Cognitive Map Theory (O’Keefe & Nadel, 1978) posits that spatial behavior can reflect locale or taxon strategies. Only locale strategies depend on cognitive maps, and learning recruited by these strategies is unlike associative learning (e.g., Rescorla & Wagner, 1972; Mackintosh, 1975), which is prevalent in the taxon system. Associative learning phenomena like the blocking effect (Kamin, 1969) should therefore not occur during acquisition of cognitive maps. Contrary to this prediction, blocking effects have been demonstrated in spatial learning (e.g., Biegler & Morris, 1999; Chamizo, Sterio, & Mackintosh, 1985; Hamilton & Sutherland, 1999), and have been generally interpreted as evidence against cognitive map theory. Here we provide evidence suggesting that taxon and not locale strategies were promoted in these experiments, and we ask which factors determine whether taxon or locale strategies control spatial behavior in a computer-implementation of a widely used spatial task (Morris Water Maze; Morris, 1981). We isolated two factors relevant for spatial strategy choice in human spatial learning that are both related to the individual’s preexisting knowledge, namely conceptual knowledge about the distal cues, and knowledge about the task affordances. The blocking effect was used as an index for locale or taxon learning. We found that taxon strategies were more likely for abstract distal cues, while concrete cues promoted locale strategies – blocking was present for the former, but not the latter. When subjects were aware that the distal cues predicted locations, locale, and not taxon strategies were recruited, such that blocking was not observed. Spatial strategy choice appears to be largely driven by interindividual differences, and can therefore not be easily predicted a priori. Our findings cannot be explained by associative learning theories, but provide strong support for cognitive map theory and the position that multiple behavioral systems exist in the brain.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / This thesis examines the effectiveness of the Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT) as a tool to train shooters in the fundamentals of marksmanship. Key concepts explored in the research are verification of skills transfer resulting from practice and the predictive value of simulated performance to proficiency at real task performance. There was no statistical difference in the scores of recruits trained in the ISMT versus a control group that was not trained in the ISMT. Scores on simulated firing were not a strong predictor of live fire performance. In a second experiment subjects were evaluated on their proficiency and improvement during un-coached practice at the task of simulated precision fire on a target at a simulated known distance of 300 yards from the shooters. After comparable amounts of practice in the ISMT, subjects who had not previously received formal marksmanship training failed to demonstrate levels of proficiency comparable to those subjects who had previously received formal marksmanship training in the military. Consequently, the research found no evidence to suggest the ISMT qualifies as a black box training apparatus capable of imparting skill through practice without the added presence of expert instruction or an existing knowledge of marksmanship techniques. / Major, United States Marine Corps

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurodegenerative disorder that causes memory loss and cognitive dysfunction. It affects one in five people over the age of 80 and is distressing for both sufferers and their families. A transitional stage between normal ageing and dementia including AD is termed a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Recent studies have shown that people with MCI may convert to AD over time although not all MCI cases progress to AD. Much research is now focussing on early detection of AD and diagnosing an MCI that will progress to AD to allow prompt treatment and disease management before the neurons degenerate to a stage beyond repair. Hence, the ability to obtain a method of identifying MCI is of great importance. Virtual reality plays an important role in healthcare and offers opportunities for detection of MCI. There are various studies that have focused on detection of early AD using virtual environments, although results remain limited. One significant drawback of these studies has been their limited capacity to incorporate levels of difficulty to challenge users' capability. Furthermore, at best, these studies have only been able to discriminate between early AD and healthy elderly with about 80% of overall accuracy. As a result, a novel virtual simulation called Virtual Reality for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease (VREAD) was developed. VREAD is a quick, easy and friendly tool that aims to investigate cognitive functioning in a group of healthy elderly participants and those with MCI. It focuses on the task of following a route, since Topographical Disorientation (TD) is common in AD. An investigation was set up with two cohorts: non-elderly and elderly participants. The findings with regard to the non-elderly are important as they represent a first step towards implementation with elderly people. The results with elderly participants indicate that this simulation based assessment could provide a method for the detection of MCI since significant correlations between the virtual simulation and existing neuropsychological tests were found. In addition, the results proved that VREAD is comparable with well-known neuropsychological tests, such as Cambridge Neuropsychological Automated Test Battery, Paired Associate Learning (CANTAB PAL) and Graded Naming Test (GNT). Furthermore, analysis through the use of machine learning techniques with regard to the prediction of MCI also obtained encouraging results. This novel simulation was able to predict with about 90% overall accuracy using weighting function proposed to discriminate between MCI and healthy elderly.

Visual object detection is a popular computer vision task that has been intensively investigated using deep learning on real data. However, data from virtual environments have not received the same attention. A virtual environment enables generating data for locations that are not easily reachable for data collection, e.g. aerial environments. In this thesis, we study the problem of object detection in virtual environments, more specifically an aerial virtual environment. We use a simulator, to generate a synthetic data set of 16 different types of vehicles captured from an airplane. To study the performance of existing methods in virtual environments, we train and evaluate two state-of-the-art detectors on the generated data set. Experiments show that both detectors, You Only Look Once version 3 (YOLOv3) and Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD), reach similar performance quality as previously presented in the literature on real data sets. In addition, we investigate different fusion techniques between detectors which were trained on two different subsets of the dataset, in this case a subset which has cars with fixed colors and a dataset which has cars with varying colors. Experiments show that it is possible to train multiple instances of the detector on different subsets of the data set, and combine these detectors in order to boost the performance.

La réalité virtuelle, jusqu’alors réservée à des professionnels, poursuit son développement avec la mise sur le marché du grand public, de périphériques (e.g., Oculus) et d’applications (e.g., Star Wars : Jedi Challenges) dit « immersifs ». Pour autant, la littérature ne recense que peu de modèles et d’outils faisant référence à l’expérience utilisateur ou User eXperience (UX) en Environnement Virtuel Immersif (EVI), et les quelques modèles et outils existants ne considèrent pas l’ensemble des composants de l’UX. Cette thèse vise à proposer et valider un modèle holistique d’UX adapté aux EVI (objectif 1), à construire et valider un questionnaire d’UX opérationnalisant le modèle (objectif 2) et à utiliser le questionnaire validé dans le cadre d’une entreprise internationale, éditrice d’applications immersives dans le domaine ludo-éducatif (objectif 3). Le modèle « Immersive Virtual Experience Model » (IVEM) que nous proposons est multidimensionnel. En effet, il regroupe non seulement les facteurs intrinsèques à l’EVI (i.e., largeur du champ visuel, fréquence d’image, niveau d’interactivité, feedback du contenu 3D) et les facteurs propres à l’utilisateur (i.e., expérience précédente) impactant l’UX, mais aussi les composants caractérisant l’UX référencés dans la littérature (i.e., présence, immersion, engagement, flow, utilisabilité, compétences, émotions, conséquences de l’expérience, jugement, adoption de la technologie). Le modèle IVEM validé via cinq études expérimentales confirme les effets des facteurs sur les composants déjà identifiés dans la littérature et fait apparaître de nouvelles relations entre les composants jusqu’alors non démontrées. Notre questionnaire « Immersive Virtual Experience Questionnaire » (IVEQ) opérationnalise les dix composants de notre modèle, à travers des items provenant de questionnaires validés et répertoriés dans la littérature. Le questionnaire IVEQ validé à travers une étude expérimentale conduite sur 152 participants, est composé de 68 items : 9 items de présence, 3 items d’engagement, 5 items d’immersion, 10 items de flow, 11 items d’émotion, 6 items de compétence, 9 items de jugement, 8 items relatifs aux conséquences de l’expérience et 7 items concernent l’adoption de la technologie. Le questionnaire validé a été expérimenté chez un éditeur de solutions immersives, l’entreprise EON Reality, pour assister la conception de l’application ludo-éducative King Tut VR2, qui mobilise deux périphériques de réalité virtuelle : le casque VRONE et la salle immersive iCube. / Virtual Reality has until recently been mostly dedicated to experts. It is now pursuing its development towards the general public with the launch of new devices (e.g., Oculus) and immersive applications (e.g., Star Wars: Jedi Challenges). However, only few User eXperience (UX) models and tools are identified for Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE) in the scientific literature. And these few existing models and tools do not consider all the relevant UX components. This thesis aims to propose and validate a holistic UX model adjusted to IVE (objective 1), to build and validate a UX questionnaire that operationalizes the model (objective 2) and to use the validated questionnaire in an international company context, specifically an immersive applications editor in the field of edutainment (objective 3). The « Immersive Virtual Experience Model » (IVEM) model that we propose is multidimensional. Indeed, it combines not only IVE intrinsic factors (i.e., field of view, framerate, interactive level, 3D content feedback) and user intrinsic factors (i.e., previous experience) but also components from the scientific literature that characterizes the UX (i.e., presence, immersion, engagement, flow, usability, skills, emotions, experience consequences, judgement, technology adoption). The IVEM model was validated via five experimental studies. It confirms the effects of factors on components already identifies in the scientific literature as well as revealing new relations between components that were not demonstrated until then. Our « Immersive Virtual Experience Questionnaire » (IVEQ) questionnaire operationalizes the ten components of our model through items originating from validated and reported questionnaires in the scientific literature. The IVEQ questionnaire was validated through an experimental study conducted on 152 participants. It now comprises 68 items: 9 items for presence, 3 items for engagement, 5 items for immersion, 10 items for flow, 11 items for emotion, 6 items for skill, 9 items for judgement, 8 items related to experience consequences and 7 items refers to technology adoption. The validated questionnaire was experimented with an immersive solutions editor, specifically the EON Reality company, in order to assist the design of the edutainment application King Tut VR2 that can be used via two virtual reality devices: the VRONE headset and the immersive room iCube.

La communication haptique interpersonnelle est communément utilisée pour se saluer, se féliciter, ou de manière indirecte pour manipuler des objets lourds. Pourtant, la modalité haptique est absente des systèmes de communication à distance usuels. Les progrès récents de l'informatique et des réseaux de communication ont permis l'émergence d'environnements virtuels collaboratifs offrant un retour haptique aux utilisateurs. Les environnements virtuels collaboratifs constituent une solution prometteuse pour faciliter le travail collaboratif à distance. Les contextes applicatifs sont nombreux : entrainement militaire, assemblage mécanique, manipulation moléculaire, conception assistée par ordinateur.Toutefois, les utilisateurs d'environnements virtuels collaboratifs sont confrontés à deux types de problématiques : celles liées aux environnements virtuels 3D et celles liées à la collaboration à distance. En effet, il est difficile pour un utilisateur peu expérimenté d'interagir avec un environnement virtuel 3D. Se déplacer et manipuler des objets dans ce type d'environnement nécessite une bonne représentation mentale de l'espace.De plus, la collaboration à distance limite les possibilités et la qualité de la communication. Les informations dont disposent les utilisateurs sur leurs partenaires sont donc réduites. Dans ce contexte, la coordination des actions entre les utilisateurs devient plus complexe.L'objectif de ces travaux de thèse est donc de proposer des méthodes d'interaction visio-haptique pour faciliter la coordination et augmenter l'attention mutuelle entre les utilisateurs. Via l'amélioration de la coordination et de l'attention inter-utilisateurs, une augmentation des performances et de l'efficacité du travail collaboratif est escomptée.Trois types d'interactions fondamentales sont abordées dans un contexte collaboratif : la coordination des sélections, le paramétrage des sélections et la manipulation collaborative d'objet. Pour chacune des tâches d'interactions précédemment citées, des méthodes d'interaction ainsi que des outils de coordination et de communication ont été proposé et évalué.Ces travaux de thèse présentent les points forts mais aussi les défauts des méthodes d'interaction collaboratives fortement couplées. Les résultats obtenus montrent également l'importance de la communication haptique dans la collaboration à distance. / Haptic interpersonal communication is commonly used to salute, to congratulate, or indirectly to manipulate heavy objects. However, the haptic feedback is missing from the common communication systems. Recent developments in telecommunications and computer capabilities have made possible the use of haptic feedback in collaborative virtual environments. Collaborative virtual environments are a promising solution to facilitate remote work collaboration. They have many applications like: military training, engineering design, e-learning or video games.Nevertheless, users of collaborative virtual environments have to face several issues. First, interacting with a virtual environment is not a straightforward task. Navigate and manipulate objects in a virtual environment requires a good mental representation of space. Secondly, remote collaboration limits the communication quality because even the best video conference system can't support all the richness of a face to face communication. Information available on the partners are reduced thus coordinate actions between users become a complex task.The aim of this thesis is to propose visual haptic interactions to simplify coordination and increase mutual awareness between the users. Through the improvement of coordination and mutual awareness an increase of team performance and work efficiency is expected.Three kind of fundamental 3D interactions are addressed in collaborative context: the coordination of selections, the setting of selections and the manipulation of objects. For each of these three of fundamental interactions, several methods of interaction and tools of coordination are proposed and assessed.The findings of this thesis highlight the strengths and the weaknesses of the closely coupled method of interactions. The results of the experiments also confirm the importance of haptic communication in remote collaboration.

Uma vez que uma aplicação ou projeto tenha sido identificado como sujeito ao uso da simulação, decisões devem ser tomadas acerca de como conduzir os estudos. Embora não haja regras definitivas, alguns passos são geralmente recomendados, tais como: planejamento do estudo, definição do sistema, construção do modelo, execução dos experimentos, análise dos resultados e relatório final. E, a construção do modelo é uma das etapas mais demoradas e complexas. Na execução dos experimentos, e na análise dos resultados a Realidade Virtual (RV) é uma interface que pode fornecer um suporte importante para a tomada de decisões, pois a RV auxilia na criação de mundos virtuais semelhantes ao mundo real, que ajudam na compreensão do funcionamento dos sistemas. Este trabalho propõe um metamodelo para o desenvolvimento de sistemas de simulação de eventos discretos com interface de RV aplicados a ambientes ou estações de trabalho de manufatura. A proposta do metamodelo é composto por quatro módulos: i) de edição e validação de modelos, ii) de criação, edição e execução de ambientes virtuais, iii) de conexão para efetuar o elo entre os dois primeiros módulos e, iv) de controle para gerenciar a comunicação e controlar a simulação. Como resultado tem-se a simulação centralizada baseada no modelo descrito em Rede de Petris (RP) com interface de RV distribuída. O sistema computacional gerado pelo metamodelo auxiliará no aprendizado e compreensão do problema simulado, e ainda permitirá ao usuário o envolvimento através da iteração. / The VR aids in the creation of virtual worlds similar to the real world, helping in understanding how a system works. This research work is concerned with the development of a discrete-event system simulation based on Petri Nets, with Virtual Reality interface for manufacturing environment or workstations. The system is composed of four modules, the first is model editing and validation, the second module is a modeling tool for virtual objects and/or a library of virtual elements, the third module makes the link between the two previous modules, and finally, the fourth is a simulation and control module. The centralized simulation is based on models described by Petri Nets with distributed RV interface resulting in a flexible and consistent system. The system will help users in learning and understanding the simulation problem, and it will also allow the user\'s integration with the environment through the interaction, and through distributed interface.

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-04-24T12:32:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 KellyCristinaBarbosaLeviAlvimDissertacao2018.pdf: 1673803 bytes, checksum: 011fb9ebb50fb8a4fdf2a939e29dfb69 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-04-24T12:32:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 KellyCristinaBarbosaLeviAlvimDissertacao2018.pdf: 1673803 bytes, checksum: 011fb9ebb50fb8a4fdf2a939e29dfb69 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-24T12:32:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KellyCristinaBarbosaLeviAlvimDissertacao2018.pdf: 1673803 bytes, checksum: 011fb9ebb50fb8a4fdf2a939e29dfb69 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-05 / Knowledge about the use of technologies has become necessary in contemporary culture, regardless of age, influencing self-worth and developing daily activities and relationships. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of the virtual environment on the improvement of the perception of cognitive ability and on the improvement of the mood states of the elderly. The methodology used was quantitative, quasi-experimental and cross-sectional, with pre and post intervention measures. The application was in a group and had an average duration of 40 minutes in each moment, the final sample being composed of 25 elderly people with mean age equal to 64.92 (?? 3.74).A structured questionnaire was applied with the sociodemographic measures, the states of anxiety (BAI-II) and depression (BDI), the WHOQOL-bref, which evaluates the quality of life and the MIAr, which investigates the metamemory. Descriptive statistics and distribution measures, correlation analysis and regression were used in the analyzes. The results showed a higher concentration of females (60%). As for mood states, there was no significant difference between pre- and post-intervention data. With regard to the quality of life added to the mood state there was a trend of improvement in the psychological domain (p???0.07). The t test paired showed significant differences in the social relations domains (p ???0,0001), total quality of life (p???0.01) and trend in the environmental domain (p???0.07). MIAr revealed an increase in the perception of those with poor memory (20-32%) and those who had a good memory (16-32%). It was concluded that there were important changes in some domains related to quality of life and in the metamemory of the evaluated elderly. / O conhecimento sobre o uso de tecnologias passou a ser necess??rio na cultura contempor??nea, independentemente da faixa et??ria, influenciando na autovaloriza????o e no desenvolvimento das atividades e rela????es di??rias. Este trabalho teve por objetivo geral analisar o impacto do ambiente virtual na melhora da percep????o da capacidade cognitiva e na melhora nos estados de humor dos idosos. A metodologia utilizada foi do tipo quantitativa, quase-experimental e transversal, com medidas pr?? e p??s-interven????o. A aplica????o deu-se em grupo e teve dura????o m??dia de 40 minutos em cada momento, sendo a amostra final composta por 25 idosos com m??dia de idade: 64,92 (??3,74). Foram aplicados um question??rio estruturado com as medidas sociodemogr??ficas, os estados de ansiedade (BAI-II) e depress??o (BDI), o WHOQOL-bref, que avalia a qualidade de vida, e o MIAr, que investiga a metamem??ria. Nas an??lises, foram utilizadas estat??sticas descritivas e medidas de distribui????o, an??lise de correla????o e de regress??o. Os resultados apresentaram uma maior concentra????o do sexo feminino (60%). Quanto aos estados de humor, n??o houve diferen??a significativa entre os dados pr?? e p??s-interven????o. No que se refere a qualidade de vida somada ao estado de humor, houve uma tend??ncia de melhora no dom??nio psicol??gico (p???0,07). O teste t pareado apresentou diferen??as significativas nos dom??nios rela????es sociais (p ???0,0001), qualidade de vida total (p???0,01) e tend??ncia no dom??nio do meio ambiente (p???0,07). O MIAr revelou um aumento na percep????o de quem se percebia com mem??ria ruim (20-32%) e quem se achava com boa mem??ria (16-32%), concluindo-se que houve altera????es importantes em alguns dom??nios referentes a qualidade de vida e na metamem??ria dos idosos avaliados.

As melhorias alcançadas na Educação através do uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação são inegáveis. Entretanto, os avanços em direção a um ensino personalizado e direcionado às preferências, ao nivelamento (saneamento das dificuldades e pré-requisitos de conteúdo) e aos interesses dos estudantes são pequenos. Desta forma, através da identificação dos conhecimentos prévios dos alunos, bem como dos conteúdos (conceituais) buscou-se aprimorar o processo de ensino para que cada aluno alcance, a seu modo (de forma personalizada) o aprendizado e possa avançar na disciplina/ano em questão. Como é humanamente impossível um professor conhecer as características e dificuldades de conteúdo de todos os seus alunos, é interessante que o ambiente virtual que apoia o professor possa auxiliar para um atendimento mais personalizado, permitindo que o aluno interaja no seu próprio ritmo de estudo, acesse os conteúdos necessários ou aprofunde-se em algum conteúdo que ele já domine. Esta tese propõe um método de uso das ferramentas disponíveis de ambientes virtuais, principalmente do MOODLE, para alcançar a personalização do ensino e conduzir o aluno em sua própria trajetória individual rumo ao aprendizado significativo, sanando dificuldades de conteúdo. Seguindo o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade do ensino sem necessidade de grade investimento de desenvolvimento de ambiente nem aporte financeiro. Para validar o método foi realizado um projeto piloto mais dois experimentos, todos no Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre que totalizaram a participação de 256 alunos. Os resultados demonstraram a viabilidade do método, medido através da melhora nas notas (análise quantitativa) e da análise qualitativa dos dados e dos questionários (respondidos pelos alunos e professores). Destaca-se como vantagem educacional o desenvolvimento do método que pode ser aplicado a qualquer disciplina ou modelo de ensino e como vantagem computacional o uso do MOODLE para personalizar o ensino. / The use of information and communication technologies made undeniable advances in education. However, advances towards personalized learning and directed to the preferences, the leveling (improvement of difficulties and prerequisites) and to the interests of students are small yet. Thus, it is intended, by identifying the students' prior knowledge and content (conceptual) to improve the process so that each student reach, at their mode (personalized) the learning and make progress in discipline/year in question. We know that is humanly impossible for a teacher to know the characteristics and difficulties of content of all his students. So, the virtual environment that supports the teacher should have the flexibility to customize interactions with each student, which allows the student to interact at his/her own study pace, access the necessary content or deepen in some content that he/she has mastered. This thesis proposes a method for using the available virtual environments tools, especially the MOODLE, to achieve the personalization of teaching and to lead the student in his own individual trajectory toward meaningful learning, healing content difficulties. Following the objective of improving the quality of education without the need for large investment in environmental development or financial contribution. To validate the method was carried out a pilot project plus two experiments, all occurred at Military College of Porto Alegre, with a total of 256 students. The results showed the viability of the method, measured by the improvement in grades (quantitative analysis) and the qualitative analysis of data and questionnaires (answered by students and teachers). It is highlighted as an educational advantage, the development of the method that can be applied to any discipline or teaching model and as computational advantage, the use of MOODLE to customize teaching.

Tendo em vista a importância da disciplina Estatística Aplicada à Administração no exercício da função do futuro administrador, pretendeu-se com este trabalho elaborar e desenvolver a estrutura do LaViE Laboratório Virtual de Estatística Aplicada à Administração um ambiente virtual de aprendizado destinado a alunos de Graduação e Pós-Graduação em Administração, e que tem por objetivo facilitar a compreensão da matéria e conciliar a motivação e a facilidade no aprendizado. O trabalho consistiu na criação da estrutura de um ambiente virtual (web page) por meio do qual os estudantes têm acesso desde a conceitos básicos da Estatística até a aplicação prática da matéria em situações modelo encontradas no cotidiano do administrador, aliando, dessa forma, a teoria à prática. Utiliza-se, portanto, da internet, a rede mundial de computadores, cujo recente crescimento no número de usuários proporcionou, juntamente com o avanço computacional e eletrônico, a revalorização da educação a distância, revelando-se um agente facilitador do processo de distribuição do conhecimento, uma vez que permite ao estudante aprender no seu contexto imediato, planejar no tempo e no espaço suas atividades de estudo, seguindo seu próprio ritmo de aprendizagem. O desenvolvimento da estrutura desse ambiente virtual de ensino-aprendizagem abrangeu as seguintes etapas: levantamento bibliográfico, análise, planejamento e desenvolvimento, implementação, utilização e avaliação. / Having in mind the importance of the discipline Statistical Applied to the Administration in the exercise of the function of the future manager, intended with this work to study and develop the LaViE structure Virtual Laboratory of Statistical Applied to the Administration a virtual environment of learning for graduation and post graduation administration students, with the purpose to facilitate the comprehension of the subject and to conciliate motivation and easiness in learning. This work consisted in the creation of the structure of a virtual environment (web Page) that promote for the students accessing since basic concepts of the Statistics until the practice application of the subject in model situations observed in manager routine, it allying the theory to the practice. It use, therefore, internet, the world network of computers, whose recent growth in the number of users provided, together with the computational and electronic advance, the revaluation of the distance learning, and revealed a facilitative agent of the knowledge distribution process, once that it allows for the students to learning in their immediate context, to planning in the time and in their space study activities according to their learning rhythm. The development of the structure of this virtual environment of teaching-learning embraced the next stages: bibliographic rising, analysis, planning and development, implementation, utilization and evaluation.