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In this thesis, we present a decision-theoretic framework for building decision support systems that incrementally elicit preferences of individual users over multiattribute outcomes and then provide recommendations based on the acquired preference information. By combining decision-theoretically sound modeling with effective computational techniques and certain user-centric considerations, we demonstrate the feasibility and potential of practical autonomous preference elicitation and recommendation systems. More concretely, we focus on decision scenarios in which a user can obtain any outcome from a finite set of available outcomes. The outcome is space is multiattribute; each outcome can be viewed as an instantiation of a set of attributes with finite domains. The user has preferences over outcomes that can be represented by a utility function. We assume that user preferences are generalized additively independent (GAI), and, therefore, can be represented by a GAI utility function. GAI utilities provide a flexible representation framework for structured preferences over multiattribute outcomes; they are less restrictive and, therefore, more widely applicable than additive utilities. In many decision scenarios with large and complex decision spaces (such as making travel plans or choosing an apartment to rent from thousands of available options), selecting the optimal decision can require a lot of time and effort on the part of the user. Since obtaining the user's complete utility function is generally infeasible, the decision support system has to support recommendation with partial preference information. We provide solutions for effective elicitation of GAI utilities in situations where a probabilistic prior about the user's utility function is available, and in situations where the system's uncertainty about user utilities is represented by maintaining a set of feasible user utilities. In the first case, we use Bayesian criteria for decision making and query selection. In the second case, recommendations (and query strategies) are based on the robust minimax regret criterion which recommends the outcome with the smallest maximum regret (with respect to all adversarial instantiations of feasible utility functions). Our proposed framework is implemented in the UTPref recommendation system that searches multiattribute product databases using the minimax regret criterion. UTPref is tested with a study involving 40 users interacting with the system. The study measures the effectiveness of regret-based elicitation, evaluates user comprehension and acceptance of minimax regret, and assesses the relative difficulty of different query types.

In this thesis, we present a decision-theoretic framework for building decision support systems that incrementally elicit preferences of individual users over multiattribute outcomes and then provide recommendations based on the acquired preference information. By combining decision-theoretically sound modeling with effective computational techniques and certain user-centric considerations, we demonstrate the feasibility and potential of practical autonomous preference elicitation and recommendation systems. More concretely, we focus on decision scenarios in which a user can obtain any outcome from a finite set of available outcomes. The outcome is space is multiattribute; each outcome can be viewed as an instantiation of a set of attributes with finite domains. The user has preferences over outcomes that can be represented by a utility function. We assume that user preferences are generalized additively independent (GAI), and, therefore, can be represented by a GAI utility function. GAI utilities provide a flexible representation framework for structured preferences over multiattribute outcomes; they are less restrictive and, therefore, more widely applicable than additive utilities. In many decision scenarios with large and complex decision spaces (such as making travel plans or choosing an apartment to rent from thousands of available options), selecting the optimal decision can require a lot of time and effort on the part of the user. Since obtaining the user's complete utility function is generally infeasible, the decision support system has to support recommendation with partial preference information. We provide solutions for effective elicitation of GAI utilities in situations where a probabilistic prior about the user's utility function is available, and in situations where the system's uncertainty about user utilities is represented by maintaining a set of feasible user utilities. In the first case, we use Bayesian criteria for decision making and query selection. In the second case, recommendations (and query strategies) are based on the robust minimax regret criterion which recommends the outcome with the smallest maximum regret (with respect to all adversarial instantiations of feasible utility functions). Our proposed framework is implemented in the UTPref recommendation system that searches multiattribute product databases using the minimax regret criterion. UTPref is tested with a study involving 40 users interacting with the system. The study measures the effectiveness of regret-based elicitation, evaluates user comprehension and acceptance of minimax regret, and assesses the relative difficulty of different query types.

My research examines how active consumption goals, defined as the benefits sought by the consumer, influence cognitive processes and decision outcomes. I address two common issues pertinent to consumer decisions. Consumers often face choices in which information is not readily available—requiring them to retrieve details from memory. Furthermore, consumer choices are frequently influenced by the type of attributes presented and the decision context itself, sometimes leading to negative outcomes and consequences. In two essays, I study how the activation of consumption goals can influence the manner in which decision-relevant information is encoded into memory, and may also influence the weighting of decision attributes and the outcomes of subsequent choices. The first essay explores the effects of goal activation and attribute valence on memory for information in a consumer decision setting. The second essay explores the factors that affect the helpfulness (or harmfulness) of consumption goal elicitation.

This thesis is an ethnographic study carried out with the Bororo people in Central Brazil. It focuses on how Bororo people’s moral experiences are transformed through modernisation, evangelisation and globalisation. It will demonstrate that in spite of the cultural and communicational transformations entailed by the villages’ global interconnections, the significance of two cultural prohibitions—moiety endogamy and the aije spirits (men’s secret)—continue to inform the moral actions of contemporary Bororo. Through the use of filmmaking and film elicitation methods, the thesis investigates each of these prohibitions and contends that they are constitutive of the Boe gendered person. The study argues that in the midst of radical cultural and communicational transformation, it is through the construction of the gendered person that continuity is ensured. The thesis describes the radical transformations in two Bororo villages with particular attention to the youths’ participation on social media networking through the Internet. It also stresses the importance of the notion of ‘romantic love’ in contemporary village life whilst also demonstrating how the prohibition on moiety endogamous marriages continues to inform the experience of Bororo multividuals. In order to investigate this issue, I explored the themes of ‘romantic love’ and moiety endogamy through the making of the visual ethnography In Search of a Bororo Mr. Right which accompanies the thesis. Whilst I investigate moiety endogamy through the making of a film, the significance of the aije spirits emerged in a process of feedback screenings, which unexpectedly turned into film elicitation sessions for the film medium, brought to the surface the strength of women’s fear of these beings. Drawing on the analysis of the two prohibitions taken together, I argue that the Boe gendered person is constructed through the mediation of village relations with ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ others. In this sense, women are responsible for the manipulation of marriage alliances and the inspection of new babies (who are dangerous ‘others’) about whom they have the power over life or death. By the same token, men are primarily responsible for mediating relationships with ‘outside’ others (spirits, animals, non-indigenous peoples). They are in charge of unmaking dead bodies and conducting new souls to the village of the dead. Whilst the Boe gendered person is what ensures continuity in the midst of radical change, the village relations with the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ are in the process of transformation for the presence of the media, and the Internet in the villages is multiplying otherness and the spaces it inhabits.

The purpose of this phenomenological enquiry was to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be an adolescent living with a sibling who has a chronic illness. Children’s chronic illness has an impact on well siblings and research findings have been inconsistent as to what effect this has on them. Semi-structured interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with eight adolescents who had siblings with a chronic illness. Through the use of interpretive phenomenology, three themes emerged: Making Sense over Time, Getting Away from It All, and Creating Common Ground with Siblings and Family. The adolescents were able to make sense of chronic illness over time by asking parents questions about the illness and attending support groups. Siblings found normalcy in their lives by getting away to spend time alone or connecting with friends.

Kindergarten was originally conceived as a place for young children to playfully participate in self-initiated investigation and creative work to facilitate their development (Froebel, 1967a). However, over time, curricular mandates have shifted from Froebel’s original conception of kindergarten to prescriptive outcomes that have resulted in a more academically oriented curriculum that emphasizes skills and content in segregated subject areas (Russell, 2011; Stipek, 2004). These expectations and the accompanying accountability have led to the development of a different kind of kindergarten driven by a different set of goals (Stipek, 2004). There has been much discussion concerning the impact of shifting expectations on teacher practice (e.g., Goldstein, 2007b). Much of this research has surrounded a singular debate: the tension between the use of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and the obligation to teach prescribed curricular goals (e.g., Einarsdottir, 2008). However, this debate focusses solely on two dichotomous instructional logics and, thus, belies the complexities of the kindergarten classroom (Goldstein, 2007a). To gain a deeper understanding of how kindergarten is enacted in the evolving curricular landscape, this research looks beyond the challenges of integrating competing perspectives and into the interconnected factors at play in a classroom. Accordingly, in this study, I use a conceptual lens informed by Schwab’s conception of the eclectic (1971) and the four commonplaces (1973) to examine the multiple factors that contribute to the development of a kindergarten classroom environment. I re-envision the four commonplaces – subject matter, teacher, milieu, and learner – to align them with contemporary conceptions of educational purposes, practical theory, classroom climate, and childhood. Acknowledgement of kindergarten as an eclectic space provides a framework to explore the concurrent inclusion of both academic and developmental orientations. Using an ethnographic approach that integrates data from classroom observations, teacher interviews, and photo elicitation interviews with the students, I robustly describe learning in three full day kindergarten classrooms in Ontario. The data demonstrate that a successful, albeit different, balance between academic learning and developmentally appropriate practices is present in each of these classrooms. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-28 23:45:55.34

The amount of information involved in many decision making situations has increased dramatically in recent years and support of some kind is often needed. Consequently, fields like Business Intelligence (BI) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) have advanced. Decision analysis applications belong to the latter category and aim to support decision making activities in businesses and organizations, and provide more clearly structured decision material to use as a basis for decisions. In spite of a belief in their potential, their employment is still limited in practice, which could partly be attributed to the fact that they are incomplete to support decision processes sufficiently in real settings. At present, e.g., the specification and execution of the elicitation of input data is often left to the discretion of the user. Yet, this involves quite a few problematic elements and is of importance for the quality of the process as a whole. This thesis focuses on more practically useful elicitation of information in decision analysis applications than what is offered today. A process model emphasizing the importance of structured elicitation of adequate input data throughout decision processes is also suggested. In order to further define the problematic aspects of elicitation, three empirical studies were conducted. The problems with eliciting precise decision data suggests that using imprecise values within elicitation is a more realistic and useful approach to strive for. Based on theory and the findings of the studies, a weight elicitation method for imprecise statements and noisy input was formalized into the Cardinal Rank Ordering of Criteria (CROC) method. This method is both compatible with an adapted prescriptive decision making model, focused on a more structured elicitation component, as well as algorithms for dealing with such data. The CROC method was employed and validated in two real-life cases, which is not so common within decision analysis research. / Mängden information i många beslutssituationer har ökat markant under senare år och det finns ofta behov av någon form av stöd. Följaktligen har områden som Business Intelligence (BI) och Beslutsstödssystem (BSS) avancerat. Beslutsanalysverktyg tillhör den senare kategorin och syftar till att fungera som stöd vid beslutsfattande inom företag och organisationer och tillhandahålla mer strukturerat underlag för beslut. Trots en tro på deras potential, så är deras användande begränsat i praktiken, vilket delvis kan tillskrivas det faktum att de är inkompletta för att stödja beslutsprocesser i tillräcklig utsträckning i verkligheten. För närvarande förutsätts, t.ex. ofta att användaren själv klarar av att specificera och utföra utvinningen (eliciteringen) av input data. Detta involverar dock ett antal problematiska delar och dess kvalité är av vikt för hela processen. Denna avhandling fokuserar på mer praktiskt användbar elicitering av information i beslutsanalys-applikationer än vad som finns att tillgå idag. En processmodell som betonar vikten av strukturerad elicitering av adekvata indata genom hela beslutsprocessen föreslås också. För att ytterligare definiera de problematiska aspekterna av elicitering utfördes tre empiriska studier. Problemen med att utvinna precisa beslutsdata antyder att användandet av oprecisa värden inom elicitering är en mer realistisk och användbar ansats att sträva efter. Baserat på teori och resultaten av studierna formaliserades en vikteliciterings-metod för oprecisa utlåtanden och osäkra indata i Cardinal Rank Ordering of Criteria (CROC) metoden. Metoden är både kompatibel med en anpassad preskriptiv beslutsmodell fokuserad på en mer strukturerad eliciteringskomponent samt algoritmer för att hantera denna typ av data. CROC-metoden användes och validerades i två riktiga fall, vilket inte är så vanligt inom beslutsanalys forskning. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 7: Submitted. </p>

Requirements elicitation has been identified by researchers as a highly critical and error-prone phase of IT development projects. Many challenges are rooted in the human and social dimension of this phase, which requires intensive communication activities between stakeholders with different backgrounds and perspectives. The conduct of a systems analysis supports stakeholders in reaching a shared understanding about crucial elements. The aim of this paper is to identify and describe recurring issues in requirements elicitation, and to better understand the potential of systems analysis efforts for addressing these issues. While literature provides plenty of high-level categorizations of requirements elicitation issues most often the argumentation is not complemented with concrete, real-world examples. Therefore five interviews with IT practitioners have been conducted in order to back-up a theoretical framework of problem areas elaborated by Saiedian and Dale (2000) with practical insights. This approach enabled a thorough analysis of four major issues in requirements elicitation covered by this research: Problem Perspective Differences, Resistance, Poor Communication and Articulation/Expertise Problems. Finally, a first linkage between a specific systems analysis method, the Work System Method, and its potential for addressing these problem areas has been established.