Showing papers on "Task analysis published in 2001"

Task complexity, task difficulty, and task production : Exploring interactions in a componential framework

Abstract: This paper describes a framework for examining the effects of the cognitive complexity of tasks on language production and learner perceptions of task difficulty, and for motivating sequencing decisions in task-based syllabuses. Results of a study of the relationship between task complexity, difficulty, and production show that increasing the cognitive complexity of a direction-giving map task significantly affects speaker-information-giver production (more lexical variety on a complex version and greater fluency on a simple version) and hearer-information-receiver interaction (more confirmation checks on a complex version). Cognitive complexity also significantly affects learner perceptions of difficulty (e.g. a complex version is rated significantly more stressful than a simple version). Task role significantly affects ratings of difficulty, though task sequencing (simple to complex versus the reverse sequence) does not. However, sequencing does affect the accuracy and fluency of speaker production. Implications of the findings for task-based syllabus design and further research into task complexity, difficulty, and production interactions are discussed.

Some empirical evidence for the involvement load hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition

Abstract: EFL learners in two countries participated in two parallel experiments testing whether retention of vocabulary acquired incidentally is contingent on amount of task-induced involvement. Short- and long-term retention of ten unfamiliar words was investigated in three learning tasks (reading comprehension, comprehension plus filling in target words, and composition-writing with target words) with varying “involvement loads”—various combinations of need, search, and evaluation. Time-on-task, regarded as inherent to a task, differed among all three tasks. As predicted, amount of retention was related to amount of task-induced involvement load: Retention was highest in the composition task, lower in reading plus fill-in, and lowest in the reading. These results are discussed in light of the construct of task-induced involvement.

Cognition and Second Language Instruction: Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: a triadic framework for examining task influences on SLA

Abstract: Introduction In this chapter I describe a theoretical rationale for and, where possible, empirical research into criteria to be adopted when progressively increasing the cognitive demands of second language (L2) tasks. These criteria, I argue, provide a basis for decisions about sequencing tasks in a task-based syllabus as well as a framework for studying the effects of increasing L2 task complexity on production, comprehension and learning. I distinguish task complexity (the task dependent and proactively manipulable cognitive demands of tasks) from task difficulty (dependent on learner factors such as aptitude, confidence, motivation, etc.) and task conditions (the interactive demands of tasks), arguing that these influences on task performance and learning are different in kind, and have not been sufficiently distinguished in previous approaches to conceptualizing the options in, and consequences of, sequencing tasks from the syllabus designer's perspective. My focus in this chapter is on the issue of task complexity, which I argue should be the sole basis of prospective sequencing decisions since most learner factors implicated in decisions about task difficulty can only be diagnosed in situ and in process, so cannot be anticipated in advance of implementation of a syllabus and therefore can be of no use to the prospective materials and syllabus designer. Those learner factors which can be diagnosed in advance of syllabus implementation (e.g., aptitude and cognitive style) have not to date been shown to have stable effects on task performance at the different levels of complexity proposed here.

Hierarchical task analysis

Abstract: PART ONE: Introduction to Hierarchical Task Analysis 1. Introduction 2. HTA- A Description of Method 3. Plans the Key to Describing Task Complexity 4. How to Analyse Tasks Using HTA 5. HTA in Different Work Domains 6. Recording the Analysis PART TWO: Application 7. Articulating the Task 8. Team and Job Design 9. Human Resource Issues 10. Interface Design 11. Developing Documentation 12. Training Design and Development 13. Human Error Analysis 14. Integrating Solutions 15. Evaluating the System 16. Managing a Task Analysis Project 17. HTA as a Human Factors Framework Description of Method

Do bilingual two-year-olds have separate phonological systems?

Abstract: The present study was designed to examine whether bilingual two-year-olds have differentiated phonological systems and if so, whether there are crosslinguistic influences between them. Eighteen English-speaking monolingual, 18 Frenchspeaking monolingual and 17 French-English bilingual children (mean age=30 months) participated in a nonsense-word repetition task. The children's syllable omissions/truncations of the four-syllable target words were analyzed for the presence of patterns specific to French and English and for similarities and dissimilarities between the monolinguals and bilinguals in each language. Results indicate that bilingual two-year-olds have separate but nonautonomous phonological systems. Explanations for the form and directionality of crosslinguistic effects are discussed.

