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The dissertation 'Educational Simulation in Task Situations' is focused on a new medium - educational simulation, which is starting to establish itself in the field of education. This work is examining educational simulations from three different points of view: 1) the acceptance of educational simulations in the school environment, 2) the interactivity of learning material, and 3) the authenticity of learning material. The experimental results are divided into three separate chapters according to the respective viewpoint. The investigation focused on acceptance in the first chapter draws from the evaluation of 34 Czech teachers and more than 1000 students, who both evaluated the benefits and shortcomings of particular educational simulations that were used by the teachers and their students. The experiment on interactivity (N = 152) in the second chapter is focused on the experimental comparison of learning material with activated interactive features and learning material with deactivated features. The third experiment on authenticity (N = 48) compares teaching material using authentic media sequences and the same material converted into an animated form. All three main chapters contain a theoretical review of the respective topic and our own experimental research. The methodology is based on the...

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第22227号 / 経博第615号 / 新制||経||293(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 関口 格, 教授 原 千秋, 准教授 NEWTON Jonathan Charles Scott / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

MCom (Business Management) / Department of Business Management / Consumer mobile phone adoption is on the rise exponentially, and offers marketers with many new opportunities to reach and serve customers. The South African mobile phone market has increased rapidly and a significant proportion of mobile services usage in South Africa is the youth. South African youths are following international trends as well as becoming the fastest-growing group in terms of technology adoption in the country. The prevalence of mobile technology as well as its capability to enable laser precision marketing on an individual basis has directed marketers to consider the adoption of mobile marketing. However, the question remains whether consumers are ready for uptake of mobile phone marketing. The purpose of this study was to bring light and create an understanding of the factors affecting university students’ willingness to participate in mobile phone marketing in South Africa. This study used a positivist paradigm that ensures that there is a gap between the researcher’s subjective bias and the objective reality being studied. The study was descriptive in nature with survey method being used to complete the study. The quantitative research technique was applied with data being collected from respondents by a self-administered questionnaire targeted at youth students from selected South African Universities. The questionnaire was pre-tested in a pilot study involving the research participants to identify errors in the research questionnaire and to ensure that the data collected would be relevant and as precise as possible. Findings from this study revealed how consumers want to participate in mobile marketing as well as the contributory factors influencing the acceptance of mobile marketing. Furthermore, this study supplements to the increasing body of evidence on mobile marketing acceptance. The study can also assist managers to utilise the potential of this marketing medium amongst university students in South Africa. More essentially, this study also provided information that can be used to monitor decision making towards mobile advertisements and marketing planning.

Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) is a psychological intervention that combines acceptance and mindfulness approaches with behavior change strategies to increase psychological flexibility, defined as present moment awareness despite unpleasant private events, and behaving based on personal values. Obesity is a socially significant problem effecting duration and quality of life. Quantifying differences between high and low exercise groups and evaluating interventions that affect exercise value represent an avenue to understand obesity and change behavior. This study assessed the effects of a brief ACT exercise on the demand for general and sport-specific exercise and delay discounting rates of four commodities (i.e., money, food, general exercise, and sport-specific exercise) in Division I athletes (n=78) and non-athletes (n=78) from the same university. Statistically significant main effects for general exercise were observed between athletes compared to non-athletes for intensity, elasticity, and breakpoint. Differences in demand for sport-specific exercise between athletes and non-athletes were observed across all behavioral economic indices. The ACT intervention did not alter the demand for general or sport-specific exercise. General and sport-specific exercise were valued similarly between individual participants in each group. In the delay discounting task, ACT significantly decreased degree of discounting of all four commodities (increased the area under the curve) in both athletes and non-athletes. No differences were observed between athletes and non-athletes for any of the four commodities, indicating that athletes and non-athletes discounted these commodities similarly. Results from the demand task provide initial support for the extension of hypothetical purchase tasks to exercise behavior. which would offer a standardized method to quantify exercise value efficiently. Results from the discounting task provide initial evidence indicating that ACT may be effective in reducing discounting rates across commodities. Given that steep discounting rates are considered to play an important causal role in maladaptive behaviors related to obesity, evidence of a therapeutic intervention with the potential to produce longer-lasting change in decision-making is encouraging.

The present study examined the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a core behavior modification method on students with severe behavior disorders. A pre/posttest design was implemented and both control and treatment groups were exposed to testing measures. Students in the treatment group were exposed to ACT as well as contingency based classroom management, and a token economy in an attempt to increase grade point average (GPA), days in attendance, and psychological flexibility. Results are discussed regarding the increase in GPA and attendance, and levels of psychological flexibility are also elaborated upon. Limitations, implications, and future research are also discussed.

Mobile Marketing is a critical marketing strategy and a foundation of competitive advantage for small to medium enterprises in the tourism and hospitality industry in South Africa. While many studies focus on mobile marketing, this study focuses on the adoption of mobile marketing innovations by small to medium enterprises in the tourism and hospitality industry in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Analysing the adoption of Awesome South Africa mobile application, as a marketing strategy among SMEs in the Western Cape tourism and hospitality industry was therefore imperative to understand the factors that influence mobile marketing adoption. The objective was to find out the factors that contribute to the adoption of mobile marketing as well as the factors that would impede the adoption of mobile marketing by the SMEs in this industry. The research employed the Technology Acceptance Model as a theoretical framework as well as a guide in ascertaining the factors that affect the adoption of mobile marketing innovations among SMEs. There is certainty that the Awesome South Africa mobile travel application could partly solve the information asymmetry problem as well as the marketing challenges of the SMEs in the Western Cape Tourism and hospitality industry. An exploratory design was deployed in this study, resulting in the application of a qualitative research approach for data collection, analysis and interpretation. Both content and thematic data analyses were used in this study because data was collected from multiple sources that included reports and face-toface interviews. The research findings showed that the TAM provides a reasonable explanation of the factors that influence technology acceptance amongst SMEs. Perceived usefulness, perceived cost, perceived competitive pressure and perceived employee capability emerged as the significant factors that simultaneously influenced mobile marketing adoption among SMEs. Factors impeding the adoption of mobile marketing application by the SMEs included perceived high cost of adoption, lack of managerial support, employee incompetence, limited financial resources and perceived complexity of the mobile marketing innovations. The recommendation was that the Awesome South Africa mobile application innovators should capitalise on the TAM constructs in order to realise the adoption of their mobile application among SMEs in the Western Cape tourism and hospitality industry.

Gruvindustrin är en bransch som är välkänd för att innehålla riskfyllt arbete. Ett sätt att öka säkerheten och hälsan hos de anställda är att använda sig av exempelvis positioneringsteknik och teknik som registrerar hälsan. Denna typ av teknik kan dock orsaka bland annatintegritetsproblematik vilket i sin tur kan påverka hur man ställer sig till den. Syftet med denna rapport var därför att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar acceptansen hos gruvarbetare för denna typ av teknik. Detta undersöktes genom att använda en modifierad version av TAM-modellen innehållande upplevd nytta, säkerhet, integritet och tillit. Utöver detta undersöktes även om det fanns någon åldersskillnad i acceptansen. Studien är utförd i ett samarbete mellan SIMS och LTU där en enkät skapades och besvarades av 275 gruvanställda vid LKAB. Resultatet visade att gruvarbetarnas acceptans för teknik generellt var positiv och att den modifierade TAM-modellen till stor del kunde förklara gruvarbetarnas acceptans. De faktorer som visat sig påverka acceptansen negativt var om gruvarbetarna upplevde att integriteten hotades, medan acceptansen påverkades positivt om de upplevde nytta av att se specifika personer i en kartvy. Utöver detta påvisade resultatet även att om gruvarbetarna såg en nytta med tekniken ur ett säkerhetsperspektiv påverkades acceptansen positivt. Den faktor som inte visades ha prediktivt värde från den modifierade TAM-modellen var tillit. En åldersskillnad kunde också fastställas i vissa aspekter av acceptansen.

This project explored whether mindfulness and acceptance-based practices (MABPs) for older adults would reduce the negative effects of ageism and negative attitudes and beliefs related to aging. In addition, state affect and stress were explored. This study used an experimental design to compare two groups of older adults and two groups of undergraduate students – those who received a MABP and those who did not, after being presented with negative ageist stereotypes. Condition and condition by age sample comparisons revealed several findings. Following the MABP, undergraduates who received a MABP had significantly lower ageism scores than did undergraduates who did not. Older adult findings were opposite of proposed hypotheses, with older adults having higher scores on ageism after receiving the MABP, as compared to the scores of older adults who were in the comparison condition. Differences in state mindfulness were seen between conditions, with the MABP condition exhibiting more state mindfulness than in the comparison condition. However, there was no significant condition by age sample interaction effect. Change scores for state affect after the MABP were non-significant at either level of analysis, and older adults showed no difference in digit span stress scores based on their condition assignment. Exploratory analyses revealed some research consistent, as well as nuanced, findings. These findings suggest that undergraduates may respond to MABPs for recontextualizing aging, discrimination, and stigma. These findings also suggest that older adults may employ different coping strategies when confronted with ageism in an experimental context when asked to reflect, as oppose to participate in MABPs. Overall, a need for aging education, experimental research with older adults, and empirical understandings of MABPs for age-related issues, is needed. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Past research indicates that social rejection predicts a wide range of psychological problems (e.g., depression), but laboratory studies examining self-reports of negative affect after social rejection have reported inconsistent results. Salivary cortisol was measured before and after a social rejection/acceptance manipulation for objective assessment of psychological distress subsequent to peer rejection. Rejected participants were predicted to show significantly greater salivary cortisol than accepted or control participants. The present research also examined several factors that may moderate the relationship between acute rejection and cortisol. As predicted, rejected participants exhibited significantly higher cortisol than accepted or control participants. Defensiveness moderated the relationship between rejection and cortisol; highly defensive rejected participants showed significantly lower cortisol than less defensive rejected participants after peer rejection. Results indicate that social rejection causes psychological distress, but highly defensive individuals appear to be less susceptible than less defensive individuals to increases in salivary cortisol after acute social rejection.