Focused Representation of Successive Task Episodes in Frontal and Parietal Cortex

Complex cognition is dynamic, with each stage of a task requiring new cognitive processes appropriately linked to stimulus or other content. To investigate control over successive task stages, we recorded neural activity in lateral frontal and parietal cortex as monkeys carried out a complex object selection task, with each trial separated into phases of visual selection and learning from feedback. To study capacity limitation, complexity was manipulated by varying the number of object targets to be learned in each problem. Different task phases were associated with quasi-independent patterns of activity and information coding, with no suggestion of sustained activity linked to a current target. Object and location coding were largely parallel in frontal and inferior parietal cortex, though frontal cortex showed somewhat stronger object representation at feedback, and more sustained location coding at choice. At both feedback and choice, coding precision diminished as task complexity increased, matching a decline in performance. We suggest that, across successive task steps, there is radical but capacity-limited reorganization of frontoparietal activity, selecting different cognitive operations linked to their current targets.

Using the Augmented Reality to Teach of Global Reading of Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Kolomoiets N.H., Kassim D.A. Using the Augmented Reality to Teach of Global Reading of Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Over the last decade a significant increasing of the number of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the world is marked. Ukraine is no exception. High rates of disease ASD require finding the new ways of correcting these groups of children. The aim of the research: to substantiate feasibility of using of the augmented reality’s technologies to teach of global reading in a special education of autistic children. In the course of the study an experiment, descriptive and comparative analysis methods, generalization, logical research method were used. Results of the research: it is shown that, it is expedient to use technologies of the augmented reality in the educational and correctional process of children with ASD to teach them of global reading. Using the augmented reality reveals a number of new opportunities, the promising of which is an interaction with the artificial world through mobile devices, which are more accessible and predictable for the special development of autistic children. At the initial stage of teaching of global reading, the instrument of augmented reality is used in a set of successive task groups. The first of these is aimed at the development of visual perception, the formation of the ability to analyze, isolate and generalize, navigate in space. The second and third set of tasks included the teaching of children to understand the meaning of words, the correlation of words with images presented on the screen of gadgets. At the final stage, namely, teaching of global reading, the technology of augmented reality has opened unlimited possibilities for using of various text materials and virtual images to them. Conclusions: a) an analysis of experimental work with preschoolers with ASD suggests that the use of augmented reality in teaching of global reading of children helps to increase the efficiency of the educational and correctional process; b) the technology of the augmented reality has allowed rising to a qualitatively new level of mastering of global reading by autistic children; c) prospects for further experimental research will be the implementation of the proposed methodology and obtaining its effectiveness and efficiency in practice.

Sustained Attention and Feature-Integrative Displays

Observers monitored the repetitive presentation of a simulated submarine detection display for occasional targets. Observers were required to integrate information contained in one, two, or three indicators either in a simultaneous (comparative judgment) or successive (absolute judgment) format. Consistent with earlier findings on feature-integration, performance efficiency varied inversely with the number of features which needed to be integrated in signal detection. Unlike previous studies involving unitary discriminations, observers in the simultaneous conditions performed more poorly than those in the successive conditions as the information processing demands of the monitoring task increased. The results indicate that while systematic differences were found between simultaneous and successive task-types, different factors may play a role when observers must contend with multiple as compared to unitary sources of information.

Effects of Auxillary Load on Vigilance Performance in a Simulated Work Environment

The effects of extra-task demands and long hours of work on the performance of simultaneous (comparative judgment) and successive (absolute judgment) type vigilance tasks were assessed in a simulated work environment. For three consecutive 12 hour days, subjects engaged in four 1-hour vigilance sessions interspersed with work at a heavy-load (20 codes/rain) or a light-load (10 codes/min) data entry task. For both types of vigilance tasks, performance efficiency varied inversely with the auxilary workload confronting the subjects. In addition, the quality of vigilance performance improved over the work week in the context of the light auxilary workload and declined in the context of the heavy load. Subjects reported becoming more drowsy, strained and fatigued and experienced more somatic complaints over the work day and the work week. These mood effects were maximal with the successive task and a heavy auxiliary workload, suggesting that in order to maintain performance standards in the successive task, subjects expended more processing resources which led to a greater cost in fatigue and strain.

Chinese Ideograms as Intermediaries to Reading

Chinese characters presented tachistoscopically to young readers of minimal reading ability and to young readers of better ability produce reliable differences in recognition thresholds in favor of the good readers. Simultaneous presentations of compared characters also reduces perceptual thresholds as compared to successive presentation with minimal readers being inferior to good readers on the successive task. Chinese characters have been used as intermediaries in reading and improved performance attributed to the fact that the Chinese characters are related to words as units rather than to phonemic elements as in the Roman alphabet. However, since visual factors also appear to be involved in recognition of Chinese characters in a manner distinguishing between minimal and good young readers, absence of phonemic word structure may not be responsible for the improvement arising from substitution of the Chinese for Roman script.