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Showing papers on "Task analysis published in 2013"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that the phenomenology of effort can be understood as the felt output of these cost/benefit computations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance and motivates reduced deployment of these computational mechanisms in the service of the present task.
Abstract: Why does performing certain tasks cause the aversive experience of mental effort and concomitant deterioration in task performance? One explanation posits a physical resource that is depleted over time. We propose an alternative explanation that centers on mental representations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance. Specifically, certain computational mechanisms, especially those associated with executive function, can be deployed for only a limited number of simultaneous tasks at any given moment. Consequently, the deployment of these computational mechanisms carries an opportunity cost-that is, the next-best use to which these systems might be put. We argue that the phenomenology of effort can be understood as the felt output of these cost/benefit computations. In turn, the subjective experience of effort motivates reduced deployment of these computational mechanisms in the service of the present task. These opportunity cost representations, then, together with other cost/benefit calculations, determine effort expended and, everything else equal, result in performance reductions. In making our case for this position, we review alternative explanations for both the phenomenology of effort associated with these tasks and for performance reductions over time. Likewise, we review the broad range of relevant empirical results from across sub-disciplines, especially psychology and neuroscience. We hope that our proposal will help to build links among the diverse fields that have been addressing similar questions from different perspectives, and we emphasize ways in which alternative models might be empirically distinguished.

895 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A problem reconfirmed by the present study is that effects assumed to be indicators of a specific executive process in one task frequently do not predict individual differences in that same indicator on a related task, which undermines the interpretation that these are valid indicators of domain-general abilities.

849 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Four key steps that research programs should follow in order to fully engage with the implications of embodiment are outlined, and how to apply this analysis to the thorny question of language use is introduced.
Abstract: The most exciting hypothesis in cognitive science right now is the theory that cognition is embodied. Like all good ideas in cognitive science, however, embodiment immediately came to mean six different things. The most common definitions involve the straight-forward claim that “states of the body modify states of the mind.” However, the implications of embodiment are actually much more radical than this. If cognition can span the brain, body, and the environment, then the “states of mind” of disembodied cognitive science won’t exist to be modified. Cognition will instead be an extended system assembled from a broad array of resources. Taking embodiment seriously therefore requires both new methods and theory. Here we outline four key steps that research programs should follow in order to fully engage with the implications of embodiment. The first step is to conduct a task analysis, which characterizes from a first person perspective the specific task that a perceiving-acting cognitive agent is faced with. The second step is to identify the task-relevant resources the agent has access to in order to solve the task. These resources can span brain, body, and environment. The third step is to identify how the agent can assemble these resources into a system capable of solving the problem at hand. The last step is to test the agent’s performance to confirm that agent is actually using the solution identified in step 3. We explore these steps in more detail with reference to two useful examples (the outfielder problem and the A-not-B error), and introduce how to apply this analysis to the thorny question of language use. Embodied cognition is more than we think it is, and we have the tools we need to realize its full potential.

453 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals overall, but again there were larger language group effects in conditions that included more demanding executive function requirements.

382 citations


BookDOI
04 Jul 2013
TL;DR: The author examines the role of Cognitive Simulation Models in the Development of Advanced Training and Testing Systems, and their role in the development of Diagnostic Testing.
Abstract: Contents: Robert J. Mislevy, Introduction. J.R. Frederiksen, B. White, Intelligent Tutors as Intelligent Testers. J.R. Anderson, Analysis of Student Performance With the LISP Tutor. D.E. Kieras, The Role of Cognitive Simulation Models in the Development of Advanced Training and Testing Systems. A. Collins, Reformulating Testing to Measure Learning and Thinking: Comments on Chapters 1, 2, and 3. C.S. Gadd, H.E. Pople, Jr., Evidence From Internal Medicine Teaching Rounds of the Multiple Roles of Diagnosis in the Transmission and Testing of Medical Expertise. R.S. Siegler, J. Campbell, Diagnosing Individual Differences in Strategy Choice Procedures. J.C. Campione, A.L. Brown, Guided Learning and Transfer: Implications for Approaches to Assessment. S.P. Gott, The Assisted Learning of Strategic Skills: Comments on Chapters 5, 6, and 7. J.A. Reggia, C.L. D'Autrechy, Parsimonious Covering Theory in Cognitive Diagnosis and Adaptive Instruction. P. Langley, J. Wogulis, S. Ohlsson, Rules and Principles in Cognitive Diagnosis. S. Ohlsson, Trace Analysis and Spatial Reasoning: An Example of Intensive Cognitive Diagnosis and Its Implications for Testing. J. Wesley Regian, W. Schneider, Assessment Procedures for Predicting and Optimizing Skill Acquisition After Extensive Practice. A. Lesgold, S. Lajoie, D. Logan, G. Eggan, Applying Cognitive Task Analysis and Research Methods to Assessment. C.H. Frederiksen, A. Breuleux, Monitoring Cognitive Processing in Semantically Complex Domains. J.M. Orasanu, Diagnostic Approaches to Learning: Measuring What, How, and How Much: Comments on Chapters 12, 13, and 14. S. Embretson, Diagnostic Testing by Measuring Learning Processes: Psychometric Considerations for Dynamic Testing. S.P. Marshall, Generating Good Items for Diagnostic Tests. K.K. Tatsuoka, Toward an Integration of Item-Response Theory and Cognitive Error Diagnosis. R.L. Linn, Diagnostic Testing: Comments on Chapters 16, 17, and 18.

