When genetic algorithms (GA) are used to produce music, the results are limited by a fitness bottleneck problem. To create effective music, the GA needs to be thoroughly trained by humans, but this takes extensive time and effort. Applying online collective intelligence or "crowdsourcing" to train a musical GA is one approach to solve the fitness bottleneck problem. The hypothesis was that when music was created by a GA trained by a crowdsourced group and music was created by a GA trained by a small group, the crowdsourced music would be more effective and musically sound. When a group of reviewers and composers evaluated the music, the crowdsourced songs scored slightly higher overall than the songs from the small-group songs, but with the small number of evaluators, the difference was not statistically significant.

Submitted by Lucienne Costa (lucienneferreira@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-05-03T21:05:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 IANNA MARIA SODRÉ FERREIRA DE SOUSA – TESE (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 3044330 bytes, checksum: 5ec0f15ac650d61c186921dd2c1ef9f7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-03T21:05:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 IANNA MARIA SODRÉ FERREIRA DE SOUSA – TESE (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 3044330 bytes, checksum: 5ec0f15ac650d61c186921dd2c1ef9f7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-19 / Muitos sistemas de computação por humanos usam mercados de trabalho crowdsourcing para recrutar trabalhadores. No entanto, devido à natureza aberta desses mercados, garantir que os resultados produzidos pelos trabalhadores possuam uma qualidade suficientemente alta ainda é uma tarefa desafiadora, particularmente em mercados de microtarefas, onde a avaliação precisa ser feita de forma automática. A pré-seleção de trabalhadores adequa- dos é um mecanismo que pode melhorar a qualidade dos resultados obtidos. Isso pode ser feito considerando as informações do cadastro pessoal do trabalhador, o comportamento histórico do trabalhador no sistema ou o uso de testes de qualificação customizados. En- tretanto, pouco se sabe sobre como os solicitantes usam testes de qualificação na prática e se estes tem influência na qualidade dos resultados apresentados pelos trabalhadores. Este estudo visa avançar esse conhecimento. Por meio de análise de distribuições, classificação e agrupamento, as tarefas e os solicitantes foram caracterizados utilizando dados obtidos da plataforma Amazon Mechanical Turk em dois períodos de tempo distintos. Os resultados mostram que a maioria das tarefas (94% e 87%, para a coleta de dados1 e 2,respectivamente) usa algum teste de qualificação para a pré-seleção de trabalhadores e que o tipo e o número de testes de qualificação não são determinados pela classe da tarefa. Os solicitantes, em sua maioria, submetem tarefas com apenas um único teste de qualificação do tipo reputação, no entanto, os solicitantes mais ativos na plataforma usam, exclusivamente, teste de qualificação customizado. Para avaliar o impacto do uso de testes de qualificação customizados na qualidade dos resultados produzidos, foram realiza dos experimentos com três tipos diferentes de tarefas usando tanto trabalhadores qualificados (mestres ou trabalhadores pré-selecionados) como não qualificados. Os resultados mostram que a pontuação média alcançada pelos trabalhadores pré-selecionados foi sempre maior que a alcançada por trabalhadores que não foram pré-selecionados. Além disso, o desempenho de trabalhadores pré-selecionados foi muito próximo dos trabalhadores considerados mestres e, em alguns cenários, melhor, indicando assim, que é possível obter resultados mais acurados em plataformas de trabalho on-line de microtarefas quando se usa testes de qualificação.

Yes / There is conflicting experimental evidence about whether the “stakes” or importance of being wrong affect judgments about whether a subject knows a proposition. To date, judgments about stakes effects on knowledge have been investigated using binary paradigms: responses to “low” stakes cases are compared with responses to “high stakes” cases. However, stakes or importance are not binary properties—they are scalar: whether a situation is “high” or “low” stakes is a matter of degree. So far, no experimental work has investigated the scalar nature of stakes effects on knowledge: do stakes effects increase as the stakes get higher? Do stakes effects only appear once a certain threshold of stakes has been crossed? Does the effect plateau at a certain point? To address these questions, we conducted experiments that probe for the scalarity of stakes effects using several experimental approaches. We found evidence of scalar stakes effects using an “evidenceseeking” experimental design, but no evidence of scalar effects using a traditional “evidence-fixed” experimental design. In addition, using the evidence-seeking design, we uncovered a large, but previously unnoticed framing effect on whether participants are skeptical about whether someone can know something, no matter how much evidence they have. The rate of skeptical responses and the rate at which participants were willing to attribute “lazy knowledge”—that someone can know something without having to check— were themselves subject to a stakes effect: participants were more skeptical when the stakes were higher, and more prone to attribute lazy knowledge when the stakes were lower. We argue that the novel skeptical stakes effect provides resources to respond to criticisms of the evidence-seeking approach that argue that it does not target knowledge / Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (RPG-2016-193)

Syftet med studien var att undersöka sambanden mellan Dark Triad (de mörka personlighetsdragen Machiavellism, narcissism och psykopati), Sociosexuell orientering (beteende, attityd och lust till att medverka i tillfälliga sexuella relationer) samt Religiositet. En korrelationsanalys utfördes för att undersöka sambanden mellan variablerna och en modererande multipel regressionsanalys (MMR) utfördes för att undersöka om religiositet modererade effekten av Dark Triad på sociosexuell orientering. Deltagarna bestod av amerikaner (N =309) som svarade på en webbenkät via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) vilken innehöll Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD) och the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R), dessutom angav de religionstillhörighet/ingen religionstillhörighet. Dark Triad hade ett positivt samband med sociosexuell orientering, men inget samband med religiositet. Sociosexuell orientering hade ett negativt samband med religiositet. Religiositet modererade inte effekten av Dark Triad på sociosexuell orientering. Resultaten bekräftar delvis tidigare forskning. Trots att religiositet inte modererade effekten av Dark Triad på sociosexuell orientering, borde detta förhållande undersökas vidare eftersom ingen tidigare forskning gjorts på området. / The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the Dark Triad (the dark personality traits Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy), Sociosexual orientation (behavior, attitude and desire to participate in uncommited sex) and Religiosity. A correlation analysis was used to investigate the association between variables and a moderating multiple regressionanalysis (MMR) was used to investigate if Religiosity moderated the effect of the Dark Triad on Sociosexual orientation. The participants consisted of US-residents (N = 309) who responded to an online survey through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) comprising The Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD) and the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R). In addition participants also stated religious affiliation / no religious affiliation. Dark Triad had a positive relationship with sociosexual orientation, but no relationship with religiosity. Sociosexual orientation had a negative relationship with religiosity. Religiosity did not moderate the effect of Dark Triad on sociosexual orientation. The results partially confirm previous research. Although religiosity failed to moderate the effect of Dark Triad on sociosexual orientation, this relation should be investigated further since no previous research has been done in this field of research.

Crowdsourcing has gained favor among many social scientists as a method for collecting data because this method is both time- and resource-efficient. The present study uses a within-subject test-retest design to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of crowdsource samples for developing and field testing measurement instruments. As evidenced by similar patterns of psychometric characteristics across time, strong test-retest reliability, and low failure rates of attention check items, the results of this study provide evidence that Amazon Mechanical Turk might represent a fruitful platform for field testing to support the development of a variety of measures. These findings, in turn, have significant implications for resource efficiency in the fields of educational and organizational measurement.

No description available.

abstract: Multiple studies have found that writing with self-compassion about a difficult event helps promote mental health and improve affect in college students and non-clinical populations (Johnson & O'Brien, 2013; Leary et al, 2007; Shapira & Mongrain, 2010). This study investigated whether a self-compassion writing intervention would lead to increases in self-compassion and proactive coping and reductions in depression and physical symptoms in a sample of individuals with different types of mental illness. This study also looked more broadly at the feasibility of conducting an online randomized trial on individuals with mental illness, including psychotic disorders, on Amazon MTurk. Individuals with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and/or depression on Amazon MTurk were recruited and randomly assigned to either a (1) treatment condition in which participants wrote with self-compassion or a (2) neutral condition in which participants wrote about how they spent their time. Participants were asked to write for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days. Outcome measures were administered at baseline, after the three-day intervention, and one month later. Computerized linguistic analysis (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015) was also used to analyze participants' writing to determine if the intervention had the intended effect. Both the treatment and control groups showed significant improvements in self-compassion, proactive coping, general mental health and physical health following the intervention and both groups showed significant improvements in self-compassion, proactive coping and general mental health between the post-test and 1-month follow-up. In addition, the self-compassion writing group's positive affect improved significantly more than the control group after the wave 1 writing intervention and the control group's negative affect improved significantly more than the self-compassion writing group after the wave 2 writing intervention. Overall, the results suggest both self-compassion writing and writing about how one spends one's time may be beneficial for individuals with mental illness with different needs. Moreover, it was found Amazon MTurk may not be a reliable platform for recruiting individuals with psychotic disorders, and that the prevalence of individuals with any mental illness on MTurk may be equal or greater than the prevalence of any mental illness in the general population. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2018

Previous research has shown that exerting self-control on a demanding task can impair performance on a subsequent demanding self-control task. This phenomenon is known as ego-depletion; however, its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Notable gaps in the literature exist regarding whether participants’ motivation levels can attenuate the depletion effect, and whether trait self-control is related. Drawing from the process model of depletion and the self-determination theory, the goal of the study was to examine whether motivational incentives in the form of autonomy can impact performance on tasks in an ego-depleted state, and the potential relationship of trait self-control. Amazon Mechanical Turk was utilized to conduct this experimental quantitative study with a 2 (ego-depletion: yes or no) x 2 (autonomous reward motivation: incentivized or nonincentivized) between-subjects factorial design. The effects of an autonomous motivational incentive were compared with the effects of no incentive on a convenience sample of online participants (N = 211), half of whom performed a task designed to be depleting of self-control resources, and half of whom performed a non-depleting task instead. Multivariate ANCOVAs showed no significant differences for performance on a subsequent self-control task for any of the experimental groups, and no co-variance of trait self-control was found (as measured by the Brief Self-Control Scale). This study will contribute to social change by increasing understanding of the factors contributing to self-control. This knowledge will be useful to anyone intending to strengthen their own willpower and achieve their goals, and may enable practitioners to better assist clients struggling with addictions and other maladaptive behaviors.

No description available.

Problémy jako je jemnozrnná kategorizace či výpočty s využitím lidských zdrojů se v posledních letech v komunitě stávají stále populárnějšími, což dosvědčuje i značné množství publikací na tato témata. Zatímco většina těchto prací využívá "klasických'' obrazových příznaků extrahovaných počítačem, tato se zaměřuje především na percepční vlastnosti, které nemohou být snadno zachyceny počítači a vyžadují zapojení lidí do procesu sběru dat. Práce zkoumá možnosti levného a efektivního získávání percepčních podobností od uživatelů rovněž ve vztahu ke škálovatelnosti. Dále vyhodnocuje několik relevantních experimentů a představuje metody zlepšující efektivitu sběru dat. Jsou zde také shrnuty a porovnány metody učení multidimenzionálního indexování a prohledávání tohoto prostoru. Získané výsledky jsou následně užity v komplexním experimentu vyhodnoceném na datasetu obrázků jídel. Procedura začíná získáváním podobností od uživatelů, pokračuje vytvořením multidimenzionálního prostoru jídel a končí prohledáváním tohoto prostoru.