The implementation of a new motor vehicle block exemption began in 2002, and affected the car dealer industry in Sweden. Before this new regulation, a general agent distributing cars to dealers had the ability to restrict car dealers’ behavior much more. Nowadays, dealers have the right to sell different brands from the same showroom, even if there are strict rules about how the different brands should be presented. The new block exemption have also given car dealers possibilities to establish in other places within EU were selective distribution is applied. As the environment changed (by the block exemption), dealers faced new information that required interpretation. In this thesis we have focused on industrial wisdom; a reasonable and consistent, yet subjective, sense-making of reality in an industry. This sense-making is a way to understand and justify company behavior; resulting assumptions are considered so basic that they remain unquestioned by industry participants. However, interpretations depend on who makes them; different persons interpret things in different ways. In the light of the car dealer industry and the motor vehicle block exemption 1400/2002, this thesis investigated if change due to institutional pressure can affect industrial wisdom. Further, what does this process look like. To fulfill our purpose we conducted a qualitative research by interviewing 19 Chief Executive Officers from the car dealer industry in Sweden. The sample was designed by a maximum variation sampling technique, in which we as researchers used our own judgment to pick cases that were extra informative. Before we conducted the interviews, we reviewed literature to gain a general understanding of the industry and relevant issues. From our research we know that industrial wisdom can change due to a shift in institutional pressure and we observed that the car dealer industrial wisdom was changing. There are some new perceptions and aspects of wisdom, which suggest that the industry has moved away from previous equilibrium. Nevertheless, perceptions are diverse in a number of areas and thoughts have not been translated into action, which leaves much potential for further change. Naturally, this is a slow and difficult process since cognitive maps are embedded in a mindset that relies on previous experience and automatic interpretations. If wisdom changes more depends a great deal on if/how dealers (continue to) act. This thesis resulted in a model (The Loop of Wisdom) that explains how a change in institutional pressure affects industrial wisdom. New information enters the company, gets interpreted, acted upon and feeds back out to the environment, which affect other companies and the industry as a whole.

Being completely lost in an unfamiliar environment can be inconvenient, stressful and, at times, even dangerous. Maps are the traditional tools used for guidance but many people find maps difficult to use. In recent years, new tools like outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) have become available which allow virtual navigation cues to be directly overlaid on the real world, potentially overcoming the limitations of maps. However, it has been hypothesized that lower effort invested in processing navigation guidance may lead to diminished spatial knowledge (SK) thereby making users of such navigation tools far more vulnerable to getting lost should the tools fail for any reason. This thesis explores the research question of how AR and maps compare as tools for pedestrian navigation guidance as well as for SK acquisition and if there is a potential for AR tools be developed that would balance the two. We present a series of studies to better understand the consequences of using AR in a pedestrian navigation tool. The first two studies compared time-on-task performance and user preferences for AR and Map navigation interfaces on an outdoor navigation task. The results were not aligned with expectations, which led us to build a controlled testing environment for comparing AR and map navigation. Using this simulated setting, our third study verified the assumption that AR can indeed result in more efficient navigation performance and it supported the hypothesis that this would come at the cost of weaker SK. In our fourth study, we used a dual task design to compare the relative cognitive resources required by map and AR interfaces. The quantitative data collected indicated that users could potentially accept additional workload designed to improve SK without incurring significantly more effort. Our fifth and final study explored an interface with additional AR cues that could potentially balance navigation guidance with SK acquisition. The contributions of this thesis include insights into performance issues relating to AR, a classification of user types based on navigation tool usage behavior, a testbed for simulating perfect AR tracking in a virtual setting, objective measures for determining route knowledge, the capacity that pedestrian navigation tool users may have for performing additional tasks, and guidelines that would be helpful in the design of pedestrian navigation tools.

