Psychologists and human resources personnel have used personality profiling as a predictor of human behavior in various environments for many decades. Knowing the personality traits of a particular individual allows management to tailor an environment ideally suited for an individual, attempting to maximize a person's productivity and job satisfaction. Measurements of personality are classically achieved through a self-reporting survey. This method has a potential inaccuracy due to its lack of objectivity and a bias due to cultural influences. This research explores the relationships between specific computer user behavior patterns and personality profiles. The results may provide a partial map between personality profile traits and computer user behavior. In an attempt to discover such correlations, forty-five fraternity and sorority students from Texas A&M University were selected to participate in a personality survey and three computer based tests. One test measured the subject's perceptive abilities, another measured their decision-making requirements, and a third measured their methods employed in organizing a task. The results show conclusively that some personality profile traits do influence how people visually interpret information presented on a computer screen. Individuals who exhibit high conscientiousness or agreeableness scores on a personality assessment survey take less time to find an icon among a collection during an icon search test. However, the results also show a significantly large variability in individuals, indicating that many other factors may influence attempts to measure an individual's personality traits. This indicates that the tests presented in this study, even though they show that behavior is related to personality traits, cannot be used as diagnostic tools. Further research will be required to obtain that goal.

En años recientes,la Inteligencia Artificial ha contribuido a resolver problemas encontrados en el desempeño de las tareas de unidades informáticas, tanto si las computadoras están distribuidas para interactuar entre ellas o en cualquier entorno (Inteligencia Artificial Distribuida). Las Tecnologías de la Información permiten la creación de soluciones novedosas para problemas específicos mediante la aplicación de los hallazgos en diversas áreas de investigación. Nuestro trabajo está dirigido a la creación de modelos de usuario mediante un enfoque multidisciplinario en los cuales se emplean los principios de la psicología, inteligencia artificial distribuida, y el aprendizaje automático para crear modelos de usuario en entornos abiertos; uno de estos es la Inteligencia Ambiental basada en Modelos de Usuario con funciones de aprendizaje incremental y distribuido (conocidos como Smart User Model). Basándonos en estos modelos de usuario, dirigimos esta investigación a la adquisición de características del usuario importantes y que determinan la escala de valores dominantes de este en aquellos temas en los cuales está más interesado, desarrollando una metodología para obtener la Escala de Valores Humanos del usuario con respecto a sus características objetivas, subjetivas y emocionales (particularmente en Sistemas de Recomendación).Una de las áreas que ha sido poco investigada es la inclusión de la escala de valores humanos en los sistemas de información. Un Sistema de Recomendación, Modelo de usuario o Sistemas de Información, solo toman en cuenta las preferencias y emociones del usuario [Velásquez, 1996, 1997; Goldspink, 2000; Conte and Paolucci, 2001; Urban and Schmidt, 2001; Dal Forno and Merlone, 2001, 2002; Berkovsky et al., 2007c]. Por lo tanto, el principal enfoque de nuestra investigación está basado en la creación de una metodología que permita la generación de una escala de valores humanos para el usuario desde el modelo de usuario. Presentamos resultados obtenidos de un estudio de casos utilizando las características objetivas, subjetivas y emocionales en las áreas de servicios bancarios y de restaurantes donde la metodología propuesta en esta investigación fue puesta a prueba.En esta tesis, las principales contribuciones son: El desarrollo de una metodología que, dado un modelo de usuario con atributos objetivos, subjetivos y emocionales, se obtenga la Escala de Valores Humanos del usuario. La metodología propuesta está basada en el uso de aplicaciones ya existentes, donde todas las conexiones entre usuarios, agentes y dominios que se caracterizan por estas particularidades y atributos; por lo tanto, no se requiere de un esfuerzo extra por parte del usuario. / Information Technology enables new solutions to be created for specific problems by applying knowledge gained in various areas of research.Our work is aimed at creating user models using a multi-disciplinary approach in which we use principles of psychology, distributed artificial intelligence, and automatic learning to create user models in open environments; such as Environmental Intelligence based on User Models with functions of incremental and distributed learning (known as Smart User Models). Based on these user models, we aimed this research at acquiring user characteristics that are not trivial and that determine the user's scale of dominant values in the matters in which he/she is most interested, and developing a methodology for extracting the Human Values Scale of the user with regard to his/her objective, subjective, and emotional attributes (particularly in the Recommender Systems). One of the areas that have been little researched is the inclusion of the human values scale in information systems. A Recommender System, User Models, and Systems Information only takes into account the preferences and emotions of the user [Velásquez, 1996, 1997; Goldspink, 2000; Conte and Paolucci, 2001; Urban and Schmidt, 2001; Dal Forno and Merlone, 2001, 2002; Berkovsky et al., 2007c]. Therefore, the main approach of our research is based on creating a methodology that permits the generation of the human values scale of the user from the user model. We present results obtained from a case study using the objective, subjective, and emotional attributes in the banking and restaurant domains, where the methodology proposed in this research was tested. In this thesis, the main contributions are: To develop a methodology that, given a user model with objective, subjective and emotional attributes, obtains the user's Human Values Scale. The methodology proposed is based on the use of existing applications, where there are connections between users, agents, and domains that are characterised by their features and attributes; therefore, no extra effort is required by the user.

