Showing papers on "Task analysis published in 2008"
TL;DR: The results show that bilingualism exerts an influence in the attainment of efficient attentional mechanisms by young adults that are supposed to be at the peak of their attentional capabilities.
920 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed that bilingual children perform the Simon task more rapidly than monolingual children, but only on conditions in which the demands for inhibitory control were high, and showed no advantage on tasks that required inhibition of response.
Abstract: Previous research has shown that bilingual children excel in tasks requiring inhibitory control to ignore a misleading perceptual cue. The present series of studies extends this finding by identifying the degree and type of inhibitory control for which bilingual children demonstrate this advantage. Study 1 replicated the earlier research by showing that bilingual children perform the Simon task more rapidly than monolinguals, but only on conditions in which the demands for inhibitory control were high. The next two studies compared performance on tasks that required inhibition of attention to a specific cue, like the Simon task, and inhibition of a habitual response, like the day–night Stroop task. In both studies, bilingual children maintained their advantage on tasks that require control of attention but showed no advantage on tasks that required inhibition of response. These results confine the bilingual advantage found previously to complex tasks requiring control over attention to competing cues (interference suppression) and not to tasks requiring control over competing responses (response inhibition).
568 citations
TL;DR: The Head-to-Toes Task as discussed by the authors was developed as a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, and participants aged 36-78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children.
543 citations
TL;DR: Because repetition accuracy depends on lexical and sublexical properties, the NRT can be used to examine the structural properties of the lexicon in both children with NL and with SLI, and is a powerful tool that can be use to identify children with language impairments.
Abstract: Background: The non-word repetition task (NRT) has gained wide acceptance in describing language acquisition in both children with normal language development (NL) and children with specific language impairments (SLI). This task has gained wide acceptance because it so closely matches the phonological component of word learning, and correlates with measures of phonological working memory, a deficit in which is hypothesized to underlie SLI. Aims/Methods & Procedures: Recent uses of the NRT seem to accept it as a measure of phonological working memory capacity in spite of the fact that researchers have consistently acknowledged that the task taps many language processes, including speech perception, phonological encoding, phonological memory, phonological assembly and articulation. This paper reviews the literature on the use of the nonword repetition task (NRT) in children with NL and children with SLI, emphasizing the component skills necessary for successful repetition. Main Contribution: For children with NL, discussion has focused on (1) the relationship between non-word repetition ability and vocabulary, and (2) lexical and sublexical influences on repetition accuracy. For children with SLI, discussion has focused on these factors as well, but has also considered other component skills that support non-word repetition. Researchers have examined speech perception and discrimination, phonological encoding, phonological memory, phonological assembly, motor planning, and articulation, and have found evidence that children with SLI exhibit impairments in each of these supporting skills. Conclusions: Because repetition accuracy depends on lexical and sublexical properties, the NRT can be used to examine the structural properties of the lexicon in both children with NL and with SLI. Further, because the task taps so many underlying skills, it is a powerful tool that can be used to identify children with language impairments.
354 citations
TL;DR: A faceted classification of task is established which could be used to describe users' work tasks and information search tasks and provides a framework to further explore the relationships among work tasks, search tasks, and interactive information retrieval and advance adaptive IR systems design.
Abstract: The nature of the task that leads a person to engage in information interaction, as well as of information seeking and searching tasks, have been shown to influence individuals' information behavior. Classifying tasks in a domain has been viewed as a departure point of studies on the relationship between tasks and human information behavior. However, previous task classification schemes either classify tasks with respect to the requirements of specific studies or merely classify a certain category of task. Such approaches do not lead to a holistic picture of task since a task involves different aspects. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a faceted classification of task, which can incorporate work tasks and information search tasks into the same classification scheme and characterize tasks in such a way as to help people make predictions of information behavior. For this purpose, previous task classification schemes and their underlying facets are reviewed and discussed. Analysis identifies essential facets and categorizes them into Generic facets of task and Common attributes of task. Generic facets of task include Source of task, Task doer, Time, Action, Product, and Goal. Common attributes of task includes Task characteristics and User's perception of task. Corresponding sub-facets and values are identified as well. In this fashion, a faceted classification of task is established which could be used to describe users' work tasks and information search tasks. This faceted classification provides a framework to further explore the relationships among work tasks, search tasks, and interactive information retrieval and advance adaptive IR systems design.
325 citations
TL;DR: The authors propose that the experience of flow as reflected in the deep involvement in an activity perceived as intrinsically rewarding represents a regulatory compatibility experience and employ a newly developed experimental paradigm to document the causal impact of such a skills/demands compatibility on the emergence of flow.
