Information Acquisition Process Research Articles

Internet Search Alters Intra- and Inter-regional Synchronization in the Temporal Gyrus.

Internet search changed the way we store and recall information and possibly altered our brain functions. Previous studies suggested that Internet search facilitates the information-acquisition process. However, this process may cause individuals to lose the ability to store and recollect specific contents. Despite the numerous behavioral studies conducted in this field, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying Internet searches. The present study explores potential brain activity changes induced by Internet search. The whole paradigm includes three phases, namely, pre-resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI) scan, 6-day Internet search training, and post rs-fMRI scan. We detected the functional integrations induced by Internet search training by comparing post- with pre-scan. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) were used to detect intra- and interregional synchronized activity in 42 university students. Compared with pre-scan, post-scan showed decreased ReHo in the temporal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, and the postcentral gyrus. Further seed-based FC analysis showed that the temporal gyrus exhibited decreased FC in the parahippocampal cortex and the temporal gyrus after training. Based on the features of current task and functions exhibited by these brain regions, results indicate that short-term Internet search training changed the brain regional activities involved in memory retrieval. In general, this study provides evidence that supports the idea that Internet search can affect our brain functions.

Healthy Application of Basic Digital Skills

The study reevaluates McLuhan’s “media-theory”, Benjamin's ideas of the “here-and-now”, and gathers the repeated keywords in theories of key competences in digital era: ability of critical thinking, independence, the ability of learning how to learn, the awareness of complexity and unity, the knowledge of interactions and networking. The fact that we live in a knowledge-based intensely informational age, also means that knowledge is not in itself valuable, but is only a condition for supporting the process of information acquisition and knowledge creation. Today, the reason of learning is not knowledge; rather the other way around: we learn in order to learn how to learn, in order to be able to learn new things later in life.

The Informational Value of Key Audit Matters in the Auditor's Report: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study

SYNOPSIS We examine whether and how the addition of mandatory paragraphs that highlight Key/Critical audit matters (KAMs) in the auditor's report affects users' information acquisition process using eye-tracking technology. We experimentally manipulate the presence of KAMs, their number (one or three KAMs), and their format with the inclusion of an overview of audit procedures performed to address each KAM. We find that KAMs have attention directing impact, in that participants access KAM-related disclosures more rapidly and pay relatively more attention to them when KAMs are communicated in the auditor's report. However, when exposed to an auditor's report with several KAMs, participants devote less attention to the remaining parts of the financial statements. Depending on the relevance of the information for the decision task users are less attentive to, our results have direct policy implications as they underline the potential costs and benefits associated with KAMs.

Developmental aspects of innovation in preschool education

This work is based on the modern institutional concept of the preschool physical education programme, which is realized in the kindergarten 'Sunce' courtyard, in the preschool institution 'Jelica Obradović' in Mladenovac. Namely, in the courtyard of the mentioned kindergarten, an innovative system for physical exercise named 'Sun's Playroom - Planetary Polygon' was constructed and installed. Two groups of children of the same age, with different motor experiences, were practicing daily for 30 minutes, on the mentioned system, for 20 days. An assessment of children's motor skills on the given system was performed at the beginning and at the end of the cycle. In addition to the assessment of motor skills and the control level over motor functions, the cognitive process of information acquisition and the level of communication and socialization among children were also monitored. The conclusion reached is that this kind of a new complex for exercise and learning in the open space has a significant impact on the development of psycho-motorics in children, as well as on the cognitive functions, cultural and communication skills.

Effect of Online Searches on Stock Returns

Various theoretical models assume that information seeking behavior of investors has an impact on prices. However, it is very difficult to empirically test this, since the actual information acquisition process of the investors is unobservable. Using a unique data set from Google Trends, I construct a search volume index (SVI) and use it to proxy for the information seeking behavior of retail investors. Using a portfolio based approach I document the asymmetric response of future returns to the changes in the google search volume. I find that the portfolio with the highest increase in the SVI has positive and significant alphas while portfolios with decrease in SVI show no significant results. My results are robust to alternative specifications of risk models, time frames and measures of search index. Overall, my results are in line with the hypothesis that retail investors’ trades can effect stock prices.

Effects of fundamentals acquisition and strategy switch on stock price dynamics

An agent-based artificial stock market is developed to simulate trading behavior of investors. In the market, acquisition and employment of information about fundamentals and strategy switch are investigated to explain stock price dynamics. Investors could obtain the information from both market and neighbors resided on their social networks. Depending on information status and performances of different strategies, an informed investor may switch to the strategy of fundamentalist. This in turn affects the information acquisition process, since fundamentalists are more inclined to search and spread the information than chartists. Further investigation into price dynamics generated from three typical networks, i.e. regular lattice, small-world network and random graph, are conducted after general relation between network structures and price dynamics is revealed. In each network, integrated effects of different combinations of information efficiency and switch intensity are investigated. Results have shown that, along with increasing switch intensity, market and social information efficiency play different roles in the formation of price distortion, standard deviation and kurtosis of returns.

