Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Naturalistic observation'

The prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders is rapidly increasing among college students. The use of real time monitoring in conjunction with contingency management procedures to reduce alcohol consumption has only recently been developed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to learn more about natural patterns of alcohol consumption in college-aged adults. A second goal was to evaluate a novel, handheld technology for obtaining reliable samples over extended time periods. College students were given a SoberLinkTM SL2 breathalyzer for eight weeks to monitor their drinking behaviors and asked to self-report the number of drinks consumed each day. Participants received one to three text messages per day to provide breath samples and earned monetary rewards for submitting samples within the allotted time. The results of this study showed that college students tend to consume alcohol during the evening hours and mostly on the weekends. There was a weak to medium correlation between average breath alcohol concentration and conditional average drinks. Compliance with prompts ranged between 77 and 84 percent and monetary earnings ranged between $152 and $160. Naturalistic observations of college drinking may aid in the development of interventions to prevent excessive drinking and the SL2 breathalyzer may have great potential to be used in a number of therapeutic approaches.

Most research on parents has been focused on the mother. Recent studies however have showed that the father plays a pivotal role in child cognitive and socio-emotional development. The aim of this study was to look for associations between father characteristics, paternal nurturance behaviors and toddler emotional expression. Fathers (N=57) with a toddler between the ages of 1 and 3 wore the EAR for two consecutive days. Research assistants coded the resulting sound files for paternal nurturance behaviors and toddler emotional expressions. As expected, fathers who engaged in more physical play, non-physical play, gave praise or encouragement and playful, silly and goofy behaviors had toddlers that laughed or giggled more. Unexpectedly, fathers who engaged in non-physical play, gave praise or encouragement and showed affection had toddlers who fussed, whined or cried more. Also, contrary to our hypothesis, only one paternal nurturance behavior was associated with father characteristics. Future research should look more closely at the context of these paternal nurturance behaviors and toddler emotional expressions. While this study found significant associations, more research should be done on father-toddler interaction either with the EAR or traditional observational methods.

This article reviews the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) as an ambulatory ecological momentary assessment tool for the real-world observation of daily behavior. Technically, the EAR is an audio recorder that intermittently records snippets of ambient sounds while participants go about their lives. Conceptually, it is a naturalistic observation method that yields an acoustic log of a person’s day as it unfolds. The power of the EAR lies in unobtrusively collecting authentic real-life observational data. In preserving a high degree of naturalism at the level of the raw recordings, it resembles ethnographic methods; through its sampling and coding, it enables larger empirical studies. This article provides an overview of the EAR method; reviews its validity, utility, and limitations; and discusses it in the context of current developments in ambulatory assessment, specifically the emerging field of mobile sensing.

Cette étude s’intéresse au rapport des Anciens Égyptiens au sable, élément naturel omniprésent dans le paysage et le quotidien. Le problème est abordé d’un point de vue textuel et plus particulièrement lexicographique. Pour cela, les mentions de six termes appartenant au vocabulaire du sable sont examinées dans des textes mythologiques et rituels, sur une période comprise entre l’Ancien Empire et l’époque romaine. L’enjeu est de déterminer la perception du sable en contexte et de mettre en évidence les croyances élaborées autour de l’élément. Il s’agit de saisir les principes d’introduction du sable au discours religieux afin de mettre en lumière un mécanisme de pensée spécifique à la religion égyptienne : l’observation naturaliste
This study focuses on the relations between Ancient Egyptians and sand, a natural element, ever-present in landscape and daily life. It is seen from a textual and especially lexicographical point of view. Therefore, quotes of six words related to the vocabulary of sand are studied in mythological and ritual texts from Old Kingdom to Roman Period. The aim is to establish the perception of sand depending on the context and to reveal the beliefs associated to sand. The introduction of sand in the religious speech is taken into account in order to highlight a way of thinking specific to the Egyptian religion : naturalistic observation

This dissertation used naturalistically-observed snippets of actual conversations of couples coping with breast cancer to understand how often, with whom, and how couples talk about cancer and other topics, and how these conversations relate to both partners' adjustment to the experience. Fifty-six breast cancer patients undergoing treatment and their spouses wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) for one weekend and completed adjustment questionnaires at baseline and a two-month follow-up. The first study revealed that couples discussed cancer in fewer than 10% of their conversations, and that these conversations occurred more frequently with each other than with friends and family. Cancer conversations tended to be informational and supportive, and spouses', rather than patients', discussion of cancer tended to be more related to adjustment. The second study analyzed the social language used within couples' cancer-related and other topics of conversation. Specifically, it examined the associations between we-talk (first-person plural pronouns), I-talk (first-person singular pronouns), and you-talk (second-person pronouns) and couples' adjustment. Results revealed that, contrary to prediction, both partners' we-talk was associated with concurrent, rather than future, adjustment. Further, both partners' focus on the spouse, indicated by I-talk and you-talk, was related to better adjustment for spouses. The findings in this dissertation indicate that psychosocial factors influence spouses' adjustment at least as much as patients' adjustment to breast cancer, and that couples without an exclusive focus on the patient may fare better overall.

