This objectivist, experimental study investigated the influence of virtual expert systems (VES) on the decision accuracy of non-expert consultants within a technology consulting contact centre environment. Because of the overwhelming availability of conceptual information, non-expert consultants experience challenges in making accurate decisions, and would benefit from augmented technologies, such as VES. VES hold the ability to capture and scale large volumes of decision variables for consideration by human experts when making decisions. A total of 40 participants were randomly selected from contact centres in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa for this study. Human logic was captured and scaled into a technology fault finding virtual expert and administered as an experiment to group participants. The experimental and control group participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups of 20 participants each. The control group was exposed to the paper-based, fault-finding manual. The pre-test and post-test data were collected based on four decision accuracy measures, namely individual performance, average call handling time, first call resolution and customer service. The Clarify performance system of the participating technology consulting company was used as data collection tool to record the findings used for Chapter 5. Statistical data analyses were performed using ANOVA and two-tailed significance tests to test the relationship between VES and decision accuracy in the pre-test and post-test phases of the study. The study found that the participant scores on the decision accuracy measures were only statistically significant on the measure of first call resolution measure (significance score of a p value <.05). On the other (three) measures, the scores obtained from experimental group participants showed more improvement than that of the control group participants. Consequently, the hypothesis that the use of VES enhance decision accuracy amongst non-expert technology consultants was accepted and the alternative hypothesis rejected. Some limitations pertaining to the resultant Hawthorne effect (the effect when some employees work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment) was noted amongst participants. This effect resulted from the use of team leaders in monitoring performance during the experiment and the involvement of the technology consulting company in determining the performance norms of the identified measures. Another limitation of the study related to the size of the sample where only two provinces were included. The limitation may affect the generalisation of results to other future settings when such a study is repeated. It was recommended that future studies in this field should make provision for a larger population, inclusive of other provinces to avoid these limitations.

Many learning disabled student being served by the public school systems have been inaccurately classified. Training and research efforts are needed to assist members of the multidisciplinary team in making more accurate learning disabilities classification decisions. CLASS.LD2, a computer-based expert system, was designed to assist multidisciplinary teams by providing second-opinion advice regarding the appropriateness of a learning disabilities classification for individual student cases. The existing expert system, CLASS.LD2, was combined with strategies for effective concept instruction to create an instructional package entitled LO.Trainer. The purpose of this study was (a) to develop a computer-based instructional package combining expert system technology and strategies for effective concept instruction and (b) to test the effectiveness of the instructional package against another system application. The training application against which the instructional package was compared consisted of users running consultations with the original expert system. Of specific interest was (a) the effectiveness of both training programs across experienced and inexperienced teachers, (b) the performance of the experienced as compared with the inexperienced teachers regardless of the training program used, (c) whether an interaction between level of experience and training program occurred, ( d) which training program was more effective for the experienced teachers, and (e) which training program was more effective for the inexperienced teachers. Ninety-seven students from three universities served as subjects and were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups. Subjects who completed the LO.Trainer materials scored statistically (p < .05) and educationally higher (SMD = + 0.96) on the posttest than those who ran CLASS.LD2 consultations. Statistical and educational significance were al so obtained across the experienced and inexperienced subjects when considered alone. An interaction, although not statistically significant (p < .05), was obtained between group and experience level. Although there exist many similarities between the processes of building expert systems and concept analysis, incorporating both to develop an effective training tool had not previously been demonstrated. Results of this study indicated that the two fields, successfully combined, can create an effective and efficient training tool.

An expert system for identifying cows to be culled, MAXCULL, was programmed to run on an IBM or compatible personal computer . It was designed to be used with Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) records as an aid in decision making. MAXCULL used fifty-two health, seventeen reproduction, and thirty-nine production rules in the analysis. MAXCULL was initially developed using two expert system tools. VP-Expert and Super Expert both had inductive abilities and were reasonably priced . VP - Expert was selected to continue the development of the MAXCULL system . The program u sed a rule-based method of storing knowledge, which was obtained from literature reviewed in the health, reproduction and management areas. Three blocks of rules were developed. MAXCULL used a backward- chaining control strategy. The information on each cow was obtained from a special report obtained from DHI Provo . The diagnosis from MAXCULL produced an explanation paragraph identifying possible reasons for removing the cow. Twenty herds with DHI records were identified, ten assigned as controls and ten to be evaluated with the MAXCULL system . General linear model procedures were used to compare thirteen variables after using MAXCULL for one year. No significant differences were noted for any of the variables. The chi- square analysis showed that the decisions of MAXCULL were significantly different from the decisions of the manager. The final survey supports the idea that dairy management expertise can be provided to the dairy manager through an expert system.

New Zealand�s main export earnings come from the primary production area including agriculture, horticulture, and viticulture. One of the major contributors in this area of horticulture is the production of quality export grade fruit; specifically apples. In order to maintain a competitive advantage, the systems and methods used to grow the fruit are constantly being refined and are increasingly based on data collected and analysed by both the orchardist who grows the produce and also researchers who refine the methods used to determine high levels of fruit quality. To support the task of data analysis and the resulting decision-making process it requires efficient and reliable tools. This thesis attempts to address this issue by applying the techniques of Connectionist-Based Intelligent Information Systems (CBIIS) for Image Analysis and Knowledge Discovery. Using advanced neurocomputing techniques and a novel knowledge engineering methodology, this thesis attempts to seek some solutions to a set of specific problems that exist within the horticultural domain. In particular it describes a methodology based on previous research into neuro-fuzzy systems for knowledge acquisition, manipulation, and extraction and furthers this area by introducing a novel and innovative knowledge-based architecture for knowledge-discovery using an on-line/real-time incremental learning system based on the Evolving Connectionist System (ECOS) paradigm known as the Evolving Fuzzy Neural Network (EFuNN). The emphases of this work highlights knowledge discovery from these data sets using a novel rule insertion and rule extraction method. The advantage of this method is that it can operate on data sets of limited sizes. This method can be used to validate the results produced by the EFuNN and also allow for greater insight into what aspects of the collected data contribute to the development of high quality produce.

Psychologists, legal practitioners and scholars share the knowledge that honest eyewitnesses can err in their attempts to identify the perpetrator of a crime. This thesis reports an experimental investigation of the extent to which expert evidence and judicial instruction can improve juror ability to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate identifications. Special attention is also paid to the logic of inferences which have been made by psychologists regarding the efficacy of expert evidence, and compares methodologies adopting direct measures of participant Sensitivity to Eyewitness Accuracy (SEA) with those that can only indirectly assess this construct. Study 1 surveys the knowledge and opinions of legal professionals regarding eyewitness identification issues (n = 35), showing that respondents expressed doubts that judicial instructions would exert an effect equivalent to that of eyewitness expert evidence. Accordingly, Experiments 1 to 4 (Experiment 1, n = 104; Experiment 2, n = 238; Experiment 3, n = 228; Experiment 4, n = 297) were conducted to directly assess the relative impacts of judicial instruction and expert evidence on participant juror SEA. The methodology utilised in these investigations incorporated the testimony of real eyewitnesses to a staged crime scenario in order to assess the impact of instruction on juror ability to discriminate between known accurate and known inaccurate eyewitnesses. Overall, little evidence was found to support the notion that expert evidence is more effective than judicial instruction, as no significant association was identified between instruction type and SEA. This result was found to hold irrespective of the objective quality of the expert?s testimony (accurate or erroneous). In light of the results from Experiments 1 to 4, Experiment 5 was designed to investigate why the experts were not able to improve the discrimination accuracy of the jurors. This study focused on the extent to which participants of varying levels of expertise could correctly classify eyewitness accuracy. The results of Experiment 5 (n = 145) suggest that experts were no better able to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses than novice laypeople. Overall, the evidence reported in this thesis raises serious questions regarding the utility of eyewitness expertise in the completion of eyewitness discrimination tasks.

PhD / In design literature, how designers think and how they design have been identified as a reflection of how they interact with their sketches. Sketching in architectural design is still a central concern which shapes our understanding of the design process and the development of new tools. Sketching not only serves as a visual aid to store and retrieve conceptualisations, but as a medium to facilitate more ideas, and to revise and refine these ideas. This thesis examined how mental imagery and sketching is used in designing by conducting a protocol analysis study with six expert architects. Each architect was required to think aloud and design under two different conditions: one in which s/he had access to sketching and one in which s/he was blindfolded (s/he did not have access to sketching). At the end of the blindfold condition the architects were required to quickly sketch what they held in their minds. The architects were able to come up with satisfying design solutions and some reported that using their imagery could be another way of designing. The resulting sketches were assessed by judges and were found to have no significant differences in overall quality. Expert architects were able to construct and maintain the design of a building without having access to sketching. The analysis of the blindfold and sketching design protocols did not demonstrate any differences in the quantity of cognitive actions in perceptual, conceptual, functional and evaluative categories. Each architect’s cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the blindfold activity mimicked her/his cognitive structure and designing behaviour in the sketching activity. The analysis of links between the design ideas demonstrated that architects’ performance in idea development was higher under the blindfold condition, compared to their sketching condition. It was also found that architects’ blindfold design performance was improved when they were more familiar with the site layout. These results imply that expert designers may not need sketching as a medium for their reflective conversation with the situation. This study indicates that constructing internal representations can be a strong tool for designing. Future studies may show that designers may not need sketching for the generation of certain designs during the early phases of conceptual designing.

Most legal expert systems attempt to implement complex models of legal reasoning. Yet the utility of a legal expert system lies not in the extent to which it simulates a lawyer's approach to a legal problem, but in the quality of its predictions and of its arguments. A complex model of legal reasoning is not necessary: a successful legal expert system can be based upon a simplified model of legal reasoning. ¶ Some researchers have based their systems upon a jurisprudential approach to the law, yet lawyers are patently able to operate without any jurisprudential insight. A useful legal expert system should be capable of producing advice similar to that which one might get from a lawyer, so it should operate at the same pragmatic level of abstraction as does a lawyer - not at the more philosophical level of jurisprudence. ¶ A legal expert system called SHYSTER has been developed to demonstrate that a useful legal expert system can be based upon a pragmatic approach to the law. SHYSTER has a simple representation structure which simplifies the problem of knowledge acquisition. Yet this structure is complex enough for SHYSTER to produce useful advice. ¶ SHYSTER is a case-based legal expert system (although it has been designed so that it can be linked with a rule-based system to form a hybrid legal expert system). Its advice is based upon an examination of, and an argument about, the similarities and differences between cases. SHYSTER attempts to model the way in which lawyers argue with cases, but it does not attempt to model the way in which lawyers decide which cases to use in those arguments. Instead, it employs statistical techniques to quantify the similarity between cases. It decides which cases to use in argument, and what prediction it will make, on the basis of that similarity measure. ¶ SHYSTER is of a general design: it provides advice in areas of case law that have been specified by a legal expert using a specification language. Four different, and disparate, areas of law have been specified for SHYSTER, and its operation has been tested in each of those legal domains. ¶ Testing of SHYSTER in these four domains indicates that it is exceptionally good at predicting results, and fairly good at choosing cases with which to construct its arguments. SHYSTER demonstrates the viability of a pragmatic approach to legal expert system design.

Australian agriculture is one area in which a number of intelligent support systems have been developed. It appears, however, that comparatively few of these systems are widely used or have the impact the developers might have wished. In this study a possible explanation for this state of affairs was investigated. The development process for 66 systems was examined. Particular attention was paid to the nature of user involvement, if any, during development and the relationship to system success. The issue is not only whether there was user involvement but rather the nature of the involvement, that is, the degree of influence users had during development. The patterns identified in the analysis suggest user influence is an important contributor to the success of a system. These results have theoretical significance in that they add to knowledge of the role of the user in the development of intelligent support systems. The study has drawn together work from three areas: Rogers’ diffusion theory, the technology acceptance model, and theories relating to user involvement in the development of information systems. Most prior research in the information systems area has investigated one or two of the above three areas in any one study. The study synthesizes this knowledge through applying it to the field of intelligent support systems in Australian agriculture. The results have considerable practical significance, as apparently developers of intelligent support systems in Australian agriculture do not recognize the importance of user participation, and continue to develop systems with less than optimum impact.

<p>Om en pojke </p><p>- en pojke med Downs syndrom och kommunikationssvårigheters vardag</p><p>Uppsatsen handlar om hur den pojke som jag har valt att studera kommunicerar med sin omgivning när hans kommunikationssätt skiljer sig från det normala. Jag tar upp omgivningens inverkan och påverkan på kommunikationen och på livet i stort när förutsättningarna inte är samma som för övriga i gruppen. Pojken jag har studerat har Down syndrom och kraftig hörselnedsättning, han använder sig av teckenkommunikation och pictogrambilder för att kommunicera med sin omgivning. Jag har observerat pojken och intervjuat viktiga personer i hans närhet för att förstå hans livssituation. </p><p>Det samhälle vi lever i idag påverkar oss liksom hur tidigare samhällen har varit konstruerade. Synen på personer med funktionshinder har förändrats över tid och det har påverkat utformningarna av de olika system som finns i dag. Den kunskap och de erfarenheter vi har påverkar vårt sätt att bemöta våra medmänniskor. I det samhälle vi lever är vi separerade från varandra, vi känner bara till och förstår den grupp som vi själva tillhör. Samhället är strukturerat på ett vis där experter tar hand om många av våra existentiella frågor och funderingar, utan att vi för den sakens skull få svar på dem. Att vi i vår tid inte får tillgång till samma erfarenheter som samhällsmedborgare på medeltiden fick är naturligtvis en viktig aspekt som jag tar upp till diskussion och analys.</p>

Work on Expert Systems has received extensive attention recently, prompting growing interest in a range of environments. Much has been made of the basic concept and the rule-based system approach typically used to construct the programs. Perhaps this is a good time then to review what we know, assess the current prospects, and suggest directions appropriate for the next steps of basic research. I'd like to do that today and propose to do it by taking you on a journey of sorts, a metaphorical trip through the State of the Art of Expert Systems. We'll wander about the landscape, ranging from the familiar territory of the Land of Accepted Wisdom, to the vast unknowns at the Frontiers of Knowledge. I guarantee we'll all return safely, so come along...