Adaptive Cognitive Interaction Systems

Adaptive kognitive Interaktionssysteme beobachten und modellieren den Zustand ihres Benutzers und passen das Systemverhalten entsprechend an. Ein solches System besteht aus drei Komponenten: Dem empirischen kognitiven Modell, dem komputationalen kognitiven Modell und dem adaptiven Interaktionsmanager. Die vorliegende Arbeit enthält zahlreiche Beiträge zur Entwicklung dieser Komponenten sowie zu deren Kombination. Die Ergebnisse werden in zahlreichen Benutzerstudien validiert

A COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE

L’Ambient Intelligence (AmI) è caratterizzata dall’uso di sistemi pervasivi per monitorare l’ambiente e modificarlo secondo le esigenze degli utenti e rispettando vincoli definiti globalmente. Questi sistemi non possono prescindere da requisiti come la scalabilità e la trasparenza per l’utente. Una tecnologia che consente di raggiungere questi obiettivi è rappresentata dalle reti di sensori wireless (WSN), caratterizzate da bassi costi e bassa intrusività. Tuttavia, sebbene in grado di effettuare elaborazioni a bordo dei singoli nodi, le WSN non hanno da sole le capacità di elaborazione necessarie a supportare un sistema intelligente; d’altra parte senza questa attività di pre-elaborazione la mole di dati sensoriali può facilmente sopraffare un sistema centralizzato con un’eccessiva quantità di dettagli superflui. Questo lavoro presenta un’architettura cognitiva in grado di percepire e controllare l’ambiente di cui fa parte, basata su un nuovo approccio per l’estrazione di conoscenza a partire dai dati grezzi, attraverso livelli crescenti di astrazione. Le WSN sono utilizzate come strumento sensoriale pervasivo, le cui capacità computazionali vengono utilizzate per pre-elaborare i dati rilevati, in modo da consentire ad un sistema centralizzato intelligente di effettuare ragionamenti di alto livello. L’architettura proposta è stata utilizzata per sviluppare un testbed dotato degli strumenti hardware e software necessari allo sviluppo e alla gestione di applicazioni di AmI basate su WSN, il cui obiettivo principale sia il risparmio energetico. Per fare in modo che le applicazioni di AmI siano in grado di comunicare con il mondo esterno in maniera affidabile, per richiedere servizi ad agenti esterni, l’architettura è stata arricchita con un protocollo di gestione distribuita della reputazione. È stata inoltre sviluppata un’applicazione di esempio che sfrutta le caratteristiche del testbed, con l’obiettivo di controllare la temperatura in un ambiente lavorativo. Quest’applicazione rileva la presenza dell’utente attraverso un modulo per la fusione di dati multi-sensoriali basato su reti bayesiane, e sfrutta questa informazione in un controllore fuzzy multi-obiettivo che controlla gli attuatori sulla base delle preferenze dell’utente e del risparmio energetico.Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems are characterized by the use of pervasive equipments for monitoring and modifying the environment according to users’ needs, and to globally defined constraints. Furthermore, such systems cannot ignore requirements about ubiquity, scalability, and transparency to the user. An enabling technology capable of accomplishing these goals is represented by Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), characterized by low-costs and unintrusiveness. However, although provided of in-network processing capabilities, WSNs do not exhibit processing features able to support comprehensive intelligent systems; on the other hand, without this pre-processing activities the wealth of sensory data may easily overwhelm a centralized AmI system, clogging it with superfluous details. This work proposes a cognitive architecture able to perceive, decide upon, and control the environment of which the system is part, based on a new approach to knowledge extraction from raw data, that addresses this issue at different abstraction levels. WSNs are used as the pervasive sensory tool, and their computational capabilities are exploited to remotely perform preliminary data processing. A central intelligent unit subsequently extracts higher-level concepts in order to carry on symbolic reasoning. The aim of the reasoning is to plan a sequence of actions that will lead the environment to a state as close as possible to the users’ desires, taking into account both implicit and explicit feedbacks from the users, while considering global system-driven goals, such as energy saving. The proposed conceptual architecture was exploited to develop a testbed providing the hardware and software tools for the development and management of AmI applications based on WSNs, whose main goal is energy saving for global sustainability. In order to make the AmI system able to communicate with the external world in a reliable way, when some services are required to external agents, the architecture was enriched with a distributed reputation management protocol. A sample application exploiting the testbed features was implemented for addressing temperature control in a work environment. Knowledge about the user’s presence is obtained through a multi-sensor data fusion module based on Bayesian networks, and this information is exploited by a multi-objective fuzzy controller that operates on actuators taking into account users’ preference and energy consumption constraints