A intervenção Módulo Ambientes Seguros (Ortiz, 2009, 2010) foi avaliada no seu processo, ao desenvolvê-la com 16 famílias participantes residentes na cidade de Bogotá. Este processo de avaliação foi parte de um estudo maior. A avaliação do processo visou melhorar o processo da intervenção e a qualidade dos dados obtidos para uma posterior avaliação de efeitos. A partir dos resultados obtidos neste estudo foi estabelecido que ambos, os instrumentos e os procedimentos selecionados para a coleta de dados (observação naturalística), foram adequados e estão em consonância com a realidade das famílias bogotanas de baixo nível socioeconômico. Concluiu-se que existe a necessidade de fortalecer tanto o processo de coleta de informações, como o processo de aplicação da intervenção em si mesmo. Sugere-se a realização de uma nova formação de profissionais. O estudo fornece evidências sobre como promover a tomada de decisões e o desenvolvimento de intervenções baseadas em evidências nos governos locais.
The Intervention Módulo Ambientes Seguros (Ortiz, 2009; 2010) was evaluated in their process, and was implemented with 16 families residents in Bogota city. This process evaluation was part of a larger study. Process evaluation wanted to improve the process and the quality of the data for the future evaluation of effects. The results of this evaluation process, established that both, instruments and the procedure selected for the data collection (naturalistic observation), are appropriate to the reality of the families and their socioeconomic status. Also was concluded that is necessary to strengthen the process of data collection and the process of the intervention itself. It is suggested develop a new training program. The study provides evidence about how to promote decisions and evidence-based interventions, like a real option for local governments.
La intervención Módulo Ambientes Seguros (Ortiz, 2009;2010) fue evaluada em su proceso, al ser implementada con 16 familias participantes habitantes em la ciudad de Bogotá. Esta evaluación de proceso hijo parte de um estudio mayor. La evaluación de procesos estabeleció que tanto los instrumentos como el procedimiento seleccionado para realizar la recolección de La información (observación naturalista), fueron pertinentes y se ajustan a la realidad de las familias bogotanas de bajo nivel socioeconômico. Se concluye que es necesario fortalecer tanto el proceso de recolección de la información, como el proceso de implementación de la intervención propriamente dicho, a través de uma nueva capacitación a los profesionales. El estudio brinda evidencia sobre cómo promover que decisiones e intervenciones basadas em la evidencia para los gobiernos locales.

