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Title: POSTURES IN MOBILE DEVICE USAGE: EFFECTS ON INTERPRETATION BIAS, MOOD, AND PHYSICAL TENSION.
Creator: Flores-Cruz, Gabriela, Sims, Valerie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Past research has shown that there is a relationship between body posture and cognitive processes. However, postures used with technological devices has not been studied more extensively. The purpose of this study was to examine posture effects when using a mobile device on interpretation bias, mood, and physical tension. Each participant was randomly assigned one of three conditions: sitting slumped, sitting upright, or lying down. Participants were asked to complete the Scrambled Sentences...
Show morePast research has shown that there is a relationship between body posture and cognitive processes. However, postures used with technological devices has not been studied more extensively. The purpose of this study was to examine posture effects when using a mobile device on interpretation bias, mood, and physical tension. Each participant was randomly assigned one of three conditions: sitting slumped, sitting upright, or lying down. Participants were asked to complete the Scrambled Sentences Task (SST), a task of unscrambling emotional and neutral sentences, to measure their interpretation bias. Additional questions were asked to measure the participant's physical tension and mood. Results suggested no significant differences in interpretation bias depending on posture. There was no significant difference in the performance of unscrambling emotional sentences compared to neutral ones for sitting slumped and sitting upright. When lying down, participants unscrambled fewer neutral sentences compared to emotional ones. Physical tension was found to be a mediator for the relationship between posture (slumped and upright) and mood. The results of this study provide insight of possible confounding variables influencing the relationship between posture and mood.It additionally showed that emotional content is processed differently compared to neutral content when lying down. Further research is needed to understand how physical tension caused by posture being altered when using mobile device affects psychological well-being.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFH2000480, ucf:45737
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000480

Title: COALITION FORMATION AND TEAMWORK IN EMBODIED AGENTS.
Creator: Khan, Majid, Blni, Ladislau, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Embodied agents are agents acting in the physical world, such as persons, robots, unmanned air or ground vehicles and so on. These types of agents are subject to spatio-temporal constraints, which do not exist for agents acting in a virtual environment. The movement of embodied agents is limited by obstacles and maximum velocity, while their communication is limited by the transmission range of their wireless devices. This dissertation presents contributions to the techniques of coalition...
Show moreEmbodied agents are agents acting in the physical world, such as persons, robots, unmanned air or ground vehicles and so on. These types of agents are subject to spatio-temporal constraints, which do not exist for agents acting in a virtual environment. The movement of embodied agents is limited by obstacles and maximum velocity, while their communication is limited by the transmission range of their wireless devices. This dissertation presents contributions to the techniques of coalition formation and teamwork coordination for embodied agents. We considered embodied agents in three different settings, each of them representative of a class of practical applications. First, we study coalition formation in the one dimensional world of vehicles driving on a highway. We assume that vehicles can communicate over short distances and carry agents which can advise the driver on convoy formation decisions. We introduce techniques which allow vehicles to influence the speed of the convoys, and show that this yields convoys which have a higher utility for the participating vehicles. Second, we address the problem of coalition formation in the two dimensional world. The application we consider is a disaster response scenario. The agents are forming coalitions through a multi-issue negotiation with spatio-temporal components where the coalitions maintain a set of commitments towards participating agents. Finally, we discuss a scenario where embodied agents form coalitions to optimally address dynamic, non-deterministic, spatio-temporal tasks. The application we consider is firefighters acting in a disaster struck city.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001843, ucf:47334
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001843

Title: HOW THE BODY MOVES THE MIND: EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF PERSPECTIVE OF PHYSICAL SENSATION ON EMBODIED STATES AND PERCEPTION.
Creator: Satoski, Kathryn G, Chin, Matthew, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how surface engagement through touch affects perception of stimuli and mood. Researchers have found psychological, physiological and cognitive benefits associated with exposure to and interaction with nature. Stress Reduction Theory with Psychoevolutionary framework, and Attention Restoration Theory are often used to explain and interpret results. However, studies that focus on individuals with negative perspectives of nature find a positive affective...
Show moreThe purpose of this thesis is to explore how surface engagement through touch affects perception of stimuli and mood. Researchers have found psychological, physiological and cognitive benefits associated with exposure to and interaction with nature. Stress Reduction Theory with Psychoevolutionary framework, and Attention Restoration Theory are often used to explain and interpret results. However, studies that focus on individuals with negative perspectives of nature find a positive affective response to nature is not universal. Rather, individuals respond differently based on their own experience with nature. Childhood exposure and culture have been found to influence attitudes towards nature. Theories of embodied cognition emphasize the importance of previously learned associations and embodied states have been found to influence judgment, experience of emotions, and physiological states. To assess whether an individual's attitude towards nature influences the embodiment of a positive or negative state, participants were randomly assigned to come into physical contact with one of four surfaces with their feet: grass, fake grass, dirt and cement. Individuals affective, cognitive and physical relationship with nature was measured with the Nature Relatedness Scale. Change in perception of neutral stimuli and mood before and after surface exposure were measured. Results suggested surfaces influenced mood in different ways, however the effects on perception were unclear. A participant's perspective of nature did not seem to influence mood change depending on surface type. Future research is needed to assess whether the shift in mood was based on metaphors of language, priming from surface texture, or a result of complex interaction between bodily sensations and cognition.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFH2000487, ucf:45769
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000487

