, in turn, was associated with increases in positive affect. Negative affective states and controlled goal motivation prospectively predicted disengagement-oriented coping which, in turn, was associated with increases in negative affect. Coping partially mediates the unique association of affect and goal motivation with changes in affective states of university students.

How "fun/importance" fit affects performance: relating implicit theories to instructions.

PubMed

Bianco, Amy T; Higgins, E Tory; Klem, Adena

2003-09-01

People experience a regulatory fit when they employ means of goal pursuit that fit their regulatory orientation, and this fit increases motivation that can enhance performance. The present studies extend previous research on regulatory fit to the classic motivational variables of fun and importance. They also examine for the first time the effect on performance of the fit between individuals' implicit theories about a task's fun or importance and their strategic engagement of the task as fun or important as induced by task instructions. In all three studies, task performance was better when the external task instructions "fit" rather than did not fit participants' implicit theory for the task. The implications of these findings for understanding the motivational effects of fun and importance are discussed.

Impasse-driven tutoring for reactive skill acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hill, Randall W., Jr.; Johnson, W. Lewis

1993-01-01

We are interested in developing effective performance-oriented training for the operation of systems that are used for monitor and control purposes. We have focused on one such system, the communications Link Monitor and Control (LMC) system used in NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which is a worldwide system for navigating, tracking and communicating with unmanned interplanetary spacecraft. The tasks in this domain are procedural in nature and require reactive, goal-oriented skills; we have previously described a cognitive model for problem solving that accounts for both novice and expert levels of behavior as well as how skill is acquired. Our cognitive modeling work in this task domain led us to make a number of predictions about tutoring that have influenced the design of the system described in this paper.

The right side? Under time pressure, approach motivation leads to right-oriented bias.

PubMed

Roskes, Marieke; Sligte, Daniel; Shalvi, Shaul; De Dreu, Carsten K W

2011-11-01

Approach motivation, a focus on achieving positive outcomes, is related to relative left-hemispheric brain activation, which translates to a variety of right-oriented behavioral biases. In two studies, we found that approach-motivated individuals display a right-oriented bias, but only when they are forced to act quickly. In a task in which they had to divide lines into two equal parts, approach-motivated individuals bisected the line at a point farther to the right than avoidance-motivated individuals did, but only when they worked under high time pressure. In our analysis of all Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup penalty shoot-outs, we found that goalkeepers were two times more likely to dive to the right than to the left when their team was behind, a situation that we conjecture induces approach motivation. Because penalty takers shot toward the two sides of the goal equally often, the goalkeepers' right-oriented bias was dysfunctional, allowing more goals to be scored. Directional biases may facilitate group coordination but prove maladaptive in individual settings and interpersonal competition.

Analysis of self-determined motivation in basketball players through goal orientations.

PubMed

Gómez-López, Manuel; Granero-Gallegos, Antonio; Abraldes, J Arturo; Rodríguez-Suárez, Nuria

2013-09-01

The purpose of this study was twofold. Firstly to examine the relations between the different constructs that defines Nicholls' Achievement Goal Theory and Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory. Secondly to analyse the differences that exist between them with respect to the socio-demographic variables gender and age. A sample of 292 federated basketball players from the Region of Murcia (Spain) with ages between 14 and 18 years old was used. In addition, Castilian versions of The Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ) and the Sports Motivational Scale (SMS) were administered. Three statistical analyses were employed, a descriptive analysis, a correlation analysis and a regression analysis. The results showed a positive relation between ego orientation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation. The motivational relations between both theories and the differences with respect to gender and age are discussed. We have found out that mainly gender and also age differences are strong predictors of ego orientation, extrinsic motivation of external regulation and amotivation. We can also confirm that extrinsic motivation of external regulation positively predicts ego orientation and a decrease of task orientation. The results ratify the use of the Spanish version of the SMS to measure different types of motivation within the sports context.

Health Psychological Constructs as Predictors of Doping Susceptibility in Adolescent Athletes

PubMed Central

Blank, Cornelia; Schobersberger, Wolfgang; Leichtfried, Veronika; Duschek, Stefan

2016-01-01

Background Doping is a highly relevant problem in sport, even in adolescent athletes. Knowledge of the psychological factors that influence doping susceptibility in young elite athletes remains sparse. Objectives This study investigated the predictive potential of different health-psychological constructs and well-being on doping susceptibility. The main hypotheses to be tested were positive associations of fear of failure, external locus of control, and ego-oriented goal orientation as well as negative associations of confidence of success, task orientation, internal locus of control, and performance motivation with doping susceptibility. Low levels of well-being are furthermore expected to be associated with doping susceptibility. Methods Within this cross-sectional study, 1,265 Austrian junior athletes aged between 14 and 19 years responded to a paper-pencil questionnaire. Results Performance motivation was a negative, while depressive mood, self-esteem, fear of failure and ego-oriented goal orientation were positive predictors of doping susceptibility. In addition, participants who were offered performance enhancing substances in the past were particularly susceptible to doping. Conclusions The study corroborates the predictive value of classical psychological constructs in doping research, initially analyzed in view of adult athletes, also for adolescents’ doping susceptibility. PMID:28144408

3x2 Classroom Goal Structures, Motivational Regulations, Self-Concept, and Affectivity in Secondary School.

PubMed

Méndez-Giménez, Antonio; Cecchini-Estrada, José-Antonio; Fernández-Río, Javier; Prieto Saborit, José Antonio; Méndez-Alonso, David

2017-09-20

The main objective was to analyze relationships and predictive patterns between 3x2 classroom goal structures (CGS), and motivational regulations, dimensions of self-concept, and affectivity in the context of secondary education. A sample of 1,347 secondary school students (56.6% young men, 43.4% young women) from 10 different provinces of Spain agreed to participate (M age = 13.43, SD = 1.05). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated the self-approach CGS was the most adaptive within the spectrum of self-determination, followed by the task-approach CGS. The other-approach CGS had an ambivalent influence on motivation. Task-approach and self-approach CGS predicted academic self-concept (p < .01; p < .001, respectively; R 2 = .134), and both along with other-approach CGS (negatively) predicted family self-concept (p < .05; p < .001; p < .01, respectively; R 2 = .064). Physical self-concept was predicted by the task-approach and other-approach CGS's (p < .05; p < .001, respectively; R 2 = .078). Finally, positive affect was predicted by all three approach-oriented CGS's (p < .001; R 2 = .137), whereas negative affect was predicted by other-approach (positively) and self-approach (negatively) CGS (p < .001; p < .05, respectively; R 2 = .028). These results expand the 3x2 achievement goal framework to include environmental factors, and reiterate that teachers should focus on raising levels of self- and task-based goals for students in their classes.

The globus pallidus pars interna in goal-oriented and routine behaviors: Resolving a long-standing paradox.

PubMed

Piron, Camille; Kase, Daisuke; Topalidou, Meropi; Goillandeau, Michel; Orignac, Hugues; N'Guyen, Tho-Haï; Rougier, Nicolas; Boraud, Thomas

2016-08-01

There is an apparent contradiction between experimental data showing that the basal ganglia are involved in goal-oriented and routine behaviors and clinical observations. Lesion or disruption by deep brain stimulation of the globus pallidus interna has been used for various therapeutic purposes ranging from the improvement of dystonia to the treatment of Tourette's syndrome. None of these approaches has reported any severe impairment in goal-oriented or automatic movement. To solve this conundrum, we trained 2 monkeys to perform a variant of a 2-armed bandit-task (with different reward contingencies). In the latter we alternated blocks of trials with choices between familiar rewarded targets that elicit routine behavior and blocks with novel pairs of targets that require an intentional learning process. Bilateral inactivation of the globus pallidus interna, by injection of muscimol, prevents animals from learning new contingencies while performance remains intact, although slower for the familiar stimuli. We replicate in silico these data by adding lateral competition and Hebbian learning in the cortical layer of the theoretical model of the cortex-basal ganglia loop that provided the framework of our experimental approach. The basal ganglia play a critical role in the deliberative process that underlies learning but are not necessary for the expression of routine movements. Our approach predicts that after pallidotomy or during stimulation, patients should have difficulty with complex decision-making processes or learning new goal-oriented behaviors. © 2016 Movement Disorder Society. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Human centromedian-parafascicular complex signals sensory cues for goal-oriented behavior selection.

PubMed

Schepers, Inga M; Beck, Anne-Kathrin; Bräuer, Susann; Schwabe, Kerstin; Abdallat, Mahmoud; Sandmann, Pascale; Dengler, Reinhard; Rieger, Jochem W; Krauss, Joachim K

2017-05-15

Experimental research has shown that the centromedian-parafascicular complex (CM-Pf) of the intralaminar thalamus is activated in attentional orienting and processing of behaviorally relevant stimuli. These observations resulted in the hypothesis that the CM-Pf plays a pivotal role in goal-oriented behavior selection. We here set out to test this hypothesis with electrophysiological recordings from patients with electrodes implanted in CM-Pf for deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. Six patients participated in (1) an auditory three-class oddball experiment, which required a button press to target tones, but not to standard and deviant tones and in (2) a multi-speaker experiment with a target word that required attention selection and a target image that required response selection. Subjects showed transient neural responses (8-15Hz) to the target tone and the target word. Two subjects additionally showed transient neural responses (15-25Hz) to the target image. All sensory target stimuli were related to an internal goal and required a behavior selection (attention selection, response selection). In group analyses, neural responses were greater to target tones than deviant and standard tones and to target words than other task-relevant words that did not require attention selection. The transient neural responses occurred after the target stimuli but prior to the overt behavioral response. Our results demonstrate that in human subjects the CM-Pf is involved in signaling sensory inputs related to goal-oriented selection of behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stereotypy and Motor Control: Differences in the Postural Stability Dynamics of Persons with Stereotyped and Dyskinetic Movement Disorders.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodfish, James W.; Parker, Dawn E.; Lewis, Mark H.; Sprague, Robert L.; Newell, Karl M.

2001-01-01

This study examined whether dynamic measures of postural stability differentiated stereotyped movement disorder from dyskinetic movement disorder in a severely mentally retarded population. Participants (N=20) with either stereotypy or dyskinesia movement disorders and a control group were given a goal-oriented postural stability task. Both groups…

FAST COGNITIVE AND TASK ORIENTED, ITERATIVE DATA DISPLAY (FACTOID)

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

approaches. As a result, the following assumptions guided our efforts in developing modeling and descriptive metrics for evaluation purposes...Application Evaluation . Our analytic workflow for evaluation is to first provide descriptive statistics about applications across metrics (performance...distributions for evaluation purposes because the goal of evaluation is accurate description , not inference (e.g., prediction). Outliers depicted

Discovery of Action Patterns and User Correlations in Task-Oriented Processes for Goal-Driven Learning Recommendation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Xiaokang; Chen, Jian; Wu, Bo; Jin, Qun

2014-01-01

With the high development of social networks, collaborations in a socialized web-based learning environment has become increasing important, which means people can learn through interactions and collaborations in communities across social networks. In this study, in order to support the enhanced collaborative learning, two important factors, user…

The Attitude of the College Students to Entrepreneurial Skills Development in the Subject E-Commerce

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beránek, Ladislav

2015-01-01

One of the main goals of many educational courses at various colleges, especially those which focus on applied economics and management, is the development of students' entrepreneurship skills. It is usually accomplished through various project-oriented tasks. The development of the students' entrepreneurship skills is also the primary objective…

Value associations of irrelevant stimuli modify rapid visual orienting.

PubMed

Rutherford, Helena J V; O'Brien, Jennifer L; Raymond, Jane E

2010-08-01

In familiar environments, goal-directed visual behavior is often performed in the presence of objects with strong, but task-irrelevant, reward or punishment associations that are acquired through prior, unrelated experience. In a two-phase experiment, we asked whether such stimuli could affect speeded visual orienting in a classic visual orienting paradigm. First, participants learned to associate faces with monetary gains, losses, or no outcomes. These faces then served as brief, peripheral, uninformative cues in an explicitly unrewarded, unpunished, speeded, target localization task. Cues preceded targets by either 100 or 1,500 msec and appeared at either the same or a different location. Regardless of interval, reward-associated cues slowed responding at cued locations, as compared with equally familiar punishment-associated or no-value cues, and had no effect when targets were presented at uncued locations. This localized effect of reward-associated cues is consistent with adaptive models of inhibition of return and suggests rapid, low-level effects of motivation on visual processing.

Task oriented nonlinear control laws for telerobotic assembly operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, R. A.; Ward, L. S.; Elia, C. F.

1987-01-01

The goal of this research is to achieve very intelligent telerobotic controllers which are capable of receiving high-level commands from the human operator and implementing them in an adaptive manner in the object/task/manipulator workspace. Initiatives by the authors at Integrated Systems, Inc. to identify and develop the key technologies necessary to create such a flexible, highly programmable, telerobotic controller are presented. The focus of the discussion is on the modeling of insertion tasks in three dimensions and nonlinear implicit force feedback control laws which incorporate tool/workspace constraints. Preliminary experiments with dual arm beam assembly in 2-D are presented.

[Do mastery goals buffer self-esteem from the threat of failure?].

PubMed

Niiya, Yu; Crocker, Jennifer

2007-12-01

Self-esteem is vulnerable when failure occurs in the domain where people base their self-worth (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001). We tested whether learning orientations can reduce the vulnerability of self-esteem associated with contingent self-worth and encourage persistence following failure. Our past research (Niiya, Crocker, & Bartmess, 2004) indicated that people who base their self-worth on academics maintain their self-esteem following failure when they are primed with an incremental theory of intelligence. Our present study extends these findings by (a) examining whether mastery goals (Elliot & Church, 1997) can also buffer self-esteem from failure, (b) using a different manipulation of success and failure, (c) using a different task, and (d) including a measure of persistence. We found that college students who based their self-esteem on academic competence reported lower self-esteem following failure than following success when they had low mastery goals, but the effect of success and failure was eliminated when students had high mastery goals. Moreover, high mastery students showed greater persistence following failure than low mastery students. The study provided converging evidence that learning orientations buffer self-esteem from failure.

Physically coupling two objects in a bimanual task alters kinematics but not end-state comfort.

PubMed

Hughes, Charmayne M L; Haddad, Jeffrey M; Franz, Elizabeth A; Zelaznik, Howard N; Ryu, Joong Hyun

2011-06-01

People often grasp objects with an awkward grip to ensure a comfortable hand posture at the end of the movement. This end-state comfort effect is a predominant constraint during unimanual movements. However, during bimanual movements the tendency for both hands to satisfy end-state comfort is affected by factors such as end-orientation congruency and task context. Although bimanual end-state comfort has been examined when the hands manipulate two independent objects, no research has examined end-state comfort when the hands are required to manipulate two physically-coupled objects. In the present experiment, kinematics and grasp behavior during a unimanual and bimanual reaching and placing tasks were examined, when the hands manipulate two physically-connected objects. Forty-five participants were assigned to one of three groups; unimanual, bimanual no-spring (the objects were not physically connected), and bimanual spring (the objects were connected by a spring), and instructed to grasp and place objects in various end-orientations, depending on condition. Physically connecting the objects did not affect end-state comfort prevalence. However, it resulted in decreased interlimb coupling. This finding supports the notion of a flexible constraint hierarchy, in which action goals guide the selection of lower level action features (i.e., hand grip used for grasping), and the particular movements used to accomplish that goal (i.e., interlimb coupling) are controlled throughout the movement.

Retrieval orientation and the control of recollection: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Morcom, Alexa M; Rugg, Michael D

2012-12-01

This study used event-related fMRI to examine the impact of the adoption of different retrieval orientations on the neural correlates of recollection. In each of two study-test blocks, participants encoded a mixed list of words and pictures and then performed a recognition memory task with words as the test items. In one block, the requirement was to respond positively to test items corresponding to studied words and to reject both new items and items corresponding to the studied pictures. In the other block, positive responses were made to test items corresponding to pictures, and items corresponding to words were classified along with the new items. On the basis of previous ERP findings, we predicted that in the word task, recollection-related effects would be found for target information only. This prediction was fulfilled. In both tasks, targets elicited the characteristic pattern of recollection-related activity. By contrast, nontargets elicited this pattern in the picture task, but not in the word task. Importantly, the left angular gyrus was among the regions demonstrating this dissociation of nontarget recollection effects according to retrieval orientation. The findings for the angular gyrus parallel prior findings for the "left-parietal" ERP old/new effect and add to the evidence that the effect reflects recollection-related neural activity originating in left ventral parietal cortex. Thus, the results converge with the previous ERP findings to suggest that the processing of retrieval cues can be constrained to prevent the retrieval of goal-irrelevant information.

Overlapping parietal activity in memory and perception: evidence for the attention to memory model.

PubMed

Cabeza, Roberto; Mazuz, Yonatan S; Stokes, Jared; Kragel, James E; Woldorff, Marty G; Ciaramelli, Elisa; Olson, Ingrid R; Moscovitch, Morris

2011-11-01

The specific role of different parietal regions to episodic retrieval is a topic of intense debate. According to the Attention to Memory (AtoM) model, dorsal parietal cortex (DPC) mediates top-down attention processes guided by retrieval goals, whereas ventral parietal cortex (VPC) mediates bottom-up attention processes captured by the retrieval output or the retrieval cue. This model also hypothesizes that the attentional functions of DPC and VPC are similar for memory and perception. To investigate this last hypothesis, we scanned participants with event-related fMRI whereas they performed memory and perception tasks, each comprising an orienting phase (top-down attention) and a detection phase (bottom-up attention). The study yielded two main findings. First, consistent with the AtoM model, orienting-related activity for memory and perception overlapped in DPC, whereas detection-related activity for memory and perception overlapped in VPC. The DPC overlap was greater in the left intraparietal sulcus, and the VPC overlap in the left TPJ. Around overlapping areas, there were differences in the spatial distribution of memory and perception activations, which were consistent with trends reported in the literature. Second, both DPC and VPC showed stronger connectivity with medial-temporal lobe during the memory task and with visual cortex during the perception task. These findings suggest that, during memory tasks, some parietal regions mediate similar attentional control processes to those involved in perception tasks (orienting in DPC vs. detection in VPC), although on different types of information (mnemonic vs. sensory).

Visions and reality: the idea of competence-oriented assessment for German medical students is not yet realised in licensing examinations

PubMed Central

Huber-Lang, Markus; Palmer, Annette; Grab, Claudia; Boeckers, Anja; Boeckers, Tobias Maria; Oechsner, Wolfgang

2017-01-01

Objective: Competence orientation, often based on the CanMEDS model, has become an important goal for modern curricula in medical education. The National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM) has been adopted in Germany. However, it is currently unknown whether the vision of competence orientation has also reached the licensing examination procedures. Methods: Therefore, a prospective, descriptive, single-centre, exemplary study design was applied to evaluate 4051 questions/tasks (from 28 examiners at 7 two-day licensing oral-practical exams) for undergraduate medical students at the University of Ulm. The oral and practical questions/tasks as well as the real bedside assessment were assigned to specific competence roles (NKLM section I), categories (NKLM section II) and taxonomy levels of learning domains. Results: Numerous questions/tasks were set per candidate (day 1/2: 70±24/86±19 questions) in the licensing oral-practical exam. Competence roles beyond the “medical expert” were scarcely considered. Furthermore, practical and communication skills at the bedside were hardly addressed (less than 3/15 min). Strikingly, there was a significant predominance of questions with a low-level taxonomy. Conclusions: The data indicate a misalignment of competence-oriented frameworks and the “real world” licensing practical-oral medical exam, which needs improvement in both evaluation and education processes. PMID:28584873

An embodied biologically constrained model of foraging: from classical and operant conditioning to adaptive real-world behavior in DAC-X.

PubMed

Maffei, Giovanni; Santos-Pata, Diogo; Marcos, Encarni; Sánchez-Fibla, Marti; Verschure, Paul F M J

2015-12-01

Animals successfully forage within new environments by learning, simulating and adapting to their surroundings. The functions behind such goal-oriented behavior can be decomposed into 5 top-level objectives: 'how', 'why', 'what', 'where', 'when' (H4W). The paradigms of classical and operant conditioning describe some of the behavioral aspects found in foraging. However, it remains unclear how the organization of their underlying neural principles account for these complex behaviors. We address this problem from the perspective of the Distributed Adaptive Control theory of mind and brain (DAC) that interprets these two paradigms as expressing properties of core functional subsystems of a layered architecture. In particular, we propose DAC-X, a novel cognitive architecture that unifies the theoretical principles of DAC with biologically constrained computational models of several areas of the mammalian brain. DAC-X supports complex foraging strategies through the progressive acquisition, retention and expression of task-dependent information and associated shaping of action, from exploration to goal-oriented deliberation. We benchmark DAC-X using a robot-based hoarding task including the main perceptual and cognitive aspects of animal foraging. We show that efficient goal-oriented behavior results from the interaction of parallel learning mechanisms accounting for motor adaptation, spatial encoding and decision-making. Together, our results suggest that the H4W problem can be solved by DAC-X building on the insights from the study of classical and operant conditioning. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of the proposed biologically constrained and embodied approach towards the study of cognition and the relation of DAC-X to other cognitive architectures. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial-Orientation Priming Impedes Rather than Facilitates the Spontaneous Control of Hand-Retraction Speeds in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Yanovich, Polina; Isenhower, Robert W.; Sage, Jacob; Torres, Elizabeth B.

2013-01-01

Background Often in Parkinson’s disease (PD) motor-related problems overshadow latent non-motor deficits as it is difficult to dissociate one from the other with commonly used observational inventories. Here we ask if the variability patterns of hand speed and acceleration would be revealing of deficits in spatial-orientation related decisions as patients performed a familiar reach-to-grasp task. To this end we use spatial-orientation priming which normally facilitates motor-program selection and asked whether in PD spatial-orientation priming helps or hinders performance. Methods To dissociate spatial-orientation- and motor-related deficits participants performed two versions of the task. The biomechanical version (DEFAULT) required the same postural- and hand-paths as the orientation-priming version (primed-UP). Any differences in the patients here could not be due to motor issues as the tasks were biomechanically identical. The other priming version (primed-DOWN) however required additional spatial and postural processing. We assessed in all three cases both the forward segment deliberately aimed towards the spatial-target and the retracting segment, spontaneously bringing the hand to rest without an instructed goal. Results and Conclusions We found that forward and retracting segments belonged in two different statistical classes according to the fluctuations of speed and acceleration maxima. Further inspection revealed conservation of the forward (voluntary) control of speed but in PD a discontinuity of this control emerged during the uninstructed retractions which was absent in NC. Two PD groups self-emerged: one group in which priming always affected the retractions and the other in which only the more challenging primed-DOWN condition was affected. These PD-groups self-formed according to the speed variability patterns, which systematically changed along a gradient that depended on the priming, thus dissociating motor from spatial-orientation issues. Priming did not facilitate the motor task in PD but it did reveal a breakdown in the spatial-orientation decision that was independent of the motor-postural path. PMID:23843963

Ego involvement increases doping likelihood.

PubMed

Ring, Christopher; Kavussanu, Maria

2018-08-01

Achievement goal theory provides a framework to help understand how individuals behave in achievement contexts, such as sport. Evidence concerning the role of motivation in the decision to use banned performance enhancing substances (i.e., doping) is equivocal on this issue. The extant literature shows that dispositional goal orientation has been weakly and inconsistently associated with doping intention and use. It is possible that goal involvement, which describes the situational motivational state, is a stronger determinant of doping intention. Accordingly, the current study used an experimental design to examine the effects of goal involvement, manipulated using direct instructions and reflective writing, on doping likelihood in hypothetical situations in college athletes. The ego-involving goal increased doping likelihood compared to no goal and a task-involving goal. The present findings provide the first evidence that ego involvement can sway the decision to use doping to improve athletic performance.

Oculomotor Evidence for Top-Down Control following the Initial Saccade

PubMed Central

Siebold, Alisha; van Zoest, Wieske; Donk, Mieke

2011-01-01

The goal of the current study was to investigate how salience-driven and goal-driven processes unfold during visual search over multiple eye movements. Eye movements were recorded while observers searched for a target, which was located on (Experiment 1) or defined as (Experiment 2) a specific orientation singleton. This singleton could either be the most, medium, or least salient element in the display. Results were analyzed as a function of response time separately for initial and second eye movements. Irrespective of the search task, initial saccades elicited shortly after the onset of the search display were primarily salience-driven whereas initial saccades elicited after approximately 250 ms were completely unaffected by salience. Initial saccades were increasingly guided in line with task requirements with increasing response times. Second saccades were completely unaffected by salience and were consistently goal-driven, irrespective of response time. These results suggest that stimulus-salience affects the visual system only briefly after a visual image enters the brain and has no effect thereafter. PMID:21931603

Task-oriented training with computer gaming in people with rheumatoid arthritisor osteoarthritis of the hand: study protocol of a randomized controlled pilot trial

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Significant restriction in the ability to participate in home, work and community life results from pain, fatigue, joint damage, stiffness and reduced joint range of motion and muscle strength in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. With modest evidence on the therapeutic effectiveness of conventional hand exercises, a task-oriented training program via real life object manipulations has been developed for people with arthritis. An innovative, computer-based gaming platform that allows a broad range of common objects to be seamlessly transformed into therapeutic input devices through instrumentation with a motion-sense mouse has also been designed. Personalized objects are selected to target specific training goals such as graded finger mobility, strength, endurance or fine/gross dexterous functions. The movements and object manipulation tasks that replicate common situations in everyday living will then be used to control and play any computer game, making practice challenging and engaging. Methods/Design The ongoing study is a 6-week, single-center, parallel-group, equally allocated and assessor-blinded pilot randomized controlled trial. Thirty people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis affecting the hand will be randomized to receive either conventional hand exercises or the task-oriented training. The purpose is to determine a preliminary estimation of therapeutic effectiveness and feasibility of the task-oriented training program. Performance based and self-reported hand function, and exercise compliance are the study outcomes. Changes in outcomes (pre to post intervention) within each group will be assessed by paired Student t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test and between groups (control versus experimental) post intervention using unpaired Student t test or Mann–Whitney U test. Discussion The study findings will inform decisions on the feasibility, safety and completion rate and will also provide preliminary data on the treatment effects of the task-oriented training compared with conventional hand exercises in people with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis of the hand. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01635582 PMID:23497529

The Impact of Social Pressure and Monetary Incentive on Cognitive Control.

PubMed

Ličen, Mina; Hartmann, Frank; Repovš, Grega; Slapničar, Sergeja

2016-01-01

We compare the effects of two prominent organizational control mechanisms-social pressure and monetary incentive-on cognitive control. Cognitive control underlies the human ability to regulate thoughts and actions in the pursuit of behavioral goals. Previous studies show that monetary incentives can contribute to goal-oriented behavior by activating proactive control. There is, however, much less evidence of how social pressure affects cognitive control and task performance. In a within-subject experimental design, we tested 47 subjects performing the AX-CPT task to compare the activation of cognitive control modes under social pressure and monetary incentive beyond mere instructions to perform better. Our results indicate that instructing participants to improve their performance on its own leads to a significant shift from a reactive to a proactive control mode and that both social pressure and monetary incentive further enhance performance.

Short-term visual deprivation, tactile acuity, and haptic solid shape discrimination.

PubMed

Crabtree, Charles E; Norman, J Farley

2014-01-01

Previous psychophysical studies have reported conflicting results concerning the effects of short-term visual deprivation upon tactile acuity. Some studies have found that 45 to 90 minutes of total light deprivation produce significant improvements in participants' tactile acuity as measured with a grating orientation discrimination task. In contrast, a single 2011 study found no such improvement while attempting to replicate these earlier findings. A primary goal of the current experiment was to resolve this discrepancy in the literature by evaluating the effects of a 90-minute period of total light deprivation upon tactile grating orientation discrimination. We also evaluated the potential effect of short-term deprivation upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination using a set of naturally-shaped solid objects. According to previous research, short-term deprivation enhances performance in a tactile 2-D shape discrimination task - perhaps a similar improvement also occurs for haptic 3-D shape discrimination. The results of the current investigation demonstrate that not only does short-term visual deprivation not enhance tactile acuity, it additionally has no effect upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination. While visual deprivation had no effect in our study, there was a significant effect of experience and learning for the grating orientation task - the participants' tactile acuity improved over time, independent of whether they had, or had not, experienced visual deprivation.

Pro-Social Goals in Achievement Situations: Amity Goal Orientation Enhances the Positive Effects of Mastery Goal Orientation.

PubMed

Levontin, Liat; Bardi, Anat

2018-04-01

Research has neglected the utility of pro-social goals within achievement situations. In this article, four studies demonstrate that amity goal orientation, promoting mutual success of oneself together with others, enhances the utility of mastery goal orientation. We demonstrate this in longitudinally predicting performance (Studies 1 and 2) and in maintaining motivation after a disappointing performance (Studies 3 and 4). The studies demonstrate the same interaction effect in academic and in work achievement contexts. Specifically, whereas amity goal orientation did not predict achievement on its own, it enhanced the positive effect of mastery goal orientation. Together, these studies establish the importance of amity goal orientation while also advancing our understanding of the effects of other achievement goal orientations. We suggest future directions in examining the utility of amity goals in other contexts.

Influence of Psychosocial Classroom Environment on Students' Motivation and Self-Regulation in Science Learning: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Velayutham, Sunitadevi; Aldridge, Jill M.

2013-01-01

The primary aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to identify salient psychosocial features of the classroom environment that influence students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning; and 2) to examine the effect of the motivational constructs of learning goal orientation, science task value and self-efficacy in science learning on…

Role of hippocampus in polymodal-cue guided tasks in rats.

PubMed

Miniaci, Maria Concetta; Lippiello, Pellegrino; Monda, Marcellino; Scotto, Pietro

2016-09-01

To examine how signals from different sensory modalities are integrated to generate an appropriate goal-oriented behavior, we trained rats in an eight-arm radial maze to visit a cue arm provided with intramaze cues from different sensory modalities, i.e. visual, tactile and auditory, in order to obtain a reward. When the same rats were then examined on test trials in which the cue arm contained one of the stimuli that the animals were trained with (i.e. light, sound or rough sheet), they showed a significant impairment with respect to the performance on the polymodal-cue task. The contribution of the dorsal hippocampus to the acquisition and retention of polymodal-cue guided task was also examined. We found that rats with dorsal hippocampal lesions before training showed a significant deficit in the acquisition of polymodal-cue oriented task that improved with overtraining. The selective lesion of the dorsal hippocampus after training disrupted memory retention, but the animals' performance improved following retraining of the polymodal task. All hippocampal lesioned rats displayed an impaired performance on the unimodal test. These findings suggest that the dorsal hippocampus contributes to the processing of multimodal sensory information for the associative memory formation and consolidation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Retrieval orientation and the control of recollection: an fMRI study

PubMed Central

Morcom, Alexa M.; Rugg, Michael D.

2012-01-01

The present study used event-related fMRI to examine the impact of the adoption of different retrieval orientations on the neural correlates of recollection. In each of two study-test blocks, subjects encoded a mixed list of words and pictures, and then performed a recognition memory task with words as the test items. In one block, the requirement was to respond positively to test items corresponding to studied words, and to reject both new items and items corresponding to the studied pictures. In the other block, positive responses were made to test items corresponding to pictures, and items corresponding to words were classified along with the new items. Based on previous event-related potential (ERP) findings, we predicted that in the word task, recollection-related effects would be found for target information only. This prediction was fulfilled. In both tasks, targets elicited the characteristic pattern of recollection-related activity. By contrast, non-targets elicited this pattern in the picture task, but not in the word task. Importantly, the left angular gyrus was among the regions demonstrating this dissociation of non-target recollection effects according to retrieval orientation. The findings for the angular gyrus parallel prior findings for the `left-parietal' ERP old/new effect, and add to the evidence that the effect reflects recollection-related neural activity originating in left ventral parietal cortex. Thus, the results converge with the previous ERP findings to suggest that the processing of retrieval cues can be constrained to prevent the retrieval of goal-irrelevant information. PMID:23110678

An effective attentional set for a specific colour does not prevent capture by infrequently presented motion distractors.

PubMed

Retell, James D; Becker, Stefanie I; Remington, Roger W

2016-01-01

An organism's survival depends on the ability to rapidly orient attention to unanticipated events in the world. Yet, the conditions needed to elicit such involuntary capture remain in doubt. Especially puzzling are spatial cueing experiments, which have consistently shown that involuntary shifts of attention to highly salient distractors are not determined by stimulus properties, but instead are contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands. Do we always need to be set for an event to be captured by it, or is there a class of events that draw attention involuntarily even when unconnected to task goals? Recent results suggest that a task-irrelevant event will capture attention on first presentation, suggesting that salient stimuli that violate contextual expectations might automatically capture attention. Here, we investigated the role of contextual expectation by examining whether an irrelevant motion cue that was presented only rarely (∼3-6% of trials) would capture attention when observers had an active set for a specific target colour. The motion cue had no effect when presented frequently, but when rare produced a pattern of interference consistent with attentional capture. The critical dependence on the frequency with which the irrelevant motion singleton was presented is consistent with early theories of involuntary orienting to novel stimuli. We suggest that attention will be captured by salient stimuli that violate expectations, whereas top-down goals appear to modulate capture by stimuli that broadly conform to contextual expectations.

Facilitating social support: member-leader communication in a breast cancer support group.

PubMed

Beck, Stephenson J; Keyton, Joann

2014-01-01

Early detection and treatment have resulted in more women surviving breast cancer; increased survivorship has also increased the need for breast cancer support groups (BCSG). The ostensible goal of such groups is to provide support for the physical and emotional stressors that cancer survivors face, as well as provide information on coping and treatment options. Although scholars have examined the effects of support groups on their group members, the examination of group facilitator messages has been largely neglected. The goal of this study was to extend theory on group leader behavior, specifically investigating how member-leader messages create social support in support groups. The transcribed conversations of weekly meetings of a BCSG were examined using Interaction Process Analysis to discover how the member-leader facilitated the group's enactment and management of social support. Across the meetings, task talk dominated (primarily statements of orientation or information). Furthermore, analysis of interaction sequences between the support group facilitator and other members revealed 2 broad categories of task-oriented facilitation techniques (changing the focus, clarification) and 1 category of socioemotional facilitation techniques (showing support). Support group facilitators need the ability to facilitate both task and relational aspects of social support. Facilitator behaviors were highlighted as being instrumental to the creation of social support. The results from this study indicate that the ability to change the focus of interaction, to provide and require clarification on complex issues, and to show support through relational messages is needed in facilitator training.

Development of Academic Goal Orientation Inventory for Senior Secondary School Students of Kerala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gafoor, K. Abdul; Abidha, Kurukkan

2015-01-01

Research interest in achievement motivation and its correlates has grown in recent years. Though there are thousands of studies on goal orientation, the number of instruments to identify goal orientation based on four-fold model viz., performance approach goal orientation (PAP), performance avoidance goal orientation (PAV), mastery approach goal…

The Impact of Social Pressure and Monetary Incentive on Cognitive Control

PubMed Central

Ličen, Mina; Hartmann, Frank; Repovš, Grega; Slapničar, Sergeja

2016-01-01

We compare the effects of two prominent organizational control mechanisms—social pressure and monetary incentive—on cognitive control. Cognitive control underlies the human ability to regulate thoughts and actions in the pursuit of behavioral goals. Previous studies show that monetary incentives can contribute to goal-oriented behavior by activating proactive control. There is, however, much less evidence of how social pressure affects cognitive control and task performance. In a within-subject experimental design, we tested 47 subjects performing the AX-CPT task to compare the activation of cognitive control modes under social pressure and monetary incentive beyond mere instructions to perform better. Our results indicate that instructing participants to improve their performance on its own leads to a significant shift from a reactive to a proactive control mode and that both social pressure and monetary incentive further enhance performance. PMID:26903901

The perceptual control of goal-directed locomotion: a common control architecture for interception and navigation?

PubMed

Chardenon, A; Montagne, G; Laurent, M; Bootsma, R J

2004-09-01

Intercepting a moving object while locomoting is a highly complex and demanding ability. Notwithstanding the identification of several informational candidates, the role of perceptual variables in the control process underlying such skills remains an open question. In this study we used a virtual reality set-up for studying locomotor interception of a moving ball. The subject had to walk along a straight path and could freely modify forward velocity, if necessary, in order to intercept-with the head-a ball moving along a straight path that led it to cross the agent's displacement axis. In a series of experiments we manipulated a local (ball size) and a global (focus of expansion) component of the visual flow but also the egocentric orientation of the ball. The experimental observations are well captured by a dynamic model linking the locomotor acceleration to properties of both global flow and egocentric direction. More precisely the changes in locomotor velocity depend on a linear combination of the change in bearing angle and the change in egocentric orientation, allowing the emergence of adaptive behavior under a variety of circumstances. We conclude that the mechanisms underlying the control of different goal-directed locomotion tasks (i.e. steering and interceptive tasks) could share a common architecture.

Creating an interactive environment for pediatric assessment.

PubMed

de Armas Weber, D; Easley-Rosenberg, A

2001-01-01

An interactive assessment room (IAR) was conceived to explore the effect of a dynamic environment on the pediatric assessment process and subsequent individualized goal development. Selection of a central theme, creation of a multipurpose space, provision of multisensory experiences, maximization of environmental affordances, provision of effective motivators and opportunities for goal attainment, and facilitation of a transdisciplinary assessment were identified as integral to designing the IAR. A central farm theme was selected to create five task-oriented activity stations. The IAR offered a creative assessment environment for transdisciplinary, practice-based application of current motor development and behavioral models. In addition, the IAR facilitated exploratory play essential to promoting the client's optimal performance to arrive at the development of appropriate treatment goals.

How Power Affects People: Activating, Wanting, and Goal Seeking.

PubMed

Guinote, Ana

2017-01-03

Sociocognitive research has demonstrated that power affects how people feel, think, and act. In this article, I review literature from social psychology, neuroscience, management, and animal research and propose an integrated framework of power as an intensifier of goal-related approach motivation. A growing literature shows that power energizes thought, speech, and action and orients individuals toward salient goals linked to power roles, predispositions, tasks, and opportunities. Power magnifies self-expression linked to active parts of the self (the active self), enhancing confidence, self-regulation, and prioritization of efforts toward advancing focal goals. The effects of power on cognitive processes, goal preferences, performance, and corruption are discussed, and its potentially detrimental effects on social attention, perspective taking, and objectification of subordinates are examined. Several inconsistencies in the literature are explained by viewing power holders as more flexible and dynamic than is usually assumed.

The Role of Goals and Alcohol Behavior during the Transition out of College

PubMed Central

Radomski, Sharon A.; Read, Jennifer P.; Bowker, Julie C.

2015-01-01

Personal goals are desired outcomes that guide behavior (Palfai et al., 2011), and are typically oriented around age-appropriate developmental tasks (e.g., college graduation, employment). Goals and their pursuit take on much salience during senior year of college as individuals prepare for the transition into adult roles. This also is a time during which naturalistic changes in alcohol consumption are occurring. These changes may impact the relationship between age-related goals and their attainment, thus compromising the likelihood of a successful transition out of college. The present study examined whether and how changes in drinking over senior year moderate the association between achievement goals and related developmental task attainment as students move toward transitioning out of college. Alcohol-involved college seniors (N=437; 62.5% female) were assessed via web survey in September of their senior year and again one year later (T4). Results of multinomial logistic regression revealed that greater Achievement Goals were predictive of college graduation (versus remaining a continuing undergraduate), but only for those whose drinking decreased during senior year. Among those graduated by T4 (n=307), Achievement Goals predicted pursuing graduate education (versus being unemployed), but only for students whose drinking increased during senior year. Thus, Achievement Goals are important predictors of goal attainment as students prepare to transition out of college, and these goals can interact with drinking in complex ways during this time. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at bolstering personal goals and reducing drinking during senior year may increase the likelihood of successful transitions out of the college environment. PMID:25642583

Better understanding work unit goal orientation: Its emergence and impact under different types of work unit structure.

PubMed

Dragoni, Lisa; Kuenzi, Maribeth

2012-09-01

With a multisource sample comprising 1,150 employees and 230 supervisors, we investigate the effect of leader goal orientation on leader's perceptions of unit performance. We propose that a leader's goal orientation indirectly impacts performance perceptions via the shared achievement goal adopted within the unit (i.e., unit goal orientation). Further, we hypothesize that the presence and impact of unit goal orientation depend on the work unit structure. We find general support for this moderated mediation model, with the strongest evidence being associated with the learning and prove dimensions of goal orientation.

