Despite the rising prevalence of mobile media in young children’s lives, little research exists that examines the effects of mobile media use on early childhood cognitive development. This study will explore how mobile media use, specifically iPad use, in early childhood affects development of visual spatial attention span. Researchers will recruit 160 participants, ages 3 to 6, and categorize them into three groups: TV viewers only, interactive iPad users, and passive iPad users. Children will complete a computer task to measure the length of their visual spatial attention span. Parents will report on the average daily amount of media use, their child’s top three most viewed or used programs and apps, and the pervasiveness of media use, as well as complete a demographics survey. Research assistants will rate the level of exogenous stimuli children are exposed to in their top three programs and apps. Researchers predict that iPad use will be associated with shorter visual spatial attention spans in comparison to TV viewing, due to longer amounts of use, higher levels of exogenous stimuli, and higher levels of pervasiveness. In addition, researchers hypothesize that interactive iPad use will correlate with the shortest visual spatial attention spans due to highest levels of exogenous stimuli and longest amounts of use. The results will help parents and educators to more effectively monitor young children’s mobile media usage.

Reading comprehension proficiency is vital for learners to be successful in their academic career, however, South African studies have revealed that reading comprehension skills are severely underdeveloped in secondary school learners. Local research has investigated many contributing factors such as multilingualism and deficits with the national curriculum standards. Far fewer studies have examined the cognitive underpinnings that differentiate between English second language (ESL) learners who are proficient in reading comprehension and those who are not. Certain multi-coding theories assert that the integration of visual mental imagery and verbal information is essential for the formation of a comprehensive mental model, which forms the basis of reading comprehension. This study explored the relationship between visual reasoning ability and the reading comprehension proficiency in a group of 83 ESL learners from two urban Gauteng schools. One school represented learners who are proficient readers whilst the second group represented learners who are developing readers. The Non-Verbal Reasoning and the 3D Spatial Manipulation subtests from the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) battery were used to explore the learners’ ability to reason using visual-object and visual-spatial mental imagery. The Verbal Reasoning test was used to establish a baseline for the learners’ language skills. The items of the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test battery (SDRT-RC) were evaluated for textual factors that contribute toward word concreteness effects. The relationships between the DAT subtests and the SDRT-RC Mixed, Abstract and Concrete Items subtests were discussed in light of multi-coding models of reading comprehension.

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This dissertation represents the first systematic study of the sign language of deaf children with autism. The signing of such children is of particular interest because of the unique ways that some of the known impairments of autism are likely to interact with sign language. In particular, the visual-spatial modality of sign requires signers to understand the visual perspectives of others, a skill which may require theory of mind, which is thought to be delayed in autism (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985). It is hypothesized that an impairment in visual perspective-taking could lead to phonological errors in American Sign Language (ASL), specifically in the parameters of palm orientation, movement, and location. Twenty-five deaf children and adolescents with autism (10 deaf-of-deaf and 15 deaf-of-hearing) between the ages of 4;7 and 20;3 as well as a control group of 13 typically-developing deaf-of-deaf children between the ages of 2;7 and 6;9 were observed in a series of studies, including naturalistic observation, lexical elicitation, fingerspelling, imitation of nonsense gestures, two visual perspective-taking tasks, and a novel sign learning task. The imitation task was also performed on a control group of 24 hearing, non-signing college students. Finally, four deaf mothers of deaf autistic children were interviewed about their children’s signing. Results showed that young deaf-of-deaf autistic children under the age of 10 are prone to making phonological errors involving the palm orientation parameter, substituting an inward palm for an outward palm and vice versa. There is very little evidence that such errors occur in the typical acquisition of ASL or any other sign language. These results indicate that deaf children with autism are impaired from an early age in a cognitive mechanism involved in the acquisition of sign language phonology, though it remains unclear which mechanism(s) might be responsible. This research demonstrates the importance of sign language research for a more complete understanding of autism, as well as the need for research into atypical populations for a better understanding of sign language linguistics. / text

Le phénomène de Clignement Attentionnel (Attentional Blink, AB), fait référence à une diminution transitoire du rapport exact d’une deuxième cible (C2) si celle-ci est présentée trop tôt après une première cible (C1) lors d’une présentation visuelle sérielle rapide (rapid serial visual presentation, RSVP), et ce, quand les deux cibles doivent être rapportées. Cette étude a examiné l’existence possible d’asymétries hémisphèriques dans le traitement attentionnel ainsi que l’éventualité que la présentation de cibles à deux hémisphères différents puisse diminuer le AB chez des participants neurologiquement sains et l’abolir dans le cas d’un patient callosotomisé. Pour ce faire, nous avons employé un paradigme modifié du AB dans lequel les cibles pouvaient apparaître dans n’importe quelle de quatre RSVP, une dans chaque quadrant du champ visuel, pour permettre des essais dans lesquels les deux cibles puissent être présentées au même hémisphère et d’autres où chaque cible était présentée à un hémisphère différent. Bien que nous n’ayons trouvé aucune diminution de l’effet AB lors de présentation inter-hémisphérique, dans les deux populations à l’étude, le taux de bonnes réponses globales à la deuxième cible était plus élevé quand les cibles étaient présentées à des hémisphères différents. Nous avons également trouvé un avantage de l’hémisphère gauche chez le patient callosotomisé. / The Attentional Blink (AB) refers to a transient impairment in the accurate report of a second target (T2) if it closely follows the presentation of a first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), when both targets must be reported. This study investigated both the possibility of hemispheric asymmetries of attentional processes as well as the possibility that presenting targets to different hemispheres could diminish the AB in neurologically intact participants and abolish it in the case of a split-brain patient. To do so, a modified AB paradigm was used in which targets could appear in any of four simultaneous RSVP streams, one in each quadrant of the visual field, so as to have trials in which both targets were presented to the same hemispheres and trials in which targets were presented to different hemispheres. Although no evidence of a diminished AB was observed by presenting targets to separate hemispheres, in both neurologically intact individuals and the split-brain patient, overall accuracy was higher when targets were presented to separate hemispheres. A left hemisphere advantage was only observed in the split-brain patient.

Le phénomène de Clignement Attentionnel (Attentional Blink, AB), fait référence à une diminution transitoire du rapport exact d’une deuxième cible (C2) si celle-ci est présentée trop tôt après une première cible (C1) lors d’une présentation visuelle sérielle rapide (rapid serial visual presentation, RSVP), et ce, quand les deux cibles doivent être rapportées. Cette étude a examiné l’existence possible d’asymétries hémisphèriques dans le traitement attentionnel ainsi que l’éventualité que la présentation de cibles à deux hémisphères différents puisse diminuer le AB chez des participants neurologiquement sains et l’abolir dans le cas d’un patient callosotomisé. Pour ce faire, nous avons employé un paradigme modifié du AB dans lequel les cibles pouvaient apparaître dans n’importe quelle de quatre RSVP, une dans chaque quadrant du champ visuel, pour permettre des essais dans lesquels les deux cibles puissent être présentées au même hémisphère et d’autres où chaque cible était présentée à un hémisphère différent. Bien que nous n’ayons trouvé aucune diminution de l’effet AB lors de présentation inter-hémisphérique, dans les deux populations à l’étude, le taux de bonnes réponses globales à la deuxième cible était plus élevé quand les cibles étaient présentées à des hémisphères différents. Nous avons également trouvé un avantage de l’hémisphère gauche chez le patient callosotomisé. / The Attentional Blink (AB) refers to a transient impairment in the accurate report of a second target (T2) if it closely follows the presentation of a first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), when both targets must be reported. This study investigated both the possibility of hemispheric asymmetries of attentional processes as well as the possibility that presenting targets to different hemispheres could diminish the AB in neurologically intact participants and abolish it in the case of a split-brain patient. To do so, a modified AB paradigm was used in which targets could appear in any of four simultaneous RSVP streams, one in each quadrant of the visual field, so as to have trials in which both targets were presented to the same hemispheres and trials in which targets were presented to different hemispheres. Although no evidence of a diminished AB was observed by presenting targets to separate hemispheres, in both neurologically intact individuals and the split-brain patient, overall accuracy was higher when targets were presented to separate hemispheres. A left hemisphere advantage was only observed in the split-brain patient.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:39:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Ricardo Lemes de Almeida.pdf: 10266228 bytes, checksum: 65b1cb994ef14d0ca73bd5cbfa547e03 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-07 / One of the difficulties in teaching Chemistry is establishing relationships between representations of the microscopic and the macroscopic levels while exploring a concept. Earlier studies have shown that the use of computer or physical visualization tools result in a more efficient learning of these concepts. It is believed that part of the positive effect is related to training visual-spatial abilities. Based on these studies, this research sought to investigate the impact of an educational intervention on the accomplishments of tasks that measure visual-spatial abilities. A group of 56 students paired by gender was divided randomly into two groups. One of the groups received an educational intervention using a kit for building a tetrahedron; the other group received a list of exercises of molecular geometry. To evaluate the effects of the proposed intervention, students were asked to take part of two mental rotation tests of three dimensional images after each intervention. In one of them, the stimuli were images of molecules, and in the other they were solid three dimensional objects; the images appeared at different rotations on a computer screen. The task was to say the name of the molecules and, in the case of the objects, compare them to other objects that had not been rotated. The tests were applied using equipment that registers eye movements (Tobii® 1750). The analysis was based on response time, right answers, wrong answers, and strategies of eye movement to follow stimuli. The main results showed a larger number of right answers in the group that used the kit, both in the test with images of molecules and in the test of geometric objects. These results lead us to believe that the kit was effective for the visualization of molecules, becoming an important teaching tool in Chemistry. Besides, the effect of the kit in tests of three dimensional objects pointed out to the positive impact that this strategy had on the visual-spatial abilities in general. / Uma das dificuldades encontradas no ensino da Química é o estabelecimento de relações entre representações do nível microscópico e as do macroscópico na exploração de um conceito. Estudos anteriores mostraram que a utilização de ferramentas de visualização computacional ou física resulta em aprendizado mais efetivo de conceitos. Acredita-se que parte do efeito positivo deva estar relacionada a um treinamento de habilidades visoespaciais. Para verificar essa hipótese, um grupo de 56 alunos pareados por gênero foi dividido aleatoriamente em dois grupos. Um dos grupos recebeu intervenção educacional com o kit de montagem física de um tetraedro; o outro recebeu uma lista de exercícios de geometria molecular. Para a avaliação dos efeitos das intervenções propostas, após essas intervenções os alunos realizaram testes de rotação mental de figuras tridimensionais. Em um deles, os estímulos eram figuras de moléculas e, no outro, eram objetos sólidos tridimensionais; as figuras apareciam rotacionadas em uma tela de computador. A tarefa era dizer o nome das moléculas e, no caso dos objetos, compará-los com outros objetos não rotacionados. Os testes foram realizados em equipamento de registro dos movimentos oculares (Tobii® 1750). Foram analisados o tempo de resposta, o número de acertos e erros, e as estratégias visuais de rastreio dos estímulos. Os resultados sinalizaram que o uso do kit foi efetivo para melhor visualização de moléculas, o que o caracterizou como importante ferramenta no ensino-aprendizagem de Química. Além disso, o efeito do kit em testes de figuras tridimensionais apontou para o impacto positivo que esta estratégia teve nas habilidades visoespaciais de forma geral.

We are living in a changing time where a living democracy and sustainable development is more important than ever. Factors such as urbanization, technological development and migration is creating new needs for us as a society which has to be considered when designing for a sustainable future. The Swedish policy ”Politik för gestaltad livsmiljö” (Policy for a designed urban environment), is suggesting a new way to work with sustainability, design and architecture in our urban environment. The policy is mentioning a lot of factors that should be considered in the design of a socially sustainable urban environment but it is lacking a clear guidance on how to achieve it. For lighting designers it might be hard to know how to work consciously with these factors. The different factors needs to be put in to a lighting design context to bring clearness to the matter. This thesis had the intention to summarize the new policy and create guidelines regarding socially sustainable lighting design of public spaces. These guidelines was then implemented in a project with a client where the aim was to create a social sustainable lighting design for the shopping center ”Valbo Köpcentrum” right outside the Swedish city of Gävle.