scholarly journals Why Boredom is Interesting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Corwin Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Mental Resources

What is boredom? According to the Meaning and Attentional Components (MAC) model investigated here, boredom signals a lack of meaningful attentional engagement and is the result of (a) an attentional component, composed of mismatches between cognitive demands and available mental resources and (b) a meaning component, composed of mismatches between activities and valued goals (or the absence of valued goals altogether). The MAC model generates a number of novel predictions, including that multiple types of boredom exist and motivate action according to their underlying attentional and meaning causes. Experimentally inducing meaning and attentional failure each separately lead to boredom (Study 1), and both over- and understimulation can lead to attentional failure that results in boredom (Study 2). Finally, different types of boredom lead to differing downstream consequences for people’s subsequent preferences for interesting versus enjoyable activities (Study 3). Much like pain, boredom provides unpleasant but important feedback about our lives, telling us whether we want and are able to focus on what we are doing.

scholarly journals Boring Thoughts and Bored Minds: The MAC Model of Boredom and Cognitive Engagement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Corwin Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cognitive Engagement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
New Model ◽  
Attentional Deficits ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Mental Resources

What is boredom? We review environmental, attentional, and functional theories and present a new model that describes boredom as an affective indicator of unsuccessful attentional engagement in valued goal-congruent activity. According to the Meaning and Attentional Components (MAC) model, boredom is the result of (a) an attentional component, namely mismatches between cognitive demands and available mental resources, and (b) a meaning component, namely mismatches between activities and valued goals (or the absence of valued goals altogether). We present empirical support for four novel predictions made by the model: (1) Deficits in attention and meaning each produce boredom independently of the other; (2) there are different profiles of boredom that result from specific deficits in attention and meaning; (3) boredom results from two types of attentional deficits, understimulation and overstimulation; and (4) the model explains not only when and why people become bored with external activities, but also when and why people become bored with their own thoughts. We discuss further implications of the model, such as when boredom motivates people to seek interesting versus enjoyable activities.

scholarly journals Boring Thoughts and Bored Minds: The MAC Model of Boredom and Cognitive Engagement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Corwin Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cognitive Engagement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
New Model ◽  
Attentional Deficits ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Mental Resources

What is boredom? We review environmental, attentional, and functional theories and present a new model that describes boredom as an affective indicator of unsuccessful attentional engagement in valued goal-congruent activity. According to the Meaning and Attentional Components (MAC) model, boredom is the result of (a) an attentional component, namely mismatches between cognitive demands and available mental resources, and (b) a meaning component, namely mismatches between activities and valued goals (or the absence of valued goals altogether). We present empirical support for four novel predictions made by the model: (1) Deficits in attention and meaning each produce boredom independently of the other; (2) there are different profiles of boredom that result from specific deficits in attention and meaning; (3) boredom results from two types of attentional deficits, understimulation and overstimulation; and (4) the model explains not only when and why people become bored with external activities, but also when and why people become bored with their own thoughts. We discuss further implications of the model, such as when boredom motivates people to seek interesting versus enjoyable activities.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF THE SPECIFICS OF SCHOOL INSTRUCTION IN RELATION TO MANIFESTATIONS OF SEMANTIC SENSORY ABILITIES AS MENTAL RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MODALITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Yana Sipovkaya Ivanovna
Keyword(s):  
School Health ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Sensory Sensitivity ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Degree Of Differentiation ◽  
Mental Resources

The article examines the manifestations of semantic sensory abilities of different types of modality: tactile, auditory, taste, olfactory and visual, among older teens who study at two schools with different pedagogical orientation: a school with in-depth study of foreign languages and a school "Health", emphasizing attention to the physical and patriotic education of youth. The study involved 37 ninth-graders of the senior adolescence (15 years). Methodological basis of the study was "Visual semantics". The results of the study showed that there is no difference in the degree of manifestation of sensory abilities of tactile, auditory, taste, olfactory and visual types in adolescents. It probably depends on the degree of differentiation of semantic abilities to a greater extent than from the educational environment. These results emphasize both the theoretical and practical novelty of the proposed approach in view of a number of factors. First of all, a new method for diagnosing semantic sensory abilities had been approved. Furthermore, - studying regression (Alexandrov et al., 2017) of semantic sensory abilities as a variant of mental development and adaptive application of human mental resources. Finally, - data on the absence of differences in the degree of expression of sensory semantic abilities of all types in older adolescents. The established facts increase our understanding of the most basic, low-differentiated component of the conceptual experience - semantic abilities and one of its manifestations-sensory sensations, directing factors of heterogeneity in the semantic constructions of older adolescents to research. Moreover, the study of manifestations of semantic sensory sensitivity in other age periods is of particular relevance, which will allow us to reveal the temporal dynamics of the development of this component of conceptual experience.

