<p>The thesis sets out to answer two fundamental questions about the information given to customers by The Astonishing Tribe; how is this information perceived, and what improvements can be done. The information was gathered by interviewing customers and employees at The Astonishing Tribe, and analyzing this data using grounded theory methodology. The emerging patterns were then taken and examined from an instructional design viewpoint, presenting possibilities of improvement in areas of examples, tutorial material and documentation, drawing on earlier instructional design research.</p>

<p>An important strategic question for companies today is how to recruit, motivate and retain employees. It is becoming more important to consider the incentive programs in the valuation process of companies. Recent studies show that employee stock option plans are more commonly used in Swedish companies than earlier. However, there are few studies about how employee stock options influence company performance and affect employees.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to increase the awareness of what the introduction of an employee stock option plan means, both from a management perspective and from the employees’ perspective. There are many different kinds of stock option plans and the plans can vary in terms of type of options, time to expiry, exercise price and tax consequences. This study started with a pre-study of which types of employee stock option plans that are used in Swedish companies. A closer study was then carried out in four companies in different industries with different stock option plans.</p><p>The motives for introducing employee stock option plans can be divided into five categories: personnel motives, incentive motives, salary motives, accounting motives and tax motives. The case studies show how motives for option plans can be dependent on different circumstances within the companies. Further, the study also shows that the consequences of the stock option plans varies according to factors such as motives, design of the stock option plan, share price performance and other context factors. Context factors that could have an effect are the company’s business, organisational structure, corporate culture and experiences from employee stock options in the industry, employees’ education and tax rules. The consequences for the company are also dependent on how the employees react to the options.</p><p>To be able to estimate what an employee stock option plan means for the company, all these factors must be taken under consideration. Further one must take into account the costs for the stock options such as dilution effects, hedging costs, personnel costs and costs for designing the program.</p> / Rapportkod: LiU-Tek-Lic-2001:54.

<p>Programming is a very complex activity that has many simultaneous learning elements. The area of Live-programming offers possibilities for enhancing programming work by speeding up the feedback loop and providing means for reducing the cognitive load on the working memory during the task. This could allow for better education for novice programmers. In this work a number of systems with a shared aim of providing educational tools for scholars from compulsory level to undergraduate college were studied. The common approach in the majority of the tools was to use program abstractions like tangible morphs, playing cards, capsules for code segments, and visual stories. For the user these abstractions and tools offer better focus on the constructive and creative side of programming because they relieve the user from the cumbersome work of writing program code, but they also sacrifice some of the expressiveness of a low-level language.</p><p>A Live programming system, called PyMorphic, based on the Morphic model was built in the Python programming language. Two different solutions, based on the Wx toolkit for Python, were constructed and evaluated. The results show that Morphic and Python go well together because Python is a programming language that allows for compact and dynamic code. PyMorphic was evaluated with the cognitive dimensions framework and theories on cognitive load and working memory. A user attitude test was performed and the results showed that the users had a positive attitude towards the PyMorphic system.</p><p>The PyMorphic project is open-source and it is hosted on Sourceforge. The code can be downloaded from the project web-site: http://pymorphic.sourceforge.net. Anyone is welcome to take part in further development of PyMorphic.</p>

<p>When discussing matters of usability, focus is usually kept on functionality whilst other aspects, such as aesthetics, are neglected. Discussions of aesthetics are on the other hand traditionally kept within the area of fine arts. Considering that both usability and aesthetics are of big importance in people’s lives, it is astonishing to find that their relationship has not been fully explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to, with interfaces of a Volvo Logistics environmental calculation tool, explore whether aesthetics (in the form of visual beauty) would affect the perceived usability of a system. Hence, the question of research has been whether a visually attractive user interface will be perceived as more usable than a less attractive one when usability/functionality is kept constant? (Or in more general terms; is beautiful more usable?)</p><p>To achieve this, two interfaces with the same functionality but with different levels of visual beauty were designed and used in an experiment where participants rated perceived usability and appearance. The results of the experiment were expected; participants perceived the better looking interface as more usable whereas actual usability appears to have been constant.</p>

<p>The work presented in this thesis investigates techniques for learning from demonstration (LFD). LFD is a well established approach to robot learning, where a teacher demonstrates a behavior to a robot pupil. This thesis focuses on LFD where a human teacher demonstrates a behavior by controlling the robot via teleoperation. The robot should after demonstration be able to execute the demonstrated behavior under varying conditions.</p><p>Several views on representation, recognition and learning of robot behavior are presented and discussed from a cognitive and computational perspective. LFD-related concepts such as behavior, goal, demonstration, and repetition are defined and analyzed, with focus on how bias is introduced by the use of behavior primitives. This analysis results in a formalism where LFD is described as transitions between information spaces. Assuming that the behavior recognition problem is partly solved, ways to deal with remaining ambiguities in the interpretation of a demonstration are proposed.</p><p>A total of five algorithms for behavior recognition are proposed and evaluated, including the dynamic temporal difference algorithm Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL). PSL is model-free in the sense that it makes few assumptions of what is to be learned. One strength of PSL is that it can be used for both robot control and recognition of behavior. While many methods for behavior recognition are concerned with identifying invariants within a set of demonstrations, PSL takes a different approach by using purely predictive measures. This may be one way to reduce the need for bias in learning. PSL is, in its current form, subjected to combinatorial explosion as the input space grows, which makes it necessary to introduce some higher level coordination for learning of complex behaviors in real-world robots.</p><p>The thesis also gives a broad introduction to computational models of the human brain, where a tight coupling between perception and action plays a central role. With the focus on generation of bias, typical features of existing attempts to explain humans' and other animals' ability to learn are presented and analyzed, from both a neurological and an information theoretic perspective. Based on this analysis, four requirements for implementing general learning ability in robots are proposed. These requirements provide guidance to how a coordinating structure around PSL and similar algorithms should be implemented in a model-free way.</p> / <p>Arbetet som presenteras i den här avhandlingen undersöker tekniker för att lära robotar från demonstrationer (LFD). LFD är en väl etablerad teknik där en lärare visar roboten hur den ska göra. Den här avhandlingen fokuserar på LFD där en människa fjärrstyr roboten, som i sin tur tolkar demonstrationen så att den kan repetera beteendet vid ett senare tillfälle, även då omgivningen förändrats. Flera perspektiv på representation, igenkänning och inlärning av beteende presenteras och diskuteras från ett kognitionsvetenskaplig och datavetenskapligt perspektiv. LFD-relaterade koncept så som beteende, mål, demonstration och repetition definieras och analyseras, med fokus på hur förkunskap kan implementeras genom beteendeprimitiv. Analysen resulterar i en formalism där LFD beskrivs som övergångar mellan informationsrymder. I termer av formalismen föreslås även sätt att hantera tvetydigheter efter att en demonstration tolkats genom igenkänning av beteendeprimitiv.</p><p>Fem algoritmer för igenkänning av beteende presenteras och utvärderas, däribland algoritmen Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL). PSL är modellfri i bemärkelsen att den introducerar få antaganden om inlärningssituationen. PSL kan fungera som en algoritm för både kontroll och igenkänning av beteende. Till skillnad från flertalet tekniker för igenkänning av beteende använder PSL inte likheter i beteende mellan demonstrationer. PSL utnyttjar i stället prediktiva mått som kan minska behovet av domänkunskap vid inlärning. Ett problem med algoritmen är dock att den drabbas av kombinatorisk explosion då inputrymden växer vilket gör att någon form av högre koordination behövs för inlärning av komplexa beteenden.</p><p>Avhandlingen ger dessutom en introduktion till beräkningsmässiga modeller av hjärnan där en stark koppling mellan perception och handling spelar en central roll. Typiska egenskaper hos dessa modeller presenters och analyseras från ett neurologiskt och informationsteoretiskt perspektiv. Denna analys resulterar i fyra krav för att implementera generell inlärningsförmåga i robotar. Dessa krav ger vägledning till hur en koordinerande struktur för PSL och liknande algoritmer skulle kunna implementeras på ett modellfritt sätt.</p>

The thesis sets out to answer two fundamental questions about the information given to customers by The Astonishing Tribe; how is this information perceived, and what improvements can be done. The information was gathered by interviewing customers and employees at The Astonishing Tribe, and analyzing this data using grounded theory methodology. The emerging patterns were then taken and examined from an instructional design viewpoint, presenting possibilities of improvement in areas of examples, tutorial material and documentation, drawing on earlier instructional design research.

The project of enhancing traffic safety is a continuous effort that will not cease in its aspirations. In fact, as technology evolves and additional digital artifacts are implemented into our cars, the attention to traffic safety becomes even more important. Driving a car through urban and rural environments is a cognitively challenging task that especially tax attentional resources, and as more artifacts compete for our attention during driving, the adherence to traffic safety is vital. Thus, factors that influence driving ability, such as sleep, nutrition and – perhaps - emotions are of great interest. An earlier study by Bulmash et al. (2006) hypothesized that individuals with Major Depressive Disorder would perform worse than controls in a study using a driving simulator; their hypothesis was confirmed. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether dysphoric individuals show reduced driving performance relative to controls. The notion of dysphoria refers to mild depression in a non-clinical sense. This was investigated using a driving simulator that measured Lateral Positioning (Standard Deviation of Lateral Position - SDLP) on the road, Brake Reaction Time (BRT) and performance on a secondary task (Peripheral Detection Task - PDT). Dysphoric individuals were identified using the Major Depression Inventory (MDI). The hypothesis was partly confirmed, as dysphoric individuals did indeed show more variable positioning on the road. However, performance differences on PDT and BRT were not significant. The results indicate that the negative influence of mood on driving ability is not a discrete phenomenon primarily manifested in individuals with clinical depression, but is rather a continuous phenomenon. The results should be of special interest to clinicians that evaluate individuals with depressive tendencies, as well as the academic community in general since the insights into the impact of emotions on cognitive performance are inconclusive and still not clearly understood. These results might also be of interest in other domains of high complexity, where human performance is of great importance, such as Command and Control, nuclear power plants and control rooms in general.

Enaktonism erbjuder ett alternativ till den klassiska kognitionsvetenskapens informationsbehandlingsmodell. Istället för att se kognition som representation av en värld "där ute" ses det som frambringandet av en värld genom livsprocessen själv, oskiljaktigt från en biologisk och social historia. I denna uppsats har, i enlighet med enaktionismen, data från en uppgiftsbaserad samtalsstudie analyserats utan att åberopa någon form av representationism. Försöksdeltagare har parvis utfört en uppgift tillsammans. Vid varje försök har ena deltagaren blivit instruerad att beskriva en väg denne fått utmarkerad på en karta. Den andra deltagaren har i sin tur blivit instruerad att rita in nämnda väg på en egen karta. Då deltagarna inte har kunnat se varandras kartor har de behövt utföra uppgiften genom att samtala. Alla försök har videofilmats och det är huvudsakligen dessa inspelningar som har varit föremål för analys. Frågan för analysen har varit hur likheter och skillnader mellan den beskrivna vägen och den inritade vägen kan förklaras. Inspirerad av etnometodologi och samtalsanalys har materialet angripits med ett handlingsorienterat deltagarperspektiv, utan att teoretiska förklaringar i förväg antagits. Förklaringar har istället sökts hos deltagares observerbara handlingar sedda i förhållande till sina särskilda omständigheter. Vägarnas förhållanden till varandra har kunnat förklaras som hur de har delats upp i kortare delvägar. Deltagare har tillsammans byggt upp delvägar och instruerandet av deras inritning genom sekventiellt organiserade talsträckor i samtalet. Dessa instruerande sekvenser har också ofta varit uppbyggda med hjälp av riktmärken på kartorna som i sin tur har varit ämnen för särskilda sekvenser av refererande. Avslutningsvis har dessa sekvenser sets i ljuset av enaktionismens tyngdpunkt på organismers historia av interaktioner. Analysen har också visat att både den situerade och distribuerade kognitionsvetenskapens fokus på kontextbunden kognition "i det vilda" även är en relevant poäng för laborationsstudier likt denna då deltagares egna och särskilda förståelse av försöksuppgiftens utformning och syfte varit avgörande för hur deras inritade vägar tagit form.

“Hey can you help me move? I warn you I have a lot of books, though.” When we interpret such sentences we might assume that our friend is implying that there will be some heavy lifting, because she own “a lot of books”. If you’re opposed to heavy lifting, you probably want to know how many books your friend wants you to help her move. While it is easy to determine the quantities picked out by numerals, discovering the meaning of quantifiers, such as “a lot”, is less clear. For example, in a survey people gave different quantities for “a few” and “a lot” depending on the context they were asked about, choosing to give quantities as high as 76 for “a few friends on Facebook” and as low as 4 for “a lot of houses”. I ask what role context plays in these interpretations, and propose two possible hypotheses: the Fixed Quantities Hypothesis, and the Relative Quantities Hypothesis. The Fixed Quantities Hypothesis assumes that these terms pick out an exact range of quantities (e.g., 3-5 for “a few”) and that the effect of context is due to people being pragmatically generous in their interpretations (Leech, 1983; Brown & Levinson, 1987; Lasersohn, 1999). The Relative Quantities Hypothesis instead argues that the ranges picked out by each of the terms is relative to the context, and therefore these terms might be similar to relative gradable adjectives (e.g., the meaning of the word “tall” is dependent on the reference set, e.g., what counts as “tall” is different for a mug versus a building; Kennedy, 2007; Syrett, Kennedy, & Lidz, 2010). I attempt to tease apart these two theories by looking at whether people find certain quantities implausible for some contexts leading them to think a speaker is being sloppy (Experiment 1), whether the context effect persists even under light-to-no pragmatic pressure (Experiment 2), and whether we find the effect of context even with minimal knowledge of novel contexts (Experiment 3). The results favour the Relative Quantities Hypothesis, and I discuss potential future work investigating the role of distributional knowledge on quantifier mappings.

This thesis looks at a relatively new line of research in Cognitive Science – embodied cognition. Its relation to the computational-representational paradigm, primarily symbolicism, is extensively discussed. It is argued that embodied cognition is compatible with the established paradigm but challenges its research focus and traditionally assumed segregation of cognition from bodily and worldly activities Subsequently the impact of embodied cognition on philosophy of Cognitive Science is considered. The second chapter defends the applicability of mechanistic explanation to cases of embodied cognition. Further, it argues that a proposed alternative, dynamic systems theory, is not a substitute to the mechanistic approach. The last chapter critically examines the thesis that mind is extended beyond the bodily boundary and into the world. It is concluded that arguments in favour of the extended mind thesis are inadequate. Considerations in favour of the orthodox view that the does not “leak” out into the world are also presented.