Information and the way of perceiving it are important for people, especially people with lower cognitive capabilities. According to previous studies, animation has the power of communicating and delivering the required message to different cognitive levels in simple and realistic methods. This qualitative study investigates the animation's role in alleviating information overload for people with lower cognitive skills, and explores the possibilities of using the animation as an alternative tool to the current methods of overload such as pictures and text. Data was collected through conducting interviews with caretakers, testing a prototype, and the second round of interviews. The findings indicated that animation in this field was positive and could surely be used as a future tool for providing information in their context. However, some considerations should be taken into account regarding how animation should be tailored to the users, such as the cognitive level differences and customizing the animation for instance.

There has been an increasing demand for commercial organisations to foster real-time interaction with customers, because harnessing customer competencies has been shown to be a major contributor towards various benefits, such as growth, innovation and competition. This may drive organisations to embrace the development of multimodal interaction and complement Electronic Customer Knowledge Management Systems (E-CKMS) with metaphors of audio-visual nature. Although the implementation of E-CKMS encounters several challenges, such as lack of trust and information overload, few empirical studies were devoted to assess the role of audio-visual metaphors, and investigate whether these technologies can be put into practice. Therefore, this thesis describes a comparative evaluation study carried out to examine the implication of incorporating multimodal metaphors into E-CKMS interfaces on not only usability of E-CKMS, but also the user¿s trust, knowledge and acceptance. An experimental E-CKMS platform was implemented with three different modes of interaction: Visual-only E-CKMS (VCKMS) with text and graphics, Multimodal E-CKMS (MCKMS) with speech, earcons and auditory icons and Avatar-enhanced multimodal E-CKMS (ACKMS). The three platforms were evaluated by three independent groups of twenty participants each (total=60) who carried out eight common tasks of increasing complexity and design based on three different styles. Another dependent group of forty-eight participants (n=48) was instructed to interact with the systems under similar usability conditions by performing six common tasks of two styles, and fill a questionnaire devised to measure the aspects of user acceptance. The results therein revealed that ACKMS was more usable and acceptable than both MCKMS and VCKMS, whereas MCKMS was more usable than VCKMS, but less acceptable. Inferential Statistics indicated that these results were statistically significant.

