Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study

The performance of working memory can be improved by the corresponding high-value vs. low-value rewards consciously or unconsciously. However, whether conscious and unconscious monetary rewards boosting the performance of working memory is regulated by the difficulty level of working memory task is unknown. In this study, a novel paradigm that consists of a reward-priming procedure and N-back task with differing levels of difficulty was designed to inspect this complex process. In particular, both high-value and low-value coins were presented consciously or unconsciously as the reward cues, followed by the N-back task, during which electroencephalogram signals were recorded. It was discovered that the high-value reward elicited larger event-related potential (ERP) component P3 along the parietal area (reflecting the working memory load) as compared to the low-value reward for the less difficult 1-back task, no matter whether the reward was unconsciously or consciously presented. In contrast, this is not the case for the more difficult 2-back task, in which the difference in P3 amplitude between the high-value and low-value rewards was not significant for the unconscious reward case, yet manifested significance for the conscious reward processing. Interestingly, the results of the behavioral analysis also exhibited very similar patterns as ERP patterns. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the difficulty level of a task can modulate the influence of unconscious reward on the performance of working memory.

3D object detection combining semantic and geometric features from point clouds

Background: 3D object detection based on point clouds in road scenes has attracted much attention recently. The voxel-based methods voxelize the scene to regular grids, which can be processed with the advanced feature learning frameworks based on convolutional layers for semantic feature learning. The point-based methods can extract the geometric feature of the point due to the coordinate reservations. The combination of the two is effective for 3D object detection. However, the current methods use a voxel-based detection head with anchors for classification and localization. Although the preset anchors cover the entire scene, it is not suitable for detection tasks with larger scenes and multiple categories of objects, due to the limitation of the voxel size. Additionally, the misalignment between the predicted confidence and proposals in the Regions of the Interest (ROI) selection bring obstacles to 3D object detection. Methods: We investigate the combination of voxel-based methods and point-based methods for 3D object detection. Additionally, a voxel-to-point module that captures semantic and geometric features is proposed in the paper. The voxel-to-point module is conducive to the detection of small-size objects and avoids the presets of anchors in the inference stage. Moreover, a confidence adjustment module with the center-boundary-aware confidence attention is proposed to solve the misalignment between the predicted confidence and proposals in the regions of the interest selection. Results: The proposed method has achieved state-of-the-art results for 3D object detection in the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute (KITTI) object detection dataset. Actually, as of September 19, 2021, our method ranked 1st in the 3D and Bird Eyes View (BEV) detection of cyclists tagged with difficulty level ‘easy’, and ranked 2nd in the 3D detection of cyclists tagged with ‘moderate’. Conclusions: We propose an end-to-end two-stage 3D object detector with voxel-to-point module and confidence adjustment module.

Deflation-Corrected Estimators of Reliability

Underestimation of reliability is discussed from the viewpoint of deflation in estimates of reliability caused by artificial systematic technical or mechanical error in the estimates of correlation (MEC). Most traditional estimators of reliability embed product–moment correlation coefficient (PMC) in the form of item–score correlation (Rit) or principal component or factor loading (λi). PMC is known to be severely affected by several sources of deflation such as the difficulty level of the item and discrepancy of the scales of the variables of interest and, hence, the estimates by Rit and λi are always deflated in the settings related to estimating reliability. As a short-cut to deflation-corrected estimators of reliability, this article suggests a procedure where Rit and λi in the estimators of reliability are replaced by alternative estimators of correlation that are less deflated. These estimators are called deflation-corrected estimators of correlation (DCER). Several families of DCERs are proposed and their behavior is studied by using polychoric correlation coefficient, Goodman–Kruskal gamma, and Somers delta as examples of MEC-corrected coefficients of correlation.