Number Conceptualisation among Lebanese Micro-Business Owners who Engage in Orally-Based Versus Paper-Based Numeracy Practices: An Experimental Cognitive Ethnography

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 359-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samar Zebian
Keyword(s):  
Business Owners ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Spatial Processes ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Business People ◽  
Cognitive Ethnography ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Numeric Cognition ◽  
Numeral Recognition ◽  
Socially Situated

AbstractThe study of everyday numeric thinking in adults directs our attention to several aspects of number cognition that have received almost no attention in the experimental cognitive science literature, namely the influences of socially situated artifact use on numeric processing. The current studies explore numeral recognition and conceptualisation processes in business people who engage in different types of numeracy practices; orally based numeracy practices which involve very little use of written records compared to paper-based numeracy practices. Ethnographic observations of Lebanese business people were conducted to gain a detailed understanding of the socio-cognitive demands in orally-based paperless and paper-based business settings. These observations were in turn used to design experimental reaction time studies which investigated currency based numeral recognition and conceptualisation processes. The results of the numeral recognition and priming studies clearly illustrate that the use of artifacts in everyday numeracy practices influences numeral recognition and conceptualisation in a way that suggests tight linkages between the visio-spatial processes involve in recognizing numerals embedded in cultural artifacts and the semantically based processes involved in the conception of these numerals. The relevance of the current findings for the main models of adult numeric cognition and for research on everyday numeracy will be discussed.

A Framework for Integrating Cognitive Task Analysis into the System Development Process

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott S. Potter ◽  
Emilie M. Roth ◽  
David D. Woods ◽  
William C. Elm
Keyword(s):  
Task Analysis ◽  
Development Process ◽  
System Development ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Software Development Process ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Cooperative Interactions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Incremental Process

This paper describes a process that orchestrates different types of specific CTA techniques to provide design relevant CTA results and integrates CTA results into the software development process. Two fundamental premises underlie the approach. First, CTA is more than the application of any single CTA technique. Instead, developing a meaningful understanding of a field of practice relies on multiple converging techniques in a bootstrapping process. The important issue from a CTA perspective is to evolve a model of the interconnections between the demands of the domain, the strategies and knowledge of practitioners, the cooperative interactions across human and machine agents, and how artifacts shape these strategies and coordinative activities across a series of different specific techniques. Second, since CTA is a means to support the design of computer-based artifacts that enhance human and team performance, CTA must be integrated into the software and system development process. Thus, the vision of CTA as an initial, self-contained technique that is handed-off to system designers is reconceived as an incremental process of uncovering the cognitive demands imposed on the operator(s) by the complexities and constraints of the domain.

A comparison of workload demands imposed by different types of distracted walking tasks and its effect on gait

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1713-1717
Author(s):  
Haolan Zheng ◽  
Yue Luo ◽  
Boyi Hu ◽  
Wayne C.W. Giang
Keyword(s):  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Safety Concern ◽  
Blink Rate ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Gait Performance ◽  
Gait Parameters ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Nasa Tlx

A growing body of research has found that distracted walking is a safety concern due to reduced situation awareness and the possibility of compromised gait performance. Distraction tasks, such as texting, browsing social media, and playing games, differ in terms of their physical and cognitive demands. However, few studies have examined whether there are differences in how physical and cognitive demands impact gait. The goal of this paper is to evaluate workload differences between four distraction tasks that represent common smartphone functions and may differ in terms of physical and cognitive demands: 1) No distraction, 2) Reading, 3) Tapping, 4) N-Back. We characterized the workload differences using three methods, a subjective workload assessment (NASA-TLX) and two physiological workload measures, pupil width and blink rate. Our results suggest that the chosen distraction tasks differ in their workload demands. While, a preliminary analysis of descriptive gait parameters failed to find significant differences between the distraction conditions, further analysis of more complex gait measures may be required to understand differences between physical and cognitive demands.