摘要 本研究從新奇追求動機探討遊客對旅遊產品的態度會被什麼因素所影響。許多學者提到，遊客對於新奇追求的差異，會影響他們選擇不同觀光活動及旅遊目的地的決策，因此旅遊行程有否提供遊客新奇的體驗（亦即新奇屬性）或是基於旅遊產品本身的新奇性，應能吸引不同新奇追求程度的遊客前往旅遊。然而以往關於新奇屬性的研究多針對實體產品，鮮少從服務性產品的面向做探討，文獻中對旅遊產品新奇性的描述亦甚少著墨，因此本研究藉由操弄新奇屬性和產品新奇性，從旅遊產品的角度觀察對於不同新奇追求程度的遊客之態度會產生什麼影響。 研究結果發現，旅遊行程加入新奇屬性或是產品新奇性較高的旅遊產品並不一定能讓遊客對有較好的印象。當面對無新奇屬性的旅遊行程或低新奇性產品（團體旅遊）時，低新奇追求的遊客相較於高新奇追求的遊客有更好的態度，但其同時對有新奇屬性的旅遊行程及高新奇性產品（自由行）也抱持同樣的好感；而面對有新奇屬性的旅遊行程或高新奇產品（自由行）時，高新奇追求的遊客則相對較有提升好感的趨勢。值得注意的是，當旅遊產品為高新奇性（自由行）並同時搭配具有新奇屬性的旅遊行程後，反而會使消費者發生資訊過載的情形進而提高學習成本，導致消費者對產品的評價混淆甚至產生負面態度。 因此，如果廠商想要在市場上推出新產品，以適度的新奇性做為產品設計的主軸是較為理想的選擇，例如自由行對於高、低新奇追求程度的消費者都具有一定的吸引力，或是團體旅遊搭配具有新奇屬性的旅遊行程亦是保險的組合方式。要注意的是，過多的新奇資訊同時也會增加消費者的學習成本，一旦造成消費者的資訊超載，反而會造成負面的效果。 / This research focuses on what factors based on novelty seeking will be influencing tourists’ attitude toward the tourism product. Many scholars have already mentioned that different degree of novelty seeking among tourists may influence their choices of different sightseeing activities and trip destination. Therefore, whether the travel programs provide novel experiences to the tourists(namely novel attributes) or any novelty of the product itself should be able to attract tourists with different degree of novelty seeking. However, researches on novel attributes in the past mostly put emphasis on substantial products and seldom discussed on service products. In addition, there is a lack of literature regarding product novelty as well. For these reasons, the purpose of this research is to observe the factors which influence attitudes of tourists with different degree of novelty seeking by means of manipulating novel attributes and product novelty. The result of this research shows that travel journey with novel attributes or just a tourism product with high degree of novelty don’t necessarily make better impressions on tourists. When facing travel journey with no novel attributes or just a product with low degree of novelty (package tour), tourists with low degree of novelty seeking show more favor towards the product than those with high degree of novelty seeking, but they as well have positive attitude when there is travel journey with novel attributes or just a product with high degree of novelty (semi-independent travel). On the other hand, the tourists with high degree of novelty seeking comparatively tend to show preference for the travel journey with novel attributes or just a product with high degree of novelty (semi-independent travel). Here what calls our attention is that, when the tourism product is with high degree of novelty (semi-independent travel) and is combined with the travel journey with novel attributes at the same time, it may cause information overload for consumers thus raise their learning cost instead. This even causes consumers to produce negative or confused attitude when evaluating the product. Hence, for the (tourism product) suppliers who want to release new products to the market, I suggest that product design should be emphasize on adding appropriate novelty. For example, semi-independent travel attracts consumers with both high and low degree of novelty seeking; tour package with novel attributes is also safe for tourists. What we should be aware of is that too much novel information increases consumer’s learning cost, and once it causes consumer’s information to overload, it may cause negative effect instead.

[pt] A informação é considerada atualmente um recurso essencial para a sobrevivência e o desenvolvimento das organizações. O advento de novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação possibilitou ofertar uma enorme quantidade de dados para uso de diretores, gerentes e gestores de negócios, em uma escala jamais imaginada há poucas décadas atrás. No entanto, o uso efetivo da informação envolve uma série de aspectos que não dependem apenas da quantidade e da tecnologia, mas de fatores que permitam capitalizar o seu valor, melhorando a qualidade das decisões nas organizações. Este trabalho busca conhecer melhor a relação existente entre os processos organizacionais de gestão da informação e sua influência no processo decisório de uma grande organização pública brasileira, a Previdência Social. Para tal, foram utilizados conceitos teóricos sobre gestão da informação disseminados por Marchand, Davenport e Checkland. A pesquisa foi realizada através de análise documental, observação participante e entrevistas semi-estruturadas, utilizadas para coletar as percepções e o comportamento relativo à tomada de decisão de diversos gestores das três instituições componentes da organização. A análise dos resultados revela aspectos que poderão contribuir para um melhor entendimento dos problemas de negócio e de informação vividos pela organização estudada, e aponta alternativas que tornem mais efetivos seus processos de informação, visando o aumento da qualidade dos serviços prestados à população brasileira. / [en] Information is nowadays considered an essential resource for the survival and development of organizations. The advent of new information and communication technologies made possible to offer an enormous amount of data for directors, managers and business executives´ use in a scale never imagined a few decades ago. Nevertheless, the effective use of information cover several aspects which not only depend on quantity or technology, but also on factors that allow to capitalize its value, improving decision quality in the organizations. This work searches to know better the existing relation between the organizational processes of information management and its influence on decision-making of a large Brazilian public organization, the Social Security. In this way, theoretical concepts about information management spread by Marchand, Davenport and Checkland were used. The research was executed through documental analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews, all used to collect perceptions and behavior related to decision-making of several executives of the three institutions that make up the organization. The analysis of the results reveals aspects which may bring about a better understanding of business and information problems experienced by the studied organization, as well as pointing out alternatives to turn its information processes more effective, in order to aim at quality services increase granted to Brazilian population.

