Spatial Representation in Blind Children. 2: Effects of Task Variations

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet F. Fletcher

In the literature on spatial representation in blind people, several parameters of spatial tasks have been used as controlled variables without due consideration of the effects they might have on the type or efficiency of subjects’ spatial representation. Two such variables are the size of the object or environment to be represented and the degree of freedom allowed subjects in their exploration of these objects or environments. Data about the blind subjects of the author's previously reported study on spatial representation in blind children were further analyzed using a three-way repeated-measures design to determine the effect of room size and exploration mode in response to questions about the position of furniture in a room. Neither variable produced a significant main effect. The responses of subjects in the free-exploration condition were further analyzed to determine the effect on performance of the actual exploration strategy. In the first trial of the task, the exploration route that corresponded to the route previously used to introduce subjects to the empty room was the most successful strategy. By the final trial, the differences among strategies had decreased. Organized strategies, however, were found to be more successful than random movement.

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-269
Author(s):  
Christine R. Russell

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of pitch and rhythm priming tasks on sight-reading accuracy and fluency. High school wind instrumentalists ( N = 182) were assigned to one of four experimental groups: pre-/posttest rhythm, pre-/posttest pitch, posttest-only rhythm, or posttest-only pitch. Participants sight-read selected stimulus exercises from the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale and completed two priming treatments and a control condition as part of a repeated-measures design. A three-way repeated-measures MANOVA, with rhythm accuracy, pitch accuracy, and fluency accuracy as dependent measures, revealed a significant main effect due to priming condition. Rhythm accuracy scores were significantly lower after both perceptual and conceptual priming than after a control condition. No significant differences in pitch accuracy or fluency existed based on priming condition. No significant differences were found in rhythm, pitch, or fluency accuracy based on treatment condition (pitch or rhythm) or exposure condition (pre-/posttest or post only). Two-way repeated-measures MANOVAs revealed significant main effects based on time. Pitch accuracy and fluency each significantly improved between pre- and posttest and from the first to third study tasks. Results suggest that performing rhythm alone or pitch alone requires different cognitive processes than does performing both together.


Author(s):  
Michael Lewis ◽  
Huadong Wang ◽  
Shih Yi Chien ◽  
Prasanna Velagapudi ◽  
Paul Scerri ◽  
...  

Objective: The number of robots an operator can supervise increases with the robots’ level of autonomy. The reported study investigates multirobot foraging to identify aspects of the task most suitable for automation. Background: Many envisioned applications of robotics involve multirobot teams. One of the simplest of these applications is foraging, in which robots are operated independently to explore and discover targets. Depending on levels of autonomy and task, operators have been found able to manage 3 to 12 robots. Method: The foraging task can be functionally subdivided into visiting new regions and identifying targets. In the reported experiment, full-task foraging performance was compared with exploration and perceptual search performance for 4-, 8-, and 12-robot teams in a between-groups repeated measures design. Results: Operators in the full-task condition could not successfully manage 12 robots, finding only half as many victims as perceptual search operators. Exploration performance was roughly the same in the full-task and exploration conditions, suggesting that performance of this subtask was limiting the number of robots that could be controlled. Conclusion: Performance and workload measures indicate that exploration (navigation) tasks are the limiting factor in multirobot foraging. This finding suggests that robot navigation is the best candidate for automation. Application: Search tasks, such as foraging or perimeter control, account for many of the near-term applications envisioned for multirobot teams. The results support the choice of task-centered architectures in which the control and coordination of robotic platforms is automated, leaving search and identification of targets to human operators.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Il-young Yu ◽  
Dong-kyu Lee ◽  
Myoung-Joo Kang ◽  
Jae-seop Oh

Context: The infraspinatus muscle plays a particularly important role in producing primary external rotation (ER) torque and dynamic stability of the shoulder joint. Previous studies have reported that prone external rotation with horizontal abduction (PER), side-lying wiper exercise (SWE), and standing external rotation (STER) were effective exercises for strengthening the infraspinatus. However, we do not have enough knowledge about changes in muscle strength and dynamic muscle activity in each exercise under dynamic conditions. Objective: To compare the ER muscle strength, muscle activity among exercise methods and between muscle contraction types during 3 different exercises. Design: Repeated measures design in which ER muscle strength and muscle activities data were collected from subjects under 3 exercise conditions. Setting: Outpatient clinic. Participants: A total of 15 healthy men with no shoulder, neck, or upper-extremity pain were participated. Intervention: The subjects performed 3 different exercises randomly in concentric and eccentric using a Biodex dynamometer at an angular velocity of 60°/s. Main Outcome Measures: The ER peak torque (PT) data was collected and surface electromyography was used to measure the activity of the infraspinatus and posterior deltoid muscles and infraspinatus to posterior deltoid muscle activity ratio. Results: There was significant main effect for muscle contraction type in ER PT (P < .05). The concentric PT was greater during PER (P < .05) and SWE (P < .05) compared with eccentric. The main effect for exercise was found in ER PT and muscle activity (P < .05). The ER PT and infraspinatus muscle activity were the largest increased during PER whereas the lowest during STER in both concentric and eccentric (P < .05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that PER is an exercise for strengthening the infraspinatus muscle effectively.


