published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Science

The research reported in this dissertation explores the coordination problem faced by economic agents in various strategic environments. The first chapter provides an experimental test of a theory of collusion in the presence of price-matching guarantees and thus throws light on the equilibrium selection problem embedded in this market game. The experiment yields important empirical information regarding the competitive nature of these low-price guarantees in the laboratory.In the second chapter, more general theoretical models are developed that undermine any collusive equilibrium in the presence of price-matching guarantees. Although the theory predicts that the competitive price should emerge in equilibrium in all these models, systematic discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the observed behavior is found.In the third chapter, a well-known paradox is tested in the laboratory. Braess paradox (Braess, 1968) consists of showing that, in equilibrium, adding a new link that connects two routes running between a common origin and common destination may raise the travel cost for each network user. The experiment is designed to study whether the paradox is behaviorally realized in the critical minimal simulated traffic network. Results reject the hypothesis that the paradox is of marginal value and its force, if at all evident, diminishes with experience.In the last chapter, using controlled laboratory experiments, I study how the problem of coordination failure, as embedded in the 'minimum-effort' coordination game, can be overcome using structured, ex post feedbacks related to individual performance among members of a large group. I allow two types of performance feedback mechanisms, namely, negative and positive. I use 'disapproval' and 'approval' ratings about individual choices by group members as proxies for negative and positive feedback mechanisms, respectively. Results show that where participants are allowed to express only disapproval of others' choices, play converges towards the most efficient coordination. In contrast, where participants can express only approval of others' choices, inefficient coordination is obtained.

No description available.

L'union européenne et le Canada appliquent la méthode de coordination des normes, un moyen de fonctionnement d'entités unies dans la diversité. Nous allons rechercher les raisons pour lesquelles des différences apparaissent dans l'application de la même méthode de coordination des normes dans les deux régions. Nous allons nous interroger sur les moyens mis à la disposition de la méthode de coordination des normes par le système canadien, et nous nous intéresserons au système fédéral comme moyen de coordination des législations. Nous considèrerons aussi l'espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice de la communauté européenne, comme une palette de moyens mis à la disposition de la méthode de coordination des normes au niveau communautaire. Ainsi, nous allons envisager la coordination des normes du point de vue du niveau de compétence, puis du point de vue de la méthode. Dans une perspective plus large, nous établirons si du point de vue de la méthode de coordination, la mise en place d'un système fédéral favorise ou non l'efficacité de l'organisation juridique d'une région. Ainsi, nous établirons si dans le cadre de cette méthode, l'organisation politique d'un système influence ou non l'efficacité de son organisation juridique. / How living together in diversity? Canada and European Union are two legal systems presenting this type of question : the legal diversity management. The answer to this question is composed of the alignment of the one and the multiple. In Europe, it is achieved in the allocation of powers between european and national legal orders ; in Canada, between federal and provincial legal orders. Fresh waters quality protection in Canada and EU has been chosen in order to reveal the allocation of powers issues from a global perspective. The aim of this research is to go beyond an analysis on how are legal systems supposed to work, to emphasize their real way of functioning. The combination of the allocation of powers rules allows this approach in water quality protection. This concrete example reveals that there are similarities between canadian and european allocation of powers. The balance of these distributions of powers has been eroded, because of powers centralization caused by an effectiveness principle in this field.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1971. / Mimeographed.

Studies into reaching have typically looked at the reaching arm or the eyes alone, ranging from single actions performed in controlled lab settings to a series of actions completed in natural environments. The current experiment looked at measures of the hand, arm and eyes as a right-handed subject performed a single reach and grasp action among real objects with their right hand. Specifically, this experiment was designed to investigate the impact of a potential non-target object (NTO) in the reach space on eye-hand coordination. Results showed that NTOs contralateral to the reaching arm produced almost no effects, whereas those ipsilateral became more “invasive” as they were located nearer a subject. Ipsilateral NTOs also produced a shift away from their location in fixation and grasp location on a target. These results suggest the brain used an “attention-for-action” system that highlighted locations as they became more relevant to the task.

Studies into reaching have typically looked at the reaching arm or the eyes alone, ranging from single actions performed in controlled lab settings to a series of actions completed in natural environments. The current experiment looked at measures of the hand, arm and eyes as a right-handed subject performed a single reach and grasp action among real objects with their right hand. Specifically, this experiment was designed to investigate the impact of a potential non-target object (NTO) in the reach space on eye-hand coordination. Results showed that NTOs contralateral to the reaching arm produced almost no effects, whereas those ipsilateral became more “invasive” as they were located nearer a subject. Ipsilateral NTOs also produced a shift away from their location in fixation and grasp location on a target. These results suggest the brain used an “attention-for-action” system that highlighted locations as they became more relevant to the task.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Sociality is one of the most fundamental aspects of being human. The key to sociality is coordination, that is, the bringing of people "into a common action, movement or condition" [134]. Coordination is, at base, how social creatures get social things done in the world. Being social creatures, we engage in highly coordinative activities in everyday life"two girls play hopscotch together, a group of musicians play jazz in a jam session and a father teaches a son how to ride a bicycle. Even mundane actions such as greetings, answering a phone call, and asking a question to ask a question by saying "Can I ask you a question?" are complex and intricate. Actors not only need to plan and perform situated actions, but also need to process the responding actions----even unforeseen ones----from the other party in real time and adjust their own subsequent actions. Yet, we expertly coordinate with each other in performing highly intricate coordinative actions. In this work, I look at how people coordinate joint activities at the moment of interaction and aim to unveil a range of coordinative issues, using "methodologies and approaches that fundamentally question the mainstream frameworks that define what counts as knowledge" (p.2, [80]) in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). To investigate computer mediated interactions among co-located people, I examine different interactional choices people make in the course of carrying out their joint activities, and the consequences of their choices. By investigating co-located groups as they played a collaborative, problem-solving game using distributed technologies in experimental settings, I (1) provide critical case reports which question and challenge non-discussed, often-taken-for-granted assumptions about face-to-face interactions and coordination, and (2) tie the observations to the creation of higher level constructs which, in turn, can affect subsequent design choices. More specifically, I ran two studies to look at how co-located people coordinate and manage their attention, tasks at hand, and joint activities in an experimental setting. I asked triads to work on a Sudoku puzzle collectively as a team. I varied support for the deictic mechanism in the software as well as form factors of mediating technology. My research findings show that: (1) different tools support different deictic behaviors. Explicit support for pointing is desirable to support complex reference tasks, but may not be needed for simpler ones. On the other hand, users without sophisticated explicit support may give up the attempt to engaged in complex reference. (2) talk is diagnostic of user satisfaction but lack of talk is not diagnostic of dissatisfaction. Therefore, designers must be careful in their use of talk as a measurement of collaboration. (3) the more people talk about complex relationships in the puzzle, the higher their increase in positive emotion. Either engaging with the problem at hand is rewarding or having the ability to engage with the problem effectively enough to speak about it is engaging. (4) amount of talk is related to form factor. People in both computer conditions talked less about the specifics oF the game board than people in the paper condition, but only people in the laptop condition experienced a significant decrease in positive emotion. (5) different mediating technologies afford different types of non-response situations. The most common occurrences of non-responses were precipitated by speakers talking to themselves in the computer conditions. Participants did not talk to themselves much in the paper condition. Differences in technology form factors may influence people's behaviors and emotion differently. These findings represent a portrait of how different technologies provide different interactional possibilities for people. With my quantitative and qualitative analyses I do not make bold and futile claims such as "using a highlighter tool will make users collaborate more efficiently," or "making people talk more will make the group perform better." I, instead, illustrate the interactional choices people made in the presence of given technological conditions and how their choices eventuated in situ. I then propose processlessness as an idea for preparing designs that are open to multiple interactional possibilities, and nudgers as an idea for enabling and aiding users to create and design their own situated experiences. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Science