You must make reservations at least 5 minutes in advance of the time at Cafeteria 15L.
I would go here again if in town.
I really love the aesthetics, I love the outdoor seating and I love going there for brunch with my friends and having the bottomless mimosas. Branch needs to be extended another couple of hours but I'll take what I can get.
Overall, really good brunch, but this place is a bit of a zoo. Even with a reservation, it took about 10 minutes to just talk to a hostess and another 10 to get seated. So if you are in a rush, might not be the place to go Also, leave time to park, on sunday it was rough finding a place and ended up having to go to to a lot. Or better yet, walk, bike or uber if possible.
Once seated, the service and food were GREAT!
Their skillet breakfasts while probably not a on a low cal diet, are pretty amazing. My son got the Mexican skillet and it looked fabulous (and he said it was great). So big, this 19 year old kid, still took about half of it home for breakfast the next day).
The omelette was perfectly cooked and also very large.
Overall, highly recommend this place, just leave some flex in your schedule as it is popular.
Quick, accommodating, and delicious. I was surprised at how easy they could handle our group of 9.
So my reservation date was for Sunday at noon well, the Fri the time that I had called to schedule the reservation there were more people that decided to go however I didn't know until the day of. needless to say there was a total of 20 in my party the staff at cafeteria l15 was did a wonderful job. . The staff was able to seat us all at the same table even though we had added five more last-minute. Kaitlyn was superb. The food, everyone was very pleased with. I would definitely recommend this place to someone.
Fun place to eat! We eat here every time we come to Sacramento.
The hash browns were a little greasy for my taste but other than that, everything else was great!


Featuring hand-hammered blades inspired by traditional Japanese forging, the Tamahagane San Tsubame Micarta series is the ultimate combination of performance and elegance. At the core of every Tamahagane Hammered knife is VG5 Japanese steel that is hardened to 61 degrees Rockwell, and bonded with two outer layers of softer SUS410 stainless steel. This construction creates a blade that is the perfect balance of sharpness and edge retention. The handles are crafted of fine Micarta that provides an impressive look and feel of wood while being more durable. Micarta is a pressed linen material that is infused with resin, creating a comfortable grip with no maintenance required. Razor sharp edges are skillfully honed to 14° and are highly polished. Handcrafted in Japan, Lifetime Warranty.
The Tamahagane San Tsubame 18cm Nakiri Vegetable Chopper benefits from a flat, oversized blade to ensure that it does not slip when dicing, mincing and chopping through hard vegetables..
The word tamahagane refers to the central core of a samurai sword which had to be both strong and outrageously sharp. The ancient joke goes that prisoners should still be pleading for their liberation upon completion of swords strike through the neck, so keen is the executioners weapon that the flesh, muscle and sinew are not disturbed and only separate upon movement or blood loss. Our quest for an accessibly priced collection of Western style knives with an edge of such silkiness that the integrity of even the most challenging ingredients would be maintained led us to the Arai workshop.


text:
Why Obasanjo Endorsed Peter Obi – Omokri
A former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has said that former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Obi because he always wanted a president from the South-East.
Omokri who is a strong supporter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, while reacting to the Obasanjo's choice of Obi in a tweet on Sunday described the Obasanjo as a good-hearted man.
The former presidential aide said that Obasanjo wants a president from south east extraction to heal the wounds from the civil war which lasted from 1967 to 1970.
Omokri tweeted, "Obasanjo is a good hearted man. He has always wanted a president from SE or close to SE as a way to heal the civil war wounds. In 2007, he wanted Peter Odili, but Yar'adua insisted on Governor Jonathan as VP."
He however added, "What OBJ did won't affect the election!"
Recall that Obasanjo had in a letter to Nigerians on Sunday endorsed Obi as his preferred candidate for the presidency ahead of the presidential poll next month.
See Also: Why Some People Don't Support Me – Peter Obi
Obasanjo in a 2023 New Year message made available to the press by his aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, described Obi, a former Anambra State governor, as his mentee with an edge in the presidential poll.
Obasanjo's letter read in part, "None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline, and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job, particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi as a mentee has an edge.
"Others like all of us have what they can collectively contribute to the new dispensation to liberation, restoration, and salvaging of Nigeria.
"One other important point to make about Peter is that he is a needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost.
"In other words, he has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary. He has a young and able running mate with a clean track record of achievement both in public and private life."
Posted in Elections, News, Nigeria
Tagged in Elections, Labour Party, LP, News, Nigeria, Peter Obi, Politics
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This past weekend was chock full of online NFL betting upsets, one of which was the Dallas Cowboys upsetting the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau. Coming into this matchup the odds painted the Packers as the favorites over the Cowboys. But in the end, Ezekiel Elliot proved to be too much for the Packers' defense. Green Bay had the #1 rush defense in the NFL, but now after their game with the Cowboys, the Packers rush defense finds itself in the #2 ranking. Elliott gained more yards (157) on the Packers than he did on any other team the Cowboys faced this season, which is a testament to both the rookie's talents, and the strength of Dallas' offensive line.
But now that Dallas has embarrassed the Packers in their own backyard, Green Bay must prepare for a hasty rebound. Green Bay is quickly falling behind the Minnesota Vikings, and if they fail to win their next game they'll also be losing ground in the Wild Card race as well. The Packers will take to the field again this upcoming Thursday when they face the Chicago Bears at home. With even less time to prepare, will most football betting sites predict a Green Bay rebound, or will they side with the Packers' divisional rival?
Despite how pitiful the Packers looked against the Cowboys, the online NFL betting odds still think the Bears look worse. Chicago currently finds themselves in last place within the NFC North, and with a 1-5 record fans can't expect them to rank anywhere else. The play at the quarterback position was the weakness of this Chicago team early on in the season. Jay Cutler began the season under center but was sidelined after sustaining a thumb injury. In his brief time as a starter, Cutler threw two interceptions to just one touchdown. But after sustaining his injury, Brian Hoyer has taken over at the quarterback position. So far, Hoyer has been great, but not exceptional. Since he's taken over in Week 2, Hoyer has amassed 6 touchdowns and a 100.8 passer rating. Unfortunately for the Bears, Hoyer wasn't able to rally Chicago to a victory over the Jaguars this past weekend. However, the Jaguars have the 8th best pass defense in the NFL, so seeing Hoyer struggle isn't the end of the world. How will Hoyer fare against the Packers pass defense?
As aforementioned, stopping the run was the strength of Green Bay's defense. Against the pass the Packers are much worst and their pass defense ranks 21st in the NFL. That's certainly not a championship caliper ranking, and to put the coffin in the Packers' Super Bowl hopes, their pass offense ranks worst. Behind Aaron Rodgers' efforts, Green Bay has the 25th worst passing offense in the NFL. To sum it up, Green Bay has been struggling tremendously this season, on both sides of the ball. As the season wears on, the injuries keep racking up for the Packers. With a banged up roster, and a team that was already playing terrible football, it might be a good time for fans to give up hope on this year's Packers squad. If Green Bay keeps playing the way they have been, even the Bears will be able to upset. Bottom line, online NFL betting fans should refrain from picking the Packers straight up.


text:
Q: Angular 2 and DatePipe milliseconds I have a google map where I click a unit. When I click a unit I get some data about the unit from a REST through a service. I then get StartToday witch is in seconds. I then want to show it as HH:mm:ss. My StartToday returns 360.
{{unit.StartToday * 1000}} // Works is 360000
{{360000 | date: "HH:mm:ss"}} // Works is 01:06:00
{{unit.StartToday * 1000 | date: "HH:mm:ss"}} // Does not work

But I get this error:

EXCEPTION: Error in ./MapComponent class MapComponent - inline template:11:12 caused by: Invalid argument 'NaN' for pipe 'DatePipe'
  ORIGINAL EXCEPTION: Invalid argument 'NaN' for pipe 'DatePipe'

A: You should try :
{{ (toNumber(unit.StartToday) * 1000) | date: "HH:mm:ss" }}

and make sure unit.StartToday is a number:
toNumber(input_to_number:any){
 return Number(input_to_number);
}

https://plnkr.co/edit/ficVwQ2DO9E8jYpn4V4a?p=preview
Good Luck!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Jijia (rumænsk udtale: [ˈʒiʒia], ) er en flod der løber  i Ukraine og Moldavien-regionen i Rumænien, en højre biflod til Prut. Den udspringer  i Ukraine i en højde af 410 meter over havet, løber sydpå i distriktet Botoșani gennem byen Dorohoi og møder Prut i Gorban, distriktet Iași. Den har en længde på 287 km, hvoraf de 275 km er i Rumænien, og et afvandingsområde på omkring 5.770 km2, hvoraf 5.757  km2 er i Rumænien. Vigtigste bifloder er floderne Sitna, Miletin og Bahlui.

