Heuristic Elements Research Articles

A critical systems approach to conference organisation: Hosting an international conference in South Africa

AbstractAnnual meetings have the potential to be used to promote the objectives of a society in a unique setting. A carefully selected venue will not only enhance the experience but also promote the very essence of the society. However, conference organisation can also be a minefield of unexpected problems caused by the involvement of diverse service providers. The cost to members can easily exceed the benefits they experience.Critical systems thinking provides a framework of understanding for promoting holistic thinking and sensitivity to underlying assumptions, guiding the organiser to include multiple perspectives. In this paper, the systems approach, along with elements of critical systems heuristics, Ubuntu, and servant‐leadership, are used to reflect on the organisation of the annual meeting of an international systems organisation. The choice of venue provided both opportunities and challenges.The reflection on the process focuses on the fluidity of boundaries and the interplay between systemic planning and systematic implementation.

Zoomers and healthcare choices: A study of mental processes of consumer decision‐making in the digital age

AbstractThis paper investigates the pre‐decisional cognitive dissonance states that guide Generation Z's consumer behavior, with a focus on the healthcare sector. By integrating insights from neurology, cognition, and psychology, the study addresses the lack of understanding regarding the psychological underpinnings of this cohort's rapidly evolving consumption patterns. Key contributions of this research include identifying cognitive heuristic elements, such as latent needs, that trigger pre‐decisional cognitive dissonance. The study empirically demonstrates how these elements influence Generation Z's decision‐making process, particularly in their shift from traditional allopathic healthcare to alternative and complementary medicine. The data, collected from 35 Indian Zoomers, reveal that this cohort relies heavily on internal cognitive cues and self‐driven information processing to make healthcare choices. This study establishes a new framework for consumer decision‐making, highlighting the role of cognitive dissonance in navigating information overload and selective exposure. Overall, the research provides valuable insights into the psychological and cognitive factors driving Generation Z's healthcare decisions, offering a robust foundation for marketers and healthcare providers to develop more effective strategies tailored to this influential consumer segment.

Link prediction based on fundamental heuristic elements

Considerable efforts have been made for link prediction by researchers from various disciplines because of its important value in a wide range of applications. Heuristics methods, which predict links based on some assumptions, can attain commendable accuracy when their assumptions are met. Otherwise, their effectiveness may be unsatisfactory. On the other hand, the methods that leverage Graph Neural Networks to learn the representations of node pairs have been confirmed to be effective for link prediction. However, they are usually very time-consuming. To circumvent these issues, we put forth the HELF method, a new link prediction technique built on fully connected neural networks (FCNNs) with fundamental heuristic elements. By investigating the formulas of a collection of heuristic methods, we extract a series of fundamental heuristic elements from them, which cover the core structural profiles of node pairs. Then, we encode target node pairs into feature vectors using these fundamental heuristic elements and feed the feature vectors to a FCNN to gauge the existence of links. Extensive experiments are conducted on several networks to evaluate the performance of our HELF method. The results demonstrate that HELF outperforms the well-known heuristic methods and state-of-the-art neural network-based methods subject to AUC and AP. Additionally, HELF runs much faster than these neural network-based methods.

Proxies, heuristics, and goal alignment.

Decision-making heuristics rely on proxies so the elements of heuristics appear to map well to the elements of proxies identified by John et al. However, unlike proxy failure, heuristics do not fail because of feedback. This may be because for successful heuristics the goals of regulators and agents are aligned, but this is not the case for proxy failure.

To the issue of functional and structural characteristics of judicial practice in Ukraine

The article examines the problems of the significance and effectiveness of judicial practice in Ukraine thanks to the application of a systemic approach to identifying its functional and structural characteristics. Separate works of scientists on the methodology of scientific research of judicial practice as a source of law have been analyzed. It has been proven that the main questions that arise in the course of the study of judicial practice in Ukraine as a legal phenomenon should be analyzed with the help of complementary and interconnected elements, namely theoretical and methodological, then their combination gives grounds for considering the theory of law as a component of legal science and methodological approaches - as a set of various scientific knowledge and methods that are interrelated. The need to study the functional and structural characteristics of judicial practice in Ukraine as a legal phenomenon that combines law-making and the specifics of the implementation of legal norms is substantiated. It was found that the study of the functional and structural characteristics of judicial practice should be carried out on a number of criteria, among which it is necessary to distinguish the impact and cognitive criteria. In particular, according to the criterion of the influence of judicial practice on real reality, internal (judges’ legal perception of the mechanism of application of the principle of analogy in making court decisions) and external (influence of judicial practice on law-making and human rights protection activities) its functional and structural characteristics are distinguished. According to the cognitive criterion, the heuristic elements of judicial practice are determined, namely: the latter is a type of legal practice; lack of conceptual identity with judicial precedent and judicial law-making; an additional means of influencing social relations in combination with a legal prescription; a means of implementing the principle of unity; a defined circle of its subjects; ensuring direct exchange of information between the judicial and legislative branches of government. It is emphasized that the proposed list of heuristic functional-structural elements of judicial practice is not exhaustive and can be supplemented.

Mining longitudinal user sessions with deep learning to extend the boundary of consumer priming

Priming is challenging when consumers start shortlisting products before the final purchase. This is because this shortlisting process is performed in multiple user sessions online across time, the shortlist does not stay as a static list, and product comparison in this stage uses the heuristics internal to individual consumers. The goal of this study is two folds: (1) to approximate user heuristics after B&B product shortlisting using NLP and deep learning techniques, and (2) to identify optimized deep learning models for the representation of key elements of consumer heuristics. This offers an extension of the priming theory into product comparison and shortlisting stages that were traditionally difficult for marketers to tap into. By analyzing the B&B product information repeated visited in user sessions, the formation of shortlists is identified and products in the shortlists can then be compared. Subsequent priming and promotions can therefore be performed closer to the actual purchase. Our study also provides marketers keywords and their associated activated words relevant for crafting marketing messages. As these activation words are extracted from the B&B sites and product reviews that the users had visited repeatedly in long-term tracking sessions, they are analogous to effects produced from user participatory design, an approach popular in the IT world. Our work shows that opportunities for marketing decision support, especially into the shortlisting phase, are now possible through machine learning techniques. Both theoretical and practical implications are provided.

Usability of a Co-designed eHealth Prototype for Caregivers: Combination Study of Three Frameworks

BackgroundCo-design (or the participation of users) has shown great potential in the eHealth domain, demonstrating positive results. Nevertheless, the co-design approach cannot guarantee the usability of the system designed, and usability assessment is a complex analysis to perform, as evaluation criteria will differ depending on the usability framework (or set of criteria) used. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) on usability (ISO 9241-210), Nielsen heuristic, and Garrett element of user experience inform different yet complementary aspects of usability.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the usability and user experience of a co-design prototype by combining 3 complementary frameworks.MethodsTo help caregivers provide care for functionally impaired older people, an eHealth tool was co-designed with caregivers, health and social service professionals, and community workers assisting caregivers. The prototype was a website that aims to support the help-seeking process for caregivers (finding resources) and allow service providers to advertise their services (offering resources). We chose an exploratory study method to assess usability in terms of each objective. The first step was to assess users’ first impressions of the website. The second was a task scenario with a think-aloud protocol. The final step was a semistructured interview. All steps were performed individually (with a moderator) in a single session. The data were analyzed using 3 frameworks.ResultsA total of 10 participants were recruited, 5 for each objective of the website. We were able to identify several usability problems, most of which were located in the information design and interface design dimensions (Garrett framework). Problems in both dimensions were mainly coded as effectiveness and efficiency (ISO framework) and error prevention and match between the system and the real world (Nielsen heuristic).ConclusionsOur study provided a novel contribution about usability analysis by combining the 3 different models to classify the problems found. This combination provided a holistic understanding of the usability improvements needed. It can also be used to analyze other eHealth products.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.2196/11634

Speeding Up Heuristic Function Synthesis via Extending the Formula Grammar

Heuristic search algorithms have long been used in video-game AI for unit navigation and planning. The quality of the solution they produce depends substantially on the quality of the heuristic function they use. Recent work automatically synthesized human-readable heuristic functions for a given pathfinding map. This enables tailoring a heuristic to the map but is expensive since each map requires an independent synthesis run. In this paper we propose and evaluate re-using elements of heuristics synthesized for one map in synthesizing heuristics for another map. We do so by adding parts of a synthesized heuristic back to the grammar that defines the space of heuristic functions for the synthesis.

O desencantamento da política em Max Weber

O artigo aborda a natureza do poder (Macht) em Max Weber. Para tanto, realizamos um duplo exercício: primeiro, revisitar a sociologia da dominação weberiana; segundo, verificar como tais categorias se articulam na obra weberiana por meio da análise de alguns dos seus trabalhos representativos de conjuntura sobre o desenvolvimento político da Alemanha bismarckiana. Tomando os tipos ideais clássicos de dominação como elementos heurísticos de sua Sociologia Política, o objetivo é evidenciar como essa tipologia é empregada nos seus trabalhos político-conjunturais. Para enfrentarmos os objetivos em pauta, recorreremos a uma revisão bibliográfica dos textos do Weber e de comentadores de escol dentro da literatura. As conclusões mostram que aparentes contradições no modelo explicativo do autor decorrem do excessivo rigor em ponderar suas posições até as últimas consequências, muitas vezes, incorrendo em paradoxos irreconciliáveis.

Compromise and Consensus in Multicriteria Decision-Making

Various approaches to solving multicriteria problems are considered, depending on the role of constraints in the problem statement. If the constraints are fixed and specified, then the calculation algorithm includes the preferences of the decision maker, and the corresponding multicriteria problem has a fundamentally compromise solution. If the values of the restrictions can be varied, then it becomes possible to obtain consensus decisions, and the calculation algorithm is free of heuristic elements.

SVM-Based Multi-Dividing Ontology Learning Algorithm and Similarity Measuring on Topological Indices

Ontology is one of the oldest terminologies in physics and is used to describe the origin and most essential attributes of all things in the world. With the development of contemporary science, ontology was given a specific definition and then introduced into the computer science as a conceptual model to describe the relationship between objects. In the past decade, the algorithms and applications in the ontology-related field have attracted the attention of many scholars. Most of the computational formulas in ontology algorithms are out of heuristic design ideas. For example, researchers use the ontology's own structural characteristics to design a calculation formula for a specific ontology from four different perspectives: name, instance, structure and attribute. In this paper, we first focus on how to apply these valuable heuristic elements to ontology learning and prediction. We combine these four heuristic elements with deep learning network and back propagation methods to obtain new ontology algorithm for prediction applications. Second, a support vector machines based multi-dividing ontology learning algorithm is proposed. Finally, we pay attention to the similarity of topological indices in chemical graph theory, and apply SVM-based multi-dividing ontology learning algorithms to give some calculation results of similarity between topological indices.

Study of Artificial Intelligence into Checkers Game using HTML and JavaScript

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the game industry matures and continues to expand due to its capabilities to explore and exploit in bringing gaming to life. In this paper, we described the game design for the game Checkers, which is developed by using an AI heuristic approach using HTML and JavaScript. A group of people chosen in this study to test the game, which is a validation process to confirm that the game goes as per requirement. The testing activity ends after the final bug fix and the result shows that the game executes properly as expected. The result indicates that the game meets the objective of the system, which is the game, may learn and explore by itself as a heuristic element.

Heuristics and Eidetic in the Phenomenology of Culture

Eidetic abstractions based upon individuation together with heuristic programs for the examination of conjectures are the forms of intentional reflection developed within the intuitive thought. The initial point of such development is parcellation of cultural texts that is to be marked where the introduced relation “the whole – the parts” passes further to the relation “the inner – the outer” and “text – epoch” with the principle of subjective activity and the inner textual transformation in reflection that gain importance. It is textual spatial and temporal structure where eidetic and heuristic elements come into interaction most effectively; in particular, the construction of depth in a pictorial plane serves as the model for the cognition of historical reality that cannot be observed immediately. The model of labyrinth in which frames of the heuristic searches are displayed determines their procedures as the sequence of alternative choices where the continuous correction of hypotheses takes place. The premises for the development of heuristic programs are those of ambiguity and indefiniteness of eidetic images together with the self-denial of the automatism of rhetoric conventions. It is due to heuristics that the prototypes for textual eidetic images are to be found. Prototypes function as the eidetic abstractions of personal characters addressed to scenic interpretation. Textual cyclic structure builds up the necessary condition for the disclosure and mediation of distance between the text and history, from closed episodes to the epoch.

Psychological Analysis of Occupational Conditions in Extreme Environments and the Structure of Non-Standard Situations

Professional coaching career is associated with a wide range of issues and problems which need to be solved and are directly or indirectly determined by creative activity. Therefore, an appropriate training process of students, in particular prospective coaches, is an essential scientific and practical problem. The article presents a thorough psychological analysis of the structure of decision-making in extreme situations and identifies different types of non-standard situations in a coaching job. Also, it clarifies such concepts as “situation”, “non-standard situation” and “extreme situation” in the activity of the individual. It describes different types of non-standard situations which can be manifested in professional coaching and their impact on the human psyche. It analyzes extreme conditions in the activities of athletes and coaches and the role of various mental functions and personality traits in problem-solving. Importantly, the article emphasizes the role of the coach’s reflection and self-regulation in solving non-standard tasks under non-standard conditions. It indicates that two theoretical views on the nature of the human psyche and thinking correspond to two approaches to studying this particular problem. According to the first one, that is an adaptive approach, creative thinking as a form of behaviour is the result of learning, and only some individuals have creative ability. To teach creativity, however, one needs to include the elements of creative behaviour (problem-solving) and heuristics in the educational material. Another approach assumes that thinking is a productive process emerging as a result of a certain problematic situation. Prerequisites for the creative process are cognitive abilities and research activities of the individual.

Requirements engineering for User-Centered school food ordering system

<span>Understanding user requirement for a technology design is central to user experience. A user-centered technology design should consider user needs and constraints as well as abide to the principles of HCI design heuristics. This paper describes the requirements gathering for Kantin Online System, a school food ordering system where we considered the needs and constraints of different stakeholders involved and elicit a compromise where the needs of all parties can be met. We then applied usability heuristics into the system design to facilitate perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. We conclude this paper with experts’ evaluations towards the heuristic elements of the system design concept and possible future work.</span>

Exploring Parents’ Satisfaction with Infant and Toddler Feeding Information: A Repeated-Measures Analysis of Information Need and Acquisition Characteristics (P17-006-19)

ObjectivesInformation satisfaction is an essential component of the acceptability and efficacy of nutrition education programming. However, few studies have explicitly sought to identify factors associated with consumer information satisfaction, particularly regarding infant feeding information. This is a critical gap given the urgent need for evidence-based nutrition and obesity prevention guidance for infants 0–24 months old. This study explored how parents’ satisfaction with infant feeding information was associated with information need and information acquisition characteristics. MethodsFirst-time parents (N = 423; 89% Female; 75% White; 26% WIC participants) of infants ≤24 months of age completed an online survey on their most recent search for advice or information about infant feeding. Participants reported their search topic, information need (i.e., information urgency, topic interest), and the information channels they accessed during this search. Participants then reported on information acquisition characteristics (i.e., perceived utility, trust, clarity, ease of information acquisition) and information satisfaction for up to two randomly selected information channels, which constituted the repeated measures aspect of this cross-sectional study. Linear mixed models estimated parents’ information satisfaction from information need and information acquisition characteristics, controlling for education. ResultsDescriptive information on search topics and information channels is presented in Table 1. As shown in Table 2, all information acquisition characteristics were positively associated with information satisfaction, with the strongest associations observed for perceived utility and trust. Information need characteristics were not associated with information satisfaction. ConclusionsParents’ satisfaction with infant feeding information was strongly and positively associated with perceived information utility and trust. Future research on nutrition education programming development should explore how content and delivery approaches promote consumers’ perceived utility and trust by drawing on existing research on common elements of effective evidence-based interventions and cognitive heuristics of trust. Funding SourcesNational Science Foundation (NSF); USDA; College-level dissertation award. Supporting Tables, Images and/or Graphs▪▪

Development and Launch of a Comprehensive Fish and Wildlife Reporting Mobile Application

Abstract This paper describes the conception, development, launch, marketing, and maintenance of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Reporter (FWC Reporter), a mobile application (app) that the public can use to report fish and wildlife and environmental concerns to appropriate state agency offices. The FWC Reporter, launched in February 2018, is the first comprehensive reporting app developed by a fish and wildlife agency in the United States that we are aware of. On the basis of a consumer concept test and library research, the app's design incorporates elements of fast and frugal heuristics and inductive decision theory. The FWC developed this version of the app in-house with an open-source development package, and involves primarily email and telephone to send reports and facilitate communication with agency staff. From February 2018 through December 31, 2018, the FWC recorded over 1,000 downloads on Android and 4,308 on Apple devices, and 258 emailed reports. Since fish and wildlife reporting apps do not provide clear benefit to the user (low value proposition), it is crucial that offices receiving reports are proactive in building and maintaining their own reporting constituency. Engagement with the public is not only through active recruitment of app users, but also following up after a report is made so that the users know their efforts are appreciated. Two FWC programs demonstrated successful engagement, horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus and fish kills, as they received the most email reports. Other topics for any conservation or fish and wildlife agency to consider when developing their own reporting mobile app include download intention, adoption, continuance, habit formation, public and organizational acceptance, and marketing.

@franklinfordbot

Franklin Ford (1849–1918) is mostly known for his association with the philosopher John Dewey in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Together, they attempted to launch Thought News, a “philosophical newspaper” that never saw the light of day. But both before and after that failed project, Ford never stopped developing a vision for the future of the news. Reading Ford is a jumping-off point for experimentations that raise original methodological questions in the field of media history and theoretical developments that speak to contemporary media problems. In that regard, our paper focuses on the methodological experiment undertaken to explore Ford’s work: the creation of an automated Twitter account, a “bot” that uses text-mining techniques to automatically tweet excerpts from his writings. The paper describes the concrete steps of that remediation: from the delineation of Ford’s written work to the gathering and digitization of the material and its transformation into tweetable soundbites. We argue that this combination of close and automated reading offers heuristic elements of surprise to guide the historical inquiry. As the tweets echo the specific genre of today’s “future-of-the-news” thinkers, they also constitute an attempt to explore the relationship between “old” and “new” media.

Postmodern and Social Problems of Cities

Today it is possible to speak about a postmodern sociology. It is based on the number of provisions reflecting the general level of social and humanitarian knowledge as well the provisions formulated on the ground of the theoretical studies analysis on postmodernism performed. In its diverse manifestations the postmodern paradigm essentially turns into an independent cognitive and theoretical-ideological entity that influences mainly the development of the already existing sociological concepts and arises their new models or modalities. The mono-city is the element of the self-organising social being fabric that is the subject of social synergies. The cognitive and heuristic element of joining social, economic and political problems and the prospects for the development of single-tooth cities can be classified as "fractal". The social world consists of many things that are the processes of formation, and in fact are fractals. The degradation of modern Russia in the social, political and economic sense is an indicator of the destruction of single-tooth cities in the conditions of the modern socio-demographic structure within the framework of the postmodern "end of history".

In search of a consumer-focused food classification system. An experimental heuristic approach to differentiate degrees of quality

The present paper focuses on the problems that arise in food classification systems (FCSs), especially when the food product type has different levels or grades of quality. Despite the principal function of these systems being to assist the consumer (to inform, clarify and facilitate choice and purchase), they frequently have the opposite effect. Thus, the main aim of the present research involves providing orientations for the design of effective food classification systems. To address this objective, considering the context of food product consumption (related to heuristic processing), we conducted an experimental study with 720 participants. We analysed the usefulness of heuristic elements by a factorial 2 (category length: short and long) × 3 (visual signs: colours, numbers and images) design in relation to recall and recognition activities. The results showed that the elements used to make the classification more effective for consumers vary depending on whether the user seeks to prioritize the recall or the recognition of product categories. Thus, long categories with images significantly improve recognition, and short categories with colours improve recall. A series of recommendations are provided that can help to enhance FCSs and to make them more intuitive and easier to understand for consumers. Implications with regard to theory and practice are discussed.