Title: TWO CONCEPTIONS OF THE MIND.
Creator: Aguda, Benjamin, Gallagher, Shaun, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Since the cognitive revolution during the last century the mind has been conceived of as being computer-like. Like a computer, the brain was assumed to be a physical structure (hardware) upon which a computational mind (software) was built. The mind was seen as a collection of independent programs which each have their own specific tasks, or modules. These modules took sensory input "data" and transduced it into language-like representations which were used in mental computations. Recently, a...
Show moreSince the cognitive revolution during the last century the mind has been conceived of as being computer-like. Like a computer, the brain was assumed to be a physical structure (hardware) upon which a computational mind (software) was built. The mind was seen as a collection of independent programs which each have their own specific tasks, or modules. These modules took sensory input "data" and transduced it into language-like representations which were used in mental computations. Recently, a new conception of the mind has developed, grounded cognition. According to this model, sensory stimulus is saved in the original format in which it was received and recalled using association mechanisms. Rather than representations being language-like they are instead multimodal. The manipulation of these multimodal representations requires processing distributed throughout the brain. A new holistic model for mental architecture has developed in which the concerted activity of the brain's modal systems produces functional systems which are intimately codependent with one another. The purpose of this thesis is to explore both the modular and multimodal theories of mental architecture. Each will be described in detail along with their supporting paradigms, cognitivism and grounded cognition. After my expositions I will offer support for my own position regarding these two theories before suggesting avenues for future research.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFH0003784, ucf:44765
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0003784

Title: Getting the Upper Hand: Natural Gesture Interfaces Improve Instructional Efficiency on a Conceptual Computer Lesson.
Creator: Bailey, Shannon, Sims, Valerie, Jentsch, Florian, Bowers, Clint, Johnson, Cheryl, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As gesture-based interactions with computer interfaces become more technologically feasible for educational and training systems, it is important to consider what interactions are best for the learner. Computer interactions should not interfere with learning nor increase the mental effort of completing the lesson. The purpose of the current set of studies was to determine whether natural gesture-based interactions, or instruction of those gestures, help the learner in a computer lesson by...
Show moreAs gesture-based interactions with computer interfaces become more technologically feasible for educational and training systems, it is important to consider what interactions are best for the learner. Computer interactions should not interfere with learning nor increase the mental effort of completing the lesson. The purpose of the current set of studies was to determine whether natural gesture-based interactions, or instruction of those gestures, help the learner in a computer lesson by increasing learning and reducing mental effort. First, two studies were conducted to determine what gestures were considered natural by participants. Then, those gestures were implemented in an experiment to compare type of gesture and type of gesture instruction on learning conceptual information from a computer lesson. The goal of these studies was to determine the instructional efficiency (-) that is, the extent of learning taking into account the amount of mental effort (-) of implementing gesture-based interactions in a conceptual computer lesson. To test whether the type of gesture interaction affects conceptual learning in a computer lesson, the gesture-based interactions were either naturally- or arbitrarily-mapped to the learning material on the fundamentals of optics. The optics lesson presented conceptual information about reflection and refraction, and participants used the gesture-based interactions during the lesson to manipulate on-screen lenses and mirrors in a beam of light. The beam of light refracted/reflected at the angle corresponding with type of lens/mirror. The natural gesture-based interactions were those that mimicked the physical movement used to manipulate the lenses and mirrors in the optics lesson, while the arbitrary gestures were those that did not match the movement of the lens or mirror being manipulated. The natural gestures implemented in the computer lesson were determined from Study 1, in which participants performed gestures they considered natural for a set of actions, and rated in Study 2 as most closely resembling the physical interaction they represent. The arbitrary gestures were rated by participants as most arbitrary for each computer action in Study 2. To test whether the effect of novel gesture-based interactions depends on how they are taught, the way the gestures were instructed was varied in the main experiment by using either video- or text-based tutorials. Results of the experiment support that natural gesture-based interactions were better for learning than arbitrary gestures, and instruction of the gestures largely did not affect learning and amount of mental effort felt during the task. To further investigate the factors affecting instructional efficiency in using gesture-based interactions for a computer lesson, individual differences of the learner were taken into account. Results indicated that the instructional efficiency of the gestures and their instruction depended on an individual's spatial ability, such that arbitrary gesture interactions taught with a text-based tutorial were particularly inefficient for those with lower spatial ability. These findings are explained in the context of Embodied Cognition and Cognitive Load Theory, and guidelines are provided for instructional design of computer lessons using natural user interfaces. The theoretical frameworks of Embodied Cognition and Cognitive Load Theory were used to explain why gesture-based interactions and their instructions impacted the instructional efficiency of these factors in a computer lesson. Gesture-based interactions that are natural (i.e., mimic the physical interaction by corresponding to the learning material) were more instructionally efficient than arbitrary gestures because natural gestures may help schema development of conceptual information through physical enactment of the learning material. Furthermore, natural gestures resulted in lower cognitive load than arbitrary gestures, because arbitrary gestures that do not match the learning material may increase the working memory processing not associated with the learning material during the lesson. Additionally, the way in which the gesture-based interactions were taught was varied by either instructing the gestures with video- or text-based tutorials, and it was hypothesized that video-based tutorials would be a better way to instruct gesture-based interactions because the videos may help the learner to visualize the interactions and create a more easily recalled sensorimotor representation for the gestures; however, this hypothesis was not supported and there was not strong evidence that video-based tutorials were more instructionally efficient than text-based instructions. The results of the current set of studies can be applied to educational and training systems that incorporate a gesture-based interface. The finding that more natural gestures are better for learning efficiency, cognitive load, and a variety of usability factors should encourage instructional designers and researchers to keep the user in mind when developing gesture-based interactions.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0007278, ucf:52192
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007278

Title: Somatechnologies of Body Size Modification: Posthuman Embodiment and Discourses of Health.
Creator: Griffin, Meghan, Bowdon, Melody, Scott, John, Campbell, James, Oliveira, Leonardo, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This project focuses on persistent gaps in philosophies of the body: the enduring mind-body divide in accounts of phenomenology, the unfulfilled promises of representing and inhabiting the body in online and virtual spaces, and the difference between health as quantified in medical discourse versus health as lived experience. These tensions are brought to light through the electronic food journal genre where the difficulty in capturing pre-noetic, outside-consciousness aspects of experience...
Show moreThis project focuses on persistent gaps in philosophies of the body: the enduring mind-body divide in accounts of phenomenology, the unfulfilled promises of representing and inhabiting the body in online and virtual spaces, and the difference between health as quantified in medical discourse versus health as lived experience. These tensions are brought to light through the electronic food journal genre where the difficulty in capturing pre-noetic, outside-consciousness aspects of experience and embodied health are thrown into relief against circulating cultural discourses surrounding health, body size, self-surveillance, and self-care. The electronic food journal genre serves as a space for users to situate themselves and their daily practices in relation to medicalization, public policy, and the conflation of health and body size. These journals form artifacts reflecting life writing practices in digital spaces that model compliant self-surveillance as well as transgressive self-care. The journals instantiate the mind-body-technology interactivity of extended cognition, but also point toward a rupture in the feedback loops that promise to integrate pre-noetic aspects of being and experience. By exploring the tensions inherent in these online food journaling spaces, this project concludes by offering a PEERS heuristic/heuretic for assessing theories and technologies of embodiment and health for their ability to access what resides in the (")remainder(") of current embodiment philosophy and to identify the aspects of lived experience left unattended in USDA health policy, food journaling interfaces, and embodiment philosophy. The PEERS model can be used to evaluate existing technologies for their capacity to map true mind-body-technology interactivity and to build new theory that accounts for a fuller, more nuanced approach to understanding embodied reality and embodied health.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004783, ucf:49773
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004783

Title: DECONSTRUCTING PRESENCE: RETHINKING THE INTENTIONALITY OF THE SUBJECT ON THE BASIS OF THE EXISTENTIALITY OF DASEIN.
Creator: Diaz, Edgar, Strawser, Michael, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Having begun from the assumption that our most fundamental way to relate to the world stems from an 'I think' and that consciousness is at the center of this act, Edmund Husserl sets himself up for a very narrow and specialized view of human experience. In the end, such assumptions in the philosophical tradition and their terms often remain unquestioned and ingrained in a paradigm of discourse. My aim is to move beneath these assumptions -using Heidegger's and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological...
Show moreHaving begun from the assumption that our most fundamental way to relate to the world stems from an 'I think' and that consciousness is at the center of this act, Edmund Husserl sets himself up for a very narrow and specialized view of human experience. In the end, such assumptions in the philosophical tradition and their terms often remain unquestioned and ingrained in a paradigm of discourse. My aim is to move beneath these assumptions -using Heidegger's and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological work- so as to, first, explicitly undermine the scope of Husserlian intentionality at its foundation and, second, decenter the subject in contemporary phenomenological literature. An account of human experience in terms of inner intentional content, I argue, yields an incomplete and misleading picture of our human involvements and we must ultimately move beyond the subject and its logic. The way we are always already being-in-the-world and embodied in the phenomenal texture of everydayness leaves the cogito one step behind.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFH0004709, ucf:45398
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004709

Title: THE ROLE OF CUES AND KINEMATICS ON SOCIAL EVENT PERCEPTION.
Creator: Berrios, Estefania, McConnell, Daniel S., University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The belief that intentions are hidden away in the minds of individuals has been circulating for many years. Theories of indirect perception, such as the Theory of Mind, have since been developed to help explain this phenomenon. Conversely, research in the field of human kinematics and event perception have also given rise to theories of direct perception. The purpose of the study was to determine if intentionality can be directly perceived rather than requiring inferential processes. Prior...
Show moreThe belief that intentions are hidden away in the minds of individuals has been circulating for many years. Theories of indirect perception, such as the Theory of Mind, have since been developed to help explain this phenomenon. Conversely, research in the field of human kinematics and event perception have also given rise to theories of direct perception. The purpose of the study was to determine if intentionality can be directly perceived rather than requiring inferential processes. Prior research regarding kinematics of cooperative and competitive movements have pointed toward direct perception, demonstrating participants can accurately judge a movement as cooperative or competitive by simply observing point-light displays of the isolated arm movements. Considering competitive movements are often performed faster than cooperative movements, speed was perturbed for the purpose of this study to determine if participants are relying on cues or if they can indeed perceive a unique kinematic pattern that corresponds to intentionality. Judging the clips correctly despite perturbation would suggest perception is direct. Additionally, we hypothesized judgments accuracy would be higher in the presence of two actors pointing to the use of interpersonal affordances. Twenty-eight participants from the University of Central Florida were asked to judge 40 clips presented in random order including: normal or perturbed competitive actions with one or two actors; normal or perturbed cooperative actions with one or two actors. Percent correct and reaction time data were analyzed on SPSS using a repeated measures ANOVA. Results rejected the hypothesis that social perception is direct and supported indirect perception, indicating participants relied on cues to make judgments, and provided potential support for the interpersonal affordance hypothesis.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFH2000514, ucf:45681
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000514

Title: The Visual Divide: Islam vs. The West, Image Peception in Cross-Cultural Contexts.
Creator: Akil, Hatem, Mauer, Barry, Scott, John, Gleyzon, Francois-Xavier, Janz, Bruce, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Do two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we're always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socio-ideological frames that can only be...
Show moreDo two people, coming from different cultural backgrounds, see the same image the same way? Do we employ technologies of seeing that embed visuality within relentless cultural and ideological frames? And, if so, when does visual difference become a tool for inclusion and exclusion? When does it become an instrument of war? I argue that we're always implicated in visuality as a form of confirmation bias, and that what we see is shaped by preexisting socio-ideological frames that can only be liberated through an active and critical relationship with the image. The image itself, albeit ubiquitous, is never unimplicated - at once violated and violating; with both its creator and its perceiver self-positioned as its ultimate subject.I follow a trace of the image within the context of a supposed Islam versus the West dichotomy; its construction, instrumentalization, betrayals, and incriminations. This trace sometimes forks into multiple paths, and at times loops unto itself, but eventually moves towards a traversal of a visual divide. I apply the trace as my methodology in the sense suggested by Derrida, but also as a technology for finding my way into and out of an epistemological labyrinth.The Visual Divide comprises five chapters: Chapter One presents some of the major themes of this work while attempting a theoretical account of image perception within philosophical and cross-cultural settings. I use this account to understand and undermine contemporary rhetoric (as in the works of Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis) that seems intent on theorizing a supposed cultural and historical dichotomies between Islam and the West.In Chapter Two, I account for slogan chants heard at Tahrir Square during the January 25 Egyptian revolution as tools to discovering a mix of technology, language and revolution that could be characterized as hybrid, plural and present at the center of which lies the human body as subject to public peril. Chapter Three analyzes a state of visual divide where photographic evidence is posited against ethnographic reality as found in postcards of nude and semi-nude Algerian Muslim women in the 19th century. I connect this state to a chain of visual oppositions that place Western superiority as its subject and which continues to our present day with the Abu Ghraib photographs and the Mohammed cartoons, etc. Chapter Four deploys the image of Mohamed al-Durra, a 3rd grader who was shot dead, on video, at a crossroads in Gaza, and the ensuing attempts to reinterpret, recreate, falsify and litigate the meaning of the video images of his death in order to propagate certain political doxa. I relate the violence against the image, by the image, and despite the image, to a state of pure war that is steeped in visuality, and which transforms the act of seeing into an act of targeting.In Chapter Five, I integrate the concept of visuality with that of the human body under peril in order to identify conditions that lead to comparative suffering or a division that views humanity as something other than unitary and of equal value. I connect the figures of der Muselmann, Shylock, Othello, the suicide bomber, and others to subvert a narrative that claims that one's suffering is deeper than another's, or that life could be valued differently depending on the place of your birth, the color of your skin, or the thickness of your accent.Finally, in the Epilogue: Tabbouleh Deterritorialized, I look at the interconnected states of perception and remembering within diasporic contexts. Cultural identity (invoked by an encounter with tabbouleh on a restaurant menu in Orlando) is both questioned and transformed and becomes the subject of perception and negotiation.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0004084, ucf:49144
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004084

Title: THE EFFECT OF WEIGHT AND SIZE ON MENTAL ROTATION.
Creator: Furtak, Luke, Sims, Valerie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Shepard and Metzler (1971) argued that mental rotation is analogous to the real world in that people imagine the rotation of an object as if it were being physically rotated. This study tested this assertion by exposing participants to physical shapes that increased in size and weight. Participants interacted with blocks designed after Shepard and Metzler mental rotation size that differed in size and weight then performed subsequent mental rotation. We found no difference in reaction time...
Show moreShepard and Metzler (1971) argued that mental rotation is analogous to the real world in that people imagine the rotation of an object as if it were being physically rotated. This study tested this assertion by exposing participants to physical shapes that increased in size and weight. Participants interacted with blocks designed after Shepard and Metzler mental rotation size that differed in size and weight then performed subsequent mental rotation. We found no difference in reaction time but found that increased size reduced accuracy. We discuss the implications of this study as they pertain to embodied cognition.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFH0004711, ucf:45399
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004711

Title: Examining the Effects of Interactive Dynamic Multimedia and Direct Touch Input on Performance of a Procedural Motor Task.
Creator: Marraffino, Matthew, Sims, Valerie, Chin, Matthew, Mouloua, Mustapha, Johnson, Cheryl, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Ownership of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, has quickly risen in the last decade. Unsurprisingly, they are now being integrated into the training and classroom setting. Specifically, the U.S. Army has mapped out a plan in the Army Learning Model of 2015 to utilize mobile devices for training purposes. However, before these tools can be used effectively, it is important to identify how the tablets' unique properties can be leveraged. For this dissertation, the touch interface...
Show moreOwnership of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, has quickly risen in the last decade. Unsurprisingly, they are now being integrated into the training and classroom setting. Specifically, the U.S. Army has mapped out a plan in the Army Learning Model of 2015 to utilize mobile devices for training purposes. However, before these tools can be used effectively, it is important to identify how the tablets' unique properties can be leveraged. For this dissertation, the touch interface and the interactivity that tablets afford were investigated using a procedural-motor task. The procedural motor task was the disassembly procedures of a M4 carbine. This research was motivated by cognitive psychology theories, including Cognitive Load Theory and Embodied Cognition. In two experiments, novices learned rifle disassembly procedures in a narrated multimedia presentation presented on a tablet and then were tested on what they learned during the multimedia training involving a virtual rifle by performing a rifle disassembly on a physical rifle, reassembling the rifle, and taking a written recall test about the disassembly procedures. Spatial ability was also considered as a subject variable.Experiment 1 examined two research questions. The primary research question was whether including multiple forms of interactivity in a multimedia presentation resulted in higher learning outcomes. The secondary research question in Experiment 1 was whether dynamic multimedia fostered better learning outcomes than equivalent static multimedia. To examine the effects of dynamism and interactivity on learning, four multimedia conditions of varying levels of interactivity and dynamism were used. One condition was a 2D phase diagram depicting the before and after of the step with no animation or interactivity. Another condition utilized a non-interactive animation in which participants passively watched an animated presentation of the disassembly procedures. A third condition was the interactive animation in which participants could control the pace of the presentation by tapping a button. The last condition was a rifle disassembly simulation in which participants interacted with a virtual rifle to learn the disassembly procedures. A comparison of the conditions by spatial ability yielded the following results. Interactivity, overall, improved outcomes on the performance measures. However, high spatials outperformed low spatials in the simulation condition and the 2D phase diagram condition. High spatials seemed to be able to compensate for low interactivity and dynamism in the 2D phase diagram condition while enhancing their performance in the rifle disassembly simulation condition.In Experiment 2, the touchscreen interface was examined by investigating how gestures and input modality affected learning the disassembly procedures. Experiment 2 had two primary research questions. The first was whether gestures facilitate learning a procedural-motor task through embodied learning. The second was whether direct touch input using resulted in higher learning outcomes than indirect mouse input. To examine the research questions, three different variations of the rifle disassembly simulation were used. One was identical to that of Experiment 1. Another incorporated gestures to initiate the animation whereby participants traced a gesture arrow representing the motion of the component to learn the procedures. The third condition utilized the same interface as the initial rifle disassembly simulation but included (")dummy(") gesture arrows that displayed only visual information but did not respond to gesture. This condition was included to see the effects (if any) of the gesture arrows in isolation of the gesture component. Furthermore, direct touch input was compared to indirect mouse input. Once again, spatial ability also was considered. Results from Experiment 2 were inconclusive as no significant effects were found. This may have been due to a ceiling effect of performance. However, spatial ability was a significant predictor of performance across all conditions. Overall, the results of the two experiments support the use of multimedia on a tablet to train a procedural-motor task. In line with vision of ALM 2015, the research support incorporating tablets into U.S. Army training curriculum.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005376, ucf:50467
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005376

Title: Eye Movements and Spatial Ability: Influences on Thinking During Analogical Problem Solving.
Creator: Schroeder, Bradford, Sims, Valerie, Szalma, James, Neider, Mark, Gill, Michele, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Classic studies have examined the factors that influence the way in which people can solve difficult (")insight(") problems, which require creative solutions. Recent research has shown that guiding one's eye movements in a pattern spatially congruent with the solution improves the likelihood of formulating a spatial solution. The authors in this line of research argued that guiding eye movements in a pattern spatially equivalent to the solution of the problem yields an embodied cognitive...
Show moreClassic studies have examined the factors that influence the way in which people can solve difficult (")insight(") problems, which require creative solutions. Recent research has shown that guiding one's eye movements in a pattern spatially congruent with the solution improves the likelihood of formulating a spatial solution. The authors in this line of research argued that guiding eye movements in a pattern spatially equivalent to the solution of the problem yields an embodied cognitive benefit that aids problem solving. Specifically, guiding eye movements leads to the generation of a mental representation containing perceptual information that helps a problem solver mentally simulate the problem features, increasing likelihood to generate a solution to the problem. However, evidence from a small but critically relevant area of research supports that this embodied effect may be more simply a creativity-priming effect. The proposed research aimed to disentangle these ideas while addressing other research questions of interest: do embodied problem solving benefits transfer to later problem solving? Do individual differences in spatial ability influence how people solve these problems? The present study combined previously established methodologies in problem solving and analogical problem solving to investigate these research questions. Results of the present work tentatively support the embodied priming effect, mediated by a creativity-priming effect that influences problem solving performance. Both effects emerged after manipulating problem solvers' eye movements. There is also modest support for a link between spatial ability and analogical problem solving, but not initial problem solving. These results are interpreted through the lens of embodied cognitive theory, providing tentative support that guiding eye movements can influence reasoning through an enhancement of creativity.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0007366, ucf:52079
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007366

Title: EPISODIC MEMORY MODEL FOR EMBODIED CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS.
Creator: Elvir, Miguel, Gonzalez, Avelino, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) form part of a range of virtual characters whose intended purpose include engaging in natural conversations with human users. While works in literature are ripe with descriptions of attempts at producing viable ECA architectures, few authors have addressed the role of episodic memory models in conversational agents. This form of memory, which provides a sense of autobiographic record-keeping in humans, has only recently been peripherally integrated into...
Show moreEmbodied Conversational Agents (ECA) form part of a range of virtual characters whose intended purpose include engaging in natural conversations with human users. While works in literature are ripe with descriptions of attempts at producing viable ECA architectures, few authors have addressed the role of episodic memory models in conversational agents. This form of memory, which provides a sense of autobiographic record-keeping in humans, has only recently been peripherally integrated into dialog management tools for ECAs. In our work, we propose to take a closer look at the shared characteristics of episodic memory models in recent examples from the field. Additionally, we propose several enhancements to these existing models through a unified episodic memory model for ECAÃ‚Â's. As part of our research into episodic memory models, we present a process for determining the prevalent contexts in the conversations obtained from the aforementioned interactions. The process presented demonstrates the use of statistical and machine learning services, as well as Natural Language Processing techniques to extract relevant snippets from conversations. Finally, mechanisms to store, retrieve, and recall episodes from previous conversations are discussed. A primary contribution of this research is in the context of contemporary memory models for conversational agents and cognitive architectures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt at providing a comparative summary of existing works. As implementations of ECAs become more complex and encompass more realistic conversation engines, we expect that episodic memory models will continue to evolve and further enhance the naturalness of conversations.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003353, ucf:48443
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003353