250 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed that time spent on task performance is more important than time spent in OCB in determining career outcomes in an outcome-based control system and also that OCB may negatively impact career outcomes.

188 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors employed synthetic and meta-analytic techniques to review the literature on the Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts that increasing task complexity influences the quality of second language production, and found small positive effects for accuracy and small negative effects for fluency.
Abstract: This study employed synthetic and meta-analytic techniques to review the literature on the Cognition Hypothesis, which predicts that increasing task complexity influences the quality of second language production. Based on 8 inclusion criteria, 17 published studies were synthesized according to key features. A subset of these studies (k = 9) was also meta-analyzed to investigate the overall effects of raising resource-directing task demands on learner output during monologic tasks. The synthesis of 17 primary studies revealed an assortment of treatments and measures. Among the 9 comparable studies, the meta-analysis uncovered small positive effects for accuracy and small negative effects for fluency. This lends support to the Cognition Hypothesis; however, the present study also disconfirms predictions regarding syntactic complexity. Implications for research and pedagogy are discussed.

151 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated how cognitive complexity in face-to-face (FTF) versus computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments mediates the efficacy of recasts in promoting second language development.
Abstract: Informed by the cognition hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), recent studies indicate that more cognitively complex tasks can result in better incorporation of feedback during interaction and, as a consequence, more learning. It is not known, however, how task complexity and feedback work together in computerized environments. The present study addressed this gap by investigating how cognitive complexity in face-to-face (FTF) versus computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments mediates the efficacy of recasts in promoting second language development. Eighty-four adult learners of Spanish as a foreign language at a mid-Atlantic university were randomly assigned to a control group or one of four experimental groups. The experimental groups engaged in one-on-one interaction and received recasts on the Spanish past subjunctive but differed according to (a) whether or not they had to reflect on another person’s intentional reasons during the task and (b) whether they interacted in FTF or CMC environments. Learning was measured with two production tasks and a multiple-choice receptive test in a Pretest-Posttest 1-Posttest 2 design. Results revealed that in the FTF mode, performing the cognitively complex task while receiving recasts led to the most learning. In the CMC mode, the cognitively complex task + recasts was not effective. Instead, the cognitively simple task led to the most development in CMC. The study also found that judgments of time on task were the only independent measure of cognitive complexity that held across mode.

137 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that games categorized to tap working memory and reasoning were robustly related to performance onWorking memory and fluid intelligence tasks, with fluid intelligence best predicting scores on workingMemory and reasoning games.

128 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors developed an account of embodied word and grammar searches as socially distributed planning practices, which were produced by three intermediate learners of Italian as a Foreign Language (IFL) during a 3-week period from a third-semester IFL course at a university in the United States.
Abstract: We use insights and methods from ethnomethodological conversation analysis and discursive psychology to develop an account of embodied word and grammar searches as socially distributed planning practices. These practices, which were produced by three intermediate learners of Italian as a Foreign Language (IFL), occurred massively in natural data that were gathered during a 3-week period from a third-semester IFL course at a university in the United States. We develop a behavioral analysis of these data that shows: (1) what participants do during planning talk and how they do such talk and (2) whether they actually do what they planned to do.

