Brian C. O'Connor

Modelling what users see when they look at images: a cognitive viewpoint

Analysis of user viewing and query‐matching behavior furnishes additional evidence that the relevance of retrieved images for system users may arise from descriptions of objects and content‐based elements that are not evident or not even present in the image. This investigation looks at how users assign pre‐determined query terms to retrieved images, as well as looking at a post‐retrieval process of image engagement to user cognitive assessments of meaningful terms. Additionally, affective/emotion‐based query terms appear to be an important descriptive category for image retrieval. A system for capturing (eliciting) human interpretations derived from cognitive engagements with viewed images could further enhance the efficiency of image retrieval systems stemming from traditional indexing methods and technology‐based content extraction algorithms. An approach to such a system is posited.

User reactions as access mechanism: an exploration based on captions for images

Words are problematic for describing images, but they are a convenient and traditional way of describing requests. Users can given voice to their reactions to images-how well they suit needs. User-generated reactions might provide word-based descriptors helpful to subsequent users and requiring minimal system resources to produce. Shifting focus from description of documents to description of reactions is accomplished by gathering verbal captions and responses to images. User generation of captions and verbal responses within a collection of 300 diverse images is demonstrated and analyzed. Functional adjectival descriptors appear in 20% of the responses and functional narrative (conversational) descriptors appear in 80% of the responses. Issues of larger scale analysis, implementation, and possible shifts in understanding of representation for retrieval are discussed.

Do LEGO® Mindstorms® motivate students in CS1?

The purpose of the research study described in this paper was to investigate the effectiveness of using LEGO Mindstorms robotic activities to influence student motivation in an introductory university computer programming course. Various aspects relating to student motivation were measured using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Tests revealed no statistically significant differences between groups in relation to intrinsic goal orientation, task value, control of learning beliefs, self-efficacy, and test anxiety at the alpha = .05 level. The experiment did detect a statistically significant difference between groups in relation to extrinsic goal orientation. The LEGO group, however, showed a larger decrease in levels of extrinsic goal orientation, suggesting they were less motivated in learning the material for rewards such as grades. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, ideally a decline in extrinsic goal orientation would be accompanied by a statistically significant increase in intrinsic goal orientation suggesting students were instead motivated because they were interested in the content of the material. This was not the case in this study. Despite the lack of positive quantitative results, responses to student follow-up questions suggest that at least some of the students enjoyed the LEGO Mindstorms activities. A discussion of possible factors influencing these results is provided.

What Do Users See? Exploring the Cognitive Nature of Functional Image Retrieval.

Images cannot just be labeled. The vexing issues surrounding functional access to digitized images have come to the fore as a major concern in the realm of information retrieval. Constant overlap as well as a lack of consistent membership among and between images continues to challenge the efficacy of retrieval systems development. Analysis of user viewing and categorization furnishes additional evidence that what viewers see is not necessarily the objects pictured, may not even be present in an image, or represents a wide variety of possible descriptions. This investigation looks at how users view images in relation to how they can be described (categorized) and in what manner they match other images in the same collection. The results provide an indication that what viewers see depends as much on who they are as it does on what they see. While traditional methods of image retrieval have mostly focused on indexing techniques that encompass object descriptions and more recent approaches through contentbased aspects of digitized imagery, it appears that these systems could be improved by enabling subjective engagement with retrieved images to identify additional access points derived from the adumbrative, impressionistic, and many times abstract nature of user cognitive engagements with the images retrieved.

Dancing with Entropy: Form Attributes, Children, and Representation

This study explores the use of the information theory entropy equation in representations of videos for children. The calculated rates of information in the videos are calibrated to the corresponding perceived rates of information as elicited from the 12 seven‐ to ten‐year‐old girls who were shown video documents. Entropy measures are calculated for several video elements: set time, set incidence, verbal time, verbal incidence, set constraint, nonverbal dependence, and character appearance. As hypothesized, mechanically calculated entropy measure (CEM) was found to be sufficiently similar to perceived entropy measure (PEM) made by children so that they can be used as useful and predictive elements of representations of childrens videos. The relationships between the CEM and the PEM show that CEM could stand for PEM in order to enrich representations for video documents for this age group.

No longer a shot in the dark: Engineering a robust environment for film study

Representation of film texts for scholars and students has been fraught with difficulties imposed by the very nature of the text. The time-varying image track presented hurdles to close significant challenges to formulation of units of meaning and analysis. The digital environment offers opportunities for addressing these problems. We offer here a model of the film document as a bundle of time-varying signals. We demonstrate using this model to construct a system for close analysis of film texts, including precise measurement of attributes. Finally, we consider some consequence for the pedagogical environment.

Nodes of topicality: modeling user notions of on topic documents

Topicality, while demonstrably an empirically manageable variable of investigation, engenders aspects of cognitive complexity that may, or may not, be easily managed during user interactions with IR systems. If an item retrieved from an IR system is considered to be on topic by a user, the meaning of that judgment may imply other underlying criteria. What makes an item on topic for users is the subject of this investigation. Although topicality has served to generate a great deal of attention in the body of information science literature, the meaning of topicality to IR system users has suffered from a lack of full understanding in designing more effective approaches to information search and retrieval. This investigation takes an inductive approach to the deductive extraction of characteristics that describe and explain how items retrieved from interactions with IR systems can be considered as on topic.

Provocations on the structure of scholarly writing in the digital era

Purpose – This paper seeks to urge academic writers to restructure their scholarly writing to reflect the depth of their intellectual message rather than conforming to the structurally simplistic hegemony of the mundane. Design/methodology/approach – The authors of this paper represent interdisciplinary perspectives in research. Each has grown increasingly disillusioned by dwindling consideration given to the structural integrity of scholarly thoughts in academic writing. This paper does not suggest a solution of strict adherence to some style manual or single format, nor does it suggest a privilege to any particular constraint. Indeed, the authors suggest that the digital environment enables unimagined communication possibilities, and hence a counterpoise to any single rigid structure. New formats require attention to the engineering of message structure. Using historical examples and modern applications from their disciplines, the authors offer provocations on the structures of scholarly writing. They pay particular attention to modern applications of Claude Shannon’s information theory and to the introduction of models for understanding the audiences of academic writing. Findings – Scholarly writing warrants a deep investment of intellectual, personal, and communicative effort. Readers will have different requirements for any individual piece of scholarly writing, but all will be served by the fullest expression of the logic, care, tenacity, and passion that drove the research to fruition. Engineering the scholarly document to contribute to audiences of differing interests and abilities requires careful consideration rather than mere assumption of a generic reader.

Engineering an image‐browsing environment: re‐purposing existing denotative descriptors

Purpose – The paper provides a theory base for deriving connotative descriptors for photographs from existing denotative descriptors, and then demonstrates a model for enhancing browsing within image collections by providing a tool for carving up the searching space.Design/methodology/approach – The paper conceptually explores the nature of iconic messages contained in an image by adopting semiotics as a theoretical tool. A problem of image retrieval is identified as loss of connotative messages during the image representation process. The paper proposes an image‐retrieval model utilizing an association thesaurus that facilitates the assignment of connotative index terms by making use of denotative index terms of an image. A series of experiments are performed for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed model.Findings – Experimental results demonstrate that the association thesaurus improves image‐retrieval effectiveness by increasing the recall of connotatively related image documents as well as the...

Clownpants in the classroom? Hypnotizing chickens? Measurement of structural distraction in visual presentation documents

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the structure of entertainment media as a possible foundation for measuring aspects of visual presentations that could enhance or interfere with audience engagement. , – Factors that might account for the large number of negative comments about visual presentations are identified and a method of calculating entropy measurements for form attributes of presentations is introduced. , – Entropy calculations provide a numerical measure of structural elements that account for engagement or distraction. A set of peer evaluations of educational presentations is used to calibrate a distraction factor algorithm. , – Distraction as a consequence of document structure might enable engineering of a balance between document structure and content in document formats not yet explored by mechanical entropy calculations. , – Mathematical calculations of structural elements (form attributes) support what multimedia presentation viewers have been observing for years (documented in numerous journals and newspapers from education to business to military fields): engineering PowerPoint presentations necessarily involves attention to engagement vs distraction in the audience. , – Exploring aspects of document structures has been demonstrated to calibrate viewer perceptions to calculated measurements in moving image documents, and now in images and multimedia presentation documents extending Claude Shannons early work communication channels and James Watt and Robert Krulls work on television programming.