Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Ciências Contábeis e Atuariais, Programa Multiinstitucional e Inter-Regional de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis (UnB/UFPB/UFRN), 2014. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2014-07-11T14:09:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_WolneyResendeOliveira.pdf: 651203 bytes, checksum: 6dbc2692dbf3215f510cc8b795cba17f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Guimaraes Jacqueline(jacqueline.guimaraes@bce.unb.br) on 2014-07-16T15:07:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_WolneyResendeOliveira.pdf: 651203 bytes, checksum: 6dbc2692dbf3215f510cc8b795cba17f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-16T15:07:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_WolneyResendeOliveira.pdf: 651203 bytes, checksum: 6dbc2692dbf3215f510cc8b795cba17f (MD5) / Este trabalho teve por finalidade avaliar quanto, em termos monetários, os discentes do curso de ciências contábeis da Universidade de Brasília (UnB) estariam dispostos a pagar pela estrutura educacional atualmente disponível e, se fossem oferecidas mudanças, verificar se esta disposição seria mantida. Com o intuito de encontrar respostas à problemática estabelecida foi utilizado o método de valoração contingente (MVC) suportado por métricas estatísticas para encontrar o valor da disposição a pagar (DAP). Para aplicar o método e atender aos seus requisitos foram utilizados dois tipos de questionário, um com o uso da técnica open-ended e outro com o uso da técnica referendo para avaliar a aceitação de cada cenário que foi construído e proposto aos discentes. A não aceitação dos lances ofertados em cada cenário ultrapassou em aproximadamente 66% das respostas aos cenários. O efeito ancoragem e a teoria do bem público podem ter afetado a resposta obtida substancialmente, já que a amostra discente deixou claro na aplicação do questionário open-ended que escolheu a UnB por ser uma universidade pública. Para a DAP na modalidade open-ended foi encontrado um valor médio de R$ 600,00. Sob a ótica da DAP na modalidade referendo o valor calculado foi na ordem de R$ 978,82. A partir dos valores da DAP (open-ended e referendo) pode-se dizer que os discentes que estariam dispostos a pagar por um dos cenários propostos, poderiam ser realocados em IES particulares do DF caso a UnB deixasse de existir. Em outra perspectiva, os valores da DAP, considerando o custo aluno, não cobririam os custos com o curso de Ciências Contábeis na UnB, caso fosse pago. Assim, infere-se que o valor que o discente se mostrou disposto a pagar não arca com os custos dele mesmo no curso. Deste modo, em um ambiente privado, os discentes poderiam sofrer restrições de consumo do serviço já que o valor da DAP não seria igual ou maior ao que a instituição deveria cobrar para cobrir seus custos de estrutura e pessoal. No campo das limitações metodológicas, este estudo esteve restrito ao levantamento da DAP somente no curso de Ciências Contábeis da UnB. Como sugestão para pesquisas futuras envolvendo a DAP discente, poder-se-ia realizar uma pesquisa comparativa com outras universidades federais, considerando outros contextos de comunidades acadêmicas. Poder-se-ia, ainda, realizar um estudo envolvendo mais cursos da UnB no sentido de verificar se a DAP seria aceita por uma maioria de discentes de uma amostra revelando o impacto da heurística da ancoragem relacionada ao bem público. Palavras-chave: Mensuração, Valoração contingente, Open-ended, Referendo, Disposição a pagar. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / This paper aims to assess how much, in monetary terms, the students from the accounting sciences of University of Brasilia would be willing to pay for the educational structure currently available and, if changes were offered, find out whether this pattern would be maintained. In order to find answers to the problematic established, the contingent valuation method (CVM), supported by statistical metrics to find the value of willingness to pay (WTP) set, was used. To apply the method to attend needs two types of questionnaire, with the use of open-ended technique and another technique using the referendum to evaluate the acceptability of each scenario that was built and offered to students, were used. The nonacceptance of the bids offered in each scenario exceeded the average by approximately 66 % of the responses to scenarios. In this sense, the anchoring effect and the theory of public goods may have affected the response substantially. Since the student sample made it clear, in the application of open-ended questionnaire, that UNB was chosen because it is a public university. The DAP, in the open-ended mode, found an average of R$ 600.00. From the viewpoint of the DAP, mode referendum, was calculated the value of R$ 978.82. From the values of DAP (open-ended and referendum) it can be said that students that would be willing to pay for one of the proposed scenarios, could be relocated in private universities in DF if UNB ceased to exist. From another perspective, the values of DAP, considering the cost per student, would not cover the cost of the course in accounting science at UNB if it was paid. Thus, it is inferred that the value that the students were willing to pay does not bear his own costs on the course. Therefore, in a private setting, the students could face consumption restrictions of services, since the WTP value would be equal to, or greater than, the institution would charge to cover their cost structure and personnel. In the field of methodological limitations, this study was restricted to raise the DAP only in the course of accounting sciences at UNB. As a suggestion for further research involving the student DAP, a comparative study with other federal universities considering other contexts of academic communities could be relevant. It could, also, conduct a study involving more courses at UNB in order to verify if the DAP would be accepted by a majority of students from a sample revealing the impact of anchoring heuristic related to the public good.

Usability is one of the most important aspects of Information Technology. Usability plays a vital role in this industry, where organizations thrive to ensure utmost satisfaction of their end-users in regard to the experience of using their product. The systems may be a website or a software application. To measure user satisfaction, the method of usability testing can be performed. Performing usability testing gives a clear picture of difficulties that would be faced by potential target users. There are different types of usability testing such as Task-based usability testing, open ended usability testing, remote usability testing etc. The important point here is about deciding upon the most appropriate type of testing technique to get the accurate user satisfaction level. This study is mainly focused to answer the following research question: What is the relationship between the task-based and open ended usability testing, in terms of measuring satisfaction? System Usability Scale (SUS) has been used to measure the satisfaction of the users in this study. For this we used two websites performing task-based usability testing and open ended usability testing respectively. This study had involved twenty eight different participants. Participants are divided into two groups, one group to perform open ended usability testing and another for task-based usability testing for both the websites. This study has produced following results; Open-ended testing tended to produce higher SUS-ratings for the tested system. The results in this study showed that users performing open-ended usability testing gave positive responses for both the websites in terms of user satisfaction. Open-ended usability testing is an exploratory testing, where the testing is based on different aspects such as user interface of the system, design etc. Task-based usability testing is goal based where users have to complete the given task without fail. This method drew lower scores when compared to open-ended usability testing for the tested systems from the attained results. Nevertheless that task-based testing attained lower SUS scores, it is fairly straight forward than open-ended testing to measure efficiency and effectiveness. The above results have been discussed in detail. This study has finally concluded that to measure the usability of a system it is recommended to practice both the open-ended and task-based usability testing techniques.

Designing tangible objects for children’s development andlearning has been a common theme in the HCI community.However, studies involving designing of tangibles fortoddlers’ hedonic interaction and play experiences havebeen few. This paper explores how toddlers (between oneand three years old) behave when interacting with tangibleplay objects in the context of open-ended play. The aim ofthis study was to explore how the integration ofmultisensory stimuli and multimodal feedback in tangibleobjects can affect toddlers’ play, behaviors and engagementin the context of open-ended play. Furthermore, two playobjects called Sound Cubes were developed and used in aninteraction study conducted at a preschool in Stockholm.The results presented in this paper suggest that the openendedplay objects provided toddlers with opportunity formultiple manipulations that lead to interesting interactions.Moreover, multimodal feedback and multisensory stimulicreated a positive affect on toddlers’ engagement in play.

Developing artificial agents able to autonomously discover new goals, to select them and learn the related skills is an important challenge for robotics. This becomes even crucial if we want robots to interact with real environments where they have to face many unpredictable problems and where it is not clear which skills will be the more suitable to solve them. The ability to learn and store multiple skills in order to use them when required is one of the main characteristics of biological agents: forming ample repertoires of actions is important to widen the possibility for an agent to better adapt to different environments and to improve its chance of survival and reproduction. Moreover, humans and other mammals explore the environment and learn new skills not only on the basis of reward-related stimuli but also on the basis of novel or unexpected neutral stimuli. The mechanisms related to this kind of learning processes have been studied under the heading of “Intrinsic Motivations” (IMs), and in the last decades the concept of IMs have been used in developmental and autonomous robotics to foster an artificial curiosity that can improve the autonomy and versatility of artificial agents. In the research presented in this thesis I focus on the development of open-ended learning robots able to autonomously discover interesting events in the environment and autonomously learn the skills necessary to reproduce those events. In particular, this research focuses on the role that IMs can play in fostering those processes and in improving the autonomy and versatility of artificial agents. Taking inspiration from recent and past research in this field, I tackle some of the interesting open challenges related to IMs and to the implementation of intrinsically motivated robots. I first focus on the neurophysiology underlying IM learning signals, and in particular on the relations between IMs and phasic dopamine (DA). With the support of a first computational model, I propose a new hypothesis that addresses the dispute over the nature and the functions of phasic DA activations: reconciling two contrasting theories in the literature and taking xi into account the different experimental data, I suggest that phasic DA can be considered as a reinforcement prediction error learning signal determined by both unexpected changes in the environment (temporary, intrinsic reinforcements) and biological rewards (permanent, extrinsic reinforcements). The results obtained with my computational model support the presented hypothesis, showing how such a learning signal can serve two important functions: driving both the discovery and acquisition of novel actions and the maximisation of rewards. Moreover, those results provide a first example of the power of IMs to guide artificial agents in the cumulative learning of complex behaviours that would not be learnt simply providing a direct reward for the final tasks. In a second work, I move to investigate the issues related to the implementation of IMs signal in robots. Since the literature still lacks a specific analysis of which is the best IM signal to drive skill acquisition, I compare in a robotic setup different typologies of IMs, as well as the different mechanisms used to implement them. The results provide two important contributions: 1) they show how IM signals based on the competence of the system are able to generate a better guidance for skill acquisition with respect to the signals based on the knowledge of the agent; 2) they identify a proper mechanism to generate a competence-based IM signal, showing that the stronger the link between the IM signal and the competence of the system, the better the performance. Following the aim of widening the autonomy and the versatility of artificial agents, in a third work I focus on the improvement of the control architecture of the robot. I build a new 3-level architecture that allows the system to select the goals to pursue, to search for the best way to achieve them, and acquire the related skills. I implement this architecture in a simulated iCub robot and test it in a 3D experimental scenario where the agent has to learn, on the basis of IMs, a reaching task where it is not clear which arm of the robot is the most suitable to reach the different targets. The performance of the system is compared to the one of my previous 2-level architecture system, where tasks and computational resources are associated at design time. The better performance of the system endowed with the new 3-level architecture highlights the importance of developing robots with different levels of autonomy, and in particular both the high-level of goal selection and the low-level of motor control. Finally, I focus on a crucial issue for autonomous robotics: the development of a system that is able not only to select its own goals, but also to discover them through the interaction with the environment. In the last work I present GRAIL, a Goal-discovering Robotic Architecture for Intrisically-motivated Learning. Building on the insights provided by my previous research, GRAIL is a 4-level hierarchical architecture that for the first time assembles in unique system different features necessary for the development of truly autonomous robots. GRAIL is able to autonomously 1) discover new goals, 2) create and store representations of the events associated to those goals, 3) select the goal to pursue, 4) select the computational resources to learn to achieve the desired goal, and 5) self-generate its own learning signals on the basis of the achievement of the selected goals. I implement GRAIL in a simulated iCub and test it in three different 3D experimental setup, comparing its performance to my previous systems, showing its capacity to generate new goals in unknown scenarios, and testing its ability to cope with stochastic environments. The experiments highlight on the one hand the importance of an appropriate hierarchical architecture for supporting the development of autonomous robots, and on the other hand how IMs (together with goals) can play a crucial role in the autonomous learning of multiple skills.

The following study aims to define what an open-ended question in mathematics education is and investigate what the effects are on the learning process. Firstly, conversations were conducted with teachers that are using this approach in their mathematics education. Then systematic searches for relevant scientific articles were conducted in various databases.The result shows that there are three main features of open-ended questions; there may be more than one acceptable answer, it requires a higher level of thinking from the person solving the problem compared to closed questions and both the students and the teacher will learn during the process. Moreover, the result indicates that using open-ended questions has positive effects on student’s engagement, contributes to a positive classroom climate, increases the possibility that all students can be involved in the same teaching activity and makes the students’ knowledge visible for both the student and the teacher.The findings conclude that it requires good planning from the teacher before using this approach in the classroom to enhance the possibilities of the good effects. Furthermore, I discussed what I, as a future teacher, need to think about while using open-ended questions in my classroom. Lastly, I give suggestions on further research about open-ended questions in the early years.

The purpose of this qualitative, purposeful, bounded case study was to explore the influences that promoted and restricted three women early childhood educators' inclusion of open-ended outdoor learning in a Head Start center. A continued degradation of nature, along with the predominance of women working in the early childhood workforce, led me to the use of the ecofeminist theory for this study. Research methodology included participant interviews, observations, and a study of the site's documents. In the analysis of the data, four themes were identified as promoting or restricting open-ended outdoor learning. These themes included: (a) participant's attitudes, (b) Head Start program requirements, (c) classroom and playground context, and (d) student behavior. Each of the themes included codes that were categorized as promoting or restricting open-ended outdoor learning. Some fell into both categories. Through the use of the ecofeminist lens, a view of the dualistic relationships between (a) teachers and the Head Start program and (b) teachers and their students were identified. These dualisms were found to support the "logic of domination" in which social structures were created to justify the domination of one group over another. These structures have historically been identified as patriarchal and were present at the research site. Children's culture and nature's intrinsic values were considered less valuable than adults' expectations for school readiness. This study provides a view of an ecofeminist early childhood analysis in which limited research is currently available. Further work in this field would aid in the understanding of the dualistic model and its presence in early childhood outdoor learning environments.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第18415号 / 情博第530号 / 新制||情||94(附属図書館) / 31273 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 奥乃 博, 教授 河原 達也, 教授 髙木 直史, 講師 吉井 和佳 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

This thesis describes a research study which the Investigator prepared and documented. It involved two groups of five kindergarten children who were prepared by the Investigator to view one artwork in a museum. Children were prepared to view the artwork by exploring and solving open-ended design problems with large shapes, one-third the size of those in the artwork. The Investigator guided children to respond to the artwork through inquiry and discovery activities related to the artwork's specific characteristics. Findings revealed that kindergarten children enjoyed exploring large shapes and were capable of solving collaborative design problems with the shapes, which prepared them to respond to an artwork with similar shapes.

The application of digital elements to traditional playgrounds can enhance children’s outdoor play and counteract the growing trend of sedentary activities. This work reports the implementation and evaluation of a playground installation which looks at sound as the modality that can provide new and engaging play experiences. The design of this system follows an open-ended approach that let the children create their own emerging game goals and rules. The sound design is first tested in a lab setting and later on in a Swedish preschool, with a particular focus on the stages of play (invitation, exploration, and immersion). 38 children between 2 and 6 years old participated in a field study that lasted for three days. Children’s engagement over time was quantified and field notes were taken during the whole evaluation. None of the children between 2 and 3 years old reached the immersion stage. On the other hand, children between 4 and 6 years old created their own rules showing parallel and collaborative play and, in some occasions, solitary play. The sound modality chosen proved to be effective to encourage children’s play in a first place. In a longer engagement perspective, the soundscape partly supported an immersive play. The selection of the sounds to be integrated in the system demonstrated to be as fundamental as the physical appearance of the playground installation. The results of this study show how the visual and auditory modalities can be effective in an open-ended interactive playground and report the limitations of this design. / Additionen av digitala element till traditionella lekplatser kan förstärka barns utomhuslek och motverka den växande trenden av stillasittande aktiviteter. Detta arbete beskriver genomförandet och utvärderingen av en lekplatsinstallation med ljud i fokus som den modalitet som kan tillhandahålla nya och engagerande lekupplevelser. Utformningen av denna lekplatsinstallation skedde ur ett fri lek-perspektiv där barn skapar egna mål och regler till sin lek. Ljuddesignen är först testad i en laboratoriemiljö och senare i en svensk förskola, med särskilt fokus på lekfaserna (invit-fasen, utforskande-fasen och uppslukad-fasen). 38 barn mellan 2 och 6 år deltog in en fältstudie som varade i tre dagar. Barns engagemang över tid kvantifierades och noteringar togs under hela utvärderingen. Inga av barnen mellan 2 och 3 år nådde uppslukad-fasen. Å andra sidan skapade barn mellan 4 och 6 år egna regler som visar på parallell och samspelslek och i några fall ensamlek. Den valda ljudmodaliteten visade sig vara effektiv för att uppmuntra barns lek till en början. På längre sikt understödde ljudlandskapet delvis lek av uppslukad karaktär. Valet av ljud integrerat i systemet visade sig vara lika fundamental som den fysiska uppenbarelsen av lekplatsinstallationen. Resultaten av denna studie visar hur de visuella och auditoriska modaliteterna effektivt kan vara designade i en interaktiv lekplats för öppen lek, och begränsningarna av denna design rapporteras.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (1999, 2011) recommends no screen time for children under two years and limited screen time for three- and four-year-olds. Despite these recommendations, most young children have easy access to various types of screens. In particular, children*s use of mobile media, including tablets and other touch screen devices, is increasing (Common Sense Media, 2013). Even though scholars have highlighted positive uses for mobile media (Christakis, 2014; Radesky, Schumacher, & Zuckerman, 2015) and there are recommendations in place for using mobile media with young children in active, open-ended ways (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012), there has been very limited research conducted on the impact of mobile media on young children*s development. What is more, as early childhood professionals are beginning to incorporate mobile media into their classrooms, they are struggling with the ability to use these devices in developmentally appropriate ways (Marklund, 2015; Nuttall, Edwards, Mantilla, Grieshaber, & Wood, 2015). The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of using different types of mobile media apps to increase the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of preschool children living in economically disadvantaged communities. Children and teachers in four Head Start classrooms participated in the quasi-experimental study, which included an eight-week intervention in which the children interacted with one of two types of apps: one classroom used direct instruction vocabulary apps (n = 16) and one classroom used open-ended vocabulary apps (n = 15). Two classrooms served as control groups (n = 18; n = 14) which used apps that were chosen by the Head Start program with no specific instructional method. Children*s vocabulary was assessed pre- and post-intervention. To assess receptive vocabulary, the PPVT-4 (Dunn & Dunn, 2007) and an iPad Receptive Vocabulary Assessment (Vatalaro, 2015a) were used. To assess expressive vocabulary, the EVT-2 (Williams, 2007) and an iPad Expressive Vocabulary Assessment (Vatalaro, 2015b) were used. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance with split plot analysis, children who used direct instruction apps performed statistically significantly higher on the PPVT-4 than children who used open-ended apps. Children in the direct instruction app group also performed statistically significantly higher than both control groups on the iPad Receptive Vocabulary Assessment. There were no statistically significant differences between groups for receptive vocabulary as measured by the EVT-2. However, when children were credited for describing a function instead of the iPad vocabulary word, the analysis of the iPad Expressive Vocabulary Assessment revealed that the children using direct instruction apps performed statistically significantly higher than children using open-ended apps and the children in one of the control groups. A secondary purpose of the present study was to examine the use of apps in mobile media by Head Start teachers. The teachers in the two intervention classrooms participated in weekly meetings with the primary researcher for support in using mobile media in their classrooms in order to ensure that the child intervention was carried out with fidelity. After analyzing data from teachers* self-report daily logs across the eight-week intervention, it was determined that the children received instruction on the assigned apps in both intervention classrooms. Although caution is given to the findings due to some limitations such as the quasi-experimental choice of a research design and the number of participants, the present study contributed to the early childhood research literature with the findings that interactive, animated apps which provide the meanings of vocabulary words in a direct instruction manner may have the ability to increase a child*s receptive vocabulary, and to increase a child*s descriptive definitions of iPad functions. This information increases the chance that teachers in Head Start will begin using direct instruction apps, in the hope of increasing a child*s vocabulary knowledge.