Perceptually-seductive technology (PST) is introduced as a way of designing IT environments that can help support everyday creativity. This is done in part by using sensory stimulation, seclusion and other perceptual components to seduce an individual towards creative insights that would not occur on the basis of conceptual thought alone. Everyday creativity is characterised as the combination of novel solutions in addressing everyday problems, and learning, indicating endurance over time. Everyday creativity is sometimes referred to as personal creativity, since it concerns what is novel to an individual, not to society as a whole. As in exceptional or historical creativity, in everyday creativity the novelty arises from the individual concerned, not from outside. Literature reviews of learning and memory, emotion and creativity set the scene and provide the basis for introducing PST. The relation of the individual to the technology, and with the world through the technology, is also considered. A model of the design space for PST is proposed and related to a proposed view of the creative process. It is suggested that to stimulate and support the creative process, IT environments should encourage both presence (perceptual or experiential mental activity) and absence (conceptual or reflective mental activity), which are seen as end points of a continuum comprising the Focus dimension. Similarly, the importance of both conscious and unconscious activity (the Sensus dimension) is emphasised, as is the role of emotion in mediating the balance between the two. The Locus dimension refers to the real-virtual distinction. In PST, virtual realisations are used to represent real world things and events and in so doing support the memorisation and reflection that are essential to everyday creativity. Four different examples of designing and implementing PST are presented. The first is a media production within a novel environment called the Interactive Tent, and is a demonstration and validation of theoretical ideas behind the PST concept. Three educational PST environments and their formative evaluations are then presented. These are first steps towards designing PST for particular kinds of application, in this case as environments for memorisation. Taken together, these examples lead to design recommendations and suggestions for future work, including the application of PST in education, stress management and for the elderly and disabled. / digitalisering@umu

A growing body of literature suggests that Virtual Reality is a successful tool for exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. Virtual Reality (VR) researchers posit the construct of presence, interpreting an artificial stimulus as if it were real, as the mechanism that enables anxiety to be felt during virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE). However, empirical studies on the relation between presence and anxiety in VRE have yielded mixed findings. The current study tested the following hypotheses 1) Presence is related to in session anxiety and treatment outcome; 2) Presence mediates the extent that pre-existing (pre-treatment) anxiety is experienced during exposure with VR; 3) Presence is positively related to the amount of phobic elements included within the virtual environment. Results supported presence as the mechanism by which anxiety is experienced in the virtual environment as well as a relation between presence and the phobic elements, but did not support a relation between presence and treatment outcome

Bakgrund: Det ökande antalet anmälningar till patientnämnder och Socialstyrelsen handlar iallt större utsträckning om patienters upplevelser av brister i möten med vårdpersonal. Inom vårdvetenskapen beskrivs begreppet vårdrelation som en grundläggande förutsättning för vårdandet. När sjuksköterskor misslyckas med att skapa vårdrelationer som är vårdande kan detta leda till ett vårdlidande och patienter fråntas rätten att vara delaktiga i sin hälsoprocess. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa sjuksköterskors beskrivningar och upplevelser av vad som gör vårdrelationer vårdande. Metod: Som metod användes en litteraturöversikt vilken baserades på en analys av tiokvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fyra teman som svarade mot syftet: medkänsla, närvaro, mod och att ta sig tid. Dessa teman går delvis in i varandra. Vårdrelationen blir vårdande när sjuksköterskan har mod att vara närvarande i mötet med patienten och har ett personligt engagemang, har den kreativa förmågan att lyssna och verkligen ta sig tid att höra vad patienten förmedlar. Diskussion: Det finns en risk att mänskliga värden går förlorade när sjuksköterskan har fokus på att utföra uppgifter och patienten objektifieras. Sjuksköterskans kunskap och medvetenhet om existentiella och medmänskliga behov behöver lyftas fram i vårdandet. Nyckelord: Vårdrelation, närvaro, medkänsla, mod. / Background: The increasing number of complaints to patient boards and Swedish board of social welfare focus on patients' perceptions of gaps in encounters with health professionals. In health science, the concept of caring relations is described as a fundamental prerequisite for caring. When nurses fail to provide caring relations may lead to a suffering for the patient and they are deprived of the right to participate in their health process. Aim: The aim of this study was to highlight nurses' descriptions and experiences of what makes the caring relationship caring. Method: A literature review based on an analysis of ten qualitative research articles was performed. Findings: The results revealed four themes that responded to the aim: compassion, presence, courage and take your time. These themes are partly intertwined. The caring relationship becomes caring when the nurse has the courage to be present in the meeting with the patient and has a personal commitment, has the creative ability to listen and really take the time to hear what the patient conveys. Discussion: There is a risk that human values are lost when the nurse ends up in performance and performs tasks. A nurse's knowledge and consciousness of existential and interpersonal needs must be highlighted in caring. Keywords: Caring relationship, presence, compassion, courage.

The distance learning environment is one that involves a complex array of factors that influence a learner’s perspective of presence, satisfaction, and learning. This study was designed to investigate Lee College freshmen and sophomore students’ perceptions of social presence. The purpose of the study was to (a) determine whether or not differences in perceptions of social presence exist among participants who differ in gender, age, and total level of education and (b) investigate whether or not there was a relationship between the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their online course activities in WEBCT®. This study was conducted using a questionnaire. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 252 freshmen and sophomore level students at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. A response rate of 62% resulted in a final sample of 156. The content validity of the questionnaire was established via expert opinion, and the internal consistency and reliability of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach’s α. Data screening techniques were employed as the first step in the data analysis process. Frequency counts, central tendencies, and standard deviations were used in the descriptive analysis of the data obtained via the questionnaire. Correlations and one-way ANOVAS were employed to answer research question 1 regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their personal characteristics (i.e., gender, age, and their total number of college credits earned). Six conclusions were generated regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and their gender, age, and total number of college credits earned. Principal factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed six constructs for research question 2 regarding the online course activities in WEBCT®. Differences in the participants’ perceptions of social presence in the six constructs for the online course activities in WEBCT® were obtained. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted to obtain additional information regarding the amount of explained variance added by each of the respective predictors. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability of the data. Twelve conclusions were generated for research question 2 regarding the participants’ perceptions of social presence and the online course activities. Specific human resource development practices were suggested.

This dissertation examines the effect of podcast tours on park visitor experiences. Podcast tours have emerged as a new medium in facilitating the interaction between tourists and destinations. Providing visitors with enhanced experiences through the use of interpretive technologies is especially important for national parks dealing with enhancing visitors' experiences which may influence visitors' perception of environmental stewardship and, in turn, positively affect preserving environmental resources. Furthermore, there has been a noticeable increase in consumer demand for podcast tours. Based on theoretical accounts that human voices convey rich social information, this dissertation proposes that podcast tours enhance perceived social presence and mindfulness which leads to enhanced tourist experiences (learning, enjoyment, and escape) and environmental stewardship (attitudinal and behavioral stewardship). A field experiment was conducted at Padre Island National Seashore using MP3 players containing podcast tours. The podcasts were manipulated using four experimental conditions: 2 information source compositions (single narrator voice vs. multiple narrator voices) x 2 narrating styles (formal style vs. conversational style). The questionnaire administered to subjects after they took the podcast tour included measures of social presence, mindfulness, tourist experience (learning, enjoyment, and escape), and stewardship (attitudinal and behavioral stewardship). The pre-questionnaire included question items regarding the nature of the visit, visitor characteristics, technology usage behavior, audio tour evaluation and socio-demographics. Responses from 221 visitors were analyzed using structural equation modeling with LISREL 8.7. The results provide evidence that multiple voices, and to some extent also narration style, positively increase social presence but neither experimental condition had any influence on mindfulness. The increased feeling of social presence influences park visitors' enjoyment and escape experiences but not learning. Mindfulness was found to affect visitors' learning, enjoyment, and escape experience. The results further show that enhanced experiences positively influence attitudinal stewardship which in turn leads to behavioral stewardship toward national parks. The results of this dissertation generally support the theoretical model suggesting that even if communicated through audio-only media, the human voice creates and sustains a positive social context for meaningful interaction which influences tourist experiences and stewardship. Mindfulness was also found to be an important construct impacting the quality of visitor experiences but could not be explained by the specific podcast tour designs tested. From a practical perspective, the findings provide important insights regarding the usefulness of podcast tours as interpretative media, and also suggest that specific designs are more capable of fostering feelings of social presence.

The explosive proliferation of Internet usage has enabled a number of new online communities to be established. Among them, online games have been representing the leading technological edge of the entertainment sector and the trend is expected to continue. The nature of Internet has enabled its users easy to hop from one website to another only several clicks away with very little cost. While website stickiness is regarded as a significant factor to e-commerce success, how to attract the attention of gamers and make them stick around has become a big challenge for both online game developers and providers. Based on the uses and gratification theory, this study proposed a model which integrated use and gratification with service mechanism (i.e. fairness, security, and incentive) and media factor (i.e. spatial presence and social presence) to investigate what determines player¡¦s online game stickiness. The partial least squares method was applied to empirically evaluate the proposed model using survey data collected from 274 online gamers. Our findings indicate that all variables except presence have positive significant effects on continuance motivation (CM), and CM also significantly affects gamers¡¦ stickiness. The implications of this work to both researchers and practitioners are discussed.

