Researching trust in Wikipedia

As the use of collaborative online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia grows, so does the need for research on how users evaluate its credibility. In this paper we compare three experimental approaches to study trust in Wikipedia, namely think aloud, eye-tracking, and online questionnaires. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. We conclude that it is best to use multiple methods when researching information trust, as each single one of the discussed methods alone does not give all possible information

The role of cognitive abilities in laparoscopic simulator training

Learning minimally invasive surgery (MIS) differs substantially from learning open surgery and trainees differ in their ability to learn MIS. Previous studies mainly focused on the role of visuo-spatial ability (VSA) on the learning curve for MIS. In the current study, the relationship between spatial memory, perceptual speed, and general reasoning ability, in addition to VSA, and performance on a MIS simulator is examined. Fifty-three laparoscopic novices were tested for cognitive aptitude. Laparoscopic performance was assessed with the LapSim simulator (Surgical Science Ltd., Gothenburg, Sweden). Participants trained multiple sessions on the simulator until proficiency was reached. Participants showed significant improvement on the time to complete the task and efficiency of movement. Performance was related to different cognitive abilities, depending on the performance measure and type of cognitive ability. No relationship between cognitive aptitude and duration of training or steepness of the learning curve was found. Cognitive aptitude mediates certain aspects of performance during training on a laparoscopic simulator. Based on the current study, we conclude that cognitive aptitude tests cannot be used for resident selection but are potentially useful for developing individualized training programs. More research will be performed to examine how cognitive aptitude testing can be used to design training programs

Sustained adaptability:the transaction level

A new system level, called the ‘Transaction Level’ is introduced. I argue that such architectures should not be couched in (macro)cognitive terms, but rather in terms of networks of nodes and links that effectuate transactions. The principle of relationality governing this level states that links are selected to attain transactions. The transaction level is a true systems level rather than a perspective on a particular unit of analysis (individual, team, organization). The novelties and advantages of the introduction of the transaction level for the field of resilience engineering are: (1) an increased emphasis on longitudinal data collection and use of social network analysis as one of the tools to analyse data collected on nodes and links; (2) providing an explanation for when transactions fail and may lead to accidents in sociotechnical systems; (3) a renewed emphasis on the study of patterned interactions of sociomaterial assemblages; (4) providing a language for describing architectures for sustained adaptability and thus advancing relative invariants in the study of Layered Networks

Dealing with unforeseen complexity in the OR: the role of heedful interrelating in medical teams

Highly complex operations such as paediatric cardiac surgery operations are characterised by many non-routine events. This study looked in detail at 40 paediatric cardiac cases in order to study how a highly competent team deals with the unforeseen complexity arising during these cases. A multi-method approach was used, employing questionnaires and direct team observations. Our results show that this particular team relied to a large extent on explicit coordination processes in order to deal with non-routine events. Non-routine events were strong predictors of explicit coordination processes, even when we controlled for the duration of the operation. Most non-routine events were noticed and dealt with through routine procedures. For dealing with the remaining difficult problems, processes such as heedful interrelating are required

Teams and cardiac surgery

Motivation\ud Our study is designed to identify human factors that are a threat to the safety of children with heart disease.\ud \ud Research approach\ud After an initial observation period, we will apply a major safety intervention. We will then re-measure the occurrence and types of human factors in the operating room, and the incidence of adverse events, near misses and hospital death, to evaluate if there was a significant post-intervention reduction. \ud \ud Findings/design\ud We focus on challenges encountered during the training of the observers. Research Limitations\ud Because of the complexity of the OR, observations are necessarily subjective. \ud \ud Originality/Value\ud This work is original because of the systematic evaluation of a safety intevention and the training protocol for the observers.\ud \ud Take Away Message\ud Systematic and periodic assessment of observers is required when teamwork is observed in complex, dynamic settings

Can team reflection of rail operators make resilience-related knowledge explicit? - An observational study design

The essential resilience capabilities – monitoring, responding, learning and anticipating - have all in common the need for relevant signals and the ability to transform them into action. However, this transformation is often lacking as seen from accident analyses revealing disturbances that are either not noted or ignored in the process leading up to the undesired result. This paper proposes to focus on signals occurring because of movements from and to system boundaries and use them for team reflection. The reflection is expected to make implicit knowledge explicit, being a first step of the needed transformation to action. An observational study is designed at a rail control post where rail signal operators reflect at the end of their shift. They reflect on the punctuality boundary through an on-line application, called the Resiliencer-punctuality. The application presents delay-development of trains, during a shift, with respect to a previous chosen period. Furthermore it provides search instruments to find specific trains of interest stimulating the reflection. A verbal analysis method is used to analyze the reflection discussion and to show a relation to resilience through learning and anticipating intentions. In addition we seek for repetitive elements in different cases to prove the learning potential. The observation designed should support the hypothesis that team reflection, on movements towards boundaries, increases resilience of the rail socio-technical syste

Can weak-resilience-signals (WRS) reveal obstacles compromising (rail-)system resilience?

Analysis of accidents in socio-technical systems frequently reveals unnoticed obstacles, which have grown to become the main cause of incubation and surprise at failure (Dekker, 2011). Thus far, it has proven to be a challenge to identify those unnoticed obstacles upfront among the tremendous number of events occurring during normal operations. In this article, we describe the usage of weak resilience signals (WRS)(Siegel & Schraagen, 2014), at a rail control post, to reveal obstacles compromising the resilience ..

Factual accuracy and trust in information: the role of expertise

In the past few decades, the task of judging the credibility of information has shifted from trained professionals (e.g., editors) to end users of information (e.g., casual Internet users). Lacking training in this task, it is highly relevant to research the behavior of these end users. In this article, we propose a new model of trust in information, in which trust judgments are dependent on three user characteristics: source experience, domain expertise, and information skills. Applying any of these three characteristics leads to different features of the information being used in trust judgments; namely source, semantic, and surface features (hence, the name 3S-model). An online experiment was performed to validate the 3S-model. In this experiment, Wikipedia articles of varying accuracy (semantic feature) were presented to Internet users. Trust judgments of domain experts on these articles were largely influenced by accuracy whereas trust judgments of novices remained mostly unchanged. Moreover, despite the influence of accuracy, the percentage of trusting participants, both experts and novices, was high in all conditions. Along with the rationales provided for such trust judgments, the outcome of the experiment largely supports the 3S-model, which can serve as a framework for future research on trust in information