Consistency of sensory testing with 4- and 5-year-old children

Rank-order and paired comparison tests are widely used methods to assess previous termsensorynext term perception of young children. Small age differences could, however, influence the ability of children to carry out such tasks. This study compared rank-order and paired comparison tests for previous termconsistencynext term in previous term4next term- and 5-year-old children. During previous termfournext term sessions, 22 young adults, 21 previous term4next term-year-old and 47 5-year-old children carried out rank-order and paired comparison tests to measure discriminatory ability (0.22 M, 0.25 M, 0.29 M, 0.34 M, 0.39 M sucrose in orangeade) and preference (0.14 M, 0.20 M, 0.29 M, 0.42 M, 0.61 M sucrose in orangeade). Young adults and 5-year-old children were able to discriminate between all solutions and showed a high previous termconsistencynext term between the rank-order and pair-wise tests for discriminatory ability (>76% previous termconsistency)next term and preference (>71% previous termconsistency)next term. In contrast, previous term4next term-year-olds detected differences in sweetness during the preference tests, but failed to distinguish sweetness intensities during the discriminatory ability tests. It is concluded that the dissimilarity between previous term4next term-and 5-year-olds in performing previous termsensorynext term tests was due to a difference in their cognitive skills rather than their previous termsensorynext term perceptual differences.

A hybrid contact state analysis methodology for robotic-based adjustment of cylindrical pair

The peg-in-hole insertion and adjustment operation is one of the most common tasks in the robotic and automatic assembly processes. Fine motion strategies associated with adjustment operations on a peg-in-hole are fundamental manipulations that can be utilised in dynamic assembly and reconfigurable workholding or fixturing systems. This paper presents a comprehensive study of robotic-based height adjustment of a cylindrical pair based on maintaining minimum contact forces between the links. The outer link is held by the end-effector of a six-DOF (Degrees of freedom) serial articulated robot manipulator. The environment represented by the inner link can be either static or dynamic. A force-based approach and a d value approach are established to determine the type of contact that exists between the links of a cylindrical pair, and to extract control parameters. Based on the comparison and analysis of these two approaches, a hybrid methodology is established by combining a d value approach with a force-based approach for contact state determination. Formulations capable of extracting necessary control parameters, which ensure minimum contact forces between the links, are established from both planar and spatial viewpoints under both static and dynamic environmental conditions. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Investigating the effects of personality traits on pair programming in a higher education setting through a family of experiments

Evidence from our systematic literature review revealed numerous inconsistencies in findings from the Pair Programming (PP) literature regarding the effects of personality on PP's effectiveness as a pedagogical tool. In particular: i) the effect of differing personality traits of pairs on the successful implementation of pair-programming (PP) within a higher education setting is still unclear, and ii) the personality instrument most often used had been Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), despite being an indicator criticized by personality psychologists as unreliable in measuring an individual's personality traits. These issues motivated the research described in this paper. We conducted a series of five formal experiments (one of which was a replicated experiment), between 2009 and 2010, at the University of Auckland, to investigate the effects of personality composition on PP's effectiveness. Each experiment looked at a particular personality trait of the Five-Factor personality framework. This framework comprises five broad traits (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), and our experiments focused on three of these - Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. A total of 594 undergraduate students participated as subjects. Overall, our findings for all five experiments, including the replication, showed that Conscientiousness and Neuroticism did not present a statistically significant effect upon paired students' academic performance. However, Openness played a significant role in differentiating paired students' academic performance. Participants' survey results also indicated that PP not only caused an increase in satisfaction and confidence levels but also brought enjoyment to the tutorial classes and enhanced students' motivation.