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Showing papers on "Task analysis published in 2012"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Analysis of the impact of multi-tasking with digital technologies while attempting to learn from real-time classroom lectures in a university setting indicated that participants who did not use any technologies in the lectures outperformed students who used some form of technology.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of multi-tasking with digital technologies while attempting to learn from real-time classroom lectures in a university setting. Four digitally-based multi-tasking activities (texting using a cell-phone, emailing, MSN messaging and Facebook(TM)) were compared to 3 control groups (paper-and-pencil note-taking, word-processing note-taking and a natural use of technology condition) over three consecutive lectures. Comparisons indicated that participants in the Facebook(TM) and MSN conditions performed more poorly than those in the paper-and-pencil use control. Follow-up analyses were required to accommodate the substantial number of students who failed to comply with the limited use of technology specified by their assigned conditions. These analyses indicated that participants who did not use any technologies in the lectures outperformed students who used some form of technology. Consistent with the cognitive bottleneck theory of attention (Welford, 1967) and contrary to popular beliefs, attempting to attend to lectures and engage digital technologies for off-task activities can have a detrimental impact on learning.

463 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: On the executive control task, all bilingual groups performed similarly and exceeded monolinguals; on the language tasks the best performance was achieved by bilingual children whose language of instruction was the same as the language of testing and whose languages had more overlap.
Abstract: A total of 104 six-year-old children belonging to 4 groups (English monolinguals, Chinese-English bilinguals, French-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals) were compared on 3 verbal tasks and 1 nonverbal executive control task to examine the generality of the bilingual effects on development. Bilingual groups differed in degree of similarity between languages, cultural background, and language of schooling. On the executive control task, all bilingual groups performed similarly and exceeded monolinguals; on the language tasks the best performance was achieved by bilingual children whose language of instruction was the same as the language of testing and whose languages had more overlap. Thus, executive control outcomes for bilingual children are general but performance on verbal tasks is specific to factors in the bilingual experience.

326 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The literature on automation and the various task analyses of driving do not currently help to explain the effects that were found and lateral support and longitudinal support may be the same in terms of levels of automation but appear to be regarded rather differently by drivers.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to show how driver attention to the road scene and engagement of a choice of secondary tasks are affected by the level of automation provided to assist or take over the basic task of vehicle control. It was also designed to investigate the difference between support in longitudinal control and support in lateral control. BACKGROUND: There is comparatively little literature on the implications of automation for drivers' engagement in the driving task and for their willingness to engage in non-driving-related activities. METHOD: A study was carried out on a high-level driving simulator in which drivers experienced three levels of automation: manual driving, semiautomated driving with either longitudinal or lateral control provided, and highly automated driving with both longitudinal and lateral control provided. Drivers were free to pay attention to the roadway and traffic or to engage in a range of entertainment and grooming tasks. RESULTS: Engagement in the nondriving tasks increased from manual to semiautomated driving and increased further with highly automated driving. There were substantial differences in attention to the road and traffic between the two types of semiautomated driving. CONCLUSION: The literature on automation and the various task analyses of driving do not currently help to explain the effects that were found. Lateral support and longitudinal support may be the same in terms of levels of automation but appear to be regarded rather differently by drivers. Keywords: Driver distraction; Language: en

282 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study aims at providing a clear, systematic understanding of task complexity by reviewing and conceptualizing existing task complexity definitions and models from structuralist, resource requirement, and interaction viewpoints, and compared with other models.

270 citations


Proceedings Article
07 Jun 2012
TL;DR: The two systems that competed in this task as part of SemEval-2012 are described, and their results are compared to those achieved in previously published research.
Abstract: SemEval-2012 Task 7 presented a deceptively simple challenge: given an English sentence as a premise, select the sentence amongst two alternatives that more plausibly has a causal relation to the premise. In this paper, we describe the development of this task and its motivation. We describe the two systems that competed in this task as part of SemEval-2012, and compare their results to those achieved in previously published research. We discuss the characteristics that make this task so difficult, and offer our thoughts on how progress can be made in the future.