In todayâ s technology based society the rapid proliferation of new machines and systems that would have been undreamed of only a few short years ago has become a way of life. Developments and advances especially in the areas of digital electronics and micro-circuitry have spawned subsequent technology based improvements in transportation, communications, entertainment, automation, the armed forces, and many other areas that would not have been possible otherwise. This rapid â explosionâ of new capabilities and ways of performing tasks has been motivated as often as not by the philosophy that if it is possible to make something better or work faster or be more cost effective or operate over greater distances then it must inherently be good for the human operator. Taken further, these improvements typically are envisioned to consequently produce a more efficient operating system where the human operator is an integral component. The formal concept of human-system interface design has only emerged this century as a recognized academic discipline, however, the practice of developing ideas and concepts for systems containing human operators has been in existence since humans started experiencing cognitive thought. An example of a human system interface technology for communication and dissemination of written information that has evolved over centuries of trial and error development, is the book. It is no accident that the form and shape of the book of today is as it is. This is because it is a shape and form readily usable by human physiology whose optimal configuration was determined by centuries of effort and revision. This slow evolution was mirrored by a rate of technical evolution in printing and elsewhere that allowed new advances to be experimented with as part of the overall use requirement and need for the existence of the printed word and some way to contain it. Today, however, technology is advancing at such a rapid rate that evolutionary use requirements have no chance to develop along side the fast pace of technical progress. One result of this recognition is the establishment of disciplines like human factors engineering that have stated purposes and goals of systematic determination of good and bad human system interface designs. However, other results of this phenomenon are systems that get developed and placed into public use simply because new technology allowed them to be made. This development can proceed without a full appreciation of how the system might be used and, perhaps even more significantly, what impact the use of this new system might have on the operator within it. The U.S. Army has a term for this type of activity. It is called â stove-piped developmentâ . The implication of this term is that a system gets developed in isolation where the developers are only looking â upâ and not â aroundâ . They are thus concerned only with how this system may work or be used for its own singular purposes as opposed to how it might be used in the larger community of existing systems and interfaces or, even more importantly, in the larger community of other new systems in concurrent development. Some of the impacts for the Army from this mode of system development are communication systems that work exactly as designed but are unable to interface to other communications systems in other domains for battlefield wide communications capabilities. Having communications systems that cannot communicate with each other is a distinct problem in its own right. However, when developments in one industry produce products that humans use or attempt to use with products from totally separate developments or industries, the Army concept of product development resulting from stove-piped design visions can have significant implication on the operation of each system and the human operator attempting to use it. There are many examples that would illustrate the above concept, however, one that will be explored here is the Army effort to study, understand, and optimize its command and control (C2) operations. This effort is at the heart of a change in the operational paradigm in C2 Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs) that the Army is now undergoing. For the 50 years since World War II the nature, organization, and mode of the operation of command organizations within the Army has remained virtually unchanged. Staffs have been organized on a basic four section structure and TOCs generally only operate in a totally static mode with the amount of time required to move them to keep up with a mobile battlefield going up almost exponentially from lower to higher command levels. However, current initiatives are changing all that and while new vehicles and hardware systems address individual components of the command structures to improve their operations, these initiatives do not necessarily provide the environment in which the human operator component of the overall system can function in a more effective manner. This dissertation examines C2 from a system level viewpoint using a new paradigm for systematically examining the way TOCs operate and then translating those observations into validated computer simulations using a methodological framework. This paradigm is called COmputer Modeling Paradigm And Simulation of Systems (COMPASS). COMPASS provides the ability to model TOC operations in a way that not only includes the individuals, work groups and teams in it, but also all of the other hardware and software systems and subsystems and human-system interfaces that comprise it as well as the facilities and environmental conditions that surround it. Most of the current literature and research in this area focuses on the concept of C2 itself and its follow-on activities of command, control, communications (C3), command, control, communications, and computers (C4), and command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I). This focus tends to address the activities involved with the human processes within the overall system such as individual and team performance and the commanderâ s decision-making process. While the literature acknowledges the existence of the command and control system (C2S), little effort has been expended to quantify and analyze C2Ss from a systemic viewpoint. A C2S is defined as the facilities, equipment, communications, procedures, and personnel necessary to support the commander (i.e., the primary decision maker within the system) for conducting the activities of planning, directing, and controlling the battlefield within the sector of operations applicable to the system. The research in this dissertation is in two phases. The overall project incorporates sequential experimentation procedures that build on successive TOC observation events to generate an evolving data store that supports the two phases of the project. Phase I consists of the observation of heavy maneuver battalion and brigade TOCs during peacetime exercises. The term â heavy maneuverâ is used to connotate main battle forces such as armored and mechanized infantry units supported by artillery, air defense, close air, engineer, and other so called combat support elements. This type of unit comprises the main battle forces on the battlefield. It is used to refer to what is called the conventional force structure. These observations are conducted using naturalistic observation techniques of the visible functioning of activities within the TOC and are augmented by automatic data collection of such things as analog and digital message traffic, combat reports generated by the computer simulations supporting the wargame exercise, and video and audio recordings where appropriate and available. Visible activities within the TOC include primarily the human operator functions such as message handling activities, decision-making processes and timing, coordination activities, and span of control over the battlefield. They also include environmental conditions, functional status of computer and communications systems, and levels of message traffic flows. These observations are further augmented by observer estimations of such indicators as perceived level of stress, excitement, and level of attention to the mission of the TOC personnel. In other words, every visible and available component of the C2S within the TOC is recorded for analysis. No a priori attempt is made to evaluate the potential significance of each of the activities as their contribution may be so subtle as to only be ascertainable through statistical analysis. Each of these performance activities becomes an independent variable (IV) within the data that is compared against dependent variables (DV) identified according to the mission functions of the TOC. The DVs for the C2S are performance measures that are critical combat tasks performed by the system. Examples of critical combat tasks are â attacking to seize an objectiveâ , â seizure of key terrainâ , and â river crossingsâ . A list of expected critical combat tasks has been prepared from the literature and subject matter expert (SME) input. After the exercise is over, the success of these critical tasks attempted by the C2S during the wargame are established through evaluator assessments, if available, and/or TOC staff self analysis and reporting as presented during after action reviews. The second part of Phase I includes datamining procedures, including neural networks, used in a constrained format to analyze the data. The term constrained means that the identification of the outputs/DV is known. The process was to identify those IV that significantly contribute to the constrained DV. A neural network is then constructed where each IV forms an input node and each DV forms an output node. One layer of hidden nodes is used to complete the network. The number of hidden nodes and layers is determined through iterative analysis of the network. The completed network is then trained to replicate the output conditions through iterative epoch executions. The network is then pruned to remove input nodes that do not contribute significantly to the output condition. Once the neural network tree is pruned through iterative executions of the neural network, the resulting branches are used to develop algorithmic descriptors of the system in the form of regression like expressions. For Phase II these algorithmic expressions are incorporated into the CoHOST discrete event computer simulation model of the C2S. The programming environment is the commercial programming language Micro Saintä running on a PC microcomputer. An interrogation approach was developed to query these algorithms within the computer simulation to determine if they allow the simulation to reflect the activities observed in the real TOC to within an acceptable degree of accuracy. The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce the COMPASS concept that is a paradigm for developing techniques and procedures to translate as much of the performance of the entire TOC system as possible to an existing computer simulation that would be suitable for analyses of future system configurations. The approach consists of the following steps: · Naturalistic observation of the real system using ethnographic techniques. · Data analysis using datamining techniques such as neural networks. · Development of mathematical models of TOC performance activities. · Integration of the mathematical into the CoHOST computer simulation. · Interrogation of the computer simulation. · Assessment of the level of accuracy of the computer simulation. · Validation of the process as a viable system simulation approach.
Ph. D.