ERP correlates of executive control during repeated language switching

Abstract: A key aspect of higher cognitive function is the ability to switch rapidly and efficiently between alternative modes of response where this is appropriate behaviourally. Such suppression appears to be highly dependent upon the integrity of the prefrontal cortex, yet other cortical areas are likely to be necessary to implement response switching. Language switching in bilingual speakers is a clear example of a task in which response switching is required. Functional brain imaging studies have demonstrated parietal cortex activation during repeated language switching within a translation task. Here we used event-related dense-sensor EEG recording techniques to examine the time course of language switching during a visually cued naming task in which bilingual participants named digits in either their first or second language. Switch-related modulation of ERP components was evident over parietal and frontal cortices, and in the latter case showed an asymmetry across first and second languages. Correspondence with a frontal ERP component found when suppressing manual responding in a Go/No-Go reaction time task may imply that similar inhibitory mechanisms are involved in both response suppression and language switching.

Implementation Intentions and Facilitation of Prospective Memory

Abstract: Forming detailed implementation intentions for a future behavior can increase the probability that the behavior is actually completed. We investigated whether this intention effect could be used to improve prospective memory in older adults. As expected, participants who formed an implementation intention were more than twice as likely to self-initiate the intended behavior (writing down the day of the week on every sheet of paper received during the experiment) compared with participants who either were merely instructed to do so or actively rehearsed the instruction. Forming an implementation intention, however did not improve performance on a task that required a response to salient cues. We conclude that detailed implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory on tasks that lack salient cues and require self-initiation.

Negotiation of Meaning in Conversational and Information Gap Activities: A Comparative Discourse Analysis.

Abstract: This article reports an investigation of how meaning is negotiated in two different types of interactions between native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs): a relatively unstructured conversation and a two-way information-gap task. Three NS-NNS dyads were recorded as they engaged in these two activities, and the data were examined in detail. Negotiation exchanges, lexical and syntactic complexity, and various pragmatic issues were examined and compared qualitatively and quantitatively. The results suggest that conversational interaction has the potential to offer substantial learning opportunities at multiple levels of interaction even though it offered fewer instances of repair negotiation in the traditional sense than did the information gap activity. In addition, the NNS participants stated in subsequent interviews that they found the conversational activity to be more challenging than the information-gap activity because they had to pay attention to the entire discourse in the former but mainly focused on lexical items in the latter. This study thus raises questions about claims that conversational interactions do not provide learners with as much challenging language practice as do more highly structured interactional activities, such as information gap tasks.

Empirical links between achievement goal theory and self-determination theory in sport.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the empirical links between achievement goal theory and self-determination theory in sport. Addressing theoretical and methodological limitations of previous research, the study tested the independent and interactive effects of goal orientations and perceived competence on seven motivational variables with different degrees of self-determination. Regression analyses of data collected from 247 British university students showed that task orientation predicted motivational variables with high self-determination. In contrast, ego orientation predicted motivational variables with low self-determination. Perceived competence predicted both high self-determined and low self-determined motivational variables. A significant interaction emerged between task and ego orientations in predicting external regulation. The results suggest the adaptive role of task orientation in facilitating self-determined motivation in sport. However, the findings are not conclusive, as the variance explained in most analyses was relatively small. Suggestions are offered for a more comprehensive empirical testing of the links between the two theories.

Can We Predict Task Difficulty in an Oral Proficiency Test? Exploring the Potential of an Information-Processing Approach to Task Design

Abstract: This study addresses the following question: Are different task characteristics and performance conditions (involving assumed different levels of cognitive demand) associated with different levels of fluency, complexity, or accuracy in test candidate responses? The materials for the were a series of narrative tasks involving a picture stimulus; the participants were 193 pre-university students taking English courses. We varied the conditions for tasks in each dimension and measured the impact of these factors on task performance with both familiar detailed discourse measures and specially constructed rating scales, analyzed using Rasch methods. We found that task performance conditions in each dimension failed to influence task difficulty and task performance as expected. We discuss implications for the design of speaking assessments and broader research.

On Abstract Task Models and Conversation Policies

Abstract: It is possible to define conversation policies, such as communication or dialogue protocols, that are based strictly on what messages and, respectively, what performatives may follow each other. While such an approach has many practical applications, such protocols support only "local coherence" in a conversation. In a mixed-initiative dialogue between two agents cooperating on some joint task, there must be a "global coherence" in both the conversation and in the task they are trying to accomplish. Recognition of agent intentions about the joint task is essential for this global coherence, but there are further mechanisms needed to ensure that both local and global coherence are jointly maintained. This paper presents a general yet practical approach to designing, managing, and engineering agents that can engage in mixed-initiative dialogues. In this approach, we promote developing abstract task models and designing conversation policies in terms of such models.

