WHEN INTERACTING ONLINE LEADS TO TAKING ACTION OFFLINE: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE PERSUASION ON IS USERS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

With the increasing attention towards the role of information systems (IS) as a vehicle to address environmental issues, IS researchers and practitioners have strived to leverage advanced Green IS innovations to persuade people to engage in environmentally responsible practices and support pro-environmental initiatives. Yet, existing research reveals that the persuasion effects of Green IS designs remain equivocal. In particular, many design characteristics advocated in Green IS research can produce bi-directional changes in IS users’ attitudes and behaviours. To address this issue, this thesis drew upon the circumplex model of social values (S.H. Schwartz, 1992) to explain when and how online persuasion designs come to affect people’s judgements on resource conservation and environmental protection. Three sets of working propositions and specific hypotheses were developed. Specifically, this research suggests that the use of an IS application can elicit different value primes and draw IS users’ attentions to different motivational functions of engaging in suggested behavioural changes. It is expected that matching online persuasion appeals with IS users’ personal value priorities can increase users’ acceptance of online behavioural suggestions. Second, it is hypothesized that the persuasion effect tends to be weakened, as the system users become aware of the valuematching design in a given IS application. Third, it is proposed that different value primes presented in an IS application can result in different unintended effects on IS users’ global pro-environmental attitudes and motivations. The hypotheses were tested in the two pilot studies and two full-scale online experiments. The study findings generally support the main predictions of the hypotheses. On the one hand, this thesis providesiii empirical evidence that IS design for online persuasion can be instrumental in influencing IS users’ judgements on a range of resource conservation practices. On the other hand, this work explains why the effectiveness of IS-enabled online persuasion attempts needs to be measured not only in terms of the intended changes in a target behavioural domain but also in terms of unintended changes in people’s general environmental orientations. Findings in this research may bring a different perspective on understanding and assessing the influence of Green IS applications on IS users’ judgements and behaviou

Copyright and Parody:Taking Backward the Gowers Review

In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property made a series of recommendations for reforming the intellectual property regime to better serve the interests of both consumers and industry. Among the proposed recommendations was that an exception for parody be introduced within the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. In January 2008 the Intellectual Property Office (the IPO) launched the first part of a two-stage consultation process on exceptions to copyright. As part of that consultation process, the IPO proposed a ‘fair dealing style exception’ for parody, and sought views on whether a new exception should be introduced as well as what form it might take. In December 2009 the IPO launched the second stage of this consultation process. The second consultation document rejected the case for a new parody exception. This article considers the place of parody within the copyright regime and the objections levelled against the introduction of an exception set out within the IPO's second consultation document. It invites the IPO to reconsider its decision not to recommend the introduction of a specific exception for parody within the UK.

W1: taking an interdisciplinary approach

Overview of the module from the interdisciplinary writing perspective. Using posters from web science research, discuss and consider what you might scope as an inter-deisciplinary project

Room for Writing: Automated note taking

An introductory exercise to practice when reading papers

Disciplinary differences: a flying visit W1: taking an interdisciplinary approach

Overview of disciplinary differences taking a web science perspective as a starting point.

Central banking and inequalities: taking off the blinders

What is the relation between monetary policy and inequalities in income and wealth? This question has received insufficient attention, especially in light of the unconventional policies introduced since the 2008 financial crisis. The article analyzes three ways in which the concern central banks show for inequalities in their official statements remains incomplete and underdeveloped. First, central banks tend to care about inequality for instrumental reasons only. When they do assign intrinsic value to containing inequalities, they shy away from trade-offs with the standard objectives of monetary policy that such a position entails. Second, central banks play down the causal impact monetary policy has on inequalities. When they do acknowledge it, they defend their actions by claiming that it is an unintended side effect, that it is temporary, and/or that any alternative policy would fare even worse. The article appeals to the doctrine of double effect to criticize these arguments. Third, even if one accepts that inequalities should be contained and that today’s monetary policies exacerbate them, is it both desirable and feasible to make containing inequalities part of the mandate of central banks? The article analyzes and rejects three attempts on the part of central banks to answer this question negatively.

Taking the 'physical' out of physical education

Building bridges between user and designer: co-creation, immersion and perspective taking

Designing for users rather than with users is still a common practice in technology design and innovation as opposed to taking them on board in the process. Design for inclusion aims to define and understand end-users, their needs, context of use, and, by doing so, ensure that end-users are catered for and included, while the results are geared towards universality of use. We describe the central role of end-user and designer participation, immersion and perspective to build user-driven solutions. These approaches provided a critical understanding of the counterpart role. Designer(s) could understand what the user’s needs were, experience physical impairments, and see from other’s perspective the interaction with the environment. Users could understand challenges of designing for physical impairments, build a sense of ownership with technology and explore it from a creative perspective. The understanding of the peer’s role (user and designer), needs and perspective enhanced user participation and inclusion.

The effect of note taking on memory for details in investigative interviews

Across 3 experiments, the effect of different styles of note taking, summary and access to notes was examined for memory for the details contained in a witness interview. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 40) were asked to either take notes or listen as they watched a witness interview. In Experiment 2, participants (N = 84) were asked to either take notes in one of three ways (i.e., conventional, linear, spidergraph) or listen as they watched a witness interview. In Experiment 3, participants (N = 112) were asked to take notes using the conventional or spidergraph method of note taking while they watched a witness interview and were subsequently given an opportunity to review their notes or sit quietly. Participants were then either granted access to their notes during testing or were not provided with their notes. Results of the first two experiments revealed that note takers outperformed listeners. Experiment 2 showed that conventional note takers outperformed those who used organizational styles of note taking, and post-hoc analyses revealed that recall performance was associated with note quality. Experiment 3 showed that participants who had access to their notes performed the best. The implications of these findings for police training programs in investigative interviewing are discussed.

A Fatal Case of Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome After Paralytic Bowel in a Patient Taking Antiparkinson Medication

Objectives: We report a fatal case of neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome, which occurred as a consequence of paralytic bowel in a 72-year-old woman on treatment with antiparkinson medication. Case description: Contrast enhanced computerized tomography of the chest and abdomen demonstrated the presence of paralytic bowel. Results: The patient died. Conclusions: Physicians involved in the treatment of patients affected by Parkinson’s disease should take into consideration the possibility of dopaminergic drug malabsorption due to paralytic bowel as a possible cause of neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome.

Value chain transformation: Taking stock of WorldFish research on value chains and markets

The goal of WorldFish’s research on markets and value chains is to increase the benefits to resource-poor people from fisheries and aquaculture value chains by researching (1) key barriers to resource-poor men, women and other marginalized groups gaining greater benefits from participation in value chains, including barriers related to the availability, affordability and quality of nutrient-rich fish for resource-poor consumers; (2) interventions to overcome those barriers; and (3) mechanisms that are most effective for scaling up of value chain interventions. This paper aims to promote and document learning across WorldFish’s value chain research efforts in Asia and Africa. It has three main objectives: (1) to take stock of WorldFish’s past and ongoing research on value chains; (2) to draw out commonalities and differences between these projects; and (3) to provide a synthesis of some learning that can guide future work.

Student, school, and country differences in sustained test-taking effort in the 2009 PISA reading assessment

In this article, the change in examinee effort during an assessment, which we will refer to as persistence, is modeled as an effect of item position. A multilevel extension is proposed to analyze hierarchically structured data and decompose the individual differences in persistence. Data from the 2009 Program of International Student Achievement (PISA) reading assessment from N = 467,819 students from 65 countries are analyzed with the proposed model, and the results are compared across countries. A decrease in examinee effort during the PISA reading assessment was found consistently across countries, with individual differences within and between schools. Both the decrease and the individual differences are more pronounced in lower performing countries. Within schools, persistence is slightly negatively correlated with reading ability; but at the school level, this correlation is positive in most countries. The results of our analyses indicate that it is important to model and control examinee effort in low-stakes assessments. (DIPF/Orig.)

TAKING THE PERSPECTIVE OF A SELLER AND A BUYER: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRICE ELICITATION AND PRICE FRAMING

This dissertation consists of two essays which investigate how assuming the role of a seller or a buyer affects valuations in a price elicitation task (essay I) and how different presentations of an equivalent price affect evaluations when a consumer plays the dual roles of a buyer and a seller in transactions involving trade-ins (essay II). Sellers’ willingness to accept (WTA) to give up a good is typically higher than buyers' willingness to pay (WTP) to obtain the good. Essay I proposes that valuation processes of sellers and buyers are guided by a motivational orientation of “getting the best.” For a seller (buyer) indicating WTA (WTP), getting the best implies receiving as much as possible to give up a specific good (giving up as little as possible to get the specific good). Results of six studies suggest that the WTA-WTP elicitation task activates different directional goals, leading to the WTA-WTP disparity. The different directional goals lead sellers and buyers to focus on different aspects and bias their cognitive reasoning and interpretation of information. By connecting the valuation process to the general motivation of getting the best, this research provides a unifying framework to explain the disparate interpretations of the WTA-WTP disparity. Many new purchases and replacement decisions involve consumers’ trading in their old products. In such transactions, the overall exchange may be priced either as separate transactions (partitioned) with price tags for the payment and the receipt or as a single net price (consolidated) which takes into account the value of the trade-in. Essay II examines whether consumers prefer a partitioned price versus a consolidated price presentation. The findings suggest that when consumers are trading in a product which has a low value relative to the price of a new product, they prefer a consolidated price. In contrast, when trading in a product which has high value, they prefer a partitioned price. The results suggest that consumers use the price of the new product as an anchor to evaluate the trade-in value, and the perception of the trade-in value influences the overall evaluation especially when the transaction is partitioned.

Gender, Behavioral Assessment of Negative Reinforcement Driven Risk Taking Propensity, and Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States and most often is initiated during adolescence. An emerging body of research suggests that a negative reinforcement model may explain factors that contribute to tobacco use during adolescence and that negative reinforcement processes may contribute to tobacco use to a greater extent among female adolescents than among male adolescents. However, the extant literature both on the relationship between negative reinforcement processes and adolescent tobacco use as well as on the relationship between gender, negative reinforcement processes, and adolescent tobacco use is limited by the sole reliance on self-report measures of negative reinforcement processes that may contribute to cigarette smoking. The current study aimed to further disentangle the relationships between negative reinforcement based risk taking, gender and tobacco use during older adolescence by utilizing a behavioral analogue measure of negative reinforcement based risk taking, the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS). Specifically, we examined the relationship between pumps on the MRBURNS, an indicator of risk taking, and smoking status as well as the interaction between MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Participants included 103 older adolescents (n=51 smokers, 50.5% female, Age (M(SD) = 19.41(1.06)) who all attended one experimental session during which they completed the MRBURNS as well as self-report measures of tobacco use, nicotine dependence, alcohol use, depression, and anxiety. We utilized binary logistic regressions to examine the relationship between MRBURNS pumps and smoking status as well as the interactive effect of MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Controlling for relevant covariates, pumps on the MRBURNS did not significantly predict smoking status and the interaction between pumps on the MRBURNS and gender also did not significantly predict smoking status. These findings highlight the importance of future research examining various task modifications to the MRBURNS as well as the need for replications of this study with larger, more diverse samples.

Taking Issue with History: Empathy and the Ethical Imperatives of Creative Interventions

The purpose of this thesis was to contribute to a dialogue that considers the relationship between history, literature, and empathy as a literary affect. Specifically, I explored sites of literature’s transformative potential as it relates to cultural studies and the ethics of deconstruction. Via a deconstructive, post-colonial reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I considered how subjects in our current socio-political moment can feel history. Emerging from a post-structurally mediated engagement with history, signification, and feeling, I argued that empathy, as it is contentiously presented in the context of deconstruction, is not necessarily a reductive or essentialist approach towards relating or “being-with” an-other. Instead, I proposed that the act of reading historiographical novels that take constructions of the Atlantic Slave Trade to task might generate an affective empathy, which could in turn engender a more empathetic relationality and way of being-in-the-world.