Social research evolution in management accounting : reflection using Bunge’s theory.

Actually Management Accounting is considered for an important group of researchers as a social science. This is a consequence of an evolution from an economic view to social-oriented perspectives. Following Mario Bunge’s theory, we establish that break point in 1980s. Until 1980s, the accounting research was dominated by an economic analysis with both utilitarian and cognitive objectives. The scientific growth was in surface, without any relevant change in the foundations of Management Accounting. The development of new concerns regarding social implications promotes a growth in-depth in the 1980s. Socio-economic analysis, both in interpretative and critical research, is developed following utilitarian and cognitive objectives. We defend that Management Accounting, to consolidate its status as a social science, needs an evolutionary, reflexive and trans-disciplinary thinking, in both theoretical and empirical dimension. Utilitarian and cognitive approaches must be developed and in a coordinated way. Dialogue between different theoretical perspectives will support the utilitarian objective. Dialogue between different methods and findings, in particular case studies, will contribute to both utilitarian and cognitive dimensionsResearch evolution; Management accounting; Social science; Bunge’s theory; Utilitarian objective; Cognitive objective; Growth in-depth; Growth in surface; Case studies;

Measuring stress and cognitive load effects on the perceived quality of a multimodal dialogue system

In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the impact of stress and cognitive load on the perceived interaction quality of a multimodal dialogue system for crisis management. Four test subjects interacted with the system in four differently configured trials aiming to induce low/high levels of stress and cognitive load. To measure the level of stress and cognitive load physiological sensors and subjective ratings were collected. After each trial the subjects filled in an evaluation questionnaire regarding the system interaction quality. In the end we conducted an in-depth interview with each subject. The trials were recorded with a webcam to facilitate the behaviour analysis. Results showed that both factors have an influence on the way subjects perceived the interaction quality, whereas the cognitive load seems to have a higher impact. Further quantitative experiments are needed in order to validate the results and quantify the weight of each factor. \u

Social research evolution in management accounting : reflection using Bunge’s theory

Actually Management Accounting is considered for an important group of researchers as a social science. This is a consequence of an evolution from an economic view to social-oriented perspectives. Following Mario Bunge’s theory, we establish that break point in 1980s. Until 1980s, the accounting research was dominated by an economic analysis with both utilitarian and cognitive objectives. The scientific growth was in surface, without any relevant change in the foundations of Management Accounting. The development of new concerns regarding social implications promotes a growth in-depth in the 1980s. Socio-economic analysis, both in interpretative and critical research, is developed following utilitarian and cognitive objectives. We defend that Management Accounting, to consolidate its status as a social science, needs an evolutionary, reflexive and trans-disciplinary thinking, in both theoretical and empirical dimension. Utilitarian and cognitive approaches must be developed and in a coordinated way. Dialogue between different theoretical perspectives will support the utilitarian objective. Dialogue between different methods and findings, in particular case studies, will contribute to both utilitarian and cognitive dimensionsPublicad

Emotionally interactive agents

Models in language processing have researched how words are interpreted by humans. Many models presume the ability to correctly interpret the beliefs, motives and intentions underlying words. The interest relies also on how emotion motivates certain words or actions, inferences, and communicates information about mental state. As we will see below, some tutoring systems have explored this potential to inform user models. Likewise, dialogue systems, mixed-initiative planning systems, or systems that learn from observation could also benefit from such an approach. As these experimental data show, activating accessible constructs or attitudes through one set of stimuli can facilitate cognitive processing of other stimuli under certain circumstances, and can interfere with it under other circumstances. Some of the results support and converge on those centered on the constructs of current concern and emotional arousal. Future research has to take seriously into account this question: how to develop models where emotion interacts with cognitive processing. One example could be the work of Pitterman et al. (2010) where it is combined speech-based emotion recognition with adaptive human-computer modeling. With the robust recognition of emotions from speech signals as their goal, the authors analyze the effectiveness of using a plain emotion recognizer, a speech-emotion recognizer combining speech and emotion recognition, and multiple speech-emotion recognizers at the same time. The semi-stochastic dialogue model employed relates user emotion management to the corresponding dialogue interaction history and allows the device to adapt itself to the context, including altering the stylistic realization of its speech.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Towards Integration of Cognitive Models in Dialogue Management: Designing the Virtual Negotiation Coach Application

This paper presents an approach to flexible and adaptive dialogue management driven by cognitive modelling of human dialogue behaviour. Artificial intelligent agents, based on the ACT-R cognitive architecture, together with human actors are participating in a (meta)cognitive skills training within a negotiation scenario. The agent  employs instance-based learning to decide about its own actions and to reflect on the behaviour of the opponent. We show that task-related actions can be handled by a cognitive agent who is a plausible dialogue partner.  Separating task-related and dialogue control actions enables the application of sophisticated models along with a flexible architecture  in which  various alternative modelling methods can be combined. We evaluated the proposed approach with users assessing  the relative contribution of various factors to the overall usability of a dialogue system. Subjective perception of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction were correlated with various objective performance metrics, e.g. number of (in)appropriate system responses, recovery strategies, and interaction pace. It was observed that the dialogue system usability is determined most by the quality of agreements reached in terms of estimated Pareto optimality, by the user's negotiation strategies selected, and by the quality of system recognition, interpretation and responses. We compared human-human and human-agent performance with respect to the number and quality of agreements reached, estimated cooperativeness level, and frequency of accepted negative outcomes. Evaluation experiments showed promising, consistently positive results throughout the range of the relevant scales

Multimodal agent interfaces and system architectures for health and fitness companions

Multimodal conversational spoken dialogues using physical and virtual agents provide a potential interface to motivate and support users in the domain of health and fitness. In this paper we present how such multimodal conversational Companions can be implemented to support their owners in various pervasive and mobile settings. In particular, we focus on different forms of multimodality and system architectures for such interfaces