Disparity of Internet Access and the Role of Libraries

ABSTRACT

This article offers evidence of increasing economic disparities for poor people and a growing “digital divide.” The role of libraries to ensure access to technology is discussed. The Bridge Project is presented as an example of a library program designed to bring technological access into low-income neighborhoods.     

Building Cognition: The Construction of Computational Representations for Scientific Discovery

Novel computational representations, such as simulation models of complex systems and video games for scientific discovery (Foldit, EteRNA etc.), are dramatically changing the way discoveries emerge in science and engineering. The cognitive roles played by such computational representations in discovery are not well understood. We present a theoretical analysis of the cognitive roles such representations play, based on an ethnographic study of the building of computational models in a systems biology laboratory. Specifically, we focus on a case of model‐building by an engineer that led to a remarkable discovery in basic bioscience. Accounting for such discoveries requires a distributed cognition (DC) analysis, as DC focuses on the roles played by external representations in cognitive processes. However, DC analyses by and large have not examined scientific discovery, and they mostly focus on memory offloading, particularly how the use of existing external representations changes the nature of cognitive tasks. In contrast, we study discovery processes and argue that discoveries emerge from the processes of building the computational representation. The building process integrates manipulations in imagination and in the representation, creating a coupled cognitive system of model and modeler, where the model is incorporated into the modeler's imagination. This account extends DC significantly, and we present some of the theoretical and application implications of this extended account.     

Measurement and comparative analysis of driver’s perception–reaction time to green phase at the intersections with and without a countdown timer

This paper proposes a method based on digital image processing for measuring drivers’ perception–reaction time (PRT) to the green phase. The detection of the onset of a green signal was based on the RGB color model. The detection of the start of the vehicle was based on the frame difference. The driver’s perception–reaction time was equal to the difference between the frame of the onset of the green signal and the frame of the start of the vehicle divided by the video frame rate. Drivers’ PRT with and without a countdown timer were comparatively analyzed. First, the means and variances of drivers’ PRT with a timer and without a timer were compared. Second, Normal, Lognormal, Gamma and Weibull distributions were used to fit the PRT data. Third, the fuzzy c-means clustering was utilized for PRT classification and comparison. The results show that the method for measuring drivers’ PRT based on digital image processing was effective. The drivers’ PRT was decreased from 2.12 s to 1.48 s with countdown signals. Weibull distribution appeared to best fit the PRT with No-Timer and Lognormal distribution appeared to best fit the PRT with Timer. The PRT data were classified into three groups: “Fast”, “Moderate” and “Slow”. Clustering centers without Timer were 1.16 s, 2.47 s and 3.98 s respectively. Clustering centers with Timer were 0.95 s, 1.64 s and 2.70 s respectively. The clustering centers can be regarded as reference values of drivers’ starting response for microscopic traffic simulation software.     

Prolonged touch screen device usage is associated with emotional and behavioral problems,but not language delay,in toddlers

BackgroundTouch screen devices are now ubiquitous, and their usage by young children is increasing. However, the effects of these devices on young children are still unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to address the associations of touch screen device exposure with symptomatic emotional and behavioral problems and language development in children between the ages of 18 and 36 months.MethodA total of 161 primary caregivers of children between the ages of 18 and 36 months were recruited from the pediatric ward and outpatient clinic at a medical center in southern Taiwan. All caregivers were asked to fill out the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1½–5 (CBCL 1½–5) and a questionnaire on basic personal information and touch screen device usage, and they were also interviewed with the Communication and Language Screening Test for Birth to Three Chinese-Speaking Infant-Toddlers (CLST). Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to examine the differences among the categories in the demographic variables and to characterize the touch screen device usage behaviors. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyze the relationship between language delay and the extent of touch screen device exposure. After primary univariate analysis, we used multiple regression models to examine the relationships among the effects of touch screen device usage behaviors on children's emotional and behavioral problems and language development.ResultThe children’s mean age was 25.63 months (SD = 5.35). Children who spent more time on touch screen devices were more likely to have emotional problems (β = .219, p < .010, 95 % CI: .279–1.518), anxious/depressive symptoms (β = .206, p < .050, 95 % CI: .170–1.244), somatic complaints (β = .291, p < .001, 95% CI: .455–1.462), social withdrawal symptoms (β = .194, p < .050, 95 % CI: 0.133–1.150), attention problems (β = .300, p < .001, 95 % CI: .432–1.267), and aggressive behaviors (β = .247, p < .010, 95 % CI: .967–3.983). The effects were not noted on language development (β = −.136, p < .100, 95 % CI: −2.595–.147).ConclusionYoung children who spent more time on touch screen devices were more likely to have emotional problems, anxious/depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, social withdrawal symptoms, attention problems, and aggressive behaviors, but not language delay.     

Living the eighth day online: liturgies,sacramental life,and building human relationships

ABSTRACT

Online human relationships can exacerbate some of the worst of our tendencies toward each other, including deception, selfishness, apathy and disembodiment, and sexual harassment. Yet Christians can also bring their prayer practices online, as ways of bringing God’s new creation (known in Christian tradition as the Eighth Day) to the forefront. Through examination of three distinctive online prayer practices, combined with discussion of liturgical and sacramental theologies, this article shows that prayer online also holds out possibilities of reconciliation and justice as potential responses to negative human relationship tendencies.     

ASMR,affect and digitally-mediated intimacy

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is the pseudo-scientific term used to describe a ‘tingly’ physical response that viewers of ASMR videos may experience from watching a combination of auditory, visual and tactile triggers. To explore how this might happen, we examine the experience of ASMR as a technologically-mediated, affective experience, using examples from prominent ASMR artists. We seek to understand this community of ASMR viewers through the disjuncture that exists between the embodied experience of tingles and deep relaxation, and its technologically-mediated delivery. In this paper, we explore ASMR as a mediated affective experience – uniquely shaped by online spaces and their affordances. After providing a brief overview of ASMR videos and creators, we explore how ASMR artists engage in boundary work through the definitions of ASMR that they produce to support a quest for cultural and scientific legitimacy. The practice of naming and defining ASMR creates a site affective ‘stickiness’, where affective experiences are intentionally constructed and strategically heightened. Finally, we examine the provocations that research into ASMR may bring an understanding of the senses, affect and technologically-mediated intimacy.     

Processes and pathways in development via digital media: Examples from word learning

Word learning unfolds over multiple, cascading pathways which support in-the-moment processing and learning. The process is refined with each exposure to a word, and exposures to new words occur across a variety of forms and contexts. However, as children are exposed to more and more digital media, the ways in which children encounter, learn, and build on their vocabulary is also shifting. These shifts represent changes in context, content, and at the level of the child that can lead to negative outcomes. Less work, however, has discussed what these differences mean for how things change in the underlying developmental cascade and learning processes. Here, we suggest that the increasing presence of digital media may shift the developmental pathways for learning (the chain of events that support future learning) but not necessarily the developmental processes (the mechanisms underlying learning). Moreover, the interaction of the two may lead to different behavior and outcomes for learning in a digital era. We argue it is imperative for researchers to not only study how digital media differs from everyday learning, but directly measure if the well-worn pathways, processes, and variables found with decades of research with real items translate to a digital media era.