How do air traffic controllers, or ATCos, distribute visual attention and can it vary between controllers? In this study, using primarily eye-tracking data and a couple of on-site interviews, these questions are explored. Two ATCos, with the most similar landings, had their eye-movements recorded with Tobii pro glasses 2 and further analysed by categorizing every fixation into different areas of interest during four landings. Two more ATCos were interviewed briefly during an observational visit to the control tower. The results showed that the ATCos distributed their attention fairly equally between the outside of the control tower and the inside. When attending to something outside the runway was the focus and when attention was inside the control tower the radar was usually the focus. The ATCos differed in their attention distribution by the presumably more experienced ATCo distributing their attention more outside the control tower than the presumably less experienced ATCo.  A large number of fixations were not categorized bringing the method of dividing the ATCos eye-tracking view into areas of interest into question.

This dissertation investigates novel statistical approaches for causal effect estimation in observational settings, where controlled experimentation is infeasible and confounding is the main hurdle in estimating causal effect. As such, deconfounding constructs the main subject of this dissertation, that is (i) to restore the covariate balance between treatment groups and (ii) to attenuate spurious correlations in training data to derive valid causal conclusions that generalize. By incorporating ideas from representation learning, adversarial matching, generative causal estimation, and invariant risk modeling, this dissertation establishes a causal framework that balances the covariate distribution in latent representation space to yield individualized estimations, and further contributes novel perspectives on causal effect estimation based on invariance principles. The dissertation begins with a systematic review and examination of classical propensity score based balancing schemes for population-level causal effect estimation, presented in Chapter 2. Three causal estimands that target different foci in the population are considered: average treatment effect on the whole population (ATE), average treatment effect on the treated population (ATT), and average treatment effect on the overlap population (ATO). The procedure is demonstrated in a naturalistic driving study (NDS) to evaluate the causal effect of cellphone distraction on crash risk. While highlighting the importance of adopting causal perspectives in analyzing risk factors, discussions on the limitations in balance efficiency, robustness against high-dimensional data and complex interactions, and the need for individualization are provided to motivate subsequent developments. Chapter 3 presents a novel generative Bayesian causal estimation framework named Balancing Variational Neural Inference of Causal Effects (BV-NICE). Via appealing to the Robinson factorization and a latent Bayesian model, a novel variational bound on likelihood is derived, explicitly characterized by the causal effect and propensity score. Notably, by treating observed variables as noisy proxies of unmeasurable latent confounders, the variational posterior approximation is re-purposed as a stochastic feature encoder that fully acknowledges representation uncertainties. To resolve the imbalance in representations, BV-NICE enforces KL-regularization on the respective representation marginals using Fenchel mini-max learning, justified by a new generalization bound on the counterfactual prediction accuracy. The robustness and effectiveness of this framework are demonstrated through an extensive set of tests against competing solutions on semi-synthetic and real-world datasets. In recognition of the reliability issue when extending causal conclusions beyond training distributions, Chapter 4 argues ascertaining causal stability is the key and introduces a novel procedure called Risk Invariant Causal Estimation (RICE). By carefully re-examining the relationship between statistical invariance and causality, RICE cleverly leverages the observed data disparities to enable the identification of stable causal effects. Concretely, the causal inference objective is reformulated under the framework of invariant risk modeling (IRM), where a population-optimality penalty is enforced to filter out un-generalizable effects across heterogeneous populations. Importantly, RICE allows settings where counterfactual reasoning with unobserved confounding or biased sampling designs become feasible. The effectiveness of this new proposal is verified with respect to a variety of study designs on real and synthetic data. In summary, this dissertation presents a flexible causal inference framework that acknowledges the representation uncertainties and data heterogeneities. It enjoys three merits: improved balance to complex covariate interactions, enhanced robustness to unobservable latent confounders, and better generalizability to novel populations.
Doctor of Philosophy
Reasoning cause and effect is the innate ability of a human. While the drive to understand cause and effect is instinct, the rigorous reasoning process is usually trained through the observation of countless trials and failures. In this dissertation, we embark on a journey to explore various principles and novel statistical approaches for causal inference in observational studies. Throughout the dissertation, we focus on the causal effect estimation which answers questions like ``what if" and ``what could have happened". The causal effect of a treatment is measured by comparing the outcomes corresponding to different treatment levels of the same unit, e.g. ``what if the unit is treated instead of not treated?". The challenge lies in the fact that i) a unit only receives one treatment at a time and therefore it is impossible to directly compare outcomes of different treatment levels; ii) comparing the outcomes across different units may involve bias due to confounding as the treatment assignment potentially follows a systematic mechanism. Therefore, deconfounding constructs the main hurdle in estimating causal effects. This dissertation presents two parallel principles of deconfounding: i) balancing, i.e., comparing difference under similar conditions; ii) contrasting, i.e., extracting invariance under heterogeneous conditions. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 explore causal effect through balancing, with the former systematically reviews a classical propensity score weighting approach in a conventional data setting and the latter presents a novel generative Bayesian framework named Balancing Variational Neural Inference of Causal Effects(BV-NICE) for high-dimensional, complex, and noisy observational data. It incorporates the advance deep learning techniques of representation learning, adversarial learning, and variational inference. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed framework are demonstrated through an extensive set of experiments. Chapter 4 extracts causal effect through contrasting, emphasizing that ascertaining stability is the key of causality. A novel causal effect estimating procedure called Risk Invariant Causal Estimation(RICE) is proposed that leverages the observed data disparities to enable the identification of stable causal effects. The improved generalizability of RICE is demonstrated through synthetic data with different structures, compared with state-of-art models. In summary, this dissertation presents a flexible causal inference framework that acknowledges the data uncertainties and heterogeneities. By promoting two different aspects of causal principles and integrating advance deep learning techniques, the proposed framework shows improved balance for complex covariate interactions, enhanced robustness for unobservable latent confounders, and better generalizability for novel populations.