Abstract: The authors propose that the experience of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) as reflected in the deep involvement in an activity perceived as intrinsically rewarding represents a regulatory compatibility experience. The research addresses the notion that the compatibility of critical person (e.g., skills) and environmental factors (e.g., demands) involved in a given activity elicits subjective experiences that render the respective activity rewarding. Two studies are reported that investigate the consequences of compatibility of skills and task demands during task engagement. Departing from correlational research, the present studies employ a newly developed experimental paradigm to document the causal impact of such a skills/demands compatibility on the emergence of flow. Experiment 2 revealed that individuals characterized by a strong habitual action-orientation were most sensitive to the manipulation of the skills-demands compatibility.
296 citations
TL;DR: A detailed analysis of learning studies revealed that the most effective form of feedback was information about the task, and empirically under what conditions the application of bootstrapping--or replacing judges by their linear models--is advantageous.
Abstract: The mathematical representation of E. Brunswik’s (1952) lens model has been used extensively to study human judgment and provides a unique opportunity to conduct a meta-analysis of studies that covers roughly 5 decades. Specifically, the authors analyzed statistics of the “lens model equation” (L. R. Tucker, 1964) associated with 249 different task environments obtained from 86 articles. On average, fairly high levels of judgmental achievement were found, and people were seen to be capable of achieving similar levels of cognitive performance in noisy and predictable environments. Further, the effects of task characteristics that influence judgment (numbers and types of cues, inter-cue redundancy, function forms and cue weights in the ecology, laboratory versus field studies, and experience with the task) were identified and estimated. A detailed analysis of learning studies revealed that the most effective form of feedback was information about the task. The authors also analyzed empirically under what conditions the application of bootstrapping— or replacing judges by their linear models—is advantageous. Finally, the authors note shortcomings of the kinds of studies conducted to date, limitations in the lens model methodology, and possibilities for future research.
294 citations
TL;DR: A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task, suggesting that episodic task codes play an important role in keeping the cognitive system focused under a variety of performance constraints.
Abstract: A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task. The main constraint on access to the current task code is proactive interference from old task codes. This interference and the mechanisms that contend with it reproduce a wide range of behavioral phenomena when simulated, including well-known task-switching effects, such as latency and error switch costs, and effects on which other theories are silent, such as with-run slowing and within-run error increase. The model generalizes across multiple task-switching procedures, suggesting that episodic task codes play an important role in keeping the cognitive system focused under a variety of performance constraints.
293 citations
TL;DR: The results suggest that dual-task skills can be substantially improved in older adults and that cognitive plasticity in attentional control is still possible in old age.
Abstract: Older adults' difficulties in performing two tasks concurrently have been well documented (Kramer & Madden, 2008). It has been observed that the age-related differences in dual-task performance are larger when the two tasks require similar motor responses (2001) and that in some conditions older adults also show greater susceptibility than younger adults to input interference (Hein & Schubert, 2004). The authors recently observed that even when the two tasks require motor responses, both older and younger adults can learn to perform a visual discrimination task and an auditory discrimination task faster and more accurately (Bherer et al., 2005). In the present study, the authors extended this finding to a dual-task condition that involves two visual tasks requiring two motor responses. Older and younger adults completed a dual-task training program in which continuous individualized adaptive feedback was provided to enhance performance. The results indicate that, even with similar motor responses and two visual stimuli, both older and younger adults showed substantial gains in performance after training and that the improvement generalized to new task combinations involving new stimuli. These results suggest that dual-task skills can be substantially improved in older adults and that cognitive plasticity in attentional control is still possible in old age.
236 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that group members' shared task representations play an important role in this respect, because groups are often insufficiently attuned to the task's information elaboration requirements.
226 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the learners' level of engagement with linguistic choices, and whether the level of their engagement affected subsequent language development, and found that learners engaged with grammatical and lexical items, but their engagement ranged from elaborate to limited.
Abstract: This classroom-based study investigated the metatalk of learners working in pairs on a text reconstruction task. Specifically, the study investigated the learners' level of engagement with linguistic choices, and whether the level of engagement affected subsequent language development. Data were collected over a 2-week period. In the first week, students completed one version of a text reconstruction task in pairs and all pair talk was audio recorded. In the second week, students completed another version of the task individually. Analysis of the pair talk data showed that pairs attended to a range of grammatical and lexical items, but that the nature of their engagement ranged from elaborate to limited. Elaborate engagement was operationalised as instances where learners deliberated and discussed language items and limited engagement where one learner made a suggestion and the other repeated, acknowledged or did not respond to the suggestion. Analysis of learner performance on a set of items that were co...