Bifloder
Følgende floder er bifloder til floden Jijia (fra kilden til udmundingen):

 Fra venstre: Tinca, Pârâul lui Martin, Bezerc, Putreda, Tălpeni, Săvescu, Ibăneasa, Ghițălăria, Buzunosu, Găinăria, Guranda, Gard, Mihăiasa, Ciornohal, Glăvănești, Iepureni, Hărbărău, Puturosul, Pop, Frasin.
 Fra højre: Buhai, La Iazul cel Mare, Părul, Valea Iazurilor, Lunca, Drâslea, Sitna, Aluza, Miletin, Jijioara, Jirinca, Bahlui, Tamarca, Comarna, Covasna

Referencer

 2017 Romanian Statistical Yearbook, p. 13

Floder i Tjernivtsi oblast
Vandløb i Rumænien

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Efficient Visual Search from Synchronized Auditory Signals Requires Transient Audiovisual Events
Erik Van der Burg ,
* E-mail: e.van.der.burg@psy.vu.nl
Affiliation Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
John Cass,
Affiliations School of Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia, MARCS Auditory Research Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Christian N. L. Olivers,
Jan Theeuwes,
David Alais
Affiliation School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Erik Van der Burg,
Erik Van der Burg John Cass ... David Alais
A prevailing view is that audiovisual integration requires temporally coincident signals. However, a recent study failed to find any evidence for audiovisual integration in visual search even when using synchronized audiovisual events. An important question is what information is critical to observe audiovisual integration.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Here we demonstrate that temporal coincidence (i.e., synchrony) of auditory and visual components can trigger audiovisual interaction in cluttered displays and consequently produce very fast and efficient target identification. In visual search experiments, subjects found a modulating visual target vastly more efficiently when it was paired with a synchronous auditory signal. By manipulating the kind of temporal modulation (sine wave vs. square wave vs. difference wave; harmonic sine-wave synthesis; gradient of onset/offset ramps) we show that abrupt visual events are required for this search efficiency to occur, and that sinusoidal audiovisual modulations do not support efficient search.
Conclusions/Significance
Thus, audiovisual temporal alignment will only lead to benefits in visual search if the changes in the component signals are both synchronized and transient. We propose that transient signals are necessary in synchrony-driven binding to avoid spurious interactions with unrelated signals when these occur close together in time.
Citation: Van der Burg E, Cass J, Olivers CNL, Theeuwes J, Alais D (2010) Efficient Visual Search from Synchronized Auditory Signals Requires Transient Audiovisual Events. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10664. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010664
Editor: Benedikt Grothe, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany
Received: December 7, 2009; Accepted: April 27, 2010; Published: May 14, 2010
Copyright: © 2010 Van der Burg et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: J. Theeuwes was supported by a Dutch Technology Foundation STW grant (07079), and C. Olivers by a NWO-VIDI grant 452-06-007. J. Cass and D. Alais were supported by Discovery Projects awarded by the Australian Research Council (JC: DP0774697; DA: DP0770299). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Many objects and events in our natural environment produce complementary light and sound energy that can be detected by specialized visual and auditory sensory systems. This information may be integrated across sensory modalities to take advantage of informational redundancy, enhancing the representation of the external world and making it more robust [1], [2]. A picture of the neural mechanisms underlying the processes of multisensory integration is emerging [3], [4] to complement the many examples of integrated audiovisual information exerting a powerful influence over various aspects of perception [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. Most studies found evidence that vision tends to dominate audiovisual perception for spatial tasks [11], [12], and audition tends to dominate for temporal tasks [9], [13], [14]. However, this tendency is flexible and can be reversed when information in a dominant sense is degraded [6].
Many of the studies examining audiovisual perception have used sparse displays, often involving a single stimulus. While this approach has been sufficient to demonstrate that audiovisual interactions do occur and can influence spatial and temporal aspects of perception, it is more relevant to real world contexts to examine how audiovisual interactions affect our ability to locate and identify objects in cluttered environments. In such cases, there are typically many objects distributed across space that compete for and distract our attention. Two studies, both involving speeded visual search, investigated this question. Fujisaki, Koene, Arnold, Johnston & Nishida [15] found that the time required for observers to identify whether a temporally modulating visual singleton was synchronised with an amplitude or frequency modulating auditory tone increased precipitously with the number of distractors present. Such "serial search" performance suggests that the analysis of audiovisual temporal events is not automatic and pre-attentive but rather requires effortful, cognitive analysis. In stark contrast to this null finding, Van der Burg, Olivers, Bronkhorst & Theeuwes [16] found that an abrupt (and non-spatial) auditory pulse synchronised with an abrupt color change of a visual singleton strongly facilitated the speed of target identification, and did so independently of the number of distractor elements.
Why do Van der Burg and colleagues find evidence for such audiovisual interaction whereas Fujisaki, et al. do not? The purpose of this paper is to identify what information is critical for a non-spatial acoustic signal to drive efficient visual search. To preview our results, we find that efficient search is contingent upon visual luminance changes being abrupt and uniquely synchronised with the auditory event. Our results demonstrate that audiovisually synchronised sine-wave modulations do not facilitate efficient visual search, while synchronised square-wave modulations do (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 shows that this acoustically driven visual search efficiency requires abrupt (square-wave) luminance modulations, although auditory events can be sinusoidal. We also show that visual search efficiency improves monotonically with the number of odd harmonics added to the fundamental sine-wave (progressively approximating a square-wave), although the harmonics presented alone afford no search benefit (Experiment 3). Furthermore, we show that these search benefits are not due to the dynamic properties of the surrounding distractors, but due to an increase in audiovisual onset and/or offset slope (Experiment 4). In sum, the benefit of square-wave compared with sine-wave modulation is not due to continuous vs. discrete variation or to amplitude differences but to the presence of a transient luminance event synchronised with an auditory stimulus.
In the present study, participants were asked to make a speeded response regarding the orientation of a visual target (a horizontal or vertical line segment) among 5 or 10 distractor lines of various orientations, by pressing the z- or m-key when they detected a horizontal or vertical line segment, respectively. Figure 1 illustrates an example search display used in the present study.
Figure 1. Illustration of an example search display.
Participants were asked to make speeded responses toward the orientation of a visual target (a horizontal or vertical line segment). All line segments were surrounded by annuli, whose luminance changed continuously during a trial. On half of the trials the luminance of all annuli followed a sine-wave pattern (as shown in the figure), and on the remaining trials the annuli followed a square-wave pattern. If present, a spatially uninformative tone was synchronized with the target annulus (i.e. the one surrounding the target element). See Movie S1 and Movie S2 for examples of sine-wave and square-wave trials, respectively.
Experiment 1: Sine-wave vs. square-wave audiovisual events
All line segments were surrounded by annuli whose luminance modulated continuously during each trial. On half of the trials, the luminance of all annuli modulated with a sine-wave temporal profile (Movie S1; fundamental frequency = 0.72 Hz), and on the remaining trials the annuli modulated with a square-wave profile (Movie S2; again 0.72 Hz). On half of the trials, the target annulus (i.e. the one surrounding the horizontal or vertical line segment) was either synchronized with an auditory signal whose intensity had an identical temporal modulation profile to the target annuli (i.e. both were perfectly aligned in phase), or was desynchronized by shifting the auditory signal 180° out of phase with the target annuli modulation. In the remaining half of trials the search display was presented in silence. Note that the distractor annuli were never in phase with the tone.
The results of Experiment 1 are presented in Figure 2. Reaction time (RT) data from practice blocks and erroneous trials were excluded. RTs were subjected to a repeated-measures Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with set size (6 vs. 11), tone presence [present vs. present (180° out of phase) vs. absent] and stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave) as within-subject variables.
Figure 2. Results of Experiment 1.
Mean correct reaction time as a function of set size, stimulus type and tone presence. The mean correct RT reflects the time between the search display onset and the time to respond (correctly) to the target orientation. The error bars reflect the overall standard errors of individuals' mean RTs.
Overall mean error rate was low (1.6%) and was therefore not subjected to further analysis. The ANOVA on RTs revealed a significant three-way interaction among set size, tone presence and stimulus type, F(2, 8) = 5.3, p<.05. This interaction was further examined by separate ANOVAs for each stimulus type. When the audiovisual events were square-waves, the ANOVA yielded a reliable tone presence x set size interaction, F(2, 6) = 9.5, p = .01, indicating that search improved when a tone was synchronized with the target annulus (search slope was 38 ms item−1 when the tone was in phase; search slope was 42 ms item−1 when the tone was 180° out of phase) compared to the condition that no such tone was present (162 ms item−1). In contrast, when the audiovisual events were sine-wave modulated, no such audiovisual interaction was observed, F(2, 6) = 1.7, p = .257. Neither was the main effect of tone presence reliable, F<1.
