Emotions and cognitive workload in economic decision processes - A NeuroIS Approach

The influence of cognitive and emotions on decision processes have been recently highlighted. Emotions interplay with the process of cognition, and determine decision processes. In this work, the role of external and internal influences on economic decision processes are studied. A NeuroIS method is applied for measuring emotions and cognitive workload. The lack of a suitable experimental platform for performing NeuroIS studies was recognized and the platform Brownie was developed and evaluated

Incorporating Emotional Information in Decision Systems

Abstract – The media equation [22] states that users react to systems as they would to another person, while continuously emitting social signals. Today’s users expect systems to be empathetic and understand these social signals. Decision systems are a specific sub-branch, facing the need to incorporate affective information, to facilitate users to maximize their cognitive resources. To this end, we attempt to incorporate affective information in the form of physiology to learn users ’ decision behavior. In a controlled experiment, we record participants ’ decisions and measure physiological signals elicited from subjects. To predict the binary decision to buy or sell, three algorithms, multi-layer perceptron, radial basis function, and decision trees, are compared, and they yield recognition rates of 76%, 73 % and 77.2 % respectively. Taking these results, we propose that a decision tree with feature-level fusion, factors in affective information in this controlled context best. These results however have to be extrapolated to decision contexts that elicit emotions more strongly. Keywords—Multimodal Systems, Emotion, User Behavior

DETECTING PANIC POTENTIAL IN SOCIAL MEDIA TWEETS

A high degree of real-time interconnectedness can aid information transmission, particularly in disaster situations. However, it can have substantial negative consequences when information is emotionally laden and transmits these emotions, particularly the emotion of panic, to the individual across social media in an already grave situation. Prior research has shown that information laden with emotion spreads through social network faster than otherwise. Hence, we highlight the need to understand and curtail potentially panic-causing information, without compromising on good quality information from being available for effective crisis communication and management. With this research, we present the necessity of detecting the panic potential of social media messages, and aim to address two research questions: What are the features, and metrics necessary, to compute and evaluate the panic potential of a social media message (respectively)? Our planned analysis takes the case of the Munich shooting incident, 2016, based on user tweets immediately after the incident. Different features and evaluation metrics are proposed and discussed. The work aims to detect panic potential of messages in social media networks during disasters

Risk factors for still birth: a hospital based case control study

Background: The study of the risk factors contributing to still birth is imperative in our attempts to bring about a decline in the still birth rate.  By identifying the risk factors, we can understand the areas where specific interventions may be applied to bring about a reduction in the still birth rate. The aim of the present study was to identify the risk factors for stillbirth among the mothers attending Sri Avittom Thirunal Hospital, TrivandrumMethods: This was a prospective hospital based case control study conducted from March 2014- September 2015. Sample size was calculated as 100 cases and 200 controls. Odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were calculated using multi variate logistic regression.Results: The major risk factors associated with still births were maternal age, socio economic status, and obesity, sleep position during pregnancy, primi parity, hypertension and febrile illness during pregnancy. The risk of still birth was 3 times higher among mothers with hypertension compared to the control group.  Although the prevalence of diabetes slightly more in the case group it was not statistically significant. By analyzing all the risk factors in preparing a model 42% of the risk for still birth was contributed by these factors.Conclusions: The modifiable risk factors seen in this study to prevent still births are maternal sleep position during pregnancy, diabetes, hypertension and febrile illness especially urinary tract infection. By better antenatal care we can detect complications like diabetes, hypertension and manage appropriately thereby preventing complications. By screening for urinary tract infections in every trimester morbidity can be reduced

Brownie: A Platform for Conducting NeuroIS Experiments

In the NeuroIS field, experimental software needs to simultaneously present experimental stimuli to participants while recording, analyzing, or displaying neurophysiological measures. For example, a researcher might record a user’s heart beat (neurophysiological measure) as the user interacts with an e-commerce website (stimulus) to track changes in user arousal or show a user’s changing arousal levels during an exciting game. In this paper, we identify requirements for a NeuroIS experimental platform that we call Brownie and present its architecture and functionality. We then evaluate Brownie via a literature review and a case study that demonstrates Brownie’s capability to meet the requirements in a complex research context. We also verify Brownie’s usability via a quantitative study with prospective experimenters who implemented a test experiment in Brownie and an alternative software. We summarize the salient features of Brownie as follows: 1) it integrates neurophysiological measurements, 2) it incorporates real-time processing of neurophysiological data, 3) it facilitates research on individual and group behavior in the lab, 4) it offers a large variety of options for presenting experimental stimuli, and 5) it is open source and easily extensible with open source libraries. In summary, we conclude that Brownie is innovative in its potential to reduce barriers for IS researchers by fostering replicability and research collaboration and to support NeuroIS and interdisciplinary research in cognate areas, such as management, economics, or human-computer interaction

Take Part Prototype: Creating New Ways of Participation Through Augmented and Virtual Reality [in press]

Famous examples like the Amazon headquarter in New York City or the Stuttgart 21 train station demonstrate that construction projects are often subjects of common interest and can therefore produce protests if citizens feel unheard in urban planning. In this manuscript, we would therefore like to investigate whether e-participation can be used as a tool to foster citizen involvement in construction projects that are of public interest. To this end, we present a prototype that combines participation with augmented and virtual reality. While offering a source for a better understanding of construction processes, our prototype allows users to bring in their own design suggestions and discuss these with others. With this prototype paper, we thus want to demonstrate how augmented and virtual reality can lay the ground for innovative ways of political participation that would offer great potential for project initiators and citizens

Ich sehe was, was du auch siehst. Über die Möglichkeiten von Augmented und Virtual Reality für die digitale Beteiligung von Bürger:innen in der Bau- und Stadtplanung

Digital Government eröffnet Möglichkeiten, Verwaltungs- und Regierungsprozesse kritisch zu reflektieren und sie entsprechend neu zu denken. Oblagen Bürgerbeteiligungsprozesse in der Vergangenheit zahlreichen Hürden, bietet die e‑Partizipation Möglichkeiten, sie mit modernen Technologien zu verbinden, die eine niedrigschwellige Teilhabe ermöglichen. In dem Forschungsprojekt Take Part, gefördert durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, werden innovative Formen der Beteiligung von Bürger:innen in der Stadt- und Bauplanung mithilfe von Augmented und Virtual Reality (AR und VR) erforscht. Dabei geht es vor allem darum, neue Anreize zu schaffen, Bürger:innen zur Beteiligung zu motivieren und durch diese das Konfliktpotential um Bauprojekte zu reduzieren. Mithilfe der innerhalb von Take Part entwickelten App können Bürger:innen Bauvorhaben diskutieren, Feedback geben oder über sie abstimmen, während sie dabei den Beteiligungsgegenstand anschaulich in AR und VR präsentiert bekommen. Zugleich können auch Initiator:innen mithilfe eines Partizipationsökosystems die Beteiligung im jeweiligen Bauvorhaben konfigurieren, indem sie sowohl vorhandene Module kombinieren und konfigurieren, als auch passende Dienstleistungen, wie beispielsweise 3D-Modellierungen, einkaufen. In diesem Beitrag sollen die konkreten technologischen Entwicklungen (u. a. Outdoor-AR-Tracking und räumlich verankerte Diskussionen), sowie das Partizipationsökosystem (Dienstentwicklungs- und Ausführungsplattform) vorgestellt werden. Erstmalig soll so der entwickelte Prototyp umfassend dargestellt werden. Auf die Herausforderung, eine e‑Partizipations-App zu entwickeln, die die Möglichkeit bietet, verschiedene Interaktionskonzepte ineinander zu integrieren und gleichzeitig eine überzeugende User-Experience bietet, soll ebenfalls eingegangen werden. Anschließend wird das Potenzial einer solchen Lösung für die digitale Mitbestimmung in lokaler Verwaltung vor allem in Bezug auf gesteigerte Vorstellungskraft und Motivation zur Teilhabe für Nutzer:innen diskutiert und in den Kontext der Covid-19 Pandemie gesetzt

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE INTERPLAY OF COGNITIVE DEMAND AND AROUSAL IN AUCTION BIDDING

IS perceptual constructs such as Arousal and Workload have shown to determine the impact of elements of user environment on their behaviour. While the impact of these constructs has been validated using a multitude of methods, there is little work which considers their dynamic interplay in determining behaviour. To this end, an auction setting where participants have shown differences in the first construct (arousal) du to auction dynamics is employed. We test whether the second construct (workload) is also observed under different auction complexities (dynamics and valu uncertainty). By means of an experiment, we assess (i) frontal brain activity using EEG for workload, (ii) skin conductance response and heart rate for arousal, and (iii) bidders´ perceptions of workload and arousal using qustionnaires. The first results show that high uncertainty and the introduction of a time pressure element leads to higher bids and higher deviations from Risk Neutral Nash Equilibrium (RNNE) strategy. In addition, subjects perceive higher workload under higher complexity, and this (concurs) with their workload index measured through EEG data. Further work will examine the interplay of arousal and workload, and whether only one construct plays a dominant role at a given point, or both act simultaneously