Switching between simple cognitive tasks: The interaction of top-down and bottom-up factors

Abstract: How do top-down factors (e.g., task expectancy) and bottom-up factors (e.g., task recency) interact to produce an overall level of task readiness? This question was addressed by factorially manipulating task expectancy and task repetition in a task-switching paradigm. The effects of expectancy and repetition on response time tended to interact underadditively, but only because the traditional binary task-repetition variable lumps together all switch trials, ignoring variation in task lag. When the task-recency variable was scaled continuously, all 4 experiments instead showed additivity between expectancy and recency. The results indicated that expectancy and recency influence different stages of mental processing. One specific possibility (the configuration-execution model) is that task expectancy affects the time required to configure upcoming central operations, whereas task recency affects the time required to actually execute those central operations.

Reading, Word-Focused Activities and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language.

Abstract: Reading is claimed to be the major source of vocabulary growth in L1, but is it also the main source of L2 vocabulary? This paper surveys some experiments in acquiring L2 vocabulary from reading that report very small vocabulary gains from short and long texts. By comparison, reading supplemented with word-focused tasks yields better results. Similarly, when reading is compared with a word-focused activity alone, it is the latter that is more effective for L2 vocabulary acquisition. The hypothesis of ‘task-induced involvement load’ is suggested as an explanation and prediction of task efficacy.

Testing the Interaction Effects of Task Complexity in Computer Training Using the Social Cognitive Model

Abstract: Using a Modified Social Cognitive Theory framework, this study examines the behavior modeling and lecture-based training approaches to computer training. It extends the existing Social Cognitive Model for computer training by adding the task complexity construct to training method, prior performance, computer self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and performance. A sample of 249 students from a large state university served as participants in a laboratory experiment that was conducted to determine the task complexity*training method and task complexity* self-efficacy interaction effects on performance. Structural equation modeling with interaction effects was used to analyze the data. The results show that behavior modeling outperforms lecture-based training in a measure of final performance when task complexity is high. Further, it is found that computer self-efficacy has a greater positive effect on performance when task complexity is high than when task complexity is low. Prior performance is also found to be an important variable in the model.

Self- and Other-initiated Modified Output during Task-based Interaction.

Abstract: This study examines the role self- and other-initiations play in providing opportunities for modified output (MO), which Swain (1995, 1998) and Swain and Lapkin (1995) suggest is important for successful second language acquisition. Thirty-five adult participants—8 native speakers (NSs) and 27 nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English representing 13 different L1 backgrounds—performed three tasks (picture description, opinion exchange, and decision making). The first two tasks were performed in NS-NNS and NNS-NNS pairs and were audiotaped, and the third was completed in NNS groups and was audio- and videotaped. The results showed that both self- and other-initiations provided NNSs with abundant opportunities to produce MO. However, in four of the five interactional contexts examined in the study, significantly more instances of MO resulted from self-initiation than from other-initiation. These results suggest that self-initiations play an important role in prompting MO and that learners need both time and opportunity to initiate and complete repair of their own messages.

A Critical Review of Foreign Language Writing Research on Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract: This article reviews 32 studies regarding writing in a foreign language (not English) in the United States. It focuses on research that investigates relationships between various pedagogical practices (e.g., explicit grammar instruction) or task types assigned (e.g., descriptive vs. narrative writing) and the texts produced by foreign language (FL) writers. Topics addressed include explicit grammar instruction, computer use, task type, strategy training, process instruction, and feedback. This article points to the lack of a unified sense of the purpose of FL writing within the field of FL and also points to design flaws in much of the existing research. Implications for pedagogy and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age differences in dual-task interference are localized to response-generation processes.