Title: Catholic Healing Masses: Intersections of Health and Healing in Yucat(&)#225;n.
Creator: Draper, Suzanne, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, Mishtal, Joanna, Matejowsky, Ty, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The conception of illness and healing in contemporary Mexican Catholic discourse highlights both particular and ubiquitous instances of a health experience perceived locally and widespread. Catholic healing masses are utilized as supplemental methods of individual health restoration coupled with Western medicinal techniques in Catholic dramas. Aside from the spiritual and religious significance of this practice, the use of healing masses as an additional means to achieving an optimal health...
Show moreThe conception of illness and healing in contemporary Mexican Catholic discourse highlights both particular and ubiquitous instances of a health experience perceived locally and widespread. Catholic healing masses are utilized as supplemental methods of individual health restoration coupled with Western medicinal techniques in Catholic dramas. Aside from the spiritual and religious significance of this practice, the use of healing masses as an additional means to achieving an optimal health status implies that something is lacking in current biomedical models. The purpose of my research is to explore the humanistic terms under which healing masses operate and translate these terms into a biomedical conversation towards enhanced secular medical care
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005484, ucf:50332
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005484

Title: THE EARLY MODERN SPACE: (CARTOGRAPHIC) LITERATURE AND THE AUTHOR IN PLACE.
Creator: Myers, Michael, Gleyzon, Francois-Xavier, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In geography, maps are a tool of placement which locate both the cartographer and the territory made cartographic. In order to place objects in space, the cartographer inserts his own judgment into the scheme of his design. During the Early Modern period, maps were no longer suspicious icons as they were in the Middle Ages and not yet products of science, but subjects of discourse and works of art. The image of a cartographer's territory depended on his vision�both the nature and placement of...
Show moreIn geography, maps are a tool of placement which locate both the cartographer and the territory made cartographic. In order to place objects in space, the cartographer inserts his own judgment into the scheme of his design. During the Early Modern period, maps were no longer suspicious icons as they were in the Middle Ages and not yet products of science, but subjects of discourse and works of art. The image of a cartographer's territory depended on his vision�both the nature and placement of his gaze�and the product reflected that author's judgment. This is not a study of maps as such but of Early Modern literature, cartographic by nature�the observations of the author were the motif of its design. However, rather than concretize observational judgment through art, the Early Modern literature discussed asserts a reverse relation�the generation of the material which may be observed, the reality, by the views of authors. Spatiality is now an emerging philosophical field of study, taking root in the philosophy of Deleuze & Guattari. Using the notion prevalent in both Postmodern and Early Modern spatiality, which makes of perception a collective delusion with its roots in the critique of Kant, this thesis draws a through-line across time, as texts such as Robert Burton's An Anatomy of Melancholy, Thomas More's Utopia, and selections from William Shakespeare display a tendency to remove value from the standard of representation, to replace meaning with cognition and prioritize a view of views over an observable world. Only John Milton approaches perception as possibly referential to objective reality, by re-inserting his ability to observe and exist in that reality, in a corpus which becomes less generative simulations of material than concrete signposts to his judgment in the world.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFH0004899, ucf:53148
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004899

Title: Explicit Feedback Within Game-Based Training: Examining the Influence of Source Modality Effects on Interaction.
Creator: Goldberg, Benjamin, Bowers, Clint, Cannon-Bowers, Janis, Kincaid, John, McDaniel, Thomas, Sottilare, Robert, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a...
Show moreThis research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a modular domain-independent architecture that provides the tools and methods to author, deliver, and evaluate intelligent tutoring technologies within any training platform. Influenced by research surrounding Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the resulting experiment tested varying approaches for utilizing an Embodied Pedagogical Agent (EPA) to function as a tutor during interaction in a game-based environment. Conditions were authored to assess the tradeoffs between embedding an EPA directly in a game, embedding an EPA in GIFT's browser-based Tutor-User Interface (TUI), or using audio prompts alone with no social grounding.The resulting data supports the application of using an EPA embedded in GIFT's TUI to provide explicit feedback during a game-based learning event. Analyses revealed conditions with an EPA situated in the TUI to be as effective as embedding the agent directly in the game environment. This inference is based on evidence showing reliable differences across conditions on the metrics of performance and self-reported mental demand and feedback usefulness items. This research provides source modality tradeoffs linked to tactics for relaying training relevant explicit information to a user based on real-time performance in a game.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004850, ucf:49696
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004850