TL;DR: In this paper, two models proposed to explain the influence of cognitive task complexity on linguistic performance in L2 are tested and compared: Skehan and Foster's Limited Attentional Capacity Model (Skehan, 1998; Skehan & Foster, 1999, 2001) and Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001a, 2001b, 2005).
TL;DR: This paper tested the claim that word learning and retention in second language are contingent upon a task's involvement load (i.e., the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes), as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001).
Abstract: This study tests the claim that word learning and retention in a second language are contingent upon a task's involvement load (i.e. the amount of need, search, and evaluation it imposes), as proposed by Laufer and Hulstijn (2001). Seventy-nine beginning learners of Spanish completed one of three vocabulary learning tasks that varied in the amount of involvement (i.e. mental effort) they induced: reading comprehension (no effort), reading comprehension plus target word suppliance (moderate effort), and sentence writing (strong effort). Passive and active knowledge of the target words was assessed immediately after treatment and two weeks later. In line with the predictions of the Involvement Load Hypothesis, retention was highest in the sentence writing task, lower in the reading plus fill-in task, and lowest in the reading comprehension task. However, when time on task was considered, the benefit associated with more involving tasks faded. The results are discussed in light of form-focused vocabulary ins...
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of perceptual load on task-irrelevant and task-relevant distractors were compared, and the results showed that an entirely irrelevant distractor can interfere with task performance to the same extent as a response-competing distractor.
Abstract: In daily life (e.g., in the work environment) people are often distracted by stimuli that are clearly irrelevant to the current task and should be ignored. In contrast, much applied distraction research has focused on task interruptions by information that requires a response and therefore cannot be ignored. Moreover, the most commonly used laboratory measures of distractibility (e.g., in the response-competition and attentional-capture paradigms), typically involve distractors that are task relevant (e.g., through response associations or location). A series of experiments assessed interference effects from stimuli that are entirely unrelated to the current task, comparing the effects of perceptual load on task-irrelevant and task-relevant (response competing) distractors. The results showed that an entirely irrelevant distractor can interfere with task performance to the same extent as a response-competing distractor and that, as with other types of distractors, the interfering effects of the irrelevant distractors can be eliminated with high perceptual load in the relevant task. These findings establish a new laboratory measure of a form of distractibility common to everyday life and highlight load as an important determinant of such distractibility.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between prior domain knowledge and self-regulated learning with hypermedia and found that prior knowledge is positively related to participants' monitoring and planning and negatively related to their use of strategies during the hypermedia learning task.
TL;DR: Findings from healthy functioning adults should help to guide decisions about appropriate methods of assessing ToM in clinical populations, and interpreting deficits in performance in such tasks in the context of more general cognitive dysfunction.
TL;DR: The author concludes there is insufficient evidence for the RK task to be used to identify qualitatively different memory components, and the author conducts a state-trace analysis to determine the dimensionality of theRK task.
Abstract: This article addresses the issue of whether the remember-know (RK) task is best explained by a single-process or a dual-process model. All single-process models propose that remember and know responses reflect different levels of a single strength-of-evidence dimension. Thus, across conditions in which response criteria are held constant, these models predict that the RK task is unidimensional. Many dual-process models propose that remember and know responses reflect two qualitatively distinct processes underlying recognition memory, often characterized as recollection and familiarity. These models predict that the RK task is bidimensional. Using data from 37 studies, the author conducted a state-trace analysis to determine the dimensionality of the RK task. In those studies, non-memory-related differences between conditions were eliminated via decision criteria constrained to be constant across all levels of the independent variables. The results reveal little or no evidence of bidimensionality and lend additional support to the unequal-variance signal detection model. Other arguments supporting a bidimensional interpretation are examined, and the author concludes there is insufficient evidence for the RK task to be used to identify qualitatively different memory components.
TL;DR: The results suggest that the models with the prospect utility function can make generalizable predictions to new conditions, and different learning models are needed for making short-versus long-term predictions on simple gambling tasks.
TL;DR: Three behavioral experiments using a cross-modal oddball task were used to examine whether the distraction triggered by auditory novelty affects the processing of the target stimuli, and it was suggested that distraction originated in the shifts of attention occurring between attention capture and the onset of thetarget processing.
TL;DR: These experiments indicate that providing participants with active control of a computer visualization does not necessarily enhance task performance, whereas seeing the most task-relevant information does, and this is true regardless of whether the task- relevant information is obtained actively or passively.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the working memory systems involved in human way-finding and found that encoding wayfinding knowledge interfered with the verbal and with the spatial secondary tasks, and that these interferences were even stronger than the interference of way finding knowledge with the visual secondary task.
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptual model of relations among achievement goal orientation, self-efficacy, cognitive processing, and achievement of students working within a particular collaborative task context was tested.
