The current driving simulator study investigates the effect of 2 distinct levels of distraction on a drivers’ situational awareness and latent and inherent hazard anticipation. In this study, rear-end crashes were used as the primary crash configuration to target a specific category of crashes due to distraction. The two types of task load used in the experiment was a cognitive distraction (mock cell-phone task) & visual distraction (I-pad task). Forty-eight young participants aged 18-25 years navigated 8 scenarios each in a mixed subject design with task load (cognitive or visual distraction) as a between-subject variable and the presence/absence of distraction representing the within-subject variable. All participants drove 4 scenarios with a distraction and 4 scenarios without any distraction. Physiological variables in the form of Heart rate and heart rate variability was collected for each participant during the practice drives and after each of the 8 experimental drives. After the completion of each experimental drive, participants were asked to fill up a NASA TLX questionnaire which quantifies the overall task load experienced by giving it a score between 1 and 100, where higher scores translate to higher perceived task load. Eye-movements were also recorded for the proportion of latent and inherent hazards anticipated and mitigated for all participants. Standard vehicle data (velocity, acceleration & lane offset) were also collected from the simulator for each participants’ each drive. Analysis of data showed that there was a significant difference in velocity, lane offset and task load index scores across the 2 groups (between-subject factors). The vehicle data, heart rate data and TLX data was analyzed using Mixed subject ANOVA. There was also a logistic regression model devised which showed significant effects of velocity, lane offset, TLX scores and age on a participants’ hazard anticipation abilities. The findings have a major practical implication in reducing drivers’ risk of fatal, serious or near crashes.

In this study, the understanding about multimodal perception from previous studies has been used to create a perceptually demanding visual search task inside a game. Also, a subtle multimodal cue was created to be in-directly informative about the visual search target’s location by attracting subjects’ attention. 20 subjects were divided equally among the experiments two conditions, one where the subjects had no access to the multimodal information and one where the subjects did have access to the multimodal information. The multimodal information conveyed to the subjects in this experiment was temporal synchrony between a visual light pulsating and a sound being modulated using level and low-pass filtering. Results showed that the subjects that were given the multimodal information improved more on the search task than the group without multimodal information, but the subjects in the multimodal group also perceived the pace of the task as higher. However, it is unclear exactly how the multimodal cue helped the subjects since the playing subjects did not seem to change their search movement pattern to favor the location of the search target, as was expected. Further, the difficulties and considerations of testing in a game environment is discussed and it is concluded that the gamer population is a very varied group which has big impacts on methodology of in-game experiments. To identify sub-groups, further research could study why different players use different search behaviors.

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Tidigare forskning har påvisat att ERP-system och komplexa system överlag lider av användbarhetsproblem och låg användarupplevelse. Eftersom ERP-system måste bearbeta och integrera stora mängder av data ställer det ännu högre krav på användbarhet och användarupplevelse när användare vill få åtkomst till denna data via mobila enheter. PACMAD modellen som är en relativt ny användbarhet modell bygger vidare på tidigare etablerade modeller såsom ISO-standarden och Nielsens teorier om användbarhet och kompletterar några av de brister som existerande användbarhetsmodeller har gällande mobila applikationer. Modellen bygger på befintliga teorier i användbarhet men är anpassad speciellt för applikationer som används på mobila enheter. PACMAD-modellen innehåller samtliga attribut för både ISO-standarden och Nielsens modell men introducerar även attributet kognitiv belastning som är av särskild betydelse för mobila applikationer. För att besvara vår frågeställning utfördes workshops och intervjuer hos två leverantörer av ERP-modulen Field Service Management. Utifrån resultatet från dessa utfördes användbarhetstester med slutanvändare från båda leverantörer i form av observation test för att mäta dess effektivitet och verkningsgrad och NASA task load test för att mäta applikationernas kognitiva belastning. Resultatet påvisade att deras befintliga applikation led av stora användbarhetsproblem samt att utformningen av applikationerna beaktade inte faktorer såsom användare, kontext och uppgift. De upptäckter som gjordes i bidrog till framtagning av en ny prototyp med hjälp av etablerade designmönster och PACMAD-modellen som ställdes mot existerande litteratur, testades igen samt jämfördes med deras befintliga applikation. Detta utgjorde studiens huvudsakliga resultat att navigationen bestod av för många steg, att det fanns avsaknad av funktionalitet och hög kognitiv belastning. De nyckelord som var huvudsakliga för slutsatsen var “konsekvens”, “tydlighet” och “struktur” och förklarar designprocessen som utgjorde många upptäckter där företagen inte följde etablerade designmönster eller användbarhet modeller. Dessa nyckelord ägde stor tyngd för att öka användbarhet och användarupplevelse.