Title: Evaluating Improvisation as a Technique for Training Pre-Service Teachers for Inclusive Classrooms.
Creator: Becker, Theresa, Hines, Rebecca, Beverly, Monifa, Hopp, Carolyn, Hamed, Kastro, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Improvisation is a construct that uses a set of minimal heuristic guidelines to create a highly flexible scaffold that fosters extemporaneous communication. Scholars from diverse domains: such as psychology, business, negotiation, and education have suggested its use as a method for preparing professionals to manage complexity and think on their feet. A review of the literature revealed that while there is substantial theoretical scholarship on using improvisation in diverse domains, little...
Show moreImprovisation is a construct that uses a set of minimal heuristic guidelines to create a highly flexible scaffold that fosters extemporaneous communication. Scholars from diverse domains: such as psychology, business, negotiation, and education have suggested its use as a method for preparing professionals to manage complexity and think on their feet. A review of the literature revealed that while there is substantial theoretical scholarship on using improvisation in diverse domains, little research has verified these assertions. This dissertation evaluated whether improvisation, a specific type of dramatic technique, was effective for training pre-service teachers in specific characteristics of teacher-child classroom interaction, communication and affective skills development. It measured the strength and direction of any potential changes such training might effect on pre-service teacher's self-efficacy for teaching and for implementing the communication skills common to improvisation and teaching while interacting with student in an inclusive classroom setting. A review of the literature on teacher self-efficacy and improvisation clarified and defined key terms, and illustrated relevant studies. This study utilized a mixed-method research design based on instructional design and development research. Matched pairs t-tests were used to analyze the self-efficacy and training skills survey data and pre-service teacher reflections and interview transcripts were used to triangulate the qualitative data. Results of the t-tests showed a significant difference in participants' self-efficacy for teaching measured before and after the improvisation training. A significant difference in means was also measured in participants' aptitude for improvisation strategies and for self-efficacy for their implementation pre-/post- training. Qualitative results from pre-service teacher class artifacts and interviews showed participants reported beneficial personal outcomes as well as confirmed using skills from the training while interacting with students. Many of the qualitative themes parallel individual question items on the teacher self-efficacy TSES scale as well as the improvisation self-efficacy scale CSAI. The self-reported changes in affective behavior such as increased self-confidence and ability to foster positive interaction with students are illustrative of changes in teacher agency. Self-reports of being able to better understand student perspectives demonstrate a change in participant ability to empathize with students. Participants who worked with both typically developing students as well as with students with disabilities reported utilizing improvisation strategies such as Yes, and..., mirroring emotions and body language, vocal prosody and establishing a narrative relationship to put the students at ease, establish a positive learning environment, encourage student contributions and foster teachable moments. The improvisation strategies showed specific benefit for participants working with nonverbal students or who had commutation difficulties, by providing the pre-service teachers with strategies for using body language, emotional mirroring, vocal prosody and acceptance to foster interaction and communication with the student.Results from this investigation appear to substantiate the benefit of using improvisation training as part of a pre-service teacher methods course for preparing teachers for inclusive elementary classrooms. Replication of the study is encouraged with teachers of differing populations to confirm and extend results.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004516, ucf:49273
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004516

Embodied Cognition (6)	+ -
Cognitive Load Theory (3)	+ -
embodied cognition (3)	+ -
embodiment (3)	+ -
Embodiment (2)	+ -

Simulation (2)	+ -
ADDIE (1)	+ -
Analogical Problem Solving (1)	+ -
Anatomy (1)	+ -
Applications (1)	+ -
Army (1)	+ -
Being-in-the-world (1)	+ -
Body (1)	+ -
Care (1)	+ -
Cartographic Gaze (1)	+ -
Cartography (1)	+ -
Catholicism (1)	+ -
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (1)	+ -
Creative Thinking (1)	+ -
Creativity (1)	+ -
Dasein (1)	+ -
Deleuze & Guattari (1)	+ -
Digital Humanities (1)	+ -
Digital Media (1)	+ -
Direct Perception (1)	+ -
Direct Touch (1)	+ -
ECA (1)	+ -
Early Modern (1)	+ -
Ego (1)	+ -
Emblem (1)	+ -

ETD Collection (10)	+ -
Honors Collection (7)	+ -

University of Central Florida (17)	+ -
Sims, Valerie (5)	+ -
Bowers, Clint (2)	+ -
Chin, Matthew (2)	+ -
Gleyzon, Francois-Xavier (2)	+ -

Johnson, Cheryl (2)	+ -
Scott, John (2)	+ -
Aguda, Benjamin (1)	+ -
Akil, Hatem (1)	+ -
Bailey, Shannon (1)	+ -
Becker, Theresa (1)	+ -
Berrios, Estefania (1)	+ -
Beverly, Monifa (1)	+ -
Blni, Ladislau (1)	+ -
Bowdon, Melody (1)	+ -
Campbell, James (1)	+ -
Cannon-Bowers, Janis (1)	+ -
Diaz, Edgar (1)	+ -
Draper, Suzanne (1)	+ -
Elvir, Miguel (1)	+ -
Flores-Cruz, Gabriela (1)	+ -
Furtak, Luke (1)	+ -
Gallagher, Shaun (1)	+ -
Gill, Michele (1)	+ -
Goldberg, Benjamin (1)	+ -
Gonzalez, Avelino (1)	+ -
Griffin, Meghan (1)	+ -
Hamed, Kastro (1)	+ -
Hines, Rebecca (1)	+ -
Hopp, Carolyn (1)	+ -

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