Contribution of vision, touch, and hearing to the use of sham devices in acupuncture-related studies

Derek Santos - ORCID 0000-0001-9936-715X https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9936-715XThis study investigates whether visual deprivation influences participants' accuracy in differentiating between real and sham acupuncture needles. It also evaluates the relative contributions of tactile, visual, and auditory cues that participants use in their decision-making processes. In addition, a simple sensory decision-making model for research using acupuncture sham devices as comparative controls is proposed. Forty healthy individuals underwent two conditions (blindfolded and sighted) in random sequence. Four sham and four real needles were randomly applied to the participants' lower limb acupoints (ST32 to ST39). Participants responded which needle type was applied. Participants then verbally answered a questionnaire on which sensory cues influenced their decision-making. The proportion of correct judgments, P(C), was calculated to indicate the participants' accuracy in distinguishing between the needle types. Visual deprivation did not significantly influence the participants' discrimination accuracy. Tactile cues were the dominant sensory modality used in decision-making, followed by visual and auditory cues. Sharp and blunt sensations were associated with the real and sham needles, respectively, for both conditions. This study confirmed that tactile cues were the main sensory modalities used in participant decision-making during acupuncture administration. Also, short-term blindfolding of participants during procedures will unlikely influence blinding effectiveness.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jams.2019.12.00313pubpub

Reducing the Perceived Deception of Product Recommendation Agents: The Impact of Perceived Verifiability and Perceived Similarity

Product Recommendations Agents (PRAs) are software applications that augment consumers’ purchasing decisions by offering product recommendations based on elicited customers’ preferences. The underlying premise of PRAs is often grounded on the assumption that PRAs seek to optimize consumers’ utility by tailoring product recommendations to meet requisite expectations. Because the majority of commercial PRAs are implemented by parties with partisan interests in product sales, it is highly probable that recommendations are biased in favor of their providers and do not accurately reflect consumers’ interests. This in turn may possibly induce perceptions of deception among consumers. This study theorizes that the incorporation of IT-mediated components in PRAs, which induce high levels of perceived verifiability and perceived similarity, could mitigate consumers’ perceptions of deception towards product recommendations

IT Mediated Customer Services in E-Government: A Citizen’s Perspective

Despite the vast amount of research conducted and knowledge accumulated to explain the adoption of electronic public services, the issue of how to design high quality e-government Web sites remains an unresolved and relatively understudied topic. This study aims to address this theoretical and pragmatic gap by differentiating service content from service delivery in prescribing technological solutions for enriching the service quality of e-government Web sites. Grounded in Ives and Learmonth’s [1984] Customer Service Lifecycle, this article explicates a series of functional specifications that may be superimposed onto basic government transactions to enhance the overall functionality of e-government Web sites. It also articulates six interface design principles that are pertinent to addressing citizens’ expectations associated with the delivery of public services via the Internet channel. Together, the resultant dimensions depict a comprehensive set of IT-enabled content functionalities and interface design principles that may direct future research into fully interactive and executable e-government services. Practitioners could also benefit from the utilization of these content and delivery dimensions both as a reflective mirror to isolate inadequacies in e-government Web site designs, and as a benchmarking mechanism to assess the level of maturity of existing public e-services as compared to other leading exemplars

Reducing perceived deceptiveness of e-commerce product recommendation agents: An empirical examination of the relative impact of transparency and verifiability and the moderating role of gender

Product Recommendations Agents (PRAs) are software applications that augment consumers’ purchasing decisions by offering product recommendations based on consumers’ preferences that are elicited either explicitly or implicitly. The underlying premise of PRAs is often grounded on the assumption that PRAs seek to optimize consumers’ utility with the recommendations provided. However, since a majority of commercial PRAs are implemented by parties with vested interests in product sales, it is highly probable that recommendations are biased in favor of their providers and do not reflect consumers’ interests. This in turn may possibly induce a deceptiveness perception among consumers. As such, this study theorizes and empirically demonstrates that the induction of IT-mediated components in PRAs, which induce high levels of perceived transparency and perceived verifiability, could be useful in mitigating consumers’ perceived deceptiveness of PRAs. This study also explores the moderating role of gender in the relationship between transparency/verifiability perception and deceptiveness perception

E-government: A stakeholder relational perspective

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Signal detection theory in the study of nociceptive and pain perception processes

Signal detection theory (SDT) measures (discriminability and response bias) have been proposed to be valid for determining pain perception changes. The construct validity of SDT measures applied to pain perception studies has been questioned on three grounds: interpretation, methodology and theory. Multiple interpretations are possible for the combinations of discriminability and response bias change when the magnitude-rating scale is used for pain perception studies. This is resolved by utilising the confidence-rating scale. The problem of comparability of results between the two scales is bridged by Irwin & Whitehead's (1991) common analytical framework. The results of this thesis supported the framework's prediction that both scales are comparable. Therefore, the confidencerating scale was used for all studies within this thesis for interpretational clarity. Response bias data were not analysed in this thesis due to data artefacts created by correction methods for zero proportions in response categories. Methodologically, the construct validity of discriminability is influenced by the research design and procedures. Therefore, the following procedures were adopted to address weaknesses in previous studies. The one-interval confidence-rating task was used with a six-category confidence-rating scale and post-trial feedback. Based on a methodological study conducted within this thesis, the trial number was pragmatically reduced from 40 trials to 17 trials per stimulus intensity. This trial number reduction would not alter the mean and variance of the data sufficiently to influence the outcome of inferential statistical testing performed. Due to the novel use of the Quantitative Sensory Testing machine for the signal detection study procedures, accuracy and precision study on the machine was performed. This thesis found that the accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of the machine in generating noxious thermal stimuli is excellent for the purposes of this thesis. Machine error is eliminated as a major source of variance for the thesis results. Theoretically, critics have challenged the construct validity of discriminability as an indicator of pain perception alteration. This thesis examined this issue in two separate contexts: 1) discriminability change as a correlate of local anaesthesia and, 2) discriminability as a correlate of psychological factors (depression and anxiety) in chronic low back pain (CLBP) sufferers. The results failed to establish the construct validity of discriminability for both contexts. However, the higher discriminability in CLBP sufferers compared to healthy individuals is in contrast to past research and warrant further investigation. This thesis addressed the construct validity issues through theoretical, methodological and interpretational modifications. A more robust analysis of the construct validity issue was facilitated. Caution is recommended on the use of discriminability as a pain perception measure until the construct validity issue has been satisfactorily resolved.sub_phyunpub118_ethesesunpu

Discrimination of Real and Sham Acupuncture Needles Using the Park Sham Device: A Preliminary Study

Objective: To evaluate the blinding effectiveness of the Park sham acupuncture device using participants’ ability to discriminate between the real and sham acupuncture needles. Design: The design was a yes-no experiment. Judgments were made on whether the real or sham acupuncture needle was administered. Setting: University laboratory. Participants: Healthy, acupuncture-naive university students and staff (N20; median age, 22y; range, 18 – 48y) recruited through convenience sampling. Interventions: Participants made yes-no judgments on whether the real or sham needle was administered to 8 acupoints (4 traditional and 4 nontraditional) along the Pericardium meridian(Pericardium 3 to Pericardium 6) on the dominant forearm. Main Outcome Measures: The accuracy index, d=, of participants’ ability to discriminate between the real and sham needles(discriminability) was computed for the traditional alone, the nontraditional alone, and a combination of both types of acupoints. Results: The participants’ d= between the real and sham needles was not statistically significant from d' = equal to 0 for the combined traditional and nontraditional acupoints comparison and the nontraditional acupoints alone comparison (combined, t(19)=1.20, P=.25; nontraditional, t(19)=.16, P=.87). However, the participants’ d' = was statistically significant from d' = equal to 0 for the traditional acupoints comparison (t(19)=2.096, P=.049). Conclusions: The Park sham acupuncture device appears to be effective in blinding participants to real acupuncture intervention when it is applied to the nontraditional acupoints and when traditional and nontraditional acupoints are combined on the forearm along the pericardium meridian. However, the sham device does not appear to blind participants effectively when traditional acupoints alone are used for the same context. Key Words: Acupuncture; Placebos; Rehabilitation; Signal detection, psychological; Validation studies at topic.sch_phy90pub948pub1