Postoperative Complications of Impacted Mandibular Third Molar Extraction Related to Patient’s Age and Surgical Difficulty Level: A Cross-Sectional Retrospective Study

Mandibular third molar surgical extraction, either partially erupted or fully impacted, is the most common surgical procedure in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS). However, this procedure can be associated with many postoperative complications including persistent pain, swelling, trismus, and paresthesia due to nerve injury. This study aimed to identify the correlation of postoperative complications with patient’s age, sex, and surgical difficulty level. This study was a cross-sectional retrospective and single-center research conducted on patients with a history of mandibular third molar surgical extraction in the period between 2017 and 2019 at Dental and Oral Hospital Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia. The researchers assessed the factors of age, sex, and surgical difficulty level regarding postoperative complications on the first day of the surgery and after one week on the 7th day of it. Among 916 respondents, the majority of the sample was females (59%) and the dominant age group (60.9%) was the age group of 21–30 years while the dominant surgical difficulty level was shown by the advanced cases group (77%). The statistical analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between surgical difficulty level and postoperative complications including pain, trismus, and paresthesia on the first-day assessment. On the other hand, age was significantly related to complications like pain, swelling, and trismus on the first-week assessment. Age and surgical difficulty level were the most common risk factors of the mandibular third molar extraction postoperative complications. Dentists should take into consideration that older patients (≥51 years) and patients with complex surgical level are more vulnerable to severe postoperative complications.

The impact of students’ behaviour, their approach, emotions and problem difficulty level on the performance prediction, evaluation and overall learning process during online coding activities

Learning process while solving coding problems is quite complex to understand. It is extremely important to understand the skills which are required and gained during learning to code. As a first step to understand the students’ behaviour and approach during learning coding, two online coding assignments or competitions are conducted with a 1-hour time limit. A survey has been conducted at the end of each coding test and answers to different questions have been collected. In depth statistical analysis is done to understand the learning process while solving the coding problems. It involves lots of parameters including students’ behaviour, their approach and difficulty level of coding problems. The inclusion of mood and emotions related questions can improve overall prediction performance but difficulty level matters in the submission status prediction. Two coding assignments or competitions are analysed through in-depth research on 229 (first coding competition dataset) and 325 (second coding competition dataset) data points. The primary results are promising and these results give in depth insights about how learning to solve coding problems is affected by students’ behaviour, their approach, emotions and problem difficulty level.

High Order Thinking Skills and Digital Literacy Skills Instrument Test

Developing evaluation instruments in the student learning process in interactive, fun, challenging, motivating, and developing students 'creativity and independence are needed to improve students' High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and digital literacy skills (DLS). HOTS and digital literacy are part of the 21st-century skills that are important for every individual. This study developed a test instrument integrated with Augmented Reality (AR) and Google Scholar (GS) to encourage HOTS and students' digital literacy skills. This type of research was development research. The subject matter was the scale and comparison. Product trials were applied to 11th-grade students in Sleman, Indonesia. Product validity was based on expert judgment, item validity, distinguishing power, difficulty level and reliability to reach a good category in general. AR was created using the ARLOOPA application operated with android. The research instrument was designed to increase HOTS and DLS.

CHALLENGES FACED BY STUDENTS IN STUDYING TARKÎB WITH ZOOM PLATFORM DURING PANDEMIC

This paper discusses the difficulties of Arabic department students when dealing with Tarkîb al-Marfû’ât subject and the using of Zoom/forced technology due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Using the qualitative approach, this paper aimed to explore whether students were negatively impacted by switch of learning mode to online. Interviews were conducted to nine students who live in remote areas, and it revealed that those students experienced delay in learning the subject due to their lack of the internet availability. Teaching activities were not optimal due to signal interference so that the exposure to the relevant material was not comprehensive. Moreover the students also lacked understanding to the subject because of the specific difficulty level of the subject. The students missed additional explanations and material from the lecturer, even equipped examples. This paper contributes to educational policies in the ways Indonesian government addresses distance learning for students in Islamic higher education.

