Remote research on locomotion interfaces for virtual reality: Replication of a lab-based study on teleporting interfaces

The wide availability of consumer-oriented virtual reality (VR) equipment has enabled researchers to recruit existing VR owners to participate remotely using their own equipment. Yet, there are many differences between lab environments and home environments, as well as differences between participant samples recruited for lab studies and remote studies. This paper replicates a lab-based experiment on VR locomotion interfaces using a remote sample. Participants completed a triangle-completion task (travel two path legs, then point to the path origin) using their own VR equipment in a remote, unsupervised setting. Locomotion was accomplished using two versions of the teleporting interface varying in availability of rotational self-motion cues. The size of the traveled path and the size of the surrounding virtual environment were also manipulated. Results from remote participants largely mirrored lab results, with overall better performance when rotational self-motion cues were available. Some differences also occurred, including a tendency for remote participants to rely less on nearby landmarks, perhaps due to increased competence with using the teleporting interface to update self-location. This replication study provides insight for VR researchers on aspects of lab studies that may or may not replicate remotely.

Hyperplane-based time-aware knowledge graph embedding for temporal knowledge graph completion

Knowledge Graph (KG) embedding approaches have been proved effective to infer new facts for a KG based on the existing ones–a problem known as KG completion. However, most of them have focused on static KGs, in fact, relational facts in KGs often show temporal dynamics, e.g., the fact (US, has president, Barack Obama, [2009–2017]) is only valid from 2009 to 2017. Therefore, utilizing available time information to develop temporal KG embedding models is an increasingly important problem. In this paper, we propose a new hyperplane-based time-aware KG embedding model for temporal KG completion. By employing the method of time-specific hyperplanes, our model could explicitly incorporate time information in the entity-relation space to predict missing elements in the KG more effectively, especially temporal scopes for facts with missing time information. Moreover, in order to model and infer four important relation patterns including symmetry, antisymmetry, inversion and composition, we map facts happened at the same time into a polar coordinate system. During training procedure, a time-enhanced negative sampling strategy is proposed to get more effective negative samples. Experimental results on datasets extracted from real-world temporal KGs show that our model significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches for the KG completion task.

Typical curve with G1 constraints for curve completion

This paper presents a novel algorithm for planar G1 interpolation using typical curves with monotonic curvature. The G1 interpolation problem is converted into a system of nonlinear equations and sufficient conditions are provided to check whether there is a solution. The proposed algorithm was applied to a curve completion task. The main advantages of the proposed method are its simple construction, compatibility with NURBS, and monotonic curvature.

Motivation and Second Language Pragmatics: A Regulatory Focus Perspective

This study investigates how learners’ chronic motivational characteristics, that is their regulatory focus (Higgins, 1997), can account for differences in L2 pragmatic production in general and across situations with different levels of power, social distance, and imposition. One-hundred-twenty-one L1-Mandarin learners of English as a second language completed a regulatory focus questionnaire and a discourse completion task focusing on two types of speech acts: request and opinion. Multiple regression results showed that learners’ promotion focus, concerned with advancement, growth, accomplishments, positively predicted their pragmatic production in general, and especially in situations where the learner is subject to a higher degree of imposition, has lower power and is socially distant from the interlocutor. On the other hand, the prevention focus, which is concerned with safety, security, and calmness, negatively predicted pragmatic production, especially in those situations. The findings provide support for the role of motivational dispositions in the level of learners’ L2 pragmatic competence. Theoretical and instructional implications are discussed.

A new fMRI localizer for preoperative language mapping using a sentence completion task: Validity, choice of baseline condition, and test-retest reliability

To avoid post-neurosurgical language deficits, intraoperative mapping of the language function in the brain can be complemented with preoperative mapping with fMRI. The validity of an fMRI language localizer paradigm crucially depends on the choice of an optimal language task and baseline condition. This study presents a new fMRI language localizer in Russian using overt sentence completion, a task that comprehensively engages the language function by involving both production and comprehension at the word and sentence level. The paradigm was validated in 18 neurologically healthy volunteers who participated in two scanning sessions, for estimating test-retest reliability. For the first time, two baseline conditions for the sentence completion task were compared. At the group level, the paradigm significantly activated both anterior and posterior language-related regions. Individual-level analysis showed that activation was elicited most consistently in the inferior frontal regions, followed by posterior temporal regions and the angular gyrus. Test-retest reliability of activation location, as measured by Dice coefficients, was moderate and thus comparable to previous studies. Test-retest reliability was higher in the frontal than temporo-parietal region and with the most liberal statistical thresholding compared to two more conservative thresholding methods. Lateralization indices were expectedly left-hemispheric, with greater lateralization in the frontal than temporo-parietal region, and showed moderate test-retest reliability. Finally, the pseudoword baseline elicited more extensive and more reliable activation, although the syllable baseline appears more feasible for future clinical use. Overall, the study demonstrated the validity and reliability of the sentence completion task for mapping the language function in the brain. The paradigm needs further validation in a clinical sample of neurosurgical patients. Additionally, the study contributes to general evidence on test-retest reliability of fMRI.

The impact of embodied simulation in vocabulary learning

The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the multisensory nature of vocabulary knowledge by using learning designed to encourage the simulation of sensorimotor experiences. Forty participants were instructed to learn pseudowords together with arbitrary definitions, either by mentally experiencing (sensorimotor simulation) the definitions, or by mentally repeating them. A test phase consisting of three tasks was then administered: in a recognition task, participants had to recognize learned pseudowords among distractors. In a categorization task, they had to categorize pseudowords as representing either living or non-living items. Finally, in a sentence completion task, participants had to decide whether pseudowords were congruent with context sentences. As expected, the sensorimotor simulation condition induced better performances only in the categorization task and the sentence completion task. The results converge with data from the literature in demonstrating that knowledge emergence implies sensorimotor simulation and showing that vocabulary learning can benefit from encoding that encourages the simulation of sensorimotor experiences.

Resolving ambiguous polarity stripping ellipsis structures in Persian

Previous studies have shown that English speakers use a range of factors including locality, information structure, and semantic parallelism to interpret clausal ellipsis structures. Yet, the relative importance of each factor is currently underexplored. As cues to information structure and semantic parallelism are often implicit in English, we turned to Persian which marks information structure overtly via word order scrambling and uses the -rā morpheme to indicate definiteness/specificity on direct objects. To determine what strategies Persian speakers use to disambiguate clausal ellipsis, we conducted a naturalness rating study and sentence completion task on polarity stripping structures. Our results show that information structure and parallelism strongly influence correlate resolution in both tasks, but that a weaker preference for a local correlate emerges in scrambling in the sentence completion task. As these results diverge from those obtained in English studies, we speculate that the morphosyntactic properties of Persian constrain the strategies the processer uses in selecting a contrastive correlate and resolving ambiguity in stripping ellipsis.

Interfaces in the returnees’ heritage language: Is the complete (re-)activation possible?

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to examine whether the complete (re-)activation of interface domains in the heritage language (HL) is possible or whether interfaces are likely to preserve features typical for the HL even after many years of residing in the country of origin. Design/methodology/approach: We present the group analysis of direct object marking in Turkish, which is a morphology-syntax-pragmatics interface, of Turkish-German returnees, who returned to Turkey after puberty and have been residing in the country for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 34 years, and compare them with the control group consisting of Turkish speakers who have been living in Turkey all their lives. Data and analysis: The data were collected using a narrative task, a completion task and a grammaticality judgement task, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings/conclusions: The analysis of the narrative task revealed that the returnee participants used case-marking on direct objects productively depending on the discourse and syntactic position of the direct object in their heritage Turkish. However, their performance on the completion and grammaticality judgement tasks diverged from those of the control group. These findings can be considered as a piece of evidence that interface domains stay obstinate to complete (re-)activation and may preserve features typical for the HL many years after the return to the country of origin. Originality: The study suggests relevance of the Interface Hypothesis to the process of HL (re-)activation. Significance/implications: The study contributes to the research on the HL development of returnees after their return to the country of origin.

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF THE YEMENI EFL LEARNERS

<p>The present study aimed at investigating the pragmatic competence of the Yemeni Non-Native Speakers of English (YNNSs) through examining their performance in the speech act of refusals. The study followed the qualitative comparative analytic approach. For the purpose of attaining the required data for this study, forty (YNNSs) and forty American Native Speakers (ANSs) of English were involved. The questionnaire used for collecting data from the participants was a written Discourse Completion Task (DCT), which was developed by Beebe et el. (1990), employed for collecting the data related to the use of refusal strategies by the two groups of participants in English. The data collected from DCT was analyzed by using a loading scheme adapted from Beebe et al. (1990). This study revealed that the Yemeni NNSs were not pragmatically competent enough in English. In spite of the similarity between the two groups in their use of refusal strategies, the differences between them were more apparent. The total number of strategies used by the American NSs was almost double those used by the Yemeni NNSs in all refusal situations. This study recommends that instructors should design contextualized, task-based, oral activities and integrating the intercultural aspects of language into ELT textbooks. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0895/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

CULTURE AND INTERLANGUAGE STAGES EFFECT ON EFL STUDENTS’ POLITENESS IN REFUSALS

ABSTRACTThe objectives of this study is to investigate the culture and interlanguage stages effect on EFL students’ politeness in refusals. This study was a qualitative research. The data were taken from refusal expressions made by EFL Malay and Batak Junior high school students with initial stage (stage 1 interlanguage) and free variation stage (stage 2 interlanguage). The data of this study were collected by using elicitation techniques by using Discourse Completion Task (DCT), pictures and Interview. The number of the subjects involved in this study was taken by using snowball technique and the total number were twelve subjects. The results of this study showed that both culture and interlanguage stages affect the EFL students’ politeness in refusals. In Bataknese EFL students, the realization of politeness in refusal tends to be more affected by the culture rather than the interlanguage stages. While in Malay, culture and interlanguage stages have the same effect in the realization of politeness in refusals.Keywords: Culture, Effect, Interlanguage Stages, Politeness, Refusals