Effects on cognitive performance, social atmosphere, communication, motivation and aspects of strain were investigated when laptops were integrated in classrooms. According to a quasi-experimental design 27 laptop students were compared with 22 non-laptop students from the same high school, aged 17-18 years. Results of tests and questionnaires showed that laptop students had better spatial abilities and computer skills, furthermore higher participation, learning interest, motivation and pressure to perform were found in laptop classrooms. However, laptop students experienced greater physical discomfort, particularly in their arms, but concerning creativity, social intelligence and mental stress no group differences occurred. Results indicate that laptops integrated in teaching can enhance learning and motivation in schools, at least after 1.7 years of introduction, but health risks must be considered. Psychometric evaluations in laptop classroomsIn a time characterized by rapid technological developments, our society is becoming increasingly more dependent on information technology, and particularly on computers. As a result the effective use of computers and computer applications becomes an essential requirement in a modern society. It is assumed that computer implementation in education will foster not only the acquisition of cross curricular and media competencies but also of team and cooperation skills as well as of meaningful learning in complex and authentic environments. In the recent international debate about the necessity of innovated classroom instruction mobile computers, such as laptops, are seen as especially beneficial to initiate lasting changes in the nature of learning and teaching. Over the past decade the presence of computers in schools has exploded and laptops have become a daily learning and working tool for many students all over the world. At the beginning laptop programs were not attended by systematic research studies. Not until the last few years, longitudinal studies in the area of educational computering took place. Most of the existing evaluations are based on written and oral surveys, just in particular cases, observations and standardized achievement tests to measure changes concerning performance in certain school subjects were used. Several studies suggest educational benefits related to laptop use, others reported inconsistent results. Schaumburg (2001) gives an overview of recent empirical findings of international evaluation studies, which are mostly focusing on changes in student learning, instructional practices, student achievement and cross-curricular competencies. The wide range of recent studies can be summarized under the following four areas: effects on cognitive, social and Correspondence: M. Trimmel,
Research on the perception of biological human motion shows that people are able to infer emotional states by observing body movements. This article reviews the methodology applied in fMRI research on the neural representation of such emotion perception. Specifically, we ask how different stimulus qualities of bodily expressions, individual emotional valence, and task instructions may affect the neural representation of an emotional scene. The review demonstrates the involvement of a variety of brain areas, thereby indicating how well the human brain is adjusted to navigate in multiple social situations. All stimulus categories (i.e., full-light body displays, point-light displays, and avatars) can induce an emotional percept and are associated with increased activation in an extensive neural network. This network seems to be organized around areas belonging to the so-called action observation network (PMC, IFG, and IPL) and the mentalizing network (TPJ, TP, dmPFC, and lOFC) as well as areas processing body form and motion (e.g., EBA, FBA, and pSTS). Furthermore, emotion-processing brain sites such as the amygdala and the hypothalamus seem to play an important role during the observation of emotional body expressions. Whereas most brain regions clearly display an increased response to emotional body movements in general, some structures respond selectively to negative valence. Moreover, neural activation seems to depend on task characteristics, indicating that certain structures are activated even when attention is shifted away from emotional body movements.
This study compared how two virtual display conditions of human body expressions influenced explicit and implicit dimensions of emotion perception and response behavior in women and men. Two avatars displayed emotional interactions (angry, sad, affectionate, happy) in a “pictorial” condition depicting the emotional interactive partners on a screen within a virtual environment and a “visual” condition allowing participants to share space with the avatars, thereby enhancing co-presence and agency. Subsequently to stimulus presentation, explicit valence perception and response tendency (i.e. the explicit tendency to avoid or approach the situation) were assessed on rating scales. Implicit responses, i.e. postural and autonomic responses towards the observed interactions were measured by means of postural displacement and changes in skin conductance. Results showed that self-reported presence differed between pictorial and visual conditions, however, it was not correlated with skin conductance responses. Valence perception was only marginally influenced by the virtual condition and not at all by explicit response behavior. There were gender-mediated effects on postural response tendencies as well as gender differences in explicit response behavior but not in valence perception. Exploratory analyses revealed a link between valence perception and preferred behavioral response in women but not in men. We conclude that the display condition seems to influence automatic motivational tendencies but not higher level cognitive evaluations. Moreover, intragroup differences in explicit and implicit response behavior highlight the importance of individual factors beyond gender.
How are emotions perceived through body language in human interactions? Although emotion perception is a complex phenomenon integrating various features, humans are highly adept at recognizing and expressing emotions through body movements within social interactions. This study used point-light displays of social interactions portraying emotional scenes to address two issues. First, we examined quantitative intrapersonal kinematic and postural body configurations. Second, we calculated interaction-specific parameters and analysed how far both contribute to emotion and valence perception. By using ANOVA and classification trees we investigated emotion-specific differences in the calculated parameters. Further, we applied representational similarity analyses to determine how perceptual ratings relate to intra- and interpersonal features. Results showed that within an interaction, intrapersonal kinematic cues corresponded to emotional ratings, whereas postural cues reflected valence ratings. Furthermore, perception of emotional content was driven by interpersonal orientation, proxemics, the time spent in the personal space of the counterpart, and the balance in motion energy between interacting people. Both the latter and balance in orientation related to valence ratings. Hence, intrapersonal and interpersonal features of emotional body language relate to not only the emotional content in human interactions but also their perception.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.