Interplay between physical and virtual settings for online interpersonal trust formation in knowledge-sharing practice

This qualitative study investigated online interpersonal trust formation in knowledge-sharing (KS) practice, with emphasis on the interplay between the physical and virtual social contexts. Data were collected during a 6-month period from phenomenological interviews of 49 elementary and junior high school teachers who used a Web-based knowledge management system (KMS) to share their knowledge. Interpretive analysis revealed three important facets of the interpersonal trust formation process in using Web-based KMS: (a) the social role of the teachers, (b) the rigid and tight professional community, and (c) the keys to breaking through. Results of this study can lead to a better understanding of how an individual's perception is shaped and to what extent social factors affect knowledge-sharing practice in virtual communities. In addition to the practical implications to those who intend to manage knowledge-intensive activities, our study demonstrates the relevance of phenomenology for trust in KS research and provides a new way of viewing knowledge management problems in terms of human consciousness.     

Effects of exercise intervention on event-related potential and task performance indices of attention networks in children with developmental coordination disorder

The study investigated whether 10-week soccer training can benefit the inhibitory control and neuroelectric indices in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Fifty-one children were divided into groups of typically developing (TD, n=21), DCD-training (n=16), and DCD non-training (n=14) individuals using the for Children test, and, before and after training, were assessed with the visuospatial attention orienting task with their lower extremities, while brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were concurrently recorded. The results indicated that, when compared to TD children, children with DCD responded significantly more slowly across conditions of the visuospatial attention orienting task and showed a deficit of inhibitory control capacity in their lower extremities, whereas no group differences were observed for the accuracy rate. Neuroelectric data indicated that, before training, P3 amplitude was smaller and P3 latency was slower for both DCD groups compared to TD children across conditions of the visuospatial attention orienting task; after training, the beneficial effects were seen in the strength of inhibitory control and P3 latency in the DCD-training group. The data suggest that soccer training resulted in significant improvements in ERP and task performance indices for the children with DCD.     

Rewarding context accelerates implicit guidance in visual search

It is well known that observers can implicitly learn the spatial context of complex visual searches, such that future searches through repeated contexts are completed faster than those through novel contexts, even though observers remain at chance at discriminating repeated from new contexts. This contextual-cueing effect arises quickly (within less than five exposures) and asymptotes within 30 exposures to repeated contexts. In spite of being a robust effect (its magnitude is over 100 ms at the asymptotic level), the effect is implicit: Participants are usually at chance at discriminating old from new contexts at the end of an experiment, in spite of having seen each repeated context more than 30 times throughout a 50-min experiment. Here, we demonstrate that the speed at which the contextual-cueing effect arises can be modulated by external rewards associated with the search contexts (not with the performance itself). Following each visual search trial (and irrespective of a participant’s search speed on the trial), we provided a reward, a penalty, or no feedback to the participant. Crucially, the type of feedback obtained was associated with the specific contexts, such that some repeated contexts were always associated with reward, and others were always associated with penalties. Implicit learning occurred fastest for contexts associated with positive feedback, though penalizing contexts also showed a learning benefit. Consistent feedback also produced faster learning than did variable feedback, though unexpected penalties produced the largest immediate effects on search performance.     

Cortisol reactivity to a teacher’s motivating style: the biology of being controlled versus supporting autonomy

We hypothesized that participants engaged in a learning activity would show a biological stress response when exposed to a controlling teacher but biological calm when exposed to an autonomy-supportive teacher. Seventy-eight undergraduates (53 females, 25 males) engaged in a 20-minute puzzle-solving activity while exposed to a teacher who enacted either a controlling, neutral, or autonomy-supportive motivating style. Salivary cortisol was assessed before, during, and after the learning activity, and a post-experimental questionnaire assessed participants’ perceptions of the teacher’s motivating style and indices of positive functioning. Manipulated motivating style affected participants’ cortisol, as exposure to a controlling style increased cortisol while exposure to an autonomy-supportive style decreased it, relative to exposure to a neutral style. Correlational analyses with the self-report measures showed that cortisol reactivity occurred in response to interpersonal events rather than to psychological appraisals. We conclude that cortisol reactivity is sensitive to a teacher’s motivating style and that elevated cortisol signals interpersonal obtrusion and pressure while dampened cortisol signals perspective-taking and support.     

Oculomotor correlates of context-guided learning in visual search

Previous studies have shown that context-facilitated visual search can occur through implicit learning. In the present study, we have explored its oculomotor correlates as a step toward unraveling the mechanisms that underlie such learning. Specifically, we examined a number of oculomotor parameters that might accompany the learning of context-guided search. The results showed that a decrease in the number of saccades occurred along with a fall in search time. Furthermore, we identified an effective search period in which each saccade monotonically brought the fixation closer to the target. Most important, the speed with which eye fixation approached the target did not change as a result of learning. We discuss the general implications of these results for visual search.     

MA and Togetherness (Ittaikan) in the Narratives of Dancers and Spectators: Sharing an Uncertain Space

The Japanese concept/character MA (間), commonly translated as “gap, interval, or the in between,” partakes in many forms of Japanese arts and daily-life practices. In this article, we report the results of a qualitative research on the meaning or experience of MA and its relation with the feeling of togetherness in the context of contemporary dance improvisation. We interviewed performers and spectators (all professional dancers) while they watched the videotaped and reduced stick-figure versions of short dance improvisations created in a laboratory installed with motion-capture sensors. Based on the individual narratives, and inspired by Japanese and occidental aesthetic writings, we elaborate a specific understanding of MA as attending to the event's preacceleration, and how this experience causally relates to the feeling of togetherness (一体感, ittaikan). We propose that MA, understood not extensionally (as an empty space or a silent gap), but intentionally/internally as a certain quality of attention or perceptual mode, is fertile ground for serendipity. MA as an interpersonal ethical construct suggests a transsubjective difference as a foundation for a collective coming together.     

Electrophysiological markers of working memory usage as an index for truth-based lies

People prefer to lie using altered truthful events from memory, perhaps because doing so can increase their credibility while reducing cognitive and working memory (WM) load. One possible way to counter such deceptive behavior is to track WM usage, since fabricating coherent lies or managing between truth and lies is likely to involve heavy WM load. In this study, participants memorized a list of words in the study session and used these old words to provide deceptive answers when cued later, in the testing session. Our behavioral results showed that people needed more time to make a deceptive response during the execution stage, and this prolonged deceptive reaction time (RT) was negatively correlated with each participant’s WM capacity. Event-related potential findings showed a more negative-going frontal amplitude between the lie and truth conditions during the preparation stage, suggesting that WM preparatory processes can be detected long before a deceptive response is verbalized. Furthermore, we observed a larger positive frontal-central amplitude during the execution stage, which was negatively correlated with participants’ lie–truth RT differences, suggesting that participants’ efficiency in producing deceptive responses can be readily traced electrophysiologically. Together, these findings suggest that WM capacity and preparation are crucial to efficient lying and that their related electrophysiological signatures can potentially be used to uncover deceptive behaviors.     

Enhancing implicit change detection through action

Implicit change detection demonstrates how the visual system can benefit from stored information that is not immediately available to conscious awareness. We investigated the role of motor action in this context. In the first two experiments, using a one-shot implicit change-detection paradigm, participants responded to unperceived changes either with an action (jabbing the screen at the guessed location of a change) or with words (verbal report), and sat either 60 cm or 300 cm (with a laser pointer) away from the display. Our observers guessed the locations of changes at a reachable distance better with an action than with a verbal judgment. At 300 cm, beyond reach, the motor advantage disappeared. In experiment 3, this advantage was also unavailable when participants sat at a reachable distance but responded with hand-held laser pointers near their bodies. We conclude that a motor system specialized for real-time visually guided behavior has access to additional visual information. Importantly, this system is not activated by merely executing an action (experiment 2) or presenting stimuli in one's near space (experiment 3). It is activated only when both conditions are fulfilled, which implies that it is the actual contact that matters to the visual system.     

Postural Precursors of Postboxing Motion Sickness in a Manual Aiming Task

We asked whether body sway during performance of a visual-manual task would differ between boxers who experienced post-match motion sickness and those who did not. Before and after boxing we measured standing body sway while participants performed a manual precision aiming task. After boxing, participants stated, yes/no, whether they were motion sick; they also reported motion sickness symptoms, and concussion-related symptoms. Seven of thirteen boxers reported motion sickness after boxing. We compared boxers who reported post-boxing motion sickness versus those who did not. Body sway before boxing differed between boxers who reported post-bout motion sickness and those who did not. Immediately after boxing, motion sickness symptoms and concussion-related symptoms were elevated among boxers who stated that they were motion sick. The results suggest that patterns of body sway may be related to individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness and concussion-like symptoms in adult male boxers, such that objective measurements of body sway might be used to predict susceptibility in individuals.