Deliberate Mode Research Articles

Facebook discontinuance: discontinuance as a temporal settlement of the constant interplay between disturbance and coping

Despite the progress made in acceptance, implementation and usage research at both the individual and organizational levels of analysis, ICT failures and dropouts continue in various contexts. In addition, with respect to Facebook, and SNSs in general, we are also witnessing people deactivating their accounts, deciding not to use them or simply losing their interests in SNSs without doing anything consciously. The current study discusses how the Heideggerian perspective with regard to equipment or technology can help us to understand technology discontinuance. By employing the grounded theory, the study tries to find sources of disturbance which can lead to the phenomenon of Facebook discontinuance, skillful coping and the modes of deliberation which can capture how disturbances trigger reflective thought on technological practices. For this purpose, the study present a theory of Facebook discontinuance and explores its components which are identified as axial codes in the study. In addition, the meaning of discontinuance is discussed.

Effects of intuitive judgments on consumer assortment evaluations

Purpose – This paper aims to apply intuition theory to clarify consumers’ assortment evaluations. For each decision process, this paper explores how perceptions of organization and variety influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 504 observations were collected across three product categories. Perceived choice, time and expertise in the product category provide proxies to distinguish between intuitive and deliberative systems. The intuitive system further consists of intuition based on either expertise or heuristics. Findings – It was revealed that distinct decision processes (deliberative, intuitive based on expertise and intuitive based on heuristics) affect the link between assortment perceptions and consumers’ assortment evaluations. Consumers’ evaluations in deliberative- and heuristic-based intuitive systems rely more on perceptions of organization than of variety; whereas intuitive judgments based on expertise depend almost equally on both perceptions. Research limitations/implications – Some limitations have to be underlined. The approximations used could be more precise and are subjective in nature. Moreover, the ordinary product categories that were studied might encourage more intuitive decisions by consumers. If so, the deliberative mode of thinking might have been underrepresented in this sample. Originality/value – Despite the limitations, this research is, to our knowledge, the first to explore the influence of intuition theory on ordinary shopping and in particular on assortment perception. As such, it contributes to a deeper understanding of this theory in the field.

Writing in a Belittered World

The essays by Avery F. Gordon, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley and Matt Richardson, and Chris Bongie about Colin Dayan's work and thought, in their differing forms and intent, inspire Dayan to do something like a riff on each, and she attempts to capture the gist of each reaction and elaborate her response as a kind of homage to these readers. In thinking of each section of her response essay as part of a triptych (or trinity, perhaps), mutually overlapping and entangled, Dayan takes the questions and prompts of her interlocutors as a challenge, a call to a practice of spiritual yearning, and a mode of political deliberation. She also writes in homage to Walter Rodney's sense of what it means to “ground with” her brothers and sisters in these dread times.

A dual-systems perspective on addiction: contributions from neuroimaging and cognitive training.

Dual-systems theories explain lapses in self-control in terms of a conflict between automatic and deliberative modes of behavioral control. Numerous studies have now tested whether the brain areas that control behavior are organized in a manner consistent with dual-systems models. Brain regions directly associated with the mesolimbic dopamine system, the nucleus accumbens and ventromedial prefrontal cortex in particular, capture some of the features assumed by automatic processing. Regions in the lateral prefrontal cortex are more closely linked to deliberative processing and the exertion of self-control in the suppression of impulses. While identifying these regions crudely supports dual-systems theories, important modifications to what constitutes automatic and deliberative behavioral control are also suggested. Experiments have identified various means by which automatic processes may be sculpted. Additional work decomposes deliberative processes into component functions such as generalized working memory, reappraisal of emotional stimuli, and prospection. The importance of deconstructing dual-systems models into specific cognitive processes is clear for understanding and treating addiction. We discuss intervention possibilities suggested by recent research, and focus in particular on cognitive training approaches to bolster deliberative control processes that may aid quit attempts.