Visuo-spatial orienting during active exploratory behavior: Processing of task-related and stimulus-related signals.

PubMed

Macaluso, Emiliano; Ogawa, Akitoshi

2018-05-01

Functional imaging studies have associated dorsal and ventral fronto-parietal regions with the control of visuo-spatial attention. Previous studies demonstrated that the activity of both the dorsal and the ventral attention systems can be modulated by many different factors, related both to the stimuli and the task. However, the vast majority of this work utilized stereotyped paradigms with simple and repeated stimuli. This is at odd with any real life situation that instead involve complex combinations of different types of co-occurring signals, thus raising the question of the ecological significance of the previous findings. Here we investigated how the brain responds to task-related and stimulus-related signals using an innovative approach that involved active exploration of a virtual environment. This enabled us to study visuo-spatial orienting in conditions entailing a dynamic and coherent flow of visual signals, to some extent analogous to real life situations. The environment comprised colored/textured spheres and cubes, which allowed us to implement a standard feature-conjunction search task (task-related signals), and included one physically salient object that served to track the processing of stimulus-related signals. The imaging analyses showed that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) activated when the participants' gaze was directed towards the salient-objects. By contrast, the right inferior partial cortex was associated with the processing of the target-objects and of distractors that shared the target-color and shape, consistent with goal-directed template-matching operations. The study highlights the possibility of combining measures of gaze orienting and functional imaging to investigate the processing of different types of signals during active behavior in complex environments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Short-Term Visual Deprivation, Tactile Acuity, and Haptic Solid Shape Discrimination

PubMed Central

Crabtree, Charles E.; Norman, J. Farley

2014-01-01

Previous psychophysical studies have reported conflicting results concerning the effects of short-term visual deprivation upon tactile acuity. Some studies have found that 45 to 90 minutes of total light deprivation produce significant improvements in participants' tactile acuity as measured with a grating orientation discrimination task. In contrast, a single 2011 study found no such improvement while attempting to replicate these earlier findings. A primary goal of the current experiment was to resolve this discrepancy in the literature by evaluating the effects of a 90-minute period of total light deprivation upon tactile grating orientation discrimination. We also evaluated the potential effect of short-term deprivation upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination using a set of naturally-shaped solid objects. According to previous research, short-term deprivation enhances performance in a tactile 2-D shape discrimination task – perhaps a similar improvement also occurs for haptic 3-D shape discrimination. The results of the current investigation demonstrate that not only does short-term visual deprivation not enhance tactile acuity, it additionally has no effect upon haptic 3-D shape discrimination. While visual deprivation had no effect in our study, there was a significant effect of experience and learning for the grating orientation task – the participants' tactile acuity improved over time, independent of whether they had, or had not, experienced visual deprivation. PMID:25397327

Retreat from Alma Ata? The WHO's report on Task Shifting to community health workers for AIDS care in poor countries.

PubMed

Campbell, C; Scott, K

2011-01-01

This paper examines the potential of community health worker (CHW) programmes, as proposed by the 2008 World Health Organisation (WHO) document Task Shifting to tackle health worker shortages, to contribute to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and various Millennium Development Goals in low-income countries. It examines the WHO proposal through a literature review of factors that have facilitated the success of previous CHW experiences. The WHO has taken account of five key lessons learnt from past CHW programmes (the need for strong management, appropriate selection, suitable training, adequate retention structures and good relationships with other healthcare workers). It has, however, neglected to emphasise the importance of a sixth lesson, the 'community embeddedness' of CHWs, found to be of critical importance to the success of past CHW programmes. We have no doubt that the WHO plans will increase the number of workers able to perform medically oriented tasks. However, we argue that without community embeddedness, CHWs will be unable to successfully perform the socially oriented tasks assigned to them by the WHO, such as health education and counselling. We locate the WHO's neglect of community embeddedness within the context of a broader global public health trend away from community-focused primary healthcare towards biomedically focused selective healthcare.

Engineering Design Activity: Understanding How Different Design Activities Influence Students' Motivation in Grades 9-12. Final Report. A Seed Grant Research Project. Research in Engineering and Technology Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawanto, Oenardi; Stewardson, Gary

2009-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate grade 9-12 students' motivation while engaged in two different engineering design projects: marble-sorter and bridge designs. The motivation components measured in this study were focused on students' intrinsic (IGO) and extrinsic (EGO) goal orientations, task value (TV), self-efficacy for learning and…

The Human-Robot Interaction Operating System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fong, Terrence; Kunz, Clayton; Hiatt, Laura M.; Bugajska, Magda

2006-01-01

In order for humans and robots to work effectively together, they need to be able to converse about abilities, goals and achievements. Thus, we are developing an interaction infrastructure called the "Human-Robot Interaction Operating System" (HRI/OS). The HRI/OS provides a structured software framework for building human-robot teams, supports a variety of user interfaces, enables humans and robots to engage in task-oriented dialogue, and facilitates integration of robots through an extensible API.

Orienting movements in area 9 identified by long-train ICMS.

PubMed

Lanzilotto, M; Perciavalle, V; Lucchetti, C

2015-03-01

The effect of intracortical microstimulation has been studied in several cortical areas from motor to sensory areas. The frontal pole has received particular attention, and several microstimulation studies have been conducted in the frontal eye field, supplementary eye field, and the premotor ear-eye field, but no microstimulation studies concerning area 9 are currently available in the literature. In the present study, to fill up this gap, electrical microstimulation was applied to area 9 in two macaque monkeys using long-train pulses of 500-700-800 and 1,000 ms, during two different experimental conditions: a spontaneous condition, while the animals were not actively fixating on a visual target, and during a visual fixation task. In these experiments, we identified backward ear movements, goal-directed eye movements, and the development of head forces. Kinematic parameters for ear and eye movements overlapped in the spontaneous condition, but they were different during the visual fixation task. In this condition, ear and eye kinematics have an opposite behavior: movement amplitude, duration, and maximal and mean velocities increase during a visual fixation task for the ear, while they decrease for the eye. Therefore, a top-down visual attention engagement could modify the kinematic parameters for these two effectors. Stimulation with the longest train durations, i.e., 800/1,000 ms, evokes not only the highest eye amplitude, but also a significant development of head forces. In this research article, we propose a new vision of the frontal oculomotor fields, speculating a role for area 9 in the control of goal-directed orienting behaviors and gaze shift control.

Orienting Task Effects on Text Recall in Adulthood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simon, Elliott W.; And Others

1982-01-01

Examined the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on text recall of younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Younger adults recalled more when recall was intentional or when preceded by a deep-orienting task. Middle-aged and older adults recalled more when recall was intentional regardless of depth of orienting task. (Author)

[Perceptions of classroom goal structures, personal achievement goal orientations, and learning strategies].

PubMed

Miki, Kaori; Yamauchi, Hirotsugu

2005-08-01

We examined the relations among students' perceptions of classroom goal structures (mastery and performance goal structures), students' achievement goal orientations (mastery, performance, and work-avoidance goals), and learning strategies (deep processing, surface processing and self-handicapping strategies). Participants were 323 5th and 6th grade students in elementary schools. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that perceptions of classroom mastery goal structures were associated with students' mastery goal orientations, which were in turn related positively to the deep processing strategies and academic achievement. Perceptions of classroom performance goal stractures proved associated with work avoidance-goal orientations, which were positively related to the surface processing and self-handicapping strategies. Two types of goal structures had a positive relation with students' performance goal orientations, which had significant positive effects on academic achievement. The results of this study suggest that elementary school students' perceptions of mastery goal structures are related to adaptive patterns of learning more than perceptions of performance goal structures are. The role of perceptions of classroom goal structure in promoting students' goal orientations and learning strategies is discussed.

Orienting task effects on text recall in adulthood.

PubMed

Simon, E W; Dixon, R A; Nowak, C A; Hultsch, D F

1982-09-01

This investigation examined the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on the text recall of younger (18 to 32 years), middle-aged (39 to 51 years), and older (59 to 76 years) adults. The participants were presented with a 500-word narrative text. Three groups performed orienting tasks (syntactic, stylistic, advice) within an incidental memory paradigm. A fourth group was asked for intentional recall. Analysis indicated a significant age by orienting task interaction. Younger adults recalled more propositions when recall was intentional or when it was preceded by a deep-orienting task than when it was preceded by a shallow-orienting task. Middle-aged and older adults recalled more propositions when recall was intentional than when it was incidental, regardless of the depth of the orienting task. There were no significant differences in intentional recall. In addition, a significant age x orienting task x propositional level interaction indicated that younger adults recalled more of the main ideas of the text following deep processing, whereas the middle-aged and older adults recalled more of these ideas following intentional processing.

Didactic satellite based on Android platform for space operation demonstration and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ben Bahri, Omar; Besbes, Kamel

2018-03-01

Space technology plays a pivotal role in society development. It offers new methods for telemetry, monitoring and control. However, this sector requires training, research and skills development but the lack of instruments, materials and budgets affects the ambiguity to understand satellite technology. The objective of this paper is to describe a demonstration prototype of a smart phone device for space operations study. Therefore, the first task was carried out to give a demonstration for spatial imagery and attitude determination missions through a wireless communication. The smart phone's Bluetooth was used to achieve this goal inclusive of a new method to enable real time transmission. In addition, an algorithm around a quaternion based Kalman filter was included in order to detect the reliability of the prototype's orientation. The second task was carried out to provide a demonstration for the attitude control mission using the smart phone's orientation sensor, including a new method for an autonomous guided mode. As a result, the acquisition platform showed real time measurement with good accuracy for orientation detection and image transmission. In addition, the prototype kept the balance during the demonstration based on the attitude control method.

Association of goal orientation with work engagement and burnout in emergency nurses.

PubMed

Adriaenssens, Jef; De Gucht, Veronique; Maes, Stan

2015-01-01

Goal orientation is a mindset towards the achievement of work-related goals, and it has been found to be related to occupational well-being. This study explored to what extent the 4-dimensional model of goal orientation adds additional variance to the explanation of burnout and work engagement in emergency nurses, after controlling for demographics, job characteristics and organizational variables. Self-report questionnaires including the Leiden Quality of Work Questionnaire for Nurses, Goal Orientation Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were completed by 170 out of 274 emergency nurses from 13 secondary Belgian hospitals (response rate 62%). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. Goal orientation explained 14 and 13% of the variance in burnout and work engagement respectively. Job control was predictive of both outcomes. Job demands was a predictor of burnout, and social support predicted work engagement. Reward was related to work engagement. The mastery-approach goal orientation was strongly related to an increase in work engagement and to a decrease in burnout. The performance-avoidance goal orientation was strongly related to a decrease in work engagement and to an increase in burnout. The performance-approach and mastery-avoidance goal orientations were not predictive for the two outcome variables. Goal orientation explains additional variance in burnout and work engagement over and above work characteristics and organizational variables. A mastery-approach goal orientation appears to be beneficial while a performance-avoidance goal orientation is not. Hospital management should therefore invest in personal involvement and growth of ER-nurses and in a rewarding organizational culture.

Differences in perceptual learning transfer as a function of training task.

PubMed

Green, C Shawn; Kattner, Florian; Siegel, Max H; Kersten, Daniel; Schrater, Paul R

2015-01-01

A growing body of research--including results from behavioral psychology, human structural and functional imaging, single-cell recordings in nonhuman primates, and computational modeling--suggests that perceptual learning effects are best understood as a change in the ability of higher-level integration or association areas to read out sensory information in the service of particular decisions. Work in this vein has argued that, depending on the training experience, the "rules" for this read-out can either be applicable to new contexts (thus engendering learning generalization) or can apply only to the exact training context (thus resulting in learning specificity). Here we contrast learning tasks designed to promote either stimulus-specific or stimulus-general rules. Specifically, we compare learning transfer across visual orientation following training on three different tasks: an orientation categorization task (which permits an orientation-specific learning solution), an orientation estimation task (which requires an orientation-general learning solution), and an orientation categorization task in which the relevant category boundary shifts on every trial (which lies somewhere between the two tasks above). While the simple orientation-categorization training task resulted in orientation-specific learning, the estimation and moving categorization tasks resulted in significant orientation learning generalization. The general framework tested here--that task specificity or generality can be predicted via an examination of the optimal learning solution--may be useful in building future training paradigms with certain desired outcomes.

Hong Kong Teacher Education Students' Goal Orientations and Their Relationship to Perceived Parenting Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Kwok-Wai; Chan, Siu-Mui

2007-01-01

The study examined goal orientations, perceived parenting styles, and their relationships in a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students. It was found that students adopted both learning and performance goals but tended to be more performance goal-oriented. Females were more performance goal-oriented than males. As well, students perceived…

Achievement Goal Orientations and Adolescents’ Subjective Well-Being in School: The Mediating Roles of Academic Social Comparison Directions

PubMed Central

Tian, Lili; Yu, Tingting; Huebner, E. Scott

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the multiple mediational roles of academic social comparison directions (upward academic social comparison and downward academic social comparison) on the relationships between achievement goal orientations (i.e., mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals) and subjective well-being (SWB) in school (school satisfaction, school affect) in adolescent students in China. A total of 883 Chinese adolescent students (430 males; Mean age = 12.99) completed a multi-measure questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses. Results indicated that (1) mastery goal orientations and performance-approach goal orientations both showed a statistically significant, positive correlation with SWB in school whereas performance-avoidance goal orientations showed a statistically significant, negative correlation with SWB in school among adolescents; (2) upward academic social comparisons mediated the relation between the three types of achievement goal orientations (i.e., mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals) and SWB in school; (3) downward academic social comparisons mediated the relation between mastery goal orientations and SWB in school as well as the relation between performance-avoidance goal orientations and SWB in school. The findings suggest possible important cultural differences in the antecedents of SWB in school in adolescent students in China compared to adolescent students in Western nations. PMID:28197109

Relations between Classroom Goal Structures and Students' Goal Orientations in Mathematics Classes: When Is a Mastery Goal Structure Adaptive?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skaalvik, Einar M.; Federici, Roger A.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test possible interactions between mastery and performance goal structures in mathematics classrooms when predicting students' goal orientations. More specifically, we tested if the degree of performance goal structure moderated the associations between mastery goal structure and students' goal orientations.…

Promotion of Students' Mastery Goal Orientations: Does TARGET Work?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lüftenegger, Marko; van de Schoot, Rens; Schober, Barbara; Finsterwald, Monika; Spiel, Christiane

2014-01-01

Achievement goal orientations are important for students' ongoing motivation. Students with a mastery goal orientation show the most advantageous achievement and motivational patterns. Much research has been conducted to identify classroom structures which promote students' mastery goal orientation. The TARGET framework is one example of these…

Attention modulates maintenance of representations in visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Kuo, Bo-Cheng; Stokes, Mark G; Nobre, Anna Christina

2012-01-01

Recent studies have shown that selective attention is of considerable importance for encoding task-relevant items into visual short-term memory (VSTM) according to our behavioral goals. However, it is not known whether top-down attentional biases can continue to operate during the maintenance period of VSTM. We used ERPs to investigate this question across two experiments. Specifically, we tested whether orienting attention to a given spatial location within a VSTM representation resulted in modulation of the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a lateralized ERP marker of VSTM maintenance generated when participants selectively encode memory items from one hemifield. In both experiments, retrospective cues during the maintenance period could predict a specific item (spatial retrocue) or multiple items (neutral retrocue) that would be probed at the end of the memory delay. Our results revealed that VSTM performance is significantly improved by orienting attention to the location of a task-relevant item. The behavioral benefit was accompanied by modulation of neural activity involved in VSTM maintenance. Spatial retrocues reduced the magnitude of the CDA, consistent with a reduction in memory load. Our results provide direct evidence that top-down control modulates neural activity associated with maintenance in VSTM, biasing competition in favor of the task-relevant information.

Correlation between academic achievement goal orientation and the performance of Malaysian students in an Indian medical school.

PubMed

Barkur, Rajashekar Rao; Govindan, Sreejith; Kamath, Asha

2013-01-01

According to goal orientation theory, achievement goals are defined as the terminal point towards which one's efforts are directed. The four academic achievement goal orientations commonly recognised are mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance and work avoidance. The objective of this study was to understand the goal orientation of second year undergraduate medical students and how this correlates with their academic performance. The study population consisted of 244 second year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students of Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal campus, Manipal University, India. Students were categorised as high performers and low performers based on their first year university examination marks. Their goal orientations were assessed through a validated questionnaire developed by Was et al. These components were analysed by independent sample t-test and correlated to their first year university examination marks. Confirmatory component factor analysis extracted four factors, which accounted for 40.8% of the total variance in goal orientation. The performance approach goal orientation alone explained 16.7% of the variance followed by mastery (10.8%), performance avoidance (7.7%) and work avoidance (5.7%). The Cronbach's alpha for 19 items, which contributed to internal consistency of the tool, was observed to be 0.635. A strong positive correlation was shown between performance approach, performance avoidance and work avoidance orientations. Of the four goal orientations, only the mean scores in work avoidance orientation differed for low performers and high performers (5.0 vs. 4.3; P = 0.0003). Work avoidance type of goal orientation among the low performer group may account for their lower performance compared with high performer group. This indicates that academic achievement goal orientation may play a role in the performance of undergraduate medical students.

Self-regulation: from goal orientation to job performance.

PubMed

Porath, Christine L; Bateman, Thomas S

2006-01-01

The authors investigated the effects on job performance of 3 forms of goal orientation and 4 self-regulation (SR) tactics. In a longitudinal field study with salespeople, learning and performance-prove goal orientation predicted subsequent sales performance, whereas performance-avoid goal orientation negatively predicted sales performance. The SR tactics functioned as mediating variables between learning and performance-prove goal orientations and performance. Social competence and proactive behavior directly and positively predicted sales performance, and emotional control negatively predicted performance. (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

The analysis of probability task completion; Taxonomy of probabilistic thinking-based across gender in elementary school students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sari, Dwi Ivayana; Budayasa, I. Ketut; Juniati, Dwi

2017-08-01

Formulation of mathematical learning goals now is not only oriented on cognitive product, but also leads to cognitive process, which is probabilistic thinking. Probabilistic thinking is needed by students to make a decision. Elementary school students are required to develop probabilistic thinking as foundation to learn probability at higher level. A framework of probabilistic thinking of students had been developed by using SOLO taxonomy, which consists of prestructural probabilistic thinking, unistructural probabilistic thinking, multistructural probabilistic thinking and relational probabilistic thinking. This study aimed to analyze of probability task completion based on taxonomy of probabilistic thinking. The subjects were two students of fifth grade; boy and girl. Subjects were selected by giving test of mathematical ability and then based on high math ability. Subjects were given probability tasks consisting of sample space, probability of an event and probability comparison. The data analysis consisted of categorization, reduction, interpretation and conclusion. Credibility of data used time triangulation. The results was level of boy's probabilistic thinking in completing probability tasks indicated multistructural probabilistic thinking, while level of girl's probabilistic thinking in completing probability tasks indicated unistructural probabilistic thinking. The results indicated that level of boy's probabilistic thinking was higher than level of girl's probabilistic thinking. The results could contribute to curriculum developer in developing probability learning goals for elementary school students. Indeed, teachers could teach probability with regarding gender difference.

Preference bias of head orientation in choosing between two non-durables.

PubMed

Funaya, Hiroyuki; Shibata, Tomohiro

2015-01-01

The goal of this study is to investigate how customers' gaze, head and body orientations reflect their choices. Although the relationship between human choice and gaze behavior has been well-studied, other behaviors such as head and body are unknown. We conducted a two-alternatives-forced-choice task to examine (1) whether preference bias, i.e., a positional bias in gaze, head and body toward the item that was later chosen, exists in choice, (2) when preference bias is observed and when prediction of the resulting choice becomes possible (3) whether human choice is affected when the body orientations are manipulated. We used real non-durable products (cheap snacks and clothing) on a shopping shelf. The results showed that there was a significant preference bias in head orientation at the beginning 1 s when the subjects stood straight toward the shelf, and that the head orientation was more biased toward the selected item than the gaze and the center of pressure at the ending 1 s. Manipulating body orientation did not affect the result of choice. The preference bias detected by observing the head orientation would be useful in marketing science for predicting customers' choice.

The Relationship between Student Teachers' Perception of Intelligence and Their Goal Orientation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beyaztas, Dilek Ilhan; Kapti, Suzan Beyza; Hymer, Barry

2017-01-01

This study examines the views of student teachers in a Turkish university about intelligence (entity theory vs incremental theory) and goal orientation (performance goal orientation vs learning goal orientation) and the relationship between the two. Specifically, it seeks to understand whether there are any differences in participants' perceptions…

Test anxiety, perfectionism, goal orientation, and academic performance.

PubMed

Eum, KoUn; Rice, Kenneth G

2011-03-01

Dimensions of perfectionism and goal orientation have been reported to have differential relationships with test anxiety. However, the degree of inter-relationship between different dimensions of perfectionism, the 2 × 2 model of goal orientations proposed by Elliot and McGregor, cognitive test anxiety, and academic performance indicators is not known. Based on data from 134 university students, we conducted correlation and regression analyses to test associations between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, four types of goal orientations, cognitive test anxiety, and two indicators of academic performance: proximal cognitive performance on a word list recall test and distal academic performance in terms of grade point average. Cognitive test anxiety was inversely associated with both performance indicators, and positively associated with maladaptive perfectionism and avoidance goal orientations. Adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism accounted for significant variance in cognitive test anxiety after controlling for approach and avoidance goal orientations. Overall, nearly 50% of the variance in cognitive test anxiety could be attributed to gender, goal orientations, and perfectionism. Results suggested that students who are highly test anxious are likely to be women who endorse avoidance goal orientations and are maladaptively perfectionistic.

Mental-orientation: A new approach to assessing patients across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum.

PubMed

Peters-Founshtein, Gregory; Peer, Michael; Rein, Yanai; Kahana Merhavi, Shlomzion; Meiner, Zeev; Arzy, Shahar

2018-05-21

This study aims to assess the role of mental-orientation in the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using a novel task. A behavioral study (Experiment 1) compared the mental-orientation task to standard neuropsychological tests in patients across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. A functional MRI study (Experiment 2) in young adults compared activations evoked by the mental-orientation and standard-orientation tasks as well as their overlap with brain regions susceptible to Alzheimer's disease pathology. The mental-orientation task differentiated mild cognitively impaired and healthy controls at 95% accuracy, while the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination, Mini-Mental State Examination and standard-orientation achieved 74%, 70% and 50% accuracy, respectively. Functional MRI revealed the mental-orientation task to preferentially recruit brain regions exhibiting early Alzheimer's-related atrophy, unlike the standard-orientation test. Mental-orientation is suggested to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease, and consequently in early detection and follow-up of patients along the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Design of an intelligent information system for in-flight emergency assistance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feyock, Stefan; Karamouzis, Stamos

1991-01-01

The present research has as its goal the development of AI tools to help flight crews cope with in-flight malfunctions. The relevant tasks in such situations include diagnosis, prognosis, and recovery plan generation. Investigation of the information requirements of these tasks has shown that the determination of paths figures largely: what components or systems are connected to what others, how are they connected, whether connections satisfying certain criteria exist, and a number of related queries. The formulation of such queries frequently requires capabilities of the second-order predicate calculus. An information system is described that features second-order logic capabilities, and is oriented toward efficient formulation and execution of such queries.

The Impact of Agentic and Communal Exercise Messages on Individuals' Exercise Class Attitudes, Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Intention to Attend.

PubMed

Howle, Timothy C; Dimmock, James A; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Chatzisarantis, Nikos L D; Sparks, Cassandra; Jackson, Ben

2017-12-01

We tested the effects of advertisements about a fictitious exercise class-derived using the theoretical constructs of agency and communion-on recipients' perceptions about, and interest in, the class. The final sample consisted of 150 adults (M age  = 44.69, SD = 15.83). Results revealed that participants who received a communal-oriented message reported significantly greater exercise task self-efficacy and more positive affective attitudes relative to those who received an agentic-oriented message. Communal (relative to agentic) messages were also indirectly responsible for greater intentions to attend the class, via more positive self-efficacy beliefs and affective attitudes. These findings were obtained despite the use of another manipulation to orient participants to either agency or communion goals. The results indicate that the primacy of communion over agency for message recipients may extend to exercise settings and may occur irrespective of whether participants are situationally oriented toward agency or communion.

Scaffolding Interaction in Parent-Child Dyads: Multimodal Analysis of Parental Scaffolding with Task and Non-Task Oriented Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salonen, Pekka; Lepola, Janne; Vauras, Marja

2007-01-01

In this exploratory study we conceptualized and explored socio-cognitive, emotional and motivational regulatory processes displayed in scaffolding interaction between parents and their non-task and task-oriented children. Based on the dynamic systems view and findings from developmental research, we assumed that parents with non-task oriented and…

Spatial problem-solving in a wheel-shaped maze: quantitative and qualitative analyses of the behavioural changes following damage to the hippocampus in the rat.

PubMed

Buhot, M C; Chapuis, N; Scardigli, P; Herrmann, T

1991-07-01

The behaviour of sham-operated rats and rats with damage to the dorsal hippocampus was compared in a complex spatial problem-solving task using a 'hub-spoke-rim' wheel type maze. Compared to the classical Olton 8-arm radial maze and Morris water maze, this apparatus presents the animal with a series of possible alternative routes both direct and indirect to the goal (food). The task included 3 main stages: exploration, feeding and testing, as do the classic problem-solving tasks. During exploration, hippocampal rats were found to be more active than sham rats. Nevertheless, they displayed habituation and a relatively efficient circumnavigation, though, in both cases, different from those of sham rats. During test trials, hippocampal rats were characterized as being less accurate, making more errors than sham rats. Nevertheless, both groups increased their accuracy of first choices over trials. The qualitative analyses of test trial performance indicated that hippocampal rats were less accurate in terms of the initial error's deviation from the goal, and less efficient in terms of corrective behaviour than sham rats which used either the periphery or the spokes to attain economically the goal. Surprisingly, hippocampal rats were not limited to a taxon type orientation but learned to use the periphery, a tendency which developed over time. Seemingly, for sham rats, the problem-solving process took the form of updating information during transit. For hippocampal rats, the use of periphery reflected both an ability to discriminate its usefulness in reaching the goal via a taxis type behaviour, and some sparing of ability to generalize the closeness and the location of the goal. These results, especially the strategic correction patterns, are discussed in the light of Sutherland and Rudy's 'configurational association theory'.

Adult Students' Achievement Goal Orientations and Evaluations of the Learning Environment: A Person-Centred Longitudinal Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pulkka, Antti-Tuomas; Niemivirta, Markku

2013-01-01

This study focused on the stability and change in students' achievement goal orientations and whether the students' perceptions of the learning environment vary as a function of their achievement goal orientations. Participants were 169 students of the Finnish National Defense University. The students' goal orientations and their evaluations of…

Members Matter in Team Training: Multilevel and Longitudinal Relationships between Goal Orientation, Self-Regulation, and Team Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dierdorff, Erich C.; Ellington, J. Kemp

2012-01-01

Longitudinal data from 338 individuals across 64 teams in a simulation-based team-training context were used to examine the effects of dispositional goal orientation on self-regulated learning (self-efficacy and metacognition). Team goal orientation compositions, as reflected by average goal orientations of team members, were examined for…

Hippocampus and medial striatum dissociation during goal navigation by geometry or features in the domestic chick: An immediate early gene study.

PubMed

Mayer, Uwe; Pecchia, Tommaso; Bingman, Verner Peter; Flore, Michele; Vallortigara, Giorgio

2016-01-01

We employed a standard reference memory task to study the involvement of the hippocampal formation (HF) of domestic chicks that used the boundary geometry of a test environment to orient to and locate a reward. Using the immediate early gene product c-Fos as a neuronal activity marker, we found enhanced HF activation in chicks that learned to locate rewarded corners using the shape of a rectangular arena compared to chicks trained to solve the task by discriminating local features in a square-shaped arena. We also analyzed neuronal activity in the medial part of the medial striatum (mMSt). Surprisingly, in mMSt we observed a reverse pattern, with higher activity in the chicks that were trained to locate the goal by local features. Our results identify two seemingly parallel, memory systems in chicks, with HF central to the processing of spatial-geometrical information and mMSt important in supporting local feature discrimination. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Kinematically redundant robot manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baillieul, J.; Hollerbach, J.; Brockett, R.; Martin, D.; Percy, R.; Thomas, R.

1987-01-01

Research on control, design and programming of kinematically redundant robot manipulators (KRRM) is discussed. These are devices in which there are more joint space degrees of freedom than are required to achieve every position and orientation of the end-effector necessary for a given task in a given workspace. The technological developments described here deal with: kinematic programming techniques for automatically generating joint-space trajectories to execute prescribed tasks; control of redundant manipulators to optimize dynamic criteria (e.g., applications of forces and moments at the end-effector that optimally distribute the loading of actuators); and design of KRRMs to optimize functionality in congested work environments or to achieve other goals unattainable with non-redundant manipulators. Kinematic programming techniques are discussed, which show that some pseudo-inverse techniques that have been proposed for redundant manipulator control fail to achieve the goals of avoiding kinematic singularities and also generating closed joint-space paths corresponding to close paths of the end effector in the workspace. The extended Jacobian is proposed as an alternative to pseudo-inverse techniques.

Situational Interest in Engineering Design Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonderup Dohn, Niels

2013-08-01

The aim of the present mixed-method study was to investigate task-based situational interest of sixth grade students (n = 46), between 12 and 14 years old, during an eight-week engineering design programme in a Science & Technology-class. Students' interests were investigated by means of a descriptive interpretative analysis of qualitative data from classroom observations and informal interviews. The analysis was complemented by a self-report survey to validate findings and determine prevalence. The analysis revealed four main sources of interest: designing inventions, trial-and-error experimentation, achieved functionality of invention, and collaboration. These sources differ in terms of stimuli factors, such as novelty, autonomy (choice), social involvement, self-generation of interest, and task goal orientation. The study shows that design tasks stimulated interest, but only to the extent that students were able to self-regulate their learning strategies.

Orienting in virtual environments: How are surface features and environmental geometry weighted in an orientation task?

PubMed

Kelly, Debbie M; Bischof, Walter F

2008-10-01

We investigated how human adults orient in enclosed virtual environments, when discrete landmark information is not available and participants have to rely on geometric and featural information on the environmental surfaces. In contrast to earlier studies, where, for women, the featural information from discrete landmarks overshadowed the encoding of the geometric information, Experiment 1 showed that when featural information is conjoined with the environmental surfaces, men and women encoded both types of information. Experiment 2 showed that, although both types of information are encoded, performance in locating a goal position is better if it is close to a geometrically or featurally distinct location. Furthermore, although features are relied upon more strongly than geometry, initial experience with an environment influences the relative weighting of featural and geometric cues. Taken together, these results show that human adults use a flexible strategy for encoding spatial information.

Sport-Related Identities and the "Toxic Jock"

PubMed

Miller, Kathleen E

2009-01-01

Little attention has been paid to the multidimensional nature of athletic involvement, which includes identity formation as well as participation in sports activities. Five hundred eighty-one sport-involved undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their sport-related identities, goal orientations, primary sport ratings, and conformity to masculine norms. F-tested mean comparisons and hierarchical linear regressions were used to explore the characteristics associated with two distinct sport-related identities ("athletes" and "jocks"). Jock identity was associated with an ego-oriented approach to sports (men only), whereas athlete identity was associated with a task-oriented approach (both genders). Jock identity was positively associated with conformity to masculine norms, particularly for men, whereas athlete identity was positively associated with some masculine norms (i.e., Winning) and negatively associated with others (i.e., Playboy). These findings help to identify the correlates of a "toxic Jock" identity that may signal elevated risk for health-compromising behavior.

Sport-Related Identities and the “Toxic Jock”

PubMed Central

Miller, Kathleen E.

2010-01-01

Little attention has been paid to the multidimensional nature of athletic involvement, which includes identity formation as well as participation in sports activities. Five hundred eighty-one sport-involved undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their sport-related identities, goal orientations, primary sport ratings, and conformity to masculine norms. F-tested mean comparisons and hierarchical linear regressions were used to explore the characteristics associated with two distinct sport-related identities (“athletes” and “jocks”). Jock identity was associated with an ego-oriented approach to sports (men only), whereas athlete identity was associated with a task-oriented approach (both genders). Jock identity was positively associated with conformity to masculine norms, particularly for men, whereas athlete identity was positively associated with some masculine norms (i.e., Winning) and negatively associated with others (i.e., Playboy). These findings help to identify the correlates of a “toxic Jock” identity that may signal elevated risk for health-compromising behavior. PMID:21643553

Impact of post-stroke unilateral spatial neglect on goal-directed arm movements: systematic literature review.

PubMed

Ogourtsova, Tatiana; Archambault, Philippe; Lamontagne, Anouk

2015-12-01

Unilateral spatial neglect (USN), a highly prevalent post-stroke impairment, refers to one's inability to orient or respond to stimuli located in the contralesional visual hemispace. Unilateral spatial neglect has been shown to strongly affect motor performance in functional activities, including non-affected upper extremity (UE) movements. To date, our understanding of the effects of USN on goal-directed UE movements is limited and comparing performance of individuals post-stroke with and without USN is required. To determine, in individuals with stroke, how does the presence of USN, in comparison to the absence of USN, impacts different types of goal-directed movements of the non-affected UE. The present review approach consisted of a comprehensive literature search, an assessment of the quality of the selected studies and qualitative data analysis. A total of 20 studies of moderate to high quality were selected. The USN-specific impairments were found in tasks that required a perceptual, memory-guided or delayed actions, and fewer impairments were found in tasks that required an immediate action to a predefined target. The results indicate that USN contributes to deficits observed in action execution with the non-effected UE that requires greater perceptual demands.

Think manager--think male in adolescents and its relation to sexism and emotions in leadership.

PubMed

García-Ael, Cristina; Cuadrado, Isabel; Molero, Fernando

2013-01-01

From the perspective of the Think manager--think male, this study was conducted to examine the type of leadership role depending on gender in a sample of 158 Spanish adolescents -according to three types of leaders: "male middle leader", "female middle leader" and "middle leader in general". The kind of emotional expression (positive and negative) evoked by their leadership behaviors (task- and relationship- oriented) was also analyzed. Lastly, whether adolescents' sexist beliefs affected the attribution of traits and the emotional expression towards these leaders was examined. Results showed that task-oriented traits were more characteristic of the leadership role than relationship-oriented traits. Adolescents expressed more positive emotions towards a task-oriented leader and towards a leader behaving in ways associated with both task- and relationship- oriented styles, but only for men. Finally, hostile sexism predicted fewer task-oriented traits to female leaders, more negative affect towards task-oriented male leaders and towards counter-stereotypic leaders. These results were moderated by the sex of adolescents.

Top-Down Control of Visual Alpha Oscillations: Sources of Control Signals and Their Mechanisms of Action

PubMed Central

Wang, Chao; Rajagovindan, Rajasimhan; Han, Sahng-Min; Ding, Mingzhou

2016-01-01

Alpha oscillations (8–12 Hz) are thought to inversely correlate with cortical excitability. Goal-oriented modulation of alpha has been studied extensively. In visual spatial attention, alpha over the region of visual cortex corresponding to the attended location decreases, signifying increased excitability to facilitate the processing of impending stimuli. In contrast, in retention of verbal working memory, alpha over visual cortex increases, signifying decreased excitability to gate out stimulus input to protect the information held online from sensory interference. According to the prevailing model, this goal-oriented biasing of sensory cortex is effected by top-down control signals from frontal and parietal cortices. The present study tests and substantiates this hypothesis by (a) identifying the signals that mediate the top-down biasing influence, (b) examining whether the cortical areas issuing these signals are task-specific or task-independent, and (c) establishing the possible mechanism of the biasing action. High-density human EEG data were recorded in two experimental paradigms: a trial-by-trial cued visual spatial attention task and a modified Sternberg working memory task. Applying Granger causality to both sensor-level and source-level data we report the following findings. In covert visual spatial attention, the regions exerting top-down control over visual activity are lateralized to the right hemisphere, with the dipoles located at the right frontal eye field (FEF) and the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) being the main sources of top-down influences. During retention of verbal working memory, the regions exerting top-down control over visual activity are lateralized to the left hemisphere, with the dipoles located at the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) being the main source of top-down influences. In both experiments, top-down influences are mediated by alpha oscillations, and the biasing effect is likely achieved via an inhibition-disinhibition mechanism. PMID:26834601

An expert system for planning and scheduling in a telerobotic environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ntuen, Celestine A.; Park, Eui H.

1991-01-01

A knowledge based approach to assigning tasks to multi-agents working cooperatively in jobs that require a telerobot in the loop was developed. The generality of the approach allows for such a concept to be applied in a nonteleoperational domain. The planning architecture known as the task oriented planner (TOP) uses the principle of flow mechanism and the concept of planning by deliberation to preserve and use knowledge about a particular task. The TOP is an open ended architecture developed with a NEXPERT expert system shell and its knowledge organization allows for indirect consultation at various levels of task abstraction. Considering that a telerobot operates in a hostile and nonstructured environment, task scheduling should respond to environmental changes. A general heuristic was developed for scheduling jobs with the TOP system. The technique is not to optimize a given scheduling criterion as in classical job and/or flow shop problems. For a teleoperation job schedule, criteria are situation dependent. A criterion selection is fuzzily embedded in the task-skill matrix computation. However, goal achievement with minimum expected risk to the human operator is emphasized.

Parietal and frontal object areas underlie perception of object orientation in depth.

PubMed

Niimi, Ryosuke; Saneyoshi, Ayako; Abe, Reiko; Kaminaga, Tatsuro; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2011-05-27

Recent studies have shown that the human parietal and frontal cortices are involved in object image perception. We hypothesized that the parietal/frontal object areas play a role in differentiating the orientations (i.e., views) of an object. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared brain activations while human observers differentiated between two object images in depth-orientation (orientation task) and activations while they differentiated the images in object identity (identity task). The left intraparietal area, right angular gyrus, and right inferior frontal areas were activated more for the orientation task than for the identity task. The occipitotemporal object areas, however, were activated equally for the two tasks. No region showed greater activation for the identity task. These results suggested that the parietal/frontal object areas encode view-dependent visual features and underlie object orientation perception. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing the Architecture of Hierachical Neural Networks Model Attention, Learning and Goal-Oriented Behavior

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-12-31

19,23,25,26,27,28,32,33,35,41]) - A new cost function is postulated and an algorithm that employs this cost function is proposed for the learning of...updates the controller parameters from time to time [53]. The learning control algorithm consist of updating the parameter estimates as used in the...proposed cost function with the other learning type algorithms , such as based upon learning of iterative tasks [Kawamura-85], variable structure

Task Analysis Strategies and Practices. Practice Application Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Bettina Lankard

Worker-oriented, job-oriented, and cognitive task analyses have all been used as tools for closing the gap between what curriculum teaches and what workers do. Although they share a commonality of purpose, the focus, cost, and practicality of task analysis techniques vary. Worker-oriented task analysis focuses on general human behaviors required…

Parents' experience of undertaking an intensive cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) group for children with cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Jackman, Michelle; Novak, Iona; Lannin, Natasha; Froude, Elspeth

2017-05-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) who participated in an intensive cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) group program addressing child chosen goals. Participants were six parents of children with CP who participated in a CO-OP upper limb task-specific training program. Parents participated in semi-structured interviews conducted via phone. A grounded theory approach was used. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded to identify categories and overarching themes of the parent experience of CO-OP. The theory of CO-OP for children with CP was one of offering a unique and motivating learning experience for both the child and the parent, differing from other therapeutic approaches that families had previously been involved in. Five categories were identified: the unique benefits of CO-OP; the importance of intensity; the child's motivation; challenging the parent role; and the benefits and challenges of therapy within a group context. Parents felt that CO-OP was a worthwhile intervention that leads to achievement of goals involving upper limb function and had the capacity to be transferred to future goals. Intensity of therapy and a child's motivation were identified as important factors in improvements. Further studies using quantitative research methods are warranted to investigate the benefits of CO-OP for children with neurological conditions. Implications for rehabilitation The cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) is a promising upper limb cognitive motor training intervention for children with cerebral palsy. In a small sample, parents perceived that CO-OP leads to achievement of upper limb goals. Intensity of therapy, the child's motivation and the parents' ability to "step-back" were identified as important to the success of CO-OP.

Effectiveness of functional hand splinting and the cognitive orientation to occupational performance (CO-OP) approach in children with cerebral palsy and brain injury: two randomised controlled trial protocols

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Cerebral palsy (CP) and brain injury (BI) are common conditions that have devastating effects on a child’s ability to use their hands. Hand splinting and task-specific training are two interventions that are often used to address deficits in upper limb skills, both in isolation or concurrently. The aim of this paper is to describe the method to be used to conduct two randomised controlled trials (RCT) investigating (a) the immediate effect of functional hand splints, and (b) the effect of functional hand splints used concurrently with task-specific training compared to functional hand splints alone, and to task-specific training alone in children with CP and BI. The Cognitive Orientation to Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach will be the task-specific training approach used. Methods/Design Two concurrent trials; a two group, parallel design, RCT with a sample size of 30 participants (15 per group); and a three group, parallel design, assessor blinded, RCT with a sample size of 45 participants (15 per group). Inclusion criteria: age 4-15 years; diagnosis of CP or BI; Manual Abilities Classification System (MACS) level I – IV; hand function goals; impaired hand function; the cognitive, language and behavioural ability to participate in CO-OP. Participants will be randomly allocated to one of 3 groups; (1) functional hand splint only (n=15); (2) functional hand splint combined with task-specific training (n=15); (3) task-specific training only (n=15). Allocation concealment will be achieved using sequentially numbered, sealed opaque envelopes opened by an off-site officer after baseline measures. Treatment will be provided for a period of 2 weeks, with outcome measures taken at baseline, 1 hour after randomisation, 2 weeks and 10 weeks. The functional hand splint will be a wrist cock-up splint (+/- thumb support or supination strap). Task-specific training will involve 10 sessions of CO-OP provided in a group of 2-4 children. Primary outcome measures will be the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS). Analysis will be conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. Discussion This paper outlines the protocol for two randomised controlled trials investigating functional hand splints and CO-OP for children with CP and BI. PMID:25023385

Teachers' Influence on Goal Orientation: Exploring the Relationship between Eighth Graders' Goal Orientation, Their Emotional Development, Their Perceptions of Learning, and Their Teachers' Instructional Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nichols, William Dee; Jones, Jeanneine P.; Hancock, Dawson R.

2003-01-01

Explores how students' perceived learning relates to emotions, motivation, and goal orientation. Finds that students significantly reported more negative emotions than positive emotions, thus indicating that the emotions of the learner were more negative, the motivation was more extrinsic and the goal orientation of the learners could be…

Goal Orientation, Deep Learning, and Sustainable Feedback in Higher Business Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geitz, Gerry; Brinke, Desirée Joosten-ten; Kirschner, Paul A.

2015-01-01

Relations between and changeability of goal orientation and learning behavior have been studied in several domains and contexts. To alter the adopted goal orientation into a mastery orientation and increase a concomitant deep learning in international business students, a sustainable feedback intervention study was carried out. Sustainable…

The shark Chiloscyllium griseum can orient using turn responses before and after partial telencephalon ablation.

PubMed

Fuss, Theodora; Bleckmann, Horst; Schluessel, Vera

2014-01-01

This study assessed spatial memory and orientation strategies in Chiloscyllium griseum. In the presence of visual landmarks, six sharks were trained in a fixed turn response. Group 1 started from two possible compartments approaching two goal locations, while group 2 started from and approached only one location, respectively. The learning criterion was reached within 9 ± 5.29 (group 1) and 8.3 ± 3.51 sessions (group 2). Transfer tests revealed that sharks had applied a direction strategy, possibly in combination with some form of place learning. Without visual cues, sharks relied solely on the former. To identify the underlying neural substrate(s), telencephalic were lesioned and performance compared before and after surgery. Ablation of the dorsal and medial pallia only had an effect on one shark (group 1), indicating that the acquisition and retention of previously gained knowledge were unaffected in the remaining four individuals. Nonetheless, the shark re-learned the task. In summary, C. griseum can utilize fixed turn responses to navigate to a goal; there is also some evidence for the use of external visual landmarks while orienting. Probably, strategies can be used alone or in combination. Neither the dorsal nor medial pallium seems to be responsible for the acquisition and processing of egocentric information.

The effects of instructional sets on reactions to and performance on an intelligent tutoring system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Debra Steele

1993-01-01

The effects of a contextual factor, i.e., task instructions, on performance on and reactions to an Intellegent Tutoring System (ITS) training Remote Manipulator System (RMS) tasks were examined. The results supported the first prediction that task instructions could be used to successfully induce a mastery versus an achievement orientation. Previous research suggests that a mastery orientation can result in beneficial effects on learning and performance of complex tasks. Furthermore, the results supported the second prediction that a mastery orientation would have beneficial effects on learning and performance as well as affective and cognitive reactions to the ITS tasks. Moreover, the results indicated that a mastery orientation was especially beneficial for the more complex ITS tasks and later in task practice, i.e., when a task was performed for the second time. A mastery orientation is posited to have its beneficial effects by focusing more effort and attention on task performance. Conclusions are drawn with some caution due to the small number of subjects, although the results for these subjects were consistent across multiple trials and multiple measures of performance. ITS designers are urged to consider contextual factors such as task instructions and feedback in terms of their potential to induce a mastery versus an achievement orientation.

The Conflict between On-Task and Off-Task Actions in the Classroom and Its Consequences for Motivation and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilian, Britta; Hofer, Manfred; Fries, Stefan; Kuhnle, Claudia

2010-01-01

The relations between students' value orientations, decisions in conflicts between on-task and off-task actions in the classroom, and experiences of motivational interference following these conflicts were investigated. It was expected that well-being value orientation was positively linked and achievement value orientation was negatively linked…

Sequencing bilateral and unilateral task-oriented training versus task oriented training alone to improve arm function in individuals with chronic stroke.

PubMed

McCombe Waller, Sandy; Whitall, Jill; Jenkins, Toye; Magder, Laurence S; Hanley, Daniel F; Goldberg, Andrew; Luft, Andreas R

2014-12-14

Recovering useful hand function after stroke is a major scientific challenge for patients with limited motor recovery. We hypothesized that sequential training beginning with proximal bilateral followed by unilateral task oriented training is superior to time-matched unilateral training alone. Proximal bilateral training could optimally prepare the motor system to respond to the more challenging task-oriented training. Twenty-six participants with moderate severity hemiparesis Intervention: PARTICIPANTS received either 6-weeks of bilateral proximal training followed sequentially by 6-weeks unilateral task-oriented training (COMBO) or 12-weeks of unilateral task-oriented training alone (SAEBO). A subset of 8 COMB0 and 9 SAEBO participants underwent three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of hand and elbow movement every 6 weeks. Fugl-Meyer Upper extremity scale, Modified Wolf Motor Function Test, University of Maryland Arm Questionnaire for Stroke, Motor cortex activation (fMRI). The COMBO group demonstrated significantly greater gains between baseline and 12-weeks over all outcome measures (p = .018 based on a MANOVA test) and specifically in the Modified Wolf Motor Function test (time). Both groups demonstrated within-group gains on the Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity test (impairment) and University of Maryland Arm Questionnaire for Stroke (functional use). fMRI subset analyses showed motor cortex (primary and premotor) activation during hand movement was significantly increased by sequential combination training but not by task-oriented training alone. Sequentially combining a proximal bilateral before a unilateral task-oriented training may be an effective way to facilitate gains in arm and hand function in those with moderate to severe paresis post-stroke compared to unilateral task oriented training alone.

The Intertwined Nature of Adolescents' Social and Academic Lives: Social and Academic Goal Orientations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ben-Eliyahu, Adar; Linnenbrink-Garcia, Lisa; Putallaz, Martha

2017-01-01

The relations of academic and social goal orientations to academic and social behaviors and self-concept were investigated among academically talented adolescents (N = 1,218) attending a mastery-oriented academic residential summer program. Results supported context effects in that academic mastery goal orientations predicted academic (in-class…

[Anxiety level and its determinants in rheumatoid arthritis patients].

PubMed

Mojs, Ewa; Ziarko, Michał; Kaczmarek, Łukasz; Samborski, Włodzimierz

2011-01-01

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease with many somatic, psychological and social consequences. Somatic consequences are connected mainly with increasing levels of negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and a tendency to react with anger to many daily life situations. Additionally, loss of hope has been reported as another effect of rheumatoid arthritis. The goal of the study was to describe anxiety levels and its determinants in RA patients. The study was carried out on 31 RA patients, 22 (71%) of whom were females and 9 (29%) of whom were males. The respondents were assessed with a set of questionnaires such as Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC), The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire - Revised (EPQ-R). We have found the relationship between anxiety as (1) a state and external locus of control - powerful others (tau-b = 0.23, p = 0.09), task - oriented style of coping (tau-b = -0.34, p = 0.01), emotion-oriented style of coping (tau-b = 0.33, p = 0.02) and neuroticism levels (tau-b = 0.29, p = 0.03) and (2) anxiety as a trait and external locus of control - powerful others (tau-b = 0.40, p = 0.01), task - oriented style of coping (tau-b = 0.36, p = 0.01), emotion-oriented style of coping (tau-b = 0.33, p = 0.02) and neuroticism levels (tau-b = 0.47, p = 0,01).

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of neural responses in human posteromedial cortex.

PubMed

Daitch, Amy L; Parvizi, Josef

2018-05-01

Neuroimaging evidence supports a role of the default mode network (DMN) in spontaneous thought and goal-driven internally oriented processes, such as recalling an autobiographical event, and has demonstrated its deactivation during focused, externally oriented attention. Recent work suggests that the DMN is not a homogeneous network but rather is composed of at least several subnetworks, which are engaged in distinct functions; however, it is still unclear if these different functions rely on the same neuronal populations. In this study, we used intracranial EEG to record from the posteromedial cortex (PMC), a core hub of the DMN, in 13 human subjects, during autobiographical memory retrieval (internally oriented), arithmetic processing (externally oriented), and cued rest (spontaneous thought), allowing us to measure activity from anatomically precise PMC sites with high temporal resolution. We observed a heterogeneous, yet spatially organized, pattern of activity across tasks. Many sites, primarily in the more ventral portion of PMC, were engaged during autobiographical recall and suppressed during arithmetic processing. Other more dorsal PMC sites were engaged during the cued-rest condition. Of these rest-active sites, some exhibited variable temporal dynamics across trials, possibly reflecting various forms of spontaneous thought, while others showed only transient activity at the beginning of cued-rest trials (i.e., after a switch from a task to cued rest), possibly involved in shifting the brain from a more focused to a more exploratory attentional state. These results suggest heterogeneity of function even within an individual node of the DMN.

Measuring more than we know? An examination of the motivational and situational influences in science achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haydel, Angela Michelle

The purpose of this dissertation was to advance theoretical understanding about fit between the personal resources of individuals and the characteristics of science achievement tasks. Testing continues to be pervasive in schools, yet we know little about how students perceive tests and what they think and feel while they are actually working on test items. This study focused on both the personal (cognitive and motivational) and situational factors that may contribute to individual differences in achievement-related outcomes. 387 eighth grade students first completed a survey including measures of science achievement goals, capability beliefs, efficacy related to multiple-choice items and performance assessments, validity beliefs about multiple-choice items and performance assessments, and other perceptions of these item formats. Students then completed science achievement tests including multiple-choice items and two performance assessments. A sample of students was asked to verbalize both thoughts and feelings as they worked through the test items. These think-alouds were transcribed and coded for evidence of cognitive, metacognitive and motivational engagement. Following each test, all students completed measures of effort, mood, energy level and strategy use during testing. Students reported that performance assessments were more challenging, authentic, interesting and valid than multiple-choice tests. They also believed that comparisons between students were easier using multiple-choice items. Overall, students tried harder, felt better, had higher levels of energy and used more strategies while working on performance assessments. Findings suggested that performance assessments might be more congruent with a mastery achievement goal orientation, while multiple-choice tests might be more congruent with a performance achievement goal orientation. A variable-centered analytic approach including regression analyses provided information about how students, on average, who differed in terms of their teachers' ratings of their science ability, achievement goals, capability beliefs and experiences with science achievement tasks perceived, engaged in, and performed on multiple-choice items and performance assessments. Person-centered analyses provided information about the perceptions, engagement and performance of subgroups of individuals who had different motivational characteristics. Generally, students' personal goals and capability beliefs related more strongly to test perceptions, but not performance, while teacher ratings of ability and test-specific beliefs related to performance.

Planning activity for internally generated reward goals in monkey amygdala neurons

PubMed Central

Schultz, Wolfram

2015-01-01

The best rewards are often distant and can only be achieved by planning and decision-making over several steps. We designed a multi-step choice task in which monkeys followed internal plans to save rewards towards self-defined goals. During this self-controlled behavior, amygdala neurons showed future-oriented activity that reflected the animal’s plan to obtain specific rewards several trials ahead. This prospective activity encoded crucial components of the animal’s plan, including value and length of the planned choice sequence. It began on initial trials when a plan would be formed, reappeared step-by-step until reward receipt, and readily updated with a new sequence. It predicted performance, including errors, and typically disappeared during instructed behavior. Such prospective activity could underlie the formation and pursuit of internal plans characteristic for goal-directed behavior. The existence of neuronal planning activity in the amygdala suggests an important role for this structure in guiding behavior towards internally generated, distant goals. PMID:25622146

Exploring the motivation jungle: predicting performance on a novel task by investigating constructs from different motivation perspectives in tandem.

PubMed

Van Nuland, Hanneke J C; Dusseldorp, Elise; Martens, Rob L; Boekaerts, Monique

2010-08-01

Different theoretical viewpoints on motivation make it hard to decide which model has the best potential to provide valid predictions on classroom performance. This study was designed to explore motivation constructs derived from different motivation perspectives that predict performance on a novel task best. Motivation constructs from self-determination theory, self-regulation theory, and achievement goal theory were investigated in tandem. Performance was measured by systematicity (i.e. how systematically students worked on a problem-solving task) and test score (i.e. score on a multiple-choice test). Hierarchical regression analyses on data from 259 secondary school students showed a quadratic relation between a performance avoidance orientation and both performance outcomes, indicating that extreme high and low performance avoidance resulted in the lowest performance. Furthermore, two three-way interaction effects were found. Intrinsic motivation seemed to play a key role in test score and systematicity performance, provided that effort regulation and metacognitive skills were both high. Results indicate that intrinsic motivation in itself is not enough to attain a good performance. Instead, a moderate score on performance avoidance, together with the ability to remain motivated and effectively regulate and control task behavior, is needed to attain a good performance. High time management skills also contributed to higher test score and systematicity performance and a low performance approach orientation contributed to higher systematicity performance. We concluded that self-regulatory skills should be trained in order to have intrinsically motivated students perform well on novel tasks in the classroom.

The anatomy of a World Wide Web library service: the BONES demonstration project. Biomedically Oriented Navigator of Electronic Services.

PubMed Central

Schnell, E H

1995-01-01

In 1994, the John A. Prior Health Sciences Library at Ohio State University began to develop a World Wide Web demonstration project, the Biomedically Oriented Navigator of Electronic Services (BONES). The initial intent of BONES was to facilitate the health professional's access to Internet resources by organizing them in a systematic manner. The project not only met this goal but also helped identify the resources needed to launch a full-scale Web library service. This paper discusses the tasks performed and resources used in the development of BONES and describes the creation and organization of documents on the BONES Web server. The paper also discusses the outcomes of the project and the impact on the library's staff and services. PMID:8547903

Task-Oriented Internet Assisted English Teaching and Learning in Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Juwu

2014-01-01

Task-Oriented Internet Assisted English Teaching and Learning (TIAETL) is a new English teaching and learning model which integrates the Internet-assisted and task-oriented teaching. This article analyzed the worldwide tendency of English teaching and prerequisites for TIAETL in colleges. The TIAETL has the following advantages:…

Effects of virtual reality-based training and task-oriented training on balance performance in stroke patients.

PubMed

Lee, Hyung Young; Kim, You Lim; Lee, Suk Min

2015-06-01

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the clinical effects of virtual reality-based training and task-oriented training on balance performance in stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were randomly allocated to 2 groups: virtual reality-based training group (n = 12) and task-oriented training group (n = 12). The patients in the virtual reality-based training group used the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, which provided visual and auditory feedback as well as the movements that enabled shifting of weight to the right and left sides, for 30 min/day, 3 times/week for 6 weeks. The patients in the task-oriented training group practiced additional task-oriented programs for 30 min/day, 3 times/week for 6 weeks. Patients in both groups also underwent conventional physical therapy for 60 min/day, 5 times/week for 6 weeks. [Results] Balance and functional reach test outcomes were examined in both groups. The results showed that the static balance and functional reach test outcomes were significantly higher in the virtual reality-based training group than in the task-oriented training group. [Conclusion] This study suggested that virtual reality-based training might be a more feasible and suitable therapeutic intervention for dynamic balance in stroke patients compared to task-oriented training.

Effects of virtual reality-based training and task-oriented training on balance performance in stroke patients

PubMed Central

Lee, Hyung Young; Kim, You Lim; Lee, Suk Min

2015-01-01

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the clinical effects of virtual reality-based training and task-oriented training on balance performance in stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were randomly allocated to 2 groups: virtual reality-based training group (n = 12) and task-oriented training group (n = 12). The patients in the virtual reality-based training group used the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, which provided visual and auditory feedback as well as the movements that enabled shifting of weight to the right and left sides, for 30 min/day, 3 times/week for 6 weeks. The patients in the task-oriented training group practiced additional task-oriented programs for 30 min/day, 3 times/week for 6 weeks. Patients in both groups also underwent conventional physical therapy for 60 min/day, 5 times/week for 6 weeks. [Results] Balance and functional reach test outcomes were examined in both groups. The results showed that the static balance and functional reach test outcomes were significantly higher in the virtual reality-based training group than in the task-oriented training group. [Conclusion] This study suggested that virtual reality-based training might be a more feasible and suitable therapeutic intervention for dynamic balance in stroke patients compared to task-oriented training. PMID:26180341

Adolescents' Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement: Long-Term Relations and Gender Differences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giota, Joanna

2002-01-01

Studied the predictability of 8 different types of goal orientations as motives for academic achievement in a sample of 7,391 13-year-old students. Findings suggest that students at this age already pursue a variety of academic and nonacademic goals and that different types of goal orientations are differentially related to achievement. (SLD)

On the rules of integration of crowded orientation signals

PubMed Central

Põder, Endel

2012-01-01

Crowding is related to an integration of feature signals over an inappropriately large area in the visual periphery. The rules of this integration are still not well understood. This study attempts to understand how the orientation signals from the target and flankers are combined. A target Gabor, together with 2, 4, or 6 flanking Gabors, was briefly presented in a peripheral location (4° eccentricity). The observer's task was to identify the orientation of the target (eight-alternative forced-choice). Performance was found to be nonmonotonically dependent on the target–flanker orientation difference (a drop at intermediate differences). For small target–flanker differences, a strong assimilation bias was observed. An effect of the number of flankers was found for heterogeneous flankers only. It appears that different rules of integration are used, dependent on some salient aspects (target pop-out, homogeneity–heterogeneity) of the stimulus pattern. The strategy of combining simple rules may be explained by the goal of the visual system to encode potentially important aspects of a stimulus with limited processing resources and using statistical regularities of the natural visual environment. PMID:23145295

On the rules of integration of crowded orientation signals.

PubMed

Põder, Endel

2012-01-01

Crowding is related to an integration of feature signals over an inappropriately large area in the visual periphery. The rules of this integration are still not well understood. This study attempts to understand how the orientation signals from the target and flankers are combined. A target Gabor, together with 2, 4, or 6 flanking Gabors, was briefly presented in a peripheral location (4° eccentricity). The observer's task was to identify the orientation of the target (eight-alternative forced-choice). Performance was found to be nonmonotonically dependent on the target-flanker orientation difference (a drop at intermediate differences). For small target-flanker differences, a strong assimilation bias was observed. An effect of the number of flankers was found for heterogeneous flankers only. It appears that different rules of integration are used, dependent on some salient aspects (target pop-out, homogeneity-heterogeneity) of the stimulus pattern. The strategy of combining simple rules may be explained by the goal of the visual system to encode potentially important aspects of a stimulus with limited processing resources and using statistical regularities of the natural visual environment.

The political (and physiological) divide: Political orientation, performance monitoring, and the anterior cingulate response.

PubMed

Weissflog, Meghan; Choma, Becky L; Dywan, Jane; van Noordt, Stefon J R; Segalowitz, Sidney J

2013-01-01

Our goal was to test a model of sociopolitical attitudes that posits a relationship between individual differences in liberal versus conservative political orientation and differential levels of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) responsivity. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants who varied along a unidimensional liberal-conservative continuum engaged in a standard Go/NoGo task. We also measured component attitudes of political orientation in the form of traditionalism (degree of openness to social change) and egalitarianism (a preference for social equality). Generally, participants who reported a more liberal political orientation made fewer errors and produced larger ACC-generated ERPs (the error-related negativity, or ERN and the NoGo N2). This ACC activation, especially as indicated by a larger NoGo N2, was most strongly associated with greater preference for social equality. Performance accuracy, however, was most strongly associated with greater openness to social change. These data are consistent with a social neuroscience view that sociopolitical attitudes are related to aspects of neurophysiological responsivity. They also indicate that a bidimensional model of political orientation can enhance our interpretation of the nature of these associations.

Visual orientation and navigation in nocturnal arthropods.

PubMed

Warrant, Eric; Dacke, Marie

2010-01-01

With their highly sensitive visual systems, the arthropods have evolved a remarkable capacity to orient and navigate at night. Whereas some navigate under the open sky, and take full advantage of the celestial cues available there, others navigate in more difficult conditions, such as through the dense understory of a tropical rainforest. Four major classes of orientation are performed by arthropods at night, some of which involve true navigation (i.e. travel to a distant goal that lies beyond the range of direct sensory contact): (1) simple straight-line orientation, typically for escape purposes; (2) nightly short-distance movements relative to a shoreline, typically in the context of feeding; (3) long-distance nocturnal migration at high altitude in the quest to locate favorable feeding or breeding sites, and (4) nocturnal excursions to and from a fixed nest or food site (i.e. homing), a task that in most species involves path integration and/or the learning and recollection of visual landmarks. These four classes of orientation--and their visual basis--are reviewed here, with special emphasis given to the best-understood animal systems that are representative of each. 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Effects of botulinum toxin A and/or bimanual task-oriented therapy on upper extremity activities in unilateral Cerebral Palsy: a clinical trial.

PubMed

Speth, Lucianne; Janssen-Potten, Yvonne; Rameckers, Eugene; Defesche, Anke; Winkens, Bjorn; Becher, Jules; Smeets, Rob; Vles, Hans

2015-08-19

This study reports on the effects of botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) injections in the upper extremity (UE) in children with unilateral Cerebral Palsy (uCP) combined with bimanual task-oriented therapy (BITT) or either treatment modality performed separately. Bimanual activities were measured with the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA), the ABILHand-Kids questionnaire (AK), the Observational Skills Assessment Score (OSAS). Goal achievement was measured with Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), using blind video assessment, and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Thirty-five children, mean age 7.14 years (SD 2.63), 11 Manual Ability Classification Score (MACS) I, 15 MACS II and 9 MACS III, participated. The trial started with four study groups: BoNT-A-only (n = 5), BITT-only (n = 11), BoNT-A + BITT (n = 13), and control (n = 6). Twenty-two children were randomised, 13 children received their parents' preferred treatment: BoNT-A + BITT or BITT-only. Three comparisons were analysed: BITT (BoNT-A + BITT and BITT-only; n = 24) versus no BITT (BoNT-A-only and control; n = 11), BoNT-A (BoNT-A-only and BoNT-A + BITT; n = 18) versus no BoNT-A (BITT-only and control; n = 17), and the additional effect of BoNT-A (BoNT-A + BITT versus BITT-only). Follow-up time: 24 weeks. No significant differences between the groups were found on the AHA. The amount of use of both hands on the OSAS was significantly better in the BoNT-A group in the beading and sandwich-making task. The BoNT-A group also showed significant improvement in the quality scores of the OSAS: the wrist position during grasping and holding, especially in the younger children. The BITT group improved significantly on the AK and significantly more on the performance and satisfaction scores of the COPM at 12 and 24 weeks regarding several goals. BoNT-A showed a significant negative effect at 12 and 24 weeks in the most important goal. BITT, more than BoNT-A + BITT, showed positive effects on the GAS score at 12 (significant), 18 and 24 weeks. BoNT-A has a positive effect on quality of movement and amount of use of the affected UE during the 3 months' working time. BoNT-A has no additional effect on bimanual performance and goal achievement. BITT has a positive effect on goal achievement and bimanual performance, even up to 6 weeks after therapy had stopped. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN69541857.

Achievement Goal Orientation for Athletic Training Education: Preparing for Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peer, Kimberly S.

2007-01-01

Objective: This review of literature presents the theoretical framework of goal orientation and student achievement from a pedagogical perspective while providing practical applications and implications for integrating goal orientation into athletic training education programs. Data Sources: Selected literature derived from EBSCO, Education…

Outperforming whom? A multilevel study of performance-prove goal orientation, performance, and the moderating role of shared team identification.

PubMed

Dietz, Bart; van Knippenberg, Daan; Hirst, Giles; Restubog, Simon Lloyd D

2015-11-01

Performance-prove goal orientation affects performance because it drives people to try to outperform others. A proper understanding of the performance-motivating potential of performance-prove goal orientation requires, however, that we consider the question of whom people desire to outperform. In a multilevel analysis of this issue, we propose that the shared team identification of a team plays an important moderating role here, directing the performance-motivating influence of performance-prove goal orientation to either the team level or the individual level of performance. A multilevel study of salespeople nested in teams supports this proposition, showing that performance-prove goal orientation motivates team performance more with higher shared team identification, whereas performance-prove goal orientation motivates individual performance more with lower shared team identification. Establishing the robustness of these findings, a second study replicates them with individual and team performance in an educational context. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Goal orientation, self-regulation strategies, and job-seeking intensity in unemployed adults.

PubMed

Creed, Peter A; King, Vivien; Hood, Michelle; McKenzie, Robert

2009-05-01

At Time 1 (T1), the authors surveyed 277 unemployed adults using measures of human capital, goal orientation, self-regulation (emotion control, motivation control, work commitment), and job-seeking intensity. At Time 2 (T2), 4 months later, 155 participants indicated their reemployment outcomes in number of job interviews and number of job offers. Using T1 data, the authors tested the predictors of job-seeking intensity and whether self-regulation mediated between goal orientation and job-seeking intensity. Using T1 and T2 data, they tested for predictors of reemployment outcomes and whether job-seeking intensity mediated the relationship between T1 antecedent variables and the reemployment outcomes. Learning goal orientation and self-regulation predicted job-seeking intensity, and self-regulation mediated between learning goal orientation and job-seeking intensity. Job-seeking intensity did not mediate the relationship among human capital, goal orientation, and self-regulation variables and reemployment outcomes. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study of the Goal Orientation Theory of Motivation in Educational Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCollum, Daniel L.; Kajs, Lawrence T.

2009-01-01

The goal orientation theory of motivation posits sets of beliefs people hold regarding their goals. The 2 x 2 model of goal orientations has received almost no attention in the domain of educational leadership. The present researchers used a confirmatory factor analysis to test a measure based on the hypothesized 2 x 2 model in educational…

The effects of competition on achievement motivation in Chinese classrooms.

PubMed

Lam, Shui-fong; Yim, Pui-shan; Law, Josephine S F; Cheung, Rebecca W Y

2004-06-01

Laboratory studies have consistently found that competition induces performance goals and affects learning motivation. However, the ecological validity of these results is yet to be established. There is a need for investigation of whether the results hold in both the classroom context and non-Western culture. The study investigated the effects of competition on learning motivation among Chinese students in an authentic classroom setting. The participants were 52 students of grade 7 from two Hong Kong secondary schools. They were randomly assigned to either competitive or non-competitive conditions in a 2-hour Chinese typewriting course. Students in the competitive condition performed better in easy tasks than their counterparts in the non-competitive condition. However, they were more performance-oriented and more likely to sacrifice learning opportunities for better performance. They were also prone to have worse self-evaluation after failure. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the two conditions in task enjoyment and achievement attribution, the direction of the differences was consistently unfavourable to students in the competitive condition. The findings were consistent with the predictions of goal theory. Competitiveness induces performance goals and worse self-evaluation after failure among Chinese students in a classroom setting, as was found with Western students in a laboratory setting.

Robotics in shoulder rehabilitation

PubMed Central

Sicuri, Chiara; Porcellini, Giuseppe; Merolla, Giovanni

2014-01-01

Summary In the last few decades, several researches have been conducted in the field of robotic rehabilitation to meet the intensive, repetitive and task-oriented training, with the goal to recover the motor function. Up to now, robotic rehabilitation studies of the upper extremity have generally focused on stroke survivors leaving less explored the field of orthopaedic shoulder rehabilitation. In this review we analyse the present status of robotic technologies, in order to understand which are the current indications and which may be the future perspective for their application in both neurological and orthopaedic shoulder rehabilitation. PMID:25332937

[Treatment of the incurably ill].

PubMed

Barolin, G S

2000-01-01

Modern medicine has a) drastically prolonged the average lifetime, and b) dying from a relatively brief transition phase, has in many cases become a long-lasting process. This demands an increased orientation of medicine, away from the pure goal of "healing" to the task of a long-lasting accompaniment. This means geriatric rehabilitation and ultimately accompaniment for the dying. New ethical and juridical problems arise thereof for the doctor which will be discussed here. However, also society is challenged. We need systematic installment of rehabilitation activities into nursing homes, and a rehabilitation insurance.

Values, achievement goals, and individual-oriented and social-oriented achievement motivations among Chinese and Indonesian secondary school students.

PubMed

Liem, Arief Darmanegara; Nie, Youyan

2008-10-01

This study examined how values related to achievement goals and individual-oriented and social-oriented achievement motivations among secondary school students in China (N = 355) and Indonesia (N = 356). Statistical comparisons showed the Chinese students endorsed more strongly than the Indonesian students on self-direction and hedonism values, individual-oriented achievement motivation, and mastery-approach goals. Conversely, the Indonesian students endorsed more strongly than their Chinese counterparts on security, conformity, tradition, universalism and achievement values, social-oriented achievement motivation, and performance-approach and mastery-avoidance goals. Values explained a significant amount of the variance in almost all of the dimensions of motivation. Etic and emic relationships between values and achievement motivations were found.

The Role of Goal Orientation in Leadership Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeGeest, David; Brown, Kenneth G.

2011-01-01

Goal-orientation theory and research offer a lens to better understand the mechanisms of experiential learning in developmental assignments for managers. This study presents a research model that depicts how goal orientations influence the development of leadership skills from experience. The model indicates how individual and situational…

Goal striving strategies and effort mobilization: When implementation intentions reduce effort-related cardiac activity during task performance.

PubMed

Freydefont, Laure; Gollwitzer, Peter M; Oettingen, Gabriele

2016-09-01

Two experiments investigate the influence of goal and implementation intentions on effort mobilization during task performance. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of setting goals and making plans on performance, the effects of goals and plans on effort-related cardiac activity and especially the cardiac preejection period (PEP) during goal striving have not yet been addressed. According to the Motivational Intensity Theory, participants should increase effort mobilization proportionally to task difficulty as long as success is possible and justified. Forming goals and making plans should allow for reduced effort mobilization when participants perform an easy task. However, when the task is difficult, goals and plans should differ in their effect on effort mobilization. Participants who set goals should disengage, whereas participants who made if-then plans should stay in the field showing high effort mobilization during task performance. As expected, using an easy task in Experiment 1, we observed a lower cardiac PEP in both the implementation intention and the goal intention condition than in the control condition. In Experiment 2, we varied task difficulty and demonstrated that while participants with a mere goal intention disengaged from difficult tasks, participants with an implementation intention increased effort mobilization proportionally with task difficulty. These findings demonstrate the influence of goal striving strategies (i.e., mere goals vs. if-then plans) on effort mobilization during task performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Taking Aim at the Cognitive Side of Learning in Sensorimotor Adaptation Tasks.

PubMed

McDougle, Samuel D; Ivry, Richard B; Taylor, Jordan A

2016-07-01

Sensorimotor adaptation tasks have been used to characterize processes responsible for calibrating the mapping between desired outcomes and motor commands. Research has focused on how this form of error-based learning takes place in an implicit and automatic manner. However, recent work has revealed the operation of multiple learning processes, even in this simple form of learning. This review focuses on the contribution of cognitive strategies and heuristics to sensorimotor learning, and how these processes enable humans to rapidly explore and evaluate novel solutions to enable flexible, goal-oriented behavior. This new work points to limitations in current computational models, and how these must be updated to describe the conjoint impact of multiple processes in sensorimotor learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Contributions and Prospects of Goal Orientation Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaplan, Avi; Maehr, Martin L.

2007-01-01

In the last two decades, goal orientation theory has become an important perspective in the field of achievement motivation, and particularly in academic motivation. However, as research in the theory has proliferated, the use of multiple methods to assess goal orientations seems to have contributed to theoretical vagueness, especially with regard…

Perfectionism and Achievement Goal Orientations in Adolescent School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damian, Lavinia E.; Stoeber, Joachim; Negru, Oana; Baban, Adriana

2014-01-01

Perfectionism has been shown to predict individual differences in achievement goal orientations in university students, but research on perfectionism and goal orientations in school students is still very limited. Investigating 584 adolescent school students in a cross-sectional correlational design, the present study examined how self-oriented…

Cross-Lagged Relationships between Career Aspirations and Goal Orientation in Early Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Creed, Peter; Tilbury, Clare; Buys, Nick; Crawford, Meegan

2011-01-01

We surveyed 217 students (145 girls; average age = 14.6 years) on two occasions, twelve months apart, on measures of career aspirations (job aspirations, job expectations, educational aspirations) and goal orientation (learning, performance-prove, performance-avoid), and tested the causal relationship between goal orientation and aspirations. We…

Homing Pigeons Respond to Time-Compensated Solar Cues Even in Sight of the Loft

PubMed Central

Armstrong, Chris; Wilkinson, Helen; Meade, Jessica; Biro, Dora; Freeman, Robin; Guilford, Tim

2013-01-01

The sun has long been thought to guide bird navigation as the second step in a two-stage process, in which determining position using a map is followed by course setting using a compass, both over unfamiliar and familiar terrain. The animal’s endogenous clock time-compensates the solar compass for the sun’s apparent movement throughout the day, and this allows predictable deflections in orientation to test for the compass’ influence using clock-shift manipulations. To examine the influence of the solar compass during a highly familiar navigational task, 24 clock-shifted homing pigeons were precision-tracked from a release site close to and in sight of their final goal, the colony loft. The resulting trajectories displayed significant partial deflection from the loft direction as predicted by either fast or slow clock-shift treatments. The partial deflection was also found to be stable along the entire trajectory indicating regular updating of orientation via input from the solar compass throughout the final approach flight to the loft. Our results demonstrate that time-compensated solar cues are deeply embedded in the way birds orient during homing flight, are accessed throughout the journey and on a remarkably fine-grained scale, and may be combined effectively simultaneously with direct guidance from familiar landmarks, even when birds are flying towards a directly visible goal. PMID:23717401

Recent developments in biofeedback for neuromotor rehabilitation

PubMed Central

Huang, He; Wolf, Steven L; He, Jiping

2006-01-01

The original use of biofeedback to train single muscle activity in static positions or movement unrelated to function did not correlate well to motor function improvements in patients with central nervous system injuries. The concept of task-oriented repetitive training suggests that biofeedback therapy should be delivered during functionally related dynamic movement to optimize motor function improvement. Current, advanced technologies facilitate the design of novel biofeedback systems that possess diverse parameters, advanced cue display, and sophisticated control systems for use in task-oriented biofeedback. In light of these advancements, this article: (1) reviews early biofeedback studies and their conclusions; (2) presents recent developments in biofeedback technologies and their applications to task-oriented biofeedback interventions; and (3) discusses considerations regarding the therapeutic system design and the clinical application of task-oriented biofeedback therapy. This review should provide a framework to further broaden the application of task-oriented biofeedback therapy in neuromotor rehabilitation. PMID:16790060

Social Goal Orientations, Interpersonal Stress, and Depressive Symptoms among Early Adolescents in Japan: A Test of the Diathesis-Stress Model Using the Trichotomous Framework of Social Goal Orientations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuroda, Yuji; Sakurai, Shigeo

2011-01-01

This longitudinal study investigated whether depression among early adolescents (aged 12-14 years, N = 116; 65 girls) can be predicted by interactions between social goal orientations and interpersonal stress. Based on Kuroda and Sakurai (2001), this study applied Elliot and Harackiewicz's (1996) trichotomous framework of achievement goals to…

Enhancing Self-Efficacy and Performance: An Experimental Comparison of Psychological Techniques.

PubMed

Wright, Bradley James; O'Halloran, Paul Daniel; Stukas, Arthur Anthony

2016-01-01

We assessed how 6 psychological performance enhancement techniques (PETs) differentially improved self-efficacy (SE) and skill performance. We also assessed whether vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion as posited sources of SE (Bandura, 1982 ) were supported and, further, if the effects of the 6 PETs remained after controlling for achievement motivation traits and self-esteem. A within-subject design assessed each individual across 2 trials for 3 disparate PETs. A between-groups design assessed differences between PETs paired against each other for 3 similar novel tasks. Participants (N = 96) performed 2 trials of 10 attempts at each of the tasks (kick, throw, golf putt) in a counterbalanced sequence using their nondominant limb. Participants completed the Sport Orientation Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and General Self-Efficacy Scale and were randomly allocated to either the modeling or imagery, goal-setting or instructional self-statement, or knowledge-of-results or motivational feedback conditions aligned with each task. An instructional self-statement improved performance better than imagery, modeling, goal setting, and motivational and knowledge-of-results augmented feedback. Motivational auditory feedback most improved SE. Increased SE change scores were related to increased performance difference scores on all tasks after controlling for age, sex, achievement motivation, and self-esteem. Some sources of SE may be more influential than others on both SE and performance improvements. We provide partial support for the sources of SE proposed by Bandura's social-cognitive theory with verbal persuasion but not vicarious experiences improving SE.

Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement Goals: A Further Examination.

PubMed

Midgley, Carol; Urdan, Tim

2001-01-01

This study extends previous research on the relations among students' personal achievement goals, perceptions of the classroom goal structure, and reports of the use of self-handicapping strategies. Surveys, specific to the math domain, were given to 484 7th-grade students in nine middle schools. Personal performance-avoid goals positively predicted handicapping, whereas personal performance-approach goals did not. Personal task goals negatively predicted handicapping. Perceptions of a performance goal structure positively predicted handicapping, and perceptions of a task goal structure negatively predicted handicapping, independent of personal goals. Median splits used to examine multiple goal profiles revealed that students high in performance-avoid goals used handicapping more than did those low in performance-avoid goals regardless of the level of task goals. Students low in performance-avoid goals and high in task goals handicapped less than those low in both goals. Level of performance-approach goals had little effect on the relation between task goals and handicapping. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Achievement Goal Orientations of Community College Mathematics Students and the Misalignment of Instructor Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mesa, Vilma

2012-01-01

This study reports on the results of a survey of achievement goal orientations administered to a sample of 777 students enrolled in remedial and college-level mathematics courses at a community college. Results indicate that students' achievement goal orientations are consistent with adaptive learning patterns: Students are interested in…

Sex and Age Differences in Achievement Goal Orientations in Turkish Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Ertugrul; Topkaya, Nursel; Kürkçü, Recep

2016-01-01

Culture plays an important role in the achievement goal orientations of students, which may vary as they progress through their lifespan. However, research examining achievement goal orientations in the Turkish cultural context is scarce. Based on contextual and developmental theories, the aim of this study was to examine sex and age differences…

The Relation between Prospective Teachers' Goal Orientations and Academic E-Dishonesty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sicak, Ali; Arslan, Ali

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between prospective teachers' goal orientations and academic e-dishonesty behaviors, and also the effects of their goal orientations on academic e-dishonesty behaviors. This research was conducted with correlational method. Participants of the study were 669 prospective teachers attending at…

Teachers' Professional Goal Orientations: Importance for Further Training and Sick Leave

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nitsche, Sebastian; Dickhauser, Oliver; Fasching, Michaela S.; Dresel, Markus

2013-01-01

The present study examined the relevance of teachers' individual goal orientations for the attendance of further training and sick leave in the teaching profession. Regression analysis indicated a positive effect of learning goal orientation (i.e., the desire to improve one's teaching skills and knowledge) along with a negative effect of work…

The Relations between Filial Piety, Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Wei-Wen

2016-01-01

This study examined the relationships among filial piety, goal orientations, and academic achievement among Chinese students. A survey of 336 university students in Hong Kong was carried out to collect information on their filial piety beliefs, goal orientations and grade point averages. Structural equation modelling indicated that reciprocal…

Measuring Achievement Goal Orientations of Pharmacy Students

PubMed Central

Muthart, Thomas; Khan, Ghous M.

