Hypothetical Constructs Research Articles

Extending B. F. Skinner's Selection by Consequences to Personality Change, Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Skill Learning, and Language

In a rooftop office, above a Minneapolis flour mill in 1943, B. F. Skinner discovered “shaping” by training a pigeon to send a small wooden ball down a miniature alley to hit a set of toy pins. Skinner recalled that the day was one of great illumination and emboldened his later suggestions that human behaviors may arise from behavior–environment interactions that are relatively malleable (selectionism) rather than arising from hypothetical inner constructs that are relatively fixed (essentialism). The present article extends selectionism to 4 current topics in psychology (personality change, implicit theories of intelligence, skill learning, and language) and highlights the advantages of selectionism, in contrast to essentialism.

Intensive home care packages for people with dementia: a realist evaluation protocol

BackgroundDementia presents a significant challenge to health systems and to the person and family affected. Home care is increasingly seen as a key service in addressing this challenge in a person-centred and cost-effective way. Intensive Home Care Packages (IHCPs) were introduced in Ireland to provide personalised and high levels of support for people with dementia to remain at home or be discharged home from hospital, and to build on the work of the HSE & Genio Dementia Programme. This realist evaluation is concerned with real world questions of feasibility and effectiveness; specifically understanding in what ways IHCPs work, how optimum outcomes are achieved, for whom and in what contexts do IHCPs work best.MethodsA mixed-method, multi-stakeholder study was designed within a realist evaluation conceptual framework. The process evaluation includes semi-structured interviews with health service staff at all levels, social network analysis and secondary database analysis; the outcomes evaluation includes quantitative measures and qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with people with dementia and family carers; and the cost evaluation includes analysis of data from the Resource Utilisation in Dementia (RUD). The four stage cycle of realist evaluation is adopted, with iterative rounds of theory formulation, data collection and theory testing throughout.DiscussionThis realist evaluation of a complex intervention involves a variety of data and perspectives in order to provide confidence in moving from hypothetical constructs about how IHCPs might work to explanations of potential or observable causal mechanisms. In spite of being a key form of service delivery in most healthcare systems, the ways in which home care works to produce the desired outcomes seems to be poorly understood. While there is much descriptive and comparative work, there is a lack of understanding regarding which patient groups might benefit most from home care, or the influence of different service or cultural contexts on outcomes from home care. As well as addressing the core research objectives, this study aims to make a contribution to the underlying theory of home care in ways that can progress our understanding of how outcomes are produced for home care recipients.

Development and Validation of a Novel General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS) for Chronic Illness Patients in Pakistan.

Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate a self-reporting adherence tool termed as General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS) in Urdu language for measuring adherence toward medication use among Pakistani patients with a chronic disease.Methods: A month-long study (December 2017) was conducted in three tertiary health care settings of Karachi, Pakistan. The tool underwent content and face validity as well as factor analyses, i.e., exploratory, partial confirmatory and confirmatory factor analyses. Random sampling was conducted, and sample size was calculated using item response theory. The item-to-respondent ratio was 1:15. Fit indices namely normed fit index (NFI), Tucker Lewis index (TLI), comparative fit index (CFI), goodness of fit index (GFI), absolute goodness of fit (AGFI), parsimony goodness of fit index (PGFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standard root mean square residual (SRMR) were calculated. Additionally, estimation of the convergent, discriminant and known group validities, was conducted. Internal consistency was analyzed by test-retest reliability, McDonald’s and Pearson correlation coefficient. The factor analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS version 22 and IBM SPSS AMOS version 25.Results: Content validity index (CVI) was reported at 0.8 (SD 0.147) and the tool was content validated with three hypothetical constructs. Factor analyses highlighted a 3-factor structure. The fit indices were calculated with satisfactory results, i.e., PGFI, GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI, and CFI were greater than 0.9 and PGFI > 0.5. The values of RMSEA and SRMR were less than 0.07. A Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.84 was obtained in reliability analysis. The test-retest Pearson’s correlation coefficient value was reported at 0.996 (p-value < 0.01). Convergent and discriminant validities for all constructs and, known group validity for two constructs, were established. A high response rate of 91% was achieved in respondents. Patients without insurance coverage appeared to be low adherent compared to those with insurance coverage (p-value < 0.05). Non-comorbid patients were more likely to be highly adherent as compared to comorbid patients (p-value < 0.01).Conclusion: A novel tool GMAS was developed in Urdu language and was subsequently validated in patients with chronic diseases.

ANALYSING SENTIMENTS OF ONLINE REVIEWS ON RESTAURANTS IN MALAYSIA USING PREDICTIVE TEXT ANALYTICS

This study aims to analyse the overall sentiments of online reviews on restaurants in Malaysia using predictive text analytics. As we know in opinion mining, sentiment analysis is a prominent technique in predictive text mining. It is a technique that categorises opinions in unstructured text format into binary classification (ie. good or bad). The authors attempt to go beyond the binary classification by viewing texts as empirical entities derived using the Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) weighting algorithm. These empirical entities, based on online reviews of restaurants in Malaysia, are then manifested into hypothetically defined constructs closely reflecting their thematic and semantic nature. The were 4914 customer reviews from restaurants across 20 towns and cities in Malaysia scraped off TripAdvisor.com using web crawler tools. Then a series of analytical tests were carried out. First the online reviews were parsed, filtered and clustered using SAS Text Miner. Then the online reviews underwent the TF-IDF process to identify significant terms and weightages were assigned according to their importance. The TF-IDF process resulted in a series of important nouns and adjectives from the text corpus. Using these weightages of nouns and adjectives, the authors went on to thematise these terms based on their semantic nature to manifest hypothetical constructs. These constructs were based on the Mehrabian–Russell Stimulus Response Model. Subsequently the authors tested the associations among the constructs using variance-based and covariance-based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The authors were encouraged by this exploratory methodological approach in formulating predictive text analytics using SEM. Results indicated that sentiments were generally positive towards restaurants and the important terms derived were price, hospitality, location, waiting time, availability of parking and size of food portion.

A Summary of Methods for Measuring Delay Discounting in Young Children

Delay discounting is a process hypothesized to underlie impulsive decision-making and is associated with a host of risky health behaviors, addictive behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses. While delay discounting has primarily been studied in adult populations, these assessments have potential to facilitate early identification of impulsivity, particularly for children who are at risk for poor long-term outcomes. As a first step toward early identification of risk based on delay discounting, we reviewed the literature including pre-adolescent children to determine (a) for whom delay discounting has been assessed, (b) what assessment procedures have been used, and (c) how assessment parameters affect discounting estimates. Of the 21 identified studies, the majority of participants were children 7 years of age and older who were typically developing or had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Hypothetical choices about money were most often used in assessments, although commodity magnitudes varied widely. Less than half of assessments included visual supports to aid comprehension of choice options. Effects of assessment parameters on delay discounting were largely unexplored. Future directions for research include identifying limits regarding for whom hypothetical money choice assessments produce interpretable and valid outcomes, as well as alternative assessment approaches or adaptations for children who may have difficulty understanding hypothetical constructs, money, delays, or some combination thereof.

The construct-behavior gap in behavioral decision research: A challenge beyond replicability.

Behavioral decision research compares theoretical constructs like preferences to behavior such as observed choices. Three fairly common links from constructs to behavior are (1) to tally, across participants and decision problems, the number of choices consistent with one predicted pattern of pairwise preferences; (2) to compare what most people choose in each decision problem against a predicted preference pattern; or (3) to enumerate the decision problems in which two experimental conditions generate a 1-sided significant difference in choice frequency 'consistent' with the theory. Although simple, these theoretical links are heuristics. They are subject to well-known reasoning fallacies, most notably the fallacy of sweeping generalization and the fallacy of composition. No amount of replication can alleviate these fallacies. On the contrary, reiterating logically inconsistent theoretical reasoning over and again across studies obfuscates science. As a case in point, we consider pairwise choices among simple lotteries and the hypotheses of overweighting or underweighting of small probabilities, as well as the description-experience gap. We discuss ways to avoid reasoning fallacies in bridging the conceptual gap between hypothetical constructs, such as, for example, "overweighting" to observable pairwise choice data. Although replication is invaluable, successful replication of hard-to-interpret results is not. Behavioral decision research stands to gain much theoretical and empirical clarity by spelling out precise and formally explicit theories of how hypothetical constructs translate into observable behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

Influence of key role players on productivity outcomes in the residential building lifecycle

PurposeThis study aims to answer the ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions about the key role players’ influence on the overall productivity outcomes in the lifecycle of residential buildings procured through the traditional route.Design/methodology/approachA mix of exploratory and descriptive research methods was used to obtain feedback from 179 role-players involved in various phases of the residential building lifecycle (RBLC) in New Zealand. Empirical data were analysed using content analysis, multi-attribute method and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance.FindingsResults showed that designers, building owners, main contractors and project managers were the greatest influencers of the productivity outcomes in the RBLC. The priority drivers of these key role-players’ influences on the RBLC productivity outcomes comprised poor brief interpretation, inclination to lowest tender, inadequate prior risk analysis and miscommunication of owner’s requirements and preferences to service providers, respectively. By taking proactive steps to redress their productivity inhibiting acts/omissions as identified in this study, the various role-players could contribute to significant improvement of productivity outcomes in the building lifecycle.Research limitations/implicationsIt was not possible to interview all participants that made up the representative random samples from each role-player group due largely to workload related excuses. As a result, the findings and the conclusions may not be generalised beyond the study scope. However, the study achieved its purpose, as the main intent was to provide hypothetical constructs that could guide further confirmatory/experimental studies for residential buildings as well as for other building types.Practical implicationsA succinct and easy-to-follow model was developed as implementation pathway for operationalising the key findings of the study in the industry. The model highlights the Owner-Architect-Contractor Influence Triangle (OACIT) as the 20 per cent of the solutions that could deliver 80 per cent of the productivity improvement in the RBLC.Originality/valueThis study re-examines productivity issues not only from a life-cycle perspective but also from the perspectives of the majority of the key role-players. In addition, the OACIT concept offers a novel productivity improvement tool; it stresses that productivity in the traditionally procured building lifecycle could be optimised if the architect could focus greater attention on brief articulation and the issuance and review of design and specification information. Also, the owner should adopt productivity-enhancing procurement and contract strategies and emphasise more on value-addition and less on lowest tender price.

Development and validation of a questionnaire in parenting patterns : evidence from Tamil culture in Northern Sri Lanka

Adolescent health issues such as substance abuse, high risk sexual behaviours and psychosocial problems are becoming a threat globally. The World Health Organization has identified parenting interventions as a strategy to improve adolescent health. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to understand parenting practices for Northern Province Tamil culture in Sri Lanka. A Parenting Patterns Questionnaire (PPQ) with three subscales for three parenting dimensions; ‘Connection’, ‘Control’ and ‘Respect’, was constructed in accordance with parenting styles and parenting tools used in Western countries and by expert opinion. Item analysis was conducted to establish the internal consistency and exploratory factor analysis was conducted to check whether the items are assigned to the correct subscales. Construct validity of the PPQ was confirmed by demonstration of a moderate to good correlation with two hypothetical constructs, namely the wellbeing of the children demonstrated by the scores of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and educational performance of the children assessed by the marks of previous term examination. The internal consistency of the PPQ and subscales was satisfactory (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7). The test re-test reliability also was satisfactory for PPQ (Pearson’s correlation Coefficient > 0.9 for selected items). The correlations between the parenting quality assessed by the PPQ and the above mentioned constructs showed a moderate correlation (r > 0.3). This tool (PPQ) has the potential to be used by researchers to assess parenting in selected dimensions (‘connection’, ‘control’ and ‘respect’) in Sri Lankan Tamil culture.

Regras de reconhecimento e a legitimidade da decisão jurídica em Hart

A proposta do trabalho reside em explorar o conceito da legitimidade no marco teórico de Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart. A questão da legitimidade está na base do Estado Democrático de Direito e do convívio social, sendo ao mesmo tempo questão complexa e de suma importância, abordada em diversas hipóteses e teorias, mas sem nunca uma resposta definitiva. Observa-se inicialmente a própria necessidade de fundamentação da legitimidade e sua relação com o conceito de justiça. Prossegue-se analisando a visão de Hart sobre regras primárias e secundárias, e o papel das regras de reconhecimento como fator de legitimidade do ordenamento jurídico. Por último, estuda-se a questão da derrotabilidade das regras jurídicas, fenômeno em que regras retiram a efetividade de outras, como é o caso do instituto da legítima defesa. Conclui-se que, apesar de não ser possível, ao menos no momento, encontrar uma resposta definitiva para a pergunta da legitimidade, Hart nos oferece uma visão sofisticada, baseada em fatos sociais, sem necessidade de construções hipotéticas, tornando possível identificar, através de regras de reconhecimento, a legitimidade embutida no sistema.

Understanding the dynamics of monomeric, dimeric, and tetrameric α-synuclein structures in water.

Human α‐synuclein (αS) is an intrinsically disordered protein associated with Parkinson's disease. Molecular mechanisms of corruptive misfolding and aggregation of αS resulting in the disease, as well as the structure and other properties of the corresponding oligomers are not entirely understood yet, preventing the development of efficient therapies. In this study, we investigate the folding dynamics of initially unfolded hypothetical αS constructs in water using all‐atom molecular dynamics simulations. We also employ the novel essential collective dynamics method to analyze the results obtained from the simulations. Our comparative analysis of monomeric, dimeric, and tetrameric αS models reveals pronounced differences in their structure and stability, emphasizing the importance of small oligomers, particularly dimers, in the process of misfolding.

The potential of function-led virtual environments for ecologically valid measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology

The assessment of executive functions is an integral task of neuropsychological assessment. Traditional measures of executive function are often based on hypothetical constructs that may have little relevance to real-world behaviours. In fact, some traditional tests utilised today were not originally developed for clinical use. Recently, researchers have been arguing for a new generation of “function-led” neuropsychological assessments that are developed from directly observable everyday behaviours. Although virtual environments (VEs) have been presented as potential aides in enhancing ecological validity, many were modelled on construct-driven approaches found in traditional assessments. In the current paper, we review construct-driven and function-led VE-based neuropsychological assessments of executive functions. Overall, function-led VEs best represent the sorts of tasks needed for enhanced ecological validity and prediction of real-world functioning.

Intervención motivacional en psicología de la salud: revisión de sus fundamentos conceptuales, definición, evolución y estado actual

Se presenta una conceptualización acerca de la Intervención Motivacional basada en el análisis de los acontecimientos propios del Proceso Motivacional y se mencionan algunas microteorías motivacionales que proponen diversos constructos hipotéticos y variables intermediarias que explican el curso que sigue la conducta saludable en el estilo de vida de las personas, conformando lo que se considera como una Dimensión Psicológica de la Promoción y de la Prevención en Salud. Se hace un intento de definición de la Intervención Motivacional y se propone un modelo de Formulación Motivacional para darle contexto y fundamento. Se describen los temas a los que se ha aplicado la Intervención Motivacional a lo largo de la existencia formal y sistemática de este concepto, y los temas de análisis teórico y metodológico actuales, para lo cual se toman los reportes que incluyen ambos términos (Motivational, &amp; Intervention) en los resúmenes de publicaciones indizadas en la base de datos Medline, en el período 1991-2013.

Isomorphisms between psychological processes and neural mechanisms: From stimulus elements to genetic markers of activity

Traditional learning theory has developed models that can accurately predict and describe the course of learned behavior. These “psychological process” models rely on hypothetical constructs that are usually thought to be not directly measurable or manipulable. Recently, and mostly in parallel, the neural mechanisms underlying learning have been fairly well elucidated. The argument in this essay is that we can successfully uncover isomorphisms between process and mechanism and that this effort will help advance our theories about both processes and mechanisms. We start with a brief review of error-correction circuits as a successful example. Then we turn to the concept of stimulus elements, where the conditional stimulus is hypothesized to be constructed of a multitude of elements only some of which are sampled during any given experience. We discuss such elements with respect to how they explain acquisition of associative strength as an incremental process. Then we propose that for fear conditioning, stimulus elements and basolateral amygdala projection neurons are isomorphic and that the activational state of these “elements” can be monitored by the expression of the mRNA for activity-regulated cytoskeletal protein (ARC). Finally we apply these ideas to analyze recent data examining ARC expression during contextual fear conditioning and find that there are indeed many similarities between stimulus elements and amygdala neurons. The data also suggest some revisions in the conceptualization of how the population of stimulus elements is sampled from.

Investigating the green Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) servicescape scale in Brazil

Purpose – The paper aims to introduce a reliable and valid green Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) servicescape measure (i.e. one that utilises extraordinary leadership in energy and environmental design supporting green building design, construction, and operations) that examines the direct effects of the physical environment on consumers' evaluation of a service encounter. In addition, the mediating effects of service quality perception, customer satisfaction, and consumers' attitude toward a service provider are considered.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a sample of 522 Brazilian respondents' evaluation of their experience with the green LEED servicescape. A comprehensive research model and its moderating effects are investigated using LISREL model. The LISREL model consists of two parts: the measurement model and the structural equation model. The measurement model specifies how latent variables or hypothetical constructs depend upon or are indicated by observed ...

Working memory and mental workload

It is remarkable how little educators seem to know about how the mind works. I suppose one could advance the argument that they need not know; the inner processes of the mind have little bearing on ordinary curriculum decision-making. But I beg to differ. One parsimonious definition of learning is that it amounts to changes in long-term memory—no more and no less. If that is the case, then it would seem fairly important to find out how one goes about changing long-term memory. Before we get into the substance of this editorial, then, a brief primer on how the mind works, beginning with profound apologies to those who may well view this as simplistic. We begin with sense organs, of which the most obvious in an educational setting are eyes and ears (though touch really matters in the operating room). These sensory inputs communicate with long-term memory through ‘‘working memory’’. (It used to be called short term memory, but that is too static a term). Working memory in turn is viewed as having several components—a ‘‘phonological loop’’ to process auditory information, a ‘‘visual spatial sketchpad,’’ an ‘‘episodic buffer’’ and a ‘‘central executive’’ (Baddeley 2006). While hypothetical constructs (they’ve never been seen on MRI) they are based on decades of experimentation. It is here that conscious memory operates—from the deliberate rehearsal of a telephone number to the mental calculations of a multiplication. Although there are 4 components, there is an overall severe limit on capacity, amounting to 7 ± 2 ‘‘chunks. Working memory then communicates with long-term memory, both in retrieving information from memory and in inputting new information to memory. The operation of LTM is quite remarkable. Somehow, we are able to access exactly the information we need in very short time intervals, despite the fact that our brains are operating at the snail—like pace of a few hundred milliseconds per operation. As I wrote in an earlier editorial (Norman 2011), the Jeopardy game of 2010 in which ‘‘Watson’’, the super-duper IBM computer, beat Ken was remarkable, not because Watson won, but because Ken came so close to Watson. To beat Ken, Watson ripped through the equivalent of a million pages of text a second. Ken surely could not compete at that level. How does Ken do it? Because his memory is ‘‘associative’’—each piece of information is accessed through predetermined

On the Relevance of Assumptions Associated with Classical Factor Analytic Approaches†

A personal trait, for example a person’s cognitive ability, represents a theoretical concept postulated to explain behavior. Interesting constructs are latent, that is, they cannot be observed. Latent variable modeling constitutes a methodology to deal with hypothetical constructs. Constructs are modeled as random variables and become components of a statistical model. As random variables, they possess a probability distribution in the population of reference. In applications, this distribution is typically assumed to be the normal distribution. The normality assumption may be reasonable in many cases, but there are situations where it cannot be justified. For example, this is true for criterion-referenced tests or for background characteristics of students in large scale assessment studies. Nevertheless, the normal procedures in combination with the classical factor analytic methods are frequently pursued, despite the effects of violating this “implicit” assumption are not clear in general. In a simulation study, we investigate whether classical factor analytic approaches can be instrumental in estimating the factorial structure and properties of the population distribution of a latent personal trait from educational test data, when violations of classical assumptions as the aforementioned are present. The results indicate that having a latent non-normal distribution clearly affects the estimation of the distribution of the factor scores and properties thereof. Thus, when the population distribution of a personal trait is assumed to be non-symmetric, we recommend avoiding those factor analytic approaches for estimation of a person’s factor score, even though the number of extracted factors and the estimated loading matrix may not be strongly affected. An application to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is given. Comments on possible implications for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) complete the presentation.

