Introduction: The current study aimed to elucidate the role of preparatory cognitive control in decision making and its neural correlates using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). To this effect, by employing a series of new cognitive tasks, we assessed the role of preparatory cognitive control in monetary (risky) decision making. Methods: The participants had to decide between a...

To communicate is the primary goal of most foreign language learning (EFL). As an important component of the four macro skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), reading should also serve this purpose. However, traditional methodology still dominates extensive reading teaching in most of the universities. To promote a communicative extensive reading class, we may start by designing var...

Stephen D. Smith1, Warren A. Brown2, Charles R. Smith3, and Milo E. Richmond3,4 1Institute for Resource Information Systems, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 2Institute for Social Economic Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 3Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 4U.S. Geological Survey, New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Cornell...

Services are becoming increasingly important in modern economies. Information technology provides most of the needed infrastructure to support the proper delivery of these services. In this paper, we adopt Covey’s [1] behaviors for trust to help improve the trustworthiness of IT-based service-oriented organizations. We develop checklists to qualitatively assess the level of trustworthiness of t...

CHORUS is a Coordination Action, a specific type of project funded by the European commission under its research programmes, intended to bring together research projects with common goals, in the field of search technologies for digital audio-visual content, one of the strategic objectives of the current research frame program. CHORUS coordinates a number of research projects in the general are...

Distributed troubleshooting often requires experts to support non-experts at a distance. The resulting separation between collaborators can impoverish their understanding of each other’s task contexts, impeding their collaboration. Consequently, this paper argues that developing effective troubleshooting support systems requires determining (1) what contextual information the participants requi...

Task-based listening tests such as IELTS require testees to listen to some information on a CD and simultaneously answer the related items. To answer such items, testees are expected to comprehend, analyze, compare and infer pieces of information while listening to the incoming audio material. The present research attempted to investigate whether the two major characteristics of question type a...