This study set off in a notion, rather than insight; there seems to be a lot of talk about how innovation should thrive and how the environment should be scanned, but not so much about the relationship in between. While the usefulness of sharing information about the environment is seldom questioned, how the information sharing comes to play is as seldom a topic for debate. This sparked our curiosity and to explore the phenomena deeper we conducted interviews with nine out of the ten co-workers within the unit for Research & Innovation at LFV. The result indicates that while environmental scanning was believed to be an important part of their work, they had no strategic guidelines on how it should be exerted and it was viewed to be more of a passive part in their practical work. Furthermore, their work situation was highly individualized and autonomous, which made them very motivated to scan the environment, but also caused a certain discrepancy in how they perceived it. This combination of disparate perspectives, high motivation and lack of unanimity resulted in a rather narrow monitoring of the environment and an imbalance between the interest and the actual use of information. While information was greatly sought after by everyone, the information shared was not perceived as meaningful in the same extent. Some co-workers meant this induced an overload of information and therefore became more restrictive in their information sharing, but others became frustrated that the information they shared never seemed to be used and thus shared even more as a response. Hence, the effect was not only self-fulfilling and reflexive, but also inhibited the environmental scanning from becoming a significant element in the innovation process. / Denna studie tog avstamp i en uppfattning, snarare än en insikt; det verkar talas gott om hur innovation ska frodas och hur omvärlden ska bevakas, men desto mindre om relationen däremellan. Medan nyttan med att dela information om omvärlden sällan blir ifrågasatt, verkar det lika sällan fokuseras på hur den informationsdelningen går till i praktiken. Detta väckte vår nyfikenhet och för att utforska fenomenet djupare utförde vi intervjuer med nio av de tio medarbetarna på enheten för Forskning & Innovation på LFV. Resultatet indikerar att omvärldsbevakning ansågs vara en viktig del av verksamheten, men att det fanns få strategiska riktlinjer om hur det ska utföras och att det var en mer passiv del av arbetet. Vidare var arbetssituationen högst individuell och autonom, vilket gjorde dem mycket motiverade att scanna sin omgivning, men också skapade en viss diskrepans i hur de uppfattade den. Denna kombination av olikartade perspektiv, hög motivation och brist på samstämmighet resulterade i en något snäv bevakning av omvärlden och en obalans mellan intresset och användningen av information. Samtidigt som information var mycket eftertraktat så blev inte informationen som delades uppfattad som meningsfull i samma utsträckning. Vissa medarbetare upplevde att detta genererade ett överflöd av information och blev därför mer restriktiva i sin informationsdelning, men andra blev frustrerade över hur informationen de delade aldrig verkade komma till användning och reagerade med att dela ännu mer som följd. Därav blev effekten inte bara självuppfyllande och reflexiv, utan hämmade också omvärldsbevakningen från att bli ett betydelsefullt element i innovationsprocessen.

The aim of this thesis is to create a comprehensive view on questions of development and influence of media on society and related formation and processing of information. This thesis should also enable the reader easier understanding and orientation in this topic. For that reason the thesis is divided into four main parts. The first section describes what is information, and the relation among data, information and knowledge. The second part is devoted to development and influence of information and communication technologies. It describes ways which enabled and enable to deliver information to its recipient and also related changes brought by these technologies. In the next chapter there is desribed what influences our relations within the framework of single nations and how media help to their convergency and linking. And the last part of this thesis includes an analysis of possible use and misuse when affecting broad masses of people.