Global processing fosters donations toward charity appeals framed in an approach orientation

People are often influenced by how persuasive appeals are framed. While decisions and preferences seem dependent on the effects of a fit between one's regulatory focus and the motivational orientation of a message, specific cognitive mechanisms involved are not yet clear. This study investigated how perceptual processing styles (global vs local) linked with the scope of attention (broad vs narrow) influence decisions depending on motivation-dependent framing (approach vs avoidance). We found that a global processing style fits approach-oriented message appeals and fosters monetary allocation toward charities framed in eager motivational terms. We discuss implications of the findings on processing styles in relation to affective versus deliberate modes of processing and the need to address in detail the role of attentional scope-dependent processing styles in decision making.

The Role of Practical Coping in Strategy Making

This paper elaborates the concept of ‘practical coping’ (Chia and Holt, 2006) as it occurs within strategy work to incorporate both dwelling modes and deliberate modes of strategizing during strategic decision making processes. We analyse practical coping within strategic episodes in the context of a reinsurance company in Bermuda. We trace the negotiation of a retrocession cover for this reinsurance company from the initial meetings to set up the deal until the final signing of the deal. With this empirical analysis of practical coping in a strategy decision making process we aim at contributing to a better understanding of strategy making as a result of both non-deliberate (emergent) and deliberate actions. We use the notion of practical coping to explore the origins of strategy emergence and to extend the study of strategically relevant processes and activities beyond a focus on top managers or other actors and processes specifically labelled strategic.

Effects of processing style on responsiveness to affective stimuli and processing fluency

In the present study, we provide direct evidence for effects of global versus local processing on responsiveness to and reliance on affective information in judgement and decision-making. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed an increased responsiveness to affective stimuli among participants in a global processing mode. Experiment 3 showed similar effects for processing fluency; participants adopting a global processing style showed an increased reliance on fluency. Experiment 4 replicated our findings in a more mundane judgement task in which participants judged apartments. We discuss our findings in relation to the distinction between intuitive versus deliberative modes of thinking.

Working-memory capacity protects model-based learning from stress

Accounts of decision-making have long posited the operation of separate, competing valuation systems in the control of choice behavior. Recent theoretical and experimental advances suggest that this classic distinction between habitual and goal-directed (or more generally, automatic and controlled) choice may arise from two computational strategies for reinforcement learning, called model-free and model-based learning. Popular neurocomputational accounts of reward processing emphasize the involvement of the dopaminergic system in model-free learning and prefrontal, central executive-dependent control systems in model-based choice. Here we hypothesized that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress response--believed to have detrimental effects on prefrontal cortex function--should selectively attenuate model-based contributions to behavior. To test this, we paired an acute stressor with a sequential decision-making task that affords distinguishing the relative contributions of the two learning strategies. We assessed baseline working-memory (WM) capacity and used salivary cortisol levels to measure HPA axis stress response. We found that stress response attenuates the contribution of model-based, but not model-free, contributions to behavior. Moreover, stress-induced behavioral changes were modulated by individual WM capacity, such that low-WM-capacity individuals were more susceptible to detrimental stress effects than high-WM-capacity individuals. These results enrich existing accounts of the interplay between acute stress, working memory, and prefrontal function and suggest that executive function may be protective against the deleterious effects of acute stress.

THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE CULTURAL TURN IN THE 1930s USDA

One of the more unusual attempts by the American state to mobilize academic expertise unfolded in the late 1930s, when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hired scholars in the "culture and personality" fields and philosophy to aid its efforts to promote economic, social, and cultural change in the countryside. USDA progressives also reached out to disciplinary scholars in other ways as they sought to institute a deliberative mode of planning in local communities and to remake the curricula of the land-grant colleges in support of that project. These USDA initiatives and scholars' responses reveal that scientific knowledge was mobilized in the 1930s not just for the instrumental purpose of regulating economic behavior but also to explain and legitimate federal programs and to inform ambitious projects for cultural change. At the USDA, as at many other sites between the wars, scientific thinkers turned to the social sciences and philosophy in order to understand and then change the public mind.

Deliberative Democracy in Transnational Governance: Agency, Representation and Legitimacy

Is deliberative democracy a feasible model for democratizing transnational governance institutions? Recent literature presents deliberative democratic theory as viable notion of democratic legitimation for global governance, as it focuses on engaging existing agents in processes of public reasoning, rather than extrapolating democratic procedures from the nation-state. This paper challenges that idea. The claims that a deliberative model of democracy is more practicable, out of the box, for democratizing global governance, leave undertheorized the mechanisms by which deliberators at the transnational level represent or are accountable to democratic constituencies. In order to address those issues, I construct, in what follows, three different approaches to sustain the claim that existing global governance institutions and processes could increase their democratic legitimacy by engaging in more deliberative modes of decision-making, and then explore whether each approach coheres with deliberative democratic theory. On the first approach, deliberation may produce legitimate results irrespective of the agents’ internal democratic legitimacy, but this fails to explain how insufficiently legitimated representatives can produce legitimate results through deliberation. The second approach holds that social integrates are collective persons capable of rational deliberation. While consistent with deliberative theory, this version raises the bar for legitimate deliberation and challenges normative individualism. The third approach may seem most obvious: democratic representation. However, I shall argue that deliberative democracy needs to substantially adjust two core assumptions in order to accommodate a theory of representation: the insistence on actual deliberation among all and the rejection of sanctions from the concept of democratic accountability.

Echolocation in Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris)

Here we use sound and movement recording tags to study how deep-diving Blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) use echolocation to forage in their natural mesopelagic habitat. These whales ensonify thousands of organisms per dive but select only about 25 prey for capture. They negotiate their cluttered environment by radiating sound in a narrow 20° field of view which they sample with 1.5-3 clicks per metre travelled requiring only some 60 clicks to locate, select and approach each prey. Sampling rates do not appear to be defined by the range to individual targets, but rather by the movement of the predator. Whales sample faster when they encounter patches of prey allowing them to search new water volumes while turning rapidly to stay within a patch. This implies that the Griffin search-approach-capture model of biosonar foraging must be expanded to account for sampling behaviours adapted to the overall prey distribution. Beaked whales can classify prey at more than 15m range adopting stereotyped motor patterns when approaching some prey. This long detection range relative to swimming speed facilitates a deliberate mode of sensory-motor operation in which prey and capture tactics can be selected to optimize energy returns during long breath-hold dives.

Applying Human Factors Engineering : Naturally Safe Software–User Interfaces

Stimulated by regulations and standards as well as commercial imperatives, medical device manufacturers are striving to make medical devices safer by decreasing the potential for harmful use errors. Accordingly, manufacturers are observing and interviewing intended users about their interactions with devices en route to developing user interface requirements; applying human factors engineering (HFE) principles when designing user interfaces; and conducting formative and summative usability tests to improve and validate their devices’ interactive quality. This has represented significant work for manufacturers, particularly the majority who started with little HFE knowledge and experience. Today, the “awakening” to HFE in medical device development is essentially over—an established manufacturer who is just now discovering HFE has been out of touch. After all, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and AAMI conducted their first joint conference on HFE in 1995 when they previewed HFE expectations related to recent changes in quality system regulation (QSR). So, it has been 17 years since HFE entered the medical industry’s zeitgeist. HFE specialists working in the medical industry used to focus on making devices more usable (i.e., user friendly). Since the QSR change, use safety has become the primary focus, resulting in user interfaces that are less vulnerable to harmful use errors. It is rather obvious how HFE affects the safety of some medical devices. In the design of a surgical instrument, for example, HFE’s aim would be to reduce the chance of cutting anything other than the intended target. This goal could be accomplished by including a blade guard and a mechanical interlock that requires more than one deliberate action to enable cutting.