scholarly journals From electric shocks to the electoral college: How boredom steers moral behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meltem Yucel ◽  
Erin Corwin Westgate
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Moral Behavior ◽  
Airport Security ◽  
Electoral College ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
Electric Shocks ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Meaningful Experiences

We all experience boredom, from being stuck in airport security lines to reading poorly written book chapters. But what is boredom, why do we experience it, and what happens when we do? We suggest a new take on this everyday emotional experience, as an important and potentially useful cue that we’re not cognitively engaged in meaningful experiences. According to the Meaning and Attentional Components (MAC) model of boredom, people feel bored when they can’t successfully engage their attention in meaningful activities. Boredom can be painful, but it gives us important feedback about our lives, by signaling a lack of meaningful attentional engagement. In short, boredom tells us whether we want to and are able to focus on what we are doing or thinking, and steers us towards behaviors that ensure that we do. Across a broad range of situations, attention and meaning independently predict boredom, are not highly correlated, and do not interact. But more importantly, attention and meaning deficits result in different types of boredom with different downstream consequences for how people behave. For instance, being bored because what you’re doing lacks meaning feels different and has different consequences than being bored because you can’t pay attention, in part because they signal different problems. Likewise, boredom can result when something is too easy or too hard, because both make it hard to pay attention. All of these different causes of boredom matter, we argue, because they result in different types of boredom with different downstream consequences. Why we are bored shapes what we want to do next, and helps explain why bored people make often puzzling decisions, such as choosing to self-administer painful electric shocks or turning to political extremism. In short, like pain, boredom may be unpleasant but it plays an important role in alerting us when we either don’t want to (or are unable to) pay attention to what we’re doing, and motivating us to change our behavior to restore attention and meaning to our lives, for good or for ill.

scholarly journals Spirometry Has Added Value Over Electrodermal Activity as a Physiological Marker of Mental Load.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Neukirchen ◽  
Moritz Stork ◽  
Matthias Hoppe ◽  
Christian Vorstius
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Mental Load ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Valuable Complement ◽  
Mental Demands ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Respiratory Gases

Abstract The objective distinction of different types of mental demands as well as their intensity is relevant for research and practical application but poses a challenge for established physiological methods. We investigated whether respiratory gases (oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide output) are suitable to distinguish between emotional and cognitive demands. To this end, we compared the application of spirometry with an established procedure, namely electrodermal activity (EDA). Our results indicate that electrodermal activity shows a strong responsivity to emotional stress induction, which was highly correlated with its responsivity to cognitive load. Respiratory gases were both sensitive and specific to cognitive load and had the advantage of being predictive for cognitive performance as well as self-reported emotional state. These results support the notion that respiratory gases are a valuable complement to common physiological procedures in the detection and discrimination of different mental demands.

The extinction time of a general birth and death process with catastrophes

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (04) ◽  
pp. 851-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Brockwell
Keyword(s):  
Laplace Transform ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Death Process ◽  
Extinction Time ◽  
Birth And Death Process ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Laplace Transform ◽  
Necessary And Sufficient

The Laplace transform of the extinction time is determined for a general birth and death process with arbitrary catastrophe rate and catastrophe size distribution. It is assumed only that the birth rates satisfyλ0= 0,λj> 0 for eachj> 0, and. Necessary and sufficient conditions for certain extinction of the population are derived. The results are applied to the linear birth and death process (λj=jλ, µj=jμ) with catastrophes of several different types.

Differentiating between different forms of moral obligations

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajen A. Anderson ◽  
Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽  
David A. Pizarro
Keyword(s):  
Moral Character ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Different Types

Abstract We argue that Tomasello's account overlooks important psychological distinctions between how humans judge different types of moral obligations, such as prescriptive obligations (i.e., what one should do) and proscriptive obligations (i.e., what one should not do). Specifically, evaluating these different types of obligations rests on different psychological inputs and has distinct downstream consequences for judgments of moral character.

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