Existing computational cognitive models of spatial memory often neglect difficulties posed by the real world, such as sensory noise, uncertainty, and high spatial complexity. On the other hand, robotics is unconcerned with understanding biological cognition. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach towards developing cognitively plausible spatial memory models able to function in realistic environments, despite sensory noise and spatial complexity. We hypothesized that Bayesian localization and error correction accounts for how brains might maintain accurate location estimates, despite sensory errors. We argued that these mechanisms are psychologically plausible (producing human-like behaviour) as well as neurally plausible (implementable in brains). To support our hypotheses, we reported modelling results of neural recordings from rats (acquired outside this PhD), constituting the first evidence for Bayesian inference in neurons representing spatial location, as well as modelling human behaviour data. In addition to dealing with uncertainty, spatial representations have to be stored and used efficiently in realistic environments, by using structured representations such as hierarchies (which facilitate efficient retrieval and route planning). Evidence suggests that human spatial memories are structured hierarchically, but the process responsible for these structures has not been known. We investigated features influencing them using data from experiments in real-world and virtual reality environments, and proposed a computational model able to predict them in advance (based on clustering in psychological space). We have extended a general cognitive architecture, LIDA (Learning Intelligent Distribution Agent), by these probabilistic models of how brains might estimate, correct, and structure representations of spatial locations. We demonstrated the ability of the resulting model to deal with the challenges of realistic environments by running it in high-fidelity robotic simulations, modelled after participants' actual cities. Our results show that the model can deal with noise, uncertainty and complexity, and that it can reproduce the spatial accuracies of human participants.

No description available.

Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om rektors föreställningar av det pedagogiska ledarskapet i relation till lärares lärande, att bidra med svar på hur rektor ser på sitt ansvar för lärares lärande. Sex rektorer har intervjuats med hjälp av metoden föreställningskarta och det empiriska materialet består av utsagor som kodats och kategoriserats till teman. Resultatbeskrivningen är empirinära och som läsare får du möta rektors föreställningar genom deras utsagor. En deskriptiv berättelse har vävts samman med hjälp av rektorernas utsagor för att på så sätt beskriva rektorers gemensamma föreställning om att leda lärares lärande. Det empiriska materialet visar att rektors föreställning om det pedagogiska ledarskapet i relation till lärares lärande handlar om att kartlägga för lärande, att organisera för lärande, att leda lärande samt om lärande. Dessa delar står i relation till varandra och bildar tillsammans en helhet, ett system för lärande. Utgångspunkt för lärandet är skolans nuläge och lärares erfarenheter och kunskaper ligger till grund för det gemensamma sökandet efter ett önskat läge. Systemteori och lärande organisationsperspektivet används därför för att förstå och tolka resultatet. Analysen visar att rektors pedagogiska ledarskap i relation till lärares lärande kan beskrivas som ett lärandeinriktat ledarskap / The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about principals´ conceptions of their pedagogical leadership in relation to teachers´ learning, to seek the answer to how principals look at their responsibility when it comes to teachers´ learning. Six principals have been interviewed using the cognitive maps as the interview method and the empirical material consist of statements that have been coded and categorized into themes. The description of the results is empirical and as a reader you meet the principals´ conceptions through their statements. A descriptive story has been put together by the statements to describe the principals´ collective conception of teachers´ learning. The empirical material shows that the principals´ conception of the pedagogical leadership in relation to teachers´ learning is about mapping for learning, organizing for learning, to lead learning and learning. These parts are in relation to each other and together they form a whole, a system for learning. The starting point for learning is the current state of the organization and the teachers´ experiences and knowledge is the foundation for the common search for next practice.  Systems theory and the learning organizational perspective have been used to understand and interpret the results. The analysis shows that the principals´ leadership in relation to the teachers´ learning can be described as a learning-based leadership.

No description available.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka några rektorers föreställningar om hur de bedriver sitt pedagogiska ledarskap. I förlängningen hoppas jag också kunna bidra till den generella kunskapsbildningen inom detta, ur ett skolutvecklingsperspektiv, viktiga område. Studien utgår från en socialkonstruktivistisk kunskapsteori där rektors pedagogiska ledarskap tolkas som något som är socialt konstruerat. I den empiriska fasen har intervjuer med sju åländska rektorer hållits, detta med hjälp av föreställningskartan (cognitive map) som intervjumetod. Studien utgår från följande två frågeställningar: hur beskriver rektorerna att de utövar sitt pedagogiska ledarskap samt vilka prioriteringar gör rektorerna inom ramen för det pedagogiska ledarskapet? I analysen av rektorernas utsagor har både en induktiv samt två deduktiva analysverktyg använts. I den induktiva processen har materialet katalogiserats utifrån sitt eget innehåll i syfte att se vilka områden och teman som växer fram. I de deduktiva processerna har rektorernas utsagor katalogiserats utifrån färdiga kategorier. I den första används meningsbärande ord som verktyg vilka baseras på Rektor och styrkedjans (SOU 2015:22) beskrivningar av vad rektors pedagogiska ledarskap består av och i den andra används Transformation in Action Framework (Keamy, 2016) som analysmodell. Resultatet visar att flera likheter finns mellan rektorernas föreställningar om hur de utövar sitt pedagogiska ledarskap och gängse forskning och teoribildning. De åländska rektorerna uppger att en stor del av det pedagogiska arbetet utgörs av dynamiska samarbeten och interaktioner med andra personer i skolverksamheten. De använder sig av direkta arbetsmodeller som lektionsbesök, medarbetarsamtal och ledningsgrupper och mer indirekta arbetsformer som har med exempelvis organisering och strukturer att göra. Studiens resultat uppvisar också flera konkreta exempel på hur rektorerna leder arbetet med lärarnas undervisning och elevernas lärande, detta exempelvis genom att rektor själv håller i övningar för lärarna och genom att rektor på ett systematiskt sätt samlar in underlag från lärares lektioner vilket sedan används till att utveckla skolan och undervisningen som helhet. Det visar sig också att rektorerna till viss del gör olika prioriteringar inom ramen för det pedagogiska ledarskapet. / The purpose of the study is to examine some principals' conceptions of how they conduct their pedagogical leadership. In the long run I also hope to contribute to the general knowledge formation within this, from a school development perspective, important area. The study is based on a social constructivist theory, in which the principal's pedagogical leadership is understood and interpreted as something socially constructed. In the empirical phase, interviews with seven Ålandic principals have been held, using the cognitive map as an interview method. The study is based on the following two questions: How do the principals describe how they practice their pedagogical leadership and what priorities do the principals make within the framework of pedagogical leadership? In the analysis of the principals' statements, one inductive and two deductive analysis tools have been used. In the inductive process, the material has been cataloged based on its own content in order to see which areas and themes are emerging. In the deductive processes, the principals' statements have been cataloged based on pre-existing categories. In the first category, meaning-bearing words are used as tools based on the report Rektor och styrkedjan (SOU 2015: 22) descriptions of what constitutes the principal's pedagogical leadership. In the second category, Transformation in Action Framework (Keamy, 2016) is used as an analysis model. The result shows that there are several similarities between the principals' perceptions of how they practice their pedagogical leadership, collective research, and theory formation. The Ålandic principals state that a large part of the pedagogical work consists of dynamic collaborations and interactions with other people in the school environment. They use direct working models such as lesson visits, employee interviews and management groups, and more indirect methods related to, for example, organization and structures. The result of the study also shows several concrete examples of how the principals lead the teachers' teaching work, and the pupils' learning. This by, for example, the principal holding exercises for the teachers, and by collecting data from teachers' lessons in a systematic way, which is then used to developing the school and teaching as a whole. It also turns out that the principals to some extent make different priorities within the framework of pedagogical leadership.

La proximité constitue l’une des préoccupations stratégiques actuelles majeures de la distribution alimentaire. Cette recherche porte sur les raisons de la réhabilitation des formats de proximité et s’intéresse aux représentations de la proximité d’un magasin par les distributeurs et par les consommateurs. Il ressort des analyses qualitatives et quantitatives menées auprès des distributeurs et des consommateurs que cette distance spatiale, temporelle, fonctionnelle et social qui unit un magasin et ses clients est multidimensionnelle. Sept dimensions ont été identifiées : la proximité d’accès, la proximité fonctionnelle, la proximité de processus, la proximité relationnelle, la proximité identitaire, la proximité d’intégration et la proximité d’assortiment. Certains points de convergence et divergence apparaissent dans les représentations de la proximité d’un magasin par les distributeurs et les consommateurs. Plus généralement, tous deux perçoivent les aspects symboliques et fonctionnels du magasin de proximité. Les représentations de la proximité d’un magasin du point de vue des distributeurs sont plus complètes et positives ; les consommateurs se concentrent davantage sur les aspects fonctionnels et utilitaires du magasin de proximité. Le test des hypothèses du modèle théorique (PLS) nous amènent finalement à identifier les antécédents de la proximité perçue d’un magasin (positionnement perçu et localisation géographique) et ses conséquences (intentions d’achat futures, évaluation positive et attachement). Nos résultats démontrent que la localisation géographique ne