Balancing the demands of two tasks: an investigation of cognitive-motor dual-tasking in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Background: People with relapsing remitting MS (PwRRMS) suffer disproportionate decrements in gait under dual-task conditions, when walking and a cognitive task are combined. There has been much less investigation of the impact of cognitive demands on balance. This study investigated whether: (1) PwRRMS show disproportionate decrements in postural stability under dual-task conditions compared to healthy controls; (2) dual-task decrements are associated with everyday dual-tasking difficulties. In addition, the impact of mood, fatigue and disease severity on dual-tasking were also examined. Methods: 34 PwRRMS and 34 matched controls completed cognitive (digit span) and balance (movement of centre of pressure on a Biosway, on stable and unstable surfaces) tasks under single and dual-task conditions. Everyday dual-tasking was measured using the DTQ. Mood was measured by the HADS. Fatigue was measured via the MFIS. Results: No differences in age, gender, years of education, estimated pre-morbid IQ or baseline digit span between the groups. Compared to healthy controls, PwRRMS showed a significantly greater decrement in postural stability under dual-task conditions on an unstable surface (p=0.007), but not a stable surface (p=0.679). PwRRMS reported higher levels of everyday dual-tasking difficulties (p<0.001). Balance decrement scores were not correlated with everyday dual-tasking difficulties, or with fatigue. Stable surface balance decrement scores were significantly associated with levels of anxiety (rho=0.527, p=0.001) and depression (rho=0.451, p=0.007). Conclusion: RRMS causes difficulties with dual-tasking, impacting balance, particularly under challenging conditions, which may contribute to an increased risk of gait difficulties and falls. The striking relationship between anxiety/depression and dual-task decrement suggests that worry may be contributing to dual-task difficulties.

Constructive alignment and the research skills development framework: Using theory to practically align graduate attributes, learning experiences, and assessment tasks in undergraduate midwifery

Midwifery educators have to provide students with stimulating curricula that teach academic and vocational content, as well as transferable skills. The Research Skills Development (RSD) framework provides a conceptual model that allows educators to explicitly scaffold the development of their students’ research skills. This paper aims to demonstrate the effective use of the RSD framework and constructive alignment theory to redesign a second-year Midwifery assessment task.The assessment task was changed into a scenario-based question to better reflect the unit learning objectives and expected graduate attributes. Students were provided with extra time in class to explore the assessment task in a peer environment. Following the return of their assessments, students were asked to complete a questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment redesign. We show that using a constructively aligned scenario-based assessment task in a second year unit more successfully articulated the expected graduate attributes of midwives. Qualitative and quantitative feedback suggested that students and staff appreciated a more clinically- relevant assessment task. This paper demonstrates that the use of the RSD framework to constructively aligngraduate attributes, learning experiences, and assessment tasks allows for the transformation of undergraduate assessment into a learning experience relevant to clinical practice.

Motion trajectory analysis for evaluating the performance of functional upper extremity tasks in daily living : a pilot study

Since 1998, tele-rehabilitation has been extensively studied for its potential capacity of saving time and cost for both therapists and patients. However, one gap hindering the deployment of tele-rehabilitation service is the approach to evaluate the outcome after tele-rehabilitation exercises without the presence of professional clinicians. In this paper, we propose an approach to model jerky and jerky-free movement trajectories with hidden Markov models (HMMs). The HMMs are then utilised to identify the jerky characteristics in a motion trajectory, thereby providing the number and amplitude of jerky movements in the specific length of the trajectory. Eventually, the ability of performing functional upper extremity tasks can be evaluated by classifying the motion trajectory into one of the pre-defined ability levels by looking at the number and amplitude of jerky movements. The simulation experiment confirmed that the proposed method is able to correctly classify motion trajectories into various ability levels to a high degree.

A collaborative development of quality mathematics assessment tasks to promote preservice teachers’ professional eye

The Mathematics Teacher Education Collective (MTEC) — a self-study group based at the University of British Columbia, Canada — collaborates to enhance our pedagogical practice in mathematics teacher education through analysing, constructing, and reflecting on variations to assessment tasks. The theoretical framework underlying the establishment of the MTEC is based on Lave and Wenger’s (1991) view of learning through a Community of Practice (CoP). “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger-Trayner, 2011, http://wenger-trayner.com/theory/). Three characteristics are viewed as crucial to the CoP: domain, community, and practice. The shared domain for MTEC is a commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of practice as mathematics teacher educators. In particular, as members we are interested in better understanding the role and development of tasks for learning to teach mathematics. As a community MTEC engages “in joint activities and discussions, [that] help each other, and share information” (Wenger-Trayner, 2011, http://wenger-trayner.com/theory/), with the goal to build relationships that provide members with opportunities to learn from one other. MTEC members are practitioners in the field. The success of the MTEC is based on the sharing, evaluation and critical reflection of assessment tasks and pedagogical approaches refined by the CoP.

A NATURALISTIC COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN NAVIGATION AND SEARCH TASKS

Planning, navigation, and search are fundamental human cognitive abilities central to spatial problem solving in search and rescue, law enforcement, and military operations. Despite a wealth of literature concerning naturalistic spatial problem solving in animals, literature on naturalistic spatial problem solving in humans is comparatively lacking and generally conducted by separate camps among which there is little crosstalk. Addressing this deficiency will allow us to predict spatial decision making in operational environments, and understand the factors leading to those decisions. The present dissertation is comprised of two related efforts, (1) a set of empirical research studies intended to identify characteristics of planning, execution, and memory in naturalistic spatial problem solving tasks, and (2) a computational modeling effort to develop a model of naturalistic spatial problem solving. The results of the behavioral studies indicate that problem space hierarchical representations are linear in shape, and that human solutions are produced according to multiple optimization criteria. The Mixed Criteria Model presented in this dissertation accounts for global and local human performance in a traditional and naturalistic Traveling Salesman Problem. The results of the empirical and modeling efforts hold implications for basic and applied science in domains such as problem solving, operations research, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

Assessing Decision Making Skill in Complex and Dynamic Environments Using Representative and Simulated Tasks

Traditional decision making research has often focused on one's ability to choose from a set of prefixed options, ignoring the process by which decision makers generate courses of action (i.e., options) in-situ (Klein, 1993). In complex and dynamic domains, this option generation process is particularly critical to understanding how successful decisions are made (Zsambok & Klein, 1997). When generating response options for oneself to pursue (i.e., during the intervention-phase of decision making) previous research has supported quick and intuitive heuristics, such as the Take-The-First heuristic (TTF; Johnson & Raab, 2003). When generating predictive options for others in the environment (i.e., during the assessment-phase of decision making), previous research has supported the situational-model-building process described by Long Term Working Memory theory (LTWM; see Ward, Ericsson, & Williams, 2013). In the first three experiments, the claims of TTF and LTWM are tested during assessment- and intervention-phase tasks in soccer. To test what other environmental constraints may dictate the use of these cognitive mechanisms, the claims of these models are also tested in the presence and absence of time pressure. In addition to understanding the option generation process, it is important that researchers in complex and dynamic domains also develop tools that can be used by `real-world' professionals. For this reason, three more experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a new online assessment of perceptual-cognitive skill in soccer. This test differentiated between skill groups and predicted performance on a previously established test and predicted option generation behavior. The test also outperformed domain-general cognitive tests, but not a domain-specific knowledge test when predicting skill group membership. Implications for theory and training, and future directions for the development of applied tools are discussed.

Socratic flipped classroom : What types of questions and tasks promote learning?

Socratic questioning stresses the importance of questioning for learning. Flipped Classroom pedagogy generates a need for effective questions and tasks in order to promote active learning. This paper describes a project aimed at finding out how different kinds of questions and tasks support students’ learning in a flipped classroom context. In this study, during the flipped courses, both the questions and tasks were distributed together with video recordings. Answers and solutions were presented and discussed in seminars, with approximately 10 participating students in each seminar. Information Systems students from three flipped classroom courses at three different levels were interviewed in focus groups about their perceptions of how different kinds of questions and tasks supported their learning process. The selected courses were organized differently, with various kinds of questions and tasks. Course one included open questions that were answered and presented at the seminar. Students also solved a task and presented the solution to the group. Course two included open questions and a task. Answers and solutions were discussed at the seminars where students also reviewed each other’s answers and solutions. Course three included online single- and multiple choice questions with real-time feedback. Answers were discussed at the seminar, with the focus on any misconceptions. In this paper we categorized the questions in accordance with Wilson (2016) as factual, convergent, divergent, evaluative, or a combination of these. In all, we found that any comprehensible question that initiates a dialogue, preferably with a set of Socratic questions, is perceived as promoting learning. This is why seminars that allow such questions and discussion are effective. We found no differences between the different kinds of Socratic questions. They were seen to promote learning so long as they made students reflect and problematize the questions. To conclude, we found that questions and tasks promote learning when they are answered and solved in a process that is characterized by comprehensibility, variation, repetition and activity.

The Effects of Visual Discriminability and Rotation Angle on 30-Month-Olds’ Search Performance in Spatial Rotation Tasks

Tracking objects that are hidden and then moved is a crucial ability related to object permanence, which develops across several stages in early childhood. In spatial rotation tasks, children observe a target object that is hidden in one of two or more containers before the containers are rotated around a fixed axis. Usually, 30-month-olds fail to find the hidden object after it was rotated by 180°. We examined whether visual discriminability of the containers improves 30-month-olds’ success in this task and whether children perform better after 90° than after 180° rotations. Two potential hiding containers with same or different colors were placed on a board that was rotated by 90° or 180° in a within-subjects design. Children (N D 29) performed above chance level in all four conditions. Their overall success in finding the object did not improve by differently colored containers. However, different colors prevented children from showing an inhibition bias in 90° rotations, that is, choosing the empty container more often when it was located close to them than when it was farther away: This bias emerged in the same colors condition but not in the different colors condition. Results are discussed in view of particular challenges that might facilitate or deteriorate spatial rotation tasks for young children.