The continuing importance of literacy and the emergence of electronic text forms have incited interest in the use of technology in a number of domains, among them writing and multimedia authoring. The expectation is that technology will facilitate the writing process by supporting cognitive processes and align school instruction with real-world tasks by providing more meaningful learning environments. This study tracked middle school students' task representation as they participated in protracted multimedia design and writing tasks. Students were engaged in the creation of a literary magazine over several weeks, with both written and media products linked to a particular theme. Cognitive strategies and behaviours associated with problem solving and communication are described through joint design activities. Students' working activities and their competencies in English Language Arts and Computer Science were identified, and cognitive processes tracked in negotiating and defining the boundaries of the task. Teachers' task representations were also examined in terms of their ability to address student variability; strengths and weaknesses between members of a group as well as their inherent dynamics are brought to the fore. Results point to the need for a better understanding of complex cognitive activities in developing new and more sophisticated repertoires of practice to realize the vision of children 'constructing' their own knowledge. Consequently, educators will gain new insights into what students can achieve when given the opportunities and the tools to do so. The role of educators is seen as instrumental in providing structure and mechanisms for supporting students' engagement in complex tasks. Findings underscore the importance of adopting a broader framework for thinking about the impact of students' participation in literacy projects. Limitations of the study are addressed as well as the key variables in the research on written

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [178]-183).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

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A software system is an aggregate of communicating modules, and there are several different types of communication among these modules (direct, indirect, and global). Therefore, understanding the interfaces among these modules can characterize the system and are a major factor in the system's complexity. These interfaces could possibly also show and predict inadequacies in the reliability and maintenance of a system. Interfaces are defined early in the development life cycle at a detailed or high level design stage. Knowing that these interfaces exist and their structure leads us to measure them for an indication of the designed interface complexity. This designed interface complexity can then be utilized for software quality assurance by allowing users to choose from among several designs. With data provided by an Ada software developer, the interface complexity metrics correlated with established metrics, but also found complex interfaces that established metrics missed. / Ph. D.

Research has shown that many antihistamines produce sedative effects as well as impair psychomotor performance. Performance testing of antihistamines, however, has not produced reliable evidence that there are behavioral effects at therapeutic dose levels. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine whether a complex cognitive and motor task (memory search and tracking combination) showed a performance deterioration under the influence of two antihistamines (benadry| and hismanal) and to determine if the chosen task was of sufficient sensitivity to register decrements in performance at therapeutic dose levels of either of these two antihistamines. Thirty male subjects were divided into five groups of six subjects each. Each of the five groups was tested one day per week for three consecutive weeks. All Subjects received all three treatments (two antihistamines and a placebo) over the course of the test sessions. Order effect of the drug administration was counterbalanced. Analyses of variance showed that benadryl impaired performance on both components of the task as expected. Performance under hismanal did not vary significantly from the placebo. Post hoc testing further revealed an expected significant effect of benadryl three hours following ingestion for three out of four dependent variables. Again, hismanal effects did not vary significantly from those of the placebo. Hence, the memory/tracking combination task registered an expected performance impairment by benadryl which implies sufficient sensitivity of the task to register decrements. Also, hismanal displayed an expected lower incidence of behavioral effects as measured by response time and tracking error, which implies hismanal's usefulness in facilitating normal performance. / Master of Science

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published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy