Media Research Center

About: Media Research Center is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Collaborative learning & Educational technology. The organization has 491 authors who have published 950 publications receiving 28581 citations. The organization is also known as: MRC.

Group awareness and self-presentation in computer-supported information exchange

Abstract: A common challenge in many situations of computer-supported collaborative learning is increasing the willingness of those involved to share their knowledge with other group members. As a prototypical situation of computer-supported information exchange, a shared-database setting was chosen for the current study. This information-exchange situation represented a social dilemma: while the contribution of information to a shared database induced costs and provided no benefit for the individual, the entire group suffered when all members decided to withhold information. In order to alleviate the information-exchange dilemma, a group-awareness tool was employed. It was hypothesized that participants would use group awareness for self-presentational purposes. For the examination of this assumption, the personality variable ‘protective self-presentation’ (PSP) was measured. An interaction effect of group awareness and PSP was found: when an awareness tool provided information concerning the contribution behavior of each individual, this tool was used as a self-presentation opportunity. In order to understand this effect in more detail, single items of the PSP-scale were analyzed.

Signpost from the masses: learning effects in an exploratory social tag search browser

Abstract: Social tagging arose out of the need to organize found content that is worth revisiting. A significant side effect has been the use of social tagging sites as navigational signposts for interesting content. The collective behavior of users who tagged contents seems to offer a good basis for exploratory search interfaces, even for users who are not using social bookmarking sites. In this paper, we present the design of a tag-based exploratory system and detail an experiment in understanding its effectiveness. The tag-based search system allows users to utilize relevance feedback on tags to indicate their interest in various topics, enabling rapid exploration of the topic space. The experiment shows that the system seems to provide a kind of scaffold for users to learn new topics.

A Vector-based, Multidimensional Scanpath Similarity Measure

Abstract: A great need exists in many fields of eye-tracking research for a robust and general method for scanpath comparisons. Current measures either quantize scanpaths in space (string editing measures like the Levenshtein distance) or in time (measures based on attention maps). This paper proposes a new pairwise scanpath similarity measure. Unlike previous measures that either use AOI sequences or forgo temporal order, the new measure defines scanpaths as a series of geometric vectors and compares temporally aligned scanpaths across several dimensions: shape, fixation position, length, direction, and fixation duration. This approach offers more multifaceted insights to how similar two scanpaths are. Eight fictitious scanpath pairs are tested to elucidate the strengths of the new measure, both in itself and compared to two of the currently most popular measures - the Levenshtein distance and attention map correlation. (Less)

Efficacy of myringotomy with and without tympanostomy tubes for chronic otitis media with effusion.

Abstract: In a previous trial involving 109 children with chronic otitis media with effusion of at least a 2 months' duration that had been unresponsive to medical treatment, we compared the efficacy of myringotomy with tube insertion, myringotomy alone and no surgical intervention with regard to time with middle ear effusion, hearing status and other indices over a 3-year period. Because interpretation of the results was rendered difficult by certain complexities of study design, the present trial with a revised protocol was carried out in an additional group of 111 children. As in the previous trial, myringotomy with tube insertion resulted in less time with effusion and better hearing than did either myringotomy alone or no surgery. However, acute and chronic otorrhea and tympanic membrane perforation developed not uncommonly after tube insertion. Myringotomy alone offered no advantage over no surgery regarding the percent of time with effusion or the number of episodes of acute otitis media. Currently for children with long-standing middle ear effusion, we recommend either watchful waiting with periodic hearing assessment or myringotomy with tube insertion, individualizing the recommendation for each child.