Os estudos desenvolvidos procuram dar a conhecer uma parte da problemática do Insucesso Escolar, pretendendo identificar algumas razões do insucesso escolar na disciplina de Matemática no terceiro ciclo do ensino básico e tentar combatê-lo com a aplicação de estratégias para melhor podermos ajudar os nossos alunos a vencerem as suas dificuldades, enquanto lhes fizemos sentir a importância do que para eles representa em termos de vida futura possuírem bastantes e bons conhecimentos ao nível da Matemática. O Insucesso Escolar é um fenómeno complexo, uma vez que envolve um conjunto de fatores que contribuem para o crescimento do Insucesso Social. Conscientes desta realidade tentamos participar neste combate com este modesto contributo, introduzindo e testando estratégias que pudessem minimizar ou que até pudessem eliminar alguns aspetos que se apresentam como os grandes responsáveis pelo insucesso a que assistimos na área das matemáticas. Os instrumentos usados para fundamentarmos as escolhas das estratégias que melhor se aplicassem aos alunos das Escolas onde realizámos o nosso estudo, foram de várias naturezas: envolveram observações naturalistas em turmas dos três anos do terceiro ciclo de escolaridade, questionários aplicados nas comunidades envolventes, questionários aos alunos das escolas onde desenvolvemos e testámos as nossas estratégias, entrevistas semiestruturadas aos docentes dos Conselhos Executivos ou Comissões Instaladoras e entrevistas semiestruturadas aos Professores responsáveis pelos departamentos de Língua Portuguesa e de Matemática. Todas as atividades desencadeadas com vista à recolha de dados e onde ancorámos estas estratégias, tiveram lugar em doze escolas básicas e secundárias situadas na bacia hidrográfica do rio Guadiana. A quantidade de escolas visitadas deveu-se e só faz sentido por tratar-se de uma tese de dimensão regionalista. Na colaboração para a recolha de dados foram envolvidos cerca de mil e seiscentos alunos do terceiro ciclo, dezassete professores dos Conselhos Executivos ou Comissões Instaladoras e dezanove professores de Língua Portuguesa e de Matemática, chefes dos respetivos departamentos das disciplinas envolvidas. No nosso estudo não recorremos a meios sofisticados, ou seja não tivemos a preocupação de realizarmos preparações prévias ou de outra natureza, dado que os nossos objetivos não pretendem ir além de conhecer a generalidade das causas mais frequentes no campo restrito e relativo do insucesso na Matemática. Como balanço final de todo o trabalho realizado, o qual contou com a prestimosa ajuda de vários colegas especialmente aqueles que connosco constituíram os núcleos duros e dos nossos alunos que funcionaram aqui como os principais obreiros de toda esta azáfama. É de não esquecer a generosidade manifestada pelos elementos dos Conselhos Executivos das escolas com as quais trabalhámos e de considerar ainda os colegas que mais de perto participaram nestas tarefas. Os resultados obtidos são bastante satisfatórios tal como podemos observar nos valores apresentados nos quadros constantes e na rubrica Conclusões Finais. Consideramos importante o estudo realizado, porque para além de darmos uma visão holística deste problema aos que connosco colaboraram, produziu instrumentos didáticos que poderão ser utilizados por todos os que pretendam ter mais alguns elementos para combater o insucesso escolar ao nível da Matemática. Todos os intervenientes envolvidos se manifestaram satisfeitos com os resultados obtidos, prometendo manter e até melhorar estas novas estratégias. Não obstante os resultados observados no caso da Matemática em particular, este estudo é importante para todos, dado que alerta para a urgência de repensar a formação e preparação dos novos professores, dotando-os de atitudes críticas e reflexivas, viradas não apenas para uma atuação científica e pedagógica em geral, mas especialmente para uma nova visão destas matérias, visto tratar-se de uma ciência em constante evolução e que tem por objetivo responder aos grandes desafios e necessidades do mundo atual; ABSTRACT: Studies conducted by the group, are to give the knowledge of the problems of the School Failure, they seek to identify some of the reasons of the unsuccess in the subject of Maths in third cycle of basic schooling and try to fight them with the application of strategies, thought of by the group, that could help our students to better overcome their difficulties, while we make them feel the importance of what the knowledge the good mathematics skills can do for them in their future. The School failure is a complex phenomenon, as it involves a wide group of factors that contribute to the growth of the School Failure. Conscious of this reality we try to participate in this combat with our modest contribution, introducing and testing strategies that could minimize or even eliminate some of the aspects that present themselves responsible by the unsuccess of the Mathematics that we all witnessed. The instruments that helped us to base these choices of strategies that would better apply to the students of the schools on which we elaborated our research, were of many natures, and involved naturalistic observations in classes of the three years of the third cycle, quizzes applied to the surrounding communities and to the students and semisstructured interviews to the school board and to the teachers responsible by the departments of Portuguese and Mathematics. All the activities we created with the objective of information gathering and where we anchored our strategies, took place in twelve basic schools and High schools located in the catchment of the Guadiana river the quantity of schools visited was due to the regionalist character of this work. In the collaboration of the information dada we involved approximately sixteen hundred students of the third cycle, seventeen members of the boards and nineteen teachers of Portuguese and Mathematics, coordinators of the involved subjects. Our study was done in a purely academic way, since we haven’t resorted to other more sophisticated ways, on other words we didn’t have to worry on doing any previous viii preparations, since our objectives didn’t intend to go beyond of the general knowledge of the most frequent causes that we witnessed on the functions of teacher and the restricted field about the unsuccess of mathematics. As a final point of view of the work done, which counted with the helpful help of various colleagues especially those that constituted the hard cores, of our students that functioned here as the starring builders of all this work, and not forgetting the generosity demonstrated by the elements of the school boards on which we made our research, we also considered the colleagues whom closely participated in these tasks, the results obtained were quite satisfactory as we can witness in the values presented in the existing tables and in the final conclusion section. The performed study was truly important, not only because we gave a global view of this problem to all of those who collaborated with the group, but also because it produced instruments that could be used by everyone who intends to fight school failure in the subject of mathematics. All of those who intervened in the implemented strategies have manifested satisfaction with the obtained results, committing themselves to keep and even improve these new implemented strategies. Having in mind the observed results, in particular in the field of Mathematics, this study was important to all of us, since it alerts us to the urge of rethinking the preparation of the new teachers, providing them with critical and reflexive attitudes, which should not only cover a scientific and pedagogic vision but should also include a new vision of these subjects, since it is a science in constant evolution and has as an objective to answer to the great challenges and needs of the modern world.