2014-01-01

Objectives. To measure the achievement goal orientations of pharmacy students attending a 3-year (accelerated) doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. Methods. A 16-item survey based on the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to first-year (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy (ACP). Students were instructed to indicate to what degree each statement was true for them using a 7-point Likert scale (1=not true of me, 7=very true of me). Results. One hundred twenty of the 155 students (77%) completed the survey. Most students had mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and/or performance-avoidance goal orientations; few had work-avoidance goal orientations. Second-year students and male students had higher work-avoidance mean scores than did P1 students and female students (p<0.05). Conclusion. Pharmacy students were mastery- and performance-oriented learners, and most did not have work-avoidance goal orientations. Male students and P2 students had higher work-avoidance than did female students and P1 students, respectively. More longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these findings. PMID:24761015

Effects of task-oriented robot training on arm function, activity, and quality of life in chronic stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Timmermans, Annick A A; Lemmens, Ryanne J M; Monfrance, Maurice; Geers, Richard P J; Bakx, Wilbert; Smeets, Rob J E M; Seelen, Henk A M

2014-03-31

Over fifty percent of stroke patients experience chronic arm hand performance problems, compromising independence in daily life activities and quality of life. Task-oriented training may improve arm hand performance after stroke, whereby augmented therapy may lead to a better treatment outcome. Technology-supported training holds opportunities for increasing training intensity. However, the effects of robot-supported task-oriented training with real life objects in stroke patients are not known to date. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness and added value of the Haptic Master robot combined with task-oriented arm hand training in chronic stroke patients. In a single-blind randomized controlled trial, 22 chronic stroke patients were randomly allocated to receive either task-oriented robot-assisted arm-hand training (experimental group) or task-oriented non-robotic arm-hand training (control group). For training, the T-TOAT (Technology-supported Task-Oriented Arm Training) method was applied. Training was provided during 8 weeks, 4 times/week, 2 × 30 min/day. A significant improvement after training on the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) was demonstrated in the experimental group (p = 0.008). Results were maintained until 6 months after cessation of the training. On the perceived performance measure (Motor Activity Log (MAL)), both, the experimental and control group improved significantly after training (control group p = 0.008; experimental group p = 0.013). The improvements on MAL in both groups were maintained until 6 months after cessation of the training. With regard to quality of life, only in the control group a significant improvement after training was found (EuroQol-5D p = 0.015, SF-36 physical p = 0.01). However, the improvement on SF-36 in the control group was not maintained (p = 0.012). No between-group differences could be demonstrated on any of the outcome measures. Arm hand performance improved in chronic stroke patients, after eight weeks of task oriented training. The use of a Haptic Master robot in support of task-oriented arm training did not show additional value over the video-instructed task-oriented exercises in highly functional stroke patients. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN82787126.

Both physical exercise and progressive muscle relaxation reduce the facing-the-viewer bias in biological motion perception.

PubMed

Heenan, Adam; Troje, Nikolaus F

2014-01-01

Biological motion stimuli, such as orthographically projected stick figure walkers, are ambiguous about their orientation in depth. The projection of a stick figure walker oriented towards the viewer, therefore, is the same as its projection when oriented away. Even though such figures are depth-ambiguous, however, observers tend to interpret them as facing towards them more often than facing away. Some have speculated that this facing-the-viewer bias may exist for sociobiological reasons: Mistaking another human as retreating when they are actually approaching could have more severe consequences than the opposite error. Implied in this hypothesis is that the facing-towards percept of biological motion stimuli is potentially more threatening. Measures of anxiety and the facing-the-viewer bias should therefore be related, as researchers have consistently found that anxious individuals display an attentional bias towards more threatening stimuli. The goal of this study was to assess whether physical exercise (Experiment 1) or an anxiety induction/reduction task (Experiment 2) would significantly affect facing-the-viewer biases. We hypothesized that both physical exercise and progressive muscle relaxation would decrease facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers, but not for bottom- or top-half-only human stimuli, as these carry less sociobiological relevance. On the other hand, we expected that the anxiety induction task (Experiment 2) would increase facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers only. In both experiments, participants completed anxiety questionnaires, exercised on a treadmill (Experiment 1) or performed an anxiety induction/reduction task (Experiment 2), and then immediately completed a perceptual task that allowed us to assess their facing-the-viewer bias. As hypothesized, we found that physical exercise and progressive muscle relaxation reduced facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers only. Our results provide further support that the facing-the-viewer bias for biological motion stimuli is related to the sociobiological relevance of such stimuli.

Both Physical Exercise and Progressive Muscle Relaxation Reduce the Facing-the-Viewer Bias in Biological Motion Perception

PubMed Central

Heenan, Adam; Troje, Nikolaus F.

2014-01-01

Biological motion stimuli, such as orthographically projected stick figure walkers, are ambiguous about their orientation in depth. The projection of a stick figure walker oriented towards the viewer, therefore, is the same as its projection when oriented away. Even though such figures are depth-ambiguous, however, observers tend to interpret them as facing towards them more often than facing away. Some have speculated that this facing-the-viewer bias may exist for sociobiological reasons: Mistaking another human as retreating when they are actually approaching could have more severe consequences than the opposite error. Implied in this hypothesis is that the facing-towards percept of biological motion stimuli is potentially more threatening. Measures of anxiety and the facing-the-viewer bias should therefore be related, as researchers have consistently found that anxious individuals display an attentional bias towards more threatening stimuli. The goal of this study was to assess whether physical exercise (Experiment 1) or an anxiety induction/reduction task (Experiment 2) would significantly affect facing-the-viewer biases. We hypothesized that both physical exercise and progressive muscle relaxation would decrease facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers, but not for bottom- or top-half-only human stimuli, as these carry less sociobiological relevance. On the other hand, we expected that the anxiety induction task (Experiment 2) would increase facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers only. In both experiments, participants completed anxiety questionnaires, exercised on a treadmill (Experiment 1) or performed an anxiety induction/reduction task (Experiment 2), and then immediately completed a perceptual task that allowed us to assess their facing-the-viewer bias. As hypothesized, we found that physical exercise and progressive muscle relaxation reduced facing-the-viewer biases for full stick figure walkers only. Our results provide further support that the facing-the-viewer bias for biological motion stimuli is related to the sociobiological relevance of such stimuli. PMID:24987956

A Framework for a Supervisory Expert System for Robotic Manipulators with Joint-Position Limits and Joint-Rate Limits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mutambara, Arthur G. O.; Litt, Jonathan

1998-01-01

This report addresses the problem of path planning and control of robotic manipulators which have joint-position limits and joint-rate limits. The manipulators move autonomously and carry out variable tasks in a dynamic, unstructured and cluttered environment. The issue considered is whether the robotic manipulator can achieve all its tasks, and if it cannot, the objective is to identify the closest achievable goal. This problem is formalized and systematically solved for generic manipulators by using inverse kinematics and forward kinematics. Inverse kinematics are employed to define the subspace, workspace and constrained workspace, which are then used to identify when a task is not achievable. The closest achievable goal is obtained by determining weights for an optimal control redistribution scheme. These weights are quantified by using forward kinematics. Conditions leading to joint rate limits are identified, in particular it is established that all generic manipulators have singularities at the boundary of their workspace, while some have loci of singularities inside their workspace. Once the manipulator singularity is identified the command redistribution scheme is used to compute the closest achievable Cartesian velocities. Two examples are used to illustrate the use of the algorithm: A three link planar manipulator and the Unimation Puma 560. Implementation of the derived algorithm is effected by using a supervisory expert system to check whether the desired goal lies in the constrained workspace and if not, to evoke the redistribution scheme which determines the constraint relaxation between end effector position and orientation, and then computes optimal gains.

Dual-task results and the lateralization of spatial orientation: artifact of test selection?

PubMed

Bowers, C A; Milham, L M; Price, C

1998-01-01

An investigation was conducted to identify the degree to which results regarding the lateralization of spatial orientation among men and women are artifacts of test selection. A dual-task design was used to study possible lateralization differences, providing baseline and dual-task measures of spatial-orientation performance, right- and left-hand tapping, and vocalization of "cat, dog, horse." The Guilford-Zimmerman Test (Guilford & Zimmerman, 1953), the Eliot-Price Test (Eliot & Price, 1976), and the Stumpf-Fay Cube Perspectives Test (Stumpf & Fay, 1983) were the three spatial-orientation tests used to investigate possible artifacts of test selection. Twenty-eight right-handed male and 39 right-handed female undergraduates completed random baseline and dual-task sessions. Analyses indicated no significant sex-related differences in spatial-orientation ability for all three tests. Furthermore, there was no evidence of differential lateralization of spatial orientation between the sexes.

Goal-directed mechanisms that constrain retrieval predict subsequent memory for new "foil" information.

PubMed

Vogelsang, David A; Bonnici, Heidi M; Bergström, Zara M; Ranganath, Charan; Simons, Jon S

2016-08-01

To remember a previous event, it is often helpful to use goal-directed control processes to constrain what comes to mind during retrieval. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that incidental learning of new "foil" words in a recognition test is superior if the participant is trying to remember studied items that were semantically encoded compared to items that were non-semantically encoded. Here, we applied subsequent memory analysis to fMRI data to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the "foil effect". Participants encoded information during deep semantic and shallow non-semantic tasks and were tested in a subsequent blocked memory task to examine how orienting retrieval towards different types of information influences the incidental encoding of new words presented as foils during the memory test phase. To assess memory for foils, participants performed a further surprise old/new recognition test involving foil words that were encountered during the previous memory test blocks as well as completely new words. Subsequent memory effects, distinguishing successful versus unsuccessful incidental encoding of foils, were observed in regions that included the left inferior frontal gyrus and posterior parietal cortex. The left inferior frontal gyrus exhibited disproportionately larger subsequent memory effects for semantic than non-semantic foils, and significant overlap in activity during semantic, but not non-semantic, initial encoding and foil encoding. The results suggest that orienting retrieval towards different types of foils involves re-implementing the neurocognitive processes that were involved during initial encoding. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Perceptual learning of basic visual features remains task specific with Training-Plus-Exposure (TPE) training.

PubMed

Cong, Lin-Juan; Wang, Ru-Jie; Yu, Cong; Zhang, Jun-Yun

2016-01-01

Visual perceptual learning is known to be specific to the trained retinal location, feature, and task. However, location and feature specificity can be eliminated by double-training or TPE training protocols, in which observers receive additional exposure to the transfer location or feature dimension via an irrelevant task besides the primary learning task Here we tested whether these new training protocols could even make learning transfer across different tasks involving discrimination of basic visual features (e.g., orientation and contrast). Observers practiced a near-threshold orientation (or contrast) discrimination task. Following a TPE training protocol, they also received exposure to the transfer task via performing suprathreshold contrast (or orientation) discrimination in alternating blocks of trials in the same sessions. The results showed no evidence for significant learning transfer to the untrained near-threshold contrast (or orientation) discrimination task after discounting the pretest effects and the suprathreshold practice effects. These results thus do not support a hypothetical task-independent component in perceptual learning of basic visual features. They also set the boundary of the new training protocols in their capability to enable learning transfer.

College Students' Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life: An Achievement Goal Perspective.

PubMed

Zhang, Tao; Xiang, Ping; Gu, Xiangli; Rose, Melanie

2016-06-01

The 2 × 2 achievement goal model, including the mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goal orientations, has recently been used to explain motivational outcomes in physical activity. This study attempted to examine the relationships among 2 × 2 achievement goal orientations, physical activity, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in college students. Participants were 325 students (130 men and 195 women; Mage = 21.4 years) enrolled in physical activity classes at a Southern university. They completed surveys validated in previous research assessing achievement goal orientations, physical activity, and HRQOL. Path analyses revealed a good fit between the model and data (root mean square error of approximation = .06; Comparative Fit Index = .99; Bentler-Bonett Nonnormed Fit Index = .98; Incremental Fit Index = .99), but the model explained small variances in the current study. Mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientations only had low or no relationships with physical activity. Mastery-approach goal orientation and physical activity also had low positive relationships with HRQOL, but mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance goal orientations had low negative relationships with HRQOL. The hypothesized mediational role of physical activity in the relationship between mastery-approach and performance-approach goal orientations and HRQOL was not supported in this study. Although the data fit the proposed model well, only small variance was explained by the model. The relationship between physical activity and HRQOL of the college students and other related correlates should be further studied.

Achievement Goals in a Presentation Task: Performance Expectancy, Achievement Goals, State Anxiety, and Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanaka, Ayumi; Takehara, Takuma; Yamauchi, Hirotsugu

2006-01-01

The aims of the study were to test the linkages between achievement goals to task performance, as mediated by state anxiety arousal. Performance expectancy was also examined as antecedents of achievement goals. A presentation task in a computer practice class was used as achievement task. Fifty-three undergraduates (37 females and 16 males) were…

Research on Intelligent Synthesis Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Dryer, David; Major, Debra; Fletcher, Tom

2002-01-01

The ultimate goal of this research project is to develop a methodology for the assessment and continuous improvement of engineering team effectiveness in distributed collaborative environments. This review provides the theoretical foundation upon which subsequent empirical work will be based. Our review of the team performance literature has identified the following 12 conceptually distinct team interaction processes as characteristic of effective teams. 1) Mission Analysis; 2) Resource Distribution; 3) Leadership; 4) Timing; 5) Intra-team Feedback; 6) Motivational Functions; 7) Team Orientation; 8) Communication; 9) Coordination; 10) Mutual Performance Monitoring; 11) Back-up Behaviors; and 12) Cooperation. In addition, this review summarizes how team task characteristics (i.e., task type, task complexity, motivation, and temporal changes), team characteristics (i.e., team structure and team knowledge), and individual team member characteristics (i.e., dispositions and teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities) affect team interaction processes, determine the relevance of these processes, and influence team performance. The costs and benefits of distributed team collaboration are also considered. The review concludes with a brief discussion of the nature of collaborative team engineering tasks.

Research on Intelligent Synthesis Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loftin, R. Bowen; Dryer, David; Major, Debra; Fletcher, Tom

2002-10-01

The ultimate goal of this research project is to develop a methodology for the assessment and continuous improvement of engineering team effectiveness in distributed collaborative environments. This review provides the theoretical foundation upon which subsequent empirical work will be based. Our review of the team performance literature has identified the following 12 conceptually distinct team interaction processes as characteristic of effective teams. 1) Mission Analysis; 2) Resource Distribution; 3) Leadership; 4) Timing; 5) Intra-team Feedback; 6) Motivational Functions; 7) Team Orientation; 8) Communication; 9) Coordination; 10) Mutual Performance Monitoring; 11) Back-up Behaviors; and 12) Cooperation. In addition, this review summarizes how team task characteristics (i.e., task type, task complexity, motivation, and temporal changes), team characteristics (i.e., team structure and team knowledge), and individual team member characteristics (i.e., dispositions and teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities) affect team interaction processes, determine the relevance of these processes, and influence team performance. The costs and benefits of distributed team collaboration are also considered. The review concludes with a brief discussion of the nature of collaborative team engineering tasks.

Task-oriented treadmill exercise training in chronic hemiparetic stroke

PubMed Central

Ivey, Frederick M.; Hafer-Macko, Charlene E.; Macko, Richard F.

2010-01-01

Patients with stroke have elevated hemiparetic gait costs secondary to low activity levels and are often severely deconditioned. Decrements in peak aerobic capacity affect functional ability and cardiovascular-metabolic health and may be partially mediated by molecular changes in hemiparetic skeletal muscle. Conventional rehabilitation is time delimited in the subacute stroke phase and does not provide adequate aerobic intensity to reverse the profound detriments to fitness and function that result from stroke. Hence, we have studied progressive full body weight-support treadmill (TM) training as an adjunct therapy in the chronic stroke phase. Task-oriented TM training has produced measurable changes in fitness, function, and indices of cardiovascular-metabolic health after stroke, but the precise mechanisms for these changes remain under investigation. Further, the optimal dose of this therapy has yet to be identified for individuals with stroke and may vary as a function of deficit severity and outcome goals. This article summarizes the functional and metabolic decline caused by inactivity after stroke and provides current evidence that supports the use of TM training during the chronic stroke phase, with protocols and inclusion/exclusion criteria described. Our research findings are discussed in relation to associated research. PMID:18566943

Optimal service distribution in WSN service system subject to data security constraints.

PubMed

Wu, Zhao; Xiong, Naixue; Huang, Yannong; Gu, Qiong

2014-08-04

Services composition technology provides a flexible approach to building Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Service Applications (WSA) in a service oriented tasking system for WSN. Maintaining the data security of WSA is one of the most important goals in sensor network research. In this paper, we consider a WSN service oriented tasking system in which the WSN Services Broker (WSB), as the resource management center, can map the service request from user into a set of atom-services (AS) and send them to some independent sensor nodes (SN) for parallel execution. The distribution of ASs among these SNs affects the data security as well as the reliability and performance of WSA because these SNs can be of different and independent specifications. By the optimal service partition into the ASs and their distribution among SNs, the WSB can provide the maximum possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. This paper proposes an algorithm of optimal service partition and distribution based on the universal generating function (UGF) and the genetic algorithm (GA) approach. The experimental analysis is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the suggested algorithm.

Do psychobiosocial states mediate the relationship between perceived motivational climate and individual motivation in youngsters?

PubMed

Bortoli, Laura; Bertollo, Maurizio; Filho, Edson; Robazza, Claudio

2014-01-01

Grounded in achievement goal theory and self-determination theory, this cross-sectional study examined the relationship between perceived motivational climate and individuals' motivation as well as the mediation effect of psychobiosocial states as conceptualised within the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model. Young students (N = 167, age range 14-15 years) taking part in physical education classes completed measures of teacher-initiated motivational climate, task and ego orientation, motivation and psychobiosocial states. Simple and serial mediation analyses indicated that a perceived mastery climate and individuals' task orientation were related to intrinsic motivation and identified regulation through the mediation of pleasant/functional psychobiosocial states. In contrast, a perceived performance climate was related to external regulation and amotivation through the mediation of unpleasant/dysfunctional psychobiosocial states. Regression analysis results also showed that discrete psychobiosocial states accounted for a significant proportion of variance in motivational variables. Taken together, findings highlight the role of psychobiosocial states as mediators of the relationship between motivational climate and an individual's motivation, and suggest that educators should consider a wide range of individual's functional and dysfunctional reactions deriving from their instructional activity.

Optimal Service Distribution in WSN Service System Subject to Data Security Constraints

PubMed Central

Wu, Zhao; Xiong, Naixue; Huang, Yannong; Gu, Qiong

2014-01-01

Services composition technology provides a flexible approach to building Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Service Applications (WSA) in a service oriented tasking system for WSN. Maintaining the data security of WSA is one of the most important goals in sensor network research. In this paper, we consider a WSN service oriented tasking system in which the WSN Services Broker (WSB), as the resource management center, can map the service request from user into a set of atom-services (AS) and send them to some independent sensor nodes (SN) for parallel execution. The distribution of ASs among these SNs affects the data security as well as the reliability and performance of WSA because these SNs can be of different and independent specifications. By the optimal service partition into the ASs and their distribution among SNs, the WSB can provide the maximum possible service reliability and/or expected performance subject to data security constraints. This paper proposes an algorithm of optimal service partition and distribution based on the universal generating function (UGF) and the genetic algorithm (GA) approach. The experimental analysis is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the suggested algorithm. PMID:25093346

Electroencephalography (EEG) forward modeling via H(div) finite element sources with focal interpolation.

PubMed

Pursiainen, S; Vorwerk, J; Wolters, C H

2016-12-21

The goal of this study is to develop focal, accurate and robust finite element method (FEM) based approaches which can predict the electric potential on the surface of the computational domain given its structure and internal primary source current distribution. While conducting an EEG evaluation, the placement of source currents to the geometrically complex grey matter compartment is a challenging but necessary task to avoid forward errors attributable to tissue conductivity jumps. Here, this task is approached via a mathematically rigorous formulation, in which the current field is modeled via divergence conforming H(div) basis functions. Both linear and quadratic functions are used while the potential field is discretized via the standard linear Lagrangian (nodal) basis. The resulting model includes dipolar sources which are interpolated into a random set of positions and orientations utilizing two alternative approaches: the position based optimization (PBO) and the mean position/orientation (MPO) method. These results demonstrate that the present dipolar approach can reach or even surpass, at least in some respects, the accuracy of two classical reference methods, the partial integration (PI) and St. Venant (SV) approach which utilize monopolar loads instead of dipolar currents.

Multiple goals, motivation and academic learning.

PubMed

Valle, Antonio; Cabanach, Ramón G; Núnez, José C; González-Pienda, Julio; Rodríguez, Susana; Piñeiro, Isabel

2003-03-01

The type of academic goals pursued by students is one of the most important variables in motivational research in educational contexts. Although motivational theory and research have emphasised the somewhat exclusive nature of two types of goal orientation (learning goals versus performance goals), some studies (Meece, 1994; Seifert, 1995, 1996) have shown that the two kinds of goals are relatively complementary and that it is possible for students to have multiple goals simultaneously, which guarantees some flexibility to adapt more efficaciously to various contexts and learning situations. The principal aim of this study is to determine the academic goals pursued by university students and to analyse the differences in several very significant variables related to motivation and academic learning. Participants were 609 university students (74% women and 26% men) who filled in several questionnaires about the variables under study. We used cluster analysis ('quick cluster analysis' method) to establish the different groups or clusters of individuals as a function of the three types of goals (learning goals, performance goals, and social reinforcement goals). By means of MANOVA, we determined whether the groups or clusters identified were significantly different in the variables that are relevant to motivation and academic learning. Lastly, we performed ANOVA on the variables that revealed significant effects in the previous analysis. Using cluster analysis, three groups of students with different motivational orientations were identified: a group with predominance of performance goals (Group PG: n = 230), a group with predominance of multiple goals (Group MG: n = 238), and a group with predominance of learning goals (Group LG: n = 141). Groups MG and LG attributed their success more to ability, they had higher perceived ability, they took task characteristics into account when planning which strategies to use in the learning process, they showed higher persistence, and used more deep learning strategies than did the students with predominance of performance goals (Group PG). On the other hand, Groups MG and PG took the evaluation criteria more into account when deciding which strategies to use in order to learn, and they attributed their failures more to luck than did Group LG. Students from Group MG attributed their success more to effort than did the other two groups and they attained higher achievement than Group PG. Group LG tended to attribute their failures more to lack of effort than did the other two groups.

Goal Orientation, Academic Achievement, and Depression: Evidence in Favor of a Revised Goal Theory Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sideridis, Georgios D.

2005-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate and expand the goal-orientation model of depression vulnerability proposed by B. M. Dykman (1998), which posits that a performance orientation creates a vulnerability to depression through repeated failure. This hypothesis was tested in 5 studies with students in Grades 5 and 6. A…

Role Ambiguity and Self-Efficacy: The Moderating Effects of Goal Orientation and Procedural Justice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Andrew; Bagger, Jessica

2008-01-01

The present study investigated variables that moderated the relationship between role ambiguity and self-efficacy. Results of a field study found support for the moderating role of learning goal orientation, such that the relationship between role ambiguity and self-efficacy was weaker when learning goal orientation was high. In addition, we found…

Developing Instruments Concerning Scientific Epistemic Beliefs and Goal Orientations in Learning Science: A Validation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Tzung-Jin; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate two survey instruments to evaluate high school students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science. The initial relationships between the sampled students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science were also investigated. A final valid…

Goal Orientations and Perceptions of the Motivational Climate in Physical Education Classes among Colombian Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Jairo; Salguero, Alfonso; Marquez, Sara

2008-01-01

This study examined the relationships of achievement goal orientations and perceptions of the motivational climate in physical education classes among Colombian students, and tested gender and age differences in goal orientations and perceived motivational climate. Participants (1378 boys and 1615 girls, ranging in age from 9 to 18 yr) completed…

Investigation the Relationship between Goal Orientation and Parenting Styles among Sample of Jordanian University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahasneh, Ahmad M.

2014-01-01

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between goal orientation and parenting styles. Participants of the study completed 650 goal orientation and parenting styles questionnaires. Means, standard deviations, regression and correlation analysis were used for data in establishing the dependence of the two variables. Results…

Goal Orientations Predict Academic Performance beyond Intelligence and Personality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinmayr, Ricarda; Bipp, Tanja; Spinath, Birgit

2011-01-01

Goal orientations are thought to be an important predictor of scholastic achievement. The present paper investigated the joint influence of goal orientations, intelligence, and personality on school performance in a sample of N=520 11th and 12th graders (303 female; mean age M=16.94 years). Intelligence, the Big Five factors of personality…

Academic Identity Status, Goal Orientation, and Academic Achievement among High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hejazi, Elaheh; Lavasani, Masoud Gholamali; Amani, Habib; Was, Christopher A.

2012-01-01

The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between academic identity status, goal orientations and academic achievement. 301 first year high school students completed the Academic Identity Measure and Goal Orientation Questionnaire. The average of 10 exam scores in the final semester was used as an index of academic…

Indirect Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Comparison of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, Viewing Time, and Choice Reaction Time Tasks.

PubMed

Rönspies, Jelena; Schmidt, Alexander F; Melnikova, Anna; Krumova, Rosina; Zolfagari, Asadeh; Banse, Rainer

2015-07-01

The present study was conducted to validate an adaptation of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as an indirect latency-based measure of sexual orientation. Furthermore, reliability and criterion validity of the IRAP were compared to two established indirect measures of sexual orientation: a Choice Reaction Time task (CRT) and a Viewing Time (VT) task. A sample of 87 heterosexual and 35 gay men completed all three indirect measures in an online study. The IRAP and the VT predicted sexual orientation nearly perfectly. Both measures also showed a considerable amount of convergent validity. Reliabilities (internal consistencies) reached satisfactory levels. In contrast, the CRT did not tap into sexual orientation in the present study. In sum, the VT measure performed best, with the IRAP showing only slightly lower reliability and criterion validity, whereas the CRT did not yield any evidence of reliability or criterion validity in the present research. The results were discussed in the light of specific task properties of the indirect latency-based measures (task-relevance vs. task-irrelevance).

Synthetic Synchronisation: From Attention and Multi-Tasking to Negative Capability and Judgment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stables, Andrew

2013-01-01

Educational literature has tended to focus, explicitly and implicitly, on two kinds of task orientation: the ability either to focus on a single task, or to multi-task. A third form of orientation characterises many highly successful people. This is the ability to combine several tasks into one: to "kill two (or more) birds with one…

The Changing Role of Health Care Professionals in Nursing Homes: A Systematic Literature Review of a Decade of Change

PubMed Central

van Stenis, Arend R.; van Wingerden, Jessica; Kolkhuis Tanke, Isolde

2017-01-01

Although the role of health care professionals is known to have changed over the last years, few formal efforts have been made to examine this change through means of a scientific review. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to investigate the changing role of health care professionals in nursing homes, as well as the conditions that make this change possible. A systematic review of health care literature published in the last decade (2007–2017) was utilized to address these goals. Our findings suggest that although health care in nursing homes is shifting from task-oriented care to relation-oriented care (e.g., through an increased focus on patient dignity), various obstacles (e.g., negative self-image, work pressure, and a lack of developmental opportunities), needs (e.g., shared values, personal development, personal empowerment, team development, and demonstrating expertise), and competences (e.g., communication skills, attentiveness, negotiation skills, flexibility, teamwork, expertise, and coaching and leadership skills) still need to be addressed in order to successfully facilitate this change. As such, this paper provides various implications for health care research, health care institutions, practitioners, HR professionals and managers, and occupational health research. PMID:29184529

Attention Bias Modification (ABM): Review of Effects of Multisession ABM Training on Anxiety and Threat-Related Attention in High-Anxious Individuals

PubMed Central

Mogg, Karin; Waters, Allison M.; Bradley, Brendan P.

2017-01-01

Attention bias modification (ABM) aims to reduce anxiety by reducing attention bias (AB) to threat; however, effects on anxiety and AB are variable. This review examines 34 studies assessing effects of multisession-ABM on both anxiety and AB in high-anxious individuals. Methods include ABM-threat-avoidance (promoting attention-orienting away from threat), ABM-positive-search (promoting explicit, goal-directed attention-search for positive/nonthreat targets among negative/threat distractors), and comparison conditions (e.g., control-attention training combining threat-cue exposure and attention-task practice without AB-modification). Findings indicate anxiety reduction often occurs during both ABM-threat-avoidance and control-attention training; anxiety reduction is not consistently accompanied by AB reduction; anxious individuals often show no pretraining AB in orienting toward threat; and ABM-positive-search training appears promising in reducing anxiety. Methodological and theoretical issues are discussed concerning ABM paradigms, comparison conditions, and AB assessment. ABM methods combining explicit goal-directed attention-search for nonthreat/positive information and effortful threat-distractor inhibition (promoting top-down cognitive control during threat-cue exposure) warrant further evaluation. PMID:28752017

Attention improves encoding of task-relevant features in the human visual cortex

PubMed Central

Jehee, Janneke F.M.; Brady, Devin K.; Tong, Frank

2011-01-01

When spatial attention is directed towards a particular stimulus, increased activity is commonly observed in corresponding locations of the visual cortex. Does this attentional increase in activity indicate improved processing of all features contained within the attended stimulus, or might spatial attention selectively enhance the features relevant to the observer’s task? We used fMRI decoding methods to measure the strength of orientation-selective activity patterns in the human visual cortex while subjects performed either an orientation or contrast discrimination task, involving one of two laterally presented gratings. Greater overall BOLD activation with spatial attention was observed in areas V1-V4 for both tasks. However, multivariate pattern analysis revealed that orientation-selective responses were enhanced by attention only when orientation was the task-relevant feature, and not when the grating’s contrast had to be attended. In a second experiment, observers discriminated the orientation or color of a specific lateral grating. Here, orientation-selective responses were enhanced in both tasks but color-selective responses were enhanced only when color was task-relevant. In both experiments, task-specific enhancement of feature-selective activity was not confined to the attended stimulus location, but instead spread to other locations in the visual field, suggesting the concurrent involvement of a global feature-based attentional mechanism. These results suggest that attention can be remarkably selective in its ability to enhance particular task-relevant features, and further reveal that increases in overall BOLD amplitude are not necessarily accompanied by improved processing of stimulus information. PMID:21632942

Attention improves encoding of task-relevant features in the human visual cortex.

PubMed

Jehee, Janneke F M; Brady, Devin K; Tong, Frank

2011-06-01

When spatial attention is directed toward a particular stimulus, increased activity is commonly observed in corresponding locations of the visual cortex. Does this attentional increase in activity indicate improved processing of all features contained within the attended stimulus, or might spatial attention selectively enhance the features relevant to the observer's task? We used fMRI decoding methods to measure the strength of orientation-selective activity patterns in the human visual cortex while subjects performed either an orientation or contrast discrimination task, involving one of two laterally presented gratings. Greater overall BOLD activation with spatial attention was observed in visual cortical areas V1-V4 for both tasks. However, multivariate pattern analysis revealed that orientation-selective responses were enhanced by attention only when orientation was the task-relevant feature and not when the contrast of the grating had to be attended. In a second experiment, observers discriminated the orientation or color of a specific lateral grating. Here, orientation-selective responses were enhanced in both tasks, but color-selective responses were enhanced only when color was task relevant. In both experiments, task-specific enhancement of feature-selective activity was not confined to the attended stimulus location but instead spread to other locations in the visual field, suggesting the concurrent involvement of a global feature-based attentional mechanism. These results suggest that attention can be remarkably selective in its ability to enhance particular task-relevant features and further reveal that increases in overall BOLD amplitude are not necessarily accompanied by improved processing of stimulus information.

The relationship between general measures of fitness, passive range of motion and whole-body movement quality.

PubMed

Frost, David; Andersen, Jordan; Lam, Thomas; Finlay, Tim; Darby, Kevin; McGill, Stuart

2013-01-01

The goal of this study was to establish relationships between fitness (torso endurance, grip strength and pull-ups), hip range of motion (ROM) (extension, flexion, internal and external rotation) and movement quality in an occupational group with physical work demands. Fifty-three men from the emergency task force of a major city police force were investigated. The movement screen comprised standing and seated posture, gait, segmental spine motion and 14 tasks designed to challenge whole-body coordination. Relationships were established between each whole-body movement task, the measures of strength, endurance and ROM. In general, fitness and ROM were not strongly related to the movement quality of any task. This has implications for worker training, in that strategies developed to improve ROM or strength about a joint may not enhance movement quality. Worker-centered injury prevention can be described as fitting workers to tasks by improving fitness and modifying movement patterns; however, the current results show weak correlations between strength, endurance and ROM, and the way individuals move. Therefore, the development of occupation-specific injury prevention strategies may require both fitness and movement-oriented objectives.

Task-Oriented Gaming for Transfer to Prosthesis Use.

PubMed

van Dijk, Ludger; van der Sluis, Corry K; van Dijk, Hylke W; Bongers, Raoul M

2016-12-01

The aim of this study is to establish the effect of task-oriented video gaming on using a myoelectric prosthesis in a basic activity of daily life (ADL). Forty-one able-bodied right-handed participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. In three of these groups the participants trained to control a video game using the myosignals of the flexors and extensors of the wrist: in the Adaptive Catching group participants needed to catch falling objects by opening and closing a grabber and received ADL-relevant feedback during performance. The Free Catching group used the same game, but without augmented feedback. The Interceptive Catching group trained a game where the goal was to intercept a falling object by moving a grabber to the left and right. They received no additional feedback. The control group played a regular Mario computer game. All groups trained 20 minutes a day for four consecutive days. Two tests were conducted before and after training: one level of the training game was performed, and participants grasped objects with a prosthesis simulator. Results showed all groups improved their game performance over controls. In the prosthesis-simulator task, after training the Adaptive Catching group outperformed the other groups in their ability to adjust the hand aperture to the size of the objects and the degree of compression of compressible objects. This study is the first to demonstrate transfer effects from a serious game to a myoelectric prosthesis task. The specificity of the learning effects suggests that research into serious gaming will benefit from placing ADL-specific constraints on game development.

The scaling behavior of hand motions reveals self-organization during an executive function task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anastas, Jason R.; Stephen, Damian G.; Dixon, James A.

2011-05-01

Recent approaches to cognition explain cognitive phenomena in terms of interaction-dominant dynamics. In the current experiment, we extend this approach to executive function, a construct used to describe flexible, goal-oriented behavior. Participants were asked to perform a widely used executive function task, card sorting, under two conditions. In one condition, participants were given a rule with which to sort the cards. In the other condition, participants had to induce the rule from experimenter feedback. The motion of each participant’s hand was tracked during the sorting task. Detrended fluctuation analysis was performed on the inter-point time series using a windowing strategy to capture changes over each trial. For participants in the induction condition, the Hurst exponent sharply increased and then decreased. The Hurst exponents for the explicit condition did not show this pattern. Our results suggest that executive function may be understood in terms of changes in stability that arise from interaction-dominant dynamics.

The influence of focused-attention meditation states on the cognitive control of sequence learning.

PubMed

Chan, Russell W; Immink, Maarten A; Lushington, Kurt

2017-10-01

Cognitive control processes influence how motor sequence information is utilised and represented. Since cognitive control processes are shared amongst goal-oriented tasks, motor sequence learning and performance might be influenced by preceding cognitive tasks such as focused-attention meditation (FAM). Prior to a serial reaction time task (SRTT), participants completed either a single-session of FAM, a single-session of FAM followed by delay (FAM+) or no meditation (CONTROL). Relative to CONTROL, FAM benefitted performance in early, random-ordered blocks. However, across subsequent sequence learning blocks, FAM+ supported the highest levels of performance improvement resulting in superior performance at the end of the SRTT. Performance following FAM+ demonstrated greater reliance on embedded sequence structures than FAM. These findings illustrate that increased top-down control immediately after FAM biases the implementation of stimulus-based planning. Introduction of a delay following FAM relaxes top-down control allowing for implementation of response-based planning resulting in sequence learning benefits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Identifying achievement goals and their relationship to academic achievement in undergraduate pharmacy students.

PubMed

Alrakaf, Saleh; Sainsbury, Erica; Rose, Grenville; Smith, Lorraine

2014-09-15

To compare the achievement goal orientations of first-year with those of third-year undergraduate Australian pharmacy students and to examine the relationship of goal orientations to academic achievement. The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to first-year and third-year students during class time. Students' grades were obtained from course coordinators. More first-year students adopted performance-approach and mastery-approach goals than did third-year students. Performance-approach goals were positively correlated with academic achievement in the first year. Chinese Australian students scored the highest in adopting performance-approach goals. Vietnamese Australian students adopted mastery-avoidance goals more than other ethnicities. First-year students were more strongly performance approach goal-oriented than third-year students. Adopting performance-approach goals was positively correlated with academic achievement, while adopting avoidance goals was not. Ethnicity has an effect on the adoption of achievement goals and academic achievement.

The effects of proportional representation and gender orientation of the task on emergent leadership behavior in mixed-gender work groups.

PubMed

Karakowsky, L; Siegel, J P

1999-08-01

Much of the research that has examined the behavioral consequences of membership in mixed-gender work groups suggests that men are more participative and influential in task-related behavior. Drawing from elements of sociological, structural, and psychological perspectives, this study examined the effects of group gender composition and gender orientation of the group's task on patterns of emergent leadership behavior. Participants were assigned to male-dominated, female-dominated, or balanced-gender groups for the purpose of discussing and generating solutions for two business-related cases--each case emphasized either male-oriented or female-oriented expertise. The findings suggest that the proportional representation of men and women in a work group, along with the gender orientation of the group's task, can significantly influence the level of leadership behavior exhibited in group activity.

Women's leadership in the Public Dental Service in Finland.

PubMed

Alestalo, Paula; Widstrom, Eeva

2012-06-01

This study aimed to examine how leadership positions in the Public Dental Service (PDS) were distributed between women and men and how the female and male lead dentists perceived themselves as managers or leaders and whether their superiors, the leading doctors and municipal decision makers or their subordinates, the public dentists, found differences between female and male lead dentists as leaders. Gender aspects on the leadership qualities of the lead dentists in the Public Dental Service were evaluated by four professional groups using a questionnaire. The groups surveyed were: lead dentists (in charge of the municipal PDS clinics), leading doctors (lead dentists'line managers), the directors of municipal health boards, and the PDS dentists (subordinates to the lead dentists). Factor analysis, chi-square and non-parametric tests were used to analyse the data gathered. Women made up 50% (96/192) of the lead dentists, 80% (211/263) of the public dentists, 31% (47/152) of the leading doctors, and 27% (33/124) of directors of the municipal health boards (P<0.001). Nearly all female (92%; 86/93) and 78% (70/90) of the male lead dentists considered themselves to be good people-oriented leaders (P<0.01) and three-quarters of the men (74%; 67/90) and 59% (54/92) of the women good goal-oriented managers (P<0.05). In the eyes of their nearest superiors, the female and male lead dentists were rated equally; they were given scores as goal-oriented managers, people-oriented leaders (both medians= 3.2 on a scale from 1 to 4), and their ability (median=3.5) to take care of their tasks. Their decision authority, power in municipal decision-making (median=2.8), was considered weaker. Most, 67% (70/105), of the PDS dentists evaluated their female superiors and 50% (75/150) their male superiors good as goal-oriented managers (P<0.001), and 51% (54/105) considered their female superiors and 35% (53/150) their male superiors good as people-oriented leaders (P<0.05). Female dentists had not become lead dentists in proportion to their numbers in the PDS. Those who had a leading position felt that they were good leaders, their superiors considered them as good as their male colleagues, and their subordinates felt they were better.

