Gaze and informativeness during category learning: Evidence for an inverse relation

In what follows, we explore the general relationship between eye gaze during a category learning task and the information conveyed by each member of the learned category. To understand the nature of this relationship empirically, we used eye tracking during a novel object classification paradigm. Results suggest that the average fixation time per object during learning is inversely proportional to the amount of information that object conveys about its category. This inverse relationship may seem counterintuitive; however, objects that have a high-information value are inherently more representative of their category. Therefore, their generality captures the essence of the category structure relative to less representative objects. As such, it takes relatively less time to process these objects than their less informative companions. We use a general information measure referred to as representational information theory (Vigo, 2011a, 2013a) to articulate and interpret the results from our experiment and compare its predictions to those of three models of prototypicality.     

Team change climate: A group-level analysis of the relationships among change information and change participation,role stressors,and well-being

We explored whether teams develop shared perceptions regarding the quantity and quality of information and the extent of participation in decision making provided in an environment of continuous change. In addition, we examined whether change climate strength moderated relationships between change climate level and team outcomes. We examined relationships among aggregated change information and change participation and aggregated team outcomes, including two role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity and role overload) and two indicators of well-being (i.e., quality of worklife and distress). Questionnaires were distributed in an Australian law enforcement agency and data were used from 178 teams. Structural equation modelling analyses, controlling for a marker variable, were conducted to examine the main effects of aggregated change information and aggregated change participation on aggregated team outcomes. Results provided support for a model that included method effects due to a marker variable. In this model, change information climate was significantly negatively associated with role ambiguity, role overload, and distress, and significantly positively associated with quality of worklife. Change participation climate was significantly positively associated with quality of worklife. Change climate strength did not moderate relationships among change climate level and team outcomes.     

Travel behavior changes and responses to advanced traveler information in prolonged and large-scale network disruptions: A case study of west LRT line construction in the city of Calgary

The objective of this study was the investigation of travel behavioral effects of the reduction in traffic capacity resulting from the construction of the West LRT (Light Rail Transit) line in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Travelers’ responses to real-time information providing traffic updates and advisory detours due to lane/road closures were also examined. The West LRT alignment extends approximately 8.2 km from downtown into the city’s southwest. Many road closures took place in the vicinity of the LRT line construction zones, inducing significant delays to traffic. Data on travelers’ behavioral responses and responses to real-time information were obtained by conducting a survey on a sample of users of the main road affected by the construction. The survey also investigated the effects of West LRT line construction on drivers’ daily commutes, including increases in travel times, mode choices, alternate route choices, and selection of sources of information on traffic conditions. A significant change in the selection of transportation mode was caused by West LRT construction. Throughout the construction period, there was a decrease in the percentage of respondents who reported private vehicles as their first choice and an increase in the percentage of respondents who preferred public transit as their first and second choices. Radio was found to be the most preferred source for traffic updates and detour advice, followed by variable message signs (VMS). The findings of the en-route information model showed that driving experience, employment status, travel time and purpose, and desire for pre-trip information had significant effects on traveler’s rerouting decisions after getting en-route information through VMS. The results from this study are of interest for understanding behavioral changes for the purposes of traffic management, mitigation schemes and design of advanced traveler information systems in response to network disruptions.     

Processing of indexical information requires time: Evidence from change deafness

In three experiments, the efficiency in detecting fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant visual stimuli are compared. A visual search paradigm is used where participants are presented with matrices of different sizes (4 objects/9 objects) and must determine whether all objects are taken from the same category or whether there is a discrepant one. Results from all experiments were consistent with the threat-superiority effect. Participants were quicker when the target was threatening than when it was not. Other indicators confirmed that the detection of threatening targets involves more efficient processes (reduced slopes, absence of position effects). A crucial aspect of these experiments was the comparison of evolutionary-relevant (snakes, spiders, etc.) and modern (guns, syringes, etc.) threats. The threat-superiority effect was repeatedly found for both types of target. Stronger effects were sometimes observed for modern than for evolutionary-relevant threats. The implications for evolutionary explanations of the effect of fear on visual attention are discussed.     

Eye movements reveal no immediate “WOW” (“which one's weird”) effect in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developed (TD) adult participants viewed pairs of scenes for a simple “spot the difference” (STD) and a complex “which one's weird” (WOW) task. There were no group differences in the STD task. In the WOW task, the ASD group took longer to respond manually and to begin fixating the target “weird” region. Additionally, as indexed by the first-fixation duration into the target region, the ASD group failed to “pick up” immediately on what was “weird”. The findings are discussed with reference to the complex information processing theory of ASD (Minshew & Goldstein, 1998 Minshew, N. J. and Goldstein, G. 1998. Autism as a disorder or complex information processing. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 4: 129–136. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).     

不同年级学生自然阅读过程信息加工活动特点研究

探讨不同年级学生自然阅读过程的信息加工活动特点,包括两个实验。实验１结果表明,低年级学生自然阅读后再复述文章时需要重读原文的时间比高年级学生要多,据此初步推知,低年级学生自然阅读过程可能主要是单一的语言解码信息加工活动,高年级学生自然阅读过程可能同时进行了语言解码与组织连贯的信息加工活动,以后者为主。实验２比较不同年级的学生在自然阅读、理解任务阅读与记忆任务阅读三种情况下对文章信息保持的效果,结果     

What is the Philosophy of Information?

Computational and information-theoretic research in philosophy has become increasingly fertile and pervasive, giving rise to a wealth of interesting results. In consequence, a new and vitally important field has emerged, the philosophy of information (PI). This essay is the first attempt to analyse the nature of PI systematically. PI is defined as the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. I argue that PI is a mature discipline for three reasons: it represents an autonomous field of research; it provides an innovative approach to both traditional and new philosophical topics; and it can stand beside other branches of philosophy, offering a systematic treatment of the conceptual foundations of the world of information and the information society.     

学习不良儿童社会信息加工的特点

设置儿童与同伴、成人相互作用的三类情景,每类情景又分为模糊情景和清晰情景两种情况,通过对51名小学生进行结构性访谈,比较了学习不良儿童与一般儿童在信息加工各阶段的差异。结果发现,无论是模糊情景还是意义清晰情景,学习不良儿童和一般儿童在对权威社会情景进行编码时存在显著差异,学习不良儿童的编码准确性和全面性显著低于一般儿童;在模糊同伴情景下,学习不良儿童的反应数量显著多于一般儿童,其消极或侵犯性的反应也多于一般儿童。     

From Noosphere to Theosphere: Cyclotrons, Cyberspace, and Teilhard's Vision of Cosmic Love

Two theme–setting quotations introduce this essay—that of Yeats's falcon, deaf to the falconer's call, adrift in space above the blood–dimmed tide, counterpoised to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's call to abandon old nationalistic prejudices and build the earth. With primary references to the thought of Teilhard, along with, among others, to Ewert Cousins, Andrew M. Greeley, Karl Jaspers, Marshall McLuhan, Ilya Prigogine, Karl Rahner, Leonard Swidler, David Tracy, and Alfred North Whitehead, I argue that the most crucial intellectual paradigm shift of the twenty–first century will challenge humanity to take the turn from uncritical attachment to rigid absolutism or atomistic fragmentation toward a sense of open–ended, off–centered centeredness and fluid connections—from a static to a dynamic model of reality. Central to my argument is the Teilhardian reinterpretation of the Christian metaphors of creation, fall, incarnation, salvation, and the eschaton in the evolutionary terms of the emergence of cosmic consciousness from the chrysalis of the world of the past—from chaos to order, from biosphere via noosphere to theosphere. Facilitated by the exponential growth of populations, collaborative research, science, technology, and global communication (most dramatically manifested by the Internet), this emergent understanding of what it means to be human can, first, foster the awareness that in humanity evolution has become conscious of itself, and then, gradually, precipitate the formation of “the global village” (the mystical body of Christ), as respectful dialogue replaces diatribe and the dualistic pugilism of Samuel Huntington's “Clash of Civilizations” is gradually transformed into a nonadversarial mentality that values shared humanity and a common purpose. Thus, eons hence, empowered by love–energy, the transmutation of the human into the ultra–human can take the ultimate quantum leap into a yet higher dimension where spirit/energy is no longer in need of flesh/mass, and Earth can be safely left behind.