"In the United States, many students are doing poorly on new high-stakes standards-based tests that are required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Teachers are expected to cover more material to address all of the topics covered in standardized tests, and instructional time is more precious than ever. Educators want to know that the interventions that they are using in their classrooms are effective for students of varying abilities. Many educational technologies rely on tutored problem solving, which requires students to work through problems step-by-step while the system provides hints and feedback, to improve student learning. Intelligent tutoring researchers, education scientists and cognitive scientists are interested in knowing whether tutored problem solving is effective and for whom. Intelligent tutoring systems have the ability to adapt to individual students but need to know what types of feedback to present to individual students for the best and most efficient learning results. This dissertation presents an evaluation of the ASSISTment System, an intelligent tutoring system for the domain of middle school mathematics. In general, students were found to learn when engaging in tutored problem solving in the ASSISTment System. Students using the ASSISTment System also learned more when compared to paper-and-pencil problem-solving. This dissertation puts together a series of randomized controlled studies to build a comprehensive theory about when different types of tutoring feedback are more appropriate in an intelligent tutoring system. Data from these studies were used to analyze whether interactive tutored problem solving in an intelligent tutoring system is more effective than less interactive methods of allowing students to solve problems. This dissertation is novel in that it presents a theory that designers of intelligent tutoring systems could use to better adapt their software to the needs of students. One of the interesting results showed is that the effectiveness of tutored problem solving in an intelligent tutoring system is dependent on the math proficiency of the students. Students with low math proficiency learned more when they engaged in interactive tutoring sessions where they worked on one step at a time, and students with high math proficiency learned more when they were given the whole solution at once. More interactive methods of tutoring take more time versus less interactive methods. The data showed that it is worth the extra time it takes for students with low math proficiency. The main contribution of this dissertation is the development of a comprehensive theory of when educational technologies should use tutored problem solving to help students learn compared to other feedback mechanisms such as hints on demand, worked out solutions, worked examples and educational web pages. "

<p>Today there exist several systems that lack usability. The reasons are, among others, the pressure to add more features in the system, but also that focus has been earlier on technology and functionality. It becomes more important to think of the user, so that systems can be more usable. By focusing on the user, the user experience can enhance, which results in more satisfied users.</p><p>User involvement in the system development process is one way to learn and receive information about the user. There are several ways of doing that. One way is to create user portraits from existing user models. We have studied different user models and lack a model that includes both tasks and goals; for example one of the existing models focus on user goals and another on relations with the system.</p><p>The purpose with this final thesis is to create a model to describe users as roles providing a more effective and generalized user-centered system development process.</p><p>To create this model, the role profile model, we studied existing theories. By them we were influenced both by good and less good things. The theoretical study resulted in a tentative model that we tested by interview and observe six buyers within the manufacturing industry. This resulted in two role profiles; the strategic buyer and purchase planner. From the result of the interviews and observations, we improved the tentative role profile model to our final model. There were some factors that did not fit in the tentative model and some that we added.</p><p>The role profile model contains three elements; objectives, requirements and context. These elements consist of a number of attributes that are important when surveying a role profile. The uniqueness with the role profile model is the fact that it includes both role specific attributes and attributes that puts the role profile into a context. The model contains for example work process, system requirements, responsibility and authority.</p><p>The role profile is at part of a greater context. There are design philosophies that concern the whole system development process; from survey the user to design and test. Our role profile model only handles the first parts, the user and tasks, due to the time limitations.</p><p>We have created a practical procedure that we recommend to facilitate the usage of the role profile model. The practical procedure is based on our choices of method when testing the tentative role profile model. The central in our practical procedure are interviews and observations. It is important to plan the company visits so that all necessary information is received.