Potential benefits of an adaptive forward collision warning system

Forward collision warning (FCW) systems can reduce rear-end vehicle collisions. However, if the presentation of warnings is perceived as mistimed, trust in the system is diminished and drivers become less likely to respond appropriately. In this driving simulator investigation, 45 drivers experienced two FCW systems: a non-adaptive and an adaptive FCW that adjusted the timing of its alarms according to each individual driver’s reaction time. Whilst all drivers benefited in terms of improved safety from both FCW systems, non-aggressive drivers (low sensation seeking, long followers) did not display a preference to the adaptive FCW over its non-adaptive equivalent. Furthermore, there was little evidence to suggest that the non-aggressive drivers’ performance differed with either system. Benefits of the adaptive system were demonstrated for aggressive drivers (high sensation seeking, short followers). Even though both systems reduced their likelihood of a crash to a similar extent, the aggressive drivers rated each FCW more poorly than their non-aggressive contemporaries. However, this group, with their greater risk of involvement in rear-end collisions, reported a preference for the adaptive system as they found it less irritating and stress-inducing. Achieving greater acceptance and hence likely use of a real system is fundamental to good quality FCW design

The design and implementation of an adaptive e-learning system

This paper describes the design and implementation of an adaptive e-learning system that provides a template for different learning materials as well as a student model that incorporates five distinct student characteristics as an aid to learning: primary characteristics are prior knowledge, learning style and the presence or absence of animated multimedia aids (multimedia mode); secondary characteristics include page background preference and link colour preference. The use of multimedia artefacts as a student characteristic has not previously been implemented or evaluated. The system development consists of a requirements analysis, design and implementation. The design models including use case diagrams, conceptual design, sequence diagrams, navigation design and presentation design are expressed using Unified Modelling Language (UML). The adaptive e-learning system was developed in a template implemented using Java Servlets, XHTML, XML, JavaScript and HTML. The template is a domain-independent adaptive e-learning system that has functions of both adaptivity and adaptability

Profile transformation in mobile technology based educational systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

In order to meet the learning needs from various types of students, computer aided education systems try to include new methods to provide personalized education to every student. From the early 1970s, a lot of adaptive educational systems have been created to provide training on a variety of subjects. Combined with the Internet, the adaptive educational systems have become web-based and even more popular. Recently, the development of mobile technology has made the web-based adaptive educational systems accessible through mobile phones. It is necessary that the students can also receive adaptive educational contents on mobile phones. This research project investigated the possible student's preference differences between Personal Computer (PC) and mobile phone, and then proposed a student profile transformation framework to address such differences. This research project conducted two surveys on the student profile transformation between PC and mobile phone. A demo web-based educational system that could be accessed from both PC and mobile phone was also developed for participants of the surveys to give more real and precise responses. Based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style Theory (Felder, 1993; Felder & Silverman, 1988) and the results of the surveys, this thesis proposes a student profile template and a student profile transformation framework, which both fully considered the influences of device capabilities and locations on students' preferences on mobile phones. Furthermore, the proposed framework integrates a solution for unsupported preferences and preference conflicts. By implementing the proposed template and framework, the students' preference changes between PC and mobile phone are automatically updated according to various device capabilities and locations, and then the students can receive adaptive educational contents that meet their updated preferences

The Desire to Work as an Adaptive Preference

Many economists and social theorists hypothesize that most societies could soon face a ‘post-work’ future, one in which employment and productive labor have a dramatically reduced place in human affairs. Given the centrality of employment to individual identity and its pivotal role as the primary provider of economic and other goods, transitioning to a ‘post-work’ future could prove traumatic and disorienting to many. Policymakers are thus likely to face the difficult choice of the extent to which they ought to satisfy individual citizens’ desires to work in a socioeconomic environment in which work is in permanent decline. Here I argue that policymakers confronting a post-work economy should discount, or at least consider problematic, the desire to work because it is very likely that this desire is an adaptive preference. An adaptive preference is a preference for some state of affairs within a limited set of options formed under unjust conditions. The widespread desire for work has been formed under unjust labor conditions to which individuals are compelled to submit in order to meet material and ethical needs. Furthermore, the prevalence of the ‘work dogma’ in contemporary societies precludes nearly all individuals from seeing alternatives to work as live options

Disadvantages of Preferential Dispersals in Fluctuating Environments

It has not been known whether preferential dispersal is adaptive in fluctuating environments. We investigate the effect of preferential and random dispersals in bet-hedging systems by using a discrete stochastic metapopulation model, where each site fluctuates between good and bad environments with temporal correlation. To explore the optimal migration pattern, an analytical estimation of the total growth is derived by mean field approximation. We found that the preference for fertile sites is disadvantageous when transportation among sites has a cost or the sensitivity of preference is high

Roles of familiarity and novelty in visual preference judgments are segregated across object categories

Understanding preference decision making is a challenging problem because the underlying process is often implicit and dependent on context, including past experience. There is evidence for both familiarity and novelty as critical factors for preference in adults and infants. To resolve this puzzling contradiction, we examined the cumulative effects of visual exposure in different object categories, including faces, natural scenes, and geometric figures, in a two-alternative preference task. The results show a clear segregation of preference across object categories, with familiarity preference dominant in faces and novelty preference dominant in natural scenes. No strong bias was observed in geometric figures. The effects were replicated even when images were converted to line drawings, inverted, or presented only briefly, and also when spatial frequency and contour distribution were controlled. The effects of exposure were reset by a blank of 1 wk or 3 wk. Thus, the category-specific segregation of familiarity and novelty preferences is based on quick visual categorization and cannot be caused by the difference in low-level visual features between object categories. Instead, it could be due either to different biological significances/attractiveness criteria across these categories, or to some other factors, such as differences in within-category variance and adaptive tuning of the perceptual system

Voice pitch preferences of adolescents: Do changes across time indicate a shift towards potentially adaptive adult-like preferences?

An evolutionary approach to attractiveness judgments emphasises that many human trait preferences exist in order to assist adaptive mate choice. Here we test an adaptive development hypothesis, whereby voice pitch preferences indicating potential mate quality might arise or strengthen significantly during adolescence (when mate choice becomes adaptive). We used a longitudinal study of 250 adolescents to investigate changes in preference for voice pitch, a proposed marker of mate quality. We found significantly stronger preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices in the older age group compared with the younger age group (using different sets of age-matched stimuli), and marginally increased preferences for lower-pitched opposite-sex voices comparing within-participant preferences for the same set of stimuli over the course of 1 year. We also found stability in individual differences in preferences across adolescence: controlling for age, the raters who had stronger preferences than their peers for lower pitched voices when first tested, retained stronger preferences for lower-pitched voices relative to their peers about 1 year later. Adolescence provides a useful arena for evaluating adaptive hypotheses and testing the cues that might give rise to adaptive behaviour