Mental Attributes Profiling System: Difference between revisions

       |acronym=MAPS             

       |logo=MAPS Blue Logo.jpg

       |contract_number=

       |partners=[[Cyprus Dyslexia Association]]

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The '''Mental Attributes Profiling System''' (MAPS) is a language independent screening test, i.e., relies on cognitive rather than language-based measures, capable of predicting children at risk (possible dyslexics) and equipping teachers with a profile of their mental abilities so as to design personalized remediation programs.

        

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The following eight tests have been used for the multimodal evaluation reported here:</ul>

==Categorization==

# An animal (or fish) to be placed in one of three possible environments: sea, sky, or open fields;

# Objects usually found in a home environment, to be “placed” in one of three rooms of a house (office, kitchen, or bathroom), i.e., as in the example snapshot shown in the illustration. The software measured the time to response and whether the move was correct or false. For this study we used only the average response time (i.e., the cumulative response time of each test divided by 5: (ctt1+ctt2+...ctt5)/5 in Table 1), as it has been shown previously to have a higher correlation than the Correct/False values.

==Orientation: “Left-Right Game” Lateral awareness Test==

[[File:Laterization.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1|alt=Logo.|Ability to orientate: Left/Right]]

This test provides two types of measures. One, it evaluates the child’s ability to make left-right discriminations on his own body. During the first part, the test shows a child “sitting” in the same orientation as the subject (i.e., the subject sees on the screen the back of the child) in front of two objects, one on his/her upper left and the other on his/her upper right visual field. The computer asks the subject to “grab” the left or right object using his/her left or right hand. What is measured is (1) the time taken to select an arm (by clicking at the shoulder), and (2) whether the selected arm was correct or wrong. The same procedure is repeated during the second part of the test, in which the orientation of the child on the screen is reversed, i.e., the child on the screen is facing the subject. The second type of measures are derived from Piaget’s (19) tests to evaluate awareness of right-left relations outside our own body, i.e., in the environment. To evaluate this ability, the test measures (1) the time taken by the subject to decide which object to “grab” and (2) the number of correct/wrong decisions.  

==Navigation==

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==Visual memory==

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* AMTc: Total number of correct responses

* AMTcw: weighted number of correct digits (i.e., all correctly types digits even when the sequence was wrong) were used as measures of auditory digit span.

==Auditory discrimination test==

==Visual discrimination==

Modeled using the popular “Find the differences” game, this test presents three pictures very similar to one another and one that must be matched. The exercise is repeated four times with four different pictures. The total number of correct responses is used as an index of visual discrimination.  

==Publications==

* Haddad, C. and Laouris, Y. (2011). The ability of children with mild learning disabilities to encode emotions through facial expressions. In Towards Autonomous, adaptive and context-aware multimodal interfaces: Theoretical and Practical Issues. A. Esposito, Esposito, A.M., Martone, R., Müller, V.C., Scarpetta, G  (Eds.): COST 2102 Int. Training School 2010, Lecture Notes In Artificial Intelligence Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 6456, 387-402.

* Laouris, Y., Makris, P., Papadopoulos, T. (2011). Validation of MAPS in 16 schools: Computer-based battery of 8 mental attributes tests (in preparation; draft available).

==MAPS presented in International Conferences==

* Loredana Mihalca, L., Laouris, Y., Miclea, M. (2007). Children’s school readiness: predicting school competence in first grade. Proc. EARLI Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 26-31 Aug. 2007.  

* Laouris, Y., & Makris, P. (2007). An interactive ICT demonstration of MAPS (Mental Attributes Profiling System). Proc. EARLI Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 26-31 Aug. 2007.

==MAPS; part of many conferences==

MAPS has motivated the organization of a number of local and international conferences:

{{#categorytree:Dyslexia Conferences|mode="all" |hideroot=on|mode=pages|style=bold}}

==MAPS Associates==

# [[Chris Singletton]], University of Hull

# [[Costas Apostolides]], [[Cyprus Dyslexia Association]]

# [[Petroula Petrou]]

# [[Mira Ioannou]]

* Panayiota Yianni  

* Thoi Asvestas  

* Tzeni Digigoropoulou  

* Lambros Stavrou

* Antonis Andreou

* Andri Michael

[[Category:Future Worlds Center Projects]]