</p><p>The usage of the role profile can for example contribute with: knowledge and understanding of the users, structured work procedure, a generally accepted terminology and a user-centered design process.</p><p>This final thesis has been performed on commission of Lawson Software. We had continuously discussions with them about usability and the role profile model. We have studied fields of applications for the role profile model at Lawson. We think they can use the model in the product requirement process, design and evaluation, work with composite applications, user understanding and user priority and introduction of new employees.</p> / <p>Idag finns det ett flertal system som har bristande användar¬vänlighet. Detta beror bland annat på påtryckningar att lägga till fler funktioner i systemen, men också på att det bakåt i tiden har fokuserats på att utveckla system utifrån teknologi och funktionalitet. Det blir allt viktigare att tänka på användaren så att systemen blir mer användarvänliga. Genom att fokusera på användaren kan man öka användarupplevelsen i systemet och det medför att användarna blir nöjdare.</p><p>Att involvera användaren i utvecklingsprocessen är ett sätt att lära känna och få information om användaren. Det finns många sätt att göra det på. Ett sätt är att skapa användarporträtt med hjälp av olika befintliga användarmodeller. Vi har studerat olika användarmodeller och sett att det saknas en användarmodell som inkluderar både fokus på användarens arbetsprocess och dess mål; till exempel en av de existerande modellerna fokuserar på användarens mål och en annan på relationer med system.</p><p>Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att skapa en modell som beskriver användare som roller, som bidrar till en effektivare och bredare användar¬centrerad systemutvecklingsprocess.</p><p>För att ta fram denna modell, rollprofilsmodellen, studerade vi som sagt existerande teorier. Från dem påverkades vi både av delar som vi tyckte var bra och mindre bra. Vi kom fram till en hypotesmodell som vi testade genom att intervjua och observera sex inköpare på tillverkande företag. Detta resulterade i två rollprofiler; den strategiska inköparen och inköpsplaneraren. Utifrån resultaten av intervjuerna och observationerna förbättrade vi hypotesen till vår slutliga modell. Det fanns vissa faktorer som vi inte tyckte passade in, men även attribut som borde läggas till.</p><p>Rollprofilsmodellen innehåller tre delar; mål, krav och kontext. Dessa delar består av ett antal attribut som är viktiga att undersöka hos den rollprofil som ska skapas. Det som utmärker rollprofilsmodellen är att den inkluderar både roll¬speci¬fika mål och attribut som sätter rollprofilen i en kontext. Modellen innehåller till exempel relationer, krav, ansvar och befogenheter.</p><p>Rollprofilen är en del av en större kontext. Det finns designfilosofier som berör hela systemutvecklingsprocessen; från att kartlägga användaren till att designa och testa. På grund av tidsbegränsningar har vi enbart berört de första av dessa delar; användaren och arbetsuppgifter.</p><p>För att underlätta användandet av rollprofilen har vi skapat ett rekommenderat praktiskt tillvägagångssätt. Detta är baserat på våra egna metodval när vi testade vår hypotesmodell. Det centrala i det praktiska tillvägagångssättet är intervjuer och observa¬tioner. Det är viktigt att planera noggrant så att all nödvändig informa¬tion erhålls.</p><p>Användandet av rollprofilen kan till exempel bidra till: kunskap och förståelse av användaren, ett strukturerat arbetssätt, en allmänt accepterad terminologi samt en användar¬centrerad utvecklingsprocess.</p><p>Detta examensarbete har utförts på uppdrag av Lawson Software, med vilka vi kontinuer¬ligt har fört diskussioner om användbarhet och rollprofilsmodellen med mera. Vi har även utforskat vilka potentiella användningsområden som rollprofilen har på Lawson. Lawson skulle kunna använda modellen i kravhanteringsprocessen, design och utvärdering, arbete med komposita applikationer, användarförståelse och priori¬teringar samt intro¬ducerande av nyanställda.</p>

Today there exist several systems that lack usability. The reasons are, among others, the pressure to add more features in the system, but also that focus has been earlier on technology and functionality. It becomes more important to think of the user, so that systems can be more usable. By focusing on the user, the user experience can enhance, which results in more satisfied users. User involvement in the system development process is one way to learn and receive information about the user. There are several ways of doing that. One way is to create user portraits from existing user models. We have studied different user models and lack a model that includes both tasks and goals; for example one of the existing models focus on user goals and another on relations with the system. The purpose with this final thesis is to create a model to describe users as roles providing a more effective and generalized user-centered system development process. To create this model, the role profile model, we studied existing theories. By them we were influenced both by good and less good things. The theoretical study resulted in a tentative model that we tested by interview and observe six buyers within the manufacturing