The Effects of Expertise, Status Power, and Language Use on Perception of Task Partner

An experiment manipulated the relative expertise and status power of dyad task partners, examining how expertise and status power affect language use and if linguistic cues that emerged during the interaction influence a partner's assessment of the speaker's competence. One hundred twenty-eight dyads worked together on a problem-solving task without knowing who had received better quality information beforehand. One hundred twenty-four interactions were transcribed and quantified using both language software and human coders. Members with superior expertise spoke more words and used more tag questions than those with less expertise. The data did not yield support for more politeness in low-status members’ language nor more confidence in high-expertise members’ language. Members who spoke more were perceived as more competent by partners. Members who used more hedges were perceived as more competent and polite. Results identified language features that can be used strategically to exert influence on others and manage impressions.

Automated Essay Scoring Using Transformer Models

Automated essay scoring (AES) is gaining increasing attention in the education sector as it significantly reduces the burden of manual scoring and allows ad hoc feedback for learners. Natural language processing based on machine learning has been shown to be particularly suitable for text classification and AES. While many machine-learning approaches for AES still rely on a bag of words (BOW) approach, we consider a transformer-based approach in this paper, compare its performance to a logistic regression model based on the BOW approach, and discuss their differences. The analysis is based on 2088 email responses to a problem-solving task that were manually labeled in terms of politeness. Both transformer models considered in the analysis outperformed without any hyperparameter tuning of the regression-based model. We argue that, for AES tasks such as politeness classification, the transformer-based approach has significant advantages, while a BOW approach suffers from not taking word order into account and reducing the words to their stem. Further, we show how such models can help increase the accuracy of human raters, and we provide a detailed instruction on how to implement transformer-based models for one’s own purposes.

Interpersonal dysfunction in individuals high in chronic worry: relations with interpersonal problem-solving

Background: Interpersonal dysfunction has been proposed as an important maintenance factor in chronic worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Perceptions of problems and the problem-solving process as threatening, and unhelpful (e.g. avoidant, impulsive) problem-solving styles are implicated in worry and have also been suggested to be associated with dysfunctional interpersonal styles. Aims: The present study assessed the relationships between interpersonal dysfunction and problem-solving orientation, approach, and effectiveness in a sample of individuals high in chronic worry and investigated the indirect effect of interpersonal dysfunction on GAD symptom severity through negative problem-solving beliefs and approaches. Method: Fifty-nine community participants completed questionnaires and an interpersonal problem-solving task. Results: Greater interpersonal dysfunction was significantly associated with greater negative problem-solving orientation and greater habitual avoidant and impulsive/careless problem-solving styles. Greater interpersonal dysfunction was associated with poorer effectiveness of solutions when the task problem involved conflict with a romantic partner. Negative problem-solving orientation fully mediated the relationship between interpersonal dysfunction and GAD symptoms. Conclusions: These findings support that problem-solving processes are implicated in interpersonal dysfunction and that negative beliefs about problem-solving account for the relationship between interpersonal dysfunction and GAD symptoms. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Task dynamics define the contextual emergence of human corralling behaviors

Social animals have the remarkable ability to organize into collectives to achieve goals unobtainable to individual members. Equally striking is the observation that despite differences in perceptual-motor capabilities, different animals often exhibit qualitatively similar collective states of organization and coordination. Such qualitative similarities can be seen in corralling behaviors involving the encirclement of prey that are observed, for example, during collaborative hunting amongst several apex predator species living in disparate environments. Similar encirclement behaviors are also displayed by human participants in a collaborative problem-solving task involving the herding and containment of evasive artificial agents. Inspired by the functional similarities in this behavior across humans and non-human systems, this paper investigated whether the containment strategies displayed by humans emerge as a function of the task’s underlying dynamics, which shape patterns of goal-directed corralling more generally. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the strategies naïve human dyads adopt during the containment of a set of evasive artificial agents across two disparate task contexts. Despite the different movement types (manual manipulation or locomotion) required in the different task contexts, the behaviors that humans display can be predicted as emergent properties of the same underlying task-dynamic model.

