Analysis of cognitive operation in understanding text of the fourth-grade pupils

This study aims to analyse the informative-type text, questions, and answers of the fourth-grade reading comprehension test according to cognitive processes. A total of 353 respondents participated in the survey. The examined target group was the fourth-grade pupils of Hungarian-language primary schools in bilingual regions in Eastern, Central, and Western Slovakia. The results obtained show that most of the pupils had sufficient background knowledge to interpret the short and simple text, and the new information was well integrated into their existing schema structure. In terms of processes of comprehension, most pupils had no problem with recognizing and retrieving explicitly stated information in the text, neither with making straightforward inferences. However, there were problems in interpreting and integrating information and summarizing them. The results show that half of the pupils had problems with multi-level interpretation of the information obtained and about one-fifth of the pupils gave incorrect answers even to the questions that required the use of the simplest cognitive processes.

Mapping Cultural Schemas: From Theory to Method

A growing body of research in sociology uses the concept of cultural schemas to explain how culture influences beliefs and actions. However, this work often relies on belief or attitude measures gleaned from survey data as indicators of schemas, failing to measure the cognitive associations that constitute schemas. In this article, we propose a concept-association-based approach for collecting data about individuals’ schematic associations, and a corresponding method for modeling concept network representations of shared cultural schemas. We use this method to examine differences between liberal and conservative schemas of poverty in the United States, uncovering patterns of associations expected based on previous research. Examining the structure of schematic associations provides novel insights to long-standing empirical questions regarding partisan attitudes toward poverty. Our method yields a clearer picture of what poverty means for liberals and conservatives, revealing how different concepts related to poverty indeed mean fundamentally different things for these two groups. Finally, we show that differences in schema structure are predictive of individuals’ policy preferences.

Geo-visualization of antibiotic resistance based on web map service

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> An antibiotic resistance is a serious problem on health and humanity. Our human society needs to understand the threat of antibiotic resistance. To geo-visualize the location, biotic information and spatial pattern of antibiotic resistance matters is an effective way for intuitive findings. We focused on the antibiotic resistance issue of Han-river in South Korea and analyzed their spread, as well as range of influence.</p><p>We developed the geo-database of antibiotic resistance matters and represented spatial information based on WMS (Web Map Service) which is adjusted to OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) specifications. We designed correlated data schema structure of antibiotic matters, degrees of resistance, water quality and location of the sampled points on the river. Our WMS system followed the open source architecture and Q-GIS to make geo-server. This system was organized server-client structure.</p><p>As for antibiotic resistance map on our WMS system, we illustrated the infographics and related tables of many kinds of information about antibiotic resistance. The WMS system represented simple spatial information, temporal variation of antibiotic resistance and degrees of correlation between antibiotic resistance and human activities such as emissions of antibiotic resistance matters on hospital or pharmacy. We also considered domestic sewage discharged into river through sewage processing facilities.</p><p>This system will be contributed to reducing social cost and economic loss caused by antibiotic resistance spreads. These web maps will provide users with correct information on threat of antibiotic resistance.</p>

Applying TSSL in database schema modeling: Visualizing the syntax of gradual transitions

Since database conceptual modeling is a complex cognitive activity, finding an appropriate pedagogy to deliver the topic to novice database designers is a challenge for Information Systems (IS) educators. The four-level TSSL model that is known in the area of human-computer interactions (HCI) is used to explain and demonstrate how instructional design can minimize extraneous cognitive load in the conceptual modeling task of designing a database schema. The instructional design approach puts focus on the syntactic level of TSSL, to explain how visualizing gradual transitions between hierarchic levels of the schema is effective in database modeling. The current work demonstrates the approach, and at the next phase we plan to experimentally test the effectiveness of the approach by comparing performance and attitudes of students who are exposed to emphasizing the syntax of the gradual transitions in schema structure to those who are not exposed to it.

It's Not Me, It's You: Self- and Partner-Schemas, Depressive Symptoms, and Relationship Quality

Depression is associated with a host of interpersonal difficulties, particularly within intimate relationships. Although a significant body of literature has supported the presence of a highly consolidated negative self-representation or self-schema, no studies have examined whether depression is also associated with a highly organized negative “partner-schema”, and whether this represents a risk factor for relationship distress. Given the high degree of similarity between cognitive representations of self and close others, it was predicted that depression would be associated with a partner-schema structure mirroring that of the self-schema: an organized cognitive structure characterized by tightly interconnected negative information, and loosely dispersed positive information. In a sample of 291 undergraduate students, results supported this hypothesis. The findings also revealed that partner-schema structure was associated with relationship quality and attributions about a partner's behaviors over and above self-schema structure. These findings have important implications for understanding the link between cognitive risk factors, relational dysfunction, and depressive symptoms.