Daily Archives: November 28, 2014

Final

Annotated Bibliograpy

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Hale, Joanna, Jacqueline M. Thompson, Helen M. Morgan, Marinella Cappelletti, and Roi C. Kadosh. “Better Together? The Cognitive Advantages of Synaesthesia for Time, Numbers, and Space.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 31.7-8 (2014): 545-64. Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. <http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2452/doi/full/10.1080/02643294.2014.967759#.VHj7SDHF83Q>.

 

All of the contributors to the article come from psychology departments at American universities. The authors argue that there is a difference between the magnitude and sequence accounts of TNS (time, numbers, and space) synaesthesia, and that the difference is clarified somewhat in there experiment. It seems that their intended audience regards mostly other psychologists and psychology scholars who cannot clearly decide upon which account is more veritable in the broader scheme of synaesthetes. It seems as if the experiment was conducted with direct intentions for results, yet bias is not apparent in the paper, nor in the trials themselves. The experimenters set up multiple control groups to compare with the TNS synaesthetes which made for some interesting results and a more accurate conclusion to be drawn, yet it could have gone more in-depth with its analysis of those other test subjects (grapheme-color synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes). The information in the article provides a wealth of background information for our technical specs. section and does not refute any claims we intend to make, while instead clarifying a specific type of synaesthesia for our group.

 

 

Kay, Collette L., Duncan A. Carmichael, Henry E. Ruffell, and Julia Simner. “Colour Fluctuations in Grapheme-colour Synaesthesia: The Effect of Clinical and Non-clinical Mood Changes.” British Journal of Psychology(2014): n. pag. Wiley Online Library. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. <http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2153/doi/10.1111/bjop.12102/full>.

 

The article’s contributors all work in Psychology departments of two Universities in the UK (University of Edinburgh and University of Sussex). The authors conducted a series of experiments testing grapheme-color synaesthetes and attempting to find a correlation between mood and the colors they experience. As it turns out, the evidence supports the claim that mood does in fact alter the colors they perceive (noted by a change in luminance). The article is intended for other scholars of psychology along with those interested in this field of research. Considering that the article is actually a publication of a science paper, the only room for bias is in the fact that it’s possible the authors drew more on correlation rather than causation, yet they do not make any claims that surpass what their evidence supports. The article offers a great deal of experimental details about grapheme-color synaesthetes, but lacks personal anecdotes or experience as it is essentially a lab report. I believe it does not deny anything our research paper intends to do, and actually extends the believability of our invention and the feasibility in many ways too. It seems relevant to our investigation considering it could provide useful information when looking at how our device could alter the moods of its users, along with their general brain functions.

Rouw, Romke, and K. Richard Ridderinkhof. “The Most Intriguing Question in Synesthesia Research.” Cognitive Neuroscience 5.2 (2014): 128-30.Taylor & Francis Online. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2452/doi/full/10.1080/17588928.2014.906400#tabModule>.

Both of the authors of this journal source work together at the University of Amsterdam’s center for the study of adaptive control in brain and behavior. Rouw and Ridderinkhof gathered information on the current analysis of synesthesia and put forth a broad, yet still unanswered question: “Why do most synesthetes *not* get confused by their additional sensations?” In the piece, they intend to clarify the boundaries of this question, in addition to attempting to answer it. The findings of the article extend past those in psychology departments around the world as it also begins to put together an even bigger question of personal realities and the lack of objectivity within them.  Dealing with a heavily subjective topic, one would think there would be room for bias, yet the authors handle the research with scientific treatment and was tormented with quite a large amount of peer review before  being released to the database. One of the major values of this source is that it answers questions that could worry our target audience and settles some fears of unwanted imaginative realities for children. It provides a great deal of detail about multiple types of synesthesia too, and mostly seems to focus on Grapheme-color synesthesia (like we will be doing in our presentation).

Final

Cesco’s Annotated Bibliography

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McDonnell, Andrea P., Leanne S. Hawken, Susan S. Johnston, JaimeeE. Kidder, Marjorie J. Lynes, and John J. McDonnell. “Emergent Literacy Practices and Support for Children with Disabilities: A National Survey.” EDUCATION AND TREATMENT OF CHILDREN 37 (2014): 495-530. Print.

