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Showing papers on "Task analysis published in 2007"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meta-analysis determines the strength of the relation in children under age 7 and examines moderators that may account for the variability across studies--including aspect of language ability assessed, type of false-belief task used, and direction of effect.
Abstract: Numerous studies show that children’s language ability is related to false-belief understanding. However, there is considerable variation in the size of the correlation reported. Using data from 104 studies (N 58,891), this meta-analysis determines the strength of the relation in children under age 7 and examines moderators that may account for the variability across studiesFincluding aspect of language ability assessed, type of false-belief task used, and direction of effect. The results indicate a moderate to large effect size overall that remains significant when age is controlled. Receptive vocabulary measures had weaker relations than measures of general language. Stronger effects were found from earlier language to later false belief than the reverse. Significant differences were not found among types of false-belief task. Children’s theory of mind has been a lively area of research in developmental psychology for the past two decades. Work in the area investigates young children’s understanding of themselves and other people as mental beings, that is, as people who have beliefs, desires, emotions, and intentions, and whose actions and interactions can be interpreted and explained by taking account of these mental states. The mental state of belief has been ap articular focus of interest, with successful performance on experimental falsebelief tasks (Wimmer & Perner, 1983) taken to mark the acquisition of a representational theory of mind (Wellman, 2002). The false-belief task assesses a child’s ability to reason about the behavioral consequences of holding a mistaken belief. Typically, by 5 years of age children understand that people represent the world in their minds and understand that these representations determine what a person says or does, even in cases where they are misrepresentations of the actual situation in the world. Meta-analytic findings support the presence of a consistent developmental progression in children’s false-belief understanding that is evident across various countries and various task manipulations (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). Although children’s performance is facilitated by certain task factors, such as creating the false belief with a motivation to deceive someone, age-related changes are still evident. This leads Wellman et al. to argue that developmental changes in false-belief understanding are not an artifact of particular task manipulations but rather a reflection of genuine conceptual change that occurs during the preschool years. Nevertheless, there is marked variation in the par

956 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that the time individuals allocate to organizational citizenship behavior may come at the expense of task performance and explore a number of organizational, situational, and individual variables that may moderate this relationship and suggest implications and future research directions.
Abstract: Using a resource allocation framework, I propose that the time individuals allocate to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) may come at the expense of task performance. Because most reward systems favor task performance, individuals may unintentionally hurt their careers by helping the organization. The question then becomes how individuals can engage in OCB and still have positive career outcomes. I explore a number of organizational, situational, and individual variables that may moderate this relationship and suggest implications and future research directions.

486 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effects of pair interaction on L2 proficiency differences in pairs and patterns of interaction on learning, making use of both qualitative and quantitative data, and found that the patterns of pair interactions greatly influenced the frequency of LREs and post-test performance.
Abstract: This study investigated the effects of second language (L2) proficiency differences in pairs and patterns of interaction on L2 learning, making use of both qualitative and quantitative data. We designed the study in such a way that four different core participants interacted with higher and lower proficiency non-core participants. These learners engaged in a three-stage task involving pair writing, pair comparison (between their original text and a reformulated version of it) and individual writing. The core participants also engaged in a stimulated recall after the task. We analysed each pair's collaborative dialogue in terms of language-related episodes and patterns of pair interaction (Storch, 2002a) as well as each learner's individual post-test score. The findings suggested that the patterns of pair interaction greatly influenced the frequency of LREs and post-test performance. When the learners engaged in collaborative patterns of interaction, they were more likely to achieve higher posttest scores ...

427 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that delegation requires a shared hierarchical task model between supervisor and subordinates, used to delegate tasks at various levels, and offer instruction on performing them, and an architecture for machine-based delegation systems based on the metaphor of a sports team's “playbook” is developed.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To develop a method enabling human-like, flexible supervisory control via delegation to automation. BACKGROUND: Real-time supervisory relationships with automation are rarely as flexible as human task delegation to other humans. Flexibility in human-adaptable automation can provide important benefits, including improved situation awareness, more accurate automation usage, more balanced mental workload, increased user acceptance, and improved overall performance. METHOD: We review problems with static and adaptive (as opposed to "adaptable") automation; contrast these approaches with human-human task delegation, which can mitigate many of the problems; and revise the concept of a "level of automation" as a pattern of task-based roles and authorizations. We argue that delegation requires a shared hierarchical task model between supervisor and subordinates, used to delegate tasks at various levels, and offer instruction on performing them. A prototype implementation called Playbook is described. RESULTS: On the basis of these analyses, we propose methods for supporting human-machine delegation interactions that parallel human-human delegation in important respects. We develop an architecture for machine-based delegation systems based on the metaphor of a sports team's "playbook." Finally, we describe a prototype implementation of this architecture, with an accompanying user interface and usage scenario, for mission planning for uninhabited air vehicles. CONCLUSION: Delegation offers a viable method for flexible, multilevel human-automation interaction to enhance system performance while maintaining user workload at a manageable level. APPLICATION: Most applications of adaptive automation (aviation, air traffic control, robotics, process control, etc.) are potential avenues for the adaptable, delegation approach we advocate. We present an extended example for uninhabited air vehicle mission planning. Language: en

407 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
29 Jun 2007
TL;DR: A shared task involving the assignment of ICD-9-CM codes to radiology reports resulted in the first freely distributable corpus of fully anonymized clinical text, suggesting that human-like performance on this task is within the reach of currently available technologies.
Abstract: This paper reports on a shared task involving the assignment of ICD-9-CM codes to radiology reports. Two features distinguished this task from previous shared tasks in the biomedical domain. One is that it resulted in the first freely distributable corpus of fully anonymized clinical text. This resource is permanently available and will (we hope) facilitate future research. The other key feature of the task is that it required categorization with respect to a large and commercially significant set of labels. The number of participants was larger than in any previous biomedical challenge task. We describe the data production process and the evaluation measures, and give a preliminary analysis of the results. Many systems performed at levels approaching the inter-coder agreement, suggesting that human-like performance on this task is within the reach of currently available technologies.

385 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, three interactive tasks, increasing in the complexity of resource-directing reasoning demands on speaker/storyteller attribution of and linguistic reference to, the thoughts and intentions of characters in narrative stimuli were performed by Japanese L1 speakers of English.
Abstract: Three interactive tasks, increasing in the complexity of resource-directing reasoning demands on speaker/storyteller attribution of and linguistic reference to, the thoughts and intentions of characters in narrative stimuli were performed by Japanese L1 speakers of English. Largely consistent with the claims of the Cognition Hypothesis, results of the present study show; (i) task complexity led to more complex speech assessed using specific measures motivated by the conceptual/linguistic demands of the tasks but did not, however, affect accuracy, fluency and complexity assessed using general measures; (ii) tasks requiring complex reasoning about characters' intentional states led to significantly more interaction, and uptake of premodified input than simpler versions; and (iii) output processing anxiety showed a linearly progressive, negative relationship to use of complex speech as tasks increased in complexity. The role of specific versus general measures of production is discussed, as is the importance of examining interactions of production, interaction and uptake with measures of individual differences when researching the influence of L2 task demands on learning and performance.

358 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided an empirical test of how rudeness affects task performance and helpfulness and found that rudeness instigated by a direct authority figure, such as a supervisor, can affect task performance.
Abstract: In three experimental studies, we provided an empirical test of how rudeness affects task performance and helpfulness. Different forms of rudeness—rudeness instigated by a direct authority figure, ...

272 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors describe a taxonomy of task demands which distinguishes between Task Complexity, Task Condition and Task Difficulty, and describe three theoretical claims and predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis concerning the effects of task complexity on language production, interaction and uptake of information available in the input to tasks, and individual differences-task interactions.
Abstract: In this paper we describe a taxonomy of task demands which distinguishes between Task Complexity, Task Condition and Task Difficulty. We then describe three theoretical claims and predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2001, 2003b, 2005a) concerning the effects of task complexity on: (a) language production; (b) interaction and uptake of information available in the input to tasks; and (c) individual differences-task interactions. Finally we summarize the findings of the empirical studies in this special issue which all address one or more of these predictions and point to some directions for continuing, future research into the effects of task complexity on learning and performance. 1. The Cognition Hypothesis: Task complexity, task design and task sequencing This special issue consists of a theoretical overview of two models of attention that have prompted extensive research into the effects of task demands on selective attention and co-ordination of attentional resources during dual and multitask performance, followed by four empirical studies examining the effects of manipulating dimensions of task complexity on; (i) the accuracy, fluency and complexity of second language (L2) speech production; (ii) the extent of interaction and uptake of premodified input occurring during task performance, and iii) learner perceptions of task difficulty. A great number of previous studies have examined the effects of one or another aspect of L2 task demands, such as the availability of planning time (see Ellis 2005), or the nature and extent of participation on tasks (see Pica, Kanagy and Falodun 1993), individually. Drawing on this, and other previous research the studies in this special issue all address the issue of task complexity in the Triadic Componential Framework (Robinson 2001, 2005a, 2007a) which specifies component dimensions of task complexity in terms of three superordinate cognitive, interactive and learner factors in order that each dimension can be studied separately, and also that

267 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
23 Jun 2007
TL;DR: The task definition, resources, participation, and comparative results for the Web People Search task, which was organized as part of the SemEval-2007 evaluation exercise, are presented.
Abstract: This paper presents the task definition, resources, participation, and comparative results for the Web People Search task, which was organized as part of the SemEval-2007 evaluation exercise. This task consists of clustering a set of documents that mention an ambiguous person name according to the actual entities referred to using that name.

236 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2007-System
TL;DR: The study suggests a weak version of task-based teaching is likely to be most suitable for schooling and reinforces claims for the desirability of context-sensitive approaches.

234 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using older adults and dual-task interference, performance on two social reasoning tasks is examined: theory of mind tasks and versions of the deontic selection task involving social contracts and hazardous conditions, suggesting that domain-general resources contribute to performance of these tasks.

Patent
02 Nov 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a system that allows a user to teach a computational device how to perform complex, repetitive tasks that the user usually would perform using the device's graphical user interface (GUI) often but not limited to being a web browser is presented.
Abstract: A system which allows a user to teach a computational device how to perform complex, repetitive tasks that the user usually would perform using the device's graphical user interface (GUI) often but not limited to being a web browser. The system includes software running on a user's computational device. The user “teaches” task steps by inputting natural language and demonstrating actions with the GUI. The system uses a semantic ontology and natural language processing to create an explicit representation of the task that is stored on the computer. After a complete task has been taught, the system is able to automatically execute the task in new situations. Because the task is represented in terms of the ontology and user's intentions, the system is able to adapt to changes in the computer code while still pursuing the objectives taught by the user.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article investigated the merits of pair work by comparing pair and individual work on an editing task and by analysing the nature of pair interaction, finding that most pairs engaged actively in deliberations over language and tended to reach correct resolutions.
Abstract: Although the literature on language pedagogy encourages the use of pair work in the second language classroom, students sometimes seem reluctant to work in pairs, particularly on grammar-focused tasks. This study investigated the merits of pair work by comparing pair and individual work on an editing task and by analysing the nature of pair interaction. The study was conducted in four intact ESL tertiary classes. Students in class A completed the task in pairs and in class B individually. In classes C and D students were given the choice of completing the task in pairs or individually. In class A all pair talk was audio recorded. Analysis of the edited texts showed that there were no significant differences between the accuracy of tasks completed individually and those completed in pairs. Analysis of the transcribed pair talk showed that most pairs engaged actively in deliberations over language and tended to reach correct resolutions. Thus the results suggest that although pair work on a grammar-focused ...

Proceedings ArticleDOI
23 Jun 2007
TL;DR: This paper presents the coarse-grained English all-words task at SemEval-2007, and describes the experience in producing a coarse version of the WordNet sense inventory and preparing the sense-tagged corpus for the task.
Abstract: This paper presents the coarse-grained English all-words task at SemEval-2007. We describe our experience in producing a coarse version of the WordNet sense inventory and preparing the sense-tagged corpus for the task. We present the results of participating systems and discuss future directions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper investigated teachers' and learners' reactions to a task-based EFL course at a Thai university, which encouraged learners to become more independent and addressed their real world academic needs.
Abstract: Although many studies have described the L2 learning opportunities created by individual tasks, considerably less research has investigated task-based syllabi and courses (Bruton, 2002; Candlin, 2001; Ellis, 2003; Skehan, 2003). This case study investigated teachers' and learners' reactions to a task-based EFL course at a Thai university. A team of Thai EFL teachers created the syllabus, which was pilot tested and revised before being introduced universitywide. For this study, we collected the teachers' and learners' impressions about the course over a 12-month period during the pilot testing and revision phases. We identified their reactions using a qualitative analysis of oral and written data elicited through (a) task evaluations, (b) learning notebooks, (c) observations, (d) course evaluations, and (e) interviews. The findings indicate that, despite initial reservations, they believed the course encouraged learners to become more independent and addressed their real world academic needs. Implications for the implementation of task-based language teaching in other EFL contexts are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that placement instability may adversely affect the social-emotional development of adopted children and inhibitory control did not mediate the association between placement instability and oppositional behavior.
Abstract: This study assessed relations among placement instability, inhibitory control, and caregiver-rated child behavior. The sample included 33 adopted children who had experienced placement instability, 42 adopted children who had experienced 1 stable placement, and 27 children never placed in foster care. Five- and 6-year-old children completed the day-night task, which requires children to inhibit a prepotent response, and a control task that presents similar memory demands but does not require inhibition (C. L. Gerstadt, Y. J. Hong, & A. Diamond, 1994). Adopted children who had experienced placement instability performed worse on the inhibition task than did both other groups of children, when the authors controlled for age, verbal intelligence (as measured with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence--Revised; D. Wechsler, 1989; or the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Third Edition; L. M. Dunn & L. M. Dunn, 1997), and control task performance (p .05). These results suggest that placement instability may adversely affect the social-emotional development of adopted children.

Journal ArticleDOI
Kate Cain1
TL;DR: This paper explored the predictive power of syntactic awareness tasks (grammatical correction, word-order correction) for both aspects of reading was explored in 8- and 10-year-olds.
Abstract: Syntactic awareness has been linked to word reading and reading comprehension. The predictive power of two syntactic awareness tasks (grammatical correction, word-order correction) for both aspects of reading was explored in 8- and 10-year-olds. The relative contributions of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory to each were assessed. After vocabulary, memory explained variance on the word-order correction task; in contrast, grammatical knowledge explained performance on the grammatical correction task. The relation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension was mediated by vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory; in contrast, word reading and syntactic awareness shared unique variance not explained by these controls. The implications for how we measure syntactic awareness and its relation with reading ability are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a multiple-probe-across-participants design to examine the effects of training teachers to follow a task analysis on the number of steps completed by teachers on the literacy lesson plan template and changes made by students in response to teachers' use of the lesson plan.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to train teachers to follow a task analysis to teach a story-based literacy lesson using adapted, grade-appropriate middle school literature to students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was used to examine the effects of training teachers to follow a literacy lesson plan task analysis on the number of steps completed by teachers on the literacy lesson plan template and changes made by students in response to teachers’ use of the literacy lesson plan. Results indicated a functional relationship between teacher training and the number of lesson plan steps followed, with a corresponding student increase in both overall and independent correct responses. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a study on L2 proficiency in writing, conducted among 84 Dutch university students of Italian and 75 students of French, showed that manipulation of task complexity led in the complex task to a significant decrease of errors, while at the same time a trend for a lexically more varied text was observed.
Abstract: In a study on L2 proficiency in writing, conducted among 84 Dutch university students of Italian and 75 students of French, manipulation of task complexity led in the complex task to a significant decrease of errors, while at the same time a trend for a lexically more varied text was observed (Kuiken and Vedder 2005, 2007, in press). Based on this first analysis in which some global performance measures were used, a more specific analysis was carried out. In the latter analysis, which is reported in this article, accuracy was investigated in more detail according to the type of errors in the L2 texts, while lexical variation was analysed further by distinguishing frequent words from infrequent ones. Results showed that the effect of task complexity could mainly be attributed to lower ratios of lexical errors in the more complex task. With respect to the use of frequent versus infrequent words mixed results were found. On the basis of these findings a number of implications with regard to the operationalisation of task complexity and linguistic performance are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a system to record, interpret, and reason over demonstrations of household tasks is presented, focusing on the model-based representation of manipulation tasks, which serves as a basis for incremental reasoning over the acquired task knowledge.
Abstract: Since many years the robotics community is envisioning robot assistants sharing the same environment with humans. It became obvious that they have to interact with humans and should adapt to individual user needs. Especially the high variety of tasks robot assistants will be facing requires a highly adaptive and user-friendly programming interface. One possible solution to this programming problem is the learning-by-demonstration paradigm, where the robot is supposed to observe the execution of a task, acquire task knowledge, and reproduce it. In this paper, a system to record, interpret, and reason over demonstrations of household tasks is presented. The focus is on the model-based representation of manipulation tasks, which serves as a basis for incremental reasoning over the acquired task knowledge. The aim of the reasoning is to condense and interconnect the data, resulting in more general task knowledge. A measure for the assessment of information content of task features is introduced. This measure for the relevance of certain features relies both on general background knowledge as well as task-specific knowledge gathered from the user demonstrations. Beside the autonomous information estimation of features, speech comments during the execution, pointing out the relevance of features are considered as well. The results of the incremental growth of the task knowledge when more task demonstrations become available and their fusion with relevance information gained from speech comments is demonstrated within the task of laying a table

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the effects of manipulating the cognitive complexity of L2 oral tasks on language production, focusing on self-repair behavior and self-attention to form and an attempt at being accurate.
Abstract: This paper analyses the effects of manipulating the cognitive complexity of L2 oral tasks on language production. It specifically focuses on self-repairs, which are taken as a measure of accuracy since they denote both attention to form and an attempt at being accurate. By means of a repeated measures design, 42 lower-intermediatestudentswereaskedto performthree differenttasks types (a narrative, and instruction-giving task, and a decision-making task) for which two degrees of cognitive complexity were established. The narrative task was manipulated along +/" Here-and-Now, an instruction-giving task manipulated along +/" elements, and the decision-making task which is manipulated along +/" reasoning demands. Repeated measures ANOVAs are used for the calculation of differences between degrees of complexity and among task types. One-way ANOVA are used to detect potential differences between lowproficiency and high-proficiency participants. Results show an overall effect of Task Complexity on self-repairs behavior across task types, with different behaviors existing among the three task types. No differences are found between the self-repair behavior between low and high proficiency groups. Results are discussed in the light of theories of cognition and L2 performance (Robinson 2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007), L1 and L2 language production models (Levelt 1989, 1993; Kormos 2000, 2006), and attention during L2 performance (Skehan 1998; Robinson, 2002).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Task analysis as mentioned in this paper is a method for studying the process of change, which consists of two main phases: a discovery-oriented phase based on rational-empirical model building and a hypothesis testing.
Abstract: The epistemological and methodological underpinnings of task analysis are discussed and the steps and concrete procedures for its implementation are described and exemplified in a task analysis of the resolution of unfinished business. Task analysis, a method for studying the process of change, consists of two main phases: a discovery-oriented phase based on rational–empirical model building and a validation phase based on hypothesis testing. The goals of the approach are to (a) build an observationally based model of how therapeutic change occurs for a particular type of affective–cognitive problem, (b) validate the model of change, and (c) relate the process of change to outcome. Benefits and strengths of the approach are presented and factors that have impeded the use of this approach in the study of change processes are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate research on experts' cognition, the accuracy of experts' self-reports, and the efficacy of instruction based on expert's self-reported information.
Abstract: Instruction on problem solving in particular domains typically relies on explana- tions from experts about their strategies. However, research indicates that such self-reports often are incomplete or inaccurate (e.g., Chao & Salvendy, 1994; Cooke & Breedin, 1994). This article evaluates research on experts' cognition, the accuracy of experts' self-reports, and the efficacy of instruction based on experts' self-reports. Analysis of this evidence indi- cates that experts' free recall of strategies introduces errors and omissions into instructional materials that hinder student success. In contrast, when experts engage in structured knowl- edge elicitation techniques (e.g., cognitive task analysis), the resultant instruction is more effective. Based on these findings, the article provides a theoretical explanation of experts' self-report errors and discusses implications for the continued improvement of instructional design processes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the development of pragmatic comprehension ability across time and found that L2 learners' accuracy and comprehension speed improved significantly over a 7-week period, however, the magnitude of effect was lower for comprehension speed than for accuracy.
Abstract: This study examined development of pragmatic comprehension ability across time. Twenty native speakers and 92 Japanese college students of English completed a computerized listening task measuring ability to comprehend two types of implied meaning in dialogues: indirect refusals (k = 24) and indirect opinions (k = 24). The participants' comprehension was analyzed for accuracy (scores on the listening task) and comprehension speed (average time taken to answer each item correctly). L2 learners' accuracy and comprehension speed improved significantly over a 7-week period. However, the magnitude of effect was lower for comprehension speed than for accuracy. This study also examined the relationships among general L2 proficiency (measured on the ITP TOEFL), speed of lexical judgment (measured on a word recognition task), and pragmatic comprehension ability. There was a significant relationship between proficiency and accuracy (r = 0.39), as well as between lexical access speed and comprehension speed (r = 0.40). However, L2 proficiency bore no relationship to comprehension speed, and lexical access speed had no relationship with accuracy. Moreover, accuracy and comprehension speed were not related to each other. These findings suggest that development of pragmatic knowledge and processing capacity of using the knowledge may not coincide perfectly in L2 development.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
10 Apr 2007
TL;DR: The fundamental contribution of this work is the layering of the low-level coalition formation algorithm for generating strongly-cooperative task solutions, with high-level, traditional task allocation methods for weakly-co cooperative task solutions.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach that enables heterogeneous robots to automatically form groups as needed to generate both strongly-cooperative and weakly-cooperative multi-robot task solutions in the same application. The fundamental contribution of this work is the layering of our low-level coalition formation algorithm for generating strongly-cooperative task solutions, with high-level, traditional task allocation methods for weakly-cooperative task solutions. At the low level, coalitions that generate strongly-cooperative multi-robot task solutions are formed using our ASyMTRe-D approach that maps environmental sensors and perceptual and motor schemas to the required flow of information in the robot team, automatically reconfiguring the connections of schemas within and across robots to form efficient solutions. At the high level, a traditional task allocation approach is used to enable individual robots and/or coalitions to compete for weakly-cooperative task assignments through task allocation. We introduce the site clearing task to motivate the work, and then formalize the problem. We then present the approach of layering ASyMTRe-D with task allocation. We validate the approach on a team of robots with the site clearing task. We believe the resulting approach is a flexible system that can handle a broad range of realistic multi-robot applications beyond what is possible using other existing approaches.


Proceedings ArticleDOI
10 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework for interactive task training of a mobile robot where the robot learns how to do various tasks while observing a human, and the robot listens to the human's speech and interprets the speech as behaviors that are required to be executed.
Abstract: Effective human/robot interfaces which mimic how humans interact with one another could ultimately lead to robots being accepted in a wider domain of applications. We present a framework for interactive task training of a mobile robot where the robot learns how to do various tasks while observing a human. In addition to observation, the robot listens to the human's speech and interprets the speech as behaviors that are required to be executed. This is especially important where individual steps of a given task may have contingencies that have to be dealt with depending on the situation. Finally, the context of the location where the task takes place and the people present factor heavily into the robot's interpretation of how to execute the task. In this paper, we describe the task training framework, describe how environmental context and communicative dialog with the human help the robot learn the task, and illustrate the utility of this approach with several experimental case studies.

Journal ArticleDOI
10 Oct 2007
TL;DR: The relationships between operational measures of information search behavior, subjectively perceived post-task difficulty and objective task complexity in the context of factual information-seeking tasks on the web are examined.
Abstract: Task has been recognized as an influential factor in information seeking behavior. An increasing number of studies are concentrating on the specific characteristics of the task as independent variables to explain associated information-seeking activities. This paper examines the relationships between operational measures of information search behavior, subjectively perceived post-task difficulty and objective task complexity in the context of factual information-seeking tasks on the web. A question-driven, web-based information-finding study was conducted in a controlled experimental setting. The study participants performed nine search tasks of varying complexity. Subjective task difficulty was found to be correlated with many measures that characterize the searcher's activities. Four of those measures, the number of the unique web pages visited, the time spent on each page, the degree of deviation from the optimal path and the degree of the navigation path's linearity, were found to be good predictors of subjective task difficulty. Objective task complexity was found to affect the relative importance of those predictors and to affect subjective assessment of task difficulty.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper reported a study of two English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes who used different forms of transcript of their performances on a role-play speaking task as the basis for reprocessing and improving their output.
Abstract: This article reports a study of two English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes who used different forms of transcript of their performances on a role-play speaking task as the basis for reprocessing and improving their output. One class used transcripts produced by the learners themselves, and the other used extracts transcribed by the teacher. Analysis of two subsequent performances on the same task—the second after two days and the third four weeks later—showed that both procedures were manageable under normal classroom conditions, and suggests that the self-transcribing procedure was more effective in helping the learners to maintain higher rates of accuracy in the forms highlighted during the reprocessing activities.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Users develop a wide array of information management strategies that allow them to successfully adapt to new technology, and supporting the ability of users to develop adaptive strategies to support meta-cognitive goals is a key component of a successful system.