Evaluation of interactive computerized training to teach parents to implement photographic activity schedules with children with autism spectrum disorder

Training parents of children with autism spectrum disorder can be a challenge due to limited resources, time, and money. Interactive computerized training (ICT)—a self‐paced program that incorporates instructions, videos, and interactive questions—is one method professionals can use to disseminate trainings to broader populations. This study extends previous research on ICT by assessing the effect of ICT to teach three parents how to implement a photographic activity schedule using a systematic prompting procedure with their child. Following ICT, all parents increased their fidelity to implementation of an activity schedule during role‐play sessions with an adult. Fidelity remained high during implementation with their child and maintained during a 2‐week follow‐up.     

Improving Human‐Machine Cooperative Classification Via Cognitive Theories of Similarity

Acquiring perceptual expertise is slow and effortful. However, untrained novices can accurately make difficult classification decisions (e.g., skin‐lesion diagnosis) by reformulating the task as similarity judgment. Given a query image and a set of reference images, individuals are asked to select the best matching reference. When references are suitably chosen, the procedure yields an implicit classification of the query image. To optimize reference selection, we develop and evaluate a predictive model of similarity‐based choice. The model builds on existing psychological literature and accommodates stochastic, dynamic shifts of attention among visual feature dimensions. We perform a series of human experiments with two stimulus types (rectangles, faces) and nine classification tasks to validate the model and to demonstrate the model's potential to boost performance. Our system achieves high accuracy for participants who are naive as to the classification task, even when the classification task switches from trial to trial.     

EFFECT OF REINFORCEMENT PROBABILITY AND PRIZE SIZE ON COCAINE AND HEROIN ABSTINENCE IN PRIZE‐BASED CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT

Although treatment outcome in prize‐based contingency management has been shown to depend on reinforcement schedule, the optimal schedule is still unknown. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial (Ghitza et al., 2007) to determine the effects of the probability of winning a prize (low vs. high) and the size of the prize won (small, large, or jumbo) on likelihood of abstinence until the next urine‐collection day for heroin and cocaine users (N = 116) in methadone maintenance. Higher probability of winning, but not the size of individual prizes, was associated with a greater percentage of cocaine‐negative, but not opiate‐negative, urines.     

Choice Behaviour in a Computer-Aided Multiattribute Decision Task

Choice behaviour in an interactive multiple-criteria decision-making environment was examined experimentally. The main purpose was to investigate whether subjects are more comfortable in processing criterion/attribute information simultaneously (in parallel) or sequentially. As a research instrument, three different interactive software systems were used on a microcomputer by management students at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration and the Institute of National Economy in Moscow to solve essentially the same problem of buying/leasing a home tailored to the respective decision environments. The experiments also provided us with a possibility to learn useful lessons about how human subjects make computer-supported choices. The results of the experiments are discussed. Furthermore, questions for future research are suggested. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

对从HSK题库中计算机自动生成试卷稳定性的试验检验

由计算机从题库中自动生成的试卷能否保持难度的相对稳定？根据IRT进行的等值误差范围有多大？为了回答这些问题,本文以共同组等值作为标准,对基于IRT之上的共同题等值误差进行了试验检验。试验中,采取一定措施保证了考生的动机水平。结果显示,IRT等值的校正方向都是正确的。在4个分测验中有3个分测验的的等值校正效果较理想,1个分测验的等值校正效果不够理想。计算机自动生成的试卷与原有人工命制的试卷在得分方面比较一致,分数相关达到0.931,获得证书的情况也是比较一致的。     

Line Spacing in Mondrian Paintings and Computer-Generated Modifications

Students compared computer-generated pictures of which I had line spacing and orientation proportional to that in a Mondrian picture (Mondrian-like), and 9 had divergent line spacing (divergently spaced). Preference was above average for the Mondrian-like picture compared with that for the divergently spaced pictures. However, participants did not prefer the Mondrian-like picture to divergently spaced pictures that were preselected as aesthetically pleasing by other participants. The results of the present experiments suggest that a computer algorithm can be developed to modify a picture in a way that is comparable with the way in which humans modify a picture to obtain a preferred picture. If aesthetic appeal is used in the storage and retrieval of visual information, then the algorithm could provide a better understanding of human perceptual processes. The results are related to consistency of aesthetic judgments across participants, levels of processing, and apparent contrast effects.     

Toward the Unification of Molecular and Molar Analyses

Three categories of behavior analysis may be called molecular, molar, and unified. Molecular analyses focus on how manual shaping segments moment-to-moment behaving into new, unified, hierarchically organized patterns. Manual shaping is largely atheoretical, qualitative, and practical. Molar analyses aggregate behaviors and then compute a numerical average for the aggregate. Typical molar analyses involve average rate of, or average time allocated to, the aggregated behaviors. Some molar analyses have no known relation to any behavior stream. Molar analyses are usually quantitative and often theoretical. Unified analyses combine automated shaping of moment-to-moment behaving and molar aggregates of the shaped patterns. Unified controlling relations suggest that molar controlling relations like matching confound shaping and strengthening effects of reinforcement. If a molecular analysis is about how reinforcement organizes individual behavior moment by moment, and a molar analysis is about how reinforcement encourages more or less of an activity aggregated over time, then a unified analysis handles both kinds of analyses. Only theories engendered by computer simulation appear to be able to unify all three categories of behavior analysis.     

Nonlocal effects in the continuum theory of shear localisation in 2d foams

Goyon et al. [J. Goyon, A. Colin, G. Ovarlez, A. Ajdari and L. Bocquet, Nature 454 (2008) p. 84] have shown that nonlocal effects in the rheology of foams may be accounted for by a modification of the standard (Herschel–Bulkley) model. Here we consider the effects of this modification on the continuum theory of 2d shear localisation. We compute results for various examples, showing that the localisation length is increased, and explore the limiting cases of zero and infinite nonlocality length ξ. Velocity profiles are shown to take an exponential form in the case where ξ is large. As the formulation of the nonlocal continuum model presented in this article is general, it may also be directly applicable to other complex fluids.     

Crystal growth and defect study of BiSbTe3

BiSbTe₃ single crystals have been grown by the Bridgman technique. Microscopic observations of the as-grown crystals reveal typical features, such as striations on the top free surface, which are attributed to the effect of growth conditions. A nitric-acid-based reagent capable of revealing dislocations has been developed and tested. Etch pits are produced at the dislocation sites, but some discrepancies have been observed on matched cleavage surfaces. The structural difference between the matched cleavage surfaces is discussed.     

Saving-enhanced performance: saving items after study boosts performance in subsequent cognitively demanding tasks

ABSTRACT

By saving and storing information, we use digital devices as our external memory stores, being able to offload and temporarily forget saved contents. Storm and Stone [2015. Saving-enhanced memory: The benefits of saving on the learning and remembering of new information. Psychological Science, 26(2), 182–188] showed that such memory offloading can be beneficial for subsequent memory performance. Saving already encoded items enhanced recall of items encoded after saving. In the present study, we did not only replicate saving-enhanced memory but found saving-enhanced performance for unrelated cognitively demanding tasks. Participants solved more modular arithmetic problems when they were able to offload a previously studied word list, compared to trials without the possibility to offload. Thus, saving of recently encoded items entailed a general benefit on subsequent cognitive performance, beyond encoding and retrieving word lists. We assume that offloading frees participants from the need to maintain offloaded items. Gained resources can then be used for subsequent tasks with high cognitive demands. In a nutshell, memory offloading can help to reduce the amount of information that has to be processed at a given time, efficiently delegating our limited cognitive resources to the most relevant tasks at hand while currently irrelevant information are safely stored outside our own memory.