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The verbal protocol method is used extensively in computer usability studies. This study was designed to test the feasibility of using the verbal protocol method as a means of conducting field research on the online catalogue. Ten undergraduate students conducted their own research on DRA’s Infogate. As they searched, they talked aloud about what keys they were pressing, what was happening on the screen, and their reactions. Transcripts of sessions were analyzed. A total of 65 different problems or comments were noted during search sessions, with 11 problems or comments noted in three or more sessions. This supports the hypothesis that the verbal protocol method is a valuable means of identifying common problems for users. It is suggested that the verbal protocol method offers great potential as a research tool in librarianship, for example in the area of interface design.

Many destinations throughout the world have developed events portfolios as a strategic initiative to attract tourists and their associated economic benefits. The ability of events to attract people to a destination for the purpose of attending the event is well documented. However the ability of an event to add value to attract tourists before or after the event is not so clear. In other words, can an events portfolio positively influence the decision to visit a destination at a time when none of the promoted events are scheduled? As a first step towards answering this important question, this study explores the contribution of an events portfolio to a consumer’s perceptions of a destination and how this influences their decision to attend a destination under these circumstances. The proposed study conducts a protocol analysis based on consumer’s decision-making thoughts. Each participant was given a choice between two destinations in India. Participants were asked to ‘think out loud’ as they made the decision to visit one of two possible destinations, one with an events portfolio and the other without. However, their visit does not coincide with the events’ dates. The results suggest four lines of reasoning utilised by prospective tourists in the destination choice process: 1) destination image; 2) the timing of the event with respect the time of visit; 3) tourists’ level of interest in the event; and, 4) events not listed in the events portfolio might be scheduled during the time of the proposed visit. In course of finding lines of reasoning for cross-cultural issues it was found that culture, architecture, English language usage, and food are the major aspects that tourists consider while travelling to Indian destinations. In terms of the events portfolio, there is evidence of a preference for a ‘fit’ between the event and Indian culture.

Many destinations throughout the world have developed events portfolios as a strategic initiative to attract tourists and their associated economic benefits. The ability of events to attract people to a destination for the purpose of attending the event is well documented. However the ability of an event to add value to attract tourists before or after the event is not so clear. In other words, can an events portfolio positively influence the decision to visit a destination at a time when none of the promoted events are scheduled? As a first step towards answering this important question, this study explores the contribution of an events portfolio to a consumer’s perceptions of a destination and how this influences their decision to attend a destination under these circumstances. The proposed study conducts a protocol analysis based on consumer’s decision-making thoughts. Each participant was given a choice between two destinations in India. Participants were asked to ‘think out loud’ as they made the decision to visit one of two possible destinations, one with an events portfolio and the other without. However, their visit does not coincide with the events’ dates. The results suggest four lines of reasoning utilised by prospective tourists in the destination choice process: 1) destination image; 2) the timing of the event with respect the time of visit; 3) tourists’ level of interest in the event; and, 4) events not listed in the events portfolio might be scheduled during the time of the proposed visit. In course of finding lines of reasoning for cross-cultural issues it was found that culture, architecture, English language usage, and food are the major aspects that tourists consider while travelling to Indian destinations. In terms of the events portfolio, there is evidence of a preference for a ‘fit’ between the event and Indian culture.

This essay describes a single case self-study of a music composer in order to track the compositional process in real time. In the study the subject and the researcher are the same person. The study builds on previous empirical studies that have used methodological approaches such as analysis of computer-based digital data collection, verbal protocol and video observations. It deals with issues of the compositional process related to for example time consumption, number of artistic decisions, the different roles and skills of a music composer, and methods of research in the musical composition process. During three shifts the researcher worked as a music composer dealing with the issue of converting an audio sketch of a composition into a representative finished audio product. The aim of the study was to highlight a specific phase the composititional process. The results can be divided into artistic and a scientific perspective. An artistic result is a developed and improved musical composition. Examples of scientific results is making visible and discussing artistic strategies in the context of musical composition. The study discusses different artistic roles that the composer uses during composing, each role with different skills and conditions, and how this role-playing significantly may influence the artistic result.