This essay interrogates the political dimensions of black presence in black theatrical practice. To do so, I focus on the deployment of black presence in the spectacle Silêncio performed by Cia dos Comuns and premiered in 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I argue that the option made by director Hilton Cobra in not making use of fictional characters, as well as not deploying realistic representations of every day life, indicates a political gesture that challenges what I consider to be the most fundamental aspect of black theatrical practice: the black presence on stage. By facing the multidimensional, challenging, and contradictory aspects of black presence, this study will approach the negotiation of presence in black theatrical practice. I argue that an approach on the black phenomenal presence on stage complicates assumptions regarding the benefits of the investment in black presence as a political tool to enhance the participation of black people in Brazilian society. This essay aims to engage and expand on the available theoretical apparatus in the scholarship about black theatrical practice in Brazil. / text

Victim precipitated homicide is a phenomenon generally credited to the seminal work of Marvin Wolfgang (1957, 1958, 1967). While a limited number of studies have been conducted supporting this concept, limited understanding exists of the event dynamics of homicidal transactions in general and victim precipitated homicides in particular. In this study, the presence of an audience and alcohol impairment are treated as catalysts that influence the dynamics of the homicide event. It is hypothesized that homicide events are more likely to take shape as victim precipitated transactions when audience members are present. It is further hypothesized that the victim’s consumption of alcohol serves as a moderator between the presence of an audience and victim precipitated homicide. These hypotheses were tested using a dataset of 473 homicides occurring in Dallas, Texas from 1988 to 1997. The author found support for the first hypothesis postulating that the presence of an audience increases the odds of a victim precipitated homicide, but found little support for alcohol as a moderating factor. Potential theoretical and policy implications and future research are discussed.

The purpose of the study was to provide a comprehensive framework that explains how consumer experiences within new, innovative media affect advertising effectiveness. Several concerns about previous advertising models motivated this study. For instance, advertising models traditionally have focused on message recipients’ characteristics and information processes, ignoring the significant role of media in understanding advertising effectiveness. In addition, recently developed advertising models dealing with the impact of media have been narrowly applied to a specific medium, the Internet, and have focused largely on interactivity. The proposed model and our findings highlighted the prominent roles of media novelty and presence in enhancing advertising effectiveness in an innovative, new medium that emphasizes vividness, stereoscopic 3-D. The novelty effect, created by the newness of the medium, had the power to attract viewers’ attention and the increased attention enhanced their sense of presence, the experience of being plunged into a new virtual world that advertisers constructed. The findings demonstrated that these sequential relationships can result in positive measures of advertising effectiveness, such as improved product knowledge and increased enjoyment, and ultimately more favorable attitudes toward the ad. Also our findings revealed that an irritation, such as cybersickness resulting from the stereoscopic 3-D, can hinder ad viewers’ communication processes and reduce their attention to the ad and their enjoyment of it. The model predicted that user characteristics, such as innovativeness, curiosity, and previous experience with the medium, would affect the process, but no effects were found. The current research provided advertising practitioners and researchers with opportunities to consider the significant role of media, especially innovative media, in assessing overall advertising effectiveness. For managers, it highlighted the potential of stereoscopic 3-D technology as an emerging advertising vehicle. Given the rapid changes in the media environment, it is increasingly important to understand the important roles that media play in advertising effectiveness. / text

A growing body of literature suggests that Virtual Reality is a successful tool for exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. Virtual Reality (VR) researchers posit the construct of presence, interpreting an artificial stimulus as if it were real, as the mechanism that enables anxiety to be felt during virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE). However, empirical studies on the relation between presence and anxiety in VRE have yielded mixed findings. The current study tested the following hypotheses 1) Presence is related to in session anxiety and treatment outcome; 2) Presence mediates the extent that pre-existing (pre-treatment) anxiety is experienced during exposure with VR; 3) Presence is positively related to the amount of phobic elements included within the virtual environment. Results supported presence as the mechanism by which anxiety is experienced in the virtual environment as well as a relation between presence and the phobic elements, but did not support a relation between presence and treatment outcome