TL;DR: It is suggested that advanced education can moderate age differences on complex speeded tasks that require central executive processes, at least up to the point in old age at which biological declines predominate.
Abstract: This study demonstrated effects of age, education, and sex on complex reaction time in a large national sample (N = 3,616) with a wide range in age (32-85) and education. Participants completed speeded auditory tasks (from the MIDUS [Midlife in the U.S.] Stop and Go Switch Task) by telephone. Complexity ranged from a simple repeated task to an alternating task that involved central executive processes including attention switching and inhibitory control. Increased complexity was associated with slower responses in older adults, those with lower education, and women, even after controlling for differences in health status. Higher levels of education were associated with greater central executive efficiency across adulthood: Overall, adults with college degrees performed on complex tasks like less educated individuals who were 10 years younger, up to age 75. These findings suggest that advanced education can moderate age differences on complex speeded tasks that require central executive processes, at least up to the point in old age at which biological declines predominate. The approach demonstrates the utility of combining laboratory paradigms with survey methods to enable the study of larger, more diverse and representative samples across the lifespan.
TL;DR: The present findings demonstrate that during language processing the modulation of the motor system crucially occurs while performing a semantics decision task, thus supporting the notion that this involvement is a necessary step to understand language rather than a side effect of upstream cognitive processes.
TL;DR: This work investigated conflict adaptation when participants are performing two tasks, a Simon task and a SNARC task, and indicated that one congruency effect was reduced after conflict in the other task, but only when both tasks used identical relevant information.
Book•
09 Sep 2008
TL;DR: A history of task analysis can be found in this paper, where the authors discuss the evolution of Task Analysis into Cognitive Task Analysis: From Time and Motion Studies to "Man-Machine Systems".
Abstract: Part 1. History. 1. Introduction to Section 1: History. 2. A History of Task Analysis. 3. Evolution of Task Analysis into Cognitive Task Analysis: From Time and Motion Studies to "Man-Machine Systems". 4. Defining and Bounding Cognitive Task Analysis. 5. Emergence of the Communities of Practice. Part 2. The "Perspectives". 6. Introduction to Section 2: The "Perspectives". 7. Cognitive Systems Engineering. 8. Expertise Studies. 9. Naturalistic Decision Making. 10. Work Analysis. 11. Sociological and Ethnographic Perspectives. 12. Human-Centered Computing. Part 3. Synthesis. 13. Introduction to Section 3: Synthesis. 14. Synthesis: Divergences of the Perspectives. 15. Synthesis: Convergences of the Perspectives. 16. Synthesis: Convergence on The Topic of Teamwork and Team Cognition. 17. Synthesis: Methodological Challenges for Cognitive Task Analysis.
TL;DR: The results showed that auditory novels that were incongruent with the visual target disrupted performance over and above congruent novels while both types of novels delayed responses in the visual task compared to a standard sound (novelty effect).
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated barriers for using course evaluation as a tool for improving student learning, through the analysis of course evaluation practices at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
Abstract: This paper investigates barriers for using course evaluation as a tool for improving student learning, through the analysis of course evaluation practices at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) ...
10 May 2008
TL;DR: An empirical study that explored how task annotations embedded within the source code play a role in how software developers manage personal and team tasks concludes that annotations have different meanings and are dependent on individual, team and community use.
Abstract: Software development is a highly collaborative activity that requires teams of developers to continually manage and coordinate their programming tasks. In this paper, we describe an empirical study that explored how task annotations embedded within the source code play a role in how software developers manage personal and team tasks. We present findings gathered by combining results from a survey of professional software developers, an analysis of code from open source projects, and interviews with software developers. Our findings help us describe how task annotations can be used to support a variety of activities fundamental to articulation work within software development. We describe how task management is negotiated between the more formal issue tracking systems and the informal annotations that programmers write within their source code. We report that annotations have different meanings and are dependent on individual, team and community use. We also present a number of issues related to managing annotations, which may have negative implications for maintenance. We conclude with insights into how these findings could be used to improve tool support and software process.
TL;DR: Recall performance decreased as a function of the number of task switches and that the concurrent load of item maintenance had no influence on task switching, indicating that task switching induces a cost on working memory functioning.
Abstract: Although many accounts of task switching emphasize the importance of working memory as a substantial source of the switch cost, there is a lack of evidence demonstrating that task switching actually places additional demands on working memory. The present study addressed this issue by implementing task switching in continuous complex span tasks with strictly controlled time parameters. A series of 4 experiments demonstrate that recall performance decreased as a function of the number of task switches and that the concurrent load of item maintenance had no influence on task switching. These results indicate that task switching induces a cost on working memory functioning. Implications for theories of task switching, working memory, and resource sharing are addressed.