De nombreux naturalistes amateurs battent la campagne et entreprennent parfois de véritables expéditions afin d’inventorier les différentes entités du monde naturel. Ils le font par passion, sur leur temps de loisir, et souvent en étroite collaboration avec des institutions académiques, en particulier les muséums d’histoire naturelle. Face à la crise d’extinction qui touche la biodiversité, cette collaboration entre amateurs et professionnels se renouvelle à travers notamment ce qui est appelé en France les sciences participatives. Cette thèse documente ce phénomène avec pour objectif de comprendre ce que les observatoires participatifs de la biodiversité transforment dans la pratique des naturalistes amateurs. Afin de mieux représenter la diversité des observateurs et des dispositifs, nous avons choisi de nous pencher sur le cas des amateurs de papillons peu étudiés jusque-là lorsqu’ils s’impliquent dans des atlas ou des suivis de biodiversité. A travers des méthodes ethnographiques privilégiant la longue durée de l’enquête et la description des pratiques en situation, notre travail accorde un soin particulier à documenter l’irruption du numérique dans la circulation des connaissances entre pairs, la diversification des régimes d’attention dans les expériences d’observation, et la multiplication des manières d’alerter la société sur les dangers qui menacent la biodiversité. En soulignant le lien entre les composantes communautaires, expérientielles, et politiques de l’activité des naturalistes amateurs, cette thèse défend l’idée qu’il y a un continuum entre le mouvement des corps et la formation des valeurs : l’engagement des naturalistes amateurs apparaît ainsi comme processuel et multiforme. Le plaisir de l’observation et la nécessité de témoigner s’y conjuguent, avec des attachements aux espèces rencontrées et aux espaces parcourus qui génèrent dans certains contextes des temps plus militants de décloisonnement des savoirs
Many amateur naturalists comb the countryside and sometimes undertake full-size expeditions to inventory the different entities of the natural world. They do it by passion, on their leisure time, and often in close collaboration with academic institutions, especially museums of natural history. Faced with the extinction crisis affecting biodiversity, this collaboration between amateurs and professionals is being renewed through what is called citizen sciences (participatory sciences in France). This thesis documents this phenomenon with the aim of understanding how participatory observatories of biodiversity transform the practice of amateur naturalists. In order to better represent the diversity of observers and schemes, we chose to focus on butterfly watchers little studied so far when they get involved in biodiversity atlases or monitoring schemes. Through ethnographic methods favoring long-term investigation and description of situated practices, our work paid a particular attention to document the irruption of digital technologies in the circulation of knowledge among peers, the diversification of attention regimes in observation experiences, and the multiplication of ways to alert society on the dangers that threat biodiversity. By highlighting the link between the community, the experiential and the political components of amateur naturalists’ activities, this thesis defends the idea that there is a continuum between the movement of bodies and the formation of values : the engagement of amateur naturalists thus appears as processual and multifaceted. The pleasure to observe and the need to testify intertwine, with attachments to encountered species and to visited areas which generate in some contexts activist attitudes reducing the partition of knowledges