Van der Waals interactions in non-polar liquids

The bulk properties of liquids provide information on the thermodynamic properties of intermolecular interactions between non-polar molecules. Literature data on noble gases, alkanes and perfluorocarbons have been analysed to investigate the relationship of the magnitude of van der Waals interactions between non-polar molecules with chemical structure and molecular architecture. A molecular model of the liquid state is proposed based on the concept of a zero point void, which has a volume of 5 Å3 and a surface area of 19 Å2 per molecule. This void is the minimum volume required for each molecule to independently exchange an intermolecular contact and hence move in the liquid. Three hypothetical constructs (the zero point solid, the zero point liquid and the ideal liquid) are used to separate the processes of melting, thermal expansion and evaporation. Melting is a complex process affected by contributions from changes in structure in the solid, formation of the zero point void and thermal expansion. Evaporation involves breaking all intermolecular interactions between a molecule and the surrounding liquid and therefore provides a straightforward measure of the total van der Waals interaction. Experimental data for the enthalpy barrier to the evaporation process indicate that the total van der Waals interaction is approximately a linear function of molecular surface area, worth 0.3 kJ mol−1 Å−2 for non-polar liquids. Expansion involves breaking local intermolecular contacts and is generally associated with a substantially lower energy barrier that depends on the degree of coupling between interaction sites across the molecular surface. The expansion process is closely related to the phase changes that occur at the triple point and the critical point, and these properties are therefore a complex function of molecular architecture. Similarly, the free energy change for the vapour–liquid equilibrium depends on the molecular architecture. In contrast, transfer free energy data for liquid–liquid equilibria suggest that van der Waals interactions are a simple function of molecular surface area, independent of atom type or molecular architecture. For processes that take place within the liquid state, free energy changes due to exchange of van der Waals interactions are therefore expected to be small.

Hypothetical constructs, hypothetical questions, and the expert witness

Professor John Henry Wigmore in 1940 described the hypothetical question as an intolerable obstruction of truth. Since that time, the nature and application of the hypothetical question in the courtroom, as well as responses to this line of questioning during expert testimony, have been sources of controversy. Governed by legal philosophical foundations, the hypothetical construct addresses what there is, in a general sense, and what can or ought to be. Alexy (2004) has described the nature of legal philosophy as the epistemological question of what we can know. This article begins by examining the philosophical underpinnings, legal parameters, and teaching purposes of posing hypothetical queries. A social–psychological backdrop for the use of hypothetical questions is then discussed followed by a broader discussion of the hypothetical question's role in court procedures. This paper identifies hypothetical questions used in court as devices to elicit information, or as predictions that potentially change underlying factual interpretations of evidence. In particular, on cross examination hypothetical questions seek to make opposing experts assume facts that are incongruent with their conclusions or opinions. Sometimes in these situations, experts are led to re-evaluate opinions based on alternative understandings of events and behaviors. Thus, this paper's final aim is to explore a foundational understanding of hypothetical questions asked of expert witnesses with special reference to mental health issues. Options for responding to hypothetical questions on the stand are considered along the dimensions of assertiveness–passivity, compliance–resistance, and possible redefinitions of the hypothetical issues.

Target-based drug discovery, genetic diseases, and biologics

The last fifteen years have witnessed a major strategic shift in drug discovery away from an empiric approach based on incremental improvements of proven therapies, to a more theoretical, target-based approach. This arose as a consequence of three technical advances: (1) generation and interpretation of genome sequences, which facilitated identification and characterization of potential drug targets; (2) efficient production of candidate ligands for these putative targets through combinatorial chemistry or generation of monoclonal antibodies; and (3) high-throughput screening for rapid evaluation of interactions of these putative ligands with the selected targets. The basic idea underlying all three of these technologies is in keeping with Marshall Nirenberg’s dictum that science progresses best when there are simple assays capable of generating large data sets rapidly. Furthermore, practical implementation of target-based drug discovery was enabled directly by technologies that either were originated or nurtured by Marshall, his post-docs and fellows. Chief among these was the genetic code. Also important was adoption of clonal cell lines for pharmacological investigations, as well as the use of hybridomas to generate molecular probes that allowed physical purchase on signaling elements that had previously been only hypothetical constructs. Always the pure scientist, Marshall’s contributions nevertheless enabled fruitful applications in the pharmaceutical industry, several of them by his trainees. Both the successes and the shortcomings of target-based drug discovery are worthy of consideration, as are its implications for the choices of therapeutic goals and modalities by the pharmaceutical industry.

Innovation: a knowledge transfer perspective

One means of innovation is the adoption of new knowledge from external sources. This article describes theory building research to improve the transfer of knowledge between universities and businesses that are collaborating together. Using pilot studies and in-depth interviews based on real-life innovation projects, the research identified and confirmed two hypothetical constructs; that successful knowledge transfer comes from the transfer of tacit knowledge; and that tacit knowledge can best be transferred in this arena using rich media channels. This article describes the research and goes on to assess a range of channels for their media richness and their ability to transfer tacit knowledge. This article then positions this in the frame of collaborative or open innovation. It concludes that selection of the appropriate channel can improve the innovation through the transfer of knowledge between organisations and presents a model for successful application.