The findings of this experiment are clear. Synchronized sinusoidal audiovisual events did not lead to any search benefits whatsoever [15]. In contrast, synchronized square-wave audiovisual modulations (with the same fundamental temporal frequency as the sine-waves) produced a potent facilitation in visual search performance [16].
The substantial search slopes in the present experiment might suggest that the visual event did not capture attention in an automatic fashion. Even though this is correct, we would like to note that, in contrast with classic visual search studies (in which the salient singleton is always visible until the response is made [17]), the salient event in the present case (i.e. the synchronized audiovisual event) is only temporarily present. As a result, if participants miss this salient event, then they have to wait for the next opportunity (i.e. the subsequent synchronized audiovisual event). This is consistent with our previous studies [16], [18], in which we have found evidence that synchronized audiovisual events capture attention on most, but not on all trials. A feasible explanation for these misses might be attributed to eye-movements, and blinks [16].
Even though we observed substantial search benefits in the square-wave condition, the audiovisual events were always simultaneously presented (i.e. the audiovisual events were fully synchronized without a delay), which might not have been optimal for the sinusoidal condition. For instance, several studies report that to perceive audiovisual simultaneity, the auditory event needs to be presented after the visual event by about 30–40 ms [19], [20], [21], [22]. One potential reason for our effect of stimulus type might be that the sine-wave condition is more sensitive to temporal synchrony than the square-wave condition. Therefore, in a control experiment (Experiment S1), we manipulated the synchronization of the audiovisual events, by varying the time between the tone and the target (tone-target interval; TTI). We observed optimal search performance in the square-wave conditions when the auditory signal was presented 40 ms after the visual event [19], [20], [21], [22]. In contrast, no effect of TTI was observed when audiovisual events were sinusoidally modulated (see Figure S1).
An interesting feature of these results is that the synchronised sinusoidal modulating AV stimulus generates a greater proportion of unique correlations over time between luminance and intensity changes than do synchronised square-wave modulation. Therefore, one might argue that the sinusoidal auditory event contains more temporal information about the luminance of the synchronized annulus than the square-wave modulating AV stimulus. Despite this, sinusoidal modulating audiovisual search was far less efficient than square-wave modulation. Moreover, search performance in the in-phase square-wave condition was equal to the search performance in the out of phase square-wave condition, also suggesting that participants did not adopt a strategy to search for a specific luminance change. The data suggest that auditory-driven visual search may require an abrupt temporal event, which was present when the audiovisual events were square-wave modulated (regardless of whether the auditory and visual modulations were in-phase or in counter-phase), but not when the audiovisual events were sinusoidally modulated. In the next experiment we investigate whether auditory driven improvement in visual search efficiency is contingent upon an abrupt and unique change in the auditory modality, the visual modality, or perhaps both modalities.
Experiment 2: A special role for visual transient signals
In Experiment 2, we independently manipulated the auditory stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave), and the visual stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave). In contrast with the previous experiment, the tone was always present, and always synchronized with the target annulus (i.e. in phase). Auditory stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave) and visual stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave) were randomly mixed within blocks. Participants received ten experimental blocks of 32 trials, preceded by a single practice block of 32 trials. If audiovisual synchrony in cluttered displays requires temporally abrupt signals in both modalities, then we expect to observe search benefits when both are square-wave modulated, but not when either one is sinusoidaly modulated.
The results of Experiment 2 are presented in Figure 3. RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with set size (6 vs. 11), auditory stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave), and visual stimulus type (sine- vs. square-wave) as within-subject variables.
Mean correct reaction time as a function of set size, auditory stimulus type and visual stimulus type. The data show that auditory driven visual search efficiency requires square-wave visual onsets.
Overall mean error rate was 2.0%. The ANOVA on RTs revealed a reliable three-way interaction among auditory stimulus type, visual stimulus type and set size, F(1, 3) = 18.3, p<.05. This interaction was further examined by separate ANOVAs for each auditory stimulus type. When the auditory signals were sine-waves, the ANOVA yielded a reliable visual stimulus type x set size interaction, F(1, 3) = 13.6, p<.05, as the search slopes were shallower when the visual annuli were square-waves (113 ms item−1) than when the visual annuli were sine-waves (276 ms item−1). When the auditory signals were square-waves, the ANOVA revealed a similar visual stimulus type x set size interaction, F(1, 3) = 121.9, p<.005, as the search slopes were shallower when the visual annuli were square-waves (23 ms item−1) than when the visual annuli were sine-waves (326 ms item−1). The interaction was also further examined by separate ANOVAs for each visual stimulus type. When the visual annuli were square-waves, search slopes were shallower when the auditory signals were square-waves (23 ms item−1) than when the auditory signals were sine-waves (113 ms item−1), F(1, 3) = 40.5, p<.01. In contrast, no such interaction was observed when the visual annuli were sine-waves, F(1, 3) = 1.8, p = .270.
Together, these data provide compelling evidence that acoustically driven visual search efficiency requires abrupt (square-wave) visual onsets, although auditory events can be sinusoidal. However, search performance was optimal when both the synchronized audiovisual events were square-wave modulated.
Experiment 3: Harmonic sine-wave synthesis
The previous experiments showed that audiovisually synchronised sine-wave modulations do not facilitate efficient visual search, while synchronised square-wave modulations do. The difference between a sine- and square-wave can be mathematically derived by harmonic synthesis. This refers to the fact that waveforms can be constructed by adding together sine-waves of the appropriate amplitudes, frequencies and phases. For instance, a square-wave with a frequency of 0.72 Hz, can be easily created by adding higher odd (phase aligned) harmonics to the fundamental sine-wave (F) with a frequency of 0.72 Hz. Figure 4a shows the first three odd harmonics used to synthesize a square-wave (the blue line results from the sum of the three harmonics). The red line indicates a square-wave that results from summating the infinite number of odd harmonics.
Figure 4. Illustration of the first three odd harmonics of the square-wave (with F the fundamental frequency).
The blue line (lower panel) indicates a square-wave that results from summating the first three odd higher harmonics. The red line indicates a square-wave that would result from summating an infinite number of odd harmonics.
In the present experiment, we tested whether adding higher odd harmonics (3F, 5F and 7F) to the audiovisual fundamental frequency (F) used in Experiments 1 and 2 (0.72 Hz), progressively approaching a square-wave, would affect visual search. We also conducted a control experiment, in which we investigated whether individual higher odd harmonic components affect visual search when presented in isolation (i.e. unsynthesized) compared to the sum of the higher odd harmonics. The experiment was identical to Experiment 2, except that the waveforms defining auditory and visual modulation were always identical. Furthermore, we systematically manipulated the number of higher odd harmonics (3F, 5F, 7F) added to the fundamental frequency (F). See Movie S3 for an example trial in which the fundamental frequency (F) was accompanied by the third and fifth harmonic (F+3F+5F). We also included a condition in which the number of odd harmonics was infinite (square-wave condition, within Nyquist limits). Stimulus type [fundamental (F), F+3F, F+3F+5F, F+3F+5F+7F, or square-wave] was randomly mixed within blocks. Participants received ten experimental blocks of 40 trials, preceded by a single practice block of 40 trials.
The control experiment was identical, except that stimulus type contained the individual odd harmonics (F, 3F, 5F, or 7F), or the sum of all harmonics (F+3F+5F+7F). Stimulus type was randomly mixed within blocks. Participants participated in two sessions. One session contained one practice block and ten experimental blocks of 40 trials each. If auditory-driven visual search follows harmonic principles, then we expect to observe a monotonic improvement in visual search performance as we increase the number of combined odd higher harmonics. In contrast, if auditory driven visual search is due to a merely discrete process, then we expect to observe search benefits only in response to the square-wave and do not expect to observe search benefits when we simply add higher odd harmonics to the fundamental sine wave.
The results of Experiment 3 are presented in Figure 5. RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with set size (6 vs. 11), and stimulus type [fundamental (F), F+3F, F+3F+5F, F+3F+5F+7F, or square-wave] as within-subject variables. In the control experiment, RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with set size (6 vs. 11), and stimulus type [fundamental (F), 3F, 5F, 7F, or sum of the individuals (F+3F+5F+7F)] as within-subject variables.
The upper panel indicates the mean correct reaction time as a function of set size, and stimulus type for each combined odd harmonics. The lower panel indicates the mean correct reaction time as a function of set size, and stimulus type for each individual odd harmonics. The frequency for each individual odd harmonic is plotted on top of the graphs. Overall, adding higher odd harmonics to a fundamental sine-wave increases search efficiency, even though those harmonics alone afford no search benefit.