251 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results showed that implicit statistical learning ability was directly associated with the long-term maintenance of the primed structure, the first empirical demonstration of a direct association between implicit statisticalLearning and syntactic acquisition in children.
Abstract: This article reports on an individual differences study that investigated the role of implicit statistical learning in the acquisition of syntax in children. One hundred children ages 4 years 5 months through 6 years 11 months completed a test of implicit statistical learning, a test of explicit declarative learning, and standardized tests of verbal and nonverbal ability. They also completed a syntactic priming task, which provided a dynamic index of children's facility to detect and respond to changes in the input frequency of linguistic structure. The results showed that implicit statistical learning ability was directly associated with the long-term maintenance of the primed structure. The results constitute the first empirical demonstration of a direct association between implicit statistical learning and syntactic acquisition in children.

242 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated the relationship between statistical learning and language using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework and found that performance on the two statistical learning tasks was the only predictor for comprehending relevant types of natural language sentences.
Abstract: Although statistical learning and language have been assumed to be intertwined, this theoretical presupposition has rarely been tested empirically The present study investigates the relationship between statistical learning and language using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework Participants were administered separate statistical learning tasks involving adjacent and nonadjacent dependencies, along with a language comprehension task and a battery of other measures assessing verbal working memory, short-term memory, vocabulary, reading experience, cognitive motivation, and fluid intelligence Strong interrelationships were found among statistical learning, verbal working memory, and language comprehension However, when the effects of all other factors were controlled for, performance on the two statistical learning tasks was the only predictor for comprehending relevant types of natural language sentences

240 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The strong relationship between updating and mathematics suggest that updating skills play a key role in the maths learning process, which makes updating a promising target for future intervention studies.
Abstract: Background. The relationship between executive functions and mathematical skills has been studied extensively, but results are inconclusive, and how this relationship evolves longitudinally is largely unknown. Aim. The aim was to investigate the factor structure of executive functions in inhibition, shifting, and updating; the longitudinal development of executive functions and mathematics; and the relation between them. Sample. A total of 211 children in grade 2 (7-8 years old) from 10 schools in the Netherlands. Method. Children were followed in grade 1 and 2 of primary education. Executive functions and mathematics were measured four times. The test battery contained multiple tasks for each executive function: Animal stroop, local global, and Simon task for inhibition; Animal Shifting, Trail Making Test in Colours, and Sorting Task for shifting; and Digit Span Backwards, Odd One Out, and Keep Track for updating. The factor structure of executive functions was assessed and relations with mathematics were investigated using growth modelling. Results. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that inhibition and shifting could not be distinguished from each other. Updating was a separate factor, and its development was strongly related to mathematical development while inhibition and shifting did not predict mathematics in the presence of the updating factor. Conclusions. The strong relationship between updating and mathematics suggest that updating skills play a key role in the maths learning process. This makes updating a promising target for future intervention studies.

238 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Children aged 3-12 years with typical development, deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome took a series of theory-of-mind tasks to confirm and extend previous developmental scaling evidence, and a new sarcasm task challenged even nondisabled 9-year-olds, demonstrating the new scale's sensitivity to post-preschool ToM growth.
Abstract: Children aged 3–12 years (n = 184) with typical development, deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome took a series of theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks to confirm and extend previous developmental scaling evidence. A new sarcasm task, in the format of H. M. Wellman and D. Liu’s (2004) 5-step ToM Scale, added a statistically reliable 6th step to the scale for all diagnostic groups. A key previous finding, divergence in task sequencing for children with autism, was confirmed. Comparisons among diagnostic groups, controlling age, and language ability, showed that typical developers mastered the 6 ToM steps ahead of each of the 3 disabled groups, with implications for ToM theories. The final (sarcasm) task challenged even nondisabled 9-year-olds, demonstrating the new scale’s sensitivity to post-preschool ToM growth.

235 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
30 Jan 2012
TL;DR: A shared task involving the assignment of emotions to suicide notes resulted in the corpus of fully anonymized clinical text and annotated suicide notes, 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 emotions to suicide notes. Two features distinguished this task from previous shared tasks in the biomedical domain. One is that it resulted in the corpus of fully anonymized clinical text and annotated suicide notes. 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 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.