La méthodologie de l’évaluation en psychothérapie s’est longtemps limitée aux résultats issus d’essais cliniques comparatifs de groupes. L’objectif, engagé dans les années 2000, de comprendre ce qui cause son efficacité a engagé un renouvellement méthodologique. Son application concrète est peu documentée. La première partie présente, à partir d’une revue de la littérature centrée sur l’introduction de la recherche sur le processus associée aux résultats, comment le paradigme interactionnel multifactoriel de la psychothérapie a stimulé le développement de méthodes adaptées à la complexité et à l’observation en conditions naturelles. La seconde partie introduit autour de cinq axes principaux les questions méthodologiques générales et spécifiques de cette nouvelle orientation : 1. une épistémologie interactionnelle et transactionnelle ; 2. Un recentrage sur les études mixtes intensives de cas ; 3. Une investigation clinique et théorique multifocale des processus et mécanismes de changement ; 4. une forte relation clinicien-chercheur ; 5. une approche statistique innovante. La troisième partie expose l’expérience et les questions soulevées par la mise en œuvre de ce programme dans le cadre d’un réseau de recherche clinique centré sur les pratiques, du recueil des données jusqu’à l’analyse des processus et mécanismes de changement, et les résultats qui en sont issus. La quatrième partie présente une revue détaillée de la littérature. Ce travail devrait favoriser les collaborations avec les disciplines connexes et l’efficience des traitements par une meilleure connaissance des conditions et des mécanismes de changement associée au développement d’une base de données issue d’études de cas
The methodology of assessment in psychotherapy has long been limited to results from comparative group clinical trials. The objective, expressed in the 2000s, to understand what is causing its effectiveness has involved a methodological renewal. Its concrete application is poorly documented. The first part presents, from a review of the literature focusing on the introduction of research on the process associated with outcomes, how the multifactorial interactional paradigm of psychotherapy has stimulated the development of methods adapted to the complexity and observation in natural conditions. The second part introduces the general and specific methodological questions of this new orientation around five main axes: 1. an interactional and transactional epistemology; 2. A refocusing on intensive mixed case studies; 3. A multifocal clinical and theoretical investigation of the processes and mechanisms of change; 4. a strong clinical-researcher relationship; 5. an innovative statistical approach. The third part presents the experience and issues raised by the implementation of this program as part of a practice-oriented clinical research network, from data collection to analysis of processes and mechanisms of change, and results. The fourth part presents a detailed review of the literature. This work should foster collaborations with related disciplines and treatment efficiency through a better understanding of the conditions and mechanisms of change associated with the development of a case study database

碩士
龍華科技大學
電子工程系碩士班
101
Testing is the most basic aspects of game design, by testing the designer can identify problems early, and to gather player feedback, but how many of the prototype to make the best choice, therefore, need more players are provided in accordance with the target data analysis. This study hopes to interact with the game by collecting the player's behavior, the use of digital image capture device, EEG, eye instruments and questionnaires, observation through natural way to explore the game players in the process of interaction with the natural differences in behavior, so as to Kingdom Rush game as an example, the completion of sample data collection, research found that men and women in the construction of the first selection unit types, there are significant differences in the results from the eye tracker seems that the vast majority of men and women looking in the range of enemy soldiers path.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Psychology.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-143). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39296.