Overall mean error rate was 1.3%. The ANOVA revealed a reliable effect of stimulus type, and a significant set size x stimulus type interaction, F(4, 12) = 26.1, p<.001, and F(4, 12) = 20.3, p<.001, respectively. In other words, as is clear from Figure 5, search improved monotonically (in terms of overall RTs and search slopes) as the number of odd harmonics increased (F: 304 ms item−1; F+3F: 245 ms item−1; F+3F+5F: 168 ms item−1; F+3F+5F+7F: 117 ms item−1; square-wave: 1 ms item−1). However, it is still possible that the observed interaction and main effect of stimulus type were due to the square-wave condition and thus due to a discrete process instead. However, when we excluded the square-wave condition from analyses, we again observed a reliable effect of stimulus type, and a significant set size x stimulus type interaction, F(3, 9) = 36.0, p<.001, and F(3, 9) = 8.0, p<.01, respectively.
In the control experiment (individual harmonics condition), overall mean error rate was 1.2%. The ANOVA revealed a reliable stimulus type effect, F(4, 12) = 16.6, p = .01, as search was significantly faster when the stimulus type contained the sum of the individual harmonics compared to each individual harmonic alone (all t-values (3) >4.4, all p-values<.02). Moreover, the ANOVA revealed a reliable set size x stimulus type interaction, F(4, 12) = 22.5, p = .001, as the search slope was shallower in the sum of all harmonics condition (49 ms item−1) compared to each individual harmonic (F: 252 ms item−1; 3F: 231 ms item−1; 5F: 190 ms item−1; 7F: 199 ms item−1). Furthermore, the two-way interaction, and the main effect of stimulus type were not reliable when we excluded the sum of the harmonics condition from the ANOVA, F(3, 9) = 5.2, p = .09, and F<1, p = .45, respectively.
The present experiment shows that adding higher odd harmonic frequencies (3F, 5F, and 7F) to a fundamental sine-wave increases search efficiency, although the harmonics alone afford no search benefit at all. The observed search benefits demonstrate that acoustically driven visual search is contingent upon the spectral composition of the audiovisual stimulus, in particular the presence of sharply defined transient changes. There are, however, alternative (and complementary) explanations. For instance, as one adds odd higher harmonics to the fundamental sine wave, the temporal rate of change in stimulus luminance increases monotonically. That is to say, the steepness of the onset and offset increases, becoming more abrupt as the number of harmonics increases. Another possibility is that as one approaches the square-wave (by adding higher harmonics to the sine-wave) the stimulus changes alternate with increasingly static episodes if the target change occurs during a static episode of the distractors search may become more efficient.
Experiment 4: Distractor dynamics and abrupt transient events
To investigate whether the observed search benefits in the previous experiments were due to static distractors in the square-wave condition vs. dynamic distractors in the sine-wave condition we manipulated the distractor dynamics by comparing three different waveforms: sine-wave, square-wave, and difference-wave condition (see Figure 6).
Figure 6. Stimuli used in Experiment 4.
The difference-wave (lower panel) reflects the difference between the square- and sine-wave modulations. See Movie S4 for an example difference-wave trial.
Mathematically, the difference wave (Movie S4; black curve in Figure 6) is the result of a square-wave from which the sine-wave has been subtracted (see grey inset). The difference-wave contains abrupt changes at the same rate as in the square-wave condition, but is otherwise similar in dynamics to the sine-wave condition (since, in effect, it is a series of sinusoidal half-waves separated by abrupt changes). Moreover, the temporal frequency remains unchanged at 0.72 Hz. The experiment was identical to Experiment 2, except that the audiovisual events were always identical. Stimulus type (sine-wave, square-wave vs. difference-wave) was randomly mixed within blocks. Participants received ten experimental blocks of 24 trials, preceded by a single practice block of 24 trials. If search benefits in the square-wave condition are due to the distractors being static at the target change, then we do not expect to observe search benefits in the difference-wave condition. In contrast, if auditory driven search requires steep onset/offset transients, then we expect to observe search benefits in the difference-wave condition as well.
In a control experiment, we investigated whether the steepness, or abruptness, of the audiovisual events is important for auditory driven search. This control experiment was identical to Experiment 2, except that the audiovisual events were always identical. Furthermore, the audiovisual events were synchronized square-wave modulated signals whose onset and offset transitions were manipulated. The onset, and offset steepness was determined by the time to reach the maximum amplitude from the minimum amplitude (following a linear profile), or vice versa. The timing was either 13 ms (i.e. square-wave: an abrupt change from one video frame to the next) or was 27, 53, 80, 106, 160, 266, 399, or 532 ms. Set size was fixed (11 elements). Participants received eight experimental blocks of 36 trials, preceded by a single practice block of 36 trials. If the observed search benefits in the previous experiments are due to the steepness of the audiovisual events, then we expect a monotonic improvement in search performance dependent on the steepness of the onset and offset slope of the audiovisual events.
The results of Experiment 4 are presented in Figure 7. RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with set size (6 vs. 11), and stimulus type (square, sine, or difference-wave) as within-subject variables. In the control experiment, RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with steepness (13, 27, 53, 80, 106, 160, 266, 399, or 532 ms) as within-subject variables.
A) Mean correct reaction time (RT) as a function of set size for each stimulus type. B) Mean correct reaction time (ms) as a function of steepness. The steepness refers to the time to reach the maximum amplitude from its minimum (or vice versa). Note that 13 ms reflects a square-wave modulation. These data show that auditory driven search requires abrupt auditory and visual events.
The overall error rate was 1.2%. The ANOVA revealed a reliable set size x stimulus type interaction, F(2, 6) = 46.4, p<.001. As is clear from Figure 7a, search was much better when the audiovisual events were square-waves (28 ms item−1) than when they were sine-waves (199 ms item−1), F(1, 3) = 48.4, p<.01. Importantly, however, search was also very good when the audiovisual events were difference-waves (20 ms item−1), relative to when the audiovisual events were sine-waves, F(1, 3) = 53.4, p = .005. Indeed, search was equally efficient in the square-wave and difference-wave conditions, in terms of search times, F<1, p>.9, and search slopes, F<1, p>.5. Therefore, even though the difference-wave condition contained similar distractor dynamics as the sine-wave condition while in the square-wave condition the distractors were static during the target color change, search efficiency in these conditions was equivalent.
The results of the control experiment are presented in Figure 7b. RTs were subjected to an ANOVA with steepness (13, 27, 53, 80, 106, 160, 266, 399, or 532 ms) as within-subject variable. The overall error rate was 3.0%. The ANOVA on RTs revealed a reliable effect of steepness, F(8, 24) = 38.1, p<.001, as search monotonically improved as a function of the steepness of intensity change. More specifically, search was optimal when the audiovisual events were square-wave-modulated (1,171 ms; steepness was 13 ms), and search times increased as the steepness reduced. The effect saturated at around 266 ms. The present experiment therefore revealed clear evidence that auditory driven search requires abrupt auditory and visual events.
To recap, the aim of this study was to examine what information is critical for a non-spatial acoustic signal to drive efficient visual search. We observed that audiovisual square-wave modulations that were synchronised in time facilitate visual search (Experiments 1–4). In contrast, visual search is not facilitated when audiovisual signals with the same frequency and temporal phase modulate sinusoidally (Experiments 1–4). Experiment 2 showed that this acoustically driven visual search efficiency requires square-wave luminance modulations in vision, although auditory events can be sinusoidal. We also show that visual search efficiency improves monotonically with the number of odd harmonics added to the fundamental sine-wave (progressively approximating a square-wave), although the harmonics presented alone afford no search benefit (Experiment 3). Furthermore, we show that these search benefits are not due to the dynamic properties of the surrounding distractors, but due to an increase in audiovisual onset and/or offset slope (Experiment 4).
Whereas square-wave audiovisual modulations improved the efficiency of spatial visual search, audiovisual sine-wave modulations did not, even though the fundamental temporal frequency (0.72 Hz) was identical in both situations, and sufficiently low (< 4Hz) for audiovisual interaction to occur [23], [24]. The present study appear at odds with a study by Fujisaki et al. [15], who also looked at the influence of auditory signals on visual search. In their study, participants were asked to detect a flashing or rotating visual target amongst a number of flashing or rotating distractors. The target dynamics were either accompanied by a brief "pip" or by frequency modulated sweeps. The presence of these sounds did not result in search benefits whatsoever. In Experiment 4, we showed that auditory driven visual search requires steep, abrupt audiovisual events. This explains why Fujisaki et al. were not able to find search benefits when they used a continuous changing rotating visual target in combination with a synchronized frequency modulated auditory signal (i.e., a fact that we confirmed in several sine-wave conditions; Experiments 1–4). But why were Fujisaki et al. not able to find search benefits when they used abrupt audiovisual events?