Validation of the Chinese Version of the Social Achievement Goal Orientation Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Yanhua; Zhu, Xiangru; Zhao, Guoxiang

2016-01-01

This study examined the validity of a Chinese version of the Social Achievement Goal Orientation Scale (C-SAGOS), a measure testing the trichotomous framework of achievement goal orientations in a social domain. A total of 208 college students (51% female) aged 18 to 23 participated in the study. Factor analyses showed that the three-factor model…

Understanding Student Goal Orientation Tendencies to Predict Student Performance: A 2x2 Achievement Goal Orientation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Mark Alan

2013-01-01

The study tested the 2X2 model of the Achievement Goal Orientation (AGO) theory in a military technical training environment while using the Air Force Officers Qualifying Test's academic aptitude score to control for the differences in the students' academic aptitude. The study method was quantitative and the design was correlational.…

Methodology for identifying and representing knowledge in the scope of CMM inspection resource selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez, S.; Barreiro, J.; Cuesta, E.; Álvarez, B. J.; González, D.

2012-04-01

This paper is focused on the task of elicitation and structuring of knowledge related to selection of inspection resources. The final goal is to obtain an informal model of knowledge oriented to the inspection planning in coordinate measuring machines. In the first tasks, where knowledge is captured, it is necessary to use tools that make easier the analysis and structuring of knowledge, so that rules of selection can be easily stated to configure the inspection resources. In order to store the knowledge a so-called Onto-Process ontology has been developed. This ontology may be of application to diverse processes in manufacturing engineering. This paper describes the decomposition of the ontology in terms of general units of knowledge and others more specific for selection of sensor assemblies in inspection planning with touch sensors.

Task oriented training improves the balance outcome & reducing fall risk in diabetic population.

PubMed

Ghazal, Javeria; Malik, Arshad Nawaz; Amjad, Imran

2016-01-01

The objective was to determine the balance impairments and to compare task oriented versus traditional balance training in fall reduction among diabetic patients. The randomized control trial with descriptive survey and 196 diabetic patients were recruited to assess balance impairments through purposive sampling technique. Eighteen patients were randomly allocated into two groups; task oriented balance training group TOB (n=8) and traditional balance training group TBT (n=10). The inclusion criteria were 30-50 years age bracket and diagnosed cases of Diabetes Mellitus with neuropathy. The demographics were taken through standardized & valid assessment tools include Berg Balance Scale and Functional Reach Test. The measurements were obtained at baseline, after 04 and 08 weeks of training. The mean age of the participants was 49 ±6.79. The result shows that 165(84%) were at moderate risk of fall and 31(15%) were at mild risk of fall among total 196 diabetic patients. There was significant improvement (p <0.05) in task oriented balance training group for dynamic balance, anticipatory balance and reactive balance after 8 weeks of training as compare to traditional balance training. Task oriented balance training is effective in improving the dynamic, anticipator and reactive balance. The task oriented training reduces the risk of falling through enhancing balance outcome.

Task oriented training improves the balance outcome & reducing fall risk in diabetic population

PubMed Central

Ghazal, Javeria; Malik, Arshad Nawaz; Amjad, Imran

2016-01-01

Objectives: The objective was to determine the balance impairments and to compare task oriented versus traditional balance training in fall reduction among diabetic patients. Methods: The randomized control trial with descriptive survey and 196 diabetic patients were recruited to assess balance impairments through purposive sampling technique. Eighteen patients were randomly allocated into two groups; task oriented balance training group TOB (n=8) and traditional balance training group TBT (n=10). The inclusion criteria were 30-50 years age bracket and diagnosed cases of Diabetes Mellitus with neuropathy. The demographics were taken through standardized & valid assessment tools include Berg Balance Scale and Functional Reach Test. The measurements were obtained at baseline, after 04 and 08 weeks of training. Results: The mean age of the participants was 49 ±6.79. The result shows that 165(84%) were at moderate risk of fall and 31(15%) were at mild risk of fall among total 196 diabetic patients. There was significant improvement (p <0.05) in task oriented balance training group for dynamic balance, anticipatory balance and reactive balance after 8 weeks of training as compare to traditional balance training. Conclusion: Task oriented balance training is effective in improving the dynamic, anticipator and reactive balance. The task oriented training reduces the risk of falling through enhancing balance outcome. PMID:27648053

Students' Achievement Goal Orientations and Their Behavioral and Emotional Engagement: Co-Examining the Role of Perceived School Goal Structures and Parent Goals during Adolescence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonida, Eleftheria N.; Voulala, Katerina; Kiosseoglou, Grigoris

2009-01-01

The role of perceived school goal structures and parent goals in predicting adolescents' goal orientations and their behavioral and emotional engagement in the classroom was examined in the present study. Surveys were given to a sample of 271 seventh- and ninth-grade students. Path analyses showed that (a) perceived school mastery goal structures…

Multiple Goal Orientations and Foreign Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koul, Ravinder; Roy, Laura; Kaewkuekool, Sittichai; Ploisawaschai, Suthee

2009-01-01

This investigation examines Thai college students' motivational goals for learning the English language. Thai student volunteers (N = 1387) from two types of educational institutions participated in this survey study which combined measures of goal orientations based on two different goal constructs and motivation models. Results of two-step…

Teachers' Goal Orientations: Effects on Classroom Goal Structures and Emotions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Hui; Hall, Nathan C.; Goetz, Thomas; Frenzel, Anne C.

2017-01-01

Background: Prior research has shown teachers' goal orientations to influence classroom goal structures (Retelsdorf "et al.," 2010, "Learning and Instruction, 20," 30) and to also impact their emotions (Schutz "et al.," 2007, "Emotion in Education," Academic Press, Amsterdam, the Netherlands). However,…

Task- and self-related pathways to deep learning: the mediating role of achievement goals, classroom attentiveness, and group participation.

PubMed

Lau, Shun; Liem, Arief Darmanegara; Nie, Youyan

2008-12-01

The expectancy-value and achievement goal theories are arguably the two most dominant theories of achievement motivation in the contemporary literature. However, very few studies have examined how the constructs derived from both theories are related to deep learning. Moreover, although there is evidence demonstrating the links between achievement goals and deep learning, little research has examined the mediating processes involved. The aims of this research were to: (a) investigate the role of task- and self-related beliefs (task value and self-efficacy) as well as achievement goals in predicting deep learning in mathematics and (b) examine how classroom attentiveness and group participation mediated the relations between achievement goals and deep learning. The sample comprised 1,476 Grade-9 students from 39 schools in Singapore. Students' self-efficacy, task value, achievement goals, classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning in mathematics were assessed by a self-reported questionnaire administered on-line. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the hypothesized model linking these variables. Task value was predictive of task-related achievement goals whereas self-efficacy was predictive of task-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Achievement goals were found to fully mediate the relations between task value and self-efficacy on the one hand, and classroom attentiveness, group participation, and deep learning on the other. Classroom attentiveness and group participation partially mediated the relations between achievement goal adoption and deep learning. The findings suggest that (a) task- and self-related pathways are two possible routes through which students could be motivated to learn and (b) like task-approach goals, performance-approach goals could lead to adaptive processes and outcomes.

Getting stuck with pornography? Overuse or neglect of cybersex cues in a multitasking situation is related to symptoms of cybersex addiction.

PubMed

Schiebener, Johannes; Laier, Christian; Brand, Matthias

2015-03-01

Some individuals consume cybersex contents, such as pornographic material, in an addictive manner, which leads to severe negative consequences in private life or work. One mechanism leading to negative consequences may be reduced executive control over cognition and behavior that may be necessary to realize goal-oriented switching between cybersex use and other tasks and obligations of life. To address this aspect,we investigated 104 male participants with an executive multitasking paradigm with two sets: One set consisted of pictures of persons, the other set consisted of pornographic pictures. In both sets the pictures had to be classified according to certain criteria. The explicit goal was to work on all classification tasks to equal amounts, by switching between the sets and classification tasks in a balanced manner. We found that less balanced performance in this multitasking paradigm was associated with a higher tendency towards cybersex addiction. Persons with this tendency often either overused or neglected working on the pornographic pictures. The results indicate that reduced executive control over multitasking performance, when being confronted with pornographic material, may contribute to dysfunctional behaviors and negative consequences resulting from cybersex addiction. However, individuals with tendencies towards cybersex addiction seem to have either an inclination to avoid or to approach the pornographic material, as discussed in motivational models of addiction.

Getting stuck with pornography? Overuse or neglect of cybersex cues in a multitasking situation is related to symptoms of cybersex addiction

PubMed Central

LAIER, CHRISTIAN; BRAND, MATTHIAS

2015-01-01

Background and aims Some individuals consume cybersex contents, such as pornographic material, in an addictive manner, which leads to severe negative consequences in private life or work. One mechanism leading to negative consequences may be reduced executive control over cognition and behavior that may be necessary to realize goal-oriented switching between cybersex use and other tasks and obligations of life. Methods To address this aspect, we investigated 104 male participants with an executive multitasking paradigm with two sets: One set consisted of pictures of persons, the other set consisted of pornographic pictures. In both sets the pictures had to be classified according to certain criteria. The explicit goal was to work on all classification tasks to equal amounts, by switching between the sets and classification tasks in a balanced manner. Results We found that less balanced performance in this multitasking paradigm was associated with a higher tendency towards cybersex addiction. Persons with this tendency often either overused or neglected working on the pornographic pictures. Discussion The results indicate that reduced executive control over multitasking performance, when being confronted with pornographic material, may contribute to dysfunctional behaviors and negative consequences resulting from cybersex addiction. However, individuals with tendencies towards cybersex addiction seem to have either an inclination to avoid or to approach the pornographic material, as discussed in motivational models of addiction. PMID:25786495

Achievement Goal Theory: The Relationship of Accounting Students' Goal Orientations with Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dull, Richard B.; Schleifer, Lydia L. F.; McMillan, Jeffrey J.

2015-01-01

Students' goal orientations are examined using two major frameworks for learning: achievement goal theory (AGT) and students' approaches to learning (SAL). Previous student success research is extended, by examining goal constructs from the AGT framework to determine if they help explain the learning process in accounting. Data were gathered using…

Government and industry interactions in the development of clock technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hellwig, H.

1981-01-01

It appears likely that everyone in the time and frequency community can agree on goals to be realized through the expenditure of resources. These goals are the same as found in most fields of technology: lower cost, better performance, increased reliability, small size and lower power. Related aspects are examined in the process of clock and frequency standard development. Government and industry are reviewed in a highly interactive role. These interactions include judgements on clock performance, what kind of clock, expenditure of resources, transfer of ideas or hardware concepts from government to industry, and control of production. Successful clock development and production requires a government/industry relationship which is characterized by long-term continuity, multidisciplinary team work, focused funding and a separation of reliability and production oriented tasks from performance improvement/research type efforts.

Perceptual learning of basic visual features remains task specific with Training-Plus-Exposure (TPE) training

PubMed Central

Cong, Lin-Juan; Wang, Ru-Jie; Yu, Cong; Zhang, Jun-Yun

2016-01-01

Visual perceptual learning is known to be specific to the trained retinal location, feature, and task. However, location and feature specificity can be eliminated by double-training or TPE training protocols, in which observers receive additional exposure to the transfer location or feature dimension via an irrelevant task besides the primary learning task Here we tested whether these new training protocols could even make learning transfer across different tasks involving discrimination of basic visual features (e.g., orientation and contrast). Observers practiced a near-threshold orientation (or contrast) discrimination task. Following a TPE training protocol, they also received exposure to the transfer task via performing suprathreshold contrast (or orientation) discrimination in alternating blocks of trials in the same sessions. The results showed no evidence for significant learning transfer to the untrained near-threshold contrast (or orientation) discrimination task after discounting the pretest effects and the suprathreshold practice effects. These results thus do not support a hypothetical task-independent component in perceptual learning of basic visual features. They also set the boundary of the new training protocols in their capability to enable learning transfer. PMID:26873777

Children's Engagement and Competence in Personal Recollection: Effects of Parents' Reminiscing Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cleveland, Emily Sutcliffe; Reese, Elaine; Grolnick, Wendy S.

2007-01-01

Parents' goal orientations in parent-child reminiscing were examined in this study, where 28 preschoolers (mean age = 46 months) experienced a standardized event. Dyads discussed the event that evening, with parents randomly assigned to either an "outcome-oriented" or a "process-oriented" condition. Outcome-oriented parents, who were told that…

The equivalent internal orientation and position noise for contour integration.

PubMed

Baldwin, Alex S; Fu, Minnie; Farivar, Reza; Hess, Robert F

2017-10-12

Contour integration is the joining-up of local responses to parts of a contour into a continuous percept. In typical studies observers detect contours formed of discrete wavelets, presented against a background of random wavelets. This measures performance for detecting contours in the limiting external noise that background provides. Our novel task measures contour integration without requiring any background noise. This allowed us to perform noise-masking experiments using orientation and position noise. From these we measure the equivalent internal noise for contour integration. We found an orientation noise of 6° and position noise of 3 arcmin. Orientation noise was 2.6x higher in contour integration compared to an orientation discrimination control task. Comparing against a position discrimination task found position noise in contours to be 2.4x lower. This suggests contour integration involves intermediate processing that enhances the quality of element position representation at the expense of element orientation. Efficiency relative to the ideal observer was lower for the contour tasks (36% in orientation noise, 21% in position noise) compared to the controls (54% and 57%).

The Effects of Differential Goal Weights on the Performance of a Complex Financial Task.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edmister, Robert O.; Locke, Edwin A.

1987-01-01

Determined whether people could obtain outcomes on a complex task that would be in line with differential goal weights corresponding to different aspects of the task. Bank lending officers were run through lender-simulation exercises. Five performance goals were weighted. Demonstrated effectiveness of goal setting with complex tasks, using group…

Students’ Achievement Goals, Learning-Related Emotions and Academic Achievement

PubMed Central

Lüftenegger, Marko; Klug, Julia; Harrer, Katharina; Langer, Marie; Spiel, Christiane; Schober, Barbara

2016-01-01

In the present research, the recently proposed 3 × 2 model of achievement goals is tested and associations with achievement emotions and their joint influence on academic achievement are investigated. The study was conducted with 388 students using the 3 × 2 Achievement Goal Questionnaire including the six proposed goal constructs (task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, other-avoidance) and the enjoyment and boredom scales from the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire. Exam grades were used as an indicator of academic achievement. Findings from CFAs provided strong support for the proposed structure of the 3 × 2 achievement goal model. Self-based goals, other-based goals and task-approach goals predicted enjoyment. Task-approach goals negatively predicted boredom. Task-approach and other-approach predicted achievement. The indirect effects of achievement goals through emotion variables on achievement were assessed using bias-corrected bootstrapping. No mediation effects were found. Implications for educational practice are discussed. PMID:27199836

Goal Orientation among Boys and Girls in Higher Secondary Schools of Kerala: How Parenting Styles Influence It?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gafoor, Kunnathodi Abdul; Kurukkan, Abidha

2014-01-01

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relation between parenting style and goal orientation among boys and girls in higher secondary schools of Kerala. Four types of parenting style and five categories of goal orientation. The sample comprised of 467 girls and 365 boys from higher secondary school in Kerala who were selected through…

Sexual orientation differences in cerebral asymmetry and in the performance of sexually dimorphic cognitive and motor tasks.

PubMed

Sanders, G; Wright, M

1997-10-01

With each of the tasks in the present studies we expected to find the reported sex difference between heterosexual women and heterosexual men and we predicted a sexual orientation effect with the performance of homosexual men being similar to that of heterosexual women and different from that of heterosexual men. Study 1 aimed to replicate earlier findings by recording the performance of a group of homosexual men on a visuospatial task, the Vincent Mechanical Diagrams Test (VMDT), a dot detection divided visual field measure of functional cerebral asymmetry, and on five subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). For each task the profile of scores obtained for the homosexual men was similar to that of heterosexual women in that they scored lower than heterosexual men on the VMDT, they showed less asymmetry, and they recorded a higher Verbal than Performance IQ on the WAIS. In Study 2, a male-biased targeted throwing task favored heterosexual men while, in contrast, on the female-biased Purdue Pegboard single peg condition heterosexual men were outperformed by heterosexual women and homosexual men. On neither of these two tasks did the performances of homosexual men and heterosexual women differ. One task, manual speed, yielded neither sex nor sexual orientation differences. Another, the Purdue Pegboard assemblies condition, revealed a sex difference but no sexual orientation difference. Failure to obtain a sexual orientation difference in the presence of a sex difference suggests that the sexual orientation effect may be restricted to a subset of sexually dimorphic tasks.

Goal-oriented networks and capacity building for natural hazards - examples in the Dresden region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hutter, G.

2013-04-01

Networks and networking are important to build social capacities for natural hazards. However, up to now, it is an open question which types of networks contribute to capacity building under certain circumstances. The paper focuses on the type of a goal-oriented network. The distinction between goal orientation and goal directedness is used to show the following: goal directedness of networks to build capacities for natural hazards involves intensive and continuous processes of sensemaking (Weick, 1995) to specify the network goal. This process of specifying an initial goal statement is important in small and large networks. The governance form of a lead organization network facilitates goal specification. The paper illustrates these findings through evidence from two case studies conducted in the Dresden region in Germany.

Modulation of the electrophysiological correlates of retrieval cue processing by the specificity of task demands.

PubMed

Johnson, Jeffrey D; Rugg, Michael D

2006-02-03

Retrieval orientation refers to the differential processing of retrieval cues according to the type of information sought from memory (e.g., words vs. pictures). In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate whether the neural correlates of differential retrieval orientations are sensitive to the specificity of the retrieval demands of the test task. In separate study-test phases, subjects encoded lists of intermixed words and pictures, and then undertook one of two retrieval tests, in both of which the retrieval cues were exclusively words. In the recognition test, subjects performed 'old/new' discriminations on the test items, and old items corresponded to only one class of studied material (words or pictures). In the exclusion test, old items corresponded to both classes of study material, and subjects were required to respond 'old' only to test items corresponding to a designated class of material. Thus, demands for retrieval specificity were greater in the exclusion test than during recognition. ERPs elicited by correctly classified new items in the two types of test were contrasted according to whether words or pictures were the sought-for material. Material-dependent ERP effects were evident in both tests, but the effects onset earlier and offset later in the exclusion test. The findings suggest that differential processing of retrieval cues, and hence the adoption of differential retrieval orientations, varies according to the specificity of the retrieval goal.

A life history approach to delineating how harsh environments and hawk temperament traits differentially shape children's problem-solving skills.

PubMed

Suor, Jennifer H; Sturge-Apple, Melissa L; Davies, Patrick T; Cicchetti, Dante

2017-08-01

Harsh environments are known to predict deficits in children's cognitive abilities. Life history theory approaches challenge this interpretation, proposing stressed children's cognition becomes specialized to solve problems in fitness-enhancing ways. The goal of this study was to examine associations between early environmental harshness and children's problem-solving outcomes across tasks varying in ecological relevance. In addition, we utilize an evolutionary model of temperament toward further specifying whether hawk temperament traits moderate these associations. Two hundred and one mother-child dyads participated in a prospective multimethod study when children were 2 and 4 years old. At age 2, environmental harshness was assessed via maternal report of earned income and observations of maternal disengagement during a parent-child interaction task. Children's hawk temperament traits were assessed from a series of unfamiliar episodes. At age 4, children's reward-oriented and visual problem-solving were measured. Path analyses revealed early environmental harshness and children's hawk temperament traits predicted worse visual problem-solving. Results showed a significant two-way interaction between children's hawk temperament traits and environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving. Simple slope analyses revealed the effect of environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving was specific to children with higher levels of hawk traits. Results suggest early experiences of environmental harshness and child hawk temperament traits shape children's trajectories of problem-solving in an environment-fitting manner. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Developing instruments concerning scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science: a validation study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Tzung-Jin; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2017-11-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate two survey instruments to evaluate high school students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science. The initial relationships between the sampled students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science were also investigated. A final valid sample of 600 volunteer Taiwanese high school students participated in this survey by responding to the Scientific Epistemic Beliefs Instrument (SEBI) and the Goal Orientations in Learning Science Instrument (GOLSI). Through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the SEBI and GOLSI were proven to be valid and reliable for assessing the participants' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science. The path analysis results indicated that, by and large, the students with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs in various dimensions such as Development of Knowledge, Justification for Knowing, and Purpose of Knowing tended to adopt both Mastery-approach and Mastery-avoidance goals. Some interesting results were also found. For example, the students tended to set a learning goal to outperform others or merely demonstrate competence (Performance-approach) if they had more informed epistemic beliefs in the dimensions of Multiplicity of Knowledge, Uncertainty of Knowledge, and Purpose of Knowing.

Orientation estimation of anatomical structures in medical images for object recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bağci, Ulaş; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Chen, Xinjian

2011-03-01

Recognition of anatomical structures is an important step in model based medical image segmentation. It provides pose estimation of objects and information about "where" roughly the objects are in the image and distinguishing them from other object-like entities. In,1 we presented a general method of model-based multi-object recognition to assist in segmentation (delineation) tasks. It exploits the pose relationship that can be encoded, via the concept of ball scale (b-scale), between the binary training objects and their associated grey images. The goal was to place the model, in a single shot, close to the right pose (position, orientation, and scale) in a given image so that the model boundaries fall in the close vicinity of object boundaries in the image. Unlike position and scale parameters, we observe that orientation parameters require more attention when estimating the pose of the model as even small differences in orientation parameters can lead to inappropriate recognition. Motivated from the non-Euclidean nature of the pose information, we propose in this paper the use of non-Euclidean metrics to estimate orientation of the anatomical structures for more accurate recognition and segmentation. We statistically analyze and evaluate the following metrics for orientation estimation: Euclidean, Log-Euclidean, Root-Euclidean, Procrustes Size-and-Shape, and mean Hermitian metrics. The results show that mean Hermitian and Cholesky decomposition metrics provide more accurate orientation estimates than other Euclidean and non-Euclidean metrics.

Orientation of lizards in a Morris water-maze: roles of the sun compass and the parietal eye.

PubMed

Foà, Augusto; Basaglia, Francesca; Beltrami, Giulia; Carnacina, Margherita; Moretto, Elisa; Bertolucci, Cristiano

2009-09-15

The present study examined for the first time whether a Morris water-maze can be used to explore compass and other orientation mechanisms in the ruin lizard Podarcis sicula. In the open field, during sunny days, lizards were individually trained to swim from the center of the water maze onto a hidden platform (the goal), positioned at the periphery of the maze in a single compass direction. The goal was invisible because it was placed just beneath the water surface and the water was rendered opaque. The results showed that lizards learn to swim directly towards the hidden goal under the sun in the absence of visual feature cues. We further examined whether the observed orientation response would be due to lizards learning the spatial position of the goal relative to the sun's azimuth, i.e. to the use of a time-compensated sun compass. Lizards reaching learning criteria were subjected to 6 h clock-shift (fast or slow), and tested for goal orientation in the Morris water-maze. Results demonstrated that the learned orientation response is mediated by a time-compensated sun compass. Further investigations provided direct evidence that in ruin lizards an intact parietal eye is required to perform goal orientation under the sun inside a Morris water-maze, and that other brain photoreceptors, like the pineal or deep brain photoreceptors, are not involved in orientation.

Epistemologies in the Text of Children's Books: Native- and non-Native-authored books

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dehghani, Morteza; Bang, Megan; Medin, Douglas; Marin, Ananda; Leddon, Erin; Waxman, Sandra

2013-09-01

An examination of artifacts provides insights into the goals, practices, and orientations of the persons and cultures who created them. Here, we analyze storybook texts, artifacts that are a part of many children's lives. We examine the stories in books targeted for 4-8-year-old children, contrasting the texts generated by Native American authors versus popular non-Native authors. We focus specifically on the implicit and explicit 'epistemological orientations' associated with relations between human beings and the rest of nature. Native authors were significantly more likely than non-Native authors to describe humans and the rest of nature as psychologically close and embedded in relationships. This pattern converges well with evidence from a behavioral task in which we probed Native (from urban inter-tribal and rural communities) and non-Native children's and adults' attention to ecological relations. We discuss the implications of these differences for environmental cognition and science learning.

Stress and coping styles are associated with severe fatigue in medical students.

PubMed

Tanaka, Masaaki; Fukuda, Sanae; Mizuno, Kei; Kuratsune, Hirohiko; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2009-01-01

Fatigue is a common complaint among medical students and researchers consider it to be related to poor academic outcomes. The authors' goal in the present study was to determine whether stress and coping strategies were associated with fatigue in medical students. The study group consisted of 73 second-year healthy students attending the Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine. Participants completed a questionnaire about fatigue (Japanese version of Chalder Fatigue Scale), stress, stress coping (Japanese version of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations), overwork, and nocturnal sleeping hours. On univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for age and gender, stress was positively associated with fatigue. In addition, after adjustment for age, gender, and emotion- and task-oriented stress coping activities, avoidance-oriented stress coping activity was associated with fatigue. The results suggest that stress and the coping style are correlated with fatigue in medical students.

Visual interface for space and terrestrial analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dombrowski, Edmund G.; Williams, Jason R.; George, Arthur A.; Heckathorn, Harry M.; Snyder, William A.

1995-01-01

The management of large geophysical and celestial data bases is now, more than ever, the most critical path to timely data analysis. With today's large volume data sets from multiple satellite missions, analysts face the task of defining useful data bases from which data and metadata (information about data) can be extracted readily in a meaningful way. Visualization, following an object-oriented design, is a fundamental method of organizing and handling data. Humans, by nature, easily accept pictorial representations of data. Therefore graphically oriented user interfaces are appealing, as long as they remain simple to produce and use. The Visual Interface for Space and Terrestrial Analysis (VISTA) system, currently under development at the Naval Research Laboratory's Backgrounds Data Center (BDC), has been designed with these goals in mind. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to perform queries, visualization, and analysis of atmospheric and celestial backgrounds data.

Pointing control using a moving base of support.

PubMed

Hondzinski, Jan M; Kwon, Taegyong

2009-07-01

The purposes of this study were to determine whether gaze direction provides a control signal for movement direction for a pointing task requiring a step and to gain insight into why discrepancies previously identified in the literature for endpoint accuracy with gaze directed eccentrically exist. Straight arm pointing movements were performed to real and remembered target locations, either toward or 30 degrees eccentric to gaze direction. Pointing occurred in normal room lighting or darkness while subjects sat, stood still or side-stepped left or right. Trunk rotation contributed 22-65% to gaze orientations when it was not constrained. Error differences for different target locations explained discrepancies among previous experiments. Variable pointing errors were influenced by gaze direction, while mean systematic pointing errors and trunk orientations were influenced by step direction. These data support the use of a control strategy that relies on gaze direction and equilibrium inputs for whole-body goal-directed movements.

Dual tuning in creative processes: Joint contributions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations.

PubMed

Gong, Yaping; Wu, Junfeng; Song, Lynda Jiwen; Zhang, Zhen

2017-05-01

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations often coexist and can serve important functions. We develop and test a model in which intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations interact positively to influence personal creativity goal. Personal creativity goal, in turn, has a positive relationship with incremental creativity and an inverted U-shaped relationship with radical creativity. In a pilot study, we validated the personal creativity goal measure using 180 (Sample 1) and 69 (Sample 2) employees from a consulting firm. In the primary study, we tested the overall model using a sample of 657 research and development employees and their direct supervisors from an automobile firm. The results support the hypothesized model and yield several new insights. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations synergize with each other to strengthen personal creativity goal. Personal creativity goal in turn benefits incremental and radical creativity, but only up to a certain point for the latter. In addition to its linear indirect relationship with incremental creativity, intrinsic motivational orientation has an inverted U-shaped indirect relationship with radical creativity via personal creativity goal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Early socialization of prosocial behavior: Patterns in parents’ encouragement of toddlers’ helping in an everyday household task

PubMed Central

Waugh, Whitney; Brownell, Celia; Pollock, Brianna

2015-01-01

Patterns in parents’ socialization of prosocial behavior in 18- and 24-month-olds (n=46) were investigated during an everyday household chore that parents were asked to complete with their toddlers. Two socialization approaches were distinguished, one focused on specific requests for concrete actions needed to complete an immediate, concrete goal (“action-oriented”), and a second focused on the more abstract needs and emotions of the parent and the child's role as a helper (“need-oriented’). Parents were equally active at both ages in trying to elicit children's help but used different strategies with younger and older toddlers. With 18-month-olds they used more action-oriented approaches, whereas with 24-month-olds they increased their use of needoriented approaches. They also regulated the attention of younger toddlers more, and more often socially approved older toddlers’ helping. Thus, how parents prompt, support, and encourage prosocial behavior changes over the second year from utilizing primarily concrete, goal-directed requests in the service of the immediate task, to increasingly emphasizing more abstract needs and emotions of the recipient and the child's role as a helper. PMID:25682218

Effects of Self-Esteem and Perceived Goal Difficulty on Goal Setting, Certainty, Task Performance, and Attributions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Thomas Li-Ping; Reynolds, David B.

1993-01-01

Fifty-two subjects competed on a task against themselves, a difficult competitor, and an easy competitor. Certainty, ability attribution, and task satisfaction for those with low self-esteem were affected by perceived goal difficulty but not for those with high self-esteem. Low self-esteem groups had lower goals, certainty, and task performance.…

Effects of reading-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Kai-Lin; Lin, Fou-Lai

2012-06-01

This study compared the effects of reading-oriented tasks and writing-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof (RCGP). The reading-oriented tasks were designed with reading strategies and the idea of problem posing. The writing-oriented tasks were consistent with usual proof instruction for writing a proof and applying it. Twenty-two classes of ninth-grade students ( N = 683), aged 14 to 15 years, and 12 mathematics teachers participated in this quasi-experimental classroom study. While the experimental group was instructed to read and discuss the reading tasks in two 45-minute lessons, the control group was instructed to prove and apply the same propositions. Generalised estimating equation (GEE) method was used to compare the scores of the post-test and the delayed post-test with the pre-test scores as covariates. Results showed that the total scores of the delayed post-test of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, the scores of the experimental group on all facets of reading comprehension except the application facet were significantly higher than those of the control group for both the post-test and delayed post-test.

Self-Identified Goals of Adolescents With Cancer and Healthy Peers: Content, Appraisals, and Correlates

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Lisa A.; Parisi, Michelle L.

2013-01-01

Objective Compare the content, future orientation, and appraisals of self-identified goals of adolescents with cancer and control subjects. Identify correlates of health-related and future-oriented goals of adolescents with cancer. Methods Adolescents with cancer (n = 102) and control subjects (n = 97) self-identified goals, rated appraisals of goals, and completed psychosocial measures. Results Adolescents with cancer identified fewer goals, were more likely to identify a health-related goal, less likely to identify an intrapersonal or leisure goal, and rated their goals as more achievable and supported compared with control subjects. For adolescents with cancer, female gender predicted having a health-related goal. Additionally, age and parent-reported adolescent quality of life predicted having a future-oriented goal. 63 percent of adolescents with cancer reported establishing at least one goal because of cancer. Conclusions Despite similarities between groups, evidence supports that adolescents with cancer made changes to their repertoire of goals, suggesting the need to balance various priorities. PMID:23065108

Exploring interest and goals for videoconferencing delivered cognitive rehabilitation with rural individuals with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

PubMed

Burton, Rachel; O'Connell, Megan E; Morgan, Debra G

2016-06-30

Goal oriented cognitive rehabilitation is a promising intervention for individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia due to Alzheimer Disease (AD). Videoconferencing delivered cognitive rehabilitation is a potential avenue for increasing accessibility for rural patients and their families. First, we were concerned with the accessibility of the treatment for individuals in rural and remote areas. Second, client-centered goal setting was explored by asking this sample about their goals for cognitive rehabilitation. We mailed questions to all active patients with diagnoses of MCI or dementia due to AD of a rural memory clinic and compare features of the responders versus the non-responders. We asked about interest in videoconferencing delivered treatment and about goals for cognitive rehabilitation, which were thematically analyzed. The responders (N = 25) were similar to non-responders in severity, depression, and caregiver burden. Of the responders, 80% were interested in videoconferencing developed treatment. A thematic analysis coded 95% of responses as amenable to cognitive rehabilitation. Participants' goals were focused on memory, household activities, other cognitive domains, recreation, and higher order tasks. This work informs the development of both in-person and videoconferencing delivered cognitive rehabilitation for individuals diagnosed with MCI or dementia.

System and method for seamless task-directed autonomy for robots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nielsen, Curtis; Bruemmer, David; Few, Douglas

Systems, methods, and user interfaces are used for controlling a robot. An environment map and a robot designator are presented to a user. The user may place, move, and modify task designators on the environment map. The task designators indicate a position in the environment map and indicate a task for the robot to achieve. A control intermediary links task designators with robot instructions issued to the robot. The control intermediary analyzes a relative position between the task designators and the robot. The control intermediary uses the analysis to determine a task-oriented autonomy level for the robot and communicates targetmore » achievement information to the robot. The target achievement information may include instructions for directly guiding the robot if the task-oriented autonomy level indicates low robot initiative and may include instructions for directing the robot to determine a robot plan for achieving the task if the task-oriented autonomy level indicates high robot initiative.« less

Understanding the emergence of state goal orientation in organizational work groups: the role of leadership and multilevel climate perceptions.

PubMed

Dragoni, Lisa

2005-11-01

This article attends to a broad range of practically significant employee motivations and provides insight into how to enhance individual-level performance by examining individual-level state goal orientation emergence in organizational work groups. Leadership and multilevel climate processes are theorized to parallel each dimension of state goal orientation to cue and ultimately induce the corresponding achievement focus among individual work group members. It is argued that the patterns of leader behavior, which elucidate the leader's achievement priority, shape group members' psychological and work group climate to embody this priority. Resulting multilevel climate perceptions signal and compel group members to adopt the ascribed form of state goal orientation. The quality of the leader-member exchange relationship is viewed as a means to clarify leader messages in the formation of group members' psychological climate and internalize these cues in the emergence of state goal orientation. Considerations for future research and practice are discussed. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognition- and affect-based trust and feedback-seeking behavior: the roles of value, cost, and goal orientations.

PubMed

Choi, Byoung Kwon; Moon, Hyoung Koo; Nae, Eun Young

2014-01-01

We examined how subordinates' cognition- and affect-based trust in supervisors influences their feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) by considering the different cost/value perception of FSB and goal orientation (i.e., learning and performance goal orientations). Using data from 194 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea, we conducted multiple regression analyses to test our hypotheses. The results showed that, whereas subordinates' cognition-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through increasing the perceived value of feedback received from supervisors, their affect-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through decreasing the perceived value of FSB. Additionally, we found that, when subordinates had high levels of learning goal orientation, the increasing influence of cognition-based trust on the value of feedback was stronger; in contrast, when subordinates had low levels of performance goal orientation, the decreasing influence of affect-based trust on the cost of FSB was stronger. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.

Validation of a Teachers' Achievement Goal Instrument for Teaching Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jian; Shen, Bo; Luo, Xiaobin; Hu, Qingshan; Garn, Alex C.

2018-01-01

Purpose: Using Butler's teacher achievement goal orientation as a conceptual framework, we developed this study to validate a teachers' achievement goal instrument for teaching physical education. Methods: A sample of 322 Chinese physical education teachers participated in this study and completed measures of achievement goal orientations and job…

Goal Orientations and Metacognitive Skills of Normal Technical and Normal Academic Students on Project Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ee, J.; Wang, C.; Koh, C.; Tan, O.; Liu, W.

2009-01-01

In 2000, the Singapore Ministry of Education launched Project Work (PW) to encourage the application of knowledge across disciplines, and to develop thinking, communication, collaboration and metacognitive skills. This preliminary findings of a large scale study examines the role of goal orientations (achievement goals and social goals) in…

Rethinking Teachers' Goal Orientations: Conceptual and Methodological Enhancements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nitsche, Sebastian; Dickhauser, Oliver; Fasching, Michaela S.; Dresel, Markus

2011-01-01

The article provides a theoretical extension of the goal orientation approach for teaching by proposing three different competence facets of learning goals and four types of addressees for performance approach and avoidance goals. On the basis of responses from 495 teacher trainees and 224 in-service teachers, the development and validation of an…

Regulating Debilitating Emotions in the Context of Performance: Achievement Goal Orientations, Achievement-Elicited Emotions, and Socialization Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tyson, Diana F.; Linnenbrink-Garcia, Lisa; Hill, Nancy E.

2009-01-01

A theoretical framework that incorporates emotional responses and emotion regulation into achievement goal theory is proposed as an alternative view to understanding the inconsistent pattern of findings linking achievement goal orientations to academic outcomes. In this critical review and synthesis, the relation of achievement goal orientations…

The relation of locus-of-control orientation and task structure to problem-solving performance of sixth-grade student pairs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Main, June Dewey; Budd Rowe, Mary

This study investigated the relationship of locus-of-control orientations and task structure to the science problem-solving performance of 100 same-sex, sixth-grade student pairs. Pairs performed a four-variable problem-solving task, racing cylinders down a ramp in a series of trials to determine the 3 fastest of 18 different cylinders. The task was completed in one of two treatment conditions: the structured condition with moderate cuing and the unstructured condition with minimal cuing. Pairs completed an after-task assessment, predicting the results of proposed cylinder races, to measure the ability to understand and apply task concepts. Overall conclusions were: (1) There was no relationship between locus-of-control orientation and effectiveness of problem-solving strategy; (2) internality was significantly related to higher accuracy on task solutions and on after-task predictions; (3) there was no significant relationship between task structure and effectiveness of problem-solving strategy; (4) solutions to the task were more accurate in the unstructured task condition; (5) internality related to more accurate solutions in the unstructured task condition.

Effects of visual information regarding allocentric processing in haptic parallelity matching.

PubMed

Van Mier, Hanneke I

2013-10-01

Research has revealed that haptic perception of parallelity deviates from physical reality. Large and systematic deviations have been found in haptic parallelity matching most likely due to the influence of the hand-centered egocentric reference frame. Providing information that increases the influence of allocentric processing has been shown to improve performance on haptic matching. In this study allocentric processing was stimulated by providing informative vision in haptic matching tasks that were performed using hand- and arm-centered reference frames. Twenty blindfolded participants (ten men, ten women) explored the orientation of a reference bar with the non-dominant hand and subsequently matched (task HP) or mirrored (task HM) its orientation on a test bar with the dominant hand. Visual information was provided by means of informative vision with participants having full view of the test bar, while the reference bar was blocked from their view (task VHP). To decrease the egocentric bias of the hands, participants also performed a visual haptic parallelity drawing task (task VHPD) using an arm-centered reference frame, by drawing the orientation of the reference bar. In all tasks, the distance between and orientation of the bars were manipulated. A significant effect of task was found; performance improved from task HP, to VHP to VHPD, and HM. Significant effects of distance were found in the first three tasks, whereas orientation and gender effects were only significant in tasks HP and VHP. The results showed that stimulating allocentric processing by means of informative vision and reducing the egocentric bias by using an arm-centered reference frame led to most accurate performance on parallelity matching. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The relationship between visual attention and visual working memory encoding: A dissociation between covert and overt orienting.

PubMed

Tas, A Caglar; Luck, Steven J; Hollingworth, Andrew

2016-08-01

There is substantial debate over whether visual working memory (VWM) and visual attention constitute a single system for the selection of task-relevant perceptual information or whether they are distinct systems that can be dissociated when their representational demands diverge. In the present study, we focused on the relationship between visual attention and the encoding of objects into VWM. Participants performed a color change-detection task. During the retention interval, a secondary object, irrelevant to the memory task, was presented. Participants were instructed either to execute an overt shift of gaze to this object (Experiments 1-3) or to attend it covertly (Experiments 4 and 5). Our goal was to determine whether these overt and covert shifts of attention disrupted the information held in VWM. We hypothesized that saccades, which typically introduce a memorial demand to bridge perceptual disruption, would lead to automatic encoding of the secondary object. However, purely covert shifts of attention, which introduce no such demand, would not result in automatic memory encoding. The results supported these predictions. Saccades to the secondary object produced substantial interference with VWM performance, but covert shifts of attention to this object produced no interference with VWM performance. These results challenge prevailing theories that consider attention and VWM to reflect a common mechanism. In addition, they indicate that the relationship between attention and VWM is dependent on the memorial demands of the orienting behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The Relationship between Visual Attention and Visual Working Memory Encoding: A Dissociation between Covert and Overt Orienting

PubMed Central

Tas, A. Caglar; Luck, Steven J.; Hollingworth, Andrew

2016-01-01

There is substantial debate over whether visual working memory (VWM) and visual attention constitute a single system for the selection of task-relevant perceptual information or whether they are distinct systems that can be dissociated when their representational demands diverge. In the present study, we focused on the relationship between visual attention and the encoding of objects into visual working memory (VWM). Participants performed a color change-detection task. During the retention interval, a secondary object, irrelevant to the memory task, was presented. Participants were instructed either to execute an overt shift of gaze to this object (Experiments 1–3) or to attend it covertly (Experiments 4 and 5). Our goal was to determine whether these overt and covert shifts of attention disrupted the information held in VWM. We hypothesized that saccades, which typically introduce a memorial demand to bridge perceptual disruption, would lead to automatic encoding of the secondary object. However, purely covert shifts of attention, which introduce no such demand, would not result in automatic memory encoding. The results supported these predictions. Saccades to the secondary object produced substantial interference with VWM performance, but covert shifts of attention to this object produced no interference with VWM performance. These results challenge prevailing theories that consider attention and VWM to reflect a common mechanism. In addition, they indicate that the relationship between attention and VWM is dependent on the memorial demands of the orienting behavior. PMID:26854532

Goal-oriented networks and capacity building for natural hazards - examples in the Dresden region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hutter, G.

2014-01-01

Networks and networking are important for building social capacities for natural hazards. However, up to now, it has been an open question which types of networks contribute to capacity building under certain circumstances. The paper focuses on the type of a goal-oriented network. The distinction between goal orientation and goal directedness is used to show the following: goal directedness of networks to build capacities for natural hazards involves intensive and continuous processes of "sensemaking" (Weick, 1995) to specify the network goal. This process of specifying an initial goal statement is important in small and large networks at the regional level. The governance form of a lead organization network facilitates goal specification. The paper illustrates these findings through evidence from two case studies conducted in the Dresden region in Germany.

Distraction during learning with hypermedia: difficult tasks help to keep task goals on track

PubMed Central

Scheiter, Katharina; Gerjets, Peter; Heise, Elke

2014-01-01

In educational hypermedia environments, students are often confronted with potential sources of distraction arising from additional information that, albeit interesting, is unrelated to their current task goal. The paper investigates the conditions under which distraction occurs and hampers performance. Based on theories of volitional action control it was hypothesized that interesting information, especially if related to a pending goal, would interfere with task performance only when working on easy, but not on difficult tasks. In Experiment 1, 66 students learned about probability theory using worked examples and solved corresponding test problems, whose task difficulty was manipulated. As a second factor, the presence of interesting information unrelated to the primary task was varied. Results showed that students solved more easy than difficult probability problems correctly. However, the presence of interesting, but task-irrelevant information did not interfere with performance. In Experiment 2, 68 students again engaged in example-based learning and problem solving in the presence of task-irrelevant information. Problem-solving difficulty was varied as a first factor. Additionally, the presence of a pending goal related to the task-irrelevant information was manipulated. As expected, problem-solving performance declined when a pending goal was present during working on easy problems, whereas no interference was observed for difficult problems. Moreover, the presence of a pending goal reduced the time on task-relevant information and increased the time on task-irrelevant information while working on easy tasks. However, as revealed by mediation analyses these changes in overt information processing behavior did not explain the decline in problem-solving performance. As an alternative explanation it is suggested that goal conflicts resulting from pending goals claim cognitive resources, which are then no longer available for learning and problem solving. PMID:24723907

Processing of Visual--Action Codes by Deaf and Hearing Children: Coding Orientation or "M"-Capacity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Todman, John; Cowdy, Natascha

1993-01-01

Results from a study in which 25 deaf children and 25 hearing children completed a vocabulary test and a compound stimulus visual information task support the hypothesis that performance on cognitive tasks is dependent on compatibility of task demands with a coding orientation. (SLD)

Altered steering strategies for goal-directed locomotion in stroke

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Individuals who have sustained a stroke can manifest altered locomotor steering behaviors when exposed to optic flows expanding from different locations. Whether these alterations persist in the presence of a visible goal and whether they can be explained by the presence of a perceptuo-motor disorder remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare stroke participants and healthy participants on their ability to control heading while exposed to changing optic flows and target locations. Methods Ten participants with stroke (55.6 ± 9.3 yrs) and ten healthy controls (57.0 ± 11.5 yrs) participated in a mouse-driven steering task (perceptuo-motor task) while seated and in a walking steering task. In the seated steering task, participants were instructed to head or ‘walk’ toward a target in the virtual environment by using a mouse while wearing a helmet-mounted display (HMD). In the walking task, participants performed a similar steering task in the same virtual environment while walking overground at their comfortable speed. For both experiments, the target and/or the focus of expansion (FOE) of the optic flow shifted to the side (±20°) or remained centered. The main outcome measure was net heading errors (NHE). Secondary outcomes included mediolateral displacement, horizontal head orientation, and onsets of heading and head reorientation. Results In the walking steering task, the presence of FOE shifts modulated the extent and timing of mediolateral displacement and head rotation changes, as well as NHE magnitudes. Participants overshot and undershot their net heading, respectively, in response to ipsilateral and contralateral FOE and target shifts. Stroke participants made larger NHEs, especially when the FOE was shifted towards the non-paretic side. In the seated steering task, similar NHEs were observed between stroke and healthy participants. Conclusions The findings highlight the fine coordination between rotational and translational steering mechanisms in presence of targets and FOE shifts. The altered performance of stroke participants in walking but not in the seated steering task suggests that an altered perceptuo-motor processing of optic flow is not a main contributing factor and that other stroke-related sensorimotor deficits are involved. PMID:23875969

For the Love of Learning Science: Connecting Learning Orientation and Career Productivity in Physics and Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazari, Zahra; Potvin, Geoff; Tai, Robert H.; Almarode, John

2010-01-01

An individual's motivational orientation serves as a drive to action and can influence their career success. This study examines how goal orientation toward the pursuit of a graduate degree in physics and chemistry influences later success outcomes of practicing physicists and chemists. Two main categories of goal orientation are examined in this…

A task-irrelevant stimulus attribute affects perception and short-term memory

PubMed Central

Huang, Jie; Kahana, Michael J.; Sekuler, Robert

2010-01-01

Selective attention protects cognition against intrusions of task-irrelevant stimulus attributes. This protective function was tested in coordinated psychophysical and memory experiments. Stimuli were superimposed, horizontally and vertically oriented gratings of varying spatial frequency; only one orientation was task relevant. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a task-irrelevant spatial frequency interfered with visual discrimination of the task-relevant spatial frequency. Experiment 2 adopted a two-item Sternberg task, using stimuli that had been scaled to neutralize interference at the level of vision. Despite being visually neutralized, the task-irrelevant attribute strongly influenced recognition accuracy and associated reaction times (RTs). This effect was sharply tuned, with the task-irrelevant spatial frequency having an impact only when the task-relevant spatial frequencies of the probe and study items were highly similar to one another. Model-based analyses of judgment accuracy and RT distributional properties converged on the point that the irrelevant orientation operates at an early stage in memory processing, not at a later one that supports decision making. PMID:19933454

A conceptual model of nurses' goal orientation, service behavior, and service performance.

PubMed

Chien, Chun-Cheng; Chou, Hsin-Kai; Hung, Shuo-Tsung

2008-01-01

Based on the conceptual framework known as the "service triangle," the authors constructed a model of nurses' goal orientation, service behavior, and service performance to investigate the antecedents and consequences of the medical service behavior provided by nurses. This cross-sectional study collected data from 127 nurses in six hospitals using a mail-in questionnaire. Analysis of the model revealed that the customer-oriented behavior of nurses had a positive influence on organizational citizenship behavior; and both of these behaviors had a significant positive influence on service performance. The results also indicate that a higher learning goal orientation among nurses was associated with the performance of both observable customer-oriented behavior and organizational-citizenship behavior.

Stimulus- and goal-driven control of eye movements: action videogame players are faster but not better.

PubMed

Heimler, Benedetta; Pavani, Francesco; Donk, Mieke; van Zoest, Wieske

2014-11-01

Action videogame players (AVGPs) have been shown to outperform nongamers (NVGPs) in covert visual attention tasks. These advantages have been attributed to improved top-down control in this population. The time course of visual selection, which permits researchers to highlight when top-down strategies start to control performance, has rarely been investigated in AVGPs. Here, we addressed specifically this issue through an oculomotor additional-singleton paradigm. Participants were instructed to make a saccadic eye movement to a unique orientation singleton. The target was presented among homogeneous nontargets and one additional orientation singleton that was more, equally, or less salient than the target. Saliency was manipulated in the color dimension. Our results showed similar patterns of performance for both AVGPs and NVGPs: Fast-initiated saccades were saliency-driven, whereas later-initiated saccades were more goal-driven. However, although AVGPs were faster than NVGPs, they were also less accurate. Importantly, a multinomial model applied to the data revealed comparable underlying saliency-driven and goal-driven functions for the two groups. Taken together, the observed differences in performance are compatible with the presence of a lower decision bound for releasing saccades in AVGPs than in NVGPs, in the context of comparable temporal interplay between the underlying attentional mechanisms. In sum, the present findings show that in both AVGPs and NVGPs, the implementation of top-down control in visual selection takes time to come about, and they argue against the idea of a general enhancement of top-down control in AVGPs.

Brief and Rare Mental "Breaks" Keep You Focused: Deactivation and Reactivation of Task Goals Preempt Vigilance Decrements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ariga, Atsunori; Lleras, Alejandro

2011-01-01

We newly propose that the vigilance decrement occurs because the cognitive control system fails to maintain active the goal of the vigilance task over prolonged periods of time (goal habituation). Further, we hypothesized that momentarily deactivating this goal (via a switch in tasks) would prevent the activation level of the vigilance goal from…

College Students' Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life: An Achievement Goal Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Tao; Xiang, Ping; Gu, Xiangli; Rose, Melanie

2016-01-01

Purpose: The 2 × 2 achievement goal model, including the mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goal orientations, has recently been used to explain motivational outcomes in physical activity. This study attempted to examine the relationships among 2 × 2 achievement goal orientations, physical…

THE EFFECT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE UPON PERFORMANCE AND ADJUSTMENT IN VOLUNTEER TEAMS OPERATING IN A STRESSFUL FOREIGN ENVIRONMENT.

DTIC Science & Technology

questionnaires and rating scales. Results showed that the task-oriented, low LPC leaders were more effective in the favorable and very unfavorable situations...was minimal, the task-oriented ( low LPC) leaders had groups which were relatively better adjusted than groups having relationship-oriented (high LPC

Children's Performance in Mental Rotation Tasks: Orientation-Free Features Flatten the Slope

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perrucci, Vittore; Agnoli, Franca; Albiero, Paolo

2008-01-01

Studies of the development of mental rotation have yielded conflicting results, apparently because different mental rotation tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Children may compare two stimuli at different orientations without mental rotation if the stimuli contain orientation-free features. Two groups of children (78 6-year-olds and 92…

Spatial Orienting of Attention in Dyslexic Adults Using Directional and Alphabetic Cues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Judge, Jeannie; Knox, Paul C.; Caravolas, Marketa

2013-01-01

Spatial attention performance was investigated in adults with dyslexia. Groups with and without dyslexia completed literacy/phonological tasks as well as two spatial cueing tasks, in which attention was oriented in response to a centrally presented pictorial (arrow) or alphabetic (letter) cue. Cued response times and orienting effects were largely…

Hippocampus and Retrosplenial Cortex Combine Path Integration Signals for Successful Navigation

PubMed Central

Erdem, Uğur M.; Ross, Robert S.; Brown, Thackery I.; Hasselmo, Michael E.; Stern, Chantal E.

2013-01-01

The current study used fMRI in humans to examine goal-directed navigation in an open field environment. We designed a task that required participants to encode survey-level spatial information and subsequently navigate to a goal location in either first person, third person, or survey perspectives. Critically, no distinguishing landmarks or goal location markers were present in the environment, thereby requiring participants to rely on path integration mechanisms for successful navigation. We focused our analysis on mechanisms related to navigation and mechanisms tracking linear distance to the goal location. Successful navigation required translation of encoded survey-level map information for orientation and implementation of a planned route to the goal. Our results demonstrate that successful first and third person navigation trials recruited the anterior hippocampus more than trials when the goal location was not successfully reached. When examining only successful trials, the retrosplenial and posterior parietal cortices were recruited for goal-directed navigation in both first person and third person perspectives. Unique to first person perspective navigation, the hippocampus was recruited to path integrate self-motion cues with location computations toward the goal location. Last, our results demonstrate that the hippocampus supports goal-directed navigation by actively tracking proximity to the goal throughout navigation. When using path integration mechanisms in first person and third person perspective navigation, the posterior hippocampus was more strongly recruited as participants approach the goal. These findings provide critical insight into the neural mechanisms by which we are able to use map-level representations of our environment to reach our navigational goals. PMID:24305826

Multi-layer network utilizing rewarded spike time dependent plasticity to learn a foraging task

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Neural networks with a single plastic layer employing reward modulated spike time dependent plasticity (STDP) are capable of learning simple foraging tasks. Here we demonstrate advanced pattern discrimination and continuous learning in a network of spiking neurons with multiple plastic layers. The network utilized both reward modulated and non-reward modulated STDP and implemented multiple mechanisms for homeostatic regulation of synaptic efficacy, including heterosynaptic plasticity, gain control, output balancing, activity normalization of rewarded STDP and hard limits on synaptic strength. We found that addition of a hidden layer of neurons employing non-rewarded STDP created neurons that responded to the specific combinations of inputs and thus performed basic classification of the input patterns. When combined with a following layer of neurons implementing rewarded STDP, the network was able to learn, despite the absence of labeled training data, discrimination between rewarding patterns and the patterns designated as punishing. Synaptic noise allowed for trial-and-error learning that helped to identify the goal-oriented strategies which were effective in task solving. The study predicts a critical set of properties of the spiking neuronal network with STDP that was sufficient to solve a complex foraging task involving pattern classification and decision making. PMID:28961245

Extrinsic value orientation and affective forecasting: overestimating the rewards, underestimating the costs.

PubMed

Sheldon, Kennon M; Gunz, Alexander; Nichols, Charles P; Ferguson, Yuna

2010-02-01

We examined affective forecasting errors as a possible explanation of the perennial appeal of extrinsic values and goals. Study 1 found that although people relatively higher in extrinsic (money, fame, image) compared to intrinsic (growth, intimacy, community) value orientation (REVO) are less happy, they nevertheless believe that attaining extrinsic goals offers a strong potential route to happiness. Study 2's longitudinal experimental design randomly assigned participants to pursue either 3 extrinsic or 3 intrinsic goals over 4 weeks, and REVO again predicted stronger forecasts regarding extrinsic goals. However, not even extrinsically oriented participants gained well-being benefits from attaining extrinsic goals, whereas all participants tended to gain in happiness from attaining intrinsic goals. Study 3 showed that the effect of REVO on forecasts is mediated by extrinsic individuals' belief that extrinsic goals will satisfy autonomy and competence needs. It appears that some people overestimate the emotional benefits of achieving extrinsic goals, to their potential detriment.

Interaction between Task Oriented and Affective Information Processing in Cognitive Robotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haazebroek, Pascal; van Dantzig, Saskia; Hommel, Bernhard

There is an increasing interest in endowing robots with emotions. Robot control however is still often very task oriented. We present a cognitive architecture that allows the combination of and interaction between task representations and affective information processing. Our model is validated by comparing simulation results with empirical data from experimental psychology.

Children's Task Oriented Patterns in Early Childhood: A Latent Transition Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Feihong; Algina, James; Snyder, Patricia; Cox, Martha; Vernon-Feagans, Lynne; Cox, Martha; Blair, Clancy; Burchinal, Margaret; Burton, Linda; Crnic, Keith; Crouter, Ann; Garrett-Peters, Patricia; Greenberg, Mark; Lanza, Stephanie; Mills-Koonce, Roger; Werner, Emily; Willoughby, Michael

2017-01-01

We examined individual differences and predictions of children's patterns in behavioral, emotional and attentional efforts toward challenging puzzle tasks at 24 and 35 months using data from a large longitudinal rural representative sample. Using latent transition analysis, we found four distinct task-oriented patterns in problem-solving tasks…

Task-Oriented Spoken Dialog System for Second-Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwon, Oh-Woog; Kim, Young-Kil; Lee, Yunkeun

2016-01-01

This paper introduces a Dialog-Based Computer Assisted second-Language Learning (DB-CALL) system using task-oriented dialogue processing technology. The system promotes dialogue with a second-language learner for a specific task, such as purchasing tour tickets, ordering food, passing through immigration, etc. The dialog system plays a role of a…

Strategy Generalization across Orientation Tasks: Testing a Computational Cognitive Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunzelmann, Glenn

2008-01-01

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human…

Extrafoveal preview benefit during free-viewing visual search in the monkey

PubMed Central

Krishna, B. Suresh; Ipata, Anna E.; Bisley, James W.; Gottlieb, Jacqueline; Goldberg, Michael E.

2014-01-01

Abstract Previous studies have shown that subjects require less time to process a stimulus at the fovea after a saccade if they have viewed the same stimulus in the periphery immediately prior to the saccade. This extrafoveal preview benefit indicates that information about the visual form of an extrafoveally viewed stimulus can be transferred across a saccade. Here, we extend these findings by demonstrating and characterizing a similar extrafoveal preview benefit in monkeys during a free-viewing visual search task. We trained two monkeys to report the orientation of a target among distractors by releasing one of two bars with their hand; monkeys were free to move their eyes during the task. Both monkeys took less time to indicate the orientation of the target after foveating it, when the target lay closer to the fovea during the previous fixation. An extrafoveal preview benefit emerged even if there was more than one intervening saccade between the preview and the target fixation, indicating that information about target identity could be transferred across more than one saccade and could be obtained even if the search target was not the goal of the next saccade. An extrafoveal preview benefit was also found for distractor stimuli. These results aid future physiological investigations of the extrafoveal preview benefit. PMID:24403392

Technology-assisted training of arm-hand skills in stroke: concepts on reacquisition of motor control and therapist guidelines for rehabilitation technology design

PubMed Central

Timmermans, Annick AA; Seelen, Henk AM; Willmann, Richard D; Kingma, Herman

2009-01-01

Background It is the purpose of this article to identify and review criteria that rehabilitation technology should meet in order to offer arm-hand training to stroke patients, based on recent principles of motor learning. Methods A literature search was conducted in PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and EMBASE (1997–2007). Results One hundred and eighty seven scientific papers/book references were identified as being relevant. Rehabilitation approaches for upper limb training after stroke show to have shifted in the last decade from being analytical towards being focussed on environmentally contextual skill training (task-oriented training). Training programmes for enhancing motor skills use patient and goal-tailored exercise schedules and individual feedback on exercise performance. Therapist criteria for upper limb rehabilitation technology are suggested which are used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a number of current technological systems. Conclusion This review shows that technology for supporting upper limb training after stroke needs to align with the evolution in rehabilitation training approaches of the last decade. A major challenge for related technological developments is to provide engaging patient-tailored task oriented arm-hand training in natural environments with patient-tailored feedback to support (re) learning of motor skills. PMID:19154570

Consideration of learning orientations as an application of achievement goals in evaluating life science majors in introductory physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mason, Andrew J.; Bertram, Charles A.

2018-06-01

When considering performing an Introductory Physics for Life Sciences course transformation for one's own institution, life science majors' achievement goals are a necessary consideration to ensure the pedagogical transformation will be effective. However, achievement goals are rarely an explicit consideration in physics education research topics such as metacognition. We investigate a sample population of 218 students in a first-semester introductory algebra-based physics course, drawn from 14 laboratory sections within six semesters of course sections, to determine the influence of achievement goals on life science majors' attitudes towards physics. Learning orientations that, respectively, pertain to mastery goals and performance goals, in addition to a learning orientation that does not report a performance goal, were recorded from students in the specific context of learning a problem-solving framework during an in-class exercise. Students' learning orientations, defined within the context of students' self-reported statements in the specific context of a problem-solving-related research-based course implementation, are compared to pre-post results on physics problem-solving items in a well-established attitudinal survey instrument, in order to establish the categories' validity. In addition, mastery-related and performance-related orientations appear to extend to overall pre-post attitudinal shifts, but not to force and motion concepts or to overall course grade, within the scope of an introductory physics course. There also appears to be differentiation regarding overall course performance within health science majors, but not within biology majors, in terms of learning orientations; however, health science majors generally appear to fare less well on all measurements in the study than do biology majors, regardless of learning orientations.

Individuation of objects and events: a developmental study.

PubMed

Wagner, Laura; Carey, Susan

2003-12-01

This study investigates children's ability to use language to guide their choice of individuation criterion in the domains of objects and events. Previous work (Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109-136.) has shown that children have a strong bias to use a spatio-temporal individuation strategy when counting objects and that children will ignore a conflicting linguistic description in favor of this spatio-temporal bias. Experiment 1 asked children (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) and adults to count objects and events under different linguistic descriptions. In the object task, subjects counted pictures of familiar objects split into multiple pieces (as in Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109-136.) and described either using an appropriate kind label (e.g. "car") or the general term "thing". In the event task, subjects watched short animated movies consisting of a goal-oriented event achieved via multiple, temporally separated steps. The events were described either with an appropriate telic predicate targeting the goal (e.g. "paint a flower") or with an atelic predicate targeting the steps in the process (e.g. "paint") and the subjects' task was to count the events. Relative to adults, children preferred a spatio-temporal counting strategy in both tasks; there was no difference among the three groups of children. However, children were able to significantly change their counting strategy to follow the linguistic description in the event but not the object task. Experiment 2 extended the object task to include counting of other types of non-spatio-temporal units such as sub-parts of objects and collections. Results showed that children could use the linguistic descriptions to guide their counting strategy for these new items, though they continued to show a bias for a spatio-temporal individuation strategy with the collections. We suggest potential cognitive origins for the spatio-temporal individuation bias and how it interacts with children's developing linguistic knowledge.

Bilateral robotic priming before task-oriented approach in subacute stroke rehabilitation: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Hsieh, Yu-Wei; Wu, Ching-Yi; Wang, Wei-En; Lin, Keh-Chung; Chang, Ku-Chou; Chen, Chih-Chi; Liu, Chien-Ting

2017-02-01

To investigate the treatment effects of bilateral robotic priming combined with the task-oriented approach on motor impairment, disability, daily function, and quality of life in patients with subacute stroke. A randomized controlled trial. Occupational therapy clinics in medical centers. Thirty-one subacute stroke patients were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to receive bilateral priming combined with the task-oriented approach (i.e., primed group) or to the task-oriented approach alone (i.e., unprimed group) for 90 minutes/day, 5 days/week for 4 weeks. The primed group began with the bilateral priming technique by using a bimanual robot-aided device. Motor impairments were assessed by the Fugal-Meyer Assessment, grip strength, and the Box and Block Test. Disability and daily function were measured by the modified Rankin Scale, the Functional Independence Measure, and actigraphy. Quality of life was examined by the Stroke Impact Scale. The primed and unprimed groups improved significantly on most outcomes over time. The primed group demonstrated significantly better improvement on the Stroke Impact Scale strength subscale ( p = 0.012) and a trend for greater improvement on the modified Rankin Scale ( p = 0.065) than the unprimed group. Bilateral priming combined with the task-oriented approach elicited more improvements in self-reported strength and disability degrees than the task-oriented approach by itself. Further large-scale research with at least 31 participants in each intervention group is suggested to confirm the study findings.

Leveraging MSLQ Data for Predicting Student Achievement Goal Orientations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Liaqat; Hatala, Marek; Winne, Phil; Gaševic, Dragan

2014-01-01

This study aims to investigate how the learning strategies and achievement goal orientations of students relate to their academic behaviours and performance in the context of an online learning system. The study also develops and validates a relational model between student learning strategies and achievement goals.

The Relationship between Future Goals and Achievement Goal Orientations: An Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jie Qi; McInerney, Dennis M.; Liem, Gregory Arief D.; Ortiga, Yasmin P.

2010-01-01

This research aimed to study the relationships between students' future goals (FGs) and their immediate achievement goal orientations (AGOs) among 5733 Singaporean secondary school students (M age = 14.18, SD = 1.26; 53% boys). To this end, we hypothesized that the relationships between like valenced FGs and AGOs (both intrinsic or both extrinsic)…

To master or perform? Exploring relations between achievement goals and conceptual change learning.

PubMed

Ranellucci, John; Muis, Krista R; Duffy, Melissa; Wang, Xihui; Sampasivam, Lavanya; Franco, Gina M

2013-09-01

Research is needed to explore conceptual change in relation to achievement goal orientations and depth of processing. To address this need, we examined relations between achievement goals, use of deep versus shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change learning using a think-aloud protocol. Seventy-three undergraduate students were assessed on their prior knowledge and misconceptions about Newtonian mechanics, and then reported their achievement goals and participated in think-aloud protocols while reading Newtonian physics texts. A mastery-approach goal orientation positively predicted deep processing strategies, shallow processing strategies, and conceptual change. In contrast, a performance-approach goal orientation did not predict either of the processing strategies, but negatively predicted conceptual change. A performance-avoidance goal orientation negatively predicted deep processing strategies and conceptual change. Moreover, deep and shallow processing strategies positively predicted conceptual change as well as recall. Finally, both deep and shallow processing strategies mediated relations between mastery-approach goals and conceptual change. Results provide some support for Dole and Sinatra's (1998) Cognitive Reconstruction of Knowledge Model of conceptual change but also challenge specific facets with regard to the role of depth of processing in conceptual change. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

Motivation and Cognition: The Impact of Ego and Task-Involvement on Levels of Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golan, Shari; Graham, Sandra

To study the effects of motivation on cognition, 55 fifth- and sixth-grade students were randomly assigned to 3 motivational treatment groups: (1) ego-involved (ability oriented); (2) task-involved (mastery oriented); and (3) control (no orientation). The ego-involvement treatment attempted to make subjects feel that their abilities on the tasks…

Focusing on learning through constructive alignment with task-oriented portfolio assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cain, A.; Grundy, J.; Woodward, C. J.

2018-07-01

Approaches to learning have been shown to have a significant impact on student success in technical units. This paper reports on an action research study that applied the principles of constructive alignment to improve student learning outcomes in programming units. The proposed model uses frequent formative feedback to engage students with unit material, and encourage them to adopt deep approaches to learning. Our results provide a set of guiding principles and a structured teaching approach that focuses students on meeting unit learning objectives, the goal of constructive alignment. The results are demonstrated via descriptions of the resulting teaching and learning environment, student results, and staff and student reflections.

An Efficient Framework for Development of Task-Oriented Dialog Systems in a Smart Home Environment.

PubMed

Park, Youngmin; Kang, Sangwoo; Seo, Jungyun

2018-05-16

In recent times, with the increasing interest in conversational agents for smart homes, task-oriented dialog systems are being actively researched. However, most of these studies are focused on the individual modules of such a system, and there is an evident lack of research on a dialog framework that can integrate and manage the entire dialog system. Therefore, in this study, we propose a framework that enables the user to effectively develop an intelligent dialog system. The proposed framework ontologically expresses the knowledge required for the task-oriented dialog system's process and can build a dialog system by editing the dialog knowledge. In addition, the framework provides a module router that can indirectly run externally developed modules. Further, it enables a more intelligent conversation by providing a hierarchical argument structure (HAS) to manage the various argument representations included in natural language sentences. To verify the practicality of the framework, an experiment was conducted in which developers without any previous experience in developing a dialog system developed task-oriented dialog systems using the proposed framework. The experimental results show that even beginner dialog system developers can develop a high-level task-oriented dialog system.

An Efficient Framework for Development of Task-Oriented Dialog Systems in a Smart Home Environment

PubMed Central

Park, Youngmin; Kang, Sangwoo; Seo, Jungyun

2018-01-01

In recent times, with the increasing interest in conversational agents for smart homes, task-oriented dialog systems are being actively researched. However, most of these studies are focused on the individual modules of such a system, and there is an evident lack of research on a dialog framework that can integrate and manage the entire dialog system. Therefore, in this study, we propose a framework that enables the user to effectively develop an intelligent dialog system. The proposed framework ontologically expresses the knowledge required for the task-oriented dialog system’s process and can build a dialog system by editing the dialog knowledge. In addition, the framework provides a module router that can indirectly run externally developed modules. Further, it enables a more intelligent conversation by providing a hierarchical argument structure (HAS) to manage the various argument representations included in natural language sentences. To verify the practicality of the framework, an experiment was conducted in which developers without any previous experience in developing a dialog system developed task-oriented dialog systems using the proposed framework. The experimental results show that even beginner dialog system developers can develop a high-level task-oriented dialog system. PMID:29772668

Which Feedback Is More Effective for Pursuing Multiple Goals of Differing Importance? The Interaction Effects of Goal Importance and Performance Feedback Type on Self-Regulation and Task Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hyunjoo

2016-01-01

This study examined how performance feedback type (progress vs. distance) affects Korean college students' self-regulation and task achievement according to relative goal importance in the pursuit of multiple goals. For this study, 146 students participated in a computerised task. The results showed the interaction effects of goal importance and…

Achievement Goal Orientations and Subjective Well-Being: A Person-Centred Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuominen-Soini, Heta; Salmela-Aro, Katariina; Niemivirta, Markku

2008-01-01

This study examined whether students with different achievement goal orientation profiles differ in terms of subjective well-being (i.e., self-esteem, depressive symptoms, school-related burnout, and educational goal appraisals). Six groups of students with unique motivational profiles were identified. Observed differences in subjective well-being…

Upcycling Secondary Physical Education: The Journey to Creating Goal-Oriented Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Susan; Williams, Jacqueline

2017-01-01

The ultimate goal of a quality physical education program is to develop physically literate individuals who demonstrate skill competencies, apply knowledge, demonstrate health-enhancing behaviors, exhibit prosocial behaviors, and recognize the value of physical activity for a lifetime. The development and implementation of goal-oriented physical…

Epistemic Beliefs and Achievement Goal Orientations: Relations between Constructs versus Personal Profiles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madjar, Nir; Weinstock, Michael; Kaplan, Avi

2017-01-01

Research has found students' epistemic beliefs to predict their achievement goal orientations. Much of this research emerged from the dimensional approach of epistemic beliefs, which hypothesized a relationship between particular independent dimensions of epistemic beliefs with different achievement goals. Research in this approach has primarily…

The Effects of Goal-Oriented Instructions in Digital Game-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erhel, Séverine; Jamet, Eric

2016-01-01

Few studies have investigated the effects of the instructions provided in educational computer games on cognitive processing and learning outcomes. In our experiment, we sought to compare the effects on learning outcomes of two different types of goal-oriented instructions: "mastery-goal" instructions, which prompt learners to develop…

Are Teachers' Psychological Control, Autonomy Support and Autonomy Suppression Associated with Students' Goals?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madjar, Nir; Nave, Adi; Hen, Shiran

2013-01-01

This study investigated associations between student-perceived teacher behaviours and students' personal goal orientations. Thus, the study applied theoretical concepts from self-determination theory and parenting style in an attempt to enhance understanding of additional environmental characteristics possibly affecting personal goal orientation.…

Resident designed intern orientation to address the new ACGME Common Program Requirements for resident supervision.

PubMed

Rialon, Kristy L; Barfield, Michael E; Elfenbein, Dawn M; Lunsford, Keri E; Tracy, Elisabeth T; Migaly, John

2013-01-01

To design an orientation for surgical interns to meet the new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Common Program Requirements regarding supervision, to test patient-management competencies, and to assess confidence on skills and tasks pre-orientation and post-orientation. Twenty-seven incoming surgical interns participated in a two-day orientation to clinical duties. Activities included a pre-test, lectures, simulation, oral examination, intern shadowing, and a post-test. Incoming interns were surveyed before and after orientation and two months later for confidence in patient-management and surgical intern skills. Paired t-tests were used to determine if confidence improved pre-orientation and post-orientation, and two months following orientation. The study took place at an academic training hospital. All (n = 27) postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) surgical residents at our institution, which included the categorical and nondesignated preliminary general surgery, urology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, and neurosurgery programs. All interns passed the oral and written examinations, and were deemed able to be indirectly supervised, with direct supervision immediately available. They reported increased confidence in all areas of patient management addressed during orientation, and this confidence was retained after two months. In surgical and floor-related tasks and skills, interns reported no increase in confidence directly following orientation. However, after two months, they reported a significant increase in confidence, particularly in those tasks that are performed often. New requirements for resident supervision require creative ways of verifying resident competency in basic skills. This type of orientation is an effective way to address the new requirements of supervision and teach interns the tasks and skills that are necessary for internship. Copyright © 2013 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Varied overground walking-task practice versus body-weight-supported treadmill training in ambulatory adults within one year of stroke: a randomized controlled trial protocol.

PubMed

DePaul, Vincent G; Wishart, Laurie R; Richardson, Julie; Lee, Timothy D; Thabane, Lehana

2011-10-21

Although task-oriented training has been shown to improve walking outcomes after stroke, it is not yet clear whether one task-oriented approach is superior to another. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the Motor Learning Walking Program (MLWP), a varied overground walking task program consistent with key motor learning principles, to body-weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) in community-dwelling, ambulatory, adults within 1 year of stroke. A parallel, randomized controlled trial with stratification by baseline gait speed will be conducted. Allocation will be controlled by a central randomization service and participants will be allocated to the two active intervention groups (1:1) using a permuted block randomization process. Seventy participants will be assigned to one of two 15-session training programs. In MLWP, one physiotherapist will supervise practice of various overground walking tasks. Instructions, feedback, and guidance will be provided in a manner that facilitates self-evaluation and problem solving. In BWSTT, training will emphasize repetition of the normal gait cycle while supported over a treadmill, assisted by up to three physiotherapists. Outcomes will be assessed by a blinded assessor at baseline, post-intervention and at 2-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be post-intervention comfortable gait speed. Secondary outcomes include fast gait speed, walking endurance, balance self-efficacy, participation in community mobility, health-related quality of life, and goal attainment. Groups will be compared using analysis of covariance with baseline gait speed strata as the single covariate. Intention-to-treat analysis will be used. In order to direct clinicians, patients, and other health decision-makers, there is a need for a head-to-head comparison of different approaches to active, task-related walking training after stroke. We hypothesize that outcomes will be optimized through the application of a task-related training program that is consistent with key motor learning principles related to practice, guidance and feedback. ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT00561405.

Varied overground walking-task practice versus body-weight-supported treadmill training in ambulatory adults within one year of stroke: a randomized controlled trial protocol

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Although task-oriented training has been shown to improve walking outcomes after stroke, it is not yet clear whether one task-oriented approach is superior to another. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the Motor Learning Walking Program (MLWP), a varied overground walking task program consistent with key motor learning principles, to body-weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) in community-dwelling, ambulatory, adults within 1 year of stroke. Methods/Design A parallel, randomized controlled trial with stratification by baseline gait speed will be conducted. Allocation will be controlled by a central randomization service and participants will be allocated to the two active intervention groups (1:1) using a permuted block randomization process. Seventy participants will be assigned to one of two 15-session training programs. In MLWP, one physiotherapist will supervise practice of various overground walking tasks. Instructions, feedback, and guidance will be provided in a manner that facilitates self-evaluation and problem solving. In BWSTT, training will emphasize repetition of the normal gait cycle while supported over a treadmill, assisted by up to three physiotherapists. Outcomes will be assessed by a blinded assessor at baseline, post-intervention and at 2-month follow-up. The primary outcome will be post-intervention comfortable gait speed. Secondary outcomes include fast gait speed, walking endurance, balance self-efficacy, participation in community mobility, health-related quality of life, and goal attainment. Groups will be compared using analysis of covariance with baseline gait speed strata as the single covariate. Intention-to-treat analysis will be used. Discussion In order to direct clinicians, patients, and other health decision-makers, there is a need for a head-to-head comparison of different approaches to active, task-related walking training after stroke. We hypothesize that outcomes will be optimized through the application of a task-related training program that is consistent with key motor learning principles related to practice, guidance and feedback. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov # NCT00561405 PMID:22018267

Task Goal Attributes, n Achievement, and Supervisory Performance. Technical Report No. 30.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steers, Richard M.

A review of the research literature on goal-setting in organizational settings reveals that goal-setting on an individual job results in better task performance. However, the processes behind their effectiveness is unclear. For example, how are various job attributes of task goals related to performance, and how do various individual differences…

Home-based bimanual training based on motor learning principles in children with unilateral cerebral palsy and their parents (the COAD-study): rationale and protocols.

PubMed

Schnackers, Marlous; Beckers, Laura; Janssen-Potten, Yvonne; Aarts, Pauline; Rameckers, Eugène; van der Burg, Jan; de Groot, Imelda; Smeets, Rob; Geurts, Sander; Steenbergen, Bert

2018-04-18

Home-based training is considered an important intervention in rehabilitation of children with unilateral cerebral palsy. Despite consensus on the value of home-based upper limb training, no evidence-based best practice exists. Promoting compliance of children to adhere to an intensive program while keeping parental stress levels low is an important challenge when designing home-based training programs. Incorporating implicit motor learning principles emerges to be a promising method to resolve this challenge. Here we describe two protocols for home-based bimanual training programs, one based on implicit motor learning principles and one based on explicit motor learning principles, for children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy aged 2 through 7 years. Children receive goal-oriented, task-specific bimanual training in their home environment from their parents for 3.5 h/week for 12 weeks according to an individualized program. Parents will be intensively coached by a multidisciplinary team, consisting of a pediatric therapist and remedial educationalist. Both programs consist of a preparation phase (goal setting, introductory meetings with coaching professionals, design of individualized program, instruction of parents, home visit) and home-based training phase (training, video-recordings, registrations, and telecoaching and home visits by the coaching team). The programs contrast with respect to the teaching strategy, i.e. how the parents support their child during training. In both programs parents provide their child with instructions and feedback that focus on the activity (i.e. task-oriented) or the result of the activity (i.e. result-oriented). However, in the explicit program parents are in addition instructed to give exact instructions and feedback on the motor performance of the bimanual activities, whereas in the implicit program the use of both hands and the appropriate motor performance of the activity are elicited via manipulation of the organization of the activities. With the protocols described here, we aim to take a next step in the development of much needed evidence-based home-based training programs for children with unilateral cerebral palsy.

Standards-based sensor interoperability and networking SensorWeb: an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolling, Sam

2012-06-01

The War fighter lacks a unified Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) environment to conduct mission planning, command and control (C2), tasking, collection, exploitation, processing, and data discovery of disparate sensor data across the ISR Enterprise. Legacy sensors and applications are not standardized or integrated for assured, universal access. Existing tasking and collection capabilities are not unified across the enterprise, inhibiting robust C2 of ISR including near-real time, cross-cueing operations. To address these critical needs, the National Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) Office (NMO), and partnering Combatant Commands and Intelligence Agencies are developing SensorWeb, an architecture that harmonizes heterogeneous sensor data to a common standard for users to discover, access, observe, subscribe to and task sensors. The SensorWeb initiative long term goal is to establish an open commercial standards-based, service-oriented framework to facilitate plug and play sensors. The current development effort will produce non-proprietary deliverables, intended as a Government off the Shelf (GOTS) solution to address the U.S. and Coalition nations' inability to quickly and reliably detect, identify, map, track, and fully understand security threats and operational activities.

Extending Antecedents of Achievement Goals: The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Social-Oriented Achievement Motive and Gender Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nie, Youyan; Liem, Gregory Arief D.

2013-01-01

Underpinned by the hierarchical model of approach and avoidance motivation, the study examined the differential relations of individual-oriented and social-oriented achievement motives to approach and avoidance achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-avoidance). A total of 570 Chinese high school…

There's more to care than tasks.

PubMed

O'Dwyer, Sheena

2009-07-09

Task orientation is a phrase that is used to demonstrate how not to give care. It is the antithesis of person-centred treatment. I care for people with dementia, working on a ward that is often severely understaffed (sound familiar?) and sometimes I go home wondering how my team and I could have done anything other than be task orientated.

Personal resources, appraisal, and coping in the adaptation process of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union.

PubMed

Yakhnich, Liat; Ben-Zur, Hasida

2008-04-01

Between 1989 and 2005, Israel absorbed over a million new immigrants, about 90% of whom were from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The present study investigated the adaptation of these FSU new immigrants in a sample of 301 participants (67% women, ages 25-45 years), who completed inventories measuring personal resources (tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive flexibility), cognitive appraisals (of employment, language, and housing problems), coping strategies, well-being, distress, and willingness to remain in Israel. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that tolerance for ambiguity and cognitive flexibility contributed positively to control appraisals, task-oriented coping, and level of participant well-being, and negatively to threat/loss appraisals, emotion/avoidance-oriented coping, and distress. Control appraisals contributed to task-oriented coping, whereas threat/loss appraisals contributed to both emotion/avoidance-oriented and task-oriented coping. Control and challenge appraisals, and task-oriented coping, contributed positively to participant willingness to remain in Israel, whereas emotion/avoidance-oriented coping contributed positively to distress levels, which in turn were negatively related to willingness to remain in Israel. The results of this study have significant implications for such aspects of immigrant adaptation as absorption policies and the provision of individual care by professionals and organizations. Copyright 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

Orientations for the successful categorization of facial expressions and their link with facial features.

PubMed

Duncan, Justin; Gosselin, Frédéric; Cobarro, Charlène; Dugas, Gabrielle; Blais, Caroline; Fiset, Daniel

2017-12-01

Horizontal information was recently suggested to be crucial for face identification. In the present paper, we expand on this finding and investigate the role of orientations for all the basic facial expressions and neutrality. To this end, we developed orientation bubbles to quantify utilization of the orientation spectrum by the visual system in a facial expression categorization task. We first validated the procedure in Experiment 1 with a simple plaid-detection task. In Experiment 2, we used orientation bubbles to reveal the diagnostic-i.e., task relevant-orientations for the basic facial expressions and neutrality. Overall, we found that horizontal information was highly diagnostic for expressions-surprise excepted. We also found that utilization of horizontal information strongly predicted performance level in this task. Despite the recent surge of research on horizontals, the link with local features remains unexplored. We were thus also interested in investigating this link. In Experiment 3, location bubbles were used to reveal the diagnostic features for the basic facial expressions. Crucially, Experiments 2 and 3 were run in parallel on the same participants, in an interleaved fashion. This way, we were able to correlate individual orientation and local diagnostic profiles. Our results indicate that individual differences in horizontal tuning are best predicted by utilization of the eyes.

Identity Processes and Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goal Pursuits: Directionality of Effects in College Students.

PubMed

Luyckx, Koen; Duriez, Bart; Green, Lindsey M; Negru-Subtirica, Oana

2017-08-01

Identity research has mainly focused on the degree to which adolescents and emerging adults engage in exploration and commitment to identity goals and strivings. Somewhat lacking from this research tradition is an explicit focus on the content of the identity goals that individuals deem important and pursue. The present manuscript describes two longitudinal studies sampling college students in which we examine how exploration and commitment processes relate to intrinsic and extrinsic goal pursuits as defined in Self-Determination Theory. Study 1 was a two-wave longitudinal study spanning 6 months (N = 370; 77.4% women; mean age 18.24 years); Study 2 was a three-wave longitudinal study spanning 6 months (N = 458 students; 84.9% women; mean age 18.25 years). Using cross-lagged path analyses, hypotheses were supported to various degrees of convergence between studies, pointing to the extent of which results were replicated across our two independent longitudinal samples. Whereas an intrinsic goal orientation positively predicted commitment making (Study 1) and identification with commitment over time (Studies 1 and 2), an extrinsic goal orientation positively predicted ruminative exploration over time, which led to decreases in intrinsic orientation over time (Study 2). Further, an intrinsic goal orientation negatively predicted ruminative exploration over time (Study 1). The findings in for pro-active exploration processes were inconsistent across both studies, being prospectively related to both intrinsic (Study 2) and extrinsic goal orientations (Study 1). Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Reducing the motor response in haptic parallel matching eliminates the typically observed gender difference.

PubMed

van Mier, Hanneke I

2016-01-01

When making two bars haptically parallel to each other, large deviations have been observed, most likely caused by the bias of a hand-centered egocentric reference frame. A consistent finding is that women show significantly larger deviations than men when performing this task. It has been suggested that this difference might be due to the fact that women are more egocentrically oriented than men or are less efficient in overcoming the egocentric bias of the hand. If this is indeed the case, reducing the bias of the egocentric reference frame should eliminate the above-mentioned gender difference. This was investigated in the current study. Sixty participants (30 men, 30 women) were instructed to haptically match (task HP) the orientation of a test bar with the dominant hand to the orientation of a reference bar that was perceived with the non-dominant hand. In a haptic visual task (task HV), in which only the reference bar and exploring hand were out of view, no motor response was required, but participants had to "match" the perceived orientation by verbally naming the parallel orientation that was read out on a test protractor. Both females and males performed better in the HV task than in the HP task. Significant gender effects were only found in the haptic parallelity task (HP), corroborating the idea that women perform at the same level as men when the egocentric bias of the hand is reduced.

Motivational orientations and task autonomy fit: effects on organizational attraction.

PubMed

Wu, Yu-Chi

2012-02-01

The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is congruence between applicant needs (i.e., motivational orientations) and what is available (i.e., task autonomy) from an organizational perspective based on the fit between needs and supply. The fit between work motivation and task autonomy was examined to see whether it was associated with organizational attraction. This experimental study included two phases. Phase 1 participants consisted of 446 undergraduate students, of whom 228 were recruited to participate in Phase 2. The fit relations between task autonomy and intrinsic motivation and between task control and extrinsic motivation were characterized. Findings indicated that the fit between work motivation and task autonomy was positively associated with organizational attraction. Based on these results, it may be inferred that employers should emphasize job characteristics such as autonomy or control orientations to attract individuals, and focus on the most suitable work motivations for their organizations.

Core stability exercise is as effective as task-oriented motor training in improving motor proficiency in children with developmental coordination disorder: a randomized controlled pilot study.

PubMed

Au, Mei K; Chan, Wai M; Lee, Lin; Chen, Tracy Mk; Chau, Rosanna Mw; Pang, Marco Yc

2014-10-01

To compare the effectiveness of a core stability program with a task-oriented motor training program in improving motor proficiency in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Randomized controlled pilot trial. Outpatient unit in a hospital. Twenty-two children diagnosed with DCD aged 6-9 years were randomly allocated to the core stability program or the task-oriented motor program. Both groups underwent their respective face-to-face training session once per week for eight consecutive weeks. They were also instructed to carry out home exercises on a daily basis during the intervention period. Short Form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (Second Edition) and Sensory Organization Test at pre- and post-intervention. Intention-to-treat analysis revealed no significant between-group difference in the change of motor proficiency standard score (P=0.717), and composite equilibrium score derived from the Sensory Organization Test (P=0.100). Further analysis showed significant improvement in motor proficiency in both the core stability (mean change (SD)=6.3(5.4); p=0.008) and task-oriented training groups (mean change(SD)=5.1(4.0); P=0.007). The composite equilibrium score was significantly increased in the task-oriented training group (mean change (SD)=6.0(5.5); P=0.009), but not in the core stability group (mean change(SD) =0.0(9.6); P=0.812). In the task-oriented training group, compliance with the home program was positively correlated with change in motor proficiency (ρ=0.680, P=0.030) and composite equilibrium score (ρ=0.638, P=0.047). The core stability exercise program is as effective as task-oriented training in improving motor proficiency among children with DCD. © The Author(s) 2014.

A Task-oriented Approach for Hydrogeological Site Characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubin, Y.; Nowak, W.; de Barros, F.

2010-12-01

Hydrogeological site characterization is a challenging task from several reasons: (1) the large spatial variability and scarcity of prior information render the outcome of any planned sampling campaign uncertain; (2) there are no simple tools for comparing between the many alternative measurement techniques and data acquisition strategies, and (3) physical and budgetary constraints associated with data acquisition. This paper presents several ideas on how to plan sampling campaigns in a rational manner while addressing these challenges. The first idea is to recognize that different sites and different problems require different characterization strategies. Hence the idea is to plan data acquisition according to its capability for meeting site-specific goals. For example, the characterization needs at a “research problem” site (e.g., a site intended to investigate the transport of uranium in the subsurface such as in Hanford) are different from those of a “problem” site (e.g., contaminated site associated with a health risk to human such as Camp Lejeune, or determining the safe yield of an aquifer). This distinction requires planners to define the characterization goal(s) in a quantitative manner. The second idea is to define metrics that could link specific data types and data acquisition strategies with the site-specific goals in a way that would allow planners to compare between strongly different, alternatives strategies at the design stage (even prior to data acquisition) and to modify the strategies as more data become available. To meet this goal, we developed the concept of the (comparative) information yield curve. Finally, we propose to look at site characterization from the perspective of statistical hypothesis testing, whereby data acquisition strategies could be evaluated in terms of their ability to support or refute various hypotheses made with regard to the characterization goals, and the strategies could be modified once the test is completed. Accept/reject regions for hypothesis testing can be determined based on goals determined by regulations or by agreement between the stakeholders. Hypothesis-driven design could help in minimizing the chances of making wrong decision (false positives or false negatives) with regard to the site-specific goals.

Enhancing Learning Management Systems Utility for Blind Students: A Task-Oriented, User-Centered, Multi-Method Evaluation Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babu, Rakesh; Singh, Rahul

2013-01-01

This paper presents a novel task-oriented, user-centered, multi-method evaluation (TUME) technique and shows how it is useful in providing a more complete, practical and solution-oriented assessment of the accessibility and usability of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for blind and visually impaired (BVI) students. Novel components of TUME…

Are There Detrimental Effects From Proficiency-Based Training in Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery Among Novices? An Exploration of Goal Theory.

PubMed

Stoller, Jeremy; Joseph, Jeremy; Parodi, Nicholas; Gardner, Aimee

2016-01-01

Goal theory states that novices may experience unintended, detrimental learning effects, with decreased performance, when given performance goals on complex tasks. In these situations, it may be more appropriate to give novices learning goals to help avoid these negative consequences. The purpose of this study was to see whether this tenant of goal theory applied to novices learning 2 tasks of fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery (FLS). Medical and physician assistant students were randomized to a performance goals group and a learning goals group. The performance goals consisted of the published proficiency standards of FLS. Both groups were pretested on perception of surgery, self-efficacy, and general affect. Each group underwent a practice session for the peg transfer task. They were tested and scored per the published standards of FLS. The participants completed NASA Task Load Index, task complexity, and postaffect questionnaires related to the peg transfer task. This was repeated with the suture with intracorporeal knot task. Posttest perception of surgery and self-efficacy questionnaires were completed. In total, 48 students participated in the study: 23 in the performance goals group and 25 in the learning goals group. Most of the participants (n = 40) were first-year medical and physician assistant students. There were no significant differences between the groups in perception of surgery, affect, goal commitment, subjective task complexity, subjective workload, and self-efficacy. There were no differences between the groups concerning overall FLS score for both the peg transfer and suturing tasks. Both groups exhibited significant increases in self-efficacy and perception of surgery (p < 0.05). FLS skills can be given to novice learners without concern for detrimental effects as might be expected by other work on goal theory. Given that performance was the same for both groups, surgical educators may have multiple pathways to educational success when incorporating goals into training programs for basic surgical skills. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

GOAL - A test engineer oriented language. [Ground Operations Aerospace Language for coding automatic test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mitchell, T. R.

1974-01-01

The development of a test engineer oriented language has been under way at the Kennedy Space Center for several years. The result of this effort is the Ground Operations Aerospace Language, GOAL, a self-documenting, high-order language suitable for coding automatic test, checkout and launch procedures. GOAL is a highly readable, writable, retainable language that is easily learned by nonprogramming oriented engineers. It is sufficiently powerful for use at all levels of Space Shuttle ground processing, from line replaceable unit checkout to integrated launch day operations. This paper will relate the language development, and describe GOAL and its applications.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buchholz, B. A.

The project has two main goals: 1) Identify the types of adducts naphthalene (NA) forms with DNA and 2) determine whether adduct formation correlates with site selective tumor formation in defined subcompartments of the respiratory tract (respiratory and olfactory nasal epithelium and airways of mice, rats and rhesus monkeys). Five tasks are associated with the completion of the goals. Task 1: Contracting and Animal Use Approvals. IACUC and ACURO approvals are complete. The subcontract with UC Davis (UCD) was executed in December 2014. Task 2: Perform In Vitro Study for Goal 1. Rat and mouse samples exposures completed. Monkey samplesmore » need to be exposed in next quarter. Task 3: Perform In Vitro Study for Goal 2. Mouse and rat ex vivo exposures completed. Monkey samples need to be completed in the next quarter. Task 4: Sample Preparation and Analysis. Mouse and Rat Goal 2 samples completed. Monkey samples remain to be done for Goal 2. Rat samples completed for Goal 1. Mouse and Monkey samples for Goal 1 need to be completed. Task 5: Data Interpretation and Reporting. Poster will be presented at 2016 Society of Toxicology Meeting. Outline for paper on adduct formation complete and similar to poster for SOT meeting.« less

Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies.

PubMed

McLaren, James D; Shamoun-Baranes, Judy; Dokter, Adriaan M; Klaassen, Raymond H G; Bouten, Willem

2014-10-06

Animal movements in air and water can be strongly affected by experienced flow. While various flow-orientation strategies have been proposed and observed, their performance in variable flow conditions remains unclear. We apply control theory to establish a benchmark for time-minimizing (optimal) orientation. We then define optimal orientation for movement in steady flow patterns and, using dynamic wind data, for short-distance mass movements of thrushes (Turdus sp.) and 6000 km non-stop migratory flights by great snipes, Gallinago media. Relative to the optimal benchmark, we assess the efficiency (travel speed) and reliability (success rate) of three generic orientation strategies: full compensation for lateral drift, vector orientation (single-heading movement) and goal orientation (continually heading towards the goal). Optimal orientation is characterized by detours to regions of high flow support, especially when flow speeds approach and exceed the animal's self-propelled speed. In strong predictable flow (short distance thrush flights), vector orientation adjusted to flow on departure is nearly optimal, whereas for unpredictable flow (inter-continental snipe flights), only goal orientation was near-optimally reliable and efficient. Optimal orientation provides a benchmark for assessing efficiency of responses to complex flow conditions, thereby offering insight into adaptive flow-orientation across taxa in the light of flow strength, predictability and navigation capacity.

Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies

PubMed Central

McLaren, James D.; Shamoun-Baranes, Judy; Dokter, Adriaan M.; Klaassen, Raymond H. G.; Bouten, Willem

2014-01-01

Animal movements in air and water can be strongly affected by experienced flow. While various flow-orientation strategies have been proposed and observed, their performance in variable flow conditions remains unclear. We apply control theory to establish a benchmark for time-minimizing (optimal) orientation. We then define optimal orientation for movement in steady flow patterns and, using dynamic wind data, for short-distance mass movements of thrushes (Turdus sp.) and 6000 km non-stop migratory flights by great snipes, Gallinago media. Relative to the optimal benchmark, we assess the efficiency (travel speed) and reliability (success rate) of three generic orientation strategies: full compensation for lateral drift, vector orientation (single-heading movement) and goal orientation (continually heading towards the goal). Optimal orientation is characterized by detours to regions of high flow support, especially when flow speeds approach and exceed the animal's self-propelled speed. In strong predictable flow (short distance thrush flights), vector orientation adjusted to flow on departure is nearly optimal, whereas for unpredictable flow (inter-continental snipe flights), only goal orientation was near-optimally reliable and efficient. Optimal orientation provides a benchmark for assessing efficiency of responses to complex flow conditions, thereby offering insight into adaptive flow-orientation across taxa in the light of flow strength, predictability and navigation capacity. PMID:25056213

Goal Orientation, Learning Self-Efficacy, and Climate Perceptions in a Post-Acquisition Corporate Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potosky, Denise

2010-01-01

The present investigation offers some insight for human resource development (HRD) practitioners and researchers focused on helping employees pursue learning goals as they adapt to organizational changes. Using a repeated measurement over a five-year time period, this study examined goal orientation, learning self-efficacy, climate perceptions,…

Relationship between Lifestyle Values and Achievement Goal Orientation among Vocational Students in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chantara, Soontornpathai; Koul, Ravinder; Kaewkuekool, Sittichai

2014-01-01

This study brings models of value theory and motivational goal theory together to investigate the relationship between lifestyle values (materialism, religiosity, physical well-being and image) and achievement goal orientation of college students enrolled in vocational programmes in Thailand (N?=?1670, males?=?38.5% and females?=?61.5%). We found…

Internationalization at Home: Using Learning Motivation to Predict Students' Attitudes toward Teaching in a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorges, Julia; Kandler, Christian; Bohner, Gerd

2012-01-01

Fostering foreign language proficiency is an important goal of university teaching. We identified German university students' (N = 1265) goal orientations developed during secondary school as predictors of attitudes toward receiving instruction in English at university. Mastery goal orientation was proposed to "directly" promote positive…

College Students' Achievement Goal Orientation and Motivational Regulations in Physical Activity Classes: A Test of Gender Invariance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Su, Xiaoxia; McBride, Ron E.; Xiang, Ping

2015-01-01

The current study examined the measurement invariance across 361 male and female college students' 2 × 2 achievement goal orientation and motivational regulations. Participants completed questionnaires assessing their achievement goals and motivational regulations. Multigroup CFA analyses showed that male and female students' scores were fully…

The Achievement Goals Orientation of South African First Year University Physics Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramnarain, Umesh Dewnarain; Ramaila, Sam

2016-01-01

This study investigated the achievement goals orientation of first year physics students at a South African university. The mixed methods design involved a quantitative survey of 291 students using an achievement goals questionnaire and individual interviews of selected participants. Results showed that the students perceived they have a stronger…

[Modern operations management in workflow operation. Spectrum of responsibilities and challenges for the future].

PubMed

Riedl, S

2002-02-01

The operating unit is one of the cost-intensive facilities in a surgical clinic with a pacemaking function for most of the internal procedures. The power of performance of the operating unit is based on the co-operation of all disciplines and professions involved. The key to management of the operating unit is not only to co-ordinate the daily procedures, but also to interact with support personnel. To ensure successful OR management, the internal structure of the OR must fit the clinical tasks and the available quantity of personnel in each profession must be co-ordinated. Sufficient utilization of resources and equipment must be guaranteed without cost-intensive over-capacities and patient flow must be orientated to OR capacities. The development of such a business structure requires the management to clearly define the goal, to know the actual on-site data in detail with regard to the idiosyncratic workings of each speciality and to clearly assign the competence of each member of the team working in the OR. Co-ordination of the operating unit is the main task of OR management, which must ensure the following: transparent and co-ordinated schedule management in the various operative specialities, goal-directed changes of the schedule with incorporation of emergencies, as well as effective organization of staff. In order to realize these tasks, it is reasonable to implement interdisciplinary rules of procedures. In addition, the assignment of a neutral decision-making body within the OR and the creation of an information center for all OR personnel. The challenge of OR organization in the future is to implement more effective documentation systems and active controlling within the OR. One can ensure adequate utilization of resources in the OR with prospectively oriented planning. Better transparence of operations in the OR contributes to increased efficiency. Implementation of quality management is the foundation for a successfully operating surgical hospital. Not only the productivity of individual members of the staff, but also the precise documentation of the quality of results will become important parameters in a successful surgical hospital, whose nucleus is the OR.

Alcohol-Preferring Rats Show Goal Oriented Behaviour to Food Incentives but Are Neither Sign-Trackers Nor Impulsive.

PubMed

Peña-Oliver, Yolanda; Giuliano, Chiara; Economidou, Daina; Goodlett, Charles R; Robbins, Trevor W; Dalley, Jeffrey W; Everitt, Barry J

2015-01-01

Drug addiction is often associated with impulsivity and altered behavioural responses to both primary and conditioned rewards. Here we investigated whether selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats show differential levels of impulsivity and conditioned behavioural responses to food incentives. P and NP rats were assessed for impulsivity in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), a widely used translational task in humans and other animals, as well as Pavlovian conditioned approach to measure sign- and goal-tracking behaviour. Drug-naïve P and NP rats showed similar levels of impulsivity on the 5-CSRTT, assessed by the number of premature, anticipatory responses, even when the waiting interval to respond was increased. However, unlike NP rats, P rats were faster to enter the food magazine and spent more time in this area. In addition, P rats showed higher levels of goal-tracking responses than NP rats, as measured by the number of magazine nose-pokes during the presentation of a food conditioned stimulus. By contrast, NP showed higher levels of sign-tracking behaviour than P rats. Following a 4-week exposure to intermittent alcohol we confirmed that P rats had a marked preference for, and consumed more alcohol than, NP rats, but were not more impulsive when re-tested in the 5-CSRTT. These findings indicate that high alcohol preferring and drinking P rats are neither intrinsically impulsive nor do they exhibit impulsivity after exposure to alcohol. However, P rats do show increased goal-directed behaviour to food incentives and this may be associated with their strong preference for alcohol.

"To be or not to be Retained … That's the Question!" Retention, Self-esteem, Self-concept, Achievement Goals, and Grades.

PubMed

Peixoto, Francisco; Monteiro, Vera; Mata, Lourdes; Sanches, Cristina; Pipa, Joana; Almeida, Leandro S

2016-01-01

Keeping students back in the same grade - retention - has always been a controversial issue in Education, with some defending it as a beneficial remedial practice and others arguing against its detrimental effects. This paper undertakes an analysis of this issue, focusing on the differences in student motivation and self-related variables according to their retention related status, and the interrelationship between retention and these variables. The participants were 695 students selected from two cohorts (5th and 7th graders) of a larger group of students followed over a 3-year project. The students were assigned to four groups according to their retention-related status over time: (1) students with past and recent retention; (2) students with past but no recent retention; (3) students with no past but recent retention; (4) students with no past or recent retention. Measures of achievement goal orientations, self-concept, self-esteem, importance given to school subjects and Grade Point Average (GPA) were collected for all students. Repeated measures MANCOVA analyses were carried out showing group differences in self-esteem, academic self-concept, importance attributed to academic competencies, task and avoidance orientation and academic achievement. To attain a deeper understanding of these results and to identify profiles across variables, a cluster analysis based on achievement goals was conducted and four clusters were identified. Students who were retained at the end of the school year are mainly represented in clusters with less adaptive motivational profiles and almost absent from clusters exhibiting more adaptive ones. Findings highlight that retention leaves a significant mark that remains even when students recover academic achievement and retention is in the distant past. This is reflected in the low academic self-concept as well as in the devaluation of academic competencies and in the avoidance orientation which, taken together, can undermine students' academic adjustment and turn retention into a risk factor.

“To be or not to be Retained … That’s the Question!” Retention, Self-esteem, Self-concept, Achievement Goals, and Grades

PubMed Central

Peixoto, Francisco; Monteiro, Vera; Mata, Lourdes; Sanches, Cristina; Pipa, Joana; Almeida, Leandro S.

2016-01-01

Keeping students back in the same grade – retention – has always been a controversial issue in Education, with some defending it as a beneficial remedial practice and others arguing against its detrimental effects. This paper undertakes an analysis of this issue, focusing on the differences in student motivation and self-related variables according to their retention related status, and the interrelationship between retention and these variables. The participants were 695 students selected from two cohorts (5th and 7th graders) of a larger group of students followed over a 3-year project. The students were assigned to four groups according to their retention-related status over time: (1) students with past and recent retention; (2) students with past but no recent retention; (3) students with no past but recent retention; (4) students with no past or recent retention. Measures of achievement goal orientations, self-concept, self-esteem, importance given to school subjects and Grade Point Average (GPA) were collected for all students. Repeated measures MANCOVA analyses were carried out showing group differences in self-esteem, academic self-concept, importance attributed to academic competencies, task and avoidance orientation and academic achievement. To attain a deeper understanding of these results and to identify profiles across variables, a cluster analysis based on achievement goals was conducted and four clusters were identified. Students who were retained at the end of the school year are mainly represented in clusters with less adaptive motivational profiles and almost absent from clusters exhibiting more adaptive ones. Findings highlight that retention leaves a significant mark that remains even when students recover academic achievement and retention is in the distant past. This is reflected in the low academic self-concept as well as in the devaluation of academic competencies and in the avoidance orientation which, taken together, can undermine students’ academic adjustment and turn retention into a risk factor. PMID:27790167

Reliability Generalization of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey Goal Orientation Scales

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Margaret E.; Blackburn, Marcy; Forbes, Sean

2005-01-01

A reliability generalization study was completed on the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey achievement goal orientation scales to assess the prediction of (a) the different orientation scales, (b) the adaptation of items to meet research needs, (c) the number of respondents completing the instrument, and (d) the publication date cited for the…

The Dynamic and Correlation of the Value Orientations and Life Goals of Urban Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selivanova, Z. K.

2014-01-01

One of the scientific techniques in the study of value orientations and preferences consists of determining adolescents' attitudes toward personality qualities. It is well known that the model of a personality as an ideal construct formed in a person's consciousness correlates with value orientations and life goals. Its study permits us to…

The Role of Family Orientation in Predicting Korean Boys' and Girls' Achievement Motivation to Learn Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jung-In; Chung, Hyewon

2012-01-01

Informed by achievement goal orientation and self-determination theories, we explored the role of cultural/contextual factors on Korean students' achievement motivation. Specifically, we examined the role of the Korean middle school students' family orientation as a mediator between their perceptions of parent goals or motivating styles and their…

Developing a Very Low Vision Orientation and Mobility Test Battery (O&M-VLV).

PubMed

Finger, Robert P; Ayton, Lauren N; Deverell, Lil; O'Hare, Fleur; McSweeney, Shane C; Luu, Chi D; Fenwick, Eva K; Keeffe, Jill E; Guymer, Robyn H; Bentley, Sharon A

2016-09-01

This study aimed to determine the feasibility of an assessment of vision-related orientation and mobility (O&M) tasks in persons with severe vision loss. These tasks may be used for future low vision rehabilitation clinical assessments or as outcome measures in vision restoration trials. Forty legally blind persons (mean visual acuity logMAR 2.3, or hand movements) with advanced retinitis pigmentosa participated in the Orientation & Mobility-Very Low Vision (O&M-VLV) subtests from the Low Vision Assessment of Daily Activities (LoVADA) protocol. Four categories of tasks were evaluated: route travel in three indoor hospital environments, a room orientation task (the "cafe"), a visual exploration task (the "gallery"), and a modified version of the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, which assesses re-orientation and route travel. Spatial cognition was assessed using the Stuart Tactile Maps test. Visual acuity and visual fields were measured. A generalized linear regression model showed that a number of measures in the O&M-VLV tasks were related to residual visual function. The percentage of preferred walking speed without an aid on three travel routes was associated with visual field (p < 0.01 for all routes) whereas the number of contacts with obstacles during route travel was associated with acuity (p = 0.001). TUG-LV task time was associated with acuity (p = 0.003), as was the cafe time and distance traveled (p = 0.006 and p < 0.001, respectively). The gallery score was the only measure that was significantly associated with both residual acuity and fields (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). The O&M-VLV was designed to capture key elements of O&M performance in persons with severe vision loss, which is a population not often studied previously. Performance on these tasks was associated with both binocular visual acuity and visual field. This new protocol includes assessments of orientation, which may be of benefit in vision restoration clinical trials.

The Effects of Feature-Based Priming and Visual Working Memory on Oculomotor Capture.

PubMed

Silvis, Jeroen D; Belopolsky, Artem V; Murris, Jozua W I; Donk, Mieke

2015-01-01

Recently, it has been demonstrated that objects held in working memory can influence rapid oculomotor selection. This has been taken as evidence that perceptual salience can be modified by active working memory representations. The goal of the present study was to examine whether these results could also be caused by feature-based priming. In two experiments, participants were asked to saccade to a target line segment of a certain orientation that was presented together with a to-be-ignored distractor. Both objects were given a task-irrelevant color that varied per trial. In a secondary task, a color had to be memorized, and that color could either match the color of the target, match the color of the distractor, or it did not match the color of any of the objects in the search task. The memory task was completed either after the search task (Experiment 1), or before it (Experiment 2). The results showed that in both experiments the memorized color biased oculomotor selection. Eye movements were more frequently drawn towards objects that matched the memorized color, irrespective of whether the memory task was completed after (Experiment 1) or before (Experiment 2) the search task. This bias was particularly prevalent in short-latency saccades. The results show that early oculomotor selection performance is not only affected by properties that are actively maintained in working memory but also by those previously memorized. Both working memory and feature priming can cause early biases in oculomotor selection.

The Effects of Feature-Based Priming and Visual Working Memory on Oculomotor Capture

PubMed Central

Silvis, Jeroen D.; Belopolsky, Artem V.; Murris, Jozua W. I.; Donk, Mieke

2015-01-01

Recently, it has been demonstrated that objects held in working memory can influence rapid oculomotor selection. This has been taken as evidence that perceptual salience can be modified by active working memory representations. The goal of the present study was to examine whether these results could also be caused by feature-based priming. In two experiments, participants were asked to saccade to a target line segment of a certain orientation that was presented together with a to-be-ignored distractor. Both objects were given a task-irrelevant color that varied per trial. In a secondary task, a color had to be memorized, and that color could either match the color of the target, match the color of the distractor, or it did not match the color of any of the objects in the search task. The memory task was completed either after the search task (Experiment 1), or before it (Experiment 2). The results showed that in both experiments the memorized color biased oculomotor selection. Eye movements were more frequently drawn towards objects that matched the memorized color, irrespective of whether the memory task was completed after (Experiment 1) or before (Experiment 2) the search task. This bias was particularly prevalent in short-latency saccades. The results show that early oculomotor selection performance is not only affected by properties that are actively maintained in working memory but also by those previously memorized. Both working memory and feature priming can cause early biases in oculomotor selection. PMID:26566137

Effects of Communication Apprehension on Perceptions of Leadership and Intragroup Attraction in Small Task-Oriented Groups.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Katherine; Stewart, Robert A.

1991-01-01

Examines the impact of communication apprehension (CA) on perceptions of leadership and intragroup attraction in small task-oriented groups, using 68 undergraduates working on a class project. Finds high CA students were rated by themselves (and by others) to be lower in emerged leadership and social and task attraction than those with lower CA.…

Cloud-Based NoSQL Open Database of Pulmonary Nodules for Computer-Aided Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Reproducible Research.

PubMed

Ferreira Junior, José Raniery; Oliveira, Marcelo Costa; de Azevedo-Marques, Paulo Mazzoncini

2016-12-01

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world, and its main manifestation is pulmonary nodules. Detection and classification of pulmonary nodules are challenging tasks that must be done by qualified specialists, but image interpretation errors make those tasks difficult. In order to aid radiologists on those hard tasks, it is important to integrate the computer-based tools with the lesion detection, pathology diagnosis, and image interpretation processes. However, computer-aided diagnosis research faces the problem of not having enough shared medical reference data for the development, testing, and evaluation of computational methods for diagnosis. In order to minimize this problem, this paper presents a public nonrelational document-oriented cloud-based database of pulmonary nodules characterized by 3D texture attributes, identified by experienced radiologists and classified in nine different subjective characteristics by the same specialists. Our goal with the development of this database is to improve computer-aided lung cancer diagnosis and pulmonary nodule detection and classification research through the deployment of this database in a cloud Database as a Service framework. Pulmonary nodule data was provided by the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI), image descriptors were acquired by a volumetric texture analysis, and database schema was developed using a document-oriented Not only Structured Query Language (NoSQL) approach. The proposed database is now with 379 exams, 838 nodules, and 8237 images, 4029 of them are CT scans and 4208 manually segmented nodules, and it is allocated in a MongoDB instance on a cloud infrastructure.

[Job performance in work organizations: the effects of management by group goals and job interdependence].

PubMed

Ikeda, Hiroshi; Furukawa, Hisataka

2015-04-01

cThis study examined the interactive effect of management by group goals and job interdependence on employee's activities in terms of task and contextual performance. A survey was conducted among 140 Japanese employees. Results indicated that management by group goals was related only to contextual performance. Job interdependence, however, had a direct effect on both task and contextual performance. Moreover, moderated regression analyses revealed that for work groups requiring higher interdependence among employees, management by group goals had a positive relation to contextual performance but not to task performance. When interdependence was not necessarily required, however, management by group goals had no relation to contextual performance and even negatively impacted task performance, respectively. These results show that management by group goals affects task and contextual performance, and that this effect is moderated by job interdependence. This provides a theoretical extension as well as a practical application to the setting and management of group goals.

Effects of orientation on Rey complex figure performance.

PubMed

Ferraro, F Richard; Grossman, Jennifer; Bren, Amy; Hoverson, Allysa

2002-10-01

An experiment was performed that examined the impact of stimulus orientation on performance on the Rey complex figure. A total of 48 undergraduates (24 men, 24 women) were randomly assigned to one of four Rey figure orientation groups (0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees ). Participants followed standard procedures for the Rey figure, initially copying it in whatever orientation group they were assigned to. Next, all participants performed a 15-20 min lexical decision experiment, used as a filler task. Finally, and unbeknownest to them, participants were asked to recall as much of the figure as they could. As expected, results revealed a main effect of Task (F = 83.92, p < .01), in which copy performance was superior to recall performance. However, the main effect for orientation was not significant, nor did orientation interact with task (Fs < .68, ps > .57). The results are important from an applied setting, especially if testing conditions are less than optimal and a fixed stimulus position is not possible (e.g., testing at the bedside).

Improving Closing Task Completion in a Drugstore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fante, Rhiannon; Davis, Ora L.; Kempt, Vivian

2013-01-01

A within-subject ABAB reversal design was utilized to investigate the effects of graphic feedback and goal setting on employee closing task completion. Goal setting was contingent upon baseline performance and graphic feedback was posted weekly. It was found that goal setting and graphic feedback improved employee closing task completion.…

Color is processed less efficiently than orientation in change detection but more efficiently in visual search.

PubMed

Huang, Liqiang

2015-05-01

Basic visual features (e.g., color, orientation) are assumed to be processed in the same general way across different visual tasks. Here, a significant deviation from this assumption was predicted on the basis of the analysis of stimulus spatial structure, as characterized by the Boolean-map notion. If a task requires memorizing the orientations of a set of bars, then the map consisting of those bars can be readily used to hold the overall structure in memory and will thus be especially useful. If the task requires visual search for a target, then the map, which contains only an overall structure, will be of little use. Supporting these predictions, the present study demonstrated that in comparison to stimulus colors, bar orientations were processed more efficiently in change-detection tasks but less efficiently in visual search tasks (Cohen's d = 4.24). In addition to offering support for the role of the Boolean map in conscious access, the present work also throws doubts on the generality of processing visual features. © The Author(s) 2015.

Testing Cross-Cultural Generalizability of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire across American and Chinese Samples

PubMed Central

Monsma, Eva

2016-01-01

This paper examines the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) across American and Chinese samples. Results based on the mean and covariance structure analyses supported configural invariance, metric invariance and scalar invariance across groups. Latent means analyses revealed that American sample had significantly higher mean scores on task and ego orientations than the Chinese sample. The findings suggest that the TEOSQ is a valid and reliable instrument in assessing achievement motivation across these two diverse populations. PMID:27399869

Goal orientation, motivational climate, and dispositional flow of high school students engaged in extracurricular physical activity.

PubMed

Cervelló, Eduardo M; Moreno, Juan A; Villodre, Nestor Alonso; Iglesias, Damián

2006-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of goal orientation, motivational climate, and dispositional flow in physical education lessons on extracurricular involvement in physical activity. Questionnaires were administered to 1,103 (792 athletes; 311 nonathletes) secondary school students (M age = 14.3 yr., SD = 0.7). Analysis showed significant mean differences between groups on goal orientation and dispositional flow in physical education lessons, but none for perception of motivational climate. These findings suggest that dispositional variables are related to extracurricular involvement in physical activity.

Task decomposition for a multilimbed robot to work in reachable but unorientable space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Su, Chau; Zheng, Yuan F.

1991-01-01

Robot manipulators installed on legged mobile platforms are suggested for enlarging robot workspace. To plan the motion of such a system, the arm-platform motion coordination problem is raised, and a task decomposition is proposed to solve the problem. A given task described by the destination position and orientation of the end effector is decomposed into subtasks for arm manipulation and for platform configuration, respectively. The former is defined as the end-effector position and orientation with respect to the platform, and the latter as the platform position and orientation in the base coordinates. Three approaches are proposed for the task decomposition. The approaches are also evaluated in terms of the displacements, from which an optimal approach can be selected.

Reorienting in Virtual 3D Environments: Do Adult Humans Use Principal Axes, Medial Axes or Local Geometry?

PubMed Central

Ambosta, Althea H.; Reichert, James F.; Kelly, Debbie M.

2013-01-01

Studies have shown that animals, including humans, use the geometric properties of environments to orient. It has been proposed that orientation is accomplished primarily by encoding the principal axes (i.e., global geometry) of an environment. However, recent research has shown that animals use local information such as wall length and corner angles as well as local shape parameters (i.e., medial axes) to orient. The goal of the current study was to determine whether adult humans reorient according to global geometry based on principal axes or whether reliance is on local geometry such as wall length and sense information or medial axes. Using a virtual environment task, participants were trained to select a response box located at one of two geometrically identical corners within a featureless rectangular-shaped environment. Participants were subsequently tested in a transformed L-shaped environment that allowed for a dissociation of strategies based on principal axes, medial axes and local geometry. Results showed that participants relied primarily on a medial axes strategy to reorient in the L-shaped test environment. Importantly, the search behaviour of participants could not be explained by a principal axes-based strategy. PMID:24223869

Configural, Metric, and Scalar Invariance of the Modified Achievement Goal Questionnaire across African American and White University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Hilary L.; Barry, Carol L.; Joe, Jilliam N.; Finney, Sara J.

2008-01-01

There has been growing interest in comparing achievement goal orientations across ethnic groups. Such comparisons, however, cannot be made until validity evidence has been collected to support the use of an achievement goal orientation instrument for that purpose. Therefore, this study investigates the measurement invariance of a particular…

The Strength of the Relation between Performance-Approach and Performance-Avoidance Goal Orientations: Theoretical, Methodological, and Instructional Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linnenbrink-Garcia, Lisa; Middleton, Michael J.; Ciani, Keith D.; Easter, Matthew A.; O'Keefe, Paul A.; Zusho, Akane

2012-01-01

In current research on achievement goal theory, most researchers differentiate between performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientations. Evidence from prior research and from several previously published data sets is used to highlight that the correlation is often rather large, with a number of studies reporting correlations above…

Chinese Tertiary Teachers' Goal Orientations for Teaching and Teaching Approaches: The Mediation of Teacher Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yin, Hongbiao; Han, Jiying; Lu, Genshu

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of Chinese tertiary teachers' goal orientations for teaching on their approaches to teaching mediated by teacher engagement. In a survey of 597 Chinese tertiary teachers, the respondents placed particular emphasis on relational and mastery goals and expressed a preference for student-focused approaches to…

Learning Processes of Students in Pre-Vocational Secondary Education: Relations between Goal Orientations, Information Processing Strategies and Development of Conceptual Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koopman, Maaike; Den Brok, Perry; Beijaard, Douwe; Teune, Peter

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate relations between goal orientations, information processing strategies and development of conceptual knowledge of pre-vocational secondary education students (n = 719; 14 schools). Students' preferences for certain types of goals and information processing strategies were examined using questionnaires.…

Comparing the Achievement Goal Orientation of Mathematics Learners with and without Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spangenberg, Erica Dorethea

2017-01-01

Many learners with different learning challenges are accommodated in the same classroom in South Africa, which could result in poor performance in mathematics. By reinforcing or disregarding certain goals, a teacher can influence the way in which learners learn mathematics. This study compared the achievement goal orientation of Grade Nine…

Task-Based Information Searching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vakkari, Pertti

2003-01-01

Reviews studies on the relationship between task performance and information searching by end-users, focusing on information searching in electronic environments and information retrieval systems. Topics include task analysis; task characteristics; search goals; modeling information searching; modeling search goals; information seeking behavior;…

Effect of tDCS on task relevant and irrelevant perceptual learning of complex objects.

PubMed

Van Meel, Chayenne; Daniels, Nicky; de Beeck, Hans Op; Baeck, Annelies

2016-01-01

During perceptual learning the visual representations in the brain are altered, but these changes' causal role has not yet been fully characterized. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate the role of higher visual regions in lateral occipital cortex (LO) in perceptual learning with complex objects. We also investigated whether object learning is dependent on the relevance of the objects for the learning task. Participants were trained in two tasks: object recognition using a backward masking paradigm and an orientation judgment task. During both tasks, an object with a red line on top of it were presented in each trial. The crucial difference between both tasks was the relevance of the object: the object was relevant for the object recognition task, but not for the orientation judgment task. During training, half of the participants received anodal tDCS stimulation targeted at the lateral occipital cortex (LO). Afterwards, participants were tested on how well they recognized the trained objects, the irrelevant objects presented during the orientation judgment task and a set of completely new objects. Participants stimulated with tDCS during training showed larger improvements of performance compared to participants in the sham condition. No learning effect was found for the objects presented during the orientation judgment task. To conclude, this study suggests a causal role of LO in relevant object learning, but given the rather low spatial resolution of tDCS, more research on the specificity of this effect is needed. Further, mere exposure is not sufficient to train object recognition in our paradigm.

Supraliminal But Not Subliminal Distracters Bias Working Memory Recall

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Information of which observers are not consciously aware can nevertheless influence perceptual processes. Whether subliminal information might exert an influence on working memory (WM) representations is less clear, and relatively few studies have examined the interactions between subliminal and supraliminal information in WM. We present 3 experiments examining this issue. Experiments 1a and b replicated the finding that orientation stimuli can influence behavior subliminally in a visuomotor priming task. Experiments 2 and 3 used the same orientation stimuli, but participants had to remember a target orientation and report it back by adjusting a probe orientation after a memory delay. Before or after presentation of the target orientation, a subliminal or supraliminal distracter orientation was presented that was either irrelevant for task completion and never had to be reported (Experiment 2), or was relevant for task completion because it had to be reported on some trials (Experiment 3). In both experiments, presentation of a supraliminal distracter influenced WM recall of the target orientation. When the distracter was presented subliminally, however, there was no bias in orientation recall. These results suggest that information stored in WM is protected from influences of subliminal stimuli, while online information processing is modulated by subliminal information. PMID:25867502

Management demands on information and communication technology in process-oriented health-care organizations: the importance of understanding managers' expectations during early phases of systems design.

PubMed

Andersson, Anna; Vimarlund, Vivian; Timpka, Toomas

2002-01-01

There are numerous challenges to overcome before information and communication technology (ICT) can achieve its full potential in process-oriented health-care organizations. One of these challenges is designing systems that meet users' needs, while reflecting a continuously changing organizational environment. Another challenge is to develop ICT that supports both the internal and the external stakeholders' demands. In this study a qualitative research strategy was used to explore the demands on ICT expressed by managers from functional and process units at a community hospitaL The results reveal a multitude of partially competing goals that can make the ICT development process confusing, poor in quality, inefficient and unnecessarily costly. Therefore, from the perspective of ICT development, the main task appears to be to coordinate the different visions and in particular clarify them, as well as to establish the impact that these visions would have on the forthcoming ICT application.

Investigating the Relationship between the Perceptions of Taekwondo Athletes towards Coach-Athlete Relationship, Task and Ego Orientation in Sports, and Motivation in Sports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bezci, Sakir

2016-01-01

This research aims to determine the effect of tasks and egos of taekwondo athletes on the coach-athlete relationship and the effect of coach-athlete relationship on motivation in sports. Thus, "Coach-Athlete Relationship", "Task and Ego Orientation in Sports" and "Motivation in Sports" scales have been applied to the…

Goal neglect, fluid intelligence and processing speed: Manipulating instruction load and inter-stimulus interval.

PubMed

Iveson, Matthew H; Della Sala, Sergio; Anderson, Mike; MacPherson, Sarah E

2017-05-01

Goal maintenance is the process where task rules and instructions are kept active to exert their control on behavior. When this process fails, an individual may ignore a rule while performing the task, despite being able to describe it after task completion. Previous research has suggested that the goal maintenance system is limited by the number of concurrent rules which can be maintained during a task, and that this limit is dependent on an individual's level of fluid intelligence. However, the speed at which an individual can process information may also limit their ability to use task rules when the task demands them. In the present study, four experiments manipulated the number of instructions to be maintained by younger and older adults and examined whether performance on a rapid letter-monitoring task was predicted by individual differences in fluid intelligence or processing speed. Fluid intelligence played little role in determining how frequently rules were ignored during the task, regardless of the number of rules to be maintained. In contrast, processing speed predicted the rate of goal neglect in older adults, where increasing the presentation rate of the letter-monitoring task increased goal neglect. These findings suggest that goal maintenance may be limited by the speed at which it can operate. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Impact of Indoor Physical Environment on Learning Efficiency in Different Types of Tasks: A 3 × 4 × 3 Full Factorial Design Analysis.

PubMed

Xiong, Lilin; Huang, Xiao; Li, Jie; Mao, Peng; Wang, Xiang; Wang, Rubing; Tang, Meng

2018-06-13

Indoor physical environments appear to influence learning efficiency nowadays. For improvement in learning efficiency, environmental scenarios need to be designed when occupants engage in different learning tasks. However, how learning efficiency is affected by indoor physical environment based on task types are still not well understood. The present study aims to explore the impacts of three physical environmental factors (i.e., temperature, noise, and illuminance) on learning efficiency according to different types of tasks, including perception, memory, problem-solving, and attention-oriented tasks. A 3 × 4 × 3 full factorial design experiment was employed in a university classroom with 10 subjects recruited. Environmental scenarios were generated based on different levels of temperature (17 °C, 22 °C, and 27 °C), noise (40 dB(A), 50 dB(A), 60 dB(A), and 70 dB(A)) and illuminance (60 lx, 300 lx, and 2200 lx). Accuracy rate (AC), reaction time (RT), and the final performance indicator (PI) were used to quantify learning efficiency. The results showed ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance exerted significant main effect on learning efficiency based on four task types. Significant concurrent effects of the three factors on final learning efficiency was found in all tasks except problem-solving-oriented task. The optimal environmental scenarios for top learning efficiency were further identified under different environmental interactions. The highest learning efficiency came in thermoneutral, relatively quiet, and bright conditions in perception-oriented task. Subjects performed best under warm, relatively quiet, and moderately light exposure when recalling images in the memory-oriented task. Learning efficiency peaked to maxima in thermoneutral, fairly quiet, and moderately light environment in problem-solving process while in cool, fairly quiet and bright environment with regard to attention-oriented task. The study provides guidance for building users to conduct effective environmental intervention with simultaneous controls of ambient temperature, noise, and illuminance. It contributes to creating the most suitable indoor physical environment for improving occupants learning efficiency according to different task types. The findings could further supplement the present indoor environment-related standards or norms with providing empirical reference on environmental interactions.

Effects of peripheral sensory nerve stimulation plus task-oriented training on upper extremity function in patients with subacute stroke: a pilot randomized crossover trial.

PubMed

Ikuno, Koki; Kawaguchi, Saori; Kitabeppu, Shinsuke; Kitaura, Masaki; Tokuhisa, Kentaro; Morimoto, Shigeru; Matsuo, Atsushi; Shomoto, Koji

2012-11-01

To investigate the feasibility of peripheral sensory nerve stimulation combined with task-oriented training in patients with stroke during inpatient rehabilitation. A pilot randomized crossover trial. Two rehabilitation hospitals. Twenty-two patients with subacute stroke. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups and underwent two weeks of training in addition to conventional inpatient rehabilitation. The immediate group underwent peripheral sensory nerve stimulation combined with task-oriented training in the first week, followed by another week with task-oriented training alone. The delayed group underwent the same training in reverse order. Outcome measures were the level of fatigue and Wolf Motor Function Test. Patients were assessed at baseline, one and two weeks. All participants completed the study with no adverse events. There was no significant difference in level of fatigue between each treatment. From baseline to one week, the immediate group showed larger improvements than the delayed groups in the Wolf Motor Function Test (decrease in mean time (± SD) from 41.9 ± 16.2 seconds to 30.6 ± 11.4 seconds versus from 46.8 ± 19.4 seconds to 42.9 ± 14.7 seconds, respectively) but the difference did not reach significance after Bonferroni correction (P = 0.041). Within-group comparison showed significant improvements in the Wolf Motor Function Test mean time after the peripheral sensory nerve stimulation combined with task-oriented training periods in each group (P < 0.01). Peripheral sensory nerve stimulation is feasible in clinical settings and may enhance the effects of task-oriented training in patients with subacute stroke.

Effect of task-oriented training and high-variability practice on gross motor performance and activities of daily living in children with spastic diplegia.

PubMed

Kwon, Hae-Yeon; Ahn, So-Yoon

2016-10-01

[Purpose] This study investigates how a task-oriented training and high-variability practice program can affect the gross motor performance and activities of daily living for children with spastic diplegia and provides an effective and reliable clinical database for future improvement of motor performances skills. [Subjects and Methods] This study randomly assigned seven children with spastic diplegia to each intervention group including that of a control group, task-oriented training group, and a high-variability practice group. The control group only received neurodevelopmental treatment for 40 minutes, while the other two intervention groups additionally implemented a task-oriented training and high-variability practice program for 8 weeks (twice a week, 60 min per session). To compare intra and inter-relationships of the three intervention groups, this study measured gross motor performance measure (GMPM) and functional independence measure for children (WeeFIM) before and after 8 weeks of training. [Results] There were statistically significant differences in the amount of change before and after the training among the three intervention groups for the gross motor performance measure and functional independence measure. [Conclusion] Applying high-variability practice in a task-oriented training course may be considered an efficient intervention method to improve motor performance skills that can tune to movement necessary for daily livelihood through motor experience and learning of new skills as well as change of tasks learned in a complex environment or similar situations to high-variability practice.

Autonomy and control in dyads: effects on interaction quality and joint creative performance.

PubMed

Weinstein, Netta; Hodgins, Holley S; Ryan, Richard M

2010-12-01

Two studies examined interaction quality and joint performance on two creative tasks in unacquainted dyads primed for autonomy or control orientations. It was hypothesized that autonomy-primed dyads would interact more constructively, experience more positive mood, and engage the task more readily, and as a result these dyads would perform better. To test this, Study 1 primed orientation and explored verbal creative performance on the Remote Associates Task (RAT). In Study 2, dyads were primed with autonomy and control orientation and videotaped during two joint creative tasks, one verbal (RAT) and one nonverbal (charades). Videotapes were coded for behavioral indicators of closeness and task engagement. Results showed that autonomy-primed dyads felt closer, were more emotionally and cognitively attuned, provided empathy and encouragement to partners, and performed more effectively. The effects of primed autonomy on creative performance were mediated by interpersonal quality, mood, and joint engagement.

Exploring practical knowledge: a case study of an experienced senior tennis performer.

PubMed

Langley, D J; Knight, S M

1996-12-01

The purpose of the study was to explore sport-related practical knowledge through the perceptions and experiences of a senior adult competitive tennis performer. Practical knowledge was defined as goal oriented, experiential knowledge developed within particular physical activity settings. Data were collected through formal interviews and participant observation and analyzed through narrative inquiry and conventional coding techniques. The data suggest that the tennis environment was perceived in terms of the opportunities afforded by that environment. Specifically, the participant's practical knowledge centered on performance capabilities and strategic planning that revealed opponent limitations. This knowledge appeared to be developed and expressed within the relationships among individual capabilities, the task, and the situated context of game play.

Mentorship: Maslow and me.

PubMed

Valadez, A M; Lund, C A

1993-01-01

The Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Service developed a leadership training program that utilizes a preceptor for a trainee. The relationship these two establish determines the level of development the trainee can achieve. The working relationship between preceptor and trainee in this setting surpassed the task-oriented aspects of the preceptorship program and can better be described as that achieved through mentorship. The cadre of competencies are comparable to Maslow's (1970) hierarchy of needs and are viewed as interacting and cyclical. The goal of the training program is to develop a leader that is capable of self-actualization in an advanced leadership role. The authors' personal experiences are used to demonstrate how the principles of mentorship are applied in the training setting.

The Effect of Tertiary Teachers' Goal Orientations for Teaching on Their Commitment: The Mediating Role of Teacher Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Jiying; Yin, Hongbiao; Wang, Wenlan

2016-01-01

This study explored the effect of tertiary teachers' goal orientations for teaching on their commitment, with a particular focus on the mediating role of teacher engagement. The results of a survey of 597 Chinese tertiary teachers indicated that teacher commitment was positively predicted by ability approach, mastery and relational goals, but was…

The Company They Keep and Avoid: Social Goal Orientation as a Predictor of Children's Ethnic Segregation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Travis M.; Rodkin, Philip C.; Ryan, Allison M.

2014-01-01

This study examined whether social goal orientation (i.e., demonstration-approach, demonstration--avoid, and social development goals) predicts changes in ethnic segregation among 4th and 5th grade African American and European American children (n = 713, ages 9-11 years) from fall to spring. Segregation measures were (a) same-ethnicity favoritism…

A Behavioral Study of Distraction by Vibrotactile Novelty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parmentier, Fabrice B. R.; Ljungberg, Jessica K.; Elsley, Jane V.; Lindkvist, Markus

2011-01-01

Past research has demonstrated that the occurrence of unexpected task-irrelevant changes in the auditory or visual sensory channels captured attention in an obligatory fashion, hindering behavioral performance in ongoing auditory or visual categorization tasks and generating orientation and re-orientation electrophysiological responses. We report…

Leadership Effectiveness in Teacher Probation Committees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Yvonne M.; And Others

1976-01-01

This study tested the prediction of Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, namely, that a relationship-oriented leadership style would lead to task-group effectiveness in a moderately favorable situation, while a task-oriented leadership style would lead to effectiveness in an unfavorable situation. (Author/IRT)

Intrinsic motivation, performance, and the mediating role of mastery goal orientation: a test of self-determination theory.

PubMed

Cerasoli, Christopher P; Ford, Michael T

2014-01-01

Although intrinsic motivation has been linked repeatedly to performance and outcomes, the causal relationship between the two has remained unclear. To explain the link, this study considered the focusing influence of mastery goals. Using a three-wave panel study and hypotheses drawn from self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, the current study sought to clarify the relationships between intrinsic motivation, mastery goal orientation, and performance. Specifically, the current study hypothesized and found that mastery goals mediated (explained) the relationship between intrinsic motivation and performance.

Global self-esteem, goal achievement orientations, and self-determined behavioural regulations in a physical education setting.

PubMed

Hein, Vello; Hagger, Martin S

2007-01-15

We examined a theoretical model of global self-esteem that incorporated constructs from achievement goal and self-determination theories. The model hypothesized that self-determined or autonomous motives would mediate the influence of achievement goal orientation on global self-esteem. The adapted version of the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire (Mullan et al., 1997), the Perception of Success Questionnaire (Roberts & Balague, 1991), and Rosenberg's (1965) self-esteem scales were administered to 634 high school students aged 11 - 15 years. A structural equation model supported the hypotheses and demonstrated that autonomous motives mediated the effect of goal orientations on global self-esteem. The results suggest that generalized motivational orientations influence self-esteem by affecting autonomous motivation and is consistent with theory that suggests that experiences relating to intrinsic motivation are the mechanism by which global motivational orientations are translated into adaptive outcomes like self-esteem. The findings suggest that physical activity interventions that target autonomous motives in physical activity contexts are likely to enhance young people's general self-esteem.

Visual spatial cue use for guiding orientation in two-to-three-year-old children

PubMed Central

van den Brink, Danielle; Janzen, Gabriele

2013-01-01

In spatial development representations of the environment and the use of spatial cues change over time. To date, the influence of individual differences in skills relevant for orientation and navigation has not received much attention. The current study investigated orientation abilities on the basis of visual spatial cues in 2–3-year-old children, and assessed factors that possibly influence spatial task performance. Thirty-month and 35-month-olds performed an on-screen Virtual Reality (VR) orientation task searching for an animated target in the presence of visual self-movement cues and landmark information. Results show that, in contrast to 30-month-old children, 35-month-olds were successful in using visual spatial cues for maintaining orientation. Neither age group benefited from landmarks present in the environment, suggesting that successful task performance relied on the use of optic flow cues, rather than object-to-object relations. Analysis of individual differences revealed that 2-year-olds who were relatively more independent in comparison to their peers, as measured by the daily living skills scale of the parental questionnaire Vineland-Screener were most successful at the orientation task. These results support previous findings indicating that the use of various spatial cues gradually improves during early childhood. Our data show that a developmental transition in spatial cue use can be witnessed within a relatively short period of 5 months only. Furthermore, this study indicates that rather than chronological age, individual differences may play a role in successful use of visual cues for spatial updating in an orientation task. Future studies are necessary to assess the exact nature of these individual differences. PMID:24368903

Visual spatial cue use for guiding orientation in two-to-three-year-old children.

PubMed

van den Brink, Danielle; Janzen, Gabriele

2013-01-01

In spatial development representations of the environment and the use of spatial cues change over time. To date, the influence of individual differences in skills relevant for orientation and navigation has not received much attention. The current study investigated orientation abilities on the basis of visual spatial cues in 2-3-year-old children, and assessed factors that possibly influence spatial task performance. Thirty-month and 35-month-olds performed an on-screen Virtual Reality (VR) orientation task searching for an animated target in the presence of visual self-movement cues and landmark information. Results show that, in contrast to 30-month-old children, 35-month-olds were successful in using visual spatial cues for maintaining orientation. Neither age group benefited from landmarks present in the environment, suggesting that successful task performance relied on the use of optic flow cues, rather than object-to-object relations. Analysis of individual differences revealed that 2-year-olds who were relatively more independent in comparison to their peers, as measured by the daily living skills scale of the parental questionnaire Vineland-Screener were most successful at the orientation task. These results support previous findings indicating that the use of various spatial cues gradually improves during early childhood. Our data show that a developmental transition in spatial cue use can be witnessed within a relatively short period of 5 months only. Furthermore, this study indicates that rather than chronological age, individual differences may play a role in successful use of visual cues for spatial updating in an orientation task. Future studies are necessary to assess the exact nature of these individual differences.

Neural Correlates of Visual–Spatial Attention in Electrocorticographic Signals in Humans

PubMed Central

Gunduz, Aysegul; Brunner, Peter; Daitch, Amy; Leuthardt, Eric C.; Ritaccio, Anthony L.; Pesaran, Bijan; Schalk, Gerwin

2011-01-01

Attention is a cognitive selection mechanism that allocates the limited processing resources of the brain to the sensory streams most relevant to our immediate goals, thereby enhancing responsiveness and behavioral performance. The underlying neural mechanisms of orienting attention are distributed across a widespread cortical network. While aspects of this network have been extensively studied, details about the electrophysiological dynamics of this network are scarce. In this study, we investigated attentional networks using electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings from the surface of the brain, which combine broad spatial coverage with high temporal resolution, in five human subjects. ECoG was recorded when subjects covertly attended to a spatial location and responded to contrast changes in the presence of distractors in a modified Posner cueing task. ECoG amplitudes in the alpha, beta, and gamma bands identified neural changes associated with covert attention and motor preparation/execution in the different stages of the task. The results show that attentional engagement was primarily associated with ECoG activity in the visual, prefrontal, premotor, and parietal cortices. Motor preparation/execution was associated with ECoG activity in premotor/sensorimotor cortices. In summary, our results illustrate rich and distributed cortical dynamics that are associated with orienting attention and the subsequent motor preparation and execution. These findings are largely consistent with and expand on primate studies using intracortical recordings and human functional neuroimaging studies. PMID:22046153

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buchholz, Bruce A.

The project has two main goals: 1) Identify the types of adducts naphthalene (NA) forms with DNA and 2) determine whether adduct formation correlates with site selective tumor formation in defined subcompartments of the respiratory tract (respiratory and olfactory nasal epithelium and airways of mice, rats and rhesus monkeys). Five tasks are associated with the completion of the goals. Task 1: Contracting and Animal Use Approvals. IACUC and ACURO approvals are complete, The subcontract with UC Davis (UCD) was executed in December 2014. Task 2: Perform In Vitro Study for Goal 1. Rat samples exposed and in freezer while adductmore » standards are being made. Mouse samples need to be exposed in next quarter. Task 3: Perform In Vitro Study for Goal 2. Mouse ex vivo samples completed. Rat and monkey samples need to be completed in the next quarter. Task 4: Sample Preparation and Analysis. Mouse Goal 2 samples completed. Other samples remain to be done. Task 5: Data Interpretation and Reporting. Need rat data to write paper on adduct formation.« less

Predicting subsequent task performance from goal motivation and goal failure.

PubMed

Healy, Laura C; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Stewart, Brandon D; Duda, Joan L

2015-01-01

Recent research has demonstrated that the cognitive processes associated with goal pursuit can continue to interfere with unrelated tasks when a goal is unfulfilled. Drawing from the self-regulation and goal-striving literatures, the present study explored the impact of goal failure on subsequent cognitive and physical task performance. Furthermore, we examined if the autonomous or controlled motivation underpinning goal striving moderates the responses to goal failure. Athletes (75 male, 59 female, Mage = 19.90 years, SDage = 3.50) completed a cycling trial with the goal of covering a given distance in 8 min. Prior to the trial, their motivation was primed using a video. During the trial they were provided with manipulated performance feedback, thus creating conditions of goal success or failure. No differences emerged in the responses to goal failure between the primed motivation or performance feedback conditions. We make recommendations for future research into how individuals can deal with failure in goal striving.

Attentional capture by alcohol-related stimuli may be activated involuntarily by top-down search goals.

PubMed

Brown, Chris R H; Duka, Theodora; Forster, Sophie

2018-04-25

Previous research has found that the attention of social drinkers is preferentially oriented towards alcohol-related stimuli (attentional capture). This is argued to play a role in escalating craving for alcohol that can result in hazardous drinking. According to incentive theories of drug addiction, the stimuli associated with the drug reward acquire learned incentive salience and grab attention. However, it is not clear whether the mechanism by which this bias is created is a voluntary or an automatic one, although some evidence suggests a stimulus-driven mechanism. Here, we test for the first time whether this attentional capture could reflect an involuntary consequence of a goal-driven mechanism. Across three experiments, participants were given search goals to detect either an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic object (target) in a stream of briefly presented objects unrelated to the target. Prior to the target, a task-irrelevant parafoveal distractor appeared. This could either be congruent or incongruent with the current search goal. Applying a meta-analysis, we combined the results across the three experiments and found consistent evidence of goal-driven attentional capture, whereby alcohol distractors impeded target detection when the search goal was for alcohol. By contrast, alcohol distractors did not interfere with target detection, whilst participants were searching for a non-alcoholic category. A separate experiment revealed that the goal-driven capture effect was not found when participants held alcohol features active in memory but did not intentionally search for them. These findings suggest a strong goal-driven account of attentional capture by alcohol cues in social drinkers.

Goal Neglect and Working Memory Capacity in 4- to 6-Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marcovitch, Stuart; Boseovski, Janet J.; Knapp, Robin J.; Kane, Michael J.

2010-01-01

Goal neglect is the phenomenon of failing to execute the momentary demands of a task despite understanding and being able to recall the task instructions. Successful goal maintenance is more likely to occur in adults with high working memory capacity (WMC) who can keep rules mentally accessible while performing the task. The current study…

Effects of the Protestant Work Ethic and Perceived Challenge on Time Allocated to an Experimental Task.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Thomas Li-Ping

Goal-setting literature has suggested that specific, difficult goals will produce higher performance levels than easy goals. A difficult task or one with negative performance feedback may increase an individual's perceived challenge of the task which may in turn enhance his motivation. Effects of the Protestant work ethic and perceived challenge…

The impact of within-school autonomy on students' goal orientations and engagement with mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carmichael, Colin; Muir, Tracey; Callingham, Rosemary

2017-03-01

School autonomy has been identified as having an impact on a school's performance, yet less has been reported about the effect this has on students' goal orientations and engagement with mathematics. In a national study conducted in schools across Australia, measures of school autonomy were collected from teachers and school leaders, along with students' perceptions of the mastery and performance goal orientations of their classrooms and personally using surveys. Schools were identified as having high or low levels of autonomy on the basis of school leaders' responses. For the study discussed in this paper, a subset of 14 schools for which matched student and teacher data were available provided students' responses to a variety of variables including goal orientations. The findings suggested students in high-autonomy schools were less likely to hold a personal performance approach and avoidance goals than their peers in low-autonomy schools. Fifty-five case studies conducted in 52 schools provided evidence of some of the practical aspects of these findings, which have implications for systems, schools and teachers.

Temporal Preparation and Inhibitory Deficit in Fibromyalgia Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Correa, Angel; Miro, Elena; Martinez, M. Pilar; Sanchez, Ana I.; Lupianez, Juan

2011-01-01

Cognitive deficits in fibromyalgia may be specifically related to controlled processes, such as those measured by working memory or executive function tasks. This hypothesis was tested here by measuring controlled temporal preparation (temporal orienting) during a response inhibition (go no-go) task. Temporal orienting effects (faster reaction…

Organizational Leadership: Some Conceptual Models.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernthal, Wilmar F.

In this address, the speaker examines several different types of organization (charismatic, traditional, bureaucratic, and task-oriented) and the role of the leader in each. In the modern, task-oriented system, his role can hardly be generalized as decision-making, direction and control, problem-solving, inspiration, communication, or any other…

The Positive Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Employee Performance: The Moderating Role of Power Distance.

PubMed

Wang, Honglei; Guan, Bichen

2018-01-01

Based on goal setting theory, this study explores the positive effect and influencing process of authoritarian leadership on employee performance, as well as the moderating role of individual power distance in this process. Data from 211 supervisor-subordinate dyads in Chinese organizations indicates that authoritarian leadership is positively associated with employee performance, and learning goal orientation mediates this relationship. Furthermore, power distance moderates the effect of authoritarian leadership on learning goal orientation, such that the effect was stronger when individual power distance was higher. The indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee performance via learning goal orientation is also moderated by power distance. Theoretical and managerial implications and future directions are also discussed.

The Positive Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Employee Performance: The Moderating Role of Power Distance

PubMed Central

Wang, Honglei; Guan, Bichen

2018-01-01

Based on goal setting theory, this study explores the positive effect and influencing process of authoritarian leadership on employee performance, as well as the moderating role of individual power distance in this process. Data from 211 supervisor-subordinate dyads in Chinese organizations indicates that authoritarian leadership is positively associated with employee performance, and learning goal orientation mediates this relationship. Furthermore, power distance moderates the effect of authoritarian leadership on learning goal orientation, such that the effect was stronger when individual power distance was higher. The indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on employee performance via learning goal orientation is also moderated by power distance. Theoretical and managerial implications and future directions are also discussed. PMID:29628902

Student-generated questions during chemistry lectures: Patterns, self-appraisals, and relations with motivational beliefs and achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergey, Bradley W.

Self-generated questions are a central mechanism for learning, yet students' questions are often infrequent during classroom instruction. As a result, little is known about the nature of student questioning during typical instructional contexts such as listening to a lecture, including the extent and nature of student-generated questions, how students evaluate their questions, and the relations among questions, motivations, and achievement. This study examined the questions undergraduate students (N = 103) generated during 8 lectures in an introductory chemistry course. Students recorded and appraised their question in daily question logs and reported lecture-specific self-efficacy beliefs. Self-efficacy, personal interest, goal orientations, and other motivational self-beliefs were measured before and after the unit. Primary analyses included testing path models, multiple regressions, and latent class analyses. Overall, results indicated that several characteristics of student questioning during lectures were significantly related to various motivations and achievement. Higher end-of-class self-efficacy was associated with fewer procedural questions and more questions that reflected smaller knowledge deficits. Lower exam scores were associated with questions reflecting broader knowledge deficits and students' appraisals that their questions had less value for others than for themselves. Individual goal orientations collectively and positively predicted question appraisals. The questions students generated and their relations with motivational variables and achievement are discussed in light of the learning task and academic context.

Belongingness in Early Secondary School: Key Factors that Primary and Secondary Schools Need to Consider.

PubMed

Vaz, Sharmila; Falkmer, Marita; Ciccarelli, Marina; Passmore, Anne; Parsons, Richard; Black, Melissa; Cuomo, Belinda; Tan, Tele; Falkmer, Torbjörn

2015-01-01

It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the hand-over documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change.

Effects of treatment for tobacco dependence on resting cerebral glucose metabolism.

PubMed

Costello, Matthew R; Mandelkern, Mark A; Shoptaw, Stephen; Shulenberger, Stephanie; Baker, Stephanie K; Abrams, Anna L; Xia, Catherine; London, Edythe D; Brody, Arthur L

2010-02-01

While bupropion HCl and practical group counseling (PGC) are commonly used treatments for tobacco dependence, the effects of these treatments on brain function are not well established. For this study, 54 tobacco-dependent cigarette smokers underwent resting (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scanning before and after 8 weeks of treatment with bupropion HCl, PGC, or pill placebo. Using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM 2), changes in cerebral glucose metabolism from before to after treatment were compared between treatment groups and correlations were determined between amount of daily cigarette usage and cerebral glucose metabolism. Compared with placebo, the two active treatments (bupropion HCl and PGC) had reductions in glucose metabolism in the posterior cingulate gyrus. Further analysis suggested that PGC had a greater effect than bupropion HCl on glucose metabolism in this region. We also found positive correlations between daily cigarette use and glucose metabolism in the left occipital gyrus and parietal-temporal junction. There were no significant negative correlations between daily cigarette use and glucose metabolism. Our findings suggest that bupropion HCl and PGC reduce neural activity much as the performance of a goal-oriented task does in the default mode network of the brain, including the posterior cingulate gyrus. Thus, this study supports the theory that active treatments for tobacco dependence move the brain into a more goal-oriented state.

Belongingness in Early Secondary School: Key Factors that Primary and Secondary Schools Need to Consider

PubMed Central

Vaz, Sharmila; Falkmer, Marita; Ciccarelli, Marina; Passmore, Anne; Parsons, Richard; Black, Melissa; Cuomo, Belinda; Tan, Tele; Falkmer, Torbjörn

2015-01-01

It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school’s tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students’ belongingness profiles as part of the hand-over documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change. PMID:26372554

An Agent-Based Simulation for Investigating the Impact of Stereotypes on Task-Oriented Group Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maghami, Mahsa; Sukthankar, Gita

In this paper, we introduce an agent-based simulation for investigating the impact of social factors on the formation and evolution of task-oriented groups. Task-oriented groups are created explicitly to perform a task, and all members derive benefits from task completion. However, even in cases when all group members act in a way that is locally optimal for task completion, social forces that have mild effects on choice of associates can have a measurable impact on task completion performance. In this paper, we show how our simulation can be used to model the impact of stereotypes on group formation. In our simulation, stereotypes are based on observable features, learned from prior experience, and only affect an agent's link formation preferences. Even without assuming stereotypes affect the agents' willingness or ability to complete tasks, the long-term modifications that stereotypes have on the agents' social network impair the agents' ability to form groups with sufficient diversity of skills, as compared to agents who form links randomly. An interesting finding is that this effect holds even in cases where stereotype preference and skill existence are completely uncorrelated.

Two-Point Orientation Discrimination Versus the Traditional Two-Point Test for Tactile Spatial Acuity Assessment

PubMed Central

Tong, Jonathan; Mao, Oliver; Goldreich, Daniel

2013-01-01

Two-point discrimination is widely used to measure tactile spatial acuity. The validity of the two-point threshold as a spatial acuity measure rests on the assumption that two points can be distinguished from one only when the two points are sufficiently separated to evoke spatially distinguishable foci of neural activity. However, some previous research has challenged this view, suggesting instead that two-point task performance benefits from an unintended non-spatial cue, allowing spuriously good performance at small tip separations. We compared the traditional two-point task to an equally convenient alternative task in which participants attempt to discern the orientation (vertical or horizontal) of two points of contact. We used precision digital readout calipers to administer two-interval forced-choice versions of both tasks to 24 neurologically healthy adults, on the fingertip, finger base, palm, and forearm. We used Bayesian adaptive testing to estimate the participants’ psychometric functions on the two tasks. Traditional two-point performance remained significantly above chance levels even at zero point separation. In contrast, two-point orientation discrimination approached chance as point separation approached zero, as expected for a valid measure of tactile spatial acuity. Traditional two-point performance was so inflated at small point separations that 75%-correct thresholds could be determined on all tested sites for fewer than half of participants. The 95%-correct thresholds on the two tasks were similar, and correlated with receptive field spacing. In keeping with previous critiques, we conclude that the traditional two-point task provides an unintended non-spatial cue, resulting in spuriously good performance at small spatial separations. Unlike two-point discrimination, two-point orientation discrimination rigorously measures tactile spatial acuity. We recommend the use of two-point orientation discrimination for neurological assessment. PMID:24062677

Task-oriented aerobic exercise in chronic hemiparetic stroke: training protocols and treatment effects.

PubMed

Macko, R F; Ivey, F M; Forrester, L W

2005-01-01

Stroke is the leading cause of disability in older Americans. Each year 750,000 Americans suffer a stroke, two thirds of whom are left with neurological deficits that persistently impair function. Principal among them is hemiparetic gait that limits mobility and increases fall risk, promoting a sedentary lifestyle. These events propagate disability by physical deconditioning and "learned non-use," with further functional declines accelerated by the sarcopenia and fitness decrements of advancing age. Conventional rehabilitation care typically provides little or no structured therapeutic exercise beyond the subacute stroke recovery period, based on natural history studies showing little or no further functional motor recovery beyond 6 months after stroke. Emerging evidence suggests that new models of task-oriented exercise have the potential to improve motor function even years after stroke. This article presents treadmill as a task-oriented training paradigm to optimize locomotor relearning while eliciting cardiovascular conditioning in chronic stroke patients. Protocols for exercise testing and longitudinal aerobic training progression are presented that provide fundamental formulas that safely approach the complex task of customizing aerobic training to gait deficit severity in the high CVD risk stroke population. The beneficial effects of 6 months task-oriented treadmill exercise on cardiovascular-metabolic fitness, energy cost of hemiparetic gait, ADL mobility task performance, and leg strength are discussed with respect to the central and peripheral neuromuscular adaptations targeted by the training. Collectively, these findings constitute one initial experience in a much broader neuroscience and exercise rehabilitation development of task-oriented training paradigms that offer a multisystems approach to improving both neurological and cardiovascular health outcomes in the chronic stroke population.

Lateralization of spatial rather than temporal attention underlies the left hemifield advantage in rapid serial visual presentation.

PubMed

Asanowicz, Dariusz; Kruse, Lena; Śmigasiewicz, Kamila; Verleger, Rolf

2017-11-01

In bilateral rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), the second of two targets, T1 and T2, is better identified in the left visual field (LVF) than in the right visual field (RVF). This LVF advantage may reflect hemispheric asymmetry in temporal attention or/and in spatial orienting of attention. Participants performed two tasks: the "standard" bilateral RSVP task (Exp.1) and its unilateral variant (Exp.1 & 2). In the bilateral task, spatial location was uncertain, thus target identification involved stimulus-driven spatial orienting. In the unilateral task, the targets were presented block-wise in the LVF or RVF only, such that no spatial orienting was needed for target identification. Temporal attention was manipulated in both tasks by varying the T1-T2 lag. The results showed that the LVF advantage disappeared when involvement of stimulus-driven spatial orienting was eliminated, whereas the manipulation of temporal attention had no effect on the asymmetry. In conclusion, the results do not support the hypothesis of hemispheric asymmetry in temporal attention, and provide further evidence that the LVF advantage reflects right hemisphere predominance in stimulus-driven orienting of spatial attention. These conclusions fit evidence that temporal attention is implemented by bilateral parietal areas and spatial attention by the right-lateralized ventral frontoparietal network. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modern psychometrics for assessing achievement goal orientation: a Rasch analysis.

PubMed

Muis, Krista R; Winne, Philip H; Edwards, Ordene V

2009-09-01

A program of research is needed that assesses the psychometric properties of instruments designed to quantify students' achievement goal orientations to clarify inconsistencies across previous studies and to provide a stronger basis for future research. We conducted traditional psychometric and modern Rasch-model analyses of the Achievement Goals Questionnaire (AGQ, Elliot & McGregor, 2001) and the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS, Midgley et al., 2000) to provide an in-depth analysis of the two most popular instruments in educational psychology. For Study 1, 217 undergraduate students enrolled in educational psychology courses participated. Thirty-four were male and 181 were female (two did not respond). Participants completed the AGQ in the context of their educational psychology class. For Study 2, 126 undergraduate students enrolled in educational psychology courses participated. Thirty were male and 95 were female (one did not respond). Participants completed the PALS in the context of their educational psychology class. Traditional psychometric assessments of the AGQ and PALS replicated previous studies. For both, reliability estimates ranged from good to very good for raw subscale scores and fit for the models of goal orientations were good. Based on traditional psychometrics, the AGQ and PALS are valid and reliable indicators of achievement goals. Rasch analyses revealed that estimates of reliability for items were very good but respondent ability estimates varied from poor to good for both the AGQ and PALS. These findings indicate that items validly and reliably reflect a group's aggregate goal orientation, but using either instrument to characterize an individual's goal orientation is hazardous.

How the Brain Converts Negative Evaluation into Performance Facilitation.

PubMed

Prévost, Charlotte; Lau, Hakwan; Mobbs, Dean

2018-02-01

Surpassing negative evaluation is a recurrent theme of success stories. Yet, there is little evidence supporting the counterintuitive idea that negative evaluation might not only motivate people, but also enhance performance. To address this question, we designed a task that required participants to decide whether taking up a risky challenge after receiving positive or negative evaluations from independent judges. Participants believed that these evaluations were based on their prior performance on a related task. Results showed that negative evaluation caused a facilitation in performance. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the motivating effect of negative evaluation was represented in the insula and striatum, while the performance boost was associated with functional positive connectivity between the insula and a set of brain regions involved in goal-directed behavior and the orienting of attention. These findings provide new insight into the neural representation of negative evaluation-induced facilitation. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Women's advantage at remembering others' appearance: A systematic look at the why and when of a gender difference.

PubMed

Mast, Marianne Schmid; Hall, Judith A

2006-03-01

Women recall the appearance of others better than men. The goal of the present research was to shed light on the explanations and boundary conditions of this gender difference. In three studies (592 participants), the authors tested potential mediators and moderators of the gender difference. Results corroborated the robustness of the gender difference. General task motivation, general memory ability, importance of appearance, appearance knowledge, attention paid to target, gazing at target, and communal or agentic orientation could not explain why women were better at recalling others' appearance than men were. Except for importance of appearance and appearance knowledge, which both decreased the magnitude of the gender difference, general task motivation, attention paid to target, length of exposure to target, delay in responding, cognitive load, and response format (verbal vs. nonverbal) had no effect on the gender difference. Results are discussed in relation to gender differences found in the nonverbal sensitivity literature.

Evaluation of image deblurring methods via a classification metric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perrone, Daniele; Humphreys, David; Lamb, Robert A.; Favaro, Paolo

2012-09-01

The performance of single image deblurring algorithms is typically evaluated via a certain discrepancy measure between the reconstructed image and the ideal sharp image. The choice of metric, however, has been a source of debate and has also led to alternative metrics based on human visual perception. While fixed metrics may fail to capture some small but visible artifacts, perception-based metrics may favor reconstructions with artifacts that are visually pleasant. To overcome these limitations, we propose to assess the quality of reconstructed images via a task-driven metric. In this paper we consider object classification as the task and therefore use the rate of classification as the metric to measure deblurring performance. In our evaluation we use data with different types of blur in two cases: Optical Character Recognition (OCR), where the goal is to recognise characters in a black and white image, and object classification with no restrictions on pose, illumination and orientation. Finally, we show how off-the-shelf classification algorithms benefit from working with deblurred images.