OUTCOME BIAS IN JUDGEMENTS OF THE QUALITY OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS

This thesis is concerned with the evaluation of experimental design. It reviews design research in general and notes some methodological limitations. The process of experimental design is considered in the light of this review, particularly in terms of the ability of designers to evaluate potential designs. Experiment 1, a prospective study involving the creative design of psychology experiments, reports inadequate assessment of experimental power and little or no evidence of explicit evaluation processes. Experiment 2 assesses the evaluation of existing experimental designs and demonstrates that judgements of the quality of experimental design are influenced by the presence of outcome information more than any other factor. Following this result a review of the hindsight and outcome bias literature is presented. Experiments 3, 4 and 5 demonstrate that outcome bias is a pervasive effect not mediated by task presentation, explicit definitions of quality or statistical expertise. Also, by manipulating subjects' perspective, Experiment 5 differentiates between the effects of outcomes themselves and their financial implications. The term outcome salience is defined as "the relative importance of the implications of an outcome from the point of view of the subject". It is shown that both the size and direction of an outcome bias are determined by (and could be predicted from) the associated outcome salience. Experiment 6 explores subjects' beliefs about the relevance of experimental factors, outcome information and the financial implications of outcomes to quality judgements. Ratings of relevance are shown to be in direct opposition to the actual use of these factors in judgements. Relevance ratings are also shown to be influenced by a subject's perspective. Experiment 7 tests the links between outcome bias effects and traditional, memory based, hindsight bias effects using a memory based paradigm. Results show that, in addition to biases of judgement in foresight, the same outcome information will also bias the memory of earlier judgements and the memory of relevant task details in hindsight. The practical implications of outcome bias are discussed. Using a motivational account based on the concept of outcome salience, hindsight bias is redefined as one particular form of outcome bias. This account unifies two previously separate research areas and is shown to explain a number of previously unexplained effects in the hindsight literature. Accounts of reasoning are reviewed, as are information processing and motivational accounts of hindsight bias. The theoretical implications of the present results are discussed in the light of these accounts

Keren

The intent of this thesis is to recognize the everyday victories of a child living with physical disabilities. This complicated subject matter has forced the exploration of a variety of media to successfully communicate the story; drawing, painting, china painting, altered books and sculpture have all become part of the process. At the age of 8 months the subject, Keren Hernandez, was diagnosed with Bilateral Closed- lip Schizencephaly, a rare disorder that inhibits development. Since the diagnosis seven years ago her family has struggled to overcome these challenges, committing to avail themselves to every resource possible. I began painting and drawing to incorporate the experiences of Keren\u27s life into a body of work; eventually we began drawing together and collaboration has naturally evolved; she and her family are an integral part of this work

Analisa Nilai Kalor Dan Laju Pembakaran PadaBriket Campuran Ampas Tebu Dan Kulit Buah Pisang Dengan Menggunakan Daun Biduri Sebagai Perekat

Sumber energy alternative yang dapat diperbaharui yang cukup potensial adalah limbah hasil perkebunan yang sampai saat ini belum termanfaatkan secara optimal. Energi alternatif dapat dihasilkan dari teknologi tepat guna yang sederhana dan sesuai untuk daerah pedesaan seperti briket dengan memanfaatkan limbah biomassa, berbagai pertimbangan untuk penggunaan limbah ampas tebu dan kulit buah pisang menjadi penting mengingat limbah ini belum dimanfaatkan secara maksimal. Metode penelitian yang dilakukan adalah eksperimental. Eksperimental dilakukan proses pembuatan briket dari bahan ampas tebu dan kulit buah pisang dengan menggunakan campuran perekat daun biduri. Penurunan dan kenaikan nilai kalor pada setiap sampel dikarenakan jumlah dari campuran ampas tebu dan kulit buah pisang yang bervariasi. Faktor yang mempengaruhi laju pembakaran dipengaruhi oleh struktur bahan, kandungan karbon terikat, tingkat kekerasan bahan dan kadar air yang terkandung pada briket. Cepatnya penyalaan dikarenakan rendahnya kandungan air pada briket. Sedangkan, lamanya penyalaan dikarrenakan campuran perekat pada briket yang tidak sepenuhnya merata sehingga kandungan airnya masih cukup banyak. Namun, hal ini bias diatasi dengan pengeringan semaksimal mungkin. Nilai kalor tertinggi didapat pada spesimen 3 dengan variasi campuran 40 : 80 : 30 dengan nilai sebesar 7921,547 kal/gr. Waktu tercepat nyala api juga terdapat pada spesimen 2 dengan waktu 0,13 detik. Laju pembakaran paling lambat didapat dari spesimen 2 dengan variasi campuran 60 : 60 : 30 dengan nilai sebesar 0,13 gr/menit. Kata kunci : Briket, Ampas Tebu, Kulit Buah Pisang, Karakteristik pembakara

Intimate Partner Violence: Domestic Violence Service Providers\u27 Perceptions of Male Victims

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has been recognized as a serious issue which requires attention. Over the past 40 years there has been an increase in sensitivity to female victims of intimate partner violence, but the same has not been true for male victims. This may be attributed to the substantial influence the feminist perspective has had upon the development of the IPV resource system. Furthermore, certain research indicates IPV resource centers may refuse to help or demean men who seek assistance as victims (Hines, Brown, & Dunning, 2007). This research project surveyed domestic violence resource centers in an effort to determine possible biases, the willingness to provide aid, and promote an understanding of resources available to male victims. In general, this research found a lack of evidence to support the claim that resource centers are biased against male victims of IPV. Further, the only variable found in this research to influence the extent to which resource workers perceived male victims was previous training about male victims. This research supports the idea that providing training regarding male victims of IPV can positively influence the perceptions of domestic violence service providers

Ranking with Slot Constraints

We introduce the problem of ranking with slot constraints, which can be used to model a wide range of application problems -- from college admission with limited slots for different majors, to composing a stratified cohort of eligible participants in a medical trial. We show that the conventional Probability Ranking Principle (PRP) can be highly sub-optimal for slot-constrained ranking problems, and we devise a new ranking algorithm, called MatchRank. The goal of MatchRank is to produce rankings that maximize the number of filled slots if candidates are evaluated by a human decision maker in the order of the ranking. In this way, MatchRank generalizes the PRP, and it subsumes the PRP as a special case when there are no slot constraints. Our theoretical analysis shows that MatchRank has a strong approximation guarantee without any independence assumptions between slots or candidates. Furthermore, we show how MatchRank can be implemented efficiently. Beyond the theoretical guarantees, empirical evaluations show that MatchRank can provide substantial improvements over a range of synthetic and real-world tasks

Testing Inductive Learning Effects from Changing Attentional Focus with Training Instructions

Participants studied a variety of artists’ paintings with different instructions regarding which elements of the paintings to focus on. The identification and recognition of trained and novel paintings was then tested. The additional instructions did not significantly alter memory performance or inductive learning