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On the Same Wavelength: Exploring Team Neurosynchrony in Undergraduate Dyads Solving a Cyberlearning Problem With Collaborative Scripts
Abstract
As teammates adjust their cognition and behavior, synchronizations of information can be observed across verbal, postural, and neurophysiological systems. This study explored the synchrony of mutually interacting brains, or team neurosynchrony, during cyber‐enabled collaborative problem solving. Mixed‐sex dyads defined and solved an authentic problem using either a social script or an epistemic script. Alpha‐band phase‐locking value, or the absolute value of the sum of the phase differences of electrodes at a particular time and frequency across a number of epochs, was used as a measure of team neurosynchrony. Contrary to our hypotheses, analyses revealed greater alpha‐band phase‐locking values between the central and parietal electrodes of dyad members in the epistemic script condition. Mean alpha phase‐locking values were positively correlated with collaborative problem solving performance and negatively correlated with time spent on the problem solving process, suggesting that epistemic scripts were more effective scaffolds of collaborative problem solving compared to social scripts in this study.
... Early two-brain studies investigated situations in which participants engaged in imitation, cooperation, and competition tasks (e.g., Astolfi et al., 2010;Astolfi et al., 2011;Cui et al, 2010, Dumas et al., 2010Montague et al, 2002). Over time the number of studies has proliferated and the experimental paradigms employed have increased in diversity and complexity to examine functional connectivity while interacting through complex strategies requiring elements of cooperation, competition, and deception (e.g., Vanutelli, 2017, Toppi et al., 2016), to producing and receiving language in an array of ecological settings, including educational, creativity and problem-solving scenarios (e.g., Antonenko et al., 2019;Dikker et al., 2017;Mayseless et al., 2019;Xue et al., 2018). ...
... The effects of cooperation, problem-solving, and creativity in relation to IBS have been popular topics of study in ecological settings (Antonenko et al., 2019;Fishburn et al., 2018;Lu and Hao, 2019;Lu et al., 2019aLu et al., , 2019bLu et al., 2020;Mayseless et al., 2019). Seven J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f studies employed these experimental paradigms (Table 3), and all but one used fNIRS. ...
... Seven J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f studies employed these experimental paradigms (Table 3), and all but one used fNIRS. IBS was predominantly identified either in the frontal (Fishburn et al., 2018;Lu et al., 2019a;Lu and Hao, 2019;Lu et al., 2020) or both the frontal and the temporal-parietal regions (Antonenko et al., 2019;Lu et al., 2019b;Mayseless et al., 2019;Xue et al., 2018). Fishburn et al. (2018) reported IBS in the PFC for triads cooperatively solving creative Tangram puzzles under the condition of shared intentionality. ...
A growing body of literature examining the neurocognitive processes of interpersonal linguistic interaction indicates the emergence of neural alignment as participants engage in oral communication. However, questions have arisen whether the study results can be interpreted beyond observations of cortical functionality and extended to the mutual understanding between communicators. This review presents evidence from electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning studies of interbrain synchrony (IBS) in which participants communicated via spoken language. The studies are classified into: knowledge sharing; turn-taking speech coordination ; cooperation, problem-solving and creativity; and naturalistic discussion paradigms according to the type of interaction specified in each study. Alignment predominantly occurred in the frontal and temporo-parietal areas, which may reflect activation of the mirror and mentalizing systems. We argue that the literature presents a significant contribution to advancing our understanding of IBS and mutual understanding between communicators. We end with suggestions for future research, including analytical approaches and experimental conditions and hypothesize that brain-inspired neural networks are promising techniques for better understanding of IBS through hyperscanning.
... Linked to this, this review includes an interesting study (Hernandez-Cuevas et al., 2020), focused on the development of neurofeedback applications with EEG devices by secondary education students. A promising line of work investigates the interaction processes among students (e.g., Antonenko et al., 2019) or between students and teachers (e.g., Bevilacqua et al., 2019;Chen et al., 2023), through hyperscanning procedures, analysing the synchrony between the signals collected from the different participants. Table 3 shows the studies grouped by purpose. ...
... Among the semi-naturalistic situations, some experiences propose highly controlled situations, with individual interventions, and a strict control of the stimuli (e.g., Mazher et al., 2015). In other cases, an attempt is made to bring students to situations closer to a real experience (e.g., Antonenko et al., 2019). In the case of naturalistic conditions, different degrees of "naturalism" are also apparent, ranging from those cases in which a situation is constructed that tries to reproduce a conventional learning context (e.g., Babiker et al., 2019), to studies that are developed in conventional classrooms (e.g., Chen et al., 2023), even involving the students in the preparation of the devices (e.g., Dikker et al., 2017). ...
This systematic review examines 76 studies that have utilised portable electroencephalographic (EEG) devices in naturalistic and semi‐naturalistic contexts. The review considers themes, purposes, contexts, application populations, device characteristics, and data use. The results show a dominance of studies focused on attention, in technology‐mediated semi‐naturalistic situations, in which records are made individually, with university students using low‐cost equipment with fewer than 15 channels. This review highlights an emerging field within educational research that has not yet been fully integrated into educational practice. However, these first experiences can gradually generate a body of knowledge that will facilitate future applications, together with the development of better and more accessible devices. The use of these devices in educational contexts raises ethical concerns, particularly the influence on teaching decisions by opaque commercial algorithms that may oversimplify assessments of specific cognitive processes and fail to adapt to individual student characteristics.
Context and implications
Rationale for this study: Portable EEG devices are emerging tools that offer new insights into cognitive processes in learning situations.
Why the new findings are important: The findings of this study demonstrate the potential of EEG to monitor aspects such as attention and cognitive load in real time, which could enhance the personalisation of educational strategies.
Implications for educators, researchers and policy makers: This study has implications for educators, researchers and policy makers, as it illustrates how neurotechnology can be integrated into educational settings and emphasises the need for more naturalistic studies to maximise its impact. It also highlights the ethical challenges associated with the use of commercial algorithms in educational decision‐making.
... In order to reconstruct this inference, I have considered a convenience sample consisting of all research articles 4 (n ¼ 122) published in the two journals dedicated to educational neuroscience (Mind, Brain and Education and Trends in Neuroscience and Education) during the period 2015-2019. Of 122 articles, I identified 15 articles that fit the search criteria, i.e. testing a pedagogical intervention (or an intervening factor that can be connected to some teaching strategy) and using neuroimaging (Aar et al., 2019;Antonenko et al., 2019;Daly et al., 2019;Horowitz-Kraus, 2015;Karlsson Wirebring et al., 2015;H. S. Lee et al., 2015;Ludyga et al., 2018;Nenciovici et al., 2018;Nissim et al., 2018;Pietto et al., 2018;Rominger et al., 2017;Rosenberg-Lee et al., 2018;Sanger & Dorjee, 2016;Taillan et al., 2015;Takeuchi et al., 2019). ...
... Ten cases (including Neville et al.) employed neuroimaging technology such as EEG and fNIRS, which allowed the involved individuals to move more freely. Among these cases, two studies specified that the measurements were taken in a quiet separate room (Rominger et al., 2017;Taillan et al., 2015); two studies specified that the measurements were taken in a quiet separate room within the school premises (Horowitz-Kraus, 2015; Sanger & Dorjee, 2016); two studies specified that measurements were performed in lab conditions (Giuliano et al., 2018;Ludyga et al., 2018); three studies provided unclear descriptions of the measurement location (Antonenko et al., 2019;Takeuchi et al., 2019;Daly et al., 2019); and finally, one study (Pietto et al., 2018) stated that the neuroimaging measurement were taken under natural field conditions. To the extent that natural field conditions were not established during these measurements, we incur in a problem that I call the discrepancy between learning-in-the-lab and learning-in-the-classroom. As discussed in section 3, measured effects in the lab or otherwise artificial conditions work best as evidence for theory, since laboratory settings are set up to isolate relevant factors and eliminate contextual disturbance. ...
The aim of this paper is to reconstruct and critically assess the evidential relationship between neuroscience and educational practice. To do this, I reconstruct a standard way in which evidence from neuroscience is used to support recommendations about educational practice, that is, testing pedagogical interventions using neuroimaging methods, and discuss and critically assess the inference behind this approach. I argue that this inference rests on problematic assumptions, and, therefore, that neuroimaging intervention studies have no special evidential status for basing educational practice. I conclude arguing that these limitations could be resolved by integrating evidence from neurocognitive and educational science.
... Each group was provided with a Google Doc game design outline template (see Appendix), which was adapted by the instructor from a free Breakout EDU (2018) resource. Groups used their game design outlines throughout the project as collaboration scripts (De Wever et al., 2010), tracking their progress weekly to ensure roles were equally distributed in a manner that would result in accomplishing all tasks (Antonenko et al., 2019;De Wever et al., 2010). ...
... Each group was provided with a Google Doc game design outline template (see Appendix), which was adapted by the instructor from a free Breakout EDU (2018) resource. Groups used their game design outlines throughout the project as collaboration scripts (De Wever et al., 2010), tracking their progress weekly to ensure roles were equally distributed in a manner that would result in accomplishing all tasks (Antonenko et al., 2019;De Wever et al., 2010). ...
Educators have recently begun using digital breakout games as an instructional strategy in K–12 and higher ed curricula. However, research has thus far explored outcomes associated with playing these games, rather than designing them. This study investigates what happened when 23 preservice teachers in a technology integration course designed digital breakout games for the secondary curriculum. By conducting a basic qualitative analysis, we found that digital breakout game design promoted skills, competencies, and perspectives in support of preservice teachers’ future practice such as TPACK development, 21st-century learning, and positive technology integration perceptions and intentions. We provide evidence and implications for these findings, as well as opportunities for further research.
(Keywords: breakout game, escape room, digital breakout game, preservice teachers, escape game, teacher education, game-based learning, educational technology)
... Another remaining issue is the impact of shared flow on various outcomes in group learning. Recent studies have begun to elucidate how inter-brain synchronization captured by EEG and fNIRS hyperscanning correlates with better team performance in several settings, including visual search tasks (Szymanski et al., 2017), collaborative problem solving (Antonenko et al., 2019;Reinero et al., 2021), and learning success in teacher-student settings Pan et al., 2018Pan et al., , 2020Liu et al., 2019). However, it remains to be confirmed whether shared experiences with peers, as marked by the prefrontal inter-brain synchronization, can inform success or failure in a learner achieving their goals. ...
Flow is a highly motivated and affectively positive state in which a person is deeply engaged in an activity and feeling enjoyment from it. In collaborative activities, it would be optimal if all participants were in a state of flow. However, flow states fluctuate amongst individuals due to differences in the dynamics of motivation and cognition. To explore the possibility that inter-brain synchronization can provide a quantitative measure of the convergence and divergence of collective motivational dynamics, we conducted a pilot study to investigate the relationship between inter-brain synchronization and the interpersonal similarity of flow state dynamics during the collaborative learning process. In two English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes, students were divided into groups of three-four and seated at desks facing each other while conducting a 60-min group work. In both classes, two groups with four members were randomly selected, and their medial prefrontal neural activities were measured simultaneously using wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) devices. Later the participants observed their own activities on recorded videos and retrospectively rated their subjective degree of flow state on a seven-point scale for each 2-min period. For the pairs of students whose neural activities were measured, the similarity of their flow experience dynamics was evaluated by the temporal correlation between their flow ratings. Prefrontal inter-brain synchronization of the same student pairs during group work was evaluated using wavelet transform coherence. Statistical analyses revealed that: (1) flow dynamics were significantly more similar for the student pairs within the same group compared to the pairs of students assigned across different groups; (2) prefrontal inter-brain synchronization in the relatively short time scale (9.3-13.9 s) was significantly higher for the within-group pairs than for the cross-group pairs; and (3) the prefrontal inter-brain synchronization at the same short time scale was significantly and positively correlated with the similarity of flow Nozawa et al. Inter-brain Synchrony and Flow Dynamics dynamics, even after controlling for the effects of within-vs. cross-group pair types from the two variables. These suggest that inter-brain synchronization can indeed provide a quantitative measure for converging and diverging collective motivational dynamics during collaborative learning, with higher inter-brain synchronization corresponding to a more convergent flow experience.
... For example, dyads show greater inter-brain synchrony when cooperating with a partner on a button pressing task than when working competitively (Cui et al., 2012;Cheng et al., 2015;Reindl et al., 2018) or independently (Funane et al., 2011;Mu et al., 2016Mu et al., 2017Hu et al., 2017). 2 These effects are not fully explained by shared motor movements and are often concentrated in brain areas or frequencies associated with attention and mentalizing, suggesting that inter-brain synchrony may arise, at least in part, from the mutual recognition of a partner's role and actions or perception-action coupling (Preston and De Waal, 2002;Sadato, 2017;Schippers and Keysers, 2011; though see, Jacob, 2009). Indeed, the social awareness and increase in inter-brain synchrony that arises when coordinating with a partner may reflect an aspect of how social facilitation impacts team performance (Szymanski et al., 2017) and collaborative learning (Antonenko et al., 2019). Taken together, interbrain synchrony might reflect the sharing of attention or psychological states necessary for coordinating actions (Mu et al., 2018;Minagawa et al., 2018;Dikker et al., 2019), which could facilitate collective performance. ...
Despite decades of research in economics and psychology attempting to identify ingredients that make up successful teams, neuroscientists have only just begun to study how multiple brains interact. Recent research has shown that people's brain activity becomes synchronized with others' (inter-brain synchrony) during social engagement. However, little is known as to whether inter-brain synchrony relates to collective behavior within teams. Here, we merge the nascent field of group neuroscience with the extant literature of team dynamics and collective performance. We recruited 174 participants in groups of 4 and randomly assigned them to complete a series of problem-solving tasks either independently or as a team, while simultaneously recording each person's brain activity using an EEG hyperscanning setup. This design allowed us to examine the relationship between group identification and inter-brain synchrony in explaining collective performance. As expected, teammates identified more strongly with one another, cooperated more on an economic game, and outperformed the average individual on most problem-solving tasks. Crucially, inter-brain synchrony, but not self-reported group identification, predicted collective performance among teams. These results suggest that inter-brain synchrony can be informative in understanding collective performance among teams where self-report measures may fail to capture behavior.
Information exchange is a key factor in the attainment of collective outcomes and the navigation of social life. In the current study, we investigated whether and how information exchange enhanced collective performance by combining behavioral and neuroimaging approaches from the perspective of multiparticipant neuroscience. To evaluate collective performance, we measured the collaborative problem-solving abilities of triads working on a murder mystery case. We first found that verbal information exchange significantly enhanced collective performance compared to nonverbal exchange. Moreover, both group sharing and group discussion positively contributed to this effect, with group discussion being more essential. Importantly, group identification mediated the positive effect of verbal information exchange on collective performance. This mediation was supported by higher interactive frequency and enhanced within-group neural synchronization (GNS) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Taken together, we provided a multiparticipant theoretical model to explain how verbal information exchange enhanced collective performance. Our findings deepen the insight into the workings of group decision-making.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, distance education also called distance learning or DAD (in Italy) has become part of school and university daily life. From March 2020 until today, teachers have experimented with new ways of teaching, mixing traditional teaching strategies with new paradigms, often innovative or in some cases "never tried" by teachers. In this time of didactic experimentation imposed by the pandemic, the studies of neurodidactic (Rivolt-ella, 2012) broaden the knowledge on learning processes, focusing attention on the learner and on the implications for teaching. Especially the studies on Spaced Learning (SL), a didactic methodology that is functional to quickly store information in long-term memory through repetition, have proved useful for improving the structuring of the synchronous and asynchronous hours of lessons during DAD. Based on the neuroscientific study by Douglas Fields concerning the mnemonic potential of the brain, published in 2005, Paul Kelley (2008) proposed and tested Spaced Learning (in Italian Interval Learning) which experimented in the Liceo Musicale of Caserta, in the school year 2020/2021. Durante la pandemia Covid 19, la didattica a distanza chiamata anche DAD (in Italia) è entrata a far parte della vita quotidiana della scuola e dell'università. Da marzo 2020 ad oggi, i docenti hanno sperimentato nuove modalità di insegnamento, mescolando strategie didattiche tradizionali con nuovi paradigmi, spesso innovativi o in alcuni casi "mai provati" dai docenti. In questo periodo di sperimentazione didattica imposta dalla pandemia, gli studi di neu-rodidattica (Rivoltella, 2012) ampliano le conoscenze sui processi di apprendimento, focalizzando l'attenzione sul discente e sulle implicazioni per la didattica. Soprattutto gli studi sullo Spaced Learning (SL), metodologia didattica funzionale all'archiviazione rapida di informazioni nella memoria a lungo termine attraverso la ripetizione, si sono rivelati utili per migliorare la strutturazione delle ore di lezione sincrone e asincrone durante la DaD. Basandosi sullo studio neuroscientifico di Douglas Fields riguardante il potenziale mnemonico del cervello, pubblicato nel 2005, Paul Kelley (2008) ha proposto e testato lo Spaced Learning (in italiano Apprendimento Intervallato) che è stato sperimentato nel Liceo Musicale di Caserta, nell'anno scolastico 2020/2021.
The study of brain-to-brain synchrony has a burgeoning application in the brain-computer interface (BCI) research, offering valuable insights into the neural underpinnings of interacting human brains using numerous neural recording technologies. The area allows exploring the commonality of brain dynamics by evaluating the neural synchronization among a group of people performing a specified task. The growing number of publications on brain-to-brain synchrony inspired the authors to conduct a systematic review using the PRISMA protocol so that future researchers can get a comprehensive understanding of the paradigms, methodologies, translational algorithms, and challenges in the area of brain-to-brain synchrony research. This review has gone through a systematic search with a specified search string and selected some articles based on pre-specified eligibility criteria. The findings from the review revealed that most of the articles have followed the social psychology paradigm, while 36% of the selected studies have an application in cognitive neuroscience. The most applied approach to determine neural connectivity is a coherence measure utilizing phase-locking value (PLV) in the EEG studies, followed by wavelet transform coherence (WTC) in all of the fNIRS studies. While most of the experiments have control experiments as a part of their setup, a small number implemented algorithmic control, and only one study had interventional or a stimulus-induced control experiment to limit spurious synchronization. Hence, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this systematic review solely contributes to critically evaluating the scopes and technological advances of brain-to-brain synchrony to allow this discipline to produce more effective research outcomes in the remote future.
Despite decades of research in economics and psychology attempting to identify ingredients that make up successful teams, neuroscientists have only just begun to study how multiple brains interact. Recent research has shown that people’s brain activity becomes synchronized with others’ (inter-brain synchrony) during social engagement. However, little is known as to whether inter-brain synchrony relates to collective behavior within teams. Here, we merge the nascent field of group neuroscience with the extant literature of team dynamics and collective performance. We recruited 174 participants in groups of 4 and randomly assigned them to complete a series of problem-solving tasks either independently or as a team, while simultaneously recording each person’s brain activity using an EEG hyperscanning setup. This design allowed us to examine the relationship between group identification and inter-brain synchrony in explaining collective performance. As expected, teammates identified more strongly with one another, cooperated more on an economic game, and outperformed the average individual on most problem-solving tasks. Crucially, inter-brain synchrony, but not self-reported group identification, predicted collective performance among teams. These results suggest that inter-brain synchrony can be informative in understanding collective performance among teams where self-report measures may fail to capture behavior.
The human brain has evolved for group living [1]. Yet we know so little about how it supports dynamic group interactions that the study of real-world social exchanges has been dubbed the “dark matter of social neuroscience” [2]. Recently, various studies have begun to approach this question by comparing brain responses of multiple individuals during a variety of (semi-naturalistic) tasks [3–15]. These experiments reveal how stimulus properties [13], individual differences [14], and contextual factors [15] may underpin similarities and differences in neural activity across people. However, most studies to date suffer from various limitations: they often lack direct face-to-face interaction between participants, are typically limited to dyads, do not investigate social dynamics across time, and, crucially, they rarely study social behavior under naturalistic circumstances. Here we extend such experimentation drastically, beyond dyads and beyond laboratory walls, to identify neural markers of group engagement during dynamic real-world group interactions. We used portable electroencephalogram (EEG) to simultaneously record brain activity from a class of 12 high school students over the course of a semester (11 classes) during regular classroom activities (Figures 1A–1C; Supplemental Experimental Procedures, section S1). A novel analysis technique to assess group-based neural coherence demonstrates that the extent to which brain activity is synchronized across students predicts both student class engagement and social dynamics. This suggests that brain-to-brain synchrony is a possible neural marker for dynamic social interactions, likely driven by shared attention mechanisms. This study validates a promising new method to investigate the neuroscience of group interactions in ecologically natural settings.
Recent brain imaging research has revealed oxytocin (OT) effects on an individual’s brain activity during social interaction but tells little about whether and how OT modulates the coherence of inter-brain activity related to two individuals' coordination behavior. We developed a new real-time coordination game that required two individuals of a dyad to synchronize with a partner (coordination task) or with a computer (control task) by counting in mind rhythmically. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded simultaneously from a dyad to examine OT effects on inter-brain synchrony of neural activity during interpersonal coordination. Experiment 1 found that dyads showed smaller interpersonal time lags of counting and greater inter-brain synchrony of alpha-band neural oscillations during the coordination (vs. control) task and these effects were reliably observed in female but not male dyads. Moreover, the increased alpha-band inter-brain synchrony predicted better interpersonal behavioral synchrony across all participants. Experiment 2, using a double blind, placebo-controlled between-subjects design, revealed that intranasal OT vs. placebo administration in male dyads improved interpersonal behavioral synchrony in both the coordination and control tasks but specifically enhanced alpha-band inter-brain neural oscillations during the coordination task. Our findings provide first evidence that OT enhances inter-brain synchrony in male adults to facilitate social coordination.
We performed simultaneous recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) from multiple students in a classroom, and measured the inter-subject correlation (ISC) of activity evoked by a common video stimulus. The neural reliability, as quantified by ISC, has been linked to engagement and attentional modulation in earlier studies that used high-grade equipment in laboratory settings. Here we reproduce many of the results from these studies using portable low-cost equipment, focusing on the robustness of using ISC for subjects experiencing naturalistic stimuli. The present data shows that stimulus-evoked neural responses, known to be modulated by attention, can be tracked for groups of students with synchronized EEG acquisition. This is a step towards real-time inference of engagement in the classroom.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) refers to collaborative learning that is facilitated or mediated by computers and networked devices. CSCL can occur synchronously, with learners interacting with each other in real time (e.g., a chat room), or asynchronously, with individual contributions stretched out over time (e.g., an e-mail exchange). CSCL can be completely mediated by computers and networks, with individual learners in different buildings or even different countries; or CSCL can involve learners together in the same physical space using computational devices (such as handhelds or tablets) to facilitate their face-to-face communication. CSCL researchers study all of these ways that people learn together with the help of computers. CSCL researchers have discovered that the interplay of collaborative learning with technology is quite intricate. Bringing the study of collaboration, computer mediation, and distance education into the learning sciences has problematized the very notion of learning and called into question prevailing assumptions about how to study it. In particular, CSCL research demonstrates the power of analytic approaches that focus on situated group practices and interactional processes, and demonstrates the limits and weaknesses of traditional cognitivist approaches that focus on the individual learner. CSCL within Education CSCL researchers study all levels of formal education from kindergarten through graduate study as well as informal education, such as museums.
According to Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), one of the crucial factors for successful learning is the type and amount of working-memory load (WML) learners experience while studying instructional materials. Optimal learning conditions are characterized by providing challenges for learners without inducing cognitive over- or underload. Thus, presenting instruction in a way that WML is constantly held within an optimal range with regard to learners' working-memory capacity might be a good method to provide these optimal conditions. The current paper elaborates how digital learning environments, which achieve this goal can be developed by combining approaches from Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, and Computer Science. One of the biggest obstacles that needs to be overcome is the lack of an unobtrusive method of continuously assessing learners' WML in real-time. We propose to solve this problem by applying passive Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) approaches to realistic learning scenarios in digital environments. In this paper we discuss the methodological and theoretical prospects and pitfalls of this approach based on results from the literature and from our own research. We present a strategy on how several inherent challenges of applying BCIs to WML and learning can be met by refining the psychological constructs behind WML, by exploring their neural signatures, by using these insights for sophisticated task designs, and by optimizing algorithms for analyzing electroencephalography (EEG) data. Based on this strategy we applied machine-learning algorithms for cross-task classifications of different levels of WML to tasks that involve studying realistic instructional materials. We obtained very promising results that yield several recommendations for future work.
This paper starts with a brief discussion of so-called wavelet transforms, i.e., decompositions of arbitrary signals into localized contributions labelled by a scale parameter. The main features of the method are first illustrated through simple mathematical examples. Then we present the first applications of the method to the recognition and visualisation of characteristic features of speech and of musical sounds.
Controlling an aircraft during a flight is a compelling condition, which requires a strict and well coded interaction between the crew. The interaction level between the Captain and the First Officer changes during the flight, ranging from a maximum (during takeoff and landing, as well as in case of a failure of the instrumentation or other emergency situations) to a minimum during quiet mid-flight. In this study, our aim is to investigate the neural correlates of different kinds and levels of interaction between couples of professional crew members by means of the innovative technique called brain hyperscanning, i.e. the simultaneous recording of the hemodynamic or neuroelectrical activity of different human subjects involved in interaction tasks. This approach allows the observation and modeling of the neural signature specifically dependent on the interaction between subjects, and, even more interestingly, of the functional links existing between the brain activities of the subjects interacting together. In this EEG hyperscanning study, different phases of a flight were reproduced in a professional flight simulator, which allowed, on one side, to reproduce the ecological setting of a real flight, and, on the other, to keep under control the different levels of interaction induced in the crew by means of systematic and simulated failures of the aircraft instrumentation. Results of the procedure of linear inverse estimation, together with functional hyperconnectivity estimated by means of Partial Directed Coherence, showed a dense network of connections between the activity in the two brains in the takeoff and landing phases, when the cooperation between the crew is maximal, while conversely no significant links were shown during the phases in which the activity of the two pilots was independent.
Alpha-band oscillations are the dominant oscillations in the human brain and recent evidence suggests that they have an inhibitory function. Nonetheless, there is little doubt that alpha-band oscillations also play an active role in information processing. In this article, I suggest that alpha-band oscillations have two roles (inhibition and timing) that are closely linked to two fundamental functions of attention (suppression and selection), which enable controlled knowledge access and semantic orientation (the ability to be consciously oriented in time, space, and context). As such, alpha-band oscillations reflect one of the most basic cognitive processes and can also be shown to play a key role in the coalescence of brain activity in different frequencies.
Many research problems in psychology require statistical methods that take into account the dependencies introduced by dyadic interaction. The authors provide correlational tools for dyadic data when the individuals within the dyads are both from the same class or category, such as 2 male adults. First, the authors provide significance tests for correlations between 2 variables when individuals are nested within dyads. Second, they provide a simplified method for decomposing the overall correlation into individual-level and dyad-level relations. Finally, the authors demonstrate these methods with dyadic data collected by L. Stinson and W. Ickes (1992) in a study of unstructured dyadic interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Measuring brain activity simultaneously from two people interacting is intuitively appealing if one is interested in putative neural markers of social interaction. However, given the complex nature of interactions, it has proven difficult to carry out two-person brain imaging experiments in a methodologically feasible and conceptually relevant way. Only a small number of recent studies have put this into practice, using fMRI, EEG, or NIRS. Here, we review two main two-brain methodological approaches, each with two conceptual strategies. The first group has employed two-brain fMRI recordings, studying (1) turn-based interactions on the order of seconds, or (2) pseudo-interactive scenarios, where only one person is scanned at a time, investigating the flow of information between brains. The second group of studies has recorded dual EEG/NIRS from two people interacting, in (1) face-to-face turn-based interactions, investigating functional connectivity between theory-of-mind regions of interacting partners, or in (2) continuous mutual interactions on millisecond timescales, to measure coupling between the activity in one person's brain and the activity in the other's brain. We discuss the questions these approaches have addressed, and consider scenarios when simultaneous two-brain recordings are needed. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) quantification of inter-personal neural effects via measures of emergence, and (2) multivariate decoding models that generalize source-specific features of interaction, may provide novel tools to study brains in interaction. This may allow for a better understanding of social cognition as both representation and participation.
This chapter summarizes two decades of research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). We first review the key
idea that has emerged, namely the fact that collaboration among peers can be “designed”, that is, directly or indirectly shaped
by the CSCL environment. Second, we stress the fact that affective and motivational aspects that influence collaborative learning
have been neglected by experimental CSCL researchers. Finally, we point out the emergence of a new trend or new challenge:
integration of CSCL activities into larger pedagogical scenarios that include multiple activities and must be orchestrated
in real time by the teacher.
Students are often at a loss for what to do or have inadequate ideas of how to build knowledge collaboratively through computer-supported
collaborative learning (CSCL). Facilitating specific CSCL processes by providing learners with computer-supported collaboration
scripts is regarded as a promising approach. Implemented in CSCL environments, computer-supported collaboration scripts specify,
sequence and distribute roles and activities. Scripts are intended to scaffold activities that students could not yet engage
in on their own. One of the main challenges of this approach for realising effective CSCL is the continuous adaptation of
scripts to learners’ needs and knowledge. Efforts to specify and formalise script components and mechanisms have led to an
integrative framework for computer scientists, educational scientists and psychologists of what constitutes computer-supported
collaboration scripts as well as a growing library of prototypical CSCL scripts.
The Cognitive State Assessment Competition 2011 was organized by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to compare the performance of real-time cognitive state classification software. This paper presents results for QUASAR's data classification module, QStates, which is a software package for real-time (and off-line) analysis of physiologic data collected during cognitive-specific tasks. The classifier's methodology can be generalized to any particular cognitive state; QStates identifies the most salient features extracted from EEG signals recorded during different cognitive states or loads.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an emerging branch of the learning sciences concerned with studying how people can learn together with the help of computers. As we will see in this essay, such a simple statement conceals considerable complexity. The interplay of learning with technology turns out to be quite intricate. The inclusion of collaboration, computer mediation and distance education has problematized the very notion of learning and called into question prevailing assumptions about how to study it. Like many active fields of scientific research, CSCL has a complex relationship to established disciplines, evolves in ways that are hard to pinpoint and includes important contributions that seem incompatible. The field of CSCL has a long history of controversy about its theory, methods and definition. Furthermore, it is important to view CSCL as a vision of what may be possible with computers and of what kinds of research should be conducted, rather than as an established body of broadly accepted laboratory and classroom practices. We will start from some popular understandings of the issues of CSCL and gradually reveal its more complex nature. We will review CSCL's historical development and offer our perspective on its future. CSCL within education As the study of particular forms of learning, CSCL is intimately concerned with education. It considers all levels of formal education from kindergarten through graduate study as well as informal education, such as museums. Computers have become important in this, with school districts and politicians around the world setting goals of increasing student access to computers and the Internet. The idea of encouraging students to learn together in small groups has also become increasingly emphasized in the broader learning sciences. However, the ability to combine these two ideas (computer support and collaborative learning, or technology and education) to effectively enhance learning remains a challenge—a challenge that CSCL is designed to address. Computers and education Computers in the classroom are often viewed with skepticism. They are seen by critics as boring and anti-social, a haven for geeks and a mechanical, inhumane form of training. CSCL is based on precisely the opposite vision: it proposes the development of new software and applications that bring learners together and that can offer creative activities of intellectual exploration and social interaction. CSCL arose in the 1990s in reaction to software that forced students to learn as isolated individuals. The exciting potential of the Internet to connect people in innovative ways provided a stimulus for CSCL research. As CSCL developed, unforeseen barriers to designing, disseminating and effectively taking advantage of innovative educational software became more
The brain receives a rich flow of information which must be processed according to behavioral relevance. How is the state of the sensory system adjusted to up- or downregulate processing according to anticipation? We used magnetoencephalography to investigate whether prestimulus alpha band activity (8-14 Hz) reflects allocation of attentional resources in the human somatosensory system. Subjects performed a tactile discrimination task where a visual cue directed attention to their right or left hand. The strength of attentional modulation was controlled by varying the reliability of the cue in three experimental blocks (100%, 75%, or 50% valid cueing). While somatosensory prestimulus alpha power lateralized strongly with a fully predictive cue (100%), lateralization was decreased with lower cue reliability (75%) and virtually absent if the cue had no predictive value at all (50%). Importantly, alpha lateralization influenced the subjects' behavioral performance positively: both accuracy and speed of response improved with the degree of alpha lateralization. This study demonstrates that prestimulus alpha lateralization in the somatosensory system behaves similarly to posterior alpha activity observed in visual attention tasks. Our findings extend the notion that alpha band activity is involved in shaping the functional architecture of the working brain by determining both the engagement and disengagement of specific regions: the degree of anticipation modulates the alpha activity in sensory regions in a graded manner. Thus, the alpha activity is under top-down control and seems to play an important role for setting the state of sensory regions to optimize processing.
In order to understand the working brain as a network, it is essential to identify the mechanisms by which information is gated between regions. We here propose that information is gated by inhibiting task-irrelevant regions, thus routing information to task-relevant regions. The functional inhibition is reflected in oscillatory activity in the alpha band (8–13 Hz). From a physiological perspective the alpha activity provides pulsed inhibition reducing the processing capabilities of a given area. Active processing in the engaged areas is reflected by neuronal synchronization in the gamma band (30–100 Hz) accompanied by an alpha band decrease. According to this framework the brain could be studied as a network by investigating cross-frequency interactions between gamma and alpha activity. Specifically the framework predicts that optimal task performance will correlate with alpha activity in task-irrelevant areas. In this review we will discuss the empirical support for this framework. Given that alpha activity is by far the strongest signal recorded by EEG and MEG, we propose that a major part of the electrophysiological activity detected from the working brain reflects gating by inhibition.
During social interaction, both participants are continuously active, each modifying their own actions in response to the continuously changing actions of the partner. This continuous mutual adaptation results in interactional synchrony to which both members contribute. Freely exchanging the role of imitator and model is a well-framed example of interactional synchrony resulting from a mutual behavioral negotiation. How the participants' brain activity underlies this process is currently a question that hyperscanning recordings allow us to explore. In particular, it remains largely unknown to what extent oscillatory synchronization could emerge between two brains during social interaction. To explore this issue, 18 participants paired as 9 dyads were recorded with dual-video and dual-EEG setups while they were engaged in spontaneous imitation of hand movements. We measured interactional synchrony and the turn-taking between model and imitator. We discovered by the use of nonlinear techniques that states of interactional synchrony correlate with the emergence of an interbrain synchronizing network in the alpha-mu band between the right centroparietal regions. These regions have been suggested to play a pivotal role in social interaction. Here, they acted symmetrically as key functional hubs in the interindividual brainweb. Additionally, neural synchronization became asymmetrical in the higher frequency bands possibly reflecting a top-down modulation of the roles of model and imitator in the ongoing interaction.
This chapter summarizes two decades of research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). We first review the key idea that has emerged, namely the fact that collaboration among peers can be 'designed', that is, directly or indirectly shaped by the CSCL environment. Second, we stress the fact that affective and motivational aspects that influence collaborative learning have been neglected by experimental CSCL researchers. Finally, we point out the emergence of a new trend or new challenge: integration of CSCL activities into larger pedagogical scenarios that include multiple activities and must be orchestrated in real time by the teacher.
Analyzing Collaborative Interactions in CSCL Methods, Approaches, and Issues Sadhana Puntambekar, Gijsbert Erkens, and Cindy Hmelo-Silver, editors In more than two decades of research in CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning), researchers have used several methods to understand how individuals learn in groups and how groups of learners construct knowledge. The individual and group learning processes have been studied using a variety of methods. Analyzing Collaborative Interactions in CSCL reveals the wide range of this research: qualitative and quantitative methods, studies of the learning process as well as outcomes, and the measurement of group and individual members’ learning. Focusing on three major research areas—group processes, learning within groups, and frameworks for analyzing CSCL—leading scholars present models, methods, and tools that readers can adapt to fit their own projects. Basic research issues such as defining the unit of analysis, determining the grain size of the data, and representing the temporality of interactions are discussed in the context of these methods addressing issues such as: • Studying group cognition through the lens of social order. • Using visualization methods to assess group members’ individual progress. • Analyzing collaborative interactions with data mining methods. • Assessing student project groups online and offline. • Using multilevel analysis in text-based communication. • Analyzing collaborative interactions across settings and domains. Together, the chapters in Analyzing Collaborative Interactions in CSCL model a range of methods for CSCL researchers in education, education technology, and cognitive science.
A classroom of 7th grade students is developing a scientific model of the factors influencing water quality in their local stream. They run a dynamic simulation of the model to test it, yet they are able to do so without having to produce sophisticated mathematical representations for these relationships. In another classroom, 11th graders are reading primary historical texts and engaging in argumentation to develop a coherent explanation of events, despite lacking the extensive disciplinary knowledge and experience historians use to analyze primary documents. How can these learners participate in activities that share elements of expert practices, but that call on knowledge and skills that they do not yet possess? These feats are possible in the same way that young children can ride two-wheelers using training wheels before they have mastered balancing, or that construction workers can use scaffolding to work on the penthouse before the lower floors have been fully constructed. The Historical Roots of Scaffolding Drawing on the metaphor of scaffolding in building construction, Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) proposed the concept of scaffolding to describe how children, with the help of someone more knowledgeable to share and support their problem solving, can perform more complex tasks than they would otherwise be capable of performing on their own (Palincsar, 1998; Rogoff, 1990). Scaffolding may be provided by a variety of different mechanisms. In the example cited earlier, in the history classroom, scaffolding is provided by interaction with guidance from the teacher and curriculum materials (Reisman, 2012), while in the water quality model, part of the assistance is provided by a supportive software environment (Fretz et al., 2002).
A multi-level framework for analyzing team cognition based on team communication content and team neurophysiology is described. The semantic content of team communication in submarine training crews is quantified using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), and their team neurophysiology is quantified using the previously described neurophysiologic synchrony method. In the current study, we validate the LSA communication metrics by demonstrating their sensitivity to variations in training segment and by showing that less experienced (novice) crews can be differentiated from more experienced crews based on the semantic relatedness of their communications. Cross-correlations between an LSA metric and a team neurophysiology metric are explored to examine fluctuations in the lead-lag relationship between team communication and team neurophysiology as a function of training segment and level of team experience. Finally, the implications of this research for team training and assessment are considered.