industry. This resulted in two role profiles; the strategic buyer and purchase planner. From the result of the interviews and observations, we improved the tentative role profile model to our final model. There were some factors that did not fit in the tentative model and some that we added. The role profile model contains three elements; objectives, requirements and context. These elements consist of a number of attributes that are important when surveying a role profile. The uniqueness with the role profile model is the fact that it includes both role specific attributes and attributes that puts the role profile into a context. The model contains for example work process, system requirements, responsibility and authority. The role profile is at part of a greater context. There are design philosophies that concern the whole system development process; from survey the user to design and test. Our role profile model only handles the first parts, the user and tasks, due to the time limitations. We have created a practical procedure that we recommend to facilitate the usage of the role profile model. The practical procedure is based on our choices of method when testing the tentative role profile model. The central in our practical procedure are interviews and observations. It is important to plan the company visits so that all necessary information is received. The usage of the role profile can for example contribute with: knowledge and understanding of the users, structured work procedure, a generally accepted terminology and a user-centered design process. This final thesis has been performed on commission of Lawson Software. We had continuously discussions with them about usability and the role profile model. We have studied fields of applications for the role profile model at Lawson. We think they can use the model in the product requirement process, design and evaluation, work with composite applications, user understanding and user priority and introduction of new employees. / Idag finns det ett flertal system som har bristande användar¬vänlighet. Detta beror bland annat på påtryckningar att lägga till fler funktioner i systemen, men också på att det bakåt i tiden har fokuserats på att utveckla system utifrån teknologi och funktionalitet. Det blir allt viktigare att tänka på användaren så att systemen blir mer användarvänliga. Genom att fokusera på användaren kan man öka användarupplevelsen i systemet och det medför att användarna blir nöjdare. Att involvera användaren i utvecklingsprocessen är ett sätt att lära känna och få information om användaren. Det finns många sätt att göra det på. Ett sätt är att skapa användarporträtt med hjälp av olika befintliga användarmodeller. Vi har studerat olika användarmodeller och sett att det saknas en användarmodell som inkluderar både fokus på användarens arbetsprocess och dess mål; till exempel en av de existerande modellerna fokuserar på användarens mål och en annan på relationer med system. Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att skapa en modell som beskriver användare som roller, som bidrar till en effektivare och bredare användar¬centrerad systemutvecklingsprocess. För att ta fram denna modell, rollprofilsmodellen, studerade vi som sagt existerande teorier. Från dem påverkades vi både av delar som vi tyckte var bra och mindre bra. Vi kom fram till en hypotesmodell som vi testade genom att intervjua och observera sex inköpare på tillverkande företag. Detta resulterade i två rollprofiler; den strategiska inköparen och inköpsplaneraren. Utifrån resultaten av intervjuerna och observationerna förbättrade vi hypotesen till vår slutliga modell. Det fanns vissa faktorer som vi inte tyckte passade in, men även attribut som borde läggas till. Rollprofilsmodellen innehåller tre delar; mål, krav och kontext. Dessa delar består av ett antal attribut som är viktiga att undersöka hos den rollprofil som ska skapas. Det som utmärker rollprofilsmodellen är att den inkluderar både roll¬speci¬fika mål och attribut som sätter rollprofilen i en kontext. Modellen innehåller till exempel relationer, krav, ansvar och befogenheter. Rollprofilen är en del av en större kontext. Det finns designfilosofier som berör hela systemutvecklingsprocessen; från att kartlägga användaren till att designa och testa. På grund av tidsbegränsningar har vi enbart berört de första av dessa delar; användaren och arbetsuppgifter. För att underlätta användandet av rollprofilen har vi skapat ett rekommenderat praktiskt tillvägagångssätt. Detta är baserat på våra egna metodval när vi testade vår hypotesmodell. Det centrala i det praktiska tillvägagångssättet är intervjuer och observa¬tioner. Det är viktigt att planera noggrant så att all nödvändig informa¬tion erhålls. Användandet av rollprofilen kan till exempel bidra till: kunskap och förståelse av användaren, ett strukturerat arbetssätt, en allmänt accepterad terminologi samt en användar¬centrerad utvecklingsprocess. Detta examensarbete har utförts på uppdrag av Lawson Software, med vilka vi kontinuer¬ligt har fört diskussioner om användbarhet och rollprofilsmodellen med mera. Vi har även utforskat vilka potentiella användningsområden som rollprofilen har på Lawson. Lawson skulle kunna använda modellen i kravhanteringsprocessen, design och utvärdering, arbete med komposita applikationer, användarförståelse och priori¬teringar samt intro¬ducerande av nyanställda.