Social Media and Public Health: Opportunities and Challenges

Social media has the potential to provide rapid insights into unfolding public health emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks. They can also be drawn upon for rapid, survey-based insights into various health topics. Social media has also been utilised by medical professionals for the purposes of sharing scholarly works, international collaboration, and engaging in policy debates. One benefit of using social media platforms to gain insight into health is that they have the ability to capture unfiltered public opinion in large volumes, avoiding the potential biases introduced by surveys or interviews. Social media platforms can also be utilised to pilot surveys, for instance, though the use of Twitter polls. Social media data have also been drawn upon in medical emergencies and crisis situations as a public health surveillance tool. A number of software and online tools also exist, developed specifically to aide public health research utilising social media data. In recent years, ethical issues regarding the retrieval and analysis of data have also arisen

Alexithymic traits and early parenting - parental reflective functioning, postpartum bonding and caregiving behaviour: FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Alexithymic traits with characteristics of difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and externally oriented thinking may potentially affect emotion-linked domains of parenting such as parental reflective functioning, postpartum bonding and caregiving behaviour. Studies on parental alexithymic traits are still scarce. Especially knowledge concerning parental alexithymic traits and their influence on parenting during the first year of a child’s life, as well as studies including fathers are lacking. This dissertation is part of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. The aim of this thesis was to explore the associations between parental alexithymic traits and emotion-linked parenting abilities, i.e., parental reflective functioning and postpartum bonding by self-report questionnaires as well as maternal alexithymic traits and caregiving behaviour by observational method. The main findings showed that higher levels of parental alexithymic traits were associated with weaker parental reflective functioning and more problems in postpartum bonding in both mothers and fathers. Furthermore, maternal alexithymic traits were shown to associate with less sensitivity and more hostility in caregiving behaviour. The three dimensions of alexithymic traits were differentially associated with the studied dimensions of parenting. Further, the associations varied by parental sex. These findings support for the idea of dimensionality of alexithymic traits. The results imply that alexithymic traits may influence parenting but future studies are needed to establish the causality of the associations, as well as the underlying mechanisms. Alexithymic traits, as a relatively common personality construct, could be considered as potential risk factors for sub-optimal parenting among the general population. Screening for alexithymic traits could be considered a possible route for detecting families that would benefit from more support in their emotional skills e.g., in maternity clinics and primary health care. Vanhemman aleksityymiset piirteet ja varhainen vanhemmuus – vanhemman reflektiokyky, varhaisen kiintymisen kokemus ja hoivakäyttäytyminen. FinnBrain syntymäkohorttitutkimus. Aleksityymiset piirteet, joihin liittyy vaikeus tunnistaa ja kuvata tunteita sekä ulkokohtainen ajattelutapa, voivat olla yhteydessä tunteisiin liittyviin vanhemmuuden osa-alueisiin, kuten vanhemman reflektiokykyyn, varhaiseen kiintymisen kokemukseen ja hoivakäyttäytymiseen. Vanhemman aleksityymisiä piirteitä koskevaa tutkimusta on kuitenkin varsin vähän, ja erityisesti tietoa vanhemman aleksityymisten piirteiden merkityksestä vauvavuoden aikana ei ole juuri lainkaan. Lisäksi tähänastinen aleksitymiaan liittyvä vanhemmuustutkimus on keskittynyt pitkälti äiteihin, minkä vuoksi isien aleksityymisten piirteiden yhteyksistä heidän vanhemmuuteensa ei tiedetä juuri mitään. Tämä tutkimus on osa FinnBrain-syntymäkohorttitutkimusta. Tämän väitöskirjatyön tavoitteena oli tutkia vanhempien aleksityymisten piirteiden ja vanhempien reflektiokyvyn sekä varhaisen kiintymisen kokemuksen välisiä yhteyksiä kyselylomakkeilla. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli tutkia äitien aleksityymisten piirteiden yhteyttä hoivakäyttäytymiseen havainnointitutkimuksen menetelmin. Tutkimuksen keskeinen tulos oli, että sekä äitien että isien aleksityymiset piirteet olivat yhteydessä heikompaan vanhemman reflektiokykyyn sekä ongelmallisempaan varhaisen kiintymisen kokemukseen. Lisäksi äitien aleksityymiset piirteet olivat yhteydessä heikompaan sensitiivisyyteen ja voimakkaampaan vihamieliseen käyttäytymiseen osana hoivakäyttäytymistä. Eri aleksitymian osa-alueet olivat yhteydessä eri vanhemmuuden osa-alueisiin ja äitien ja isien välillä havaittiin eroja siinä, mikä aleksitymian osa-alue selitti kutakin yhteyttä vahvimmin. Tämä tukee aiempaa tutkimustietoa aleksitymian moniulotteisuudesta. Tutkimustulokset viittaavat siihen, että vanhemman aleksityymiset piirteet saattavat olla yhteydessä vanhemmuuden laatuun, mutta yhteyden kausaliteettia tai sitä selittäviä mekanismeja ei vielä tunneta. Näin ollen, aleksitymian ja vanhemmuuden välisiä yhteyksiä tulee tutkia lisää. Jatkossa on hyvä arvioida, olisiko vanhempien aleksityymisten piirteiden seulonta mahdollisesti hyödyllistä osana ns. riskiperheiden tunnistamista esimerkiksi neuvolajärjestelmän kontekstissa

Motivations in the adoption and conversion of Music Freemium Services

Mestrado Bolonha em MarketingCom o recente avanço tecnológico, é possível ouvir música de novas maneiras. Isto resultou no aumento do valor de mercado da música e no surgimento de diversos serviços de streaming on-demand com o modelo de negócio freemium. Estes serviços têm sucesso, especialmente, quando os seus utilizadores convertem a sua subscrição de free para premium. O presente trabalho propõe-se a estudar quais as motivações que levam os consumidores a adotar uma plataforma de streaming de música, e quais as motivações e características de utilizador que levam à conversão para o serviço premium. Alguns estudos dedicaram-se a explicar o porquê desta conversão, mas pouco foi pesquisado no que toca às motivações dos consumidores para distinguir entre diferentes plataformas. Para aprofundar estas questões, este estudo analisa um conjunto de motivações e caraterísticas de utilizador como variáveis explicativas em conjunto, de forma original, não encontrada na literatura. Deste modo, os dados foram obtidos através de um inquérito online, com uma amostra de 231 utilizadores portugueses de plataformas de streaming. Os resultados principais apontam que a satisfação, valor percebido e ubiquidade são motivações estatisticamente significativas que influenciam positivamente a escolha de diferentes plataformas. Para além disto, as mesmas motivações, bem como a idade e ocupação (características de utilizador) mostraram-se impactantes no que diz respeito à conversão, sendo relevante do ponto de vista teórico e do ponto de vista prático. No entanto, os resultados destacam a influência negativa da satisfação e idade nesta compra. Isto significa que um utilizador altamente satisfeito não se converte e de modo semelhante, quanto mais velho for o utilizador, menos provável é que a compra ocorra. Não há evidência estatística que as motivações de descoberta, exclusividade, social e personalização e as restantes características de utilizador influenciem a conversão de utilizadores free em utilizadores premium.With the recent technological advancement, music is being experienced in new ways. This resulted in the rising value of the music market and the surge of diverse on-demand streaming services with the freemium business model. These services thrive especially when its users convert their subscription from free to premium. The current dissertation aims to study what motivations drive consumers to adopt different music streaming platforms and what motivations and user characteristics leads them to convert to the premium service. Several studies endeavoured on explaining this phenomenon, but little research was dedicated on what are the motivations for consumers to distinguish between different platforms. To enhance comprehension in this matter, this study analysis a group of motivations and user characteristics as explanatory variables together as a set, in a original way, not found on the literature. Thus, data was obtained via an online questionnaire, with a sample of 231 Portuguese users of streaming platforms. The main results suggest that satisfaction, perceived value and ubiquity are statistically significant motivations that positively influence choosing a different platform. Regarding subscribing to the premium service, the same motivations, as well as age and occupation (user characteristics) present influential results, which poses relevancy from a theorical point of view and managerial point of view. However, the findings highlight satisfaction and age as negative influences for this purchase. This means that highly satisfied free users don’t convert and similarly, the older the consumer, the less likely the conversion happens. No statistical evidence was found in discovery, exclusivity, social and personalization motivations alongside the remaining user characteristics for the conversion of free users into premium users.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Formalising Human Mental Workload as a Defeasible Computational Concept

Human mental workload has gained importance, in the last few decades, as a fundamental design concept in human-computer interaction. It can be intuitively defined as the amount of mental work necessary for a person to complete a task over a given period of time. For people interacting with interfaces, computers and technological devices in general, the construct plays an important role. At a low level, while processing information, often people feel annoyed and frustrated; at higher level, mental workload is critical and dangerous as it leads to confusion, it decreases the performance of information processing and it increases the chances of errors and mistakes. It is extensively documented that either mental overload or underload negatively affect performance. Hence, designers and practitioners who are ultimately interested in system or human performance need answers about operator workload at all stages of system design and operation. At an early system design phase, designers require some explicit model to predict the mental workload imposed by their technologies on end-users so that alternative system designs can be evaluated. However, human mental workload is a multifaceted and complex construct mainly applied in cognitive sciences. A plethora of ad-hoc definitions can be found in the literature. Generally, it is not an elementary property, rather it emerges from the interaction between the requirements of a task, the circumstances under which it is performed and the skills, behaviours and perceptions of the operator. Although measuring mental workload has advantages in interaction and interface design, its formalisation as an operational and computational construct has not sufficiently been addressed. Many researchers agree that too many ad-hoc models are present in the literature and that they are applied subjectively by mental workload designers thereby limiting their application in different contexts and making comparison across different models difficult. This thesis introduces a novel computational framework for representing and assessing human mental workload based on defeasible reasoning. The starting point is the investigation of the nature of human mental workload that appears to be a defeasible phenomenon. A defeasible concept is a concept built upon a set of arguments that can be defeated by adding additional arguments. The word ‘defeasible’ is inherited from defeasible reasoning, a form of reasoning built upon reasons that can be defeated. It is also known as non-monotonic reasoning because of the technical property (non-monotonicity) of the logical formalisms that are aimed at modelling defeasible reasoning activity. Here, a conclusion or claim, derived from the application of previous knowledge, can be retracted in the light of new evidence. Formally, state-of-the-art defeasible reasoning models are implemented employing argumentation theory, a multi-disciplinary paradigm that incorporates elements of philosophy, psychology and sociology. It systematically studies how arguments can be built, sustained or discarded in a reasoning process, and it investigates the validity of their conclusions. Since mental workload can be seen as a defeasible phenomenon, formal defeasible argumentation theory may have a positive impact in its representation and assessment. Mental workload can be captured, analysed, and measured in ways that increase its understanding allowing its use for practical activities. The research question investigated here is whether defeasible argumentation theory can enhance the representation of the construct of mental workload and improve the quality of its assessment in the field of human-computer interaction. In order to answer this question, recurrent knowledge and evidence employed in state-of-the-art mental workload measurement techniques have been reviewed in the first place as well as their defeasible and non-monotonic properties. Secondly, an investigation of the state-of-the-art computational techniques for implementing defeasible reasoning has been carried out. This allowed the design of a modular framework for mental workload representation and assessment. The proposed solution has been evaluated by comparing the properties of sensitivity, diagnosticity and validity of the assessments produced by two instances of the framework against the ones produced by two well known subjective mental workload assessments techniques (the Nasa Task Load Index and the Workload Profile) in the context of human-web interaction. In detail, through an empirical user study, it has been firstly demonstrated how these two state-of-the-art techniques can be translated into two particular instances of the framework while still maintaining the same validity. In other words, the indexes of mental workload inferred by the two original instruments, and the ones generated by their corresponding translations (instances of the framework) showed a positive and nearly perfect statistical correlation. Additionally, a new defeasible instance built with the framework showed a better sensitivity and a higher diagnosticity capacity than the two selected state-of-the art techniques. The former showed a higher convergent validity with the latter techniques, but a better concurrent validity with performance measures. The new defeasible instance generated indexes of mental workload that better correlated with the objective time for task completion compared to the two selected instruments. These findings support the research question thereby demonstrating how defeasible argumentation theory can be successfully adopted to support the representation of mental workload and to enhance the quality of its assessments. The main contribution of this thesis is the presentation of a methodology, developed as a formal modular framework, to represent mental workload as a defeasible computational concept and to assess it as a numerical usable index. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a modular framework built upon defeasible reasoning and formalised through argumentation theory in which workload can be optimally measured, analysed, explained and applied in different contexts

Is digital advertising effective under conditions of low attention? : the impact of low attention processing on consumer brand consideration and choice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