suffit pas à créer une relation entre client et le magasin. Le distributeur ne doit pas se contenter d’être géographiquement près de son client pour être proche de lui ; il doit dépasser la vision géographique de la proximité pour valoriser d’autres aspects fonctionnels et symboliques / Getting close to the consumer is one major concern in retailing. This research tries to understand the rehabilitation of small food stores in the French retailing context and explores the notion of closeness in all in its dimensions from a retailer as well as a consumer perspective. The research involves data collection from both retail companies and consumers. The qualitative and quantitative analysis show that creating closeness with the customer can be defined as the management of the spatial, temporal, functional and social distance that links a store to its customers. Seven dimensions can be identified: the access closeness, the functional closeness, the process closeness, the relational closeness, the identity closeness, the integration closeness and the assortment closeness. Some convergence or difference points between the retailers and the consumers perceptions can be describe. In general, managers and consumers both establish a dichotomy between practical and symbolic aspects of closeness. We can observe that managers see the relationship between the store and its clients in a more positive and global way whereas consumers are more rational and focus on practical elements. The tests of the hypothesis show us that the retailer image and the geographical location of the store have both a positive effect on perceived closeness to a store. Also, perceived closeness to a store increases consumer’s loyalty to the store. Our results demonstrate that location of the store is not enough to create a close relationship between the customer and the store; the closeness between a customer and a store is not only based on a spatial distance but also on a temporal, functional and social distance. Being close to its consumers not only means being close to them geographically. The consumer prefers a broader vision of closeness including practical and symbolic aspects

Este estudo tem por principal objetivo investigar o aproveitamento de uma amostra de 29 estudantes que participaram de uma experiência pedagógica na disciplina Planejamento e Análise de Sistemas de Transporte, oferecida para o curso de engenharia civil da Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo. Essa experiência decorreu da aplicação do método aprendizagem baseada em problemas (Problem-Based Learning - PBL) na modalidade de ensino semipresencial, com o uso de uma plataforma de ensino a distância CoL (Cursos on-Line), apoiada nos estilos de aprendizagem. Os dados foram coletados por meio do instrumento - Índice de Estilos de Aprendizagem (Index of Learning Styles - ILS) de Felder e Soloman, traduzido para o português, para identificar os estilos de aprendizagem dos estudantes. O ILS foi aplicado no início da disciplina para conhecer o perfil de aprendizagem dos estudantes, auxiliar no preparo de atividades direcionadas para o público-alvo, e na composição dos grupos de acordo com seus estilos de maneira mais heterogênea e equilibrada possível, visando um melhor aproveitamento na disciplina. Para analisar o aproveitamento da amostra submetida à alternativa instrucional e os efeitos do PBL, foram utilizadas as respostas dos estudantes a um questionário de avaliação da nova proposta, respondido no final da disciplina e um questionário para avaliação do aprendizado, usado após o encerramento da disciplina. A partir das respostas desse questionário foram construídos mapas cognitivos que contribuíram para a avaliação e comparação do aprendizado da amostra com uma turma submetida ao modelo tradicional. Além desses instrumentos, na análise dos dados, foram utilizadas as notas dos estudantes da amostra e de outra turma de alunos regularmente matriculados na mesma disciplina, porém sem a inserção de inovações pedagógicas. Essas notas foram analisadas com o objetivo de investigar sua relação com os estilos de aprendizagem e com o método PBL bem como para verificar a ocorrência de aproveitamentos diferenciados entre os estudantes. Os resultados da análise qualitativa e quantitativa mostraram que os estudantes obtiveram um aproveitamento significativamente melhor com o novo desenho da disciplina. / The main purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of a sample of 29 students who participated in an educational experience in Planning and Analysis of Transportation Systems Course for civil engineering course from Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo. This experience elapsed from the application of problem-based learning (PBL) method in a blended learning mode using a web-based learning - CoL (Cursos on-Line) - with the support of the leaning styles. The data were collected through the Felder and Solomans instrument - Index of Learning Styles (ILS) to identify the students learning styles. The portuguese version of the ILS was applied at the beginning of the course to find the students learning preferences to assist the development of activities directed to the public, and the composition of the groups according to their styles seeking a better use in the course. To examine the use of the sample submitted to the instructional alternative and the effects of PBL were used the responses of the students to a questionnaire for assessing the new proposal responded at the end of the course, and a questionnaire for assessment of learning that was used after the closure of the course. Cognitive maps were built from the answers of the questionnaire that contributed to this assessment and also to make the comparison of the sample with a group of students submitted to the traditional model. Besides these instruments were used the grades of the sample and also of the other group of students regularly enrolled in the same course, but without the introduction of pedagogical innovations. These grades were analyzed with the aim of investigating the relationship between the learning styles and the PBL method, and to verify the presence of differentiated performance between the groups of students. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analysis showed that students obtained a significantly better performance with the new course design.

Nos travaux s’inscrivent dans le cadre de la formation à la gestion de crise en environnements virtuels. La scénarisation joue un rôle essentiel pour l’apprentissage humain en environnement virtuel. Cela permet à la fois de proposer et d’orchestrer des situations d’apprentissage personnalisées et également d’amener l’apprenant vers des scénarios pertinents et formateurs. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse s’intéressent à la génération dynamique de scénarios et à leur exécution en environnements virtuels. Pour cette scénarisation, nous visons un ensemble d’objectifs qui sont souvent contradictoires : la liberté d’action de l’utilisateur, la génération de scénarios variés et fidèles à l’intention de l’auteur, le contrôle scénaristique et la résilience du système de scénarisation. Les différentes approches de la narration interactive favorisent plus ou moins certains de ces objectifs mais il est difficile de tous les concilier, et c’est là l’enjeu de nos travaux. En plus de ces objectifs, nous cherchons également à faciliter la modélisation du contenu scénaristique qui est encore de nos jours un réel enjeu lorsqu’il s’agit de scénariser des environnements complexes comme celui de la gestion de crise. Nous proposons une approche émergente dont le scénario vécu par l’apprenant va émerger des interactions entre l’apprenant, les personnages virtuels et notre système de scénarisation MENTA. MENTA est chargé du contrôle scénaristique en proposant un ensemble d’ajustements (sur la simulation) répondant à des objectifs scénaristiques choisis par le formateur (p. ex., faire travailler certaines compétences en particulier). Ces ajustements prennent la forme d’un scénario prescrit qui est généré par MENTA via un moteur de planification que nous avons couplé avec des cartes cognitives floues au travers d’un macro-opérateur FRAG. Un FRAG permet de modéliser des fragments de scénarios sous la forme de séquence d’actions/événements scriptés. L’originalité de notre approche repose sur un couplage fort entre planification et modèles graphiques qui permet de conserver les propriétés d’exploration et de puissance générative d’un moteur de planification (ce qui favorise la variabilité et la résilience du système), tout en facilitant la modélisation du contenu scénaristique ainsi que l’intention de l’auteur au travers de morceaux de scénario qui vont être scriptés par l’auteur et réutilisés dans la planification. Nous avons travaillé sur un exemple applicatif concret de scénarios portant sur la gestion d’un afflux massif de blessés, puis nous avons implémenté MENTA et généré des scénarios relatifs à cet exemple. Enfin, nous avons testé et analysé les performances de notre système. / Our work is related to the training of crisis management in virtual environments. The specification of possible unfoldings of events in a simulation is essential for human learning in a virtual environment. This allows both to propose and orchestrate personalized learning situations and also to bring the learner toward relevant and educative scenarios. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the dynamic generation of scenarios and their execution in a virtual environment. For that, we aim at a set of objectives that are often contradictory : the freedom of action of the user, the generation of various scenarios that respect the authorial intent, the narrative control and the capacity of the system to adapt to deviations fromthe learner. The different approaches of interactive storytelling tackle more or less some of these objectives, but it is difficult to satisfy them all, and this is the challenge of our work. In addition to these objectives, we also aim at facilitating the modeling of the narrative content, which is still a real issue today when it comes to model complex environments such as the ones related to crisis management. We propose an emergent approachwhere the scenario experienced by the learner will emerge fromthe interactions between the learner, the virtual characters and our narrative system MENTA. MENTA is in charge of the narrative control by proposing a set of adjustments (over the simulation) that satisfies narrative objectives chosen by the trainer (e. g., a list of specific skills). These adjustments take the form of a prescribed scenario that is generated by MENTA via a planning engine that we have coupled with fuzzy cognitive maps through a macro-operator FRAG. A FRAG is used to model FRAGment of scenario in the form of scripted sequences of actions/events. The originality of our approach relies on a strong coupling between planning and graphical models which preserves the exploration capability and the generative power of a planning engine (which contributes to the generation of various and adaptable scenarios), while facilitating the modeling of narrative content as well as the authorial intent thanks to fragments of scenario that are scripted by the author and used during the planning process. We have worked on a concrete application example of scenarios dealing with the management of a massive influx of victims. Then, we have implemented MENTA and generated scenarios related to this example. Finally, we have tested and analyzed the performance of our system.