All the contributors to the article are professors, associate professors, graduate assistants and deans of the Special Education Department of the University of Utah. The authors’ thesis is that emergent literacy is a key element in reading comprehension that needs to be addressed immediately. The main focus of the paper is the impact of various pedagogical strategies on children with many different disabilities ranging from reading comprehension issues to deafness and blindness. The authors’ intended audience is clear to be both students researching this topic as well as educators in the field who could pick different teaching strategies based on the findings of this study. The bias in the article appears to be that the authors believe something needs to be done for students with any type of disability, in contrast with some educators who believe that some of these disabilities are inexistent. One of the potential weaknesses of the article is the relatively low response rate from the sample size (about half). Another weakness is that the survey showed which strategies the teachers were willing to implement, rather than the results of the implementation. This material is especially relevant to our product research because it shows that our product would be used especially in classrooms where children had disabilities. The study supports our thesis because the instructor’s willingness to use new methodologies shows there is a need in the market for instructional tools.

Narang, Susheela, and Raj K. Gupta. “THE EFFECT OF MULTIMODAL REMEDIAL TECHNIQUES ON THE SPELLING ABILITY OF LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN.”INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION 29.2 (2014): 84-91. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.internationaljournalofspecialeducation.com/>.

The authors are both professors at the University of Panjab in Chandigarh, India. Their thesis is that spelling is closely tied to reading ability and, as mentioned in the previous article, is something that needs to be addressed at an early age. The study uses three methods of instruction, one tactual and visual, another solely visual and the last auditory, visual and vocal. All three activities used flashcards with words and drawings to help the disabled students get a better grasp on the structure of certain vocabulary. Same as in the last study, the audience appears to be both students in the field as well as “special educators, teachers and parents, as in this
study an effort has been made to see the effectiveness of training in very important area, which has a direct bearing upon the education of children.” (Narang & Gupta) The only slant I was able to incur when reading the study was a belief in the legitimacy of these disabilities (which I personally believe in but many discredit). The authors themselves stated the weakness of their study: the small sample size (39 students broken up into groups of threes). The findings of this study support our thesis that visual aids can have a positive impact on children with learning disabilities and their learning. The students gained “increased confidence” and “willingness to perform;”— exactly what we’d like to see from our product. This material was equally relevant as the last in our research for the project because it shows that importance of visual aids in children’s pedagogy.

Burrell, A, Sodan A. C. “Web Interface Navigation Design: Which Style of Navigation-Link Menus Do Users Prefer?” Data Engineering Workshops. 2006, Atlanta, GA. Atlanta, GA: IEEE, 2006. Print.

The authors of this research paper are two computer science professors from the University of Windsor in Canada. Their authority derives from their background as instructors in the computer field. The goal of the research paper was to implement a series of different website navigation designs and test which were the most preferred by a series of participants. Their hypothesis was that “certain navigational styles are better for usability than others” (Burrell, Sodan). They claimed that existing literature at the time made them believe that left-hand side navigation was best, but their findings contradicted this initial statement. It’s also important to note that they didn’t adopt this as their own hypothesis, only acknowledged that this was a previous finding. The intended audience for the paper appears to be students in computer science departments, other instructors, and all website developers. I couldn’t find any bias or slant in the paper other than the hypothesis, which was that certain navigation layouts were better than others. I can postulate that as computer science professors (and possibly developers outside of school) they had some vested interest in proving that certain navigation layouts were preferable, although I couldn’t imagine how. I didn’t find any websites attributed to their name online to confirm or disprove this. The strength of the article is that they had 6 different fully-functioning test sites for the users to try, so they weren’t limited in options. Another strength was a varied age demographic in their sample—they didn’t limit it to younger students or older individuals. The weakness, as in the other research papers, lies in the small sample size (30), as well a requirement for the tested individuals to have a basic knowledge of computers and the Internet. It is possible that the results would have been different had they sampled individuals that didn’t know their way around a website. The research presented in this paper confirms our research regarding design because we, also, decided to place the navigation on the top and left of the screen—the top three results of the study for effectiveness. This paper is very relevant to our project when looking at how we decided to present the information on our website. It’s especially relevant because our product doesn’t just have a website as an auxiliary source, it itself resides on a website. It’s important to note that this study is from 2006, before this type of information became common knowledge to most, if not all, Internet users. It is still relevant, however, because it is good to know that users prefer this based on scientific research, not just habit.