Ego strength and the recall of tasks.

"A study was made of the relation between selected Rorschach factors believed to measure ego strength and recall preferences obtained from a modified interruption-of-tasks procedure… Recall ratios for the group (of Ss) as a whole did not reveal any preference, either for completed or for interrupted tasks." Two Rorschach factors, M greater than FM, and A%, correlated slightly with the recall ratios in a manner which supported the hypothesis that strong egos will recall mostly interrupted tasks and weak egos will recall completed tasks. F + % of 80 to 90 correlated with the recall data in a manner opposite to the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Color coding and visual separability in information displays.

12 experimental Ss performed both visual search and class counting tasks, viewing displays containing 20, 60, or 100 items. Each item consisted of a vector, letter, and 3-digit number grouped together, and was presented as white-on-black in some displays, or in 1 of 5 colors. The color code was redundant with the 5 class-designator letters that were used. Average search and counting time, and counting errors, increased with increasing display density (number of items). None of these measures varied significantly among the 5 different target classes (colors). Addition of the redundant color code resulted in an average time reduction of 65% in the visual search task and 69% in the counting task, with a reduction of 76% in errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's in a name?

Notes that last year the Smiths extended still further their distinction of possessing the most frequent surname represented in the APA and presents the current top 20 from the 1963 Directory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetics of interaction of HIV fusion protein (gp41) with lipid membranes studied by real-time AFM imaging

One of the most important steps in the process of viral infection is a fusion between cell membrane and virus, which is mediated by the viral envelope glycoprotein. The study of activity of the glycoprotein in the post-fusion state is important for understanding the progression of infection. Here we present a first real-time kinetic study of the activity of gp41 (the viral envelope glycoprotein of human immunodeficiency virus—HIV) and its two mutants in the post-fusion state with nanometer resolution by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Tracking the changes in the phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylcholine–phosphatidylserine (PC:PS) membrane integrity over one hour by a set of AFM images revealed differences in the interaction of the three types of protein with zwitterionic and negatively charged membranes. A quantitative analysis of the slow kinetics of hole formation in the negatively charged lipid bilayer is presented. Specifically, analysis of the rate of roughness change for the three types of proteins suggests that they exhibit different types of kinetic behavior.     

Pro-CrossLink. Software tool for protein cross-linking and mass spectrometry

To facilitate structural analysis of proteins and protein-protein interactions, we developed Pro-CrossLink, a suite of software tools consisting of three programs (Figure 1), DetectShift, IdentifyXLink, and AssignXLink. DetectShift was developed to detect ions of cross-linked peptide pairs in a mixture of 18O-labeled peptides obtained from protein proteolytic digests. The selected candidate ions of cross-linked peptide pairs subsequently undergo tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) analysis for sequence determination. Based on the masses of candidate ions as well as y- and b-type ions in the tandem mass spectra, IdentifyXLink assigns the candidate ions to cross-linked peptide pairs. For an identified cross-linked peptide pair, AssignXLink generates an extensive fragment ion list, including a-, b-, c-type, x-, y-, z-type, internal, and immonium ions with associated common losses of H2O, NH3, CO, and CO2, and facilitates a precise location of the cross-linked residues. Pro-CrossLink is automated, highly configurable by the user, and applicable to many studies that map low-resolution protein structures and molecular interfaces in protein complexes.     

Everyday work investigations for safety

A key theme in safety is the investigation and improvement of work processes and conditions. This is built on a tradition of studying accidents, but there is growing interest in the investigation of everyday work. Researchers have started using terms such as success, normal and everyday work investigations, but behind these can be different activities. This paper makes explicit some considerations behind investigations of everyday work, how these considerations shape an investigation, and how they reflect different schools of thought. These considerations can be used as an aid for designing everyday work investigations for safety and serve as a first step towards critical reflection on investigating everyday work.     

Automated gaze-based mind wandering detection during computerized learning in classrooms

We investigate the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) eye-trackers to automatically detect mind wandering—a phenomenon involving a shift in attention from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts—during computerized learning. Study 1 (N?=?135 high-school students) tested the feasibility of COTS eye tracking while students learn biology with an intelligent tutoring system called GuruTutor in their classroom. We could successfully track eye gaze in 75% (both eyes tracked) and 95% (one eye tracked) of the cases for 85% of the sessions where gaze was successfully recorded. In Study 2, we used this data to build automated student-independent detectors of mind wandering, obtaining accuracies (mind wandering F₁?=?0.59) substantially better than chance (F₁?=?0.24). Study 3 investigated context-generalizability of mind wandering detectors, finding that models trained on data collected in a controlled laboratory more successfully generalized to the classroom than the reverse. Study 4 investigated gaze- and video- based mind wandering detection, finding that gaze-based detection was superior and multimodal detection yielded an improvement in limited circumstances. We tested live mind wandering detection on a new sample of 39 students in Study 5 and found that detection accuracy (mind wandering F₁?=?0.40) was considerably above chance (F1?=?0.24), albeit lower than offline detection accuracy from Study 1 (F₁?=?0.59), a finding attributable to handling of missing data. We discuss our next steps towards developing gaze-based attention-aware learning technologies to increase engagement and learning by combating mind wandering in classroom contexts.