title: Visualising and communicating population diversity through web maps

authors: Brabyn, Lars

subjects: Population web maps

abstract: An online New Zealand Atlas of Population Change (NZAPC) is being developed (http://socialatlas.waikato.ac.nz/) to communicate the interaction and associated diversity resulting from three important components of population change: migration, natural change (births minus deaths), and population ageing. A comparative evaluation is made between five prominent international population web maps that utilise automated map server technology and the NZAPC, which uses static maps designed collaboratively by a demographer and a cartographer. This evaluation combined the needs of demography, cartographic communication and human computer interaction, as well as consideration of software. Interactive online maps and graphics are a powerful medium for communicating population distribution and associated diversity, but care needs to be taken in the choice of data and their interpretation. The NZAPC differs from the other web map sites evaluated in that it is accompanied by supporting research and narrative. The design of the NZAPC has had extensive demographic and cartographic input so that users are provided with relevant and easy-to-understand maps and graphs. This is a different approach to mainstream population web mapping sites that provide access to large data sets and allow the user to dynamically construct their own maps. We argue that the provision of research-supported maps and graphs by experienced researchers has a rising place in online mapping. We provide examples from the NZAPC with a focus on assisting New Zealanders to better understand population change and thus prepare for, respond to and celebrate the increasingly diverse population of Aotearoa New Zealand.

text: Visualising and communicating population diversity through web maps An online New Zealand Atlas of Population Change (NZAPC) is being developed (http://socialatlas.waikato.ac.nz/) to communicate the interaction and associated diversity resulting from three important components of population change: migration, natural change (births minus deaths), and population ageing. A comparative evaluation is made between five prominent international population web maps that utilise automated map server technology and the NZAPC, which uses static maps designed collaboratively by a demographer and a cartographer. This evaluation combined the needs of demography, cartographic communication and human computer interaction, as well as consideration of software. Interactive online maps and graphics are a powerful medium for communicating population distribution and associated diversity, but care needs to be taken in the choice of data and their interpretation. The NZAPC differs from the other web map sites evaluated in that it is accompanied by supporting research and narrative. The design of the NZAPC has had extensive demographic and cartographic input so that users are provided with relevant and easy-to-understand maps and graphs. This is a different approach to mainstream population web mapping sites that provide access to large data sets and allow the user to dynamically construct their own maps. We argue that the provision of research-supported maps and graphs by experienced researchers has a rising place in online mapping. We provide examples from the NZAPC with a focus on assisting New Zealanders to better understand population change and thus prepare for, respond to and celebrate the increasingly diverse population of Aotearoa New Zealand.

year: 2019

title: Disrupting working memory to reduce verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance: Squeezing in a tiresome new approach to implicit motor learning!