Orientador: Mariângela spotti Lopes Fujita / Banca: Helen de Castro Silva Casarim / Banca: Ariadne Chlöe Mary Furnival / Resumo: A indexação em catálogos on-line na percepção de usuários integrantes de grupos de pesquisa contribui no aprimoramento da recuperação por assunto conforme os seus interesses e necessidades informacioanais. No entanto, os usuários possuem dificuldades no momento de realizar as buscas por assunto, pois os termos que utilizam não coincidem com os atribuídos na indexação. Essa problemática do catálogo de assunto, muita vezes, é o reflexo da falta de estudos de usuários e de uma política de indexação que oriente a indexação. Com o objetivo de contribuir para a elaboração de política de indexação em bibliotecas universitárias realizou-se o estudo diagnóstico do contexto sociocognitivo de usuários integrantes de grupos de pesquisa nas áreas de Ciências Biológicas, Exatas e Humanas da UNESP, para obter sua percepção com relação à indexação. O desenvolvimento do estudo diagnóstico constou de fundamentação teórica sobre o processo de indexação no âmbito da política de indexação em ambientes institucionais; estudo de percepção de usuários para investigar metodologia de abordagem sociocognitiva mediante Protocolo Verbal; e análise da percepção do usuário de grupo de pesquisa acerca da indexação em bibliotecas universitárias para o desenvolvimento dos catálogos on-line. Os resultados demonstraram que alguns elementos de política de indexação fazem parte do processo da indexação, como por exemplo, exaustividade, especificidade e escolha da linguagem. Sobre a investigação de metodologia sociocognitva, o protocolo verbal em grupo revelou ser uma técnica que permite fazer um estudo da realidade do usuário e das variáveis que influenciam o seu contexto. A abordagem metodológica que permitiu obter a percepção do usuário caracteriza-se por indicadores de conhecimento, interesse e atitude...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The indexing in online catalogues in the perception of users who are members of research groups becomes crucial in an environment of university libraries so that the catalogue of subject, first restricted to the physical limits of the library and containing only bibliographic records of documents ordered in bookshelves, becomes virtual nowadays. However, users have difficulties when they do their search by subject, because the words they use do not coincide with the terms used by the librarian at the time of indexing. Consequently, the retrieval of information becomes silent and with noise. This issue of the catalogue of subject is often the reflection of a possible deficiency of the work done by librarians, since they do not study about users in order to know their interests and opinions concerning the treatment of the documents content. It is also a reflection of the lack of an indexing policy that guides the steps of indexing. Aiming to contribute to the development of an indexing policy in university libraries under the users' perspective, the proposal os this research was to do a study of the socio-cognitive context of users who are members of research groups in the areas of Biological and Exact Sciences and Humanities from UNESP, to get a diagnosis of their perception regarding the indexing context. The specific objectives were: developing a study on the indexing process under the indexing policy in institutional environments; investigating a method of a socio-cognitive approach by Verbal Protocol to study the users' perception; verifying the perception of the user who participates in a research group on indexing information in university libraries for the development of online catalogues. The results showed that the indexing process has some elements of policy, such as completeness, uniqueness and language choice. Both indexing and policy aim to answer the...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Mestre

Volunteer organizations face two challenges not found in non-volunteer organizations: recruiting and retaining volunteers. While social media use is increasing amongst individuals, its use and effectiveness for volunteer recruitment and retention by volunteer organizations is unknown. The dissertation reports the results of three studies to investigate this important question. Using a mixed-methods approach, it addressed the dual nature of social media and its effectiveness by including volunteer organizations and social media users. This dissertation found that although volunteer organizations are not using social media effectively, they could virtualize requirements of the recruitment process by focusing on relatable events instead of sterile marketing. This dissertation contributes to information systems literature by extending the post-acceptance model of IS continuance to show that social media mediates volunteer continuance. It further contributes by revealing a potential new area of research, i.e., the use and effectiveness of online social media for volunteer organizations.

This thesis is about diagrammatic reasoning and error-finding in conceptual modeling diagrams. Specifically, the differences of the cognitive strategies and behaviors of notation-familiar participants versus domain-familiar participants working on conceptual modeling diagrams are inspected. The domain-familiar participants are experienced in the topic being represented, but they do not have any formal training in software development representations. On the other hand, the notation-familiar participants are educated in software representations, but unfamiliar with the topic represented. The main experiment and the follow-up experiment also aim to study how some properties of diagrams affect the error-finding behaviors. The participant groups&rsquo / performances in the main experiment are investigated and compared by the analysis of verbal protocol data and eye movement data. The combination of the two different methods enhances detailed analyses. In the follow-up experiment, only eye movement data is involved to evaluate how some properties of diagrams affect problem-solving. By means of both experiments, it is concluded that diagrammatic complexity has a negative effect on reasoning whereas the degree of causal chaining improves diagrammatic reasoning. In the main experiment, some differences in the diagrammatic reasoning processes between the groups are observed, too. The notation-familiar participants are observed to be more successful in error-finding although they are unfamiliar with the topic. This study underlines the interaction of cognitive science and software engineering by integrating eye movement data, verbal protocol analysis and performance data into the cognitive inspection of software engineering notations.

The current study compared participants’ ability to perform tasks using two nutrition labels: a control Nutrition Facts table of the current Canadian format (n=64), and an experimental label (n=64), identical to the control label with the exception of a footnote explaining how to interpret percent daily values. A 25% subset of participants answered questions using a think aloud technique, and data was analyzed using content analysis. The main outcome measured was ability to interpret percentages correctly, with ability to compare, define and manipulate information as secondary outcomes. No significant differences were seen in ability to perform tasks between the experimental and control conditions for any outcomes. As determined by chi square tests, higher performance was associated with higher education, being male, and report of previous Nutrition Facts table use. Verbal protocol analysis identified that interpretation of percentages was based on the meal, food type, and comparison to other foods.

One of the key determinants of an organization’s success is its ability to adapt to marketplace change. Given this reality, how do organizations survive or even thrive in today’s dynamic markets? The answer to this question is highly related to the adaptability of one of the organization’s key resource: its employees. Indeed, the central component of an organization’s success will depend on its ability to drive changes in the mental models of individual employees. Moreover, a critical facilitator of that will be the development of decision support tools that support change of those mental models. In response to this need there has been a tremendous growth in business analytic decision support tools, estimated to reach almost $200 billion in sales by 2019. The premise of this research is that these decision support tools are ill-suited to support true mental model change because they have focused on a feedback-enabled view and generally lack a predictive (feedforward-enabled) view of the likely outcomes of the decision. The purpose of this research is to study how changes in mental models can be facilitated through this feedforward mechanisms within the DSS tool. This research used a mixed method approach, leveraging the strengths of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, to study this research question. The research showed that the feedforward-enabled DSS tool did create more mental model change and alignment (versus an ideal solution) compared to the control. The feedforward enabled tool also produced better alignment than the feedback-enabled decision support tool. In fact, the feedback-enabled decision support was shown to result in a poorer alignment with the ideal solution. This paper concludes by suggesting five areas for future research. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems