Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Conflicting health-related scientific evidence in news reports: effects of presentation format and hedging on perceived issue uncertainty and source credibility

2016 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.This study examined the effects of two journalistic practices in reporting conflicting health-related scientific evidence on journalists’ and scientists’ credibility and whether the effects were mediated by perceived issue uncertainty. The two practices examined were presentation format and hedging. When conflicting findings are reported, journalists can use either a one-article format, using one story to report the conflict, or a two-article format, using two stories with each story representing one side of the conflict. When conflicting findings are reported, journalists can use hedging (e.g., reporting the limitations of scientific studies) to present the conflicting information. An online experiment was conducted to examine the two journalistic practices’ effects. Results include the following: 1) the one-article format was beneficial to journalists’ competence, but detrimental to scientists’ competence, as compared with the two-article format; 2) journalists’ and scientists’ credibility in the hedged news conditions did not differ from those in the non-hedged news conditions; and 3) perceived issue uncertainty did not mediate presentation format’s or hedging’s effects on journalists’ or scientists’ credibility. An exploratory follow-up mediation analysis found that perceived message believability mediated presentation format’s effects on journalists’ and scientists’ credibility. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications are discussed

Using Six Sigma for Continuous Improvement of Asset Management Information Quality

Information is the most important asset of any organization. It is particularly important for information driven businesses like engineering asset management organizations. These businesses maintain the lifeline of economy and, therefore, it is important that the information that they capture if of high quality, processed in right systems, communicated through right channels, and presented to its stakeholders in right format. This highlights that information quality management calls for business organizations to be proactive as well as reactive, i.e. information quality concerns should be proactively addressed for every stage of information lifecycle, and at the same time it should be monitored regularly so as to take corrective action could be taken to ensure smooth functioning of information dependent business areas. The intertwined nature of information quality dimensions, such as timeliness and accuracy, adds more complexity to the already difficult scenario of information quality monitoring. This paper takes a product perspective of information and utilizes an information improvement cycle based on plan, do, check, act principle to propose a framework for information quality monitoring and improvement. It utilizes analytical hierarchy process and six sigma methodologies to obtain objective measurement of information quality by focusing on systematic assessment of multiple dimensions of information quality

An Islamic identity approach to developing pro-recycling attitudes in Malaysia

Recycling attitude and behaviour change have been traditionally explored from a socio-psychological perspective. Recent work on integrating social marketing communications interventions to influence this attitude and behavioural change has also grown. In particular, framing as a communications strategy has formed an important focus of this renewed stream of query. However, although the individual main effects of both positive and negative framing have been studied, the findings are mixed and do not offer clear justification in environmental studies. Sufficient articles emphasise that designing effective communication tools is vital and could be one of the reinforcement mechanisms to bridge the discrepancy. Furthermore, the studies on message framing effects and how consumer responses for single or multiple messages have received limited empirical consideration. Critically earlier studies have not specifically accounted for the influence of religion and moral identity in inducing behaviour change. Yet, within the type of context this study is embedded in, i.e. Malaysia, it would seem logical to tailor any interventions based on the socio-psychology on the target audience. Given the targeted nature of social marketing campaigns, this study proposes factoring in the Islamic self-identity of the Muslim target audiences in understanding recycling attitude change.In this study, an experimental design was employed. This study utilised a 2 (positive vs. negative) X 2 (Islamic identity framing: yes/no) X 2 (Moral identity framing: yes/no) between-subjects experimental design. Hence, eight groups (two control groups, six experimental groups) were required in total. The participants (n=850) were final-year business students at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). The study found that informants would reflect different degrees of advertising effectiveness in response to different combinations of advertising framings, and Islamic framing will induce a better attitude towards the ad and a greater inclination to recycling intention. The results also indicated that, positive frames may be the most salient with Islamic appeals and may work effectively when emphasised with moral identity framing. Using identity framing to embed religion in these messages could have greater persuasive impact. As such this study is the first to highlight the use of Qur’anic verses as indicators of Islamic self-identity and demonstrate the effectiveness thereof for generating social change. Given the growing use of Qur’anic verses for social marketing interventions, this initial study represents an important contribution to validating the salience of this powerful social marketing approach

Management of data quality when integrating data with known provenance

Abstract unavailable please refer to PD

Illusory judgments under conditions of uncertainty: Reasoning errors related to paranormal and religious beliefs

This research examined the predictors of illusory judgments of prediction under conditions of uncertainty. Study 1 investigated the believability of an experimental manipulation that required participants to choose a strategy for target object selection. Study 2 expanded upon Study 1 by giving participants an additional choice strategy (e.g., a computer\u27s selection). In both Study 1 and Study 2, participants relied on the paranormal strategy (e.g., a psychic) to a greater degree under conditions of uncertainty than under conditions of certainty. Study 3 replicated these results using a between subjects design but also expanded upon Study 1 and 2 by examining individual difference and demographic predictors of paranormal strategy selection under conditions of uncertainty. Paranormal involvement and religious involvement were also analyzed. In Study 3, participants who chose the psychic more often were also more likely to overestimate the probability of correctly locating a hidden object. These results are discussed in terms of illusory prediction. Personal paranormal involvement and religious involvement were associated with less reliance on the psychic strategy, whereas general paranormal involvement was associated with greater reliance on the psychic strategy. Implications for this research include a possible increased predilection for gambling based upon personal paranormal beliefs. Further, this research indicates that individuals with high paranormal beliefs may be vulnerable toward psychic services during times of uncertainty

Fusion With Self-Referential Labels: Examining A Behavioral Measure

Individuals with commonly diagnosed psychological disorders often apply self-labels that have a negative effect on behavior. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, defusion exercises are designed to de-emphasize the literal interpretation of thoughts (such as self-labels) so that behavior is less controlled by verbal rules and more sensitive to direct interaction with the environment. Although existing self-report measures sensitive to changes in believability are an important step in establishing the utility of defusion interventions, it is also worthwhile to develop behavioral markers of fusion/defusion with self-referential content. The matching-to-sample (MTS) task, commonly used in basic behavioral research, examines the ability of participants to relate different stimuli. Performance on this task can demonstrate whether relating stimuli is disrupted by one\u27s learning history, making it a potentially useful paradigm for assessing cognitive fusion. Results of the current study offer preliminary evidence for the utility of the MTS procedure in detecting disrupted responding when stimulus classes are incompatible with learning history. Participants in the fusion condition made more errors on the self-relevant classes compared to the neutral class, whereas those in the defusion condition shorelatively equal responding regardless of class type. Evidence of enhanced transfer of stimulus functions (facilitated acquisition) was not found in the current study. If the effects are improved and replicated, the MTS task has potential as a behavioral marker of fusion in the context of evaluative self-referential labels