126 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the effects of pretask modeling as a planning strategy on learners' attention to question structures and their subsequent question development in Korean junior high school students from two classes were assigned to either pretask modelling or no modeling groups.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, a growing body of research has shown positive impacts for task planning in task-based instruction (e.g., Ellis, 2005; Foster & Skehan, 1996). However, what learners plan during pretask planning, and whether any specific planning strategies are more beneficial in encouraging learners to attend to linguistic forms and facilitating second language development, have not been systematically investigated. The present study examined the effects of pretask modeling as a planning strategy on learners' attention to question structures and their subsequent question development. Korean junior high school students from two classes were assigned to either pretask modeling or no modeling groups. They completed a pretest, three tasks in pairs, and two posttests over a period of 5 weeks. The modeling group viewed pretask modeling videos as a part of their guided planning, whereas the no modeling group was provided with unguided planning time. The individual learners' think-aloud protocols during planning time and learner–learner interaction during task performance were audio-recorded, and the data were analyzed in terms of language-related episodes. Question development was determined based on Pienemann and Johnston's (1987) developmental sequence. Results indicate that pretask modeling facilitated learners' attention to form, especially during planning time, and their question development.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article shows an analogous interaction of list repetition with item repetition in declarative WM, reproduced by a connectionist model implementing the assumed selection and updating mechanisms.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using a task analysis approach, it is proposed that variability may have markedly different consequences on learning depending on the task level at which it is introduced.
Abstract: Variability is often introduced by an external agent (e.g., an instructor) during practice with the purpose of enhancing motor learning. Using a task analysis approach, we provide a framework to examine the effects of intervention-induced variability. We propose that variability may have markedly di

BookDOI
12 Feb 2013
TL;DR: Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is a work-centered conceptual framework developed by Rasmussen, Pejtersen & Goodstein (1994) to analyze cognitive work to guide the design of technology for use in the work place.
Abstract: Cognitive Work Analysis (Vicente, 1999) is a work-centered conceptual framework developed by Rasmussen, Pejtersen & Goodstein (1994) to analyze cognitive work. The purpose of Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is to guide the design of technology for use in the work place. It is unique because of its ability to analyze real-life phenomena while retaining the complexity inherent in them. When applied to information behavior, the approach guides the analysis of human-information interaction in order to inform the design of information systems.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bilingual children were more accurate than monolingual children in calculating the observer's view across all three positions, with no differences in the pattern of errors committed by the two language groups.

Patent
15 May 2013
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, actions other than the generation of notification are enabled or automatically performed, actions such as emailing, calling, texting, and searching.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined emotion management ability (EMA) as a theoretically relevant predictor of job performance and found that EMA predicts task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and workplace deviance behavior.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated contextual features surrounding the use of a first language (L1) in a Japanese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) course during peer interaction in the extended preparation phase leading up to two oral presentation tasks (OP1 and OP3), performed seven months apart.
Abstract: This study investigates contextual features surrounding the use of a first language (L1) in a Japanese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) course during peer interaction in the extended preparation phase leading up to two oral presentation tasks (OP1 and OP3), performed seven months apart. Interaction data were analysed in terms of the amount of L1 production, the distribution of L1 use within and across tasks and dyads, and the focus of learner talk. Contextual influences on L1 use were also investigated. The amount of L1 use increased from OP1 to OP3 and the overall proportion of L1 talk was higher than that found in previous studies. Within dyads, learners generally used less L1 over time. This was attributed to the shifting focus of talk from procedural to content-creation activity. Some learners were consistently high or low users of L1, while others varied. Variability was attributed to differences in second language (L2) proficiency, levels of engagement with the task and/or interlocutor, and the negotiation of task control and pedagogic roles within a dyad. Finally, it was found that the language chosen for the initial utterance of an exchange may influence that of following utterances. The results support the contention that L1 use emerges naturally in classroom discourse and that attempts to influence it should involve raising awareness of contextual conditions surrounding its emergence.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effects of a group of task factors on advanced English as a second language learners' actual and perceived listening performance and found that the speed, linguistic complexity, and explicitness of the listening text along with characteristics of the text necessary for task completion influenced comprehension.
Abstract: This study investigated the effects of a group of task factors on advanced English as a second language learners’ actual and perceived listening performance. We examined whether the speed, linguistic complexity, and explicitness of the listening text along with characteristics of the text necessary for task completion influenced comprehension. We also explored learners’ perceptions of what textual factors cause difficulty. The 68 participants performed 18 versions of a listening task, and each task was followed by a perception questionnaire. Nine additional students engaged in stimulated recall. The listening texts were analyzed in terms of a variety of measures, utilizing automatized analytical tools. We used Rasch and regression analyses to estimate task difficulty and its relationship to the text characteristics. Six measures emerged as significant predictors of task difficulty, including indicators of (a) lexical range, density, and diversity and (b) causal content. The stimulated recall comments were more reflective of these findings than the questionnaire responses.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper proposed a post-task activity, requiring L2 speakers to transcribe some of their earlier task performance for both narrative and decision-making tasks, and found that the predicted accuracy effect is obtained with both tasks, but so too is an effect of complexity for the decision making task.
Abstract: The concept of focus on form has been influential in second language (L2) acquisition and pedagogy. One example of the implementation of focus on form is a post-task activity (e.g., anticipation of a public performance) that can selectively orient learners toward increased levels of accuracy. The present research proposes a new operationalization of a post-task activity, requiring L2 speakers, post-task, to transcribe some of their earlier task performance for both narrative and decision-making tasks. This study indicates that the predicted accuracy effect is obtained with both tasks, but so too is an effect of complexity for the decision-making task. Results are discussed in terms of the way L2 speakers allocate attention during task performance and how this allocation can be influenced by experimental conditions. (Authors' abstract)

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify a range of problems in current approaches, including how volunteers can best be instructed for the task, ensuring that instructions are accurately understood and translate into valid results, or how the mapping scheme must be adapted for different map user needs.
Abstract: Remote sensing is increasingly used to assess disaster damage, traditionally by professional image analysts. A recent alternative is crowdsourcing by volunteers experienced in remote sensing, using internet-based mapping portals. We identify a range of problems in current approaches, including how volunteers can best be instructed for the task, ensuring that instructions are accurately understood and translate into valid results, or how the mapping scheme must be adapted for different map user needs. The volunteers, the mapping organizers, and the map users all perform complex cognitive tasks, yet little is known about the actual information needs of the users. We also identify problematic assumptions about the capabilities of the volunteers, principally related to the ability to perform the mapping, and to understand mapping instructions unambiguously. We propose that any robust scheme for collaborative damage mapping must rely on Cognitive Systems Engineering and its principal method, Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), to understand the information and decision requirements of the map and image users, and how the volunteers can be optimally instructed and their mapping contributions merged into suitable map products. We recommend an iterative approach involving map users, remote sensing specialists, cognitive systems engineers and instructional designers, as well as experimental psychologists.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The study of deaf children living in Istanbul whose hearing losses prevented them from acquiring speech and whose hearing parents had not exposed them to sign found that the absence of spatial language went hand-in-hand with poor performance on the nonlinguistic spatial task, pointing to the importance of spatiallanguage in thinking about space.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined change in students' situational interest as a function of student and task characteristics and found that students working with the more concrete version of the simulation reported an increase in their interest while the opposite was true for students working in the more abstract version.
Abstract: In this study we examined change in students’ situational interest as a function of student and task characteristics. Fifth- and sixth-graders (n = 52) were assigned to one of two task conditions that used a different version of a science simulation. The versions differed in how concrete vs. abstract the simulation elements were. Students’ prior knowledge, achievement goal orientations, and subject-specific interest were assessed before the task and situational interest was measured repeatedly in different phases of the task. Post-task performance was assessed 1 day after the task. The results showed different mean-level changes in situational interest in the two task conditions; students working with the more concrete version of the simulation reported increase in their interest while the opposite was true for students working with the more abstract version. The ratings of situational interest were nevertheless rather stable over time, regardless of the task condition. Students’ situational interest at the beginning of the task was predicted by mastery-intrinsic goal orientation and subject-specific interest. Post-task performance was predicted by prior knowledge and the task condition; students working in the more concrete task condition performed better. The importance of acknowledging both individual characteristics and task elements in the emergence of students’ situational interest is discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the dual n-back task was used to assess fluid intelligence in a four-week training program, where participants were assessed with four tests of fluid intelligence and four cognitive tests.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article investigated the strategic behaviors that test-takers reported using when responding to integrated and independent speaking tasks in an English oral proficiency test and found no relationship between the total number of reported strategic behaviors and total test scores regardless of task type.
Abstract: This study investigated the strategic behaviors that test-takers reported using when responding to integrated and independent speaking tasks in an English oral proficiency test [the Speaking Section of the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL iBT)] and the relationship between test-takers’ strategic behaviors and their test scores. Each of 30 Chinese-speaking engineering students responded to two independent and four integrated speaking tasks and provided stimulated recalls about the strategies they used when performing each task. The integrated tasks elicited a wider variety of reported strategy use than did the independent tasks. Additionally, the integrated tasks were more alike with respect to reported strategy use than were the independent and integrated tasks. Overall, we found no relationship between the total number of reported strategic behaviors and total test scores, regardless of task type. Our finding that the more skills involved in a task, the greater the reported strategy use supports the inclusion of integrated tasks in oral proficiency tests. However, the relationships between strategy use, task type, and task performance are varied and complex.

Patent
31 Oct 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, a task to be performed by a virtual assistant for an action and/or object is identified based on a task map of the virtual assistant, and the task may be assigned an action, object, and variable value to a particular task.
Abstract: Techniques for mapping actions and objects to tasks may include identifying a task to be performed by a virtual assistant for an action and/or object. The task may be identified based on a task map of the virtual assistant. In some examples, the task may be identified based on contextual information of a user, such as a conversation history, content output history, user preferences, and so on. The techniques may also include customizing a task map for a particular context, such as a particular user, industry, platform, device type, and so on. The customization may include assigning an action, object, and/or variable value to a particular task.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A set of criteria for evaluating videoconferencing-based tasks which examine such aspects of a task as practicality, language-learning potential, learner fit, authenticity, and positive impact are proposed.
Abstract: This article addresses a pervasive need in the area of videoconference-supported distance language learning: task design. On the basis of Chapelle's (2001) criteria for CALL task appropriateness, this article proposes a set of criteria for evaluating videoconferencing-based tasks which examine such aspects of a task as practicality, language-learning potential, learner fit, authenticity, and positive impact. These criteria were then tested with language learners who completed various tasks using a videoconferencing tool called NetMeeting. Upon examination of the findings in regard to each of these criteria, issues in videoconferencing task design and performance are recommended for further study.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article showed that performance on the visual array task is subject to time-related factors that are associated with retrieval from long-term memory, which is consistent with both maintenance-and retrieval-based explanations of visual arrays performance.
Abstract: One approach to understanding working memory (WM) holds that individual differences in WM capacity arise from the amount of information a person can store in WM over short periods of time. This view is especially prevalent in WM research conducted with the visual arrays task. Within this tradition, many researchers have concluded that the average person can maintain approximately 4 items in WM. The present study challenges this interpretation by demonstrating that performance on the visual arrays task is subject to time-related factors that are associated with retrieval from long-term memory. Experiment 1 demonstrates that memory for an array does not decay as a product of absolute time, which is consistent with both maintenance- and retrieval-based explanations of visual arrays performance. Experiment 2 introduced a manipulation of temporal discriminability by varying the relative spacing of trials in time. We found that memory for a target array was significantly influenced by its temporal compression with, or isolation from, a preceding trial. Subsequent experiments extend these effects to sub-capacity set sizes and demonstrate that changes in the size of k are meaningful to prediction of performance on other measures of WM capacity as well as general fluid intelligence. We conclude that performance on the visual arrays task does not reflect a multi-item storage system but instead measures a person's ability to accurately retrieve information in the face of proactive interference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). Language: en

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is indicated that the combination of direct hands-on input style with audio-visual feedback facilitated by the tangible user interface enabled a dynamic task completion strategy, which supports the development of mental skills with a slight time cost.
Abstract: In order to better understand how to design hands-on child-computer interaction, we explore how different styles of interaction facilitate children's thinking while they use their hands to manipulate objects. We present an exploratory study of children solving a spatial puzzle task. We investigate how the affordances of physical, graphical and tangible interfaces may facilitate the development of thinking skills including mental visualisation, problem space exploration and collaboration. We utilise the theory of complementary actions taken from embodied cognition to develop a video coding methodology that allows us to classify behavioural activity and make inferences about thinking skills development. Our findings indicated that the combination of direct hands-on input style with audio-visual feedback facilitated by the tangible user interface enabled a dynamic task completion strategy, which supports the development of mental skills with a slight time cost. The mouse and graphical user interface supported a trial and error approach, which may limit skills development. The physical cardboard puzzle enabled effective task completion but provided less support for social interaction and problem space exploration. We conclude with design recommendations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effect of task novelty and personal initiative on the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and creativity and found that high task novelty produced higher creativity than low task novelty.
Abstract: Transformational leadership is supposed to enhance employees' creativity. However, results of meta-analytic research on the relationships between transformational leadership and creativity fell short of expectations. In addition, the coefficients showed a huge variability. In this study, it was argued that relevant task and employee characteristics have been neglected in previous research. The benefit of transformational leadership may be limited in a context with routine tasks. Therefore, the moderating effects of task novelty and personal initiative on the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and creativity were examined. In an experimental setting, 241 undergraduate students were instructed to act like a trainee of a management consulting company and to generate ideas. The results largely supported the hypotheses. Transformational leadership led to higher creativity than transactional leadership, and high task novelty produced higher creativity than low task novelty. As pr...