An important question is whether the rate of abrupt audiovisual events would be an important factor for auditory driven visual search. For instance, if one increases the rate at which abrupt audiovisual events occur, this will result in a decreasing temporal separation between the target and distractor annuli. This might be harmful for auditory driven visual search because it is known that audiovisual synchrony has a very wide temporal window of integration (see Figure S1, as well as several other studies[16], [25]) and therefore an increased probability of integrating distractors and target at higher temporal rates. As a consequence, distractor events might affect optimal audiovisual performance [26], and could even end up capturing attention [16], [27]. In Experiment S2, we manipulated the minimal temporal separation between the target and distractor annuli, while the auditory signal was always synchronized with the target annulus. The data (see Figure S2) confirmed that when the temporal separation between the target and distractor annuli was greater than 120 ms, auditory driven search was highly efficient. In contrast, search benefits were no longer efficient when the minimal temporal separation between the target and distractor annuli was smaller than 120 ms, even though the auditory signal was always synchronized with the visual target annulus. This finding is consistent with previous studies reporting audiovisual benefits when the temporal separation between the target and distractor events is greater than 120 ms [7], [10], [16], [18], and no effect of multisensory interaction in the case of possible temporal overlap [15]. The minimal temporal separation of 120 ms indicates that a distractor change should not occur within a temporal window of 240 ms (120 ms prior to the target event, and 120 ms after the target event), a temporal period corresponding to a frequency of 4.1 Hz. It is important to note that because auditory-driven visual search requires abrupt audiovisual changes, this frequency does not indicate the maximum frequency of modulation but the maximum number of abrupt events per second (irrespective of whether they are onsets or offsets). This also explains why Fujisaki et al. were not able to find search benefits when they used abrupt audiovisual events because the temporal frequency was too high (up to 40 Hz), and they did not control for temporal overlap.
An intriguing question is where and when in the brain this transient audiovisual synchrony process occurs. Although there are numerous areas in the brain containing multisensory neurons ([see e.g. 28], [29], for reviews), they are particularly abundant in the superior colliculus (SC)[4], [30]. Consistent with the present study (see e.g. Figure S1 online), this midbrain structure is responsive to the synchrony of multisensory events, and especially so when an auditory signal follows a visual signal [31]. However, strong activation in SC is only observed when the signals from the different senses arrive from overlapping spatial locations. If the two signals are not spatially collocated activation in SC is greatly reduced or even inhibited[30]. Therefore, SC is unlikely to be the underlying mechanism of the present findings because our temporally aligned multisensory events never shared the same spatial location (see also [16], [18], [27]).
A more likely substrate for the findings we observe would be an early activation in the superior temporal sulcus (STS). There are several good reasons for this. First, the STS has been shown to be sensitive to the synchronization of audiovisual events [32], [33], [34]. Second, whereas these studies reported synchrony effects in the STS when using semantic information, other studies found similar effects when using synchronized non-semantic flashes in combination with simple beeps [35], [36]. Third, in contrast to the SC, these multisensory interactions were observed even though the auditory and visual stimuli were never spatially aligned [32], [36]. Finally, it is known that the STS forms part of the visual cortex [37], and therefore an auditory signal could, through cortical feedback, affect perceptual processing of a synchronized visual event at an early level of processing [38]. As a result, the synchronized visual event is perceived as being brighter [39] and therefore pops-out from its environment.
The present study highlights the importance of transients in audiovisual interaction. There is great potential for false matches in either spatial and/or temporal audiovisual integration. Spatially, events must come from approximately the same location to be integrated. However, as is observed in the phenomenon known as ventriloquism, false matches may occur when the locations of multisensory events are uncertain [6], [11]. Similarly in the time domain, to avoid false matches, events must be synchronous. However, we have shown that temporal alignment alone is not sufficient for target-specific audiovisual binding to occur. If temporal alignment was all that mattered, the synchronized sine-wave modulations would have produced efficient visual search, yet this was not observed. Rather, audiovisual interaction required temporal alignment of transient audiovisual events. Why transient? Transient events are, by definition, brief. By integrating only transient events defined very narrowly in time, the possibility of spuriously interacting unrelated auditory and visual events within the broad temporal window of multisensory interaction is greatly reduced (see e.g. Figure S1 as well as [16], [25]). In line with this reasoning, transient visual information has been found to be critical for perceptually differentiating events across time [40]. The present results emphasize the importance of abrupt events in interacting multimodal temporal information in natural scenes.
Written consent was obtained from each participant prior to the experiments. The experiments were approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Sydney.
Four participants (two naïve) took part in all experiments (2 female, mean age 30.2 years; range 24–37).
Stimuli and apparatus
Experiments were run in a dimly lit, air-conditioned room. Participants were seated at approximately 80 cm from the monitor (75 Hz refresh rate). The visual search displays consisted of six or eleven white line segments (116.5 cd m−2, length 0.7° visual angle) on a black (<0.5 cd m−2) background. All lines were equally spaced and randomly placed on an imaginary circle (4.9° radius) centered on a white fixation dot (116.5 cd m−2). The orientation of each line deviated randomly by either plus or minus 3° from horizontal or vertical, except for the target which was horizontal or vertical. Each line segment was surrounded by a grey annulus (1.1° radius, 0.4° width), whose luminance varied across frames (13.3 ms per frame). The luminance range for each annulus varied between 8.9 and 68.8 cd m−2. On half of the trials the luminance of the visual annuli followed a sine-wave with a temporal frequency of 0.72 Hz, and on the remaining trials the luminance of the visual annuli followed a square-wave modulation profile (0.72 Hz). The phase between the target annulus (i.e. the one containing the horizontal or vertical line segment) and the remaining distractor annuli was controlled to avoid overlapping temporal synchrony (±50°, 70°, 90°, 110°or 310° out of phase). In this way, the phase differences resulted in a minimal temporal separation of 200 ms (i.e. 80 ms greater than the critical temporal separation of 120 ms between the onset/offset of target and distractor modulation; see Experiment S2 online).
The auditory stimulus was a 500 Hz sine-wave (44.1 kHz sample rate; 16 bit; mono) and presented via a loudspeaker, which was placed above the monitor. This auditory signal was modulated in the amplitude domain and varied in level between 42 and 76 dB. On half of the trials, the amplitude followed a square-wave pattern, and on the remaining trials it followed a sine-wave pattern. The fundamental frequency of the sine- and square-wave modulators was o.72 Hz. If present, the auditory signal's modulation always matched the target annulus (i.e. the audiovisual events were both sine-waves, or both square-waves). Moreover, on half of these trials, the auditory signal was completely synchronized with the target annulus (i.e. 0° phase shift between the auditory and visual signal), and on the other half the auditory signal was out of phase (i.e. 180° phase shift between the auditory and visual signal). Participants were aware that the auditory signal, if present, was always synchronized with the target annulus.
Design and procedure
On any given trial the total number of target plus distractor items presented (set size) was 6 or 11. The audiovisual stimulus type was either sine-wave or square-wave modulated. The other manipulation involved the presentation of a tone coinciding with the target [tone present (in phase), tone present (180° out of phase), and tone absent]. Dependent variables were the reaction time (RT) and accuracy to detect the target. Note that the RT reflects the time between the search display onset and the response to the target, because the target was present when the search display appeared. Each trial began with a fixation dot presented for 1,000 ms at the center of the screen. The search display was presented until participants responded. Participants were asked to remain fixated on the fixation dot, and instructed to press the z- or m-key on the standard keyboard as fast and accurately as possible when the target orientation was horizontal or vertical, respectively. Target orientation was balanced and randomly mixed within blocks of 32 trials each. Tone presence and stimulus type were randomly mixed within blocks. Participants received ten experimental blocks, preceded by one practice block. Participants received feedback about their overall mean accuracy and overall mean RT after each block.
Experiment S1.
Details Experiment S1.
(0.04 MB DOC)
Results of Experiment S1. Correct mean reaction time as a function of stimulus type and tone target interval (TTI). Note that negative TTI's indicate that the tone preceded the visual event and that positive TTI's indicate that the tone followed the visual target event. The set size was always fixed (11 items).
(3.55 MB TIF)
Results of Experiment S2. Correct mean reaction time as a function of set size, and temporal separation.
Movie S1.
Example trial in Experiment 1. In this example, the audiovisual events were both sinusoidal modulated with a frequency of 0.72 Hz. The tone is synchronized (0°out of phase) with the target annulus (i.e. the one containing the horizontal or vertical line segment). Note that the frequency of the modulation is dependent on the refresh-rate of your computer.
(1.85 MB MOV)
Example trial in Experiment 1. In this example, the audiovisual events were both square-wave modulated with a frequency of 0.72 Hz. The tone is synchronized (0°out of phase) with the target annulus.
Example trial in Experiment 3. In this example, the audiovisual events were the summation of the fundamental frequency (F; i.e. the sine-wave condition in Mov. S1), the third higher harmonic (3F) and the fifth higher harmonic (5F).
Example trial in Experiment 4. In this example, the audiovisual events represent difference-wave condition, with a frequency of 0.72 Hz.
Conceived and designed the experiments: EVdB JRC. Performed the experiments: EVdB JRC. Analyzed the data: EVdB JRC. Wrote the paper: EVdB JRC CO JT DA.
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Acoustic signals
Is the Subject Area "Acoustic signals" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Audio signal processing" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Luminance" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Reaction time" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Vision" applicable to this article?
Visual signals
Is the Subject Area "Visual signals" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Analysis of variance" applicable to this article?
Is the Subject Area "Modulation" applicable to this article?