211 citations


Patent
01 Jun 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, a task item is an electronic data that represents a task to be performed, whether manually or automatically, and it includes one or more details about its corresponding task, such as a description of the task and a location.
Abstract: Techniques for processing task items are provided. A task item is electronic data that represents a task to be performed, whether manually or automatically. A task item includes one or more details about its corresponding task, such as a description of the task and a location of the task. Specifically, techniques for generating task items, organizing task items, triggering notifications of task items, and consuming task items are described. In one approach, a task item is generated based on input from a user and context of the input. In another approach, different attributes of task items are used to organize the task items intelligently into multiple lists. In another approach, one or more criteria, such as location, are used to determine when to notify a user of a task item. In another approach, actions other than the generation of notification are enabled or automatically performed, actions such as emailing, calling, texting, and searching.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the DISUM-project participants were asked about their enjoyment, interest, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations concerning three types of mathematical problems: intra-mathematical problems, word problems and modelling problems.
Abstract: In this study which was part of the DISUM-project, 224 ninth graders from 14 German classes from middle track schools (Realschule) were asked about their enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy expectations concerning three types of mathematical problems: intra-mathematical problems, word problems and modelling problems. Enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy were assessed before and after a ten-lesson teaching unit promoting modelling competency related to the topics “Pythagoras’ theorem” and “linear functions”. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) Do students’ enjoyment, value, interest and self-efficacy expectations differ depending on the type of task? (2) Does the treatment of modelling problems in classroom instruction influence these variables? (3) Are there any differential effects for different ways of teaching modelling problems, including a “directive”, teacher-centred instruction and an “operative-strategic”, more student-centred instruction emphasising group work and strategic scaffolding by the teacher? The findings show that there were no differences in students’ enjoyment, interest, value and self-efficacy between the three types of tasks. However, teaching oriented towards modelling problems had positive effects on some of the student variables, with the student-centred teaching method producing the most beneficial effects.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the literature was conducted for articles published between 2003 and 2010 to build a case for the degree to which evidence-based practices were documented for teaching academic skills to students with severe developmental disabilities.
Abstract: A review of the literature was conducted for articles published between 2003 and 2010 to build a case for the degree to which evidence-based practices were documented for teaching academic skills to students with severe developmental disabilities. This review extended earlier comprehensive work in literacy, mathematics, and science for the population in question. A total of 18 studies met the Horner et al. (2005) quality indicator criteria. In general, time delay and task analytic instruction were found to be evidence-based practices. In addition, specific target responses were defined to show academic learning, with the most prevalent target responses being discrete responses; the type of systematic prompting and feedback used most often was time delay, while the component used least often was stimulus fading/shaping; and teaching formats used most often were massed trials and one-to-one instruction.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A computational framework for automatic synthesis of control and communication strategies for a robotic team from task specifications that are given as regular expressions about servicing requests in an environment by using a technique inspired by linear temporal logic model checking.
Abstract: We present a computational framework for automatic synthesis of control and communication strategies for a robotic team from task specifications that are given as regular expressions about servicing requests in an environment. We assume that the location of the requests in the environment and the robot capacities and cooperation requirements to service the requests are known. Our approach is based on two main ideas. First, we extend recent results from formal synthesis of distributed systems to check for the distributability of the task specification and to generate local specifications, while accounting for the service and communication capabilities of the robots. Second, by using a technique that is inspired by linear temporal logic model checking, we generate individual control and communication strategies. We illustrate the method with experimental results in our robotic urban-like environment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper investigated how students' achievement goals interact with different forms of instruction to promote transfer, defined as preparation for future learning, and found that students who entered the experiment with a high mastery-approach goal orientation would be more likely to transfer, regardless of instruction.
Abstract: The study of knowledge transfer rarely draws upon motivational constructs in empirical work. We investigated how students' achievement goals interact with different forms of instruction to promote transfer, defined as preparation for future learning (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999) Students were given either invention or tell-and-practice activities when learning statistics concepts and their achievement goal orientations were measured at the beginning of the experiment. We also assessed students' goals during the learning activity. We predicted that students who entered the experiment with a high mastery-approach goal orientation would be more likely to transfer, regardless of instruction. We also hypothesized that invention activities would lead to higher mastery-approach goal adoption for the task and more attention to important conceptual features, as students would focus on trying to understand the material. Finally, because we expected that invention activities would promote mastery goal adoption during...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated the relationship between components of aptitude and the fluency, accuracy, syntactic complexity and lexical variety of performance in two types of written and spoken narrative tasks and found that deductive ability and grammatical sensitivity were most strongly related to the accuracy and complexity of production.
Abstract: The study reported in this paper investigated the relationship between components of aptitude and the fluency, accuracy, syntactic complexity and lexical variety of performance in two types of written and spoken narrative tasks. We also addressed the question of how narrative performance varies in tasks of different cognitive complexity in the written and spoken modes. Our findings indicate a complex interaction between aptitude components and task performance under different conditions. The components of aptitude that seemed to be most strongly related to the accuracy and complexity of production were deductive ability and grammatical sensitivity. The results also show that in writing the participants used more varied vocabulary than in speech, but their performance was similar in terms of syntactic complexity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the contribution of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge to second language reading comprehension among 190 advanced Chinese English as a foreign language learners, and found that learners' implicit knowledge of grammar had a stronger relationship to reading comprehension than explicit knowledge, over and above the effect of vocabulary size.