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Cette thèse fournit des éléments pertinents dans la prédiction de l'intention d'usage d'un progiciel de gestion intégrée (PGI) dans le secteur de transport aérien en Tunisie. L'introduction de ce type de progiciel implique des changements au niveau de l'organisation du travail et des appréhensions au niveau des salariés en regard de sa complexité. Le premier objectif empirique de ce travail est de relever les rôles respectifs du sentiment d'auto-efficacité, le sentiment de contrôle comportemental perçu et la charge subjective du travail dans le choix d'adoption de ces progiciels (étude 1). Les résultats indiquent qu'une synergie est bien présente entre les éléments indiqués et qu'ils influencent de manière significative le recours à l'utilisation des PGI. L'auto-efficacité informatique et le contrôle perçu favorisent l'intention le recours à l'usage des PGI de manière directe et indirecte via les perceptions d'utilité et d'utilisabilité relatives au progiciel. Tandis que la charge subjective de travail entrave le recours à l'utilisation de cet outil. Les composantes de la charge subjective de travail (la charge mentale, la charge temporelle, la demande en effort et en performance et la frustration) ont ainsi un poids considérable dans la formation de l'intention d'usage de ce progiciel. La principale source de cet effet négatif est due au sentiment de frustration que pourrait ressentir le salarié lors de l'usage d'un PGI. L'étude des différentes formes de la frustration (étude 2) suggère un impact plus important du sentiment de découragement que le sentiment de stress perçu sur l'utilisabilité et l'intention d'usage des PGI. Cette présente thèse a un double objectif : une contribution théorique sur le rôle des déterminants émotionnels sur l'intention d'usage des progiciels de gestion intégrée et une contribution pratique puisque ce travail permet de repenser la décision d'investissement en l'implémentation du progiciel et canaliser les efforts des formateurs afin de diminuer la charge subjective chez les salariés lors de l'utilisation effective de l'outil. / This thesis provides us with relevant factors which served as predictions of intentions used through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in the air transport sector in Tunisia. The introduction of such type of package implies changes in work's organizations and employees' apprehensions since it is to be considered as a complex process. The first empirical objective of this work is to pinpoint respectively the main role of the sense of self-efficacy, the perceived behavioral control and subjective workload in choosing adoption of such packages (study 1). The results indicate that interrelatedness is well marked and therefore, it has a significant influence in the use of the ERP. Both computer's self-efficiency and experienced self-control lead to a direct or indirect use of ERP through the perceived utility and relative usability of the package. Whereas, the subjective aspect of the workload go against a good use this tool. The components of subjective workload (mental workload, temporal workload, asked efforts, performance's level and frustration) have considerable effect in the formation of good willingness for the use of such software. This experienced negative effect stems its origins from the employee's frustration when using an ERP system. The study of different forms of frustration (Study 2) suggests that a greater impact is to be recorded, and then, a feeling of discouragement is far to be dismissed and it can be considered as more important than the perceived stress related with usability of the ERP. The present thesis has two layers of research: the first is a kind of theoretical contribution on the role of emotional determinants on the intentional use of ERP systems and the second is a practical contribution since it paves the way to a rethinking of the decisional invest in the implementation of such a package's in-put and therefore it mainstreams the effort of educators in the aim to reduce the subjective burden among employees during an actual and efficient use of the tool.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:19:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3598.pdf: 1656101 bytes, checksum: 5a2e1fda1dddbe758b4f2be808a80795 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-28 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Background: During the first year of life, the human infant learns fundamental behaviors, such as reaching and manipulating, which will be extensively performed to explore objects. This exploration is performed by means of diversified manual actions, which may be influenced by organic immaturity, such as late prematurity, and by external perturbations, such as addition of weight load on upper limbs. Objective: This work had as general aim to verify the manual exploratory behavior in late preterm infants and full-term infants from 5 to 7 months of age, with and without additional weight load on wrists. Methods: Nine low-risk preterm infants (5 male) with minimal and maximal gestational ages of, respectively, 34 and 36 weeks and 6 days (M =35.6 ± 0.5) and mean birth weight of 2.960±0.25 kilograms, and 10 healthy fullterm infants (4 male) with minimal and maximal gestational ages of, respectively, 38 and 42 weeks (M =39.0 ± 0.73) and mean birth weight of 3.363 ± 0.14 kilograms, participated in this research. The infants were evaluated longitudinally at 5, 6 and 7 months of age (corrected to the preterm infants). The infants were placed in a baby chair reclined 50º from the horizontal and were tested in two experimental conditions: without the use of weight load (A) and with the use of weight load (B). During condition A, an attractive, silent and malleable rubber object, unfamiliar to the infants, was presented by the examiner at the infant s midline for 120 seconds. The infant could freely explore the object by up to 20 seconds or up to drop it. During condition B the same procedure conducted during condition A was carried out, however a bracelet weighting 20% of total arm mass was attached to the infant's both wrists. The evaluations were recorded by three digital cameras and analyzed frame by frame. The manual exploratory actions were coded as Fingering, Mouthing, Waving, Banging on the Object, Banging the Object, Transferring, Rotating, and Alternating. Results: The age of 7 months seemed to represent a gain in frequencies of actions Fingering, Waving, Banging-the-object and Rotating in preterm infants. They performed a lower frequency of action Mouthing compared to full-term infants at all ages (p<0.05). There were no significant differences (p>0.05) between conditions A and B in any studied variable, regardless of group or age. Conclusions: There were a decrease in the frequency of Fingering and an increase in the frequencies of Waving, Banging the Object and Rotating in both groups in the studied age. Although the preterm infants have seemed to mouth the object less than the full-term infants, in general the manual exploratory behavior was similar between the groups. Furthermore, the somatossensory and mechanical stimulus provided by the weight load was irrelevant to the frequency of performance of the exploratory actions, presenting a stabilizer effect on them in both studied groups. The late prematurity did not interfere in the infants motor responses as a function of the additional weight load at the studied age. / Contextualização: Durante o primeiro ano de vida, o lactente humano aprende comportamentos fundamentais, como alcançar e manipular, que serão empregados extensivamente para explorar os objetos. Essa exploração é realizada por meio de ações manuais diversificadas, as quais podem ser influenciadas pela imaturidade orgânica, como a prematuridade tardia, e por perturbações externas, como a adição de peso nos membros superiores. Objetivo: Este trabalho teve por objetivo geral verificar o comportamento exploratório manual de lactentes pré-termo tardios e lactentes a termo de 5 a 7 meses de idade, com e sem uso de peso adicional nos punhos. Métodos: Para isto, participaram da pesquisa 09 lactentes pré-termo tardios de baixo risco (5 do sexo masculino), com idade gestacional mínima de 34 semanas e máxima de 36 semanas e 6 dias (M=35,6±0,5 semanas) e peso médio ao nascimento de 2,960±0,25 quilogramas, e 10 lactentes a termo saudáveis (4 do sexo masculino), com idades gestacionais mínima e máxima respectivas de 38 e 42 semanas (M= 39±0,73 semanas) e peso médio ao nascimento de 3,363±0,14 quilogramas. Os lactentes foram avaliados longitudinalmente aos 5, 6 e 7 meses, sendo a idade corrigida para a prematuridade. Sentados em uma cadeira infantil inclinada a 50º com a horizontal, os lactentes foram testados em duas condições experimentais: na condição A, um objeto atrativo maleável, não-sonoro e não familiar ao lactente foi apresentado pelo examinador, na linha média do tronco do lactente, na altura de seus ombros, numa distância alcançável, por um período de 120 segundos. O lactente podia explorar o objeto livremente por até 20 segundos após alcançá-lo ou até deixá-lo cair; na condição B foi realizado o mesmo procedimento da condição A, entretanto, adicionando-se um bracelete com peso de 20% da massa total de seu membro superior em ambos os punhos do lactente. As avaliações foram filmadas por três câmeras digitais e analisadas quadro a quadro. Foram codificadas as seguintes ações exploratórias manuais: Deslizar, Objeto à Boca, Agitar, Bater no Objeto, Bater com Objeto, Transferir, Girar, e Alternar. Resultados: A idade de 7 meses pareceu representar um ganho nas freqüências das ações Deslizar, Agitar, Bater com Objeto e Girar nos lactentes pré-termo. Estes realizam uma menor freqüência da ação Objeto à Boca em comparação aos lactentes a termo em todas as idades (p<0,05). Não houve diferenças significativas (p>0,05) entre as condições A e B em nenhuma das ações estudadas, independentemente de grupo ou idade. Conclusões: Houve diminuição na freqüência da ação Deslizar e ganho nas freqüências das ações Agitar, Bater com Objeto e Girar em ambos os grupos no período estudado. Embora os lactentes prétermo tenham levado o objeto à boca em menor freqüência do que os lactentes a termo, de forma geral o comportamento exploratório manual foi similar entre os grupos. Além disso, o estímulo somatossensorial e mecânico fornecido pelo peso adotado foi irrelevante para a freqüência de acionamento das ações exploratórias, apresentando efeito estabilizador sobre as mesmas em ambos os grupos estudados. A prematuridade tardia não interferiu nas respostas motoras dos lactentes em função do peso adicional na faixa etária estudada.

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An experiment was conducted investigating the utility of teamwork exercises and problem structure for promoting technological problem solving in a student team context. The teamwork exercises were designed for participants to experience a high level of psychomotor coordination and cooperation with their teammates. The problem structure treatment was designed based on small group research findings on brainstorming, information processing, and problem formulation. First-year college engineering students (N = 294) were randomly assigned to three levels of team size (2, 3, or 4 members) and two treatment conditions: teamwork exercises and problem structure (N = 99 teams). In addition, the study included three non-manipulated, independent variables: team gender, team temperament, and team teamwork orientation. Teams were measured on technological problem solving through two conceptually related technological tasks or engineering design activities: a computer bridge task and a truss model task. The computer bridge score and the number of computer bridge design iterations, both within subjects factors (time), were recorded in pairs over four 30-minute intervals. For the last two intervals with the computer bridge, teams started construction of the truss model task, which created low and high task load conditions for the computer bridge: another within subjects factor. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze time (computer bridge) by factor interactions. No significant time by teamwork exercises or time by problem structure interactions on computer bridge scores were found [F(2.31, 198.46) = 0.10, p = .928; F(2.31, 198.46) = 0.03, p = .984]. There was a significant interaction between the factors of time and team size [F(4.62, 198.46) = 2.75, p = .023]. An ANOVA was conducted with the between subject factors on the truss model task. A significant main effect was found for teamwork exercises [F(1, 86) = 2.84, p = .048, one-tailed], but not for problem structure or team size. Post hoc analyses were conducted for team size on computer bridge and iteration scores over time, as well as teamwork exercises effects for each team size. Findings and their implications were reported, along with suggestions for future research on technological problem solving in a team context. / Ph. D.

When individuals set goals, they consider the subjective value (SV) of the anticipated reward and the required effort, a trade-off that is of great interest to psychological research. One approach to quantify the SVs of levels of difficulty of a cognitive task is the Cognitive Effort Discounting Paradigm by Westbrook and colleagues (2013). However, it fails to acknowledge the highly individual nature of effort, as it assumes a unidirectional, inverse relationship between task load and SVs. Therefore, it cannot map differences in effort perception that arise from traits like Need for Cognition, since individuals who enjoy effortful cognitive activities likely do not prefer the easiest level. We replicated the analysis of Westbrook and colleagues with an adapted version, the Cognitive and Affective Discounting (CAD) Paradigm. It quantifies SVs without assuming that the easiest level is preferred, thereby enabling the assessment of SVs for tasks without objective order of task load. Results show that many of the 116 participants preferred a more or the most difficult level. Variance in SVs was best explained by a declining logistic contrast of the n-back levels and by the accuracy of responses, while reaction time as a predictor was highly volatile depending on the preprocessing pipeline. Participants with higher Need for Cognition scores perceived higher n-back levels as less effortful and found them less aversive. Effects of Need for Cognition on SVs in lower levels did not reach significance, as group differences only emerged in higher levels. The CAD Paradigm appears to be well suited for assessing and analysing task preferences independent of the supposed objective task difficulty.