Educational and interactive dimension of motherhood on social media: A research on instagram

Social media environments in which internet and the technological developments emerge, there have been many changes in the field such as participation, interaction, cooperation, socialization, information acquisition and learning processes. "Motherhood" is a form of emotion and role represented by women in the social process. In Instagram, the mothers provide emotional and / or scientific support to their followers through personal sharing with the content is produce by them. In this research, the instagram "academicianmother" (akademisyenanne) profile of Assoc. Professor Saniye Bencik Kangal who is an Academician at Hacettepe Child Development Department was analyzed by content analysis that the academician share photos and videos while playing games and doing activities on education and child development with her son Demir, giving education-based information and scientific recommendations. In the obtained data, it was tried to determine the educational and interactive aspects of social media

Information-Acquisition Processes in Moral Judgments of Blame.

When people make moral judgments, what information do they look for? Despite its theoretical and practical implications, this question has largely been neglected by prior literature. The recent Path Model of Blame predicts a canonical order in which people acquire information when judging blame. Upon discovering a negative event, perceivers consider information about causality, then intentionality, then (if the event is intentional) reasons or (if the event is unintentional) preventability. Three studies, using two novel paradigms, assessed and found support for these predictions: In constrained (Study 1) and open-ended (Study 2) information-acquisition contexts, participants were most likely, and fastest, to seek information in the canonical order, even when under time pressure (Study 3). These findings indicate that blame relies on a set of information components that are processed in a systematic order. Implications for moral judgment models are discussed, as are potential roles of emotion and motivated reasoning in information acquisition.

Information Behavior and Political Preferences

This article shows that citizens consider policy positions for the formation of their political preferences when they actively seek and find high-quality information, while they dismiss passively acquired and low-quality information. The study develops an extended theory of information and political preferences that incorporates the process of information acquisition and its connection with information quality. A novel experimental design separates the effects on political preferences due to information behavior as an activity from those due to selective exposure to information. The study applies this design in a laboratory experiment with a diverse group of participants using the example of issue voting and European integration in the context of the 2014 European Parliament elections.

IN SEARCH OF INNOVATION: LOOKING OUTSIDE THE COMPANY

In dynamic and highly competitive markets, such as in the Information Technology industry, innovation is imperative for business competitiveness. This research contributes to studies on innovation in the service sector, traditionally known for being less innovative than the manufacturing sector. Through the lens of Absorptive Capacity and Peripheral Vision constructs, this study aims to explore the relationship between innovative capabilities and innovation outcomes, moderated by competitive environment perceived by the companies’ leadership. Utilizing a multiple case study methodology, this paper examines the process of market information acquisition in three small and medium Brazilian Knowledge Intensive Business Service (KIBS) companies. It finds evidence that the Absorptive Capacity and Peripheral Vision have functioned as conditioning factors for more innovative outcomes. Furthermore, it presents indication that the leadership’s perception about the competition in the business environment possibly affects to generate differentiated innovative outcomes.

한·중 소비자의 친환경적인 소비활동에 영향을 미치는 구매 결정요인에 관한 비교 연구

Purpose: In this study, we revealed the influence of customer buying factors in the purchase process of eco-friendly product. Especially, we focused on the information acquisition, alternative evaluation, and after-purchase activity process based on Korea-China customer’s survey. Methods: In the information acquisition process, we investigate the channels of information acquisition about eco-friendly product, a reliability of information, and an impediment of acquiring product information. At the stage of alternative evaluation, we extract various causes that affects pre-purchasing process and perform the AHP analysis to identify critical causes. At last, we compare several factors which affects before and after purchasing process. Results: Especially, an average utilization and cognition score of eco-friendly products of Chinese consumers is higher than Korean consumers’ score. In addition, critical buying factors of Korean consumers are a product quality, an evaluation of existing users. However, that of Chinese consumers are safety of products and environmental benefits of products. Conclusion: In recent years, as the rapid economic development of China, environment pollutions like heavy smog and yellow dust have been occurred frequently. In that manner, Chinese consumer's environmental consciousness is rapidly increasing; not only try to be active participant in eco-friendly activities, but also eco-friendly purchasing activities. In addition, Chinese consumers recognize eco-friendly products as good products made with advanced technology. Key words: Eco-friendly consumption, Korea-China consumers, AHP, Customer Buying Factors

Storying the digital professional: how online screening shifts the primary site and authorship of workers’ career stories

ABSTRACTEmployers’ use of online information increases the communicative demands and complexity of employability. For employers, gathering online information for personnel selection—a process called cybervetting—supplements or augments existing information acquisition processes. For workers, cybervetting’s extractive processes require considering potential and possible career stories employers might construct. Workers increasingly need to engage in prospective and retrospective storying to communicate and maintain employability and employment. Drawing on exemplars from employers’ reports, this essay highlights: (a) how employers report assembling and making sense of workers’ information during personnel selection; (b) the limitations of existing employability strategies; as well as (c) the increased and unequally distributed uncertainty and risk; and (d) the associated and different work expected of workers as the primary site and authorship of career stories shift.

An optimal sequential information acquisition model subject to a heuristic assimilation constraint

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the optimal sequential information acquisition process of a rational decision maker (DM) when allowed to acquire n pieces of information from a set of bi-dimensional products whose characteristics vary in a continuum set. Design/methodology/approach – The authors incorporate a heuristic mechanism that makes the n-observation scenario faced by a DM tractable. This heuristic allows the DM to assimilate substantial amounts of information and define an acquisition strategy within a coherent analytical framework. Numerical simulations are introduced to illustrate the main results obtained. Findings – The information acquisition behavior modeled in this paper corresponds to that of a perfectly rational DM, i.e. endowed with complete and transitive preferences, whose objective is to choose optimally among the products available subject to a heuristic assimilation constraint. The current paper opens the way for additional research on heuristic information acquisition and choice processes when considered from a satisficing perspective that accounts for cognitive limits in the information processing capacities of DMs. Originality/value – The proposed information acquisition algorithm does not allow for the use of standard dynamic programming techniques. That is, after each observation is gathered, a rational DM must modify his information acquisition strategy and recalculate his or her expected payoffs in terms of the observations already acquired and the information still to be gathered.

Day-to-day dynamical model incorporating an explicit description of individuals’ information collection behaviour

To forecast the performance of a congested transport system, it is necessary to model how transport system users adjust their day-to-day choice behaviour in an equilibration process. Although there are various ways of constructing a day-to-day dynamical model, the model should explicitly reflect the microscopic day-to-day adjustment behaviour of individual users to clarify which behavioural factors are incorporated in the model. From this point of view, existing day-to-day dynamical models seems not to contain sufficiently explicit mechanisms for the information collection behaviour. Several existing models implicitly incorporate user behaviour under imperfect information, but not in a way that can be explicitly related to the microscopic information acquisition processes of individual users. The present study proposes a continuous and deterministic day-to-day dynamical model that explicitly incorporates microscopic user behaviour about the information collection and can be handled easily in a mathematical manner. A microscopic model describing individuals’ day-to-day adjustment process is first constructed. Then, introducing the mean-field approximation and assuming the large number of users, a macroscopic model that does not contain any disaggregated variable is derived as an ordinary differential equation. Convergence towards a user equilibrium solution is globally or locally guaranteed for utility functions associated with a potential function and those of monotonically decreasing regardless of the variety of information collection behaviour considered by the proposed model. On the other hand, results of numerical examples imply that the variety of information collection behaviour affects how a system behaves in a transient status of the dynamics, including how the system oscillates when it does not converge to an equilibrium point.

Loyal customer bases as innovation disincentives for duopolistic firms using strategic signaling and Bayesian analysis

In this paper we model the strategic behavior of firms competing in duopolistic environments with a loyal customer base and formalize their decision to delay the introduction of the most technologically developed product available. The proposed model extends and complements the partial approaches studied in the economic, management and operations research literatures. The former emphasizes the role of the strategic knowledge spillovers that may take place among competing firms because of their incentives to introduce technologically superior products while assuming the acceptance of such products by customers as given. The second defines its technology acceptance model based on the demand side of the economic system without considering the resulting strategic interactions that arise among the firms. The latter addresses the effect that signals about a new technology have on the information acquisition behavior of decision makers (DMs) but does not consider the capacity of DMs to account for several product characteristics and their interaction when acquiring information. Using a duopolistic innovation game model we illustrate how the existence of loyal customer bases allows for higher expected payoffs when generating monopolized markets but decreases the incentives of firms to introduce the most technologically developed product available. The signaling equilibria of the game are determined by demand-based factors and the incentives of customers to acquire information on the existing products in the market. Among the main implications of our model is also the fact that the availability of decision support systems that can be used by DMs through their information acquisition processes would improve the quality of the technology being introduced in the market and increase the firms’ probability of success.

Modeling Sequential Information Acquisition Behavior in Rational Decision Making

ABSTRACTMost real‐life decisions are made with less than perfect information and there is often some opportunity to acquire additional information to increase the quality of the decision. In this article, we define and study the sequential information acquisition process of a rational decision maker (DM) when allowed to acquire any finite amount of information from a set of products defined by vectors of characteristics. The information acquisition process of the DM depends both on the values of the characteristics observed previously and the number and potential realizations of the remaining characteristics. Each time an observation is acquired, the DM modifies the probability of improving upon the products already observed with the number of observations available. We construct two real‐valued functions whose crossing points determine the decision of how to allocate each available piece of information. We provide several numerical simulations to illustrate the information acquisition incentives defining the behavior of the DM. Applications to knowledge management and decision support systems follow immediately from our results, particularly when considering the introduction and acceptance of new technological products and when formalizing online search environments.

The Work Flow and Operational Model for Geotechnical Investigation Based on BIM

Geotechnical investigation is essentially a process of information acquisition, analysis, and application. Informatization is an attractive way to improve the efficiency of geotechnical investigation. Typical approaches divide the process of geotechnical investigation into isolated stages and only focus on the local informatization of the entire process. This leads to limitations in the improvement of geotechnical investigation efficiency, misuse of geotechnical data, and interpreted results that are incorrect. Therefore, a work flow and operational mode to address the informatization throughout the overall process of geotechnical investigation is particularly important in developing a software designed for efficient and precise geotechnical investigations. In this paper, we design a work flow and operational mode for geotechnical investigation based on a geotechnical BIM model and database. Within this work flow, the construction of a 3-D geotechnical information model and BIM-based database is taken as the main line. The constantly updated model and the database are the platform for working and analysis. As this strategy can link every stage in the whole process of geotechnical investigation, all the work can be done based on the BIM model and database in a 3-D environment, so improvement in the overall efficiency of geotechnical investigation is possible. Furthermore, the integrative center combined by the BIM model and database is targeted to reduce data errors, data conversions, and the abstractness of geotechnical data, which can improve the interpreted accuracy of these data. Finally, we use the process of geotechnical investigation at a hydropower station for experimental studies to verify the proposed work flow and operational mode. The result shows that it is feasible to design the software for an efficient and more accurate geotechnical investigation based on the proposed work flow and operational mode.

Modeling signal-based decisions in online search environments: A non-recursive forward-looking approach

Consider a rational decision maker (DM) who must acquire a finite amount of information sequentially online from a set of products. The DM receives signals on the distribution of the product characteristics. Each time an observation is acquired, DMs redefine the probability of improving upon the products observed. The resulting information acquisition process depends on the values of the characteristics observed, the number and potential realizations of the remaining observations, and the type of signal received. We construct two functions determining the information acquisition behavior of DMs and illustrate numerically the importance of the characteristic on which signals are issued.

Modeling and Implementation of Cattle/Beef Supply Chain Traceability Using a Distributed RFID-Based Framework in China.

In recent years, traceability systems have been developed as effective tools for improving the transparency of supply chains, thereby guaranteeing the quality and safety of food products. In this study, we proposed a cattle/beef supply chain traceability model and a traceability system based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and the EPCglobal network. First of all, the transformations of traceability units were defined and analyzed throughout the cattle/beef chain. Secondly, we described the internal and external traceability information acquisition, transformation, and transmission processes throughout the beef supply chain in detail, and explained a methodology for modeling traceability information using the electronic product code information service (EPCIS) framework. Then, the traceability system was implemented based on Fosstrak and FreePastry software packages, and animal ear tag code and electronic product code (EPC) were employed to identify traceability units. Finally, a cattle/beef supply chain included breeding business, slaughter and processing business, distribution business and sales outlet was used as a case study to evaluate the beef supply chain traceability system. The results demonstrated that the major advantages of the traceability system are the effective sharing of information among business and the gapless traceability of the cattle/beef supply chain.

Behavioural and brain responses related to Internet search and memory.

The ready availability of data via searches on the Internet has changed how many people seek and perhaps store and recall information, although the brain mechanisms underlying these processes are not well understood. This study investigated brain mechanisms underlying Internet-based vs. non-Internet-based searching. The results showed that Internet searching was associated with lower accuracy in recalling information as compared with traditional book searching. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, Internet searching was associated with less regional brain activation in the left ventral stream, the association area of the temporal-parietal-occipital cortices, and the middle frontal cortex. When comparing novel items with remembered trials, Internet-based searching was associated with higher brain activation in the right orbitofrontal cortex and lower brain activation in the right middle temporal gyrus when facing those novel trials. Brain activations in the middle temporal gyrus were inversely correlated with response times, and brain activations in the orbitofrontal cortex were positively correlated with self-reported search impulses. Taken together, the results suggest that, although Internet-based searching may have facilitated the information-acquisition process, this process may have been performed more hastily and be more prone to difficulties in recollection. In addition, people appear less confident in recalling information learned through Internet searching and that recent Internet searching may promote motivation to use the Internet.