63,291 research outputs found

    Defectors cannot be detected during"small talk" with strangers.

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    To account for the widespread human tendency to cooperate in one-shot social dilemmas, some theorists have proposed that cooperators can be reliably detected based on ethological displays that are difficult to fake. Experimental findings have supported the view that cooperators can be distinguished from defectors based on "thin slices" of behavior, but the relevant cues have remained elusive, and the role of the judge's perspective remains unclear. In this study, we followed triadic conversations among unacquainted same-sex college students with unannounced dyadic one-shot prisoner's dilemmas, and asked participants to guess the PD decisions made toward them and among the other two participants. Two other sets of participants guessed the PD decisions after viewing videotape of the conversations, either with foreknowledge (informed), or without foreknowledge (naïve), of the post-conversation PD. Only naïve video viewers approached better-than-chance prediction accuracy, and they were significantly accurate at predicting the PD decisions of only opposite-sexed conversation participants. Four ethological displays recently proposed to cue defection in one-shot social dilemmas (arms crossed, lean back, hand touch, and face touch) failed to predict either actual defection or guesses of defection by any category of observer. Our results cast doubt on the role of "greenbeard" signals in the evolution of human prosociality, although they suggest that eavesdropping may be more informative about others' cooperative propensities than direct interaction

    Multitasking effects on individual performance : an experimental eye-tracking study

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    Purpose: The main objective of this research is to identify the impact of parallel performance of various tasks on the individual effectiveness. Moreover, a methodological goal was set for the research to explore the possibilities of using eye-tracking in the studies of multitasking. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted in the form of an experiment. All participants worked at the same computer station time was measured with Eye Tracker. Findings: It was confirmed that multitasking requires more time to accomplish tasks and deteriorates creativity, but not correctness of the answers in case of simple tasks. Interestingly, in case of multitasking under time pressure, the performance was worse. Practical Implications: Deeper understanding of the determinants and effects of multitasking on organizational and individual performance enables the adjustment of work organization and management style in order to achieve optimal results. Originality/Value: This paper brings new insights to the studies of multitasking not only in terms of the results of an experimental research, but also in terms of methodological concerns like eye-tracking as a new method of empirical diagnosis.peer-reviewe

    Eliciting trade-offs between water charges and service benefits in Scotland. ESRI Working Paper No. 655 March 2020

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    If it is the responsibility of a regulatory body to decide where to prioritise future investment, then it is important to understand the priorities of the citizenry it represents. This paper, in collaboration with the OECD and the Scottish water industry, presents the results of an online (n= 500) and face-to-face laboratory (n= 99) study that utilised experimental behavioural science to explore how Scottish citizens trade-off costs and potential improvements to their water service. Participants’ priorities for investment were elicited using a novel ‘slider task’ methodology that forced them to explicitly consider the trade-offs required to allocate limited resources across multiple possible water service improvements. The provision of additional cost and timing information was systematically varied. Results suggest that citizens are increasingly accepting of price rises when provided this information. Results also suggest that citizens’ priorities for specific improvements are not sensitive to the costs of different improvements but are sensitive to the lengths of time improvements take to be made. Findings from this study are designed to inform the regulatory process of the Scottish water industry and highlight the potential role of behavioural science in regulation more generally

    Applying psychological science to the CCTV review process: a review of cognitive and ergonomic literature

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    As CCTV cameras are used more and more often to increase security in communities, police are spending a larger proportion of their resources, including time, in processing CCTV images when investigating crimes that have occurred (Levesley & Martin, 2005; Nichols, 2001). As with all tasks, there are ways to approach this task that will facilitate performance and other approaches that will degrade performance, either by increasing errors or by unnecessarily prolonging the process. A clearer understanding of psychological factors influencing the effectiveness of footage review will facilitate future training in best practice with respect to the review of CCTV footage. The goal of this report is to provide such understanding by reviewing research on footage review, research on related tasks that require similar skills, and experimental laboratory research about the cognitive skills underpinning the task. The report is organised to address five challenges to effectiveness of CCTV review: the effects of the degraded nature of CCTV footage, distractions and interrupts, the length of the task, inappropriate mindset, and variability in people’s abilities and experience. Recommendations for optimising CCTV footage review include (1) doing a cognitive task analysis to increase understanding of the ways in which performance might be limited, (2) exploiting technology advances to maximise the perceptual quality of the footage (3) training people to improve the flexibility of their mindset as they perceive and interpret the images seen, (4) monitoring performance either on an ongoing basis, by using psychophysiological measures of alertness, or periodically, by testing screeners’ ability to find evidence in footage developed for such testing, and (5) evaluating the relevance of possible selection tests to screen effective from ineffective screener

    Quantum effects in linguistic endeavors

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    Classifying the information content of neural spike trains in a linguistic endeavor, an uncertainty relation emerges between the bit size of a word and its duration. This uncertainty is associated with the task of synchronizing the spike trains of different duration representing different words. The uncertainty involves peculiar quantum features, so that word comparison amounts to measurement-based-quantum computation. Such a quantum behavior explains the onset and decay of the memory window connecting successive pieces of a linguistic text. The behavior here discussed is applicable to other reported evidences of quantum effects in human linguistic processes, so far lacking a plausible framework, since either no efforts to assign an appropriate quantum constant had been associated or speculating on microscopic processes dependent on Planck's constant resulted in unrealistic decoherence times

    Workflow and Performance Under Computer Mediated Interruptions

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    Technologically enhanced computer mediated communication (CMC) environments create a trade-off between eliminating delays and increasing performance. In such environments, incoming interruptions can break the “flow” of work and deteriorate performance. In this regard, we describe a mechanism that explains why particular types of information are attended to, and how such interruptions interrupt work flow creating deterioration in performance. Specifically, this study investigates to specific facets of interruptions, the influence of task presentation format and interruption relevance on performance. Results showed significant performance differences related to different presentation format and interruption relevancy. Furthermore, flow had a significant effect on work performance. Future research should future propose more comprehensive taxonomies of both interruption in task characteristics, and examine the effects of such interruptions in systematic ways and in different contexts

    Technology Mediated Interruptions: Attention Analysis and Impact on Task Performance

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    Information systems that provide easier access to information and enhanced communication channels to help manage these tasks (e.g. through emails, instant messages, and calls via mobile devices) can cause workers to temporarily lose focus on his or her current activity (defined as interruptions) (O’Conaill and Frohlich, 1995). Even though some research has concentrated on explaining the effects of interruptions (Speier, Valacich, & Vessey, 1999; Gillie and Broadbent, 1989; Cellier & Eyrolle, 1992), they fall short of explaining the complex set of relationships that help us understand how and why an individual attends to new tasks, and how this task fragmentation and taskswitching process influences performance. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the effect of TMI and taskswitching on performance using the Stimulus Value Role Model (Murstein, 1970) as a theoretical basis and to use working memory to investigate how task-switching and task-fragmentation influence task performance. Controlled laboratory experiments will be conducted to test the hypotheses
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