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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Psychological and psychophysical aspects of spatial orientation

Grunfield, Elizabeth Alice January 1999 (has links)
No description available.
2

Disorienting Responsibility

Harbin, Ami 18 March 2011 (has links)
Experiences of disorientation can be common and powerful parts of moral agents‘ lives, yet they have not been characterized by mainstream Western philosophers, and their effects have not been adequately recognized by ethicists. In this dissertation, I remedy these gaps by providing an account of disorientations as multi-dimensional experiences and by fleshing out a more nuanced analysis of disorientation within the framework of experienced agency. I argue that, contra the philosophical tradition, disorientations are not always bad for moral agency. This thesis has two main aims: first, to introduce a philosophical framework to clarify experiences of disorientation and their effects; and second, to clarify the relation between disorientation and moral agency, showing how responsible action can both require and produce disorientation. In chapter one, I introduce disorientations as complex experiences of unease, discomfort, and uncertainty which vary in degree and in effects. In chapters two to four, I characterize disorientations on three axes: corporeal, affective, and epistemological. I argue that disorientations always involve all three dimensions of bodily, emotional, and cognitive experience and that shifts in body, affect, and knowledge can trigger experiences of disorientation. I draw on examples of how agents can become disoriented in periods of illness, trauma, grief, self-doubt, and education. In chapter five, I draw two lines of connection between disorientation and moral agency: experiences of disorientation can help us act more responsibly, and acting responsibly can be disorienting. In chapter six, I consider the political promise of disorientations, focusing on the way individuals‘ disorientations in response to a hate crime in their community prompted the creation of less harmful norms, and thereby a better place for individuals to live. In chapter seven, I conclude by outlining implications of my view for how we should face disorientations and what kinds of conditions should be in place to support those who are disoriented. Disorientations do not always enable moral agency. Given that moral philosophers are better versed in the ways disorientations can harm, my project is to distinguish the ways they can help, contesting the assumption that moral agency is always better the more oriented we are.
3

DISORIENTATION/OBJECTS/BODIES

Larsson, David January 2012 (has links)
Uppsatsen utgår ifrån Sara Ahmeds bok “Queer Phenomenology – Orientations, Objects, Others”. I uppsatsen diskuteras  hur vi människor upplever världen genom föremålen som omger oss och hur detta orienterar oss på olika sätt. På samma sätt som vissa förmål orienterar oss och gör att vi följer normativa linjer så kan andra föremål, eller föremål i andra situationer bryta dessa linjer och desorintera oss. Konst skulle kunna ses som sådana desorienteringsföremål som låter oss se världen på nya sätt. Uppsatsen innehåller också en diskusion kring induktiva resonemang i realtion till att förstå och navigera sig i välden och hur dessa år både nödvändiga och otillräckliga.
4

Developing a computational model of the pilot's best possible expectation of aircraft state given vestibular and visual cues

Onur, Can 12 January 2015 (has links)
Loss of Control (LOC) accidents are a major threat for aviation, and contribute the highest risk for fatalities in all aviation accidents. The major contributor to LOC accidents is pilot spatial disorientation (SD), which accounts for roughly 32% of all LOC accidents. A pilot experiences SD during flight when the pilot's expectation of the aircraft's state deviates from reality. This deviation results from a number of underlying mechanisms, such as distraction, failure to monitor flight instruments, and vestibular illusions. Previous researchers have developed computational models to understand those mechanisms. However, these models are limited in scope as they do not model the pilot's knowledge of the aircraft dynamics. This research proposes a novel model to predict the best-possible-pilot-expectation of the aircraft state given vestibular and visual cues. The proposed model uses a Model-Based Observer (MBO) as the infrastructure needed to establish an “expert pilot”. Expert pilots are known to form an internal model of the operated system through training and experience, which allows the expert to generate better internal expectations of the system states. Pilots' internal expectations are enhanced by the presence of information fed through the pilots̕ sensory systems. Thus, the proposed model integrates pilot's knowledge of the system dynamics (i.e. an aircraft model) with a continuous vestibular sensory model and a discrete visual-sampling sensory model. The computational model serves to investigate the underlying mechanisms of SD during flight and provide a quantitative analysis tool to support flight deck and countermeasure designs.
5

Politikens omskakning : Negativitet, samexistens och frihet i Jan Patočkas tänkande

Strandberg, Gustav January 2017 (has links)
The present investigation analyses the political thought of the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka. It focuses on the question of how we are to understand political life: what are its distinguishing features and how we are to circumscribe it conceptually. According to Patočka the experience of politics is one characterized by a loss of meaning, a loss of a foundation or principle that could lend stability to our lives. It is an experience of a tremor by and through which the foundations of our experience are shaken. Philosophy’s political task is, however, not to provide any foundation for political life, but rather to address the question of why man is inclined to posit metaphysical foundations and why refuge in ideological principles is sought. Philosophy must instead engage with the groundlessness and negativity permeating human existence as such. In order to provide an analysis of human existence, and how this very groundlessness of existence is exposed in politics, Patočka calls for an “a-subjective phenomenology” that abandons the traditional notion of the subject and of subjectivity. An “a-subjective” phenomenological analysis is central for the present investigation. The author shows that it is only by and through Patočka’s a-subjective phenomenology that his political thought can be understood; out of his distinctive phenomenological analyses, the negativity, instability and groundlessness of human existence is brought to the fore. Politically, this negativity manifests itself in two phenomena, which, when taken together, constitute the very bedrock for politics: freedom and human coexistence. Human existence is neither stable nor self-sufficient.  On the contrary, it is always already exposed to others, always already engaged in the self-transcending movement of its freedom. Freedom and coexistence are in this respect two interrelated expressions of the inherent negativity of human existence and two phenomena that, accordingly, occupy a privileged position in this study. The author seeks to show that it is by way of an in-depth analysis of freedom and coexistence that the question of politics can be addressed in the work of Patočka since they give testament to the trembling, unnerving, and disorienting nature of politics. / Loss of Grounds as Common Ground
6

The Effects of Multidimensional Navigational Aids and Individual Differences on WWW Hypertext Navigation

Satanek, Brandon L. 21 May 1998 (has links)
The most common application of hypertext today is found on the World Wide Web, with the numbers of sites and potential users increasing continually. Hypertext systems are characterized by hyperlinks that allow users nonsequential access to the documents contained within them. Because users are not constrained to read through these documents in a linear manner, new problems may arise not found in traditional paper versions. These problems are generally characterized by a sense of being "lost" within a hypertext system. The user may not know exactly where they are or how to get where they want to be. They have lost many of the visual cues that indicate position found in ordinary texts like books. Navigational aids or overview maps have been suggested as a means to help counteract this problem. These navigational aids can take a standard table-of-contents and extend it dynamically or provide a completely new paradigm of browsing. To that extent, many new varieties of maps (including three-dimensional ones) have been developed but not thoroughly studied. As well, it may be theorized that users of differing cognitive abilities may be helped or hindered by such devices. An empirical study was performed to investigate the effect of multidimensional maps. Three different navigational aids were examined which varied the way pages are displayed along one, two or three dimensions. Two hypertext systems were also where one was roughly twice the size of the other. The participants were given a search task twice to examine performance on page revisits. Finally, three cognitive tests were given to view the effects of individual differences. These included a spatial ability, verbal ability and visual memory test. The results indicated that no performance differences existed between the different navigational aids. However, a significant interaction was present between the maps and the type of Web site; smaller Web sites benefited from the 3D navigational aid. It is theorized that an observed effect for hypertext system was due to site complexity as opposed to size. The results from the cognitive ability measures were mixed. People with low verbal ability scores took longer to locate answers. People with high spatial ability scores found more answers and had scores that were less sensitive to the type of navigational aid used. No significant differences were discovered between people of high and low visual memory abilities. / Master of Science
7

The effects of individual differences and instructional aids on learners' disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in a hypermedia learning system

Ruttun, Rishi Dev January 2011 (has links)
Hypermedia Learning Systems (HLS) are being used increasingly widely in Higher Education, offering non-linear navigation through complex learning materials and, it is argued, leading to improve cognitive flexibility. For some learners, though, nonlinear navigation in HLS leads to higher levels of disorientation, which can have an impact on their learning performance and attitudes towards the learning system. There has been significant research into the factors that can influence individual learners‘ experiences. For example, a number of studies have confirmed that individual differences such as cognitive style, domain knowledge and computer experience affect individuals‘ levels of disorientation and learning performance, and influence their attitudes towards HLS. It has also been suggested that instructional aids (in the form of certain visual elements and audio elements) can reduce levels of disorientation and, in turn, increase learning performance in, and positive attitudes towards, HLS for some learners. However, existing studies have tended to look at only a subset of these three individual differences in relation to an individual and/or consider only a small number of visual instructional aids. No study up to this point has considered the impact of cognitive style, domain knowledge and computer experience on disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in a HLS that incorporates a full range of visual instructional aids. In terms of the research related to audio instructional aids, no studies have looked into the effects of audio aids and these three individual differences in relation to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in HLS. This thesis addresses these two shortcomings through two experiments. The aim of experiment 1 was to examine the effects of and between these three individual differences with respect to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in two versions of a HLS: one that incorporated the set of visual instructional aids and one that did not. Experiment 2 aimed to do the same, but with respect to a HLS that provided audio instructional aids. The experiments used quantitative and qualitative approaches to gather data to address a set of research questions and research hypotheses. The participants were 384 university students from across London. The Cognitive Style Analysis (CSA) test was administered to determine participants‘ field dependence, and participants‘ demographic information, levels of computer experience and levels of prior knowledge were gathered using questionnaires. Learning performance was measured through achievement tests and a practical task. Levels of disorientation were measured using questionnaires, and attitudes were assessed using questionnaires and interviews. Participants were also observed when they were interacting with the HLS to perform learning tasks. A number of interesting results were revealed. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in the HLS that provided no instructional aids. No significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to disorientation or learning performance in the other two versions of the HLS – those providing visual and audio instructional aids. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to the use of the visual and audio instructional aids to perform learning in the HLS. No significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to attitudes in the HLS that provided visual instructional aids. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to attitudes in the version that provided audio instructional aids. Analysis of the results led to the framing of a set of HLS design guidelines which are presented in this thesis. Finally, an agenda for future research leading on from the study‘s findings is presented.
8

Development of a novel virtual environment for assessing cognitive function : design, development and evaluation of a novel virtual environment to investigate cognitive function and discriminate between mild cognitive impairment and healthy elderly

Shamsuddin, Syadiah Nor Wan January 2012 (has links)
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.
9

Les écritures de soi dans l'oeuvre de Gregor von Rezzori / Rezzori’s Writing of the Self

Lehmann, Marie 05 December 2011 (has links)
Témoin des principaux événements géopolitiques de la première moitié du XXème siècle (l’effondrement de l’empire habsbourgeois, la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’Anschluss et le procès de Nuremberg), Rezzori examine les contours de son identité dans le cadre des écritures de soi. Son but est d’interroger les conditions nécessaires à l’affirmation d’une voix individuelle alors que la réalité est entraînée dans un inexorable processus de dislocation et d’hétérogénéisation et qu’elle confronte le sujet à l’épreuve du décentrement et de la déterritorialisation. Loin de céder au pessimisme, Rezzori assume ses fêlures grâce à l’écriture autobiographique dont il remet en cause les modalités. Pour qu’elle intègre la part de négativité inhérente à son moi, l’auteur la fonde sur une stratégie mémorielle singulière : celle de l’Epochenverschleppung. Cette dernière le place dans une position anachronique, sans le couper du présent parce qu’elle l’oblige à sonder de manière critique les pertes endurées à la lumière du présent. Écrire ses déchirures dans un espace autobiographique renouvelé permet à Rezzori de laisser des traces et de résister ainsi au pouvoir d’effacement de l’Histoire. / Having witnessed the major geopolitical events of the first half of the 20th century (the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the Second World War, the Anschluss and the Nuremberg Trials), Rezzori explores the outlines of his own identity through his autobiographical writing. He aims to investigate the conditions that are necessary for asserting an individual voice in a reality characterised by a process of dislocation and disintegration, in which the subject is faced with its own decentralisation and deterritorialisation. Far from wallowing in pessimism, Rezzori confronts the crevices of his self in his autobiographical writing, while at the same time questioning the methods of such writing. In order to embrace the element of negativity that his self comprises, the author bases his autobiographical writing, in both its hypothetical and referential forms, on a unique memorial strategy: that of Epochenverschleppung. This places Rezzori in an anachronistic position without cutting him off from the present as it challenges him to examine past losses critically in the light of the present. By exploring the fissures in his identity in a renewed autobiographical space, Rezzori leaves his own imprint and thereby counteracts the obliterating power of History.
10

Exploring a Visual Flow Display to Enhance Spatial Orientation during Flight

Helde, Kristian January 2002 (has links)
<p>The problem of spatial disorientation during flight of aircraft is briefly described, as are definitions of the phenomenon. Traditional countermeasure efforts that are often directed towards changes in the central visual field are reconsidered in favour of presentation of information in the peripheral visual field. It is proposed to use optic flow to support spatial orientation, as well as to omit such information from the central visual field. An experiment was conducted, and results showed that forward visual flow gave very important spatial information. The flow could be cropped to a certain degree in the periphery (horizontally), as well as parts of the central presentation could be omitted without decreasing effects in the experiment. Implications relevant to possible implementations in aircraft are discussed.</p>

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