Abstract: Using structural equation modeling analysis, this study examined the contribution of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge to second language reading comprehension among 190 advanced Chinese English as a foreign language learners. Vocabulary knowledge was measured in both breadth (Vocabulary Levels Test) and depth (Word Associates Test); grammatical measures focused on learners' implicit (timed grammaticality judgment task), as well as explicit knowledge (grammatical error correction task); reading comprehension had three indicators, namely, co-reference, textual inference, and gist. Vocabulary knowledge related significantly to reading comprehension; grammatical knowledge showed a weak contribution to reading comprehension after controlling for the effect of vocabulary knowledge. In addition, learners' implicit knowledge of grammar had a stronger relationship to reading comprehension than explicit knowledge, over and above the effect of vocabulary size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results suggest cognitive training may be more effective for those initially lower in ability compared to controls, and initial ability scores predicted improvements on both tests of attention and spatial orientation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors applied theories of metacognition and self-regulated learning to understand how beginning academic writers develop the ability to participate in the communicative practices of academic written communication and develop rhetorical consciousness.
Abstract: This article proposes a novel approach to the investigation of student academic writing. It applies theories of metacognition and self-regulated learning to understand how beginning academic writers develop the ability to participate in the communicative practices of academic written communication and develop rhetorical consciousness. The study investigates how this awareness changes over time and how it relates to students’ perceptions of the writing task, metacognitive awareness of strategic choices, and evaluation of their writing. Through a constructivist grounded theory approach, journals collected throughout a semester from students of beginning academic composition were analysed to determine qualitative changes. The data suggest a link between task perception and students’ conditional metacognitive awareness—their understanding of how to adapt writing strategies to specific rhetorical requirements of the task, and why—and performance evaluation. Metacognitive awareness also seems to have a reciprocal relationship with self-regulation and students’ development of individual writing approaches.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the temporal relationship between decision-making processes and suicidal behavior and to help frame potential targets for early identification and preventive interventions to reduce youth suicide and suicidalbehavior.
Abstract: Objective Decision-making deficits have been linked to suicidal behavior in adults. However, it remains unclear whether impaired decision making plays a role in the etiopathogenesis of youth suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine decision-making processes in adolescent suicide attempters and never-suicidal comparison subjects. Method Using the Iowa Gambling Task, the authors examined decision making in 40 adolescent suicide attempters, 13 to 18 years old, and 40 never-suicidal, demographically matched psychiatric comparison subjects. Results Overall, suicide attempters performed significantly worse on the Iowa Gambling Task than comparison subjects. This difference in overall task performance between the groups persisted in an exact conditional logistic regression analysis that controlled for affective disorder, current psychotropic medication use, impulsivity, and hostility (adjusted odds ratio=0.96, 95% confidence interval=0.90–0.99, p ). A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed a significant group-by-block interaction, demonstrating that attempters failed to learn during the task, picking approximately the same proportion of disadvantageous cards in the first and final blocks of the task. In contrast, comparison subjects picked proportionately fewer cards from the disadvantageous decks as the task progressed. Within the attempter group, overall task performance did not correlate with any characteristic of the index attempt or with the personality dimensions of impulsivity, hostility, and emotional lability. Conclusions Similar to findings in adults, impaired decision making is associated with suicidal behavior in adolescents. Longitudinal studies are needed to elucidate the temporal relationship between decision-making processes and suicidal behavior and to help frame potential targets for early identification and preventive interventions to reduce youth suicide and suicidal behavior.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A suite of generalized differences in the attentional and cognitive processing of adults from Eastern and Western cultures is examined, with implications for different developmental trajectories, with different developmental subtasks in the two cultures.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that 3- and 4-year-olds could successfully complete this modified task and that capacity increased roughly linearly, from 2 or 3 items during this period to 3 or 4 items between 5 and 7 years, and there is no evidence that previous research with the change detection task underestimated children's capacity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored second language writers' strategy use and its relationship to test performance on an integrated reading-listening-writing test task using a structural equation modeling approach and found that integrated writing strategy use was a multifaceted construct consisting of three factors: self-regulatory strategy use, discourse synthesis strategy use (DSS), and test-wiseness strategy use.
Abstract: Integrated writing tasks that involve different language modalities such as reading and listening have increasingly been used as means to assess academic writing. Thus, there is a need for understanding how test-takers coordinate different skills to complete these tasks. This study explored second language writers’ strategy use and its relationship to test performance on an integrated reading-listening-writing test task using a structural equation modeling approach. The results reveal that integrated writing strategy use was a multifaceted construct consisting of three factors: self-regulatory strategy use (SELFS), discourse synthesis strategy use (DSS), and “test-wiseness” strategy use (TWS). SELFS had an executive control over other types of strategy use. DSS had a direct, positive impact on test performance, and TWS had a direct, negative impact on test performance. The study suggests that the task requires not only comprehension and production abilities, but also regulation skills for managing reading, listening, and writing interactions. The findings provide insight into the nature of integrated reading-listening-writing tasks and contribute to validity arguments for the test. The study has implications for second language academic writing assessment, learning, and instruction.

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, a metric-based performance characterization is used to establish a benchmark (i.e., a level of proficiency) which trainees must demonstrate before training progression, which can be applied to any level of training.
Abstract: High profile error cases and reduced work hours have forced medicine to consider new approaches to training. Simulation-based learning for the acquisition and maintenance of skills has a growing role to play. Considerable advances have been made during the last 20 years on how simulation should be used optimally. Simulation is also more than a technology learning experience for supplanting the traditional approach of repeated practice. Research has shown that simulation works best when it is integrated into a curriculum. Learning is optimal when trainees receive metric-based feedback on their performance. Metrics should unambiguously characterize important aspects of procedure or skill performance. They are developed from a task analysis of the procedure or skills to be learned. The outcome of the task analysis should also shape how the simulation looks and behaves. Metric-based performance characterization can be used to establish a benchmark (i.e., a level of proficiency) which trainees must demonstrate before training progression. This approach ensures a more homogeneous skill-set in graduating trainees and can be applied to any level of training. Prospective, randomized and blinded clinical studies have shown that trainees who acquired their skills to a level of proficiency on a simulator in the skills laboratory perform significantly better in vivo in comparison to their traditionally trained colleagues. The Food and Drug Administration in the USA and the Department of Health in the UK have candidly indicated that they see an emergent and fundamental role for simulation-based training. Although a simulation-based approach to medical education and training may be conceptually and intellectually appealing it represents a paradigm shift in how doctors are educated and trained.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the functional role of task rules is investigated, with an emphasis on two main findings: task-related information helps guide attention toward task related information, thereby reducing possible distraction by irrelevant information.
Abstract: Cognitive control enables humans to flexibly switch between different thoughts and actions. An important prerequisite for this cognitive flexibility is the human ability to form and apply general task rules. In this article, I review research investigating the functional role of task rules, with an emphasis on two main findings. First, the shielding function of task rules helps guide attention toward task-related information, thereby reducing possible distraction by irrelevant information. Second, this task shielding has to be relaxed when a task rule changes, thereby making the cognitive system more vulnerable to the intrusion of distracting information. Implications for developmental psychology and higher-level cognition are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that the same neural mechanisms may be recruited for both syntactic processing of linguistic stimuli and sequential learning of structured sequence patterns more generally.
Abstract: We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course and distribution of brain activity while adults performed (1) a sequential learning task involving complex structured sequences and (2) a language processing task. The same positive ERP deflection, the P600 effect, typically linked to difficult or ungrammatical syntactic processing, was found for structural incongruencies in both sequential learning as well as natural language and with similar topographical distributions. Additionally, a left anterior negativity (LAN) was observed for language but not for sequential learning. These results are interpreted as an indication that the P600 provides an index of violations and the cost of integration of expectations for upcoming material when processing complex sequential structure. We conclude that the same neural mechanisms may be recruited for both syntactic processing of linguistic stimuli and sequential learning of structured sequence patterns more generally.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the effects of input-based practice on developing accurate and speedy requests in second-language Chinese learners from intermediate-level Chinese classes were assigned to an intensive training group, a regular training group (RT), and a control group.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of input-based practice on developing accurate and speedy requests in second-language Chinese. Thirty learners from intermediate-level Chinese classes were assigned to an intensive training group (IT), a regular training group (RT), and a control group. The IT and the RT groups practiced using four Chinese request-making forms via computerized structured input activities over 2 consecutive days. During this time, the IT group practiced using the request-making forms twice as much as the RT group. The control group did not practice. The results show that the input-based practice was effective in promoting accuracy in an Oral Discourse Completion Task and in enhancing speed in a Pragmatic Listening Judgment Task. No other effects of practice were observed.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