Tasks in action in Vietnamese EFL high school classrooms: The role of rehearsal and performance in teaching and learning through oral tasks

<p>Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted considerable attention in research on language teaching and learning. Numerous publications have made a case for TBLT and the role of tasks in learning. TBLT has been introduced in language curricula around the world, including English as a foreign language (EFL) curricula in many countries in Asia. Yet research into tasks in action from both teaching and learning perspectives is rare with scant examination of decisions on task design and implementation that teachers make in the classroom and how their pedagogical decisions are linked to student learning and engagement. The present research addresses these gaps. The research was conducted in two phases in a Vietnamese high school where a series of task-based EFL textbooks have been adopted to promote curriculum innovation. Phase 1 was a descriptive study which investigated how the Vietnamese EFL teachers implemented oral textbook tasks through adapting task design and creating classroom activity and how learners engaged in the tasks. The data were collected over two and a half months through classroom observations, stimulated recalls and in-depth interviews with teachers and students. The results revealed that the teachers displayed a strong tendency to adapt or replace the textbook tasks, with specific preferences for open over closed tasks, input-independent over input-dependent tasks and divergent over convergent tasks. They also opted for tasks that are not just 'real world', but 'real' to students. Teacher task choices were found to be guided by their own task experimentation, by clearly articulated beliefs about teaching and learning and by a strong orientation to learner engagement. Decision making by all the teachers reflected a general commitment to a final public performance of the task by groups of students. This public performance was preceded by rehearsal for the performance, involving students doing the task in pairs or groups to prepare for the performance of the task in front of the class. The terms rehearsal and performance were used because they captured the teachers' and students' orientation and intent as observed in the lessons and explained in the interviews. Rehearsal and performance constituted two of four identifiable stages of task implementation used by the teachers: pre-task, rehearsal, performance and post-task. Both the teachers and students valued the notion of performance as a driving force for the use of English and as a social classroom event to engage students in task work. The centrality of public performance in these EFL classrooms, and a lack of empirical evidence about its impact in task-based learning motivated Phase 2 of the thesis. Phase 2 specifically addressed the impact of task design and learner proficiency on the occurrence and resolution of language-related episodes (LREs) (Swain, 1998) in task rehearsal and on the subsequent take-up in the public performance of the language items which were focussed on in LREs. Three proficiency groups (n=8 dyads in each) from six intact classes carried out two tasks: one problem-solving task (a convergent task) and one debate task (a divergent task), with a 15-minute rehearsal for their performance. The first group was composed of dyad members of the same higher proficiency (HH); the second group consisted of mixed proficiency dyads (HL) and the third group was lower proficiency dyads (LL). The total data included 48 rehearsals and 48 corresponding performances collected in normal classroom hours. Students were also interviewed after they had finished all the tasks. The results showed that task design and proficiency affected not only the occurrence and resolution of LREs in task rehearsal but also uptake in the public performance. Specifically, while the problem-solving task induced more LREs, the debate task was more conducive to uptake because the latter task, from the students' perspective, lent itself to performance in ways that the former did not. Overall lower proficiency dyads produced more LREs in rehearsal than higher proficiency dyads. However, it was how LREs were resolved rather than the frequency of LREs that correlated positively with successful uptake in performance. Proficiency also influenced the problem-solving strategies that the learners adopted to prepare for the public performance. Taken as a whole, this thesis suggests that teacher thinking plays an essential role in transforming tasks in classrooms, and that building in performance to tasks and rehearsal for that performance may contribute to language learning and development. The research has useful implications for task design and implementation, as well as for theory and research methodology.</p>

Tasks in action in Vietnamese EFL high school classrooms: The role of rehearsal and performance in teaching and learning through oral tasks

<p>Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted considerable attention in research on language teaching and learning. Numerous publications have made a case for TBLT and the role of tasks in learning. TBLT has been introduced in language curricula around the world, including English as a foreign language (EFL) curricula in many countries in Asia. Yet research into tasks in action from both teaching and learning perspectives is rare with scant examination of decisions on task design and implementation that teachers make in the classroom and how their pedagogical decisions are linked to student learning and engagement. The present research addresses these gaps. The research was conducted in two phases in a Vietnamese high school where a series of task-based EFL textbooks have been adopted to promote curriculum innovation. Phase 1 was a descriptive study which investigated how the Vietnamese EFL teachers implemented oral textbook tasks through adapting task design and creating classroom activity and how learners engaged in the tasks. The data were collected over two and a half months through classroom observations, stimulated recalls and in-depth interviews with teachers and students. The results revealed that the teachers displayed a strong tendency to adapt or replace the textbook tasks, with specific preferences for open over closed tasks, input-independent over input-dependent tasks and divergent over convergent tasks. They also opted for tasks that are not just 'real world', but 'real' to students. Teacher task choices were found to be guided by their own task experimentation, by clearly articulated beliefs about teaching and learning and by a strong orientation to learner engagement. Decision making by all the teachers reflected a general commitment to a final public performance of the task by groups of students. This public performance was preceded by rehearsal for the performance, involving students doing the task in pairs or groups to prepare for the performance of the task in front of the class. The terms rehearsal and performance were used because they captured the teachers' and students' orientation and intent as observed in the lessons and explained in the interviews. Rehearsal and performance constituted two of four identifiable stages of task implementation used by the teachers: pre-task, rehearsal, performance and post-task. Both the teachers and students valued the notion of performance as a driving force for the use of English and as a social classroom event to engage students in task work. The centrality of public performance in these EFL classrooms, and a lack of empirical evidence about its impact in task-based learning motivated Phase 2 of the thesis. Phase 2 specifically addressed the impact of task design and learner proficiency on the occurrence and resolution of language-related episodes (LREs) (Swain, 1998) in task rehearsal and on the subsequent take-up in the public performance of the language items which were focussed on in LREs. Three proficiency groups (n=8 dyads in each) from six intact classes carried out two tasks: one problem-solving task (a convergent task) and one debate task (a divergent task), with a 15-minute rehearsal for their performance. The first group was composed of dyad members of the same higher proficiency (HH); the second group consisted of mixed proficiency dyads (HL) and the third group was lower proficiency dyads (LL). The total data included 48 rehearsals and 48 corresponding performances collected in normal classroom hours. Students were also interviewed after they had finished all the tasks. The results showed that task design and proficiency affected not only the occurrence and resolution of LREs in task rehearsal but also uptake in the public performance. Specifically, while the problem-solving task induced more LREs, the debate task was more conducive to uptake because the latter task, from the students' perspective, lent itself to performance in ways that the former did not. Overall lower proficiency dyads produced more LREs in rehearsal than higher proficiency dyads. However, it was how LREs were resolved rather than the frequency of LREs that correlated positively with successful uptake in performance. Proficiency also influenced the problem-solving strategies that the learners adopted to prepare for the public performance. Taken as a whole, this thesis suggests that teacher thinking plays an essential role in transforming tasks in classrooms, and that building in performance to tasks and rehearsal for that performance may contribute to language learning and development. The research has useful implications for task design and implementation, as well as for theory and research methodology.</p>

The Influence of Feedback Types on the Use of Automation During Learning

This study investigated two feedback types to see if there was a relationship between level of elaborative feedback and participant’s ability to learn a task while also looking at their use of automation. The task was a rule-based problem solving task where participants needed to learn the rules of selecting one pair (Ranger and Hiker) on a gridded map. Ten trials were randomly presented to participants who were asked to make pair selections based on rules (two stated and one unknown to the participant when starting) of correct matches. Results indicated that feedback type significantly influenced accuracy, while trial difficulty influenced use of automation. Results from this study can be applied in education and training of declarative knowledge tasks when rules must be inferred.

Identification of Genes Associated with Human-Canine Communication in Canine Evolution.

The dog (Canis familiaris) was the first domesticated animal and hundreds of breeds exist today. During domestication, dogs experienced strong selection for temperament, behaviour, and cognitive ability. However, the genetic basis of these abilities is not well-understood. We focused on ancient dog breeds to investigate breed-related differences in social cognitive abilities. In a problem-solving task, ancient breeds showed a lower tendency to look back at humans than other European breeds. In a two-way object choice task, they showed no differences in correct response rate or ability to read human communicative gestures. We examined gene polymorphisms in oxytocin, oxytocin receptor, melanocortin 2 receptor, and a Williams–Beuren syndrome-related gene (WBSCR17), as candidate genes of dog domestication. The single-nucleotide polymorphisms on melanocortin 2 receptor were related to both tasks, while other polymorphisms were associated with the unsolvable task. This indicates that glucocorticoid functions are involved in the cognitive skills acquired during dog domestication.

Mind wandering and musical creativity in jazz improvisation

Mind wandering is a prevalent and ubiquitous phenomenon. Several studies suggest that mind wandering benefits creativity if it occurs in the incubation period of a creative problem-solving task. However, it could be impairing real-time expression of creative behavior if it occurs during the course of a creative task. This dissociation between incubation and performance suggests that mind wandering poses a double-edged sword to creative cognition. Jazz improvisation provides an ecologically useful framework for studying the effects of mind wandering on creativity. Here we hypothesized that mind wandering during a musical improvisation task would be associated with higher levels of musical creativity, compared with on-task attention. Nine experienced musicians performed several jazz improvisation tasks interleaved with the presentation of random thought probes. The results showed that musical improvisation during unintentional mind wandering was associated with higher musical creativity when compared with improvisation during on-task attention. However, mind wandering did not impact overall improvisational quality. Altogether, these data suggest that the positive relationship between mind wandering and creativity also extends to artistic performance domains.