Methodology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Livacic-Rojas ◽  
Guillermo Vallejo ◽  
Paula Fernández ◽  
Ellián Tuero-Herrero

Abstract. Low precision of the inferences of data analyzed with univariate or multivariate models of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in repeated-measures design is associated to the absence of normality distribution of data, nonspherical covariance structures and free variation of the variance and covariance, the lack of knowledge of the error structure underlying the data, and the wrong choice of covariance structure from different selectors. In this study, levels of statistical power presented the Modified Brown Forsythe (MBF) and two procedures with the Mixed-Model Approaches (the Akaike’s Criterion, the Correctly Identified Model [CIM]) are compared. The data were analyzed using Monte Carlo simulation method with the statistical package SAS 9.2, a split-plot design, and considering six manipulated variables. The results show that the procedures exhibit high statistical power levels for within and interactional effects, and moderate and low levels for the between-groups effects under the different conditions analyzed. For the latter, only the Modified Brown Forsythe shows high level of power mainly for groups with 30 cases and Unstructured (UN) and Autoregressive Heterogeneity (ARH) matrices. For this reason, we recommend using this procedure since it exhibits higher levels of power for all effects and does not require a matrix type that underlies the structure of the data. Future research needs to be done in order to compare the power with corrected selectors using single-level and multilevel designs for fixed and random effects.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Resti Tito Villarino ◽  
Christopher Arcay ◽  
Maria Concepcion Temblor

BACKGROUND Hypertension is a serious health issue and a major cardiovascular disease and stroke risk factor. In hypertensive patients, various health educational models have been used to improve their lifestyle, but the findings are inconsistent. OBJECTIVE The study assessed the effects of a lifestyle intervention program using modified Beliefs, Attitude, Subjective Standards, Enabling Factors (BASNEF) model among non-adherent hypertensive respondents in relation to the introduction of a lifestyle intervention program in the management of hypertension. METHODS This is a quantitative quasi-experimental research particularly utilizing a repeated-measures design of within-subjects approach on the 50 non-adherent patients diagnosed with essential hypertension at Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines in 2019. The respondents received five sessions of trainings based on modified BASNEF model. The Morisky Medication Adherence instrument was used. The first phase included a demographic questionnaire and the last phase comprised the evaluation of the program. Frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations for descriptive statistics while t-test, repeated measures, ANOVA, and Pearson product moment correlation for inferential statistics. RESULTS The result indicated that the phase 1 mean (146.5) of the systolic readings differ significantly from the phase 4 mean (134.92) of the systolic readings. However, since these two means came from phases that were not consecutive, the result, as a whole, did not show a significant decrease or change when analyzed chronologically from one phase to the next. CONCLUSIONS The study has established that BASNEF model approach can be an effective BP management technique.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110107
Author(s):  
Cixiao Wang ◽  
Huixiao Le

In collaborative learning, the intuition “the more device, the merrier” is somehow widely acknowledged, but little research has investigated the relationship between device-student ratio and the learning outcome. This study aims to investigate not only the main effect of different device-student ratio, also to identify the moderators in the learning context including task complexity, external script availability and students’ familiarity to the collaboration settings. A three-round quasi-experiment was conducted in a primary school in mainland China, 130 fifth-grade students from four classes participated. Group worksheet including conceptual understanding and problem-solving tasks were used to collect participants’ inquiry performance. Repeated measures ANOVA was employed in data analysis. Findings indicate that 1:m device-student ratio could be beneficial, and external scripts, and prior collaboration experience could moderate such effect. The different effect of 1:m device-student ratio to 1:1 is only significant in the situation when students are faced with relatively simple task, and the effect size is larger when external script is present. When the task is more complicated, such effect of device-student ratio would only emerge after a period of collaboration. This finding challenged the intuition that one-to-one device-student ratio could be better. Related discussions and recommendations to teaching were made.


2020 ◽  
pp. 104973152098235
Author(s):  
Kuei-Min Chen ◽  
Hui-Fen Hsu ◽  
Li-Yen Yang ◽  
Chiang-Ching Chang ◽  
Yu-Ming Chen ◽  
...  

Purpose: This study aimed to test the effectiveness of High-Need Community-Dwelling Older Adults Care Delivery Model (HCOACDM) in Taiwan. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial with repeated measures design was conducted in eight community care centers, involving 145 high-need older adults who were assigned to the intervention group or comparison group. The HCOACDM was provided over 6 months. Functional ability, quality of life, depressive symptoms, and health care and social service utilizations were measured at baseline, at 3 months, and 6 months into the intervention. The participants’ satisfaction was measured at the end of 6-month intervention. Results: Positive effects were shown on all variables in the intervention group at both the 3-month and 6-month intervals (all p < .05). The intervention group had a higher satisfaction with care delivery than the comparison group ( p < .05). Discussion: The promising findings supported a long-term implementation of the HCOACDM as applicable and beneficial.


Author(s):  
Nuno Batalha ◽  
Jose A. Parraca ◽  
Daniel A. Marinho ◽  
Ana Conceição ◽  
Hugo Louro ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to analyze the acute effects of a standardized water training session on the shoulder rotators strength and balance in age group swimmers, in order to understand whether a muscle-strengthening workout immediately after the water training is appropriate. A repeated measures design was implemented with two measurements performed before and after a standardized swim session. 127 participants were assembled in male (n = 72; age: 16.28 ± 1.55 years, height: 174.15 ± 7.89 cm, weight: 63.97 ± 6.51 kg) and female (n = 55; age: 15.29 ± 1.28 years, height: 163.03 ± 7.19 cm, weight: 52.72 ± 5.48 kg) cohorts. The isometric torque of the shoulder internal (IR) and external (ER) rotators, as well as the ER/IR ratios, were assessed using a hand-held dynamometer. Paired sample t-tests and effect sizes (Cohen’s d) were used (p ≤ 0.05). No significant differences were found on the shoulder rotators strength or balance in males after training. Females exhibited unchanged strength values after practice, but there was a considerable decrease in the shoulder rotators balance of the non-dominant limb (p < 0.01 d = 0.366). This indicates that a single practice seems not to affect the shoulders strength and balance of adolescent swimmers, but this can be a gender specific phenomenon. While muscle-strengthening workout after the water session may be appropriate for males, it can be questionable regarding females. Swimming coaches should regularly assess shoulder strength levels in order to individually identify swimmers who may or may not be able to practice muscle strengthening after the water training.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Wan

Abstract Background Randomized pre-post designs, with outcomes measured at baseline and after treatment, have been commonly used to compare the clinical effectiveness of two competing treatments. There are vast, but often conflicting, amount of information in current literature about the best analytic methods for pre-post designs. It is challenging for applied researchers to make an informed choice. Methods We discuss six methods commonly used in literature: one way analysis of variance (“ANOVA”), analysis of covariance main effect and interaction models on the post-treatment score (“ANCOVAI” and “ANCOVAII”), ANOVA on the change score between the baseline and post-treatment scores (“ANOVA-Change”), repeated measures (“RM”) and constrained repeated measures (“cRM”) models on the baseline and post-treatment scores as joint outcomes. We review a number of study endpoints in randomized pre-post designs and identify the mean difference in the post-treatment score as the common treatment effect that all six methods target. We delineate the underlying differences and connections between these competing methods in homogeneous and heterogeneous study populations. Results ANCOVA and cRM outperform other alternative methods because their treatment effect estimators have the smallest variances. cRM has comparable performance to ANCOVAI in the homogeneous scenario and to ANCOVAII in the heterogeneous scenario. In spite of that, ANCOVA has several advantages over cRM: i) the baseline score is adjusted as covariate because it is not an outcome by definition; ii) it is very convenient to incorporate other baseline variables and easy to handle complex heteroscedasticity patterns in a linear regression framework. Conclusions ANCOVA is a simple and the most efficient approach for analyzing pre-post randomized designs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 88-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen Anne Jersby ◽  
Paul Van-Schaik ◽  
Stephen Green ◽  
Lili Nacheva-Skopalik

BackgroundHigh-Fidelity Simulation (HFS) has great potential to improve decision-making in clinical practice. Previous studies have found HFS promotes self-confidence, but its effectiveness in clinical practice has not been established. The aim of this research is to establish if HFS facilitates learning that informs decision-making skills in clinical practice using MultipleCriteria DecisionMaking Theory (MCDMT).MethodsThe sample was 2nd year undergraduate pre-registration adult nursing students.MCDMT was used to measure the students’ experience of HFS and how it developed their clinical decision-making skills. MCDMT requires characteristic measurements which for the learning experience were based on five factors that underpin successful learning, and for clinical decision-making, an analytical framework was used. The study used a repeated-measures design to take two measurements: the first one after the first simulation experience and the second one after clinical placement. Baseline measurements were obtained from academics. Data were analysed using the MCDMT tool.ResultsAfter their initial exposure to simulation learning, students reported that HFS provides a high-quality learning experience (87%) and supports all aspects of clinical decision-making (85%). Following clinical practice, the level of support for clinical decision-making remained at 85%, suggesting that students believe HFS promotes transferability of knowledge to the practice setting.ConclusionOverall, students report a high level of support for learning and developing clinical decision-making skills from HFS. However, there are no comparative data available from classroom teaching of similar content so it cannot be established if these results are due to HFS alone.


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