12 Aug 2012
TL;DR: A task recommendation framework for task preference modeling and preference-based task recommendation, aiming to recommend tasks to workers who are likely to prefer to work on and provide output that accepted by requesters is proposed, and is the first to use matrix factorization for task recommendation in crowdsourcing systems.
Abstract: In crowdsourcing systems, tasks are distributed to networked people to complete such that a company's production cost can be greatly reduced. Obviously, it is not efficient that the amount of time for a worker spent on selecting a task is comparable with that spent on working on a task, but the monetary reward of a task is just a small amount. The available worker history makes it possible to mine workers' preference on tasks and to provide favorite recommendations. Our exploratory study on the survey results collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) shows that workers' histories can reflect workers' preferences on tasks in crowdsourcing systems. Task recommendation can help workers to find their right tasks faster as well as help requesters to receive good quality output quicker. However, previously proposed classification based task recommendation approach only considers worker performance history, but does not explore worker task searching history. In our paper, we propose a task recommendation framework for task preference modeling and preference-based task recommendation, aiming to recommend tasks to workers who are likely to prefer to work on and provide output that accepted by requesters. We consider both worker performance history and worker task searching history to reflect workers' task preference more accurately. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to use matrix factorization for task recommendation in crowdsourcing systems.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the value of fieldwork in a higher education context and present the results of a case study which illustrates its value to student learning and the wider student experience.
Abstract: Fieldwork is assumed by most practitioners to be an important if not essential component of a degree level education in the environmental sciences. However, there is strong evidence that as a result of a wide range of pressures (academic, financial and societal) fieldwork is in decline in the UK and elsewhere. In this paper we discuss the value of fieldwork in a higher education context and present the results of a case study which illustrates its value to student learning and the wider student experience. We used qualitative and quantitative methods to compare the impact of two learning tasks upon the affective and cognitive domains of students. We designed two tasks. One task that included fieldwork, and required students to collect organisms from the field and make labelled drawings of them, and one task that omitted the fieldwork and simply required drawing of specimens that the students had not collected. We evaluated the students’ experience through structured and semi-structured questionnaires and written exercises. Students did not perceive the two tasks as being equivalent to one another. They reported that they enjoy fieldwork and value it (in the contexts of their learning at university, life-long learning, and in relation to their career aspirations) and felt that they learn more effectively in the field. Our students were better able to construct a taxonomic list of organisms that they had collected themselves, better able to recall the structural detail of these organisms and were better able to recall the detail of an ecological sampling methodology that they had personally carried out in the field rather than one that a tutor had described to them in a classroom setting. Our case study supports the growing body of evidence that fieldwork is an important way of enhancing undergraduate learning and highlights some key areas for future research.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling, from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children (6-year-olds) and their teachers engaged inData modelling activities.
Abstract: This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling. Results are reported from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children (6-year-olds) and their teachers engaged in data modelling activities. The theme of Looking after our Environment, part of the children’s science curriculum, provided the task context. The goals for the two activities addressed here included engaging children in core components of data modelling, namely, selecting attributes, structuring and representing data, identifying variation in data, and making predictions from given data. Results include the various ways in which children represented and re-represented collected data, including attribute selection, and the metarepresentational competence they displayed in doing so. The “data lenses” through which the children dealt with informal inference (variation and prediction) are also reported.