Acoustic gaze adjustments during active target selection in echolocating porpoises

Visually dominant animals use gaze adjustments to organize perceptual inputs for cognitive processing. Thereby they manage the massive sensory load from complex and noisy scenes. Echolocation, as an active sensory system, may provide more opportunities to control such information flow by adjusting the properties of the sound source. However, most studies of toothed whale echolocation have involved stationed animals in static auditory scenes for which dynamic information control is unnecessary. To mimic conditions in the wild, we designed an experiment with captive, free-swimming harbor porpoises tasked with discriminating between two hydrophone-equipped targets and closing in on the selected target; this allowed us to gain insight into how porpoises adjust their acoustic gaze in a multi-target dynamic scene. By means of synchronized cameras, an acoustic tag and on-target hydrophone recordings we demonstrate that porpoises employ both beam direction control and range-dependent changes in output levels and pulse intervals to accommodate their changing spatial relationship with objects of immediate interest. We further show that, when switching attention to another target, porpoises can set their depth of gaze accurately for the new target location. In combination, these observations imply that porpoises exert precise vocal-motor control that is tied to spatial perception akin to visual accommodation. Finally, we demonstrate that at short target ranges porpoises narrow their depth of gaze dramatically by adjusting their output so as to focus on a single target. This suggests that echolocating porpoises switch from a deliberative mode of sensorimotor operation to a reactive mode when they are close to a target.

Multiagent Systems Provide Support for Asset-Management Workflow Automation

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 150285, ’Decision Support and Workflow Automation for the Development and Management of Hydrocarbon Assets Using Multiagent Systems,’ by Amr S. El-Bakry, SPE, and Michael C. Romer, SPE, ExxonMobil Production Company; Peng Xu, Anantha Sundaram, and Adam K. Usadi, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering; H. Lane Morehead, SPE, ExxonMobil Upstream Research; and Mark L. Crawford, SPE, Bryce A. Holloway, and Charles A. Knight, ExxonMobil Information Technology, prepared for the 2012 SPE Intelligent Energy International, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 27-29 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Asset-management workflow automation poses challenges because these workflows are multidisciplinary, cross functional, and expertise intensive. Advancements in the fields of artificial intelligence, software engineering, and decision sciences have led to the development of multiagent systems (MASs). Each agent functions as an entity of a distributed computing system, performing a broad range of tasks that may include advanced analytics, data-quality checks, and oversight of other agents. Although agents may have competing priorities, they can convey information to one another to broker a decision. Introduction To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of asset management, it is essential to develop an integrated, flexible, and sustainable information-technology system that addresses these challenges. Such a system should integrate heterogeneous, distributed data sources and computer models (e.g., analytical models). It must process data automatically, converting them to high-level information understandable by people. It must be capable of developing asset- management plans, monitoring the execution of those plans, and adjusting them as necessary. Such a system should adhere to best-practice workflows and yet adapt to novel situations, allowing for easy customization to address evolving asset needs. The MAS technology and design approach can satisfy these requirements in a scalable, flexible, and sustainable way. MASs are composed of multiple interacting intelligent software agents, each of which is a computer entity that is capable of autonomous action within its environment to meet its objectives. Why MAS? An intelligent agent is an autonomous, goal-driven, problem-solving computational entity capable of effective operation in dynamic and open environments. It is a natural extension of modern software-design and -development best practices. Fig. 1a shows a schematic of an intelligent agent. Fig. 1b illustrates an agent using two methods to plan its actions. For simple scenarios, an agent acts in a reactive mode; it directly maps the state of the environment to an action. For more-complex scenarios, an agent operates in a deliberative mode; it uses more-sophisticated planning algorithms to identify a sequence of actions to achieve its goals.

Democratic Participation, Engagement and Freedom

It is commonly supposed that democracies should encourage greater political participation and civic engagement. This article identifies two distinct perspectives on political participation and civic engagement: a ‘freedom-centred’ model and an ‘ethical’ model. The ‘freedom-centred’ model defended here draws on the republican concept of freedom as non-domination, together with the political liberal notion of fair deliberative proceduralism, while the ethical model draws on Aristotelian, perfectionist, sources. It is argued that the ‘ethical’ model is overly concerned with the ‘moral renewal’ of modern social life, and is insensitive to problems of domination posed by its account of civic reciprocity and trust. By contrast, the ‘freedom-centred’ model developed offers a systematic account of personal and political freedom, which provides qualified support for deliberative modes of participation and engagement.

Coordination Polyhedra: A Probable Basic Growth Unit in Solution for the Crystal Growth of Inorganic Nonmetallic Nanomaterials?

Learning from the classical crystallization mode and the conventional oriented attachment mode, we demonstrate another understanding of the crystal growth of inorganic nonmetallic nanomaterials in solution from the perspective of coordination polyhedra. A family of β-Ni(OH)2 hourglass-like nanostructures is controllably synthesized and chosen to illustrate this understanding, in which the coordination polyhedra of Ni(OH)64– are supposed to serve as the basic growth unit to grow these crystals in solution. According to this “coordination polyhedra growth unit” mode, a probable crystal growth mechanism featuring two-stage oriented attachment is put forth. In addition, with this deliberate mode, a series of anisotropic features as well as interesting structural patterns of the as-prepared β-Ni(OH)2 nanocrystals have also been successfully explained. The nanocrystal growth mechanism proposed in this paper may be general; for example, it might reflect the actual circumstances of crystallization of certain inor...

No to Rawlsian Public Reason and Yes to the Enlarged Mentality: An Affirmative Role for Moral and Religious Arguments in Canadian Public Discourse in Light of Charter Values

This paper examines two different theories in relation to the optimal modes of public deliberation about constitutional values and the public good in the context of democratic pluralism: Rawlsian Public Reason and Nedelsky’s Enlarged Mentality.I challenge Rawlsian public reason’s claim to epistemic abstinence, autonomy and its claim to reflect a political conception of justice by examining certain contradictory aspects of its theoretical rendition. I argue that significant aspects of the picture of democracy that Rawlsian public reason reflects are unempirical. I argue that Rawlsian public reason’s concept of bracketing moral and religious argumentation from public deliberation is unjustifiable, unattainable and derogates from Canadian constitutional values.I proffer that Nedelsky’s enlarged mentality is preferable as it is more realistic and consonant with Canadian constitutional values. I argue that Nedelsky’s enlarged mentality is facilitative of genuine and meaningful dialogic exchange in spite of difference whilst managing the risk of democratic instability.

@ is for activism: dissent, resistance and rebellion in a digital culture

@ is For Activism examines the transformation of politics through digital media, including digital television, online social networking and mobile computing. Joss Hands maps out how political relationships have been reconfigured and new modes of cooperation, deliberation and representation have emerged. This analysis is applied to the organisation and practice of alternative politics, showing how they have developed and embraced the new political and technological environment. Hands offers a comprehensive critical survey of existing literature, as well as an original perspective on networks and political change. He includes many case studies including the anti-war and global justice movements, peer production, user created TV and Twitter activism. @ is For Activism is essential for activists and students of politics and media.

Gesellschaftsberatung und deliberative Verfahren

The role of society in political advisory has been widely discussed over the last years. Different conceptions of societal consultation led to different expectations, which is why the term needs to be refined. This article starts with defining societal consultation as a certain type of policy advice which is based on the interplay of citizens’ inputs and scientific expertise. It aims at characterizing modes of deliberation by identifying institutional arrangements as well as the actors involved.

Co-management and the co-production of knowledge: Learning to adapt in Canada's Arctic

Co-management institutional arrangements have an important role in creating conditions for social learning and adaptation in a rapidly changing Arctic environment, although how that works in practice has not been clearly articulated. This paper draws on three co-management cases from the Canadian Arctic to examine the role of knowledge co-production as an institutional trigger or mechanism to enable learning and adapting. Experience with knowledge co-production across the three cases is variable but outcomes illustrate how co-management actors are learning to learn through uncertainty and environmental change, or learning to be adaptive. Policy implications of this analysis are highlighted and include the importance of a long-term commitment to institution building, an enabling policy environment to sustain difficult social processes associated with knowledge co-production, and the value of diverse modes of communication, deliberation and social interaction.