Abstract: Dual-task differences in younger and older adults were explored by presenting 2 simple tasks, with the onset of the 2nd task relative to the 1st task carefully controlled. The possibility of an age-related reduction in the ability to generate and execute 2 similar motor programs was explored by requiring either a manual response to both tasks or a manual response to the 1st and an oral response to the 2nd and was confirmed by the evidence. The age-related interference was greater than would be expected from a general slowing of processing in older adults. The possibility of an age-related reduction in the capacity to process 2 tasks in the same perceptual input modality was explored by presenting both tasks in the visual modality or the 1st task in the auditory modality and the 2nd task in the visual modality and was not supported by the evidence. There was greater interference when both tasks were in the same modality, but it was equivalent for older and younger adults. Age differences in dual-task interference appear quite localized to response-generation processes.

Options for vocabulary learning through communication tasks

Abstract: In a task-based approach to learning, learners will often meet new vocabulary 'in passing', as they pursue communicative goals. This paper argues that such encounters can be turned to the learners' advantage, and that rather than remove difficult words, teachers should consider a number of cooperative options for exposing learners to new words during task-based interaction. The article examines data from a number of classroom tasks where learners had to deal with new words during task performance without access to a dictionary or teacher's intervention. The results suggest not only that rich language use resulted from negotiating new words, but that the meaning of many of these words was retained in the days after the task performance. The paper concludes by considering a number of post-task options for reinforcing vocabulary learning.

Relationships between Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Task Analysis, and Classroom Management Beliefs.

Abstract: This study examined the multivariate relationships between teacher efficacy and task analysis variables as predictors of classroom beliefs about control, focusing on these relationships in preservice teachers. Preservice teachers from a required educational psychology course volunteered to participate in the study. They completed three instruments: the revised Teacher Efficacy Scale, a short form of the Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control Inventory, and the Means-End Teaching Task Analysis. Data analysis indicated that more efficacious student teachers were less interventionist regarding instructional and people classroom management beliefs. Task analysis was unrelated to management beliefs. However, preservice teachers exhibited a clear dichotomy regarding their locus of control for task analysis elements. The task analysis suggested differential locus of control for elements that helped teaching (attributed to the self) and elements that hindered teaching (attributed to external constraints). (Contains 43 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Self-efficacy and Classroom Management 1 Running head: SELF-EFFICACY AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT Relationships Between Preservice Teachers' Self-efficacy, Task Analysis, and Classroom Management Beliefs Robin K. Henson University of North Texas 76203-1337 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

4. Some guidelines for conducting a cognitive task analysis

Abstract: Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) attempts to explain the mental processes involved in performing a task. These processes include the knowledge, skills and strategies that are needed to accomplish the task functions. The criteria for success in a CTA study are: making a useful discovery about the cognitive skills being studied; being able to communicate the discovery to the users (i.e. those who will need to use the CTA for design); and having a meaningful impact on the eventual design.Currently, a wide variety of CTA methods are being used. As we learn how to define the cognitive demands presented by a task/situation, we hope we will be able to map CTA methods onto these demands, so that we can more efficiently select and apply the appropriate methods. This should result in more efficient studies, and greater user satisfaction. It should also help move the field of CTA into becoming more of a technology.

Knotted and Entangled: New Light on the Identification, Classification, and Value of Language Related Episodes in Collaborative Output Tasks.

Abstract: Our study is of the collaborative output of students engaged in grammar dictation tasks (Dictogloss) in a British EFL context. Our key aim was to investigate the effect of pre-task focus on form work on task output processes. The main focus of this paper, however, is on how we refined the framework of Language Related Episodes (LREs) used by other researchers to analyse L2 output processes, and produced our own taxonomy of episodes. We also discuss the role of collaborative output in L2 development, particularly the use of metalanguage. We argue that analysis based on LRE counts, although valuable, fails to capture completely the complexity of the interaction, and go on to discuss the 'value' and 'nature' of episodes. The former term is concerned with differences in the length of episodes and the extent of learners' engagement with the language item concerned. The latter reflects the messy nature of L2 interactional data and the difficulty of 'untangling' it to identifying episodes. It deals with features...

Learner-Centered Design: Reflections and New Directions

Abstract: An Overview of Learner-Centered Design. Audience: Who Are "Learners"? LCD Problem: The Conceptual Gap between Learner and Work. Bridging the Learner-Centered Conceptual Gap: Designing for Learners. Open Issues In Designing Learner-Centered Tools. Issues in Learner-Centered Work and Task Analysis. Issues in Learner-Centered Requirements Specification. Issues in Learner-Centered Software Design. Issues in Learner-Centered Software Evaluation. Conclusion.

Pragmatic aspects of task-performance: the case of argumentation

Abstract: The study reported in this paper investigated the pragmatic aspects of task-performance in a series of argumentation tasks that 24 Hungarian learners of English performed over a period of two years. The aim of our research project was to determine how task-repetition, the long-term development of language skills, and a short-term focused intervention influenced various pragmatic measures of task-performance such as the pragmalinguistic markers of argumentation, the number of claims, counterclaims, supports and counter-supports. We also analysed how these variables differed when the participants performed the same type of task in their mother tongue. The results showed that in the repeated version of the task, familiarity with the task structure helped learners pay more attention to the informational content of their message, which was reflected in the higher number of supportive moves they produced. Participants were found to have better argumentation skills in their mother tongue and used a wider variety of pragmalinguistic markers than in L2. The language development assumed to have taken place during one year and the argumentation training, however, did not result in better pragmatic and pragmalinguistic performance.

Comparison of Display Requirements Generated Via Hierarchical Task and Abstraction-Decomposition Space Analysis Techniques

Abstract: Cognitive work analysis (CWA) techniques are the primary methods available for designers to obtain the knowledge required to create interfaces to complex systems involving cognitive work. There are a wide and growing variety of analysis methods available with a variety of claims for their relative strengths and weaknesses, but it is extremely rare for anyone actually to apply different analytic techniques to the same analysis problem. The work reported here begins to address this gap by directly comparing the information requirements produced by what are probably the 2 most commonly used analysis techniques-Rasmussen's (1985) Abstraction-Decomposition Space (ADS) or "Abstraction Hierarchy" and Shepherd's (1989) Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) technique. These 2 approaches were selected because each is well known in the literature, yet they rarely have been directly compared on a common problem. Our comparison shows that the techniques produce different yet complementary information about the interaction ...

Task Modelling for Context-Sensitive User Interfaces

Abstract: With the explosion of devices, computing platforms, contextual conditions, user interfaces become more confronted to a need to be adapted to multiple configurations of the context of use In the past, many techniques were developed to perform a task analysis for obtaining a single user interface that is adapted for a single context of use As this user interface may become unusable for other contexts of use, there emerges a need for modelling tasks which can be supported in multiple contexts of use, considering multiple combinations of the contextual conditions For this purpose, the concept of unit task is exploited to identify a point where traditional task models can break into two parts: a contextinsensitive part and a context-sensitive part A widespread task model notation is then used to examine, discuss, and criticise possible configurations for modelling a context-sensitive task as a whole One particular form is selected that attempts to achieve a clear separation of concern between the context-insensitive part, the context-sensitive part, and a new decision tree which branches to context-sensitive tasks, depending on contextual conditions The questions of factoring out possible elements that are common across multiple contexts of use and representation of the resulting task model are discussed

Towards Uniformed Task Models in a Model-Based Approach

Abstract: Multiple versions and expressions of task models used in user interface design, specification, and verification of interactive systems have led to an ontological problem of identifying and understanding concepts which are similar or different across models This variety raises a particular problem in model-based approaches for designing user interfaces as different task models, possibly with different vocabularies, different formalisms, different concepts are exploited: no software tool is able today to accommodate any task models as input for a user-centred design process DOLPHIN is a software architecture that attempts to solve this problem by introducing uniform task models A series of representative task models was first selected The meta-models of these individual task models were then designed and merged into a uniformed task meta-model Semantic mapping rules between individual task meta-models and the uniformed task meta-model allow DOLPHIN to read and understand any potential task model towards its exploitation in a model-based approach

CTTE: an environment for analysis and development of task models of cooperative applications

Abstract: Tool-support is strongly required in order to ease the use of task models and make them acceptable to a large number of designers. CTTE is an automatic environment that has been developed for this purpose. This tool can be useful to better develop and analyse task models and their dynamic behaviour including those for cooperative applications.

Dual Task Performance

Abstract: This article presents a brief review on human performance in dual—or even multiple—task conditions. Depending on specific task characteristics, performance varies from almost perfect timesharing to strict serial handling of either task. Timesharing is more prominent as the tasks (a) allow processing and acting in larger units, (b) permit preview and advance scheduling, and (c) do not have competing patterns of actions. Traditional theories emphasized a limited capacity for information processing, either as a single capacity to be used for any type of activity or as multiple and not interchangeable capacities, deployed for different types of task demands. More recent views emphasize specific patterns of task interference, response conflict, and selection of an appropriate action from the set of potential actions.