authors: Hoskens, Merel Cornelie Janna

subjects: Implicit motor learning

abstract: Implicit motor learning paradigms aim to minimise verbal-analytical engagement during motor performance. Some do this by suppressing working memory activity during practice. This reduces the ability of the learner to use, manipulate and store task-related information via mental processes, such as hypothesis testing. Implicit motor learning paradigms that suppress working memory indirectly are not always effective, because individual differences, such as motivation, can override their efficiency. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether two more direct methods, cognitive fatigue and hand contractions, are viable tools with which to suppress working memory activity during motor practice, and whether they cause reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance.
Chapter 2 investigated whether a computer-based cognitive fatigue task suppressed working memory activity during a golf putting task. Behavioural measures of verbal-analytical engagement were employed to test whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during the subsequent golf putting task. Results revealed that the computer-based cognitive fatigue task promoted cognitive fatigue, but was not sufficient to cause reduced hypothesis testing compared to a non-fatigue group.
In Chapter 3, a cognitive fatigue task with greater emphasis on motor control was therefore designed. It was first established whether the task caused cognitive fatigue and if working memory functions were disrupted. Subsequently, it was established whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during performance of a novel shuffleboard task, using behavioural measures, including self-report and assessment of technique changes. Additionally, verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning was gauged, using electroencephalography (EEG) to assess alpha power over the left temporal verbal-analytical (T7) site plus connectivity between the T7 and Fz (motor planning mid-frontal) sites. The results revealed that the motor-specific cognitive fatigue manipulation caused increased, rather than decreased, verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance, compared to a no fatigue control condition.
Chapter 4 examined whether hand contraction protocols influenced cognitive processes during motor performance, by using EEG to gauge verbal-analytical engagement during motor planning (i.e., T7-Fz connectivity) following a left-hand, right-hand or no hand-contraction protocol. The findings revealed that left-hand contractions, which are thought to activate the less verbal right hemisphere and deactivate the more verbal left hemisphere, caused reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning, compared to the other protocols. Furthermore, right-hand contractions caused higher levels of verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning. Consequently, Chapter 5 investigated whether left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning. Participants practiced a motor task following regular bouts of left-hand contractions, right-hand contractions or no hand-contractions. Behavioral measures were used to gauge the extent to which verbal-analytical engagement was curtailed or encouraged. The results revealed no evidence that left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning, and both left-hand and right-hand contractions caused worse performance than no hand-contractions during a post-practice test phase.
Working memory performance was disrupted by both the cognitive fatigue and hand contraction protocols; however, predicted decrements in verbal-analytical engagement did not occur, and implicit motor learning was not promoted. The findings of this thesis reveal the complexity of the interrelationships between working memory, verbal-analytical processes and brain activity during motor learning. Future directions for research are considered.

text: Disrupting working memory to reduce verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance: Squeezing in a tiresome new approach to implicit motor learning! Implicit motor learning paradigms aim to minimise verbal-analytical engagement during motor performance. Some do this by suppressing working memory activity during practice. This reduces the ability of the learner to use, manipulate and store task-related information via mental processes, such as hypothesis testing. Implicit motor learning paradigms that suppress working memory indirectly are not always effective, because individual differences, such as motivation, can override their efficiency. The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether two more direct methods, cognitive fatigue and hand contractions, are viable tools with which to suppress working memory activity during motor practice, and whether they cause reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance.
Chapter 2 investigated whether a computer-based cognitive fatigue task suppressed working memory activity during a golf putting task. Behavioural measures of verbal-analytical engagement were employed to test whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during the subsequent golf putting task. Results revealed that the computer-based cognitive fatigue task promoted cognitive fatigue, but was not sufficient to cause reduced hypothesis testing compared to a non-fatigue group.
In Chapter 3, a cognitive fatigue task with greater emphasis on motor control was therefore designed. It was first established whether the task caused cognitive fatigue and if working memory functions were disrupted. Subsequently, it was established whether the cognitive fatigue task reduced hypothesis testing during performance of a novel shuffleboard task, using behavioural measures, including self-report and assessment of technique changes. Additionally, verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning was gauged, using electroencephalography (EEG) to assess alpha power over the left temporal verbal-analytical (T7) site plus connectivity between the T7 and Fz (motor planning mid-frontal) sites. The results revealed that the motor-specific cognitive fatigue manipulation caused increased, rather than decreased, verbal-analytical engagement in motor performance, compared to a no fatigue control condition.
Chapter 4 examined whether hand contraction protocols influenced cognitive processes during motor performance, by using EEG to gauge verbal-analytical engagement during motor planning (i.e., T7-Fz connectivity) following a left-hand, right-hand or no hand-contraction protocol. The findings revealed that left-hand contractions, which are thought to activate the less verbal right hemisphere and deactivate the more verbal left hemisphere, caused reduced verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning, compared to the other protocols. Furthermore, right-hand contractions caused higher levels of verbal-analytical engagement in motor planning. Consequently, Chapter 5 investigated whether left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning. Participants practiced a motor task following regular bouts of left-hand contractions, right-hand contractions or no hand-contractions. Behavioral measures were used to gauge the extent to which verbal-analytical engagement was curtailed or encouraged. The results revealed no evidence that left-hand contractions promoted implicit motor learning, and both left-hand and right-hand contractions caused worse performance than no hand-contractions during a post-practice test phase.
Working memory performance was disrupted by both the cognitive fatigue and hand contraction protocols; however, predicted decrements in verbal-analytical engagement did not occur, and implicit motor learning was not promoted. The findings of this thesis reveal the complexity of the interrelationships between working memory, verbal-analytical processes and brain activity during motor learning. Future directions for research are considered.