Library anxiety has been a concept since 1986, when Constance A. Mellon coined the phenomenon through her qualitative study on feelings that students experienced when interacting with academic libraries. In this essay we are looking at the origin of the concept through earlier research on the known barriers, trying to see what makes library anxiety unique compared to other seemingly related concepts, for example information anxiety. We’ve found many different concepts which can be part of library anxiety, or vice-versa, and many different extensions of LAS – the original scale to measure library anxiety. We aim to unravel some of those concepts we find of importance for library anxiety and its discourse. Looking at this through the lenses of Koselleck’s take on conceptual history, we see possible conflicts on where the concept library anxiety are heading; depending on what aspects of the concept the researcher read into and focusing on and in what context and time the articles were made. We also try to see who is considered responsible for shaping the discourse and if there is some kind of hegemonic struggle therein.

This dissertation describes the credibility judgment process using social psychological theories of dual-processing, which state that information processing outcomes are the result of an interaction “between a fast, associative information- processing mode based on low-effort heuristics, and a slow, rule-based information processing mode based on high-effort systematic reasoning” (Chaiken & Trope, 1999, p. ix). Further, this interaction is illustrated by describing credibility judgments as a choice between examining easily identified peripheral cues (the messenger) and content (the message), leading to different evaluations in different settings. The focus here is on the domain of the Web, where ambiguous authorship, peer- produced content, and the lack of gatekeepers create an environment where credibility judgments are a necessary routine in triaging information. It reviews the relevant literature on existing credibility frameworks and the component factors that affect credibility judgments. The online encyclopedia (instantiated as Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica) is then proposed as a canonical form to examine the credibility judgment process. The two main claims advanced here are (1) that information sources are composed of both message (the content) and messenger (the way the message is delivered), and that the messenger impacts perceived credibility; and (2) that perceived credibility is tempered by information need (individual engagement). These claims were framed by the models proposed by Wathen & Burkell (2002) and Chaiken (1980) to forward a composite dual process theory of credibility judgments, which was tested by two experimental studies. The independent variables of interest were: media format (print or electronic); reputation of source (Wikipedia or Britannica); and the participant’s individual involvement in the research task (high or low). The results of these studies encourage a more nuanced understanding of the credibility judgment process by framing it as a dual-process model, and showing that certain mediating variables can affect the relative use of low-effort evaluation and high- effort reasoning when forming a perception of credibility. Finally, the results support the importance of messenger effects on perceived credibility, implying that credibility judgments, especially in the online environment, and especially in cases of low individual engagement, are based on peripheral cues rather than an informed evaluation of content. / text

本研究目的是探討在資訊超載的狀況下，不同極大化程度分類消費者在決策準則偏好和購後認知失調程度上的差異；以及其採用了不同的決策準則後，對購後認知失調程度所造成的影響。在極大化程度的分類方面，消費者主要分為追求最佳化產品的極大化者，以及尋求滿足自身需求產品的滿足化者 (Schwartz et al., 2002)；在決策準則的分類上，則細分為補償性決策準則，和非補償性決策準則中的逐次刪除法、排除法和連結法。 本研究設定的資訊超載情境為六個產品方案□六項屬性的資訊量，並經由前測選出數位相機為測試產品，以電腦平台模擬呈現符合消費者屬性偏好的選擇方案，各方案代表不同決策準則下可能選出的結果，並輔以語意探測法確認受測者之決策準則。購後認知失調程度的測量，主要透過操弄產品屬性使受測者產生失調感受，再以四題語意差異法七點量表和五題Likert-type七點量表組成的購後認知失調量表加以測量。極大化程度分類判定，則以十三題Likert-type七點量表之極大化量表來進行衡量。 根據170位政治大學非商學院大學生的抽樣結果發現，在資訊超載下，極大化者與滿足化者在決策準則有顯著不同的偏好，其中極大化者較多採用補償性決策準則，滿足化者較多採用逐次刪除法和連結法則；此外，購後認知失調程度主要是受到消費者極大化程度的影響，而非決策準則的偏好影響，其中極大化者的購後認知失調程度高於滿足化者。細部分析，滿足化者不會因為採不同的決策準則而影響購後認知失調程度，但極大化者若採用較耗費心力的排除法進行決策，則會比極大化者採用逐次刪除法有更顯著的購後認知失調感受。 整體而言，消費者面對資訊超載的情境，若以找出滿足自身需求的產品即可的心態來作選擇標準，將可以減低發生購後認知失調所帶來心裡不舒服感受；若消費者以找出最佳產品的心態做選擇，則應該避免採用排除法，以免因本身耗費心力進行方案比較，外加此決策準則很難找出最佳選擇的雙重投入下，更加深本身的購後認知失調感受。 本研究引入決策準則的概念，對於學術上所討論之決策理論有更進一步的探討；在實務上，對於廠商研擬產品屬性訴求方面亦提供相關行銷建議。