碩士
國立中央大學
機械工程研究所
99
Reducing energy consumption and the greenhouse effect is an important issue for our country. Educating drivers to learn correct driving behavior is a feasible way to achieve this objective. Eco-driving has been proved to save up to 7% of energy consumption in Europe. The research is to observe driving behavior of professional dual-axle passenger drivers through an electric recorder installed on the bus. This research used the VigilVanguard detection system that comes from the Australia to combine the OBDII on-board diagnostic device to experiment the 100 different bus drivers. In the experiment, researcher collected the data of driving process, including driving image, speed, acceleration and instantaneous fuel consumption and so on. According to the driving data, we analyzed the fuel consumption and unsafe driving behaviors, and develop the training system for the large vehicle of professional drivers. This research analyzed the driving data of the 30 bus drivers to classify the 11 different driving behaviors and fuel economy.During acceleration and nonacceleration behaviors, the speed and acceleration of behavior affected the fuel ecomony. During nonacceleration behaviors, the highest mean speed had the largest fuel economy. During acceleration behavior, deceleration behavior and coasting behavior had the largest fuel economy.

This study examined the relationship between emergent imitation skills and social communication skills in 15 to 18 month old infants, using a quantitative correlational research design. Imitation skills are an index of later social cognition and language development, and a critical mechanism in language learning for typically developing children. Social communication skills in this age predict later language skills. The relationship between imitation and social communication is poorly understood in infants. This study looked at the relationship between imitation and social communication at their emergence. This study included 30 typically developing infants, whose participation was volunteered by their parents. They were recruited through posters and word-of-mouth in communities in the Pacific Northwest. Infants’ imitation behaviors were measured using the Motor Imitation Scale (Stone, Ousley, & Littleford, 1997), and their social communication skills were measured using the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales- Developmental Profile (Wetherby & Prizant, 2002). This study used a naturalistic observation model so the one-hour play sessions took place in the infants' homes. Sessions were digitally recorded for later scoring and analysis. This study demonstrated a concurrent and predictive relationship between imitation and language understanding in this age group. The study suggests that imitation is an important variable in early language acquisition that needs further study, and needs to be addressed when assessing prelinguistic child development. The study suggests that imitation skills should be fostered early on and provides evidence-based methods for facilitating imitation and language development.
Graduate
0525
0518
0620
0460
lhanika@uvic.ca

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Psychology.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-113). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99239

碩士
國立台北護理學院
嬰幼兒保育研究所
93
The purposes of this study were to explore young children’s naturalist intelligence through the parent-child joint nature activities and to find out the effects of parent-child interaction on nature activities. Qualitative research methods including direct observation and semi-structured interview were used to collect data in field activities. In order to explore the relationship in depth between parent-child interaction and children’s naturalist intelligence, various forms of data including observational records, young children’s nature journal and video recording were analyzed and discussed. Results of the study can be discussed from two aspects: A. young children’s naturalist intelligence and B. effects of parent-child interaction on nature activities as follows: A. Young children’s naturalist intelligence 1. Subjects in the study presented 3 behavioral patterns in the nature activities, i.e., easy playing, close to nature, and silent observer. Several core capabilities of naturalist intelligence were presented especially recognition ability. 2. Several actions regarding recognition ability were inspired and presented during the Bingo games, including observation, comparison, verification, and decision-making. 3. In nature observation activities, young children not only presented both integral and incisive nature mind but also went through the progress of cognition such as assimilation and accommodation. B. Effects of parent-child interaction on nature activities 1. In parent-child joint nature activities, process of the parent-child interaction demonstrated the co-finding and co-decision-making procedure. 2. 3 patterns of mother role were illustrated during parent-child interaction, i.e., enthusiastic expert, information provider, and warm companion. Limitations of the study would be reported; suggestion for parents and researchers would also be discussed.

The bidirectional nature of siblings’ influence on each other’s cognitive development was examined within the context of naturalistic teaching. The purpose of the present study was to compare 38 sibling dyads from four to seven years of age on measures of teaching strategies, initiation of teaching, learner’s response to teaching, and children’s use of internal state language. Pearson correlations revealed that the older sibling’s age was not related to these variables, while younger siblings’ age was negatively associated with their use of positive feedback. No gender effects were found using a series of t-tests. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare older and younger siblings’ teaching strategies. Results indicated that older siblings used more demonstration, positive feedback and negative feedback compared to younger siblings during teaching. Significant main effects were found for children’s use of internal state language, who initiated teaching, and learner response. Overall, both siblings’ referenced more goals than cognitions during teaching. Furthermore, the majority of sibling teaching sequences were initiated by the teacher rather than requested by the learner. Older siblings’ references to cognitions were positively associated with younger siblings’ active involvement and younger siblings’ use of planning was positively correlated with their older siblings’ active involvement. These findings have a number of implications for understanding how siblings contribute to each other’s social-cognitive development.