Start doing the Spicy bean spread at home: Put the drained and rinsed beans in a bowl. Mash them with a form until you get a thick bean spread. Chop the fresh cilantro and add to the spread. Also add a bit of olive oil so the spread isn't too thick, chili powder (we used approx 1 teaspoon), salt and juice from half a lime. Now mix all the ingredients by using a fork. Voila Taste the spread and see if you need to add more acidity from the lime, more spice fro the chili och just some more salt!
1. Put your patties on a grill and let it grill for approximately 5 minutes per side. Grill until they have a crispy surface all around them.
If you want you can also put the buns on the grill for some seconds so they become warm and tasty.
Curious for more vegan BBQ tips? Check out this article! Or do you want to see more burger-style recipes? We have some for you here, here and here. Which ones are your favourites?


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Video Games May Help With Academics, Motor Skills, Behavior And Much More
"I use to be anti games until I saw how they really helped my son" ~ Tanya Stilwell
Like Tanya, many parents may be reluctant to purchase video or computer games for their child due to concerns of violence or addiction. If you have a child with a communication impairment however, video games provide a way for children to play with others without having to talk. If your child has a multifaceted impairment such as apraxia or autism there is strong evidence that video games won't just help provide a way for your child to socialize with others, but may improve motor, behavioral, social, creativity, and even academics including reading.
How Pokemon Go Is Helping Kids With Autism And Asperger's
Ian has Asperger's syndrome, and for him, that means he struggles with social interactions and motivation to go outside. Barnhill often had difficulty asking and persuading Ian to leave his comfortable loft area to explore outside. He'd even rejected "Pokemon Go" at first.
But Barnhill says that since her son started flicking away and catching Pokemon, Ian has taken the initiative to go outside more and interact with other children, as well as his community.
Lenore Koppelman is the mother of 6-year-old Ralphie, who has autism and hyperlexia, which is associated with verbal language difficulties. She has also found "Pokemon Go" useful in helping her son socialize with other kids.
"As a result, he is finally finding himself in the middle of groups of kids he doesn't even know, being welcome to play with them."
Though no quantifiable research has been done on the effects of "Pokemon Go," Dr. James McPartland, director of Yale's Developmental Disabilities Clinic in the Child Study Center, says the game is appealing among kids with autism or Asperger's because of its consistency and structure.
"He seems happier. He's laughing more. He seems more confident," Koppelman said. "He fist-pumps and says 'Yes!' when he catches one and then gives people high-fives and shouts 'I did it!' His father and I are both proud of him and how far he has come in only a week's time." Source Article
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February 13, 2018 A video game has been shown to improve spatial working memory, attention, and inhibitory control in children with ADHD. It could mark the start of a new category of 'digital medicine' that selectively activates brain networks. Source
Video gamers have an advantage in learning
September 29, 2017 Gamers have an advantage in learning: Neuropsychologists let video gamers compete against non-gamers in a learning competition. During the test, the video gamers performed significantly better and showed an increased brain activity in the brain areas that are relevant for learning. Source
Video game trains kids to use peripheral vision
November 30, 2016 Children with poor vision see vast improvement in their peripheral vision after only eight hours of training using kid-friendly video games, with the range of visual gains the children made quickly acquired and stable when tested a year later. Source
Playing video games linked to higher intellectual function, school competence Researchers say despite positive effects of video game play in a recent study, moderation and parental limits are still a good idea
March 8th, 2016 "Spending time playing video games may be good for children. Researchers in Europe found elementary school-aged children who played video games had nearly twice the odds of high intellectual function and high overall school competence, though they caution against over-interpreting the study." Source Paper
Action video games improve brain function more than so-called 'brain games'
October 1, 2015 "Modern video games have evolved into sophisticated experiences that instantiate many principles known by psychologists, neuroscientists, and educators to be fundamental to altering behavior, producing learning, and promoting brain plasticity. Video games, by their very nature, involve predominately active forms of learning (i.e., making responses and receiving immediate informative feedback), which is typically more effective than passive learning." Source
Study: Gamers 'shielded' from perceptual interference, enhancing their learning abilities
June 18th, 2015 Researchers from Brown University's Laboratory for Cognitive and Perceptual Learning have published findings in PLOS ONE suggesting people who play video games on a regular basis are not only better and faster perceptual (visual) learners than non-frequent gamers, but are more resistant to perceptual interference, which may lead to more stable, long-term learning. Read more
Virtual worlds for people with autism spectrum disorder: a case study in Second Life.
May 29, 2015 The purpose of this study is to explore the use of virtual worlds by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with a particular focus on the virtual world Second Life™
Conclusion: Anecdotally Wolf's experiences suggest that people with ASD enjoy using a virtual world and may feel more comfortable communicating in the virtual world context than the physical world. Virtual worlds offer a venue for people with ASD to be a part of a virtual society, lowers communication barriers experienced in the physical world, and gives the participant a unique opportunity to create and maintain friendships. Virtual worlds offer an arena for people with ASD to meet their peers on equal terms, not being dependent on social cues, which in the physical world can be a barrier for communication for this group. Further research in this area is required. Implications for Rehabiliation People with autism spectrum disorder enjoy using a virtual world and may feel more comfortable communicating in the virtual world context than the physical world. Virtual worlds offer a venue for people with autism spectrum disorder to be a part of a virtual society. Virtual worlds offer an arena for people with autism spectrum disorder to meet their peers on equal terms, not being dependent on social cues, which in the physical world can be a barrier for this group. Read more
Video Gamers Have Better Connected Brains
April 28, 2015 Amongst the wider public, video gamers do not have the best reputation. They are perceived, somewhat unfairly, as socially awkward, bespectacled, pimply-faced geeks. However, new research provides them something of a "Revenge-of-the-Nerds moment": Action video gamers (AVGs) have more gray matter and better connectivity in certain subregions of the brain. The research team, headed by principal investigator Dezhong Yao, were led to examine brain structure and function among AVGs because of a plethora of previous evidence that showed that expert AVGs had superior cognitive abilities compared to amateurs. For instance, expert AVGs possess better attention skills and eye-hand coordination. Futhermore, it was already known that expert AVGs had more gray matter in various brain regions. Read more
Could story-based video games help people with autism?
April 10, 2015 New research into nonviolent video games suggests that games promoting storytelling over action may have prosocial benefits for people with autism….The study shows that the players of the story-based game were more immersed than the players of "Against the Wall." The feedback from the "Gone Home" players also suggested that being immersed in the game's story supported the players in "perceiving opportunities for meaningful choices and relationships." Interestingly, the narrative elements of the story-based game were also found to improve, in certain situations, the players' "theory of mind" – their ability to accurately assess the mental states of others. "Although the effects regarding theory of mind were relatively small, we were excited to see initial evidence for the short-term enhancement through in-game storytelling. Importantly, this effect was specific to the condition in which participants actively engaged in the games narration, while the mere exposure to the narrative video game did not affect theory of mind, in comparison to playing a neutral video game." Read more
A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally
November 16, 2014 Playing action video games can boost learning A new study shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally. "Prior research by our group and others has shown that action gamers excel at many tasks. In this new study, we show they excel because they are better learners," explained Daphne Bavelier, a research professor in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. "And they become better learners," she said, "by playing the fast-paced action games."
According to Bavelier, who also holds a joint appointment at the University of Geneva, our brains keep predicting what will come next–whether when listening to a conversation, driving, or even preforming surgery. "In order to sharpen its prediction skills, our brains constantly build models, or 'templates,' of the world," she explained. "The better the template, the better the performance. And now we know playing action video game actually fosters better templates."
Action Players vs. Non-Action Players
In the current study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bavelier and her team first used a pattern discrimination task to compare action video game players' visual performance with that of individuals who do not play action video games.
The action-gamers outperformed the non-action gamers. The key to the action-gamers success, the researchers found, was that their brains used a better template for the task at hand.
Then, the team conducted another experiment to determine if habitual players of fast-paced, action-rich video games may be endowed with better templates independently of their game play, or if the action game play lead them to have better templates.
Individuals with little video game experience were recruited, and as part of the experiment, they were asked to play video games for 50 hours over the course of nine weeks. One group played action video games, e.g., Call of Duty. The second group played 50 hours of non-action video games, such as The Sims.
The trainees were tested on a pattern discrimination task before and after the video game "training." The test showed that the action video games players improved their templates, compared to the control group who played the non-action video games. The authors then turned to neural modeling to investigate how action video games may foster better templates.
Measuring Learning
When the researchers gave action gamers a perceptual learning task, the team found that the action video game players were able to build and fine tune templates quicker than non-action game control participants. And they did so on the fly as they engaged in the task.
Being a better learner means developing the right templates faster and thus better performance. And playing action video games, the research team found boosts that process.
"When they began the perceptual learning task, action video gamers were indistinguishable from non-action gamers; they didn't come to the task with a better template," said Bavelier. "Instead, they developed better templates for the task, much, much faster showing an accelerated learning curve."
The researchers also found that the action gamers' improved performance is a lasting effect. When tested several months to a year later, the action-trained participants still outperformed the other participants, suggesting that they retained their ability to build better templates.