A crucial task for digital advertising is to influence choice despite consumers' lack of attention. Although lack of attention can reduce advertising effectiveness, recent research suggests that incidental exposure to ads while accessing digital content can lead to some outcome for the exposed ads. This evidence prompts four critical questions: (1) is digital advertising effective if processed at low attention; (2) can low attention processing increase brand consideration and choice; (3) what specific brand/product characteristics embedded in the ads are likely to influence the effect; and (4) what measures are appropriate to capture the low attention effects. To address the questions, three experimental studies (n = 1,423) were conducted in laboratory and online settings. The research manipulates two conditions for low attention processing, namely divided attention and incidental attention. The results show that, at least in the Twitter environment, advertising is effective even under conditions of low attention. Although focused attention still drives the greatest impact, low attention significantly increases the likelihood of target brands being included in the brand consideration and selected as preferred brand choice more than ‘no exposure’. The low attention effects were obtained without subsequent correct respondent recognition. This shows that brand consideration and choice measures were capable of capturing the low attention effects that the recognition measure failed to do. However, the results for source factors – factors that can moderate the effect of stimuli on the outcome – are more nuanced. Brand familiarity, utilitarian/hedonic products, rational/emotional appeals, and (mis)matching between appeals and brands affect the results in some unexpected ways when they interact with low attention. The thesis makes substantive contributions to the application of attention theory in advertising research, testing methodology for ads that are not actively processed, and design of advertising that can work at low attention. The findings are particularly relevant to address current phenomena such as multitasking, multiscreening, and ad avoidance behaviour. Unless advertisers understand how to make advertising work at low attention, the practice of bombarding consumers with attention-grabbing ads will continue to rise, and ad avoidance will accelerate, which in turn, will put advertising at a greater risk of being wasted

Gender and Internet Advertising: Differences in the Ways Males and Females Engage with and Perceive Internet Advertising

This paper discusses an examination of the differences in the ways males’ and females’ engage with and perceive Internet advertising. Specifically, commercial Web sites were analyzed to better understand the role of gender within online consumer behavior, its effect on interactivity and advertising effectiveness and the implications for online marketing communications. Gender differences in Internet advertising are first explored by analyzing gender in relation to interactivity. This exploration will be based upon dimensions of consumers’ online behavior, referred to as user processes, and consumers’ beliefs about the interactive communication environment, or user perceptions, in relation to three types of features, which are human-to-human, human-to-computer and human-to-content (McMillan, 2002). Further, gender differences in advertising effectiveness are examined by analyzing attitudes towards the site, attitudes towards the brand and purchase intention. Past research in exploring gender differences online is limited, especially for corporate Web sites, and research exploring gender and its influence on interactivity is almost non-existent. This study examines gender differences in Internet advertising by conducting both computer observation with screen capturing software and by administering a survey. The users examined are traditional college age students, 18-23, which fall into the category of Generation Y, a group of consumers, which are online in great numbers, have considerable spending power and are classified as “computer savvy” (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2005)

Using augmented reality for shopping : a framework for AR induced consumer behavior, literature review and future agenda

Purpose A current technological trend, which has gained even more traction recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is the use of augmented reality (AR) in shopping environments. AR is addressing contemporary challenges rooted in online shopping (e.g. in terms of experientiality and try-on) and is fundamentally reshaping consumers' experiences. The purpose of this study is to provide a synthesized and structured overview of the state-of-the-art research focused on AR shopping. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a systematic literature review of the empirical academic corpus focused on shopping via AR technology. Findings The review reveals the diverse psychological (cognitive, affective, and social) as well as behavioral outcomes related to the use of AR in the shopping context. The authors integrate the results into a framework for AR induced consumer behavior in shopping, thereby providing an important overview of the dynamics in AR-related shopping and the factors influencing the adoption of the technology by consumers. Specifically, the authors encountered that the technological abilities of AR (e.g. in terms of interactivity, vividness, informativeness, etc.) are a source for enhanced utilitarian and hedonic shopping experiences that can support intentions to purchase a product, reuse an AR app, or recommend it to others. Importantly, our review reveals the demand for several avenues for future research. Originality/value The authors provide an overview and synthesis of how and where AR is employed in shopping contexts, what theories and technological characteristics of AR are commonly analyzed, and what psychological and behavioral outcomes AR has been found to evoke. Based on our findings, the authors derive a framework that illustrates the dynamics in AR shopping and give an in-depth discourse on 13 future research agenda points related to thematic, theoretical, methodological, and technological matters.©2022 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed