Getting to know Pepper : Effects of people’s awareness of a robot’s capabilities on their trust in the robot

© 2018 Association for Computing MachineryThis work investigates how human awareness about a social robot’s capabilities is related to trusting this robot to handle different tasks. We present a user study that relates knowledge on different quality levels to participant’s ratings of trust. Secondary school pupils were asked to rate their trust in the robot after three types of exposures: a video demonstration, a live interaction, and a programming task. The study revealed that the pupils’ trust is positively affected across different domains after each session, indicating that human users trust a robot more the more awareness about the robot they have

A Longitudinal Study Evaluating the Effects of Interferon-Alpha Therapy on Cognitive and Psychiatric Function in Adults with Chronic Hepatitis C

Objective: To prospectively evaluate for changes in objective cognitive performance (attention, memory, and executive function) and psychiatric symptom severity (depression, anxiety, fatigue, and pain) in patients before, during and after interferon-alpha based therapy (IFN) for chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV). Methods: 33 HCV+ adults were evaluated two months before IFN initiation (baseline), three months into IFN, and six months following IFN termination (IFN+ Group). 31 HCV+ adults who did not undergo IFN therapy were evaluated at baseline and six months later (IFN− Group). At each evaluation, participants completed the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) Attention, Memory and Executive Functions Modules, the Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Inventory (GADI), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), and Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Results: Compared with the IFN− Group, the IFN+ Group experienced significantly (p b 0.050) increased symp-toms of depression, anxiety, fatigue and pain during IFN therapy relative to baseline. In the IFN+ Group, psychi-atric symptoms generally returned to baseline levels following IFN termination. Sustained viral response was associated with significantly lower depression and fatigue. No significant changes in cognitive performance were observed. Conclusions: During IFN, patients with HCV evidence significantly increased psychiatric symptoms, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, fatigue and pain. These psychiatric symptoms are generally short-term and remit following IFN termination, with increased benefit if viral clearance is achieved. However, IFN is not associated with significant declines in objective cognitive performance during or following IFN

Gluttony, excess, and the fall of the planter class in the British Caribbean

Food and rituals around eating are a fundamental part of human existence. They can also be heavily politicized and socially significant. In the British Caribbean, white slaveholders were renowned for their hospitality towards one another and towards white visitors. This was no simple quirk of local character. Hospitality and sociability played a crucial role in binding the white minority together. This solidarity helped a small number of whites to dominate and control the enslaved majority. By the end of the eighteenth century, British metropolitan observers had an entrenched opinion of Caribbean whites as gluttons. Travelers reported on the sumptuous meals and excessive drinking of the planter class. Abolitionists associated these features of local society with the corrupting influences of slavery. Excessive consumption and lack of self-control were seen as symptoms of white creole failure. This article explores how local cuisine and white creole eating rituals developed as part of slave societies and examines the ways in which ideas about hospitality and gluttony fed into the debates over slavery that led to the dismantling of slavery and the fall of the planter class

The roles of mental animations and external animations in understanding mechanical systems

The effects of computer animations and mental animation on people’s mental models of a mechanical system are examined. In 3 experiments, students learned how a mechanical system works from various instructional treatments including viewing a static diagram of the machine, predicting motion from static diagrams, viewing computer animations, and viewing static and animated diagrams accompanied by verbal commentaries. Although students ’ understanding of the system was improved by viewing both static and animated diagrams, there was no evidence that animated diagrams led to superior understanding of dynamic processes compared to static diagrams. Comprehension of diagrams was enhanced by asking students questions that required them to predict the behavior of the machine from static diagrams and by providing them with a verbal description of the dynamic processes. This article proposes that predicting motion from static diagrams engages students’ mental animation processes, including spatial visualization, and provides them with information about what they do and do not understand about how the machine works. Verbal instruction provides information that is not easily communicated in graphics and directs students ’ attention to the relevant information in static and animated diagrams. The research suggests that an understanding of students ’ mental animation abilities is an important component of a theory of learning from external animations. Do Not Copy Throughout history, inventors, engineers, and designers have developed various graphic devices that have been used in conjunction with text to communicate dynamic processes, such as how machines work (Ferguson, 1977, 1992; Tufte

Readying a region: temporally exploring the development of an Australian regional quadruple helix

Understanding how innovation drives regional development has important economic and social outcomes. Models such as Smart Specialisation and the quadruple helix are increasingly adopted given their sensitivity to place-based contexts. But although innovation processes are dynamic and facilitated by individuals’ interactions, our understanding of how these connections are developed and sustained during helix collaboration development remains under-investigated. This research adopts an action research approach, focused on a regional Australian case study, to test a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework exploring key human-centred, micro-processes driving quadruple helix development: trust building; power relationships; regional readiness; and time and sphere centrality. The findings demonstrate the interactive nature of these processes, with trust-building facilitating the deployment of power bases by critical innovation agents which then foments regional readiness for change, subsequently driving the helix spheres towards overlap. These processes were also driven by changing sphere centrality and unique regional temporal structures. Practically, these outcomes offer insights into the human capital dynamics of regional helix collaborations, particularly for identifying the key individuals required to drive their development.We would also like to thank Skills Tasmania for their generous funding support of this research and, particularly, greatly thank the critical stakeholders in our focal region in Tasmania who helped make this research possible and who generously gave of their time to support it