[pt] Este trabalho define uma arquitetura para adaptação e meta- adaptação de sistemas hipermídia, utilizando modelos propostos para a Web Semântica. As aplicações adaptativas são capazes de alterar algumas de suas características, tais como modelo de navegação ou de apresentação, em função de um contexto de adaptação. Este contexto pode incluir informações sobre o usuário, tais como preferências, navegações prévias, etc., e sobre o ambiente de execução, tais como dispositivo de acesso, banda passante, etc. As aplicações meta-adaptativas são capazes de alterar tanto os modelos da aplicação quanto o próprio processo de adaptação, também em função do contexto. A partir do modelo SHDM, são definidas extensões para representar o contexto de adaptação, as regras de adaptação e a arquitetura de execução deste tipo de aplicação. Através de comparações, é mostrado como os principais modelos descritos na literatura são casos particulares do modelo e da arquitetura propostos nesta dissertação. / [en] This dissertation defines an architecture for adaptation and metaadaptation in hypermedia systems, using models proposed for the Semantic Web. Adaptive applications are able to alter some of their characteristics, such as its navigation model or presentation model, according to the adaptation context. This context may include information about the user, such as her preferences, navigation history, etc., and about the execution environment, such as access device, bandwidth, etc. Meta-adaptive applications are able to alter both its models and its adaptation process according to the adaptation context. The proposal extends the SHDM model with a context model, adaptation rules and execution architecture. It is shown, by comparison, that the major adaptation models described in the literature can be seen as particular cases of the proposed model and architecture.

<div>Intelligent machines, and more broadly, intelligent systems, are becoming increasingly common in the everyday lives of humans. Nonetheless, despite significant advancements in automation, human supervision and intervention are still essential in almost all sectors, ranging from manufacturing and transportation to disaster-management and healthcare. These intelligent machines<i> interact and collaborate</i> with humans in a way that demands a greater level of trust between human and machine. While a lack of trust can lead to a human's disuse of automation, over-trust can result in a human trusting a faulty autonomous system which could have negative consequences for the human. Therefore, human trust should be <i>calibrated </i>to optimize these human-machine interactions. This calibration can be achieved by designing human-aware automation that can infer human behavior and respond accordingly in real-time.</div><div><br></div><div>In this dissertation, I present a probabilistic framework to model and calibrate a human's trust and workload dynamics during his/her interaction with an intelligent decision-aid system. More specifically, I develop multiple quantitative models of human trust, ranging from a classical state-space model to a classification model based on machine learning techniques. Both models are parameterized using data collected through human-subject experiments. Thereafter, I present a probabilistic dynamic model to capture the dynamics of human trust along with human workload. This model is used to synthesize optimal control policies aimed at improving context-specific performance objectives that vary automation transparency based on human state estimation. I also analyze the coupled interactions between human trust and workload to strengthen the model framework. Finally, I validate the optimal control policies using closed-loop human subject experiments. The proposed framework provides a foundation toward widespread design and implementation of real-time adaptive automation based on human states for use in human-machine interactions.</div>