Analisis Butir Soal Ulangan Semester Ganjil Mata Pelajaran Matematika Kelas VIII SMP

This study aims to know the quality of Grain Analysis of Odd Semester Test Questions Of Mathematics Subjects Grade VIII at State Junior High School 1 Kediri In The Academic Year 2018/2019 which is reviewed in terms of Validity, Reliability, Difficulty Level, Differentiating Power, and Effectiveness of Phishing. This is a descriptive research. The result of this research shows that: in terms of Validity, the amount of valid questions up to 14 points of the question (70%) and invalid question are up to 6 points of question (30%); in terms of Reliability, including questions that have high reliability is with a coefficient 0.79; in terms of Difficulty Level, the number of questions that are include in the difficult categorythere are 2 points (10%), which belongs to the moderate category there are 17 items (85%), and include in easy category there is 1 item(5%); in terms of Differentiating power, the number of problems categorized as very bad as 1 item (5%), bad category as much as 1 item (5%), categorized enough as many as 9 points (45%), good category as much as 6 items (30%) and very high category 3 items (15%); reviewed in terms of Effectiveness of phishing, there are 15 points of question (75%) with excellent outwits, 5 points of question (25%) with a good phishing, 0 point problem (0%) with a less bad phishing and with a bad phishing 0 point problem (0%).

Karakteristik Butir Soal Penilaian Akhir Semester Mata Pelajaran Sejarah Kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang

This research is a study of quantitative descriptive. The purpose of this research is to describe the characteristics of final semester exam items for grade XI in the History subject at SMA Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang using the classical test theory approach. The research of the subject was 138 students of class XI in Social Sciences Major. The result of the research shows that final exam questions in the history subject class XI of SMA Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang are proper to use. This shows that from the validity of the items which there are 39 items of questions (97.5%) which are proven empirically valid with a 0.818 reliability coefficient. Other than that, there are 27 items of questions (67,5%) that can fulfill the criteria for the difficulty level, distinguishing power, and distractor function so it can be used directly to measure the student's ability without correction. While 12 items of questions (30%) need to be fixed and 1 item of question (2,5%) is declared to be invalid so it can't be used to measure the student's ability in History Subject. Permasalahan yang melatarbelakangi penelitian ini adalah pengembangan soal penilaian akhir semester mata pelajaran sejarah yang tidak melalui tahapan analisis butir soal sehingga kualitas butir soal tidak diketahui. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kuantitatif. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan karakteristik butir soal penilaian akhir semester mata pelajaran sejarah kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang menggunakan pendekatan teori tes klasik. Subjek penelitian berjumlah 138 peserta didik kelas XI jurusan IPS. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa soal PAS mata pelajaran sejarah kelas XI SMA Negeri 1 Pangkalpinang telah layak digunakan. Hal ini dibuktikan dari validitas butir soal yang mana terdapat 39 butir soal (97,5%) terbukti valid secara empirik dengan koefisien reliabilitas sebesar 0,818. Selain itu terdapat 27 butir soal (67,5%) yang memenuhi kriteria tingkat kesukaran, daya beda, dan keberfungsian distraktor sehingga dapat digunakan langsung untuk mengukur kemampuan peserta didik tanpa perbaikan. Sedangkan sebanyak 12 butir soal (30%) perlu dilakukan perbaikan dan 1 butir soal (2,5%) dinyatakan gugur sehingga tidak dapat digunakan untuk mengukur kemampuan peserta didik pada mata pelajaran sejarah.

HIGH ORDER THINKING SKILLS AND DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS INSTRUMENT TEST IN MATHEMATICS

Developing evaluation instruments in the student learning process in interactive, fun, challenging, motivating, and developing students 'creativity and independence were needed to improve students' High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and digital literacy skills (DLS). HOTS and digital literacy were part of the 21st-century skills that were important for every individual. This study developed a test instrument integrated with Augmented Reality (AR) and Google Scholar (GS) to encourage HOTS and students' digital literacy skills. This type of research was development research based on the following development steps: information gathering, planning, initial product development, limited trial, initial product revision, field trial, and final product revision. The subject matter was the scale and comparison. Product trials were applied to 11th-grade students in Sleman, Indonesia. Product validity was based on expert judgment, item validity, distinguishing power, difficulty level and reliability to reach a good category in general. AR was created using the ARLOOPA application operated with android. The research instrument was designed to increase HOTS and DLS.