Effects of Communication Media on Intellective and Negotiation Task Performance

Themainobjectiveofthisresearchistoexaminethemediarichnesstheoryinalaboratoryexperiment. The investigation focuses on the effect of four different communication media (text, audio, video, and face-to- face) on objective task performance on an intellective task and a negotiation task. For the negotiation task, a social psychological factor, consonancy, was involved to examine the interaction effect with media on performance

The Effect of Personalized Virtual Model and Voice Chat Support on Presence in Collaborative Online Shopping

Collaborative online shopping refers to the activity in which a consumer shops at an online store concurrently with one or more remotely located shopping partners such as her friends or family. Although collaborative shopping is one of the popular ways of shopping in an offline context, many existing studies regarding online shopping have focused mainly on shopping by individuals; few studies have examined how to enhance the collaborative online shopping experience. This study examines two features that have the potential to enhance collaborative online shopping experiences in the context of a clothing store: a personalized virtual model and voice chat support between shopping partners. Drawing from theories of media richness and social presence, we will examine whether implementing these two features can increase telepresence and copresence

Online Comment Moderation Policies for Deliberative Discussion–Seed Comments and Identifiability

Due to the development of media information technologies and the proliferation of mobile devices, the Internet has rapidly moved to the center of news readership. In contrast to traditional media, Internet news is often coupled with commenting platforms that can accommodate readers’ immediate feedback to news stories. However, a side-effect of this feature—malicious comments—is becoming an increasingly serious social problem. To alleviate this problem and increase the likelihood of comments functioning as deliberative discussion, we suggest two moderation policies—a policy of providing high-quality seed comments and a policy of increased identifiability through social networking service accounts—and examine their effects through a longitudinal online experiment. We designed experimental groups according to a 2 x 2 between-subjects factorial design. For our experiment, a total of 137 subjects read news stories and commented on them over 15 days by using a mobile Android application developed specifically for the experiment. We found the following relationships. First, both seed quality and identifiability improve the quality of user comments in terms of deliberative discussion. Second, these effects are comparable in magnitude. Third, there are no significant interaction effects between seeds and identifiability. Fourth, the effects of high-quality seeds disappear early with anonymous users but persist when users are identified by social media accounts. Fifth, the negative effects of low-quality seeds are present and persistent only when combined with anonymity. Otherwise, the negative effects of low-quality seed comments are canceled out by the positive effects of identifiability. Finally, anonymous males are easily provoked to respond to low-quality seed comments, but most females do not respond to such comments even in anonymous situations

Prevalence of Neuropathic Pain and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Korean Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain Resulting from Neuropathic Low Back Pain

Study DesignA noninterventional, multicenter, cross-sectional study.PurposeWe investigated the prevalence of neuropathic pain (NP) and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of the quality of life (QoL) and functional disability in Korean adults with chronic low back pain (CLBP).Overview of LiteratureAmong patients with CLBP, 20%–55% had NP.MethodsPatients older than 20 years with CLBP lasting for longer than three months, with a visual analog scale (VAS) pain score higher than four, and with pain medications being used for at least four weeks before enrollment were recruited from 27 general hospitals between December 2014 and May 2015. Medical chart reviews were performed to collect demographic/clinical features and diagnosis of NP (douleur neuropathique 4, DN4). The QoL (EuroQoL 5-dimension, EQ-5D; EQ-VAS) and functional disability (Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale, QBPDS) were determined through patient surveys. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to compare PROs between the NP (DN4≥4) and non-NP (DN4<4) groups.ResultsA total of 1,200 patients (females: 65.7%; mean age: 63.4±13.0 years) were enrolled. The mean scores of EQ-5D, EQ-VAS, and QBPDS were 0.5±0.3, 55.7±19.4, and 40.4±21.1, respectively. Among all patients, 492 (41.0%; 95% confidence interval, 38.2%–43.8%) suffered from NP. The prevalence of NP was higher in male patients (46.8%; p<0.01), in patients who had pain based on radiological and neurological findings (59.0%; p<0.01), and in patients who had severe pain (49.0%; p<0.01). There were significant mean differences in EQ-5D (NP group vs. non-NP group: 0.4±0.3 vs. 0.5±0.3; p<0.01) and QBPDS (NP group vs. non-NP group: 45.8±21.2 vs. 36.3±20.2; p<0.01) scores. In the multiple linear regression, patients with NP showed lower EQ-5D (β=−0.1; p<0.01) and higher QBPDS (β=7.0; p<0.01) scores than those without NP.ConclusionsNP was highly prevalent in Korean patients with CLBP. Patients with CLBP having NP had a lower QoL and more severe dysfunction than those without NP. To enhance the QoL and functional status of patients with CLBP, this study highlights the importance of appropriately diagnosing and treating NP

What If Your Avatar Looks Like You? Dual-Congruity Perspectives for Avatar Use

As broadband Internet access and virtual reality technology rapidly expand, virtual worlds and three-dimensional avatars will become more pervasive and widely adopted. In virtual worlds, people assume an identity as an avatar and interact with each other. The objective of this study is to theorize how users form attitudes and intentions regarding avatars in realistic, task-focused virtual world settings. To investigate these effects, this study proposes a conceptual framework based on dual-congruity perspectives (self-congruity and functional congruity). The results show that the more closely an avatar resembles its user, the more the user is likely to have positive attitudes (e.g., affection, connection, and passion) toward the avatar, and the better able to evaluate the quality and performance of apparel products. In the end, these positive attitudes toward an avatar and its usefulness positively affect users’ intentions to use the avatar. Based on this study, we propose that avatars representing users’ actual appearance may be helpful in experiencing and evaluating some business areas related to users’ lives in the real world (e.g., virtual apparel shopping, matchmaking, plastic surgery, fitness clubs, etc.); utilization of such avatars may be a new business opportunity likely to thrive in virtual worlds

The Effects of Virtual Reality on Consumer Learning: An Empirical Investigation

As competition in business-to-consumer electronic commerce becomes fiercer, Web-based stores are attempting to attract consumers’ attention by exploiting state-of-the-art technologies. Virtual reality (VR) on the Internet has recently been gaining prominence because it enables consumers to experience products realistically over the Internet, thereby mitigating the problems associated with consumers’ lack of physical contact with products. However, while the employment of has increased in B2C e-commerce, its impact has not been explored extensively by research in the Information Systems field. The present study investigates whether and under what circumstances enhances consumer learning about products. In general, enables consumers to learn about products thoroughly by providing high-quality, three-dimensional images of products, interactivity with the products, and increased telepresence. In addition, congruent with the theory of cognitive fit, the effects of are more pronounced when it exhibits products whose salient attributes are completely apparent through visual and auditory cues (because most VR on desktop computers uses only those two sensory modalities to deliver information). Based on these attributes, we distinguish between two types of products—virtually high experiential (VHE) and virtually low experiential (VLE)—in terms of the sensory modalities that are used and required for product inspection. Hypotheses arising from the distinctions expressed by these terms were tested via a laboratory experiment. The results support the predictions that VR interfaces increase overall consumer learning about products and that these effects extend to VHE products more significantly than to VLE products

DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF SOCIAL BUTTONS FOR NEWS COMMENTS

This study began with a question of whether the existing social buttons are able to evaluate the quality of news comments. Most social buttons adopt a holistic approach by using only one button. The current simplified method of evaluating news comments makes it difficult to reflect at least two different perspectives of information value—utilitarian and hedonic. Having only single button muddles the reasons why people recommended the news comment and complicates efforts to assess the quality of comments. To address this problem, social buttons for a system of online news comments need to undergo improvements to permit proper assessment of comments and of their informational value. This research will identify the problems social buttons pose for news comments and also will design and evaluate solutions to these problems through a design workshop. We adopted design science as a research method and will develop and evaluate a new button design in an iterative manner. We found through literature reviews two important dimensions of comment value, informational value and sentimental value, that will be accommodated by the newly proposed social button

Abstract

www.elsevier.comrlocaterdsw Research on visual and auditory modalities in human–computer interfaces has been aimed at making the interface similar to the process through which people naturally acquire information. The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of visual, auditory, and multi-modalities for representing information in different problem domains. The results of this study indicate that visual and auditory modalities were effective in different problem domains. Visual modality was generally appropriate for representing static events, while auditory modality was appropriate for the representation of changing events. Multi-modality interfaces led to significantly better performance than either an auditory or a visual modality in a high-attention task. No statistically significant differences were observed for the low-attention task