Team collaboration involves many operational tasks such as team decision-making or course of action selection, developing shared understanding, and intelligence analysis. These operational tasks must be performed in many situations, often under severe time pressure, with information and knowledge uncertainty, large amounts of dynamic information and across different team characteristics. Recent research in this area has focused on various aspects of human collaborative decision-making and the underlying cognitive processes while describing those processes at different levels of detail, making it difficult to compare research results. The theoretical construct of 'macrocognition in teams' was developed to facilitate cognitive research in team collaboration, which will enable a common level of understanding when defining, measuring and discussing the cognitive processes in team collaboration. Macrocognition is defined as both the internalized and externalized mental processes employed by team members in complex, one-of-a-kind, collaborative problem solving. Macrocognition in Teams provides readers with a greater understanding of the macrocognitive processes which support collaborative team activity, showcasing current research, theories, methodologies and tools. It will be of direct relevance to academics, researchers and practitioners interested in group/team interaction, performance, development and training. © Michael P. Letsky, Norman W. Warner, Stephen M. Fiore and C.A.P. Smith, 2008. All rights reserved.
Teams perform cognitive activities such as making decisions and assessing situations as a unit. The team cognition behind these activities has traditionally been linked to individual knowledge and its distribution across team members. The theory of interactive team cognition instead argues that team cognition resides in team interactions and that it is an activity that takes place in a rich context that needs to be measured at the team level. This article describes this dynamic perspective on team cognition, some research that supports it, and the implications for measuring, understanding, and improving team cognition.
In this article we develop a conceptual framework that examines the relationship between shared mental models, task interdependence, and virtual team performance. In addition, we use media synchronicity theory to examine how various attributes of the technologies used by virtual teams to communicate can influence the development of shared mental models. Finally, we employ a sense-making lens to explore in more detail how features inherent to different communication technologies influence the development of shared mental models. Our goal is that through examining these relationships, some of the mixed findings in prior virtual team research may be better explained.
The goal was to develop quantitative models of the neurodynamic organizations of teams that could be used for comparing performance within and across teams and sessions. A symbolic modeling system was developed, where raw electroencephalography (EEG) signals from dyads were first transformed into second-by-second estimates of the cognitive Workload or Engagement of each person and transformed again into symbols representing the aggregated levels of the team. The resulting neurodynamic symbol streams had a persistent structure and contained segments of differential symbol expression. The quantitative Shannon entropy changes during these periods were related to speech, performance, and team responses to task changes. The dyads in an unscripted map navigation task (Human Communication Research Centre (HCRC) Map Task (MT)) developed fluctuating dynamics for Workload and Engagement, as they established their teamwork rhythms, and these were disrupted by external changes to the task. The entropy fluctuations during these disruptions differed in frequency, magnitude, and duration, and were associated with qualitative and quantitative changes in team organization and performance. These results indicate that neurodynamic models may be reliable, sensitive, and valid indicators of the changing neurodynamics of teams around which standardized quantitative models can begin to be developed.
Teams of people working together for a common purpose have been a centerpiece of human social organization ever since our ancient ancestors first banded together to hunt game, raise families, and defend their communities. Human history is largely a story of people working together in groups to explore, achieve, and conquer. Yet, the modern concept of work in large organizations that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is largely a tale of work as a collection of individual jobs. A variety of global forces unfolding over the last two decades, however, has pushed organizations worldwide to restructure work around teams, to enable more rapid, flexible, and adaptive responses to the unexpected. This shift in the structure of work has made team effectiveness a salient organizational concern.
Teams touch our lives everyday and their effectiveness is important to well-being across a wide range of societal functions. There is over 50 years of psychological research—literally thousands of studies—focused on understanding and influencing the processes that underlie team effectiveness. Our goal in this monograph is to sift through this voluminous literature to identify what we know, what we think we know, and what we need to know to improve the effectiveness of work groups and teams.
We begin by defining team effectiveness and establishing the conceptual underpinnings of our approach to understanding it. We then turn to our review, which concentrates primarily on topics that have well-developed theoretical and empirical foundations, to ensure that our conclusions and recommendations are on firm footing. Our review begins by focusing on cognitive, motivational/affective, and behavioral team processes—processes that enable team members to combine their resources to resolve task demands and, in so doing, be effective. We then turn our attention to identifying interventions, or “levers,” that can shape or align team processes and thereby provide tools and applications that can improve team effectiveness. Topic-specific conclusions and recommendations are given throughout the review. There is a solid foundation for concluding that there is an emerging science of team effectiveness and that findings from this research foundation provide several means to improve team effectiveness. In the concluding section, we summarize our primary findings to highlight specific research, application, and policy recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams.
Contrasts are statistical procedures for asking focused questions of data. Researchers, teachers of research methods and graduate students will be familiar with the principles and procedures of contrast analysis included here. But they, for the first time, will also be presented with a series of newly developed concepts, measures, and indices that permit a wider and more useful application of contrast analysis. This volume takes on this new approach by introducing a family of correlational effect size estimates. By returning to these correlations throughout the book, the authors demonstrate special adaptations in a variety of contexts from two group comparison to one way analysis of variance contexts, to factorial designs, to repeated measures designs and to the case of multiple contrasts.
Learning to argue is an essential objective in education; and online environments have
been found to support the sharing, constructing, and representing of arguments in multiple
formats for what has been termed Argumentation-Based Computer Supported Collaborative
Learning (ABCSCL). The purpose of this review is to give an overview of research in
the field of ABCSCL and to synthesize the findings. For this review, 108 publications (89
empirical studies and 19 conceptual papers) on ABCSCL research dating from 1995 through
2011 were studied to highlight the foci of the past 15 years. Building on Biggs’ (2003)
model, the ABCSCL publications were systematically categorized with respect to student
prerequisites, learning environment, processes, and outcomes. Based on the quantitative
and qualitative findings, this paper concludes that ABCSCL environments should be
designed in a systematic way that takes the variety of specific conditions for learning into
account. It also offers suggestions for educational practice and future research.
To investigate whether self-reflection on personality traits engages distinct neural mechanisms of self-related attentional orienting and self-related evaluation, we recorded electroencephalograms from adults while they made trait judgments about themselves and an age- and gender-matched friend, or judgments of word valence. Each trial consisted of a cue word that indicated a target person for trait judgment or instructed valence judgment, followed by a trait adjective to be evaluated. Using a wavelet analysis, we calculated time-frequency power at each electrode and phase synchrony between electrode pairs associated with self-, friend- or valence-cues and with trait adjectives during trait or valence judgments. Relative to friend- and valence-cues, self-cues elicited increased synchronous activity in delta (2-4 Hz), theta (5-7 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (14-26 Hz), and gamma (28-40 Hz) bands, and increased large-scale phase synchrony in these frequency bands. Self-related evaluation compared to friend-related evaluation during trait judgments induced stronger desynchronization in alpha, beta and gamma band activities, and decreased phase synchrony in alpha and gamma band activities. Our findings suggest that self-related attentional orienting and self-related evaluation engage distinct neural mechanisms that are respectively characterized by synchrony and desynchrony of neural activity in local assemblies and between long-distance brain regions.
This paper reviews the published literature on the hyperscanning methodologies using hemodynamic or neuro-electric modalities. In particular, we describe how different brain recording devices have been employed in different experimental paradigms to gain information about the subtle nature of human interactions. This review also included papers based on single-subject recordings in which a correlation was found between the activities of different (non-simultaneously recorded) participants in the experiment. The descriptions begin with the methodological issues related to the simultaneous measurements and the descriptions of the results generated by such approaches will follow. Finally, a discussion of the possible future uses of such new approaches to explore human social interactions will be presented.
Cognitive neurophysiologic synchronies (NS) are low-level data streams derived from electroencephalography (EEG) measurements that can be collected and analyzed in near real time and in realistic settings. The objective of this study was to relate the expression of NS for engagement to the frequency of conversation between team members during Submarine Piloting and Navigation (SPAN) simulations.
If the expression of different NS patterns is sensitive to changes in the behavior of teams, they may be a useful tool for studying team cognition.
EEG-derived measures of engagement (EEG-E) from SPAN team members were normalized and pattern classified by self-organizing artificial neural networks and hidden Markov models. The temporal expression of these patterns was mapped onto team events and related to the frequency of team members' speech. Standardized models were created with pooled data from multiple teams to facilitate comparisons across teams and levels of expertise and to provide a framework for rapid monitoring of team performance.
The NS expression for engagement shifted across task segments and internal and external task changes.These changes occurred within seconds and were affected more by changes in the task than by the person speaking.Shannon entropy measures of the NS data stream showed decreases associated with periods when the team was stressed and speaker entropy was high.
These studies indicate that expression of neurophysiologic indicators measured by EEG may complement rather than duplicate communication metrics as measures of team cognition.
Neurophysiologic approaches may facilitate the rapid determination of the cognitive status of a team and support the development of novel adaptive approaches to optimize team function.
We investigated how differently structured external scripts interact with learners' internal scripts with respect to individual knowledge acquisition in a Web-based collaborative inquiry learning environment. Ninety students from two secondary schools participated. Two versions of an external collaboration script (high vs. low structured) supporting collaborative argumentation were embedded within a Web-based collaborative inquiry learning environment. Students' internal scripts were classified as either high or low structured, establishing a 2 × 2-factorial design. Results suggest that the high structured external collaboration script supported the acquisition of domain-general knowledge of all learners regardless of their internal scripts. Learners' internal scripts influenced the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge. Results are discussed concerning their theoretical relevance and practical implications for Web-based inquiry learning with collaboration scripts.
With the expanding availability and capability of varied technologies, classroom-based problem solving has become an increasingly attainable, yet still elusive, goal. Evidence of technology-enhanced problem-solving teaching and learning in schools has been scarce, understanding how to support students’ problem solving in classroom-based, technology-enhanced learning environments has been limited, and coherent frameworks to guide implementation have been slow to emerge. Whereas researchers have examined the use and impact of scaffolds in mathematics, science, and reading, comparatively little research has focused on scaffolding learning in real-world, everyday classroom settings. Web-based systems have been developed to support problem solving, but implementations suggest variable enactment and inconsistent impact. The purpose of this article is to identify critical issues in scaffolding students’ technology-enhanced problem solving in everyday classrooms. First, we examine two key constructs (problem solving and scaffolding) and propose a framework that includes essential dimensions to be considered when teachers scaffold student problem solving in technology-rich classes. We then investigate issues related to peer-, teacher-, and technology-enhanced scaffolds, and conclude by examining implications for research.
This study focuses on stimulating social knowledge construction in e-discussions and examines the introduction of five roles: starter, summariser, moderator, theoretician, and source searcher. Asynchronous discussion groups of 10 1st-year students Instructional Sciences were organised to foster students’ processing of the learning content. Four successive authentic tasks of three weeks each were presented. Taking into account the moment of introduction of the role assignment (at the start of the discussions versus at the end), the differential impact of the roles on knowledge construction is studied through quantitative content analysis based on the interaction analysis model of Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson (1997). The results show a positive effect of role assignment on students’ social knowledge construction at the start of the discussions. This implies that roles should be introduced at the start of the discussions and can be faded out towards the end. With respect to the differential impact of the roles, the results show that messages from moderators, theoreticians, and summarisers reflect higher levels of knowledge construction at the start of the discussions. Even students without a role in role-supported groups benefit from the role introduction.
Human adults remember better trait words that are referenced to the self than those referenced to others. To investigate whether non-phase-locked neural oscillations engage in the self-reference effect, we recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) from healthy adults during trait judgments of the self and a familiar other. The wavelet analysis was used to calculate non-phase-locked time-frequency power associated with encoding of trait adjectives referenced to the self or the familiar other at theta (5-7 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), beta (14-27 Hz) and gamma (28-40 Hz) bands. We found that, relative to other-referential traits, self-referential traits induced event-related synchronization of theta-band activity over the frontal area at 700-800 ms and of alpha-band activity over the central area at 400-600 ms. In contrast, event-related desynchronization associated with self-referential traits was observed in beta-band activity over the central-parietal area at 700-800 ms and in gamma-band activity over the fronto-central area at 500-600 ms. Moreover, valence of traits referenced to the self and self-relevance of traits respectively led to modulations of theta/alpha- and beta/gamma-band activity. Finally, event-related synchronization of frontal theta-band activity at 700-800 ms positively correlated with the self-reference effect observed during memory retrieval. Our results indicate that non-phase-locked neural activity is involved in self-reflexive thinking. In addition, low and high-frequency neural oscillations play different roles in emotional and cognitive aspects of self-reference processing.