year: 2020

title: Key concepts in Māori and iwi histories: A critique of Te Takanga o te Wā (2015)

authors: Palmer, Georgia

subjects: History

abstract: In 2019, the New Zealand government announced a “reset” of the national history curriculum, with the intention of including more Māori content and addressing ongoing petitions to make the New Zealand Wars compulsory in all schools. Two curricula - one for mainstream schools and the other for Māori immersion Kura - were developed, with each drawing on a recent Ministry of Education publication Te Takanga o te Wā (2015) to provide key insights to Māori history concepts and themes. The Māori curricula has since taken on the name of that document, and uses those themes in its new framework, while the mainstream curriculum also adopts some of these same concepts. But how relevant are these proposed themes and concepts to Māori history, and what have Māori and iwi historians and experts actually written or said about the significance of these concepts to Māori historical practice, content, and theory?
This thesis critiques the five key themes and concepts presented in Te Takanga o te Wā and evaluates their relevance as leading Māori history concepts. These are Whakapapa, Tūrangawaewae; Mana-Motuhake; Kaitiakitanga, and Whānaungatanga. This study surveys the existing work produced by Māori historians and other experts over the past century, particularly the extent to which they have used these themes or discussed their significance to Māori and iwi historical practice and thinking. This dissertation argues that aside from whakapapa, the majority of the themes presented in Te Takanga o te Wā are not reflected in the historiography of the field, and that there are in fact a range of other crucial concepts missing. These include discussions about Wā, the importance of te reo Māori, tikanga, Mātauranga-a-iwi and other important approaches like “historical trauma”, “survivance”, Kaupapa Māori and decolonisation.

text: Key concepts in Māori and iwi histories: A critique of Te Takanga o te Wā (2015) In 2019, the New Zealand government announced a “reset” of the national history curriculum, with the intention of including more Māori content and addressing ongoing petitions to make the New Zealand Wars compulsory in all schools. Two curricula - one for mainstream schools and the other for Māori immersion Kura - were developed, with each drawing on a recent Ministry of Education publication Te Takanga o te Wā (2015) to provide key insights to Māori history concepts and themes. The Māori curricula has since taken on the name of that document, and uses those themes in its new framework, while the mainstream curriculum also adopts some of these same concepts. But how relevant are these proposed themes and concepts to Māori history, and what have Māori and iwi historians and experts actually written or said about the significance of these concepts to Māori historical practice, content, and theory?
This thesis critiques the five key themes and concepts presented in Te Takanga o te Wā and evaluates their relevance as leading Māori history concepts. These are Whakapapa, Tūrangawaewae; Mana-Motuhake; Kaitiakitanga, and Whānaungatanga. This study surveys the existing work produced by Māori historians and other experts over the past century, particularly the extent to which they have used these themes or discussed their significance to Māori and iwi historical practice and thinking. This dissertation argues that aside from whakapapa, the majority of the themes presented in Te Takanga o te Wā are not reflected in the historiography of the field, and that there are in fact a range of other crucial concepts missing. These include discussions about Wā, the importance of te reo Māori, tikanga, Mātauranga-a-iwi and other important approaches like “historical trauma”, “survivance”, Kaupapa Māori and decolonisation.

year: 2022