Η πληροφοριακή υπερφόρτωση των χρηστών αποτελεί βασικό πρόβλημα ενός οργανισμού. Η συσσώρευση μεγάλου όγκου πληροφορίας στα πληροφοριακά συστήματα, προκαλεί στους χρήστες άγχος και υπερένταση, με αποτέλεσμα να δυσχεραίνει την ικανότητά τους για λήψη αποφάσεων. Λόγω αυτού, η επίδραση της πληροφοριακής υπερφόρτωσης στους οργανισμούς είναι καταστροφική και απαιτείται η αντιμετώπισή της. Υπάρχουν διάφοροι τρόποι αντιμετώπισης της πληροφοριακής υπερφόρτωσης όπως τα συστήματα υποστήριξης λήψης αποφάσεων, τα συστήματα φιλτραρίσματος πληροφορίας, οι αποθήκες δεδομένων και άλλες τεχνικές της εξόρυξης δεδομένων και της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης, όπως είναι οι ευφυείς πράκτορες. Οι ευφυείς πράκτορες αποτελούν εφαρμογές που εφάπτονται της τεχνικής νοημοσύνης, οι οποίες έχουν την ικανότητα να δρουν αυτόνομα, συλλέγοντας πληροφορίες, εκπαιδεύοντας τον εαυτό τους και επικοινωνώντας με τον χρήστη και μεταξύ τους. Συχνά, υλοποιούνται πολυπρακτορικά συστήματα προκει-μένου να επιλυθεί ένα πρόβλημα του οργανισμού. Στόχος τους είναι να διευκολύνουν τη λήψη αποφάσεων των χρηστών, προτείνοντας πληροφορίες βάσει των προτιμήσεών τους. Ο σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι να αναλύσει σε βάθος τους ευφυείς πράκτορες, σαν μία αποτελεσματική μέθοδο αντιμετώπισης της πληροφοριακής υπερφόρτωσης, να προτείνει πειραματικούς πράκτορες προτά-σεων και να εξετάσει επιτυχημένες υλοποιήσεις. Συγκεκριμένα, παρουσιάζεται ένα ευφυές σύστημα διδασκαλίας για την ενίσχυση του e-Learning/e-Teaching, προτείνεται ένα σύστημα πρακτόρων για τον οργανισμό Flickr, ενώ εξετάζεται το σύστημα προτάσεων του Last.fm και ο αλγόριθμος προτάσεων του Amazon. Τέλος, αναλύεται μια πειραματική έρευνα ενός ευφυούς πράκτορα προτάσεων, ο οποίος αντιμετώπισε με επιτυχία την αντιληπτή πληροφοριακή υπερφόρτωση των χρηστών ενός θεωρητικού ηλεκτρονικού καταστήματος. Τα αποτελέσματα του πειράματος παρουσίασαν την επίδραση της αντιληπτής πληροφοριακής υπερφόρτωσης και του φορτίου πληροφορίας στην ποιότητα επιλογής, στην εμπιστοσύνη επιλογής και στην αντιληπτή αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ ηλεκτρονικού καταστήματος και χρήστη, ενώ παρατηρήθηκε η καθοριστική συμβολή της χρήσης των ευφυών πρακτόρων στην αντιμετώπιση της πληροφοριακής υπερφόρτωσης. / -