Master of Science / Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health / Edgar Chambers IV / Cooking is part of almost everyone’s daily life. During cooking, recipes are usually used as a guide for home cooks to help them take decisions and get a tasty and appealing food product. Recipes have a great impact on consumers’ behavior and decision making at the kitchen. However, building a recipe requires understanding of the potential user, including explaining to him/her, in layman’s terms, the best way to prepare the food product. Nevertheless, what is the best way to communicate to consumers through a recipe? A qualitative sensory technique that allows collecting data regarding people’s motivations and actions during cooking is required in order to retrieve this information. The technique needs to allow data collection about the motivations, and the actions inspired by these. Recipes can use these motivations and actions to communicate to recipe users. This research proposes the use of the Think Aloud method, a technique that has not been used on sensory research, as a technique that can meet these goals. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate different recipe styles for the preparation of doughs by understanding and using people’s descriptions, techniques and preparation terms through the application of the Think Aloud technique. Two qualitative studies were performed with wheat dough preparers (n=43) recruited in Manhattan, KS and corn dough preparers (n=50) recruited in Guadalupe, Costa Rica. During the interviews, participants verbalized the process of preparing the doughs, as well as their decision-making process through the Think Aloud technique. Results showed that participants provided enough data by thinking aloud. It was observed that the use of the Think Aloud method allowed them to be aware of texture characteristics in the dough. The ready doughs were mainly described as not sticky, soft and pliable. The most common techniques used to make the doughs included stirring, pushing/pressing/squeezing, and incorporate all together. Five recipes were written based on these descriptions. Three of the recipes included a step-by-step numbered format with a different amount of detail: not detailed, very detailed, and detailed recipe. The other two formats, both based on the detailed recipe, included a paragraph form recipe and a recipe with images. Wheat and corn recipes were validated in two online surveys (per study, n=300) where respondents evaluated the easiness, likeability, likelihood of using the recipe, helpfulness of the format, and amount of information. Overall, respondents considered the recipe with images easier and more helpful. The very detailed recipe was considered more difficult, less helpful and was liked less than the other recipes. Understanding and identifying the words and techniques people use at the kitchen represent a useful tool that can be used to communicate to other preparers how to make a food product. The Think Aloud technique represents a useful technique to collect information regarding consumers’ actions and motivations. The data collected through the application of the technique allowed building different recipe styles to communicate to consumers how to prepare a food product.

In the context of reading strategy research, the present study explores changes with passage difficulty in the frequencies of occurrence of responses and strategies identified in expert readers' think-aloud protocols. Data consisted of tape recorded think-alouds collected from ten university undergraduates reading to summarize three expository passages ordered from simple to difficult by independent raters. Tapes were transcribed and six categories of responses and strategies were identified in subjects' protocols. The six categories, in order of frequency of occurrence, were: Metastatement, Problem Solving, Repetition, Surface Response, Surface Structure, and Divergent. There were significant differences across passage difficulty in expert readers' evidence of responses and strategies. The frequency of occurrence of problem solving increased significantly as subjects read increasingly difficult expository text. Both surface reactions to text and subjects' comments on their own reading, were high in frequency of occurrence only for the most difficult text. Interpretation suggests expert readers seem to engage with text through problem solving more often in reading more difficult text and demonstrate the existence of a lack of comprehension through reactions to the text and to their own reading. Implications for practice and research are discussed. / Graduate

Administrators who observe mathematics teachers need to have knowledge and an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning to effectively evaluate teachers and how their instructional practices relate to student thinking. This research study was conducted to illustrate the importance of understanding the thought process of administrators as they make decisions about teacher effectiveness based on what they notice during observations of mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine what administrators attend to in the instructional environment and how what they notice influences their ability to identify the Common Core State Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice. A purposive sample of six administrators engaged in cognitive interviews, known as think alouds, while observing two mathematics classroom videos. This study was designed to explore how administrators* instructional leadership knowledge or skills influence what they notice during mathematics instruction. There was evidence that administrators did notice aspects of the instructional environment pertaining to teachers, students, and, content. However, in this study it was found that administrators with an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning attended more to student*s mathematical thinking during instruction. It was also found that there was an increase of the administrators* mathematical language and attention to student interactions with mathematics content when the administrators were presented with a tool describing the elements of a classroom engaged in the Standards for Mathematical Practice.

Hemophilia is a genetic disorder that is caused by deficiencies in coagulation factor VIII and factor IX. Optimal management of hemophilia requires tailoring the dose of treatment to the individual patient’s need. This tailoring is based on several clinical considerations, for example, bleeding phenotype and desired level of activity, and estimated individual pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters. While a classical PK approach would require several post infusion blood samples taken over multiple days, a population PK approach might enable individual assessment using fewer samples. Health information technologies can support implementation of sophisticated, easily available, point-of care resources to estimate PK values with a population approach. The Web Accessible Population Pharmacokinetic Service-Hemophilia (WAPPS-Hemo) is a proposal for such a solution, developed at McMaster University. Once tested, it will be offered to hemophilia centres worldwide. The objective of the study was to investigate the ease of use (usability) of the WAPPS-Hemo web interface among clinicians and other people who treat hemophilia through two iterative cycles of usability testing. The total number of participants was 13, and they were physicians, nurses and research coordinators. The think aloud technique was selected for testing to gain feedback and comments on the participants’ thought processes while interacting with the system and discover interface design problems. Additionally, the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire was used to obtain data on user satisfaction. The initial assessment of the prototypal WAPPS-Hemo interface with SUS reported a score of 70.5, which is considered an above average score. We received many useful suggestions through two iterations of user testing, ending with a final SUS score of 73 after implementation of the suggested improvements. Verbal feedback from users in the second round showed that users experienced an easier and more intuitive interaction with the system. Usability testing and analyses were conducted in this study to discover user interface issues and to determine the usability and learnability of the WAPPS-Hemo service among various potential users. Through iterative cycles, application of the think aloud technique, and the SUS questionnaire, we optimized the usability of the WAPPS- Hemo program and have moved to implementation (June 2015). / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>Syftet med den här processorienterade studien var att undersöka hur texttypen påverkar översättningsprocessen, och närmare bestämt om olika texttyper aktualiserar olika fokus i de kognitiva processerna. Fyra deltagare fick därför översätta två olika källtexter, en operativ och en informativ. Materialet samlades in med hjälp av Think-Aloud (TA). Studien visar att de båda texterna huvudsakligen gav upphov till liknande fokus. Texttypen verkar således inte ha haft någon märkbar påverkan på översättningsprocessen i det aktuella fallet. Vad gäller deltagarnas individuella processer fokuserade flera av dem på liknande faktorer oberoende av källtexten, vilket antyder att processerna i viss utsträckning kan antas vara individuellt betingade.</p> / <p>The aim of the present study was to investigate whether different text types bring different focuses to the fore in the cognitive processes during translation. Four translator students were thus asked to translate one operative and one informative text while verbalizing their thoughts. The verbalizations were recorded and later transcribed into so called think-aloud protocols (TAPs). The analysis of the TAPs showed that the participants focused on similar aspects regardless of the source text, which indicates that the text type did not have any significant effect on the translation process in the study at hand.</p>

Tidigare studier visar att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de upplever ämnet matematik, vilket återspeglas i utbildnings- och yrkesval. Tidigare studier visar även att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de lär och tänker när de löser matematiska problem och attlärare inte alltidtar hänsyn till dessa skillnader. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur flickor och pojkar löser aritmetiska uppgifter genom kognitiva, kroppsliga och externa strategier samt likheter och skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar. Totalt har 23 barn (11 flickor och 12 pojkar) i grundskolans årskurs ett löst nio aritmetiska och fyra andra matematiska uppgifter. Barnen instruerades att tänka högt och blev videofilmade. Resultaten visar att pojkarna oftare använder kognitiva strategier (75% av uppgifterna) än flickorna gör (66%). Särskilt ofta använder pojkarna de kognitiva strategier som kallas härledning och talfakta (62%) medan flickorna använder dessa strategier mindre ofta (40%). Flickorna använder oftare kognitiva och kroppsliga strategier där de räknar upp eller ned (49%) än pojkarna gör (20%). Flickorna använder även oftare kroppsliga strategier (30%) än pojkarna gör (13%). Dessa skillnader pekar på att lärare bör kartlägga vilka strategier eleverna använder för att därigenom kunna anpassa sin undervisning. / Previous research show there are differences between girls and boys as it comes to how they experience school mathematics, which has consequences for educational and professional career choices. Previous studies also show there are differences between girls and boys concerning how they learn and think when solving mathemtical problems and that teachers do not always take these differences into consideration. This study aims at describing and anaysing how girls and boys solve arithemtic tasks by using cognitive, bodily and external strategies and similarities and differences betweeen girls and boys. In total, 23 children (11 girls and 12 boys) first graders in elementary school solved nine arithmetic and four other mathematical tasks. The children were instructed to think aloud and they were video recorded. The results show that boys more often used cognitive strategies (in 75% of tasks) than girls did (66%). In particular, the boys tended to use the cognitive strategies that are called decomposition and direct retrieval of artithmetic facts (62%) while the girls used these strategies less often (40%). The girls more often used cognitive and bodily strategies involving counting up or down (49%) than the boys did (20%). The girls more often used bodily strategies (30%) than the boys did (13%). These differences indicate that teachers should be provided tools for mapping strategies that pupils use in order to be able to adapt their teaching to individual differences.

Think-aloud protocol is a usability testing method whereby the participant running the usability test on an interface, thinks aloud as a way of giving feedback of the task he/she is performing on the given interface. It is one of the most researched on usability testing methods. It has attracted both praises and criticisms based on the effects it has on the participants or the tests at hand. A recently done study that used simple tasks, aimed at finding out the difference between using think-aloud protocol and not using think-aloud protocol. The study concluded that no notable differences were evident on the number of fixations and the amount of screen areas viewed when using think-aloud protocol and when not using think-aloud protocol.As an extension and follow-up of the recently done study, this study focused on finding the type of tasks that the concurrent think-aloud protocol has effects on. The tasks were chosen based on the information scent concept and eye-tracking methodology was used in collecting the necessary results.The study that involved twenty participants, resulted to some effects of the concurrent think-aloud protocol being noted on the low-scent tasks but not on high-scent tasks. It therefore goes ahead to conclude the tasks onto which concurrent think-aloud protocol would be more effective and the tasks that would be executed more effectively through other usability testing methods other than concurrent think-aloud protocol.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The decision process is an important aspect in the lives of individuals and, because of the complexity that it takes in certain situations, the application of multi-criteria methods have been presented as aid in making decision (GOMES, and CARIGNANO ARAYA, 2004). Thus, it arises the concern in relation to the way of decisions are made or how they should be taken in the theory (Dillon, 1998), which motivated us to conduct this study, i.e, to check if a Multi-criteria Decision Support system fits the process of human decision. For this, we took as basis the fundamental elements of AHP - Analytic Hierarchy Process (Saaty, 1981), which allowed up to five categories of analysis in this study, namely: OEC - (Order of Choice Criteria), OCA (Order Comparison of Alternatives), CPP (pairwise comparison), VPA (Provision of a weight vector for each attribute) and HAA (the hierarchy of attributes for evaluation). Accordingly, the experiment was conducted in the laboratory, so that the individual perform the task of choosing notebook independently, with the aid of a Multicriteria Decision Support system AHP MAKH-ER system and without the aid of the DSS, i.e, only the individual's mind to guide the decision on which it was used a protocol verbal think aloud. The presentation of the results showed significant differences for four from five categories of analysis under the AHP. Accordingly, through hypothesis testing, the only category that had no significant difference in both tasks was the order of choice criteria (OEC). Regarding to the other categories, OCA, CPP, VPA and HAA, these significant differences in both tasks, and it can be seen that the makers did not follow the prescriptive model of the system. The discussion of the results reveals important peculiarities in the process of decision making, since the decision-making process within a normative perspective, using a DSS is similar only to the Order of choice criteria in relation to human decision making. Regarding the other categories of analysis, it was not found statistical evidence to claim that the process is similar, although the final decision has been the same, as confirmed by the principle of invariance of the theory of rational decision (Tversky and Kahneman, 1986). For this reason, the hypothesis of this study cannot be confirmed, ie, it is not possible to say, in light of scientific observation that a Multi-criteria Decision Support system fits the human decision making. With regard to the conduct of the decider on options for finding information, it can be said that the process is similar in both tasks, since both the tasks with the help of DSS as in without the help of DSS, the decision maker sought the information criterion, which verifies the value of the three alternatives for a certain criteria before making the weights to the attribute in question. / O processo decisório é um dos aspectos mais importantes na vida dos indivíduos e, devido a complexidade que o mesmo assume em certas situações, a aplicação de metodologias multicritério tem sido apresentada como auxílio na tomada de decisão (GOMES, ARAYA e CARIGNANO, 2004). Assim, surge a inquietude em relação à forma com que as decisões são tomadas ou como deveriam ser tomadas, teoricamente (Dillon, 1998) o que motivou a realização desse estudo, isto é, verificar se um Sistema Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão ajusta-se ao processo de decisão humana. Para tal, tomou-se como base os elementos fundamentais do método AHP Processo Analítico Hierárquico (Saaty, 1981), que permitiram constituir as cinco categorias de análise deste estudo, quais sejam: OEC (Ordem de Escolha dos Critérios); OCA (Ordem de comparação das alternativas); CPP (Comparação par a par); VPA (Fornecimento de um vetor de pesos para cada atributo) e HAA (Hierarquia de atributos para avaliação). Assim, foi conduzido um experimento em laboratório, de forma que o indivíduo realizasse a tarefa de escolha de notebook de modo independente: com o auxílio de um Sistema Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão AHP MAKH-ER e sem o auxílio do SAD, ou seja, tendo somente a mente do indivíduo como guia da decisão, no qual foi utilizado o protocolo verbal think aloud. A apresentação dos resultados exibiu diferença significativa para quatro das cinco categorias de análise decorrentes do método AHP. Nesse sentido, através dos testes de hipótese, a única categoria que não teve diferença significa em ambas as tarefas foi a Ordem de escolha dos critérios (OEC). Com relação às demais categorias, OCA, CPP, VPA e HAA, elas apresentaram diferença significativa em ambas as tarefas, podendo-se perceber que os decisores não seguiram o modelo prescritivo do sistema. A discussão dos resultados revela importantes particularidades no processo de tomada de decisão, uma vez que o processo decisório, dentro de uma perspectiva normativa, utilizando um SAD assemelha-se apenas para a Ordem de escolha dos critérios no que tange ao processo de decisão humana. Com relação às demais categorias de análise, não foi encontrada comprovação estatística para afirmar que o processo se assemelha, embora o resultado final da decisão tenha sido o mesmo, sendo confirmado pelo princípio da invariância da teoria racional da decisão (TVERSKY e KAHNEMAN, 1986). Por tal razão, a hipótese deste estudo não pode ser confirmada, ou seja, não é possível afirmar, à luz da observação científica que um Sistema Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão ajusta-se ao processo de decisão humana. Com relação ao comportamento do decisor sobre as opções de busca de informações, pode-se dizer que o processo se assemelha em ambas as tarefas uma vez que tanto na tarefa com o auxílio do SAD quanto na sem o auxílio do SAD, o decisor buscou as informações por critério, na qual verifica-se o valor das três alternativas para um determinado critério antes de fazer as ponderações para o atributo em questão.

Syftet med den här processorienterade studien var att undersöka hur texttypen påverkar översättningsprocessen, och närmare bestämt om olika texttyper aktualiserar olika fokus i de kognitiva processerna. Fyra deltagare fick därför översätta två olika källtexter, en operativ och en informativ. Materialet samlades in med hjälp av Think-Aloud (TA). Studien visar att de båda texterna huvudsakligen gav upphov till liknande fokus. Texttypen verkar således inte ha haft någon märkbar påverkan på översättningsprocessen i det aktuella fallet. Vad gäller deltagarnas individuella processer fokuserade flera av dem på liknande faktorer oberoende av källtexten, vilket antyder att processerna i viss utsträckning kan antas vara individuellt betingade. / The aim of the present study was to investigate whether different text types bring different focuses to the fore in the cognitive processes during translation. Four translator students were thus asked to translate one operative and one informative text while verbalizing their thoughts. The verbalizations were recorded and later transcribed into so called think-aloud protocols (TAPs). The analysis of the TAPs showed that the participants focused on similar aspects regardless of the source text, which indicates that the text type did not have any significant effect on the translation process in the study at hand.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att belysa frågan om hur många användare det behövdes för att uppnå en viss mättnad i en användbarhetsutvärdering för en specifik flash-applikation kallad My Garden. De aspekter som låg till grund för denna uppsats var brytpunkten i ökningen av unika fynd i korrelation med höga procentsatser. Med hjälp av den formativa utvärderingen och analysen av denna gick det sedan att ta reda på vilka problem (så kallade fynd) som upplevdes av användarna i gränssnittet. Resultatet av analysen resulterade i 95 unika fynd i tio användbarhetsutvärderingar. Resultatet visade följaktligen att för denna sorts utvärdering behövdes sju användare för att uppnå 93 % av alla unika fynd som hittades och därmed uppnå en slags mättnad i avklingandet av hittade unika fynd. / The purpose of this report was to highlight the issue of how many people are needed to reach a certain level of saturation in a usability evaluation of a specific flash application called My Garden. The aspects that formed the basis of this study were the breakpoint in the growth of unique findings in correlation with high percentages. The help of the formative evaluation and the analysis made it possible to find out what kind of problems (so called findings) the users experienced within the interface. The results of the analysis resulted in 95 unique findings in ten usability evaluations. The results showed consequently that for this kind of evaluation seven users where needed to reach 93 % of all unique findings and thereby achieve a kind of saturation in the unwinding of the findings of unique findings.