Ronan G. Reilly

Programming: factors that influence success

This paper documents a study, carried out in the academic year 2003-2004, on fifteen factors that may influence performance on a first year object-oriented programming module. The factors included prior academic experience, prior computer experience, self-perception of programming performance and comfort level on the module and specific cognitive skills. The study found that a students perception of their understanding of the module had the strongest correlation with programming performance, r=0.76, p‹0.01. In addition, Leaving Certificate (LC) mathematics and science scores were shown to have a strong correlation with performance. A regression module, based upon a students perception of their understanding of the module, gender, LC mathematics score and comfort level was able to account for 79% of the variance in programming performance results.

Chapter 21 – Foundations of an Interactive Activation Model of Eye Movement Control in Reading

Publisher Summary Glenmore is an interactive-activation model of eye-movement control in reading. The model decouples the decision when to move the eyes from the word recognition process. The time course of activity in a “fixate centre” determines the triggering of a saccade. The other main feature of the model is the use of a saliency map that acts as an arena for the interplay of bottom-up visual features of the text and top-down lexical features. These factors combine to create a pattern of activation that selects one word as the saccade target. One of the goals of Glenmore is to explore the class of dynamical model, one that allows the interplay of factors from multiple levels of representation. The most appropriate class of modeling frameworks for this approach would be connectionist models and interactive activation models. The connectionist architecture of the Glenmore model is relatively simple, comprising input units, letter units, saliency units, and word units, as well as a “fixate centre” unit that controls the decision when to execute a new saccade. This decision is based on the general level of activity in the letter units; once activation in the fixate centre falls below a given threshold, a saccade is targeted to the most salient word ‘blob” on the saliency map.

Eye movement control during reading: a simulation of some word-targeting strategies.

McConkie, Kerr, Reddix, & Zola [(1988). Vision Research, 28, 1107-1118] demonstrated that the distributions of landing sites on a word tended to be gaussian in shape. They provided a detailed account of the behaviour of the eye once a target had been selected and a saccade initiated, but said little about the process of target selection itself. The purpose of this study was to take as a starting point the landing site distributions of McConkie et al., in particular the residuals derived from fitting the gaussians to the empirical data, and to explore by computer simulation a number of saccade targeting strategies in order to discover candidates that best accounted for the residual data. Our results indicate that the strategy that gives the best fit involves targeting the longest word in a right parafoveal window extending 20 characters to the right of the currently fixated word. The implications of this finding for models of reading are discussed.

Examining the role of self-regulated learning on introductory programming performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-regulated learning (SRL) and introductory programming performance. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory computer programming module at a third-level (post-high school) institution. The instrument used in this study was designed to assess the motivations and learning strategies (cognitive, metacognitive and resource management strategies) of college students. The data gathered was analyzed to determine if a relationship existed between self-regulation and programming performance and investigate if SRL could be used to predict performance on the module. The study found that students who perform well in programming use more metacognitive and resource management strategies than lower performing students. In addition, students who have high levels of intrinsic motivation and task value perform better in programming and use more metacognitive and resource management strategies than students with low levels of intrinsic motivation and task value. Finally, a regression model based on cognitive, metacognitive and resource management strategies was able to account for 45% of the variance in programming performance results.

The role of global top-down factors in local eye-movement control in reading

Although the development of the field of reading has been impressive, there are a number of issues that still require much more attention. One of these concerns the variability of skilled reading within the individual. This paper explores the topic in three ways: (1) it quantifies the extent to which, two factors, the specific reading task (comprehension vs. word verification) and the format of reading material (sentence vs. passage) influence the temporal aspects of reading as expressed in word-viewing durations; (2) it examines whether they also affect visuomotor aspects of eye-movement control; and (3) determine whether they can modulate local lexical processing. The results reveal reading as a dynamic, interactive process involving semi-autonomous modules, with top-down influences clearly evident in the eye-movement record.

Predicting introductory programming performance: A multi-institutional multivariate study

A model for predicting student performance on introductory programming modules is presented. The model uses attributes identified in a study carried out at four third-level institutions in the Republic of Ireland. Four instruments were used to collect the data and over 25 attributes were examined. A data reduction technique was applied and a logistic regression model using 10-fold stratified cross validation was developed. The model used three attributes: Leaving Certificate Mathematics result (final mathematics examination at second level), number of hours playing computer games while taking the module and programming self-esteem. Prediction success was significant with 80% of students correctly classified. The model also works well on a per-institution level. A discussion on the implications of the model is provided and future work is outlined.

Models of oculomotor control in reading: Toward a theoretical foundation of current debates

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews and classifies the range of current approaches to the modeling of eye movements during reading, and discusses some of the controversies and important issues arising from the variety of approaches. The chapter focuses on the role and conceptualization of visual attention inherent in the models. It describes how visual attention relates to the spatial selection, arguing that it is important to distinguish visual selection for the purpose of letter and word recognition from visual selection for the purpose of movement preparation. The chapter focuses on processes and mechanisms tapped by (1) Posners functions and (2) visual selection of information and processing of selected information at the expense of other potential visual input. The chapter concludes with some proposals for model testing and evaluation and some challenges for future model development.Publisher Summary This chapter reviews and classifies the range of current approaches to the modeling of eye movements during reading, and discusses some of the controversies and important issues arising from the variety of approaches. The chapter focuses on the role and conceptualization of visual attention inherent in the models. It describes how visual attention relates to the spatial selection, arguing that it is important to distinguish visual selection for the purpose of letter and word recognition from visual selection for the purpose of movement preparation. The chapter focuses on processes and mechanisms tapped by (1) Posners functions and (2) visual selection of information and processing of selected information at the expense of other potential visual input. The chapter concludes with some proposals for model testing and evaluation and some challenges for future model development.

EyeMap: a software system for visualizing and analyzing eye movement data in reading

We have developed EyeMap, a freely available software system for visualizing and analyzing eye movement data specifically in the area of reading research. As compared with similar systems, including commercial ones, EyeMap has more advanced features for text stimulus presentation, interest area extraction, eye movement data visualization, and experimental variable calculation. It is unique in supporting binocular data analysis for unicode, proportional, and nonproportional fonts and spaced and unspaced scripts. Consequently, it is well suited for research on a wide range of writing systems. To date, it has been used with English, German, Thai, Korean, and Chinese. EyeMap is platform independent and can also work on mobile devices. An important contribution of the EyeMap project is a device-independent XML data format for describing data from a wide range of reading experiments. An online version of EyeMap allows researchers to analyze and visualize reading data through a standard Web browser. This facility could, for example, serve as a front-end for online eye movement data corpora.

Virtual environment trajectory analysis: a basis for navigational assistance and scene adaptivity

This paper describes the analysis and clustering of motion trajectories obtained while users navigate within a virtual environment (VE). It presents a neural network simulation that produces a set of five clusters which help to differentiate users on the basis of efficient and inefficient navigational strategies. The accuracy of classification carried out with a self-organising map algorithm was tested and improved to in excess of 85% by using learning vector quantisation. This paper considers how such user classifications could be utilised in the delivery of intelligent navigational support and the dynamic reconfiguration of scenes within such VEs. We explore how such intelligent assistance and system adaptivity could be delivered within a Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) context.

Presence and task performance: an approach in the light of cognitive style

The paper highlights the relationship between each of four bi-polar dimensions of personality cognitive style, such as extraversion–introversion, sensing–intuition, thinking–feeling and judging–perceiving, and the level of sense of presence experienced. Findings indicate that individuals who are more sensitive, more feeling or more introverted experience a higher level of presence. While not reaching statistical significance, differing cognitive styles appear to impact on task performance. The apparent negative relationship discovered between sense of presence and task performance should be considered in the light of task characteristics. We discuss the implications of these findings and how they contribute to an understanding of the complex relationship that exists between presence and task performance and how this subsequently ought to influence the design of virtual environments.