Feelings and impressions of a product are important for the decision of purchasing it or not. Designing attractive products therefore requires knowledge about the feelings and impressions the products evoke on the customer and the user. Integrating such affective values in product design requires the introduction of suitable methods into companies’ product design processes, methods which can capture and convert subjective and even unconscious feelings about a product into concrete design parameters. This is sometimes referred to as ‘Affective Engineering’. One methodology in this context is Kansei Engineering, which has been developed in Japan in order to design feelings into products. The aim of this thesis was twofold: Firstly, to improve understanding of the nature of products making emotional impact on the users and customers. Secondly, to identify and improve methods capable of grasping those affective values and translating them into concrete product design solutions. This thesis presents three empirical studies and two methodological papers, relating to warehouse trucks and laminate flooring. The first study was made on user impact of warehouse trucks in three different European countries. A second study dealt with affective values of rocker-switches in work vehicles, such as warehouse trucks. A third study on this truck type compared the old manoeuvring panel evaluated in the previous studies with a newly introduced manoeuvring panel in order to validate the impact of the design improvements made after the first study. Further, a conceptual model on Kansei Engineering methodology was proposed in a methods paper based on the experience from the studies performed in order to provide a structure for performing Kansei Engineering studies. The fifth paper had the purpose of validating and improving the proposed model using laminate flooring as research object. More structured ways of identifying design parameters and relevant product properties was given high priority in the improvement work of the methodology. A model for spanning the Space of Product Properties was presented and applied. This thesis also deals with other improvement areas in the methodology and proposed new developments, including the use of scales, experimental design and validation methods. In conclusion, Kansei Engineering is a concept and a methodology in strong development, a framework in which tools and methods are continuously developed, added and integrated.

With the propagation of individuals' presence in various online environments from social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and dating websites (e.g., Match.com, eHarmony.com) to personal blogs (e.g., WordPress.com) and employment websites (e.g., linkedIn.com), the need to understand online social dynamics has grown. In many cases, people are experiencing introductions online rather than in-person. In the absence of non-verbal information, one potentially important source of information available in virtual environments and communication is in the way people use language. With the development of computerized word count tools, it has become increasingly feasible to analyze large samples of text-based stimuli (e.g., Ireland, et al., 2011; Mehl, Gosling, & Pennebaker, 2006; Pennebaker, Mehl, & Niederhoffer, 2003; Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2010). These analyses have been able to reliably reveal a number of traits (e.g., Big Five, gender) and states (e.g., depression) about the authors of the texts. In a study of approximately 500 dyads, participants were asked to spend 10 minutes in an online chat room getting to know an individual for whom they were unacquainted. Participants then rated one another on a number of personality and individual difference traits. Analyses focused on sample-level, pair-level, and trait-level self-other agreement within the sample. Additionally, linguistic mediators of the self-other agreement were investigated. A Brunswick Lens Model was employed in order to interpret the relationship between linguistic cues and overall judgmental accuracy. Results revealed that self-other agreement in the online chat environment was achieved slightly above chance. Traits that were perceived accurately included Extraversion, Political Liberalism, and Tradition. Results also revealed that there were a number of valid linguistic markers to predicting accurate personality judgment. These cues, however, were rarely utilized to achieve accuracy. Also, counter to hypotheses, linguistic style matching (or the degree to which individuals were mimicking each other linguistically) was not predictive of self-other agreement. It was, however, significantly related to interaction quality. Taken together, the findings revealed that computer-mediated environments are a valid context for forming impressions. However, valid cues are either not available or not detected by perceivers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as areas for future research. / text

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[Truncated abstract] The anxiety-assimilation hypothesis (Wilder, 1993) and the capacity constraint plus control motivation model (Fiske & Morling, 1996) predict that anxiety causes people to form more stereotypic impressions of others. Affect-as-information (Schwarz & Clore, 1983) and affect-priming (Bower, 1991) theories predict that anxiety causes people to form affect-congruent (i.e., more threatening) impressions of others. A novel research paradigm was used in Experiment 1 to separate the predictions of these two classes of theories, recognizing that their predictions were not mutually exclusive. Experiment 1 found that anxious persons formed more threatening, but not more stereotypic, impressions of a target person. This result replicated in Experiment 2, with a different population and a different anxiety manipulation. In addition, Experiment 2 found that the anxiety-congruent bias in impression formation was limited to participants? ratings of traits that corresponded to the information presented about the target. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 were taken as support for an affect-priming rather than affect-as-information account of the effect of anxiety on impression formation. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated anxiety effects on encoding and recall that underlie affect-priming explanation of affect-congruent impression judgment biases. Experiment 3 found that anxious participants spent more time encoding non-stereotypic information and recalled less stereotypic information than non-anxious participants. In Experiment 4 anxious participants again recalled less stereotypic information. This study also found that anxious participants? recall and impression judgments were affect-congruent. ... As predicted by the modified affect-as-information theory, the affect-attribution manipulation left participants? anxiety levels unaltered but it did attenuate the anxiety-congruent impression bias. In addition, anxious participants in this study recalled less stereotypic than non-stereotypic information. The findings of this thesis raised several new questions and theoretical challenges. The new experimental paradigms that were used to examine the questions in this thesis will also allow the examination of the interplay of stereotypes and valence in judgments in future research for persons in affective states other than anxiety. Such research would allow for the continued revision and development of theories of affect and social cognition.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1967.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 55 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 52-55).

Essa tese resulta de pesquisa artística ancorada na vivência de atelier de litografia. Desenvolvida de "##$ a "#%#, a investigação articula prática e reflexão teórica, com recorte específico no procedimento de gravura que tem como matriz a pedra calcária, e seus possíveis deslocamentos. A pesquisa tem como objetivo principal investigar factíveis desvios técnicos, transladando o conceito de gravura, subjugado à edição a um trabalho técnico-estético, com foco na arte contemporânea. Toma-se como pressuposto a possibilidade de um fazer que inclua o olhar fenomenológico, cruzando procedimentos técnicos e processos criativos, amalgamando látex às litografias, para criar o que denominamos ‘Policorpos’. Os conceitos abordados dizem respeito aos estados de alteração das imagens, provocados pelas reações químicofísicas das matérias e pela atitude experimental !ente à técnica. Impressão é o conceito operacional que baliza a investigação. Pedra-matriz, água, gorduras, óxidos, papel, látex, instauram um deslizamento contínuo entre a prática e fenômenos percebidos e intuídos na impermanência relativa dos corpos. Os trabalhos obtidos evidenciam uma fisicalidade fluídica fazendo alusões ao informe. A transitoriedade (in) formal inerente aos procedimentos da aguada litográfica e do manuseio do látex, problematizam a função autor. / This thesis is the result of an artistic research based on lithography atelier experience. Developed !om "##$ to "#%#, the investigation combines practice and theorical reflexion, with specific jag on the engraving procedure which has as matrix the limestone and its possible displacements. The research has as main goal to explore possible technical deviations translating the engraving concept subjugated to edition to a technical-esthetical work with focus on contemporary art. It is presupposed that the possibility of a making that includes a phenomenological look, crossing technical procedures and creative processes, amalgamating latex to the litographies, in order to create what is called ‘Polybodies’. The concepts discussed concern the alteration estates of the images, caused by the chemical-physical reactions of the materials, and by the experimental attitude towards the technical attitude. Impression is the operational concept that drives the investigation. Litograph matrix, water, greases, oxides, paper, latex introduce a continuous sliding between the practice and the perceived and established phenomena in the relative non permanence of the bodies. The obtained works evidence a fluidic physicality making allusion to the formless. The (in)formal transitoriety inerent to the lithographic watery and the latex manipulation problematize the author function.

The aim of this thesis is to re-evaluate and re-discuss sealings that were uncovered during the excavations of the pyramid temple of King Raneferef in Abusir, resp. those which are kept in the collections of the Náprstek Museum in Prague. It deals with the general typology of cretulae and the method of their documentation and it tries to assess sealings under study in regard to the former typology. The second part of the work attempts to find details regarding the activity and authority of officials who were using seals in connection with the operation of the pyramid complex of King Raneferef. This was attempted by a search for recurrent seal designs attested on fragments of cretulae found in the area of the pyramid complex and by a study of the properties of their seal holders and their activity, areas where the fragments of sealings were found, titles that were attested on their sealings, and kinds of objects that were sealed by their seals.

Esta pesquisa é construída através de uma investigação poética sobre o processo de criação do Mapeamento Geoperceptivo de espaços experenciados, que reúne em inventários coleções de imagens de espaços abandonados urbanos encontrados por meio de percursos realizados na cidade de Pelotas-RS. Revisita conceitos e noções de outras áreas, como a geografia, a história e a filosofia para definir os espaços experenciados como o encontro do corpo no espaço e tempo, assim como refere-se a errância no contexto da arte para pensar os modos operatórios do trabalho. Procura uma compreensão das linguagens, da fotografia, da impressão e do compartilhamento usadas em consonância com a poética e importante para a área. Os espaços experenciados estão reunidos em grupos de trabalhos organizados em dois inventários conforme o modo a linguagem utilizada. O Inventário UM reúne trabalhos sobre o uso da fotografia enquanto registro de um instante, referindo-se ao documento e ao colecionismo. São apresentados com diferentes dispositivos, como registro digital e por meio de reprodução. O Inventário DOIS concentra os trabalhos que discutem a digitalização, o múltiplo e o compartilhamento. A digitalização dos desenhos é recorrente criando, a possibilidade de reproduzi-las e compartilha-las. As imagens possuem caracter de múltiplos e tem objetivo da circulação. Por fim os trabalhos expressam sobre a memória e o espaço, memorar através da reprodução de imagens, fazendo uma crítica sobre o mau uso do espaço coletivo. A tese refere-se aos trabalhos da poética que tem como resposta ativar a memória espacial trazendo uma leitura perspectiva que questiona o uso da cidade e como a percebemos. / This research is built through poetic research on the process of creating Geoperceptive Mapping of Experienced Spaces. The research, which gathers in inventory collections of abandoned urban spaces, found through routes designed in the city of Pelotas-RS. It revisits concepts and notions of other areas such as geography, history and philosophy to define the experienced spaces as the encounter of the body in space-time, just as it refers to the wandering in the context of art to think about the operative modes of work. It seeks an understanding of the languages, photography, printing and sharing used in harmony with the poetic and important for the area. Experienced spaces are gathered in groups of works organized in two inventories according to the language used. Inventory ONE brings together works on the use of photography as a record of an instant, referring to the document and to collecting. Different dispositives are presented, like digital photography, and through reproduction. The Inventory TWO, concentrates the works that discuss digitalization, the multiple and sharing. The digitalization of the drawings is recurrent, creating the possibility to reproduce and share it. Images are multi-character and have purpose of circulation. Finally the works express about memory and space, to memorize through the reproduction of images, making a critique about the misuse of collective space. The thesis refers to the works of poetics that have the answer activate spatial memory bringing a perspective that questions the use of the city and how we perceive it.