Power up! Using Digital Gaming Techniques to Enhance Library Instruction

ABSTRACT

Incorporating digital gaming into education is an increasingly popular topic in academia. Educators’ views of digital gaming (e.g., computer, video, and online games) have shifted from categorizing these games as an entertaining, yet pedagogically void activity to a promising medium that engages students in the learning process. With over 70% of college students enthusiastically playing digital games, educators are tapping into digital gaming as an effective means to teach millennials problem solving and communication skills. This article investigates gamer characteristics, motivational and engaging aspects of digital games, and the parallels between gaming and the information retrieval process. The authors build on this information to present approaches to incorporate digital gaming techniques into the library classroom since it is not feasible for all libraries to create instructional digital games.     

Inexact graph matching based on kernels for object retrieval in image databases

In the framework of online object retrieval with learning, we address the problem of graph matching using kernel functions. An image is represented by a graph of regions where the edges represent the spatial relationships. Kernels on graphs are built from kernel on walks in the graph. This paper firstly proposes new kernels on graphs and on walks, which are very efficient for graphs of regions. Secondly we propose fast solutions for exact or approximate computation of these kernels. Thirdly we show results for the retrieval of images containing a specific object with the help of very few examples and counter-examples in the framework of an active retrieval scheme.     

Hydrogen storage in dinuclear Pt(II) metallacycles

Hydrogen gas physisorption in two distinct dinuclear Pt(II) metallacycles was investigated with ²H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Hydrogen adsorption isotherm data and ²H NMR spectroscopy indicated that hydrogen storage occurs via condensation within the cavities of one of the macrocycles and at the interstitial sites in the other. In addition, this study further supports the notion that heat of adsorption and pore size play critical roles in hydrogen storage.     

The power of a nod and a glance: Envelope vs. emotional feedback in animated conversational agents

In this article we describe results froman experiment of user interaction with autonomous , human - like ( humanoid ) conversational agents . We hypothesize that for embodied conversational agents , nonverbal behaviors related to the process of conversation , what we call envelope feedback, is much more important than other feedback , such as emotional expression . We test this hypothesis by having subjects interact with three autonomous agents , all capable of full - duplex multimodal interaction: able to generate and recognize speech , intonation , facial displays , and gesture . Each agent , however , gave a different kind of feedback: ( 1 ) content - related only , ( 2 ) content + envelope feedback , and ( 3 ) content + emotional . Content-related feedback includes answering questions and executing commands; envelope feedback includes behaviors such as gaze , manual beat gesture , and head movements; emotional feedback includes smiles and looks of puzzlement . Subjects' evaluations of the systemwere collected with a questionnaire , and videotapes of their speech patterns and behaviors were scored according to how often the users repeated themselves , how often they hesitated , and how often they got frustrated . The results confirmour hypothesis that envelope feedback is more important in interaction than emotional feedback and that envelope feedback plays a crucial role in supporting the process of dialog . A secondary result fromthis study shows that users give our multimodal conversational humanoids very high ratings of lifelikeness and fluidity of interaction when the agents are capable of giving such feedback .     

Specific sleepiness symptoms are indicators of performance impairment during sleep deprivation

Drivers are not always aware that they are becoming impaired as a result of sleepiness. Using specific symptoms of sleepiness might assist with recognition of drowsiness related impairment and help drivers judge whether they are safe to drive a vehicle, however this has not been evaluated. In this study, 20 healthy volunteer professional drivers completed two randomized sessions in the laboratory – one under 24 h of acute sleep deprivation, and one with alcohol. The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) and a 30 min simulated driving task (AusEdTM) were performed every 3–4 h in the sleep deprivation session, and at a BAC of 0.00% and 0.05% in the alcohol session, while electroencephalography (EEG) and eye movements were recorded. After each test session, drivers completed the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) and the Sleepiness Symptoms Questionnaire (SSQ), which includes eight specific sleepiness and driving performance symptoms. A second baseline session was completed on a separate day by the professional drivers and in an additional 20 non-professional drivers for test–retest reliability. There was moderate test–retest agreement on the SSQ (r = 0.59). Significant correlations were identified between individual sleepiness symptoms and the KSS score (r values 0.50–0.74, p < 0.01 for all symptoms). The frequency of all SSQ items increased during sleep deprivation (χ² values of 28.4–80.2, p < 0.01 for all symptoms) and symptoms were related to increased subjective sleepiness and performance deterioration. The symptoms “struggling to keep your eyes open”, “difficulty maintaining correct speed”, “reactions were slow” and “head dropping down” were most closely related to increased alpha and theta activity on EEG (r values 0.49–0.59, p < 0.001) and “nodding off to sleep” and “struggling to keep your eyes open” were related to slow eye movements (r values 0.67 and 0.64, p < 0.001). Symptoms related to visual disturbance and impaired driving performance were most accurate at detecting severely impaired driving performance (AUC on ROC curve of 0.86–0.91 for detecting change in lateral lane position greater than the change at a BAC of 0.05%). Individual sleepiness symptoms are related to impairment during acute sleep deprivation and might be able to assist drivers in recognizing their own sleepiness and ability to drive safely.     

"Learned helplessness" or "learned incompetence"?

Most experiments on learned helplessness (LH) have not dissociated contingency from success, a procedure that has led to the belief that uncontrollability (noncontingency) is the determining feature of LH. Actually, it is not clear whether uncontrollability or failure is responsible for the LH effect, nor is it clear which of these 2 factors would be sufficient to induce the deficits found. This confusion was examined in the present 2 experiments with 80 undergraduates, who completed Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, a pretreatment task (a concept formation task in Exp I and a task based on the Revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test in Exp II), and an aftereffect task (Stroop Color–Word Test). Results suggest that uncontrollability is not a necessary or sufficient condition for producing LH. Both contingent and noncontingent Ss who experienced failure in a pretreatment task subsequently displayed deficits on tasks that did not require a problem-solving strategy. Noncontingent Ss who experienced success did not show performance decrement. It is proposed that "learned incompetence" may better account for what is experienced in this type of experiment. (French summary) (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detection of linguistic ambiguity by reflective, impulsive, fast/accurate, and slow/inaccurate children.

Investigated the relation of conceptual tempo to children's detection of linguistic ambiguity. After completing the Matching Familiar Figures Test, 96 4th and 7th graders were classified as reflective, impulsive, fast/accurate, and slow/accurate and were asked to paraphrase the meaning of ambiguous sentences and then to indicate their meaning through a selection of pictures. Results indicate that reflective children were more successful than impulsive and slow/inaccurate children (a) in spontaneous paraphrasing of the multiple meanings of sentences and (b) in detecting the various ambiguities on the picture measure. In contast, on the paraphrase measure, prompting by the examiner to consider alternative meanings for the sentences eliminated differences among conceptual tempo groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Logical Dialogues with Explicit Preference Profiles and Strategy Selection

The Barth–Krabbe–Hintikka–Hintikka Problem, independently raised by Barth and Krabbe (From axiom to dialogue: a philosophical study of logics and argumentation. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1982) and Hintikka and Hintikka (The sign of three: Peirce, Dupin, Holmes. In: Eco U, Sebeok TA (eds) Sherlock Holmes confronts modern logic: Toward a theory of information-seeking through questioning. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1983), is the problem of characterizing the strategic reasoning of the players of dialogical logic and game-theoretic semantics games from rational preferences rather than rules. We solve the problem by providing a set of preferences for players with bounded rationality and specifying strategic inferences from those preferences, for a variant of logical dialogues. This solution is generalized to both game-theoretic semantics and orthodox dialogical logic (classical and intuitionistic).