Self-referenced interpersonal similarity phenomena: Theoretical specification and assessment at the individual,dyadic and group levels

A basic interpersonal task is assessing if another is similar to oneself, and is even observed among prelinguistic infants. In 450 highly acquainted dyads (150 from family, friend, co-worker groups), participants judged others' similarity to themselves, and predicted others' similarity ratings of them. Assumed reciprocity and reciprocity of similarity judgments were observed; the former was much stronger than the latter. Specific others were judged as uniquely similar; in families these judgments were reciprocated. People inaccurately predicted others', and specific others', similarity judgments. Common members of these groups (key person) judged others as similar to themselves, and predicted others' reciprocated similarity judgments, although they did not. Social relations modeling showed that interpersonal similarity assessments in different groups are multiple phenomena at multiple levels of analysis and should not be treated as a single, unitary phenomenon.     

五论以用户为中心的设计:从自动化到智能时代的自主化以及自动驾驶车

综述人因学在人-自动化交互、人-自主化(autonomy)交互以及人机组队(human-machine teaming)方面的研究,梳理了自动化与自主化的人因学特征和问题,通过建立一个自主化、自动化与人工干预三者之间关系的概念模型来表征自主化人因学的问题空间。总结了智能自主化技术所带来的新型人机合作关系,促使采用新的人因学研究和应用范式,重新评估现有的人因学理论、方法以及今后的研究。针对自主化技术的应用,分析当前自动驾驶车设计中的人因学问题。呼吁在自动驾驶车研发中要重视人因学问题,人因学要提供学科支持和完整的人因学解决方案。     

Designing and evaluating an intelligent augmented reality system for assisting older adults’ medication management

Intelligent Assistive Systems (IASs) provide personalised support to individuals to increase their autonomy and competence in performing activities. The personalisation of such technology represents a particular challenge, for the individuals abilities typically change over time. The aim of this research was to explore a theory-based, activity-centred framework for the development of IASs that both facilitate the active involvement of caregivers and target users and allow for adaptation to the individual over time.Medication management was focused on as a case study. Three older adults and two caregivers were involved in a co-design process of an IAS prototype system, the MED-AR, which uses projection-based augmented reality as the user interface technology. The theoretical framework for the design and evaluation of the MED-AR was activity theory. For the decision-making process of the MED-AR, formal argumentation theory was used. The major contributions of the study are (i) a formal framework for understanding the level of independence in activities and the way an IAS can tailor support to an individual and a situation, including caregivers; and (ii) a model for involving older adults and caregivers in a co-design process in the first phases of developing IASs.     

The interplay of stress and attachment in individuals weathering loss of employment

This study addressed two questions concerning the interplay between adult romantic attachment and exposure to stressful circumstances: do stressful events predict fluctuation in romantic attachment during a period of unemployment, and does attachment measured at one point predict later changes in stressors? Stressors and attachment were measured over a six month period following involuntary job loss for a sample of 426 adults. Autoregressive models found evidence for both the stress-effects and stress-generation hypotheses, with more stressors associated with prospective decreases in attachment, and lower attachment associated with prospective increases in stressors. These findings support a more dynamic formulation of the interplay between attachment and exposure to stressors over the months following job loss.     

Providing an analytic structure for key system design choices

The design of a system, especially a system architecture, requires the balancing of multiple performance parameters with the system cost and other implementation issues. Multi-attribute utility theory provides a structured, coherent framework for conducting an analysis in which system designs are evaluated on multiple performance parameters. This paper describes the application of multi-attribute utility analysis to the design of the Worldwide Digital Signal Systems Architecture (WWDSA), a telecommunications system, by the United States' Defense Communications Agency (now called the Defense Information Systems Agency). The advantages of using multi-attribute utility theory during the system design are highlighted. In addition, we discuss several key analytical issues that led to this application being a success in the eyes of the decision makers.