Bavelier's team is currently investigating which characteristics in action video games are key to boost players' learning. "Games other than action video games may be able to have the same effect," she said. "They may need to be fast paced, and require the player to divide his or her attention, and make predictions at different time scales." Source
Playing action packed video games like Call of Duty improves how quickly and efficiently you adapt to new visual and perceptual challenges, says new PNAS study. (i.e. they help you learn how to learn)
November 10, 2014, Read enough scientific studies and you might become convinced that everybody should be playing a few hours of Halo or Call of Duty each week to gain a mental edge. Over the past decade, study after study has shown that fast-paced video games bequeath a shocking range of small but measurable cognitive and perceptual benefits to gamers.
"We've seen improvements in tasks like efficiently tracking a large number of objects, accurately rotating an object in your mind, and perceiving slight changes on a display," says Vikranth Bejjanki, a psychologist at Princeton University. "And the big question that sticks out at us now is 'Why?' What are the underlying mechanics that are allowing gamers to get better at such a broad range of tasks?"
Today, in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bejjanki and his colleagues have claimed to identify the source of these mental upgrades for the first time. "Action video games, to put it simply, seem to enhance your ability to learn how to learn," Bejjanki says. Read more
Action video games bolster sensorimotor skills, study finds
October 17, 2014, People who play action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed seem to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly than non-gamers do, psychology researchers have found. "A new sensorimotor skill, such as learning to ride a bike or typing, often requires a new pattern of coordination between vision and motor movement. With such skills, an individual generally moves from novice performance, characterized by a low degree of coordination, to expert performance, marked by a high degree of coordination. As a result of successful sensorimotor learning, one comes to perform these tasks efficiently and perhaps even without consciously thinking about them." Read more
Portal 2 Improves Cognitive Skills More Than Lumosity Does Study Finds
September 29, 2014 What does it mean when "entertainment" games improve players' test scores more than brain-training programs? If entertainment games actually do a better job than games designed for neuroplasticity," Green says, "what that suggests is that we are clearly missing something important about neuroplasticity." "Neuroplasticity" is the idea that the brain, particularly the adult brain, is able to grow and change with training, learning, and playing.
The new study jibes with previous research that has found that many video games, designed to entertain, can have positive effects on the brain, while not all commercial products sold as improving cognition work as advertised.
"Have we actually found the active ingredients for neuroplasticity, or are these commercial games sort of better?" Green asks, rhetorically." Read more paper The power of play: The effects of Portal 2 and Lumosity on cognitive and noncognitive skills
Fun with Physics Screenshot from the game Portal 2 Valve Corporation
Computer games give a boost to English
July 8, 2014 A New study confirms what many parents and teachers already suspected – Young people who play a lot of interactive English computer games gain an advantage in terms of their English vocabulary compared with those who do not play or only play a little Read more. Ref: Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden
Video games might help people with dyslexia improve their ability to read, a new study suggests.
Dyslexia, which affects between 5 percent and 10 percent of people, is a learning disorder that causes problems with reading and writing.
Standard methods of reading instruction might be counterproductive for people with dyslexia, according to the study, which was published Feb. 13 in the journal Current Biology.
The researchers tested people with dyslexia and discovered that they have difficulty managing competing sights and sounds.
"Imagine you are having a conversation with someone when suddenly you hear your name uttered behind you," study author Vanessa Harrar, of the University of Oxford, in England, said in a journal news release.
"Your attention shifts from the person you are talking to — the visual — to the sound behind you," she said. "This is an example of a cross-sensory shift of attention. We found that shifting attention from visual to auditory stimuli is particularly difficult for people who have dyslexia compared to good readers."
Harrar and her colleagues said programs to help people with dyslexia might need to take these findings into account. In traditional approaches to reading, letters are first seen and then heard, they said.
"We think that people with dyslexia might learn associations between letters and their sounds faster if they first hear the sound and then see the corresponding letter or word," Harrar said.
The researchers also suggested that video games might prove useful in helping people with dyslexia improve their reading and writing skills.
"We propose that training people with dyslexia to shift attention quickly from visual to auditory stimuli and back — such as with a video game, where attention is constantly shifting focus — might also improve literacy," Harrar said.
"Action video games have been shown to improve multitasking skills and might also be beneficial in improving the speed with which people with dyslexia shift attention from one task, or sense, to another," she said.
SOURCE: Current Biology, news release, Feb. 13, 2014
Published in American Psychologist, Vol 69(1), Jan 2014 A new study shows benefits of violent video games for kids' learning: Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children's learning, health and social skills
Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children's learning, health and social skills, according to a review of research on the positive effects of video game play to be published by the American Psychological Association.
While one widely held view maintains playing video games is intellectually lazy, such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception, according to several studies reviewed in the article. This is particularly true for shooter video games that are often violent, the authors said. A 2013 meta-analysis found that playing shooter video games improved a player's capacity to think about objects in three dimensions just as well as academic courses to enhance these same skills, according to the study. This enhanced thinking was not found with playing other types of video games, such as puzzles or role-playing games.
Playing video games may also help children develop problem-solving skills, the authors said. The more adolescents reported playing strategic video games, such as role-playing games, the more they improved in problem solving and school grades the following year, according to a long-term study published in 2013.
Children's creativity was also enhanced by playing any kind of video game, but not when the children used other forms of technology, such as a computer or cellphone, other research revealed. Simple games that can be played quickly, such as Angry Birds, can improve players' moods, promote relaxation and ward off anxiety, the study said.
Researchers: Guitar Hero Offers Health Benefits
Tanya Stilwell's 5 Year Old Son Colton Rockin on Guitar Hero.
Leading drum research initiative The Clem Burke Drumming Project has today announced a year-long collaborative research project which will examine the benefits of using Activision Publishing, Inc's Guitar Hero World Tour's drum kit controller.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project – a unique collaboration between Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Dr. Marcus from the UK University of Chichester and Dr. Steve Draper from the University of Gloucestershire – is based on the pursuit of knowledge through the application of scientific principles to the various art forms of drumming. With 10 years of research behind it already, The Clem Burke Drumming Project is committed to the dissemination of information leading to increased enjoyment, health and well-being of all participants involved in drumming.
With two raised pads that represent the hi-hat and either the crash or ride cymbals, three pads which correspond to the snare and two toms and a bass-drum kick pedal, the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller simulates an authentic drum kit.
When playing on the drum kit controller in the game on higher difficultly levels, the Clem Burke Drumming Project believes Guitar Hero World Tour will provide an opportunity to acquire the specific motor skills needed for drumming. The Clem Burke Drumming Project will investigate the transfer of skills and the physiological demands of game play compared to live drumming.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project recently launched its first wave of findings, revealing that gigging professional drummers had a heart rate profile similar to professional football players and expended a significant amount of energy (400-600 kcal per performance). Physiological tests included the measurement of heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate in rehearsal tests and monitoring heart rate and blood lactate during live stage performances.
The Clem Burke Drumming Project team will conduct a series of physiological and neurological tests using the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit controller, which will be permanently housed in the University of Gloucestershire's newly-built dedicated drumming laboratory and at the University of Chichester.
One area of research will be to examine the neurological changes in Guitar Hero World Tour drummers, to examine how the brain's grey and white matters evolve when playing. The Clem Burke Drumming Project will also investigate the health benefits of playing Guitar Hero World Tour, and through collaboration with Prof. Steve and colleagues at the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences (Kings College, London), also examine how using drums and the drum controller may help individuals with existing medical conditions (e.g. dyspraxia, stroke patients etc.).
" We've been extremely impressed by the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller, " said Dr. Marcus , Principal Lecturer in Exercise Physiology, University of Chichester.
" The Clem Burke Drumming Project is all about promoting the benefits of drumming, and we're convinced those that learn the basics of the instrument with Guitar Hero World Tour can use those skills when progressing to an actual full drum kit. No other gaming controller comes close to simulating the experience of drumming, and we're confident the game will breed a new generation of real-life drummers. Anecdotally, we believe Guitar Hero World Tour is a perfect introduction to the instrument – and we can't wait to examine this scientifically and unveil our findings throughout 2009. " source
Dr. Steve Draper said: " This is the first facility of its kind in the world and we are extremely excited about the potential here. It is a unique collaboration between science and arts. "
Guitar Hero World Tour is now available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and the PlayStation 2. The game is rated " T " for Teen by the ESRB.
Video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. Iowa State researchers examine media impact in multiple countries
Dec 11, 2013 A cross-cultural study published in Psychological Science, led by Iowa State University researchers, shows prosocial media and video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. The study, a first-of-its-kind, tested levels of empathy and helpfulness of thousands of children and adolescents in seven countries
A cross-cultural study, led by Iowa State University researchers, shows prosocial media and video games positively influence behavior regardless of culture. The study, a first-of-its-kind, tested levels of empathy and helpfulness of thousands of children and adolescents in seven countries.
Researchers surveyed adolescents and young adults in Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania and the United States for the study. (source) Video Games Can Help Boost Social, Memory & Cognitive Skills
A new review on the positive effects of playing video games finds that the interaction may boost children's learning, health and social skills.
The American Psychological Association (APA) study comes out as debate continues among psychologists and other health professionals regarding the effects of violent media on youth.
An APA task force is conducting a comprehensive review of research on violence in video games and interactive media and will release its findings in 2014.
"Important research has already been conducted for decades on the negative effects of gaming, including addiction, depression and aggression, and we are certainly not suggesting that this should be ignored," said lead author Isabela Granic, Ph.D.
"However, to understand the impact of video games on children's and adolescents' development, a more balanced perspective is needed."
The article will be published in the journal American Psychologist.
A common viewpoint is that playing video games is intellectually lazy. New research however, suggests such play actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception.
This is particularly true for shooter video games that are often violent, the authors said.
A 2013 review of published studies found that playing shooter video games improved a player's capacity to think about objects in three dimensions, just as well as academic courses to enhance these same skills, according to the study.
"This has critical implications for education and career development, as previous research has established the power of spatial skills for achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics," Granic said.
This enhanced thinking was not found with playing other types of video games, such as puzzles or role-playing games.
Playing video games may also help children develop problem-solving skills, the authors said. source
Video games can boost brain volume
There has been a lot of recent research to suggest that video games improve brain performance – and now a recent study has shown that just 30 minutes of gameplay per day for two months can actually increase the volume of gray matter in the areas of the brain that control spatial awareness, memory, and strategic thinking.
The study was led by Simone Kühn from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and was published in Molecular Psychiatry. Kühn's research interests lie in the structure and function of the brain as well as exploring its plasticity.
Video game training could strengthen cognitive and motor skills; counteract risk factors for mental disease
Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game
Published in Psychiatry (2014) Abstract: Video gaming is a highly pervasive activity, providing a multitude of complex cognitive and motor demands. Gaming can be seen as an intense training of several skills. Associated cerebral structural plasticity induced has not been investigated so far. Comparing a control with a video gaming training group that was trained for 2 months for at least 30 min per day with a platformer game, we found significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum in the training group. The HC increase correlated with changes from egocentric to allocentric navigation strategy. GM increases in HC and DLPFC correlated with participants' desire for video gaming, evidence suggesting a predictive role of desire in volume change. Video game training augments GM in brain areas crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance going along with evidence for behavioral changes of navigation strategy. The presented video game training could therefore be used to counteract known risk factors for mental disease such as smaller hippocampus and prefrontal cortex volume in, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disease.
Video Games Could Correct Lazy Eye
Tetris can help correct lazy eye: researchers
Patching has long been used to treat a lazy eye in children, although the therapy has limited success and doesn't work at all in adults with the condition formally known as amblyopia.
Now researchers at McGill University in Montreal are testing an innovative means of improving visual function in adults with lazy eye — a puzzle video game that forces both eyes to work together to overcome the common condition.
In a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology, the researchers compared the use of the online video game Tetris with patching, a treatment in which the "good" eye is covered for a lengthy period of time. The idea is to make the weak eye do all the visual work in the hope of strengthening its acuity.
Video Game Designed to Treat Depression Worked Better Than Counseling
Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand just published promising results of a study comparing a video game they designed to help treat depression in teenage kids against traditional face-to-face counseling. Called SPARX, the game guides the players through a number of challenges that help practice handling various life situations and emotions that come with them.
The study, published in the latest issue of BMJ, has shown that the game was at least as effective as counseling in helping treat depression and anxiety in a study group of kids averaging 15 years old. [Editor's note: In fact, it worked better, reducing symptoms of depression more than treatment as usual.] source
Video games can improve memory and focus of older adults. Some people as old as 80 begin to show neurological patterns of people in their 20s.
"Brain scientists have discovered that swerving around cars while simultaneously picking out road signs in a video game can improve the short-term memory and long-term focus of older adults. Some people as old as 80, the researchers say, begin to show neurological patterns of people in their 20s.
Cognitive scientists say the findings, to be published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, are a significant development in understanding how to strengthen older brains. That is because the improvements in brain performance did not come just within the game but were shown outside the game in other cognitive tasks.
Further supporting the findings, the researchers were able to measure and show changes in brain wave activity, suggesting that this research could help understand what neurological mechanisms should and could be tinkered with to improve memory and attention." source
Modern violent video games don't promote poor social behaviour
We failed to find evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. Research on the effects of video game play is of significant public interest. It is therefore important that speculation be rigorously tested and findings replicated. Here we fail to substantiate conjecture that playing contemporary violent video games will lead to diminished prosocial behavior." Plus One source
Grand Theft Childhood
In 2008 there was a book written by Harvard professors called "Grand Theft Childhood", in which they found no correlation between video games and violent behavior.
"The best way to protect our kids is to keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are rated M for Mature. Right? Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things! In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million federally funded study on the effects of video games." source
WiiAssist -The benefits of 'WiiHabilitation' For Special Needs
University of Delaware Students redesign Wii to help disabled
Using the Wii for Vestibular Rehabilitation
Effectiveness of virtual reality using Wii gaming technology in children with Down syndrome
Nintendo Wii Finds Disabled Appeal – UK Children with Cerebral Palsy
Using Nintendo Wii in Therapy Univ of Iowa
Wii video game used in rehab therapy
Experts say it helps relieve boredom, encourages movement (article)
That latest Parkinson's Treatment – Wiihab (article)
Nintendo Wii helps patients perform physical therapy without the boredom
Elgin classroom introduces 'Wiihab'
Author and Executive Director at The Cherab Foundation
Lisa Geng got her start as a designer, patented inventor,and creator in the fashion, toy, and film industries, but after the early diagnosis of her young children she entered the world of nonprofit, pilot studies, and advocacy. As the mother of two "late talkers," she is the founder and president of the nonprofit CHERAB Foundation,co-author of the acclaimed book, The Late Talker, (St Martin's Press 2003), and is instrumental in the development of IQed, a whole food nutrition meal replacement. Lisa currently serves as a parent advocate on an AAN board for vaccines, and is a member of CUE through Cochrane US. Lisa is currently working on a second book, The Late Talker Grows Up and serves as a Late
Filed Under: Blog, Education, Featured, Featured Theory, News, Parenting Special Needs, Research, Science, Theories, Therapy Tagged With: behavior, brain, classroom, disabled, memory, motor, rehab, research, video games, wii
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An employee time clock can be a critical part of properly running a business. Keeping tabs of hours worked, overtime, paid vacation, holidays and other aspects of employee work can be difficult to track. Employee time clocks help simplify and organize all of this. Finding the right time clock can be difficult. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help determine which time clock you should choose.
The size of a business can be a huge factor in determining which time clock to purchase. Small businesses can easily use something basic, such as a traditional punch card system. This same system is not practical for a large business. Larger businesses require a system that is more robust, often a software or digital time clock that automatically keeps track of time.
Also keep in mind that several software-based time clocks are sold based on total users. These packages include 50, 75, 100, 250+ employees. Be sure the system you get accommodates all your employees and any future growth your business may have. Some software-based time clocks are non upgradeable. Others have upgrade packages that can be purchased and used later down the road.
Do you use payroll software such as QuickBooks, ADP or PAYCHEX?
Some software, biometric and card-swipe systems can be used with various payroll software programs, such as QuickBooks. The ability to export and use time clock data with these programs can be a huge timesaver and cut down on hours of work. If you use a payroll program, be sure to check on the compatibility. If your software isn�t on the list of the time clock�s product page, call and speak with a specialist at 1-800-543-5454. It is entirely possible that although your payroll software isn�t listed, it may be supported.
What type of system would you like?
Punch Card Time Clock - These time clocks use traditional cards that are inserted into the time clock where they are punched and stamped. This type of system is commonly used by small businesses and has been around for decades. Some of these time clocks will add time as the time card is punched, but is not common.
Card Swipe Time Clock - This type of time clock uses a card, similar in size to a credit card that is swiped through a machine to log time worked. This type of time clock can be used with small and large businesses. Time is usually stored on the device or on a connected computer. Data can often be exported for use with payroll software.
Software Time Clock - This type of time clock is run on a computer. No separate device is required. This can be used on a single computer, or on a network of computers if a "network" package is purchased. This is an easy and efficient way to keep track of time. Data can usually be exported for use with payroll software.
Biometric Time Clocks - This type of time clock uses an employee's hand or finger to punch in and out of work. It works much like a card swipe clock, except the hand or finger replaces a card. This type of system eliminates buddy-punching fraud and eliminates the need to replace cards. Data from these systems can usually be exported for use with payroll software.
If you still have questions, please give us a call at 1-800-543-5454 and speak with one of our time clock specialists. You can also e-mail us at info@officezone.com. Visit our time clock index to view our entire selection by clicking here.