Specific Information Structure Research Articles

Older Adults’ Disorientation in Smartphones: Exploring the Role of Spatial Ability and Quantifying Cognitive Similarity Between Perceived and Physical Information Structure

Older adults are prone to getting lost when switching between screens on smartphones. Navigating through screens can be demanding regarding the user’s spatial ability, which tends to decline with age. This study investigates the impact of information structure and spatial ability on older adults’ navigation in smartphone applications. It proposes a method of quantifying cognitive similarity between older adults’ perceived information structure and designers’ information structure used in applications. Researchers designed three different structured applications as prototypes, with low, medium, and high levels of netting, but with the same contents. Thirty older adults over 65 years of age and thirty younger adults were recruited to participate in the experiment, completing two types of navigation tasks. There were three main findings from our experiment. Firstly, the more reticulated the information structure, the longer the navigation task took the older adults to complete and the more errors were returned, which was the opposite of the results for younger adults. Second, spatial ability has no significant impact on the performance of the process page navigation task. However, it has a significant correlation with the cognitive similarity of older adults to a certain information structure. The higher the score of spatial memory span and pointing ability, the more accurate the cognition construction. Thirdly, the fitting degree of user mind and information structure can be predicted on the premise of specific information structure and given user spatial ability.

Posthumanistic transformation of the subject in the "virtual personal presence" at the ontological level

The relevance of this research is due to the growing commercialization and integration of "virtual reality" (VR) technology into everyday life and science, which requires understanding its impact on the user's experience and the construction of human subjectivity, as well as the potential for modifying human interaction with the outside world. Scientists are discussing the potential of VR and expressing the need for it to open the doors to a new era for humanity as soon as possible. In this context, critical analysis and philosophical reflection on the development of virtual reality technology and the possible impact on human life become extremely relevant and topical. The subject of the study is the content and transformation of the subject of reality in the virtual space through mediatization. The object of the study is virtual reality The work is based on the deconstruction method based on the principles of interpreting what is read without distorting the meaning. With his help, the most significant and appropriate fragments were selected for scientific understanding and research of the phenomenon. As a result of the study, it was found that the informatization of the subject in the process of interaction with the virtual reality environment, a person as a subject is no longer an isolated substance, but expresses his existence through informatization.The concept of "virtual personal presence" provides a person with a framework for ontological expansion in the virtual dimension, therefore, the activity of virtual reality has a profound influence on the subjective construction of a person, characterized by posthumanistic features. Along with this, such influence at the level of ontology is mainly manifested in the virtualization and informatization of the subject. Virtualization of the subject not only shows the expansion of subjectivity in the virtual dimension, but also expresses that it always retains an ever-changing, plastic potential; informatization of the subject implies that in the activity of virtual reality, the subject represents his existence in the form of a specific information structure.

Проведення аналогій у процесі формування математичних понять у студентів технічних спеціальностей

The article demonstrates the idea of applying the method of analogies in the process of forming mathematical concepts among students of technical specialties. Different approaches to the interpretation of the process of making analogies in the educational process are analyzed. Based on the analysis of scientific studies devoted to the specified issue, the method of conducting analogies is defined as a method of scientific knowledge that allows you to form conclusions about the researched object by comparing it with an already known object. Among other things, the main consequence of mental actions when conducting an analogy is an inference – the result of conducting an analogy, which allows you to draw a conclusion about the similarity or difference of the features (elements) of the studied objects or subjects, as well as their properties. Therefore, the result of analogizing (making an analogy) is students' acquisition of new knowledge about an unknown object (subject).
 The method of analogies has two important functions: the transition from a known information object to an unknown one, and the transition from a “simple” information object to its “complex” counterpart. An important feature of the analogy method is its potential for application in the formation of mathematical concepts. Thus, taking into account the dialectical unity of the functional properties of the method of analogies (explanatory and searching functions), the explanatory function of the method of analogies, in particular when forming concepts, is realized by building models for carrying out analogies, which will become the basis for forming an idea of a specific concept (object), searching the function of the method of analogies during the formation of concepts is based on the fact that students carry out an analysis and synthesis of the received information, build hypotheses regarding a specific information structure (concept).
 The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence of the method of analogies, to demonstrate its implementation in the process of forming mathematical concepts among students of technical specialties.
 The conducted study of the method of analogies allows us to characterize the basic factors of its implementation in the educational process.
 Given the multifacetedness of the chosen research topic, the prospects for further research include theoretical and practical developments in the implementation of the concept of the method of conducting analogies in the mathematical training of future technical specialists.

Anaphoric reference in a German-Polish bilingual child

Abstract The study examines the use of referring expressions in anaphoric contexts in a German-Polish bilingual child between age 2;0 to 4;0. The longitudinal corpus consists of 160 video recordings of spontaneous speech in both languages. There are fundamental differences in the way anaphoric reference is expressed in German and Polish. Speakers of German refer to discourse-given referents either with a definite NP, a personal or a demonstrative pronoun. Speakers of Polish – a pro drop language without articles – mostly use bare nouns or null pronouns. Overt pronouns and demonstrative determiners are restricted to specific information structure conditions. We found an overuse of overt pronouns and demonstrative determiners in Polish in comparison to a monolingual Polish child of the same age and also qualitative differences in the use of the relevant expressions. Despite the fact that the earliest child grammar in both languages rather resembles the Polish target (no articles, no pronouns), the reliable markers of discourse-givenness encountered in the German input are rapidly acquired and overextended to Polish, before the more implicit Polish system is in place.

“PRISM OF KNOWLEDGE” AS A VIRTUAL FORM OF ORGANIZATION OF E-NETWORK KNOWLEDGE BASE IN EDUCATION

This is a brief description of the current state of the use of software and information tools ICT in the formation of knowledge bases in education. Examples of the latest information and communication technologies (ICT) used in this area are given. The basic principles of the formation of an electronic network knowledge base in education are given. The goal of building an electronic network knowledge base in education has been determined. The described ontological and e-scenario principles of organizing an electronic network knowledge base in education in the format of an object-oriented “Prism of knowledge”. A general characteristic of the ontological method for constructing an electronic network knowledge base is given, it is based on the theory of graphs, namely, on its tree structure. This operational characteristic of the electronic script of the knowledge base, the specific information structure of its data blocks. An example of an operational tree-like graph-structure of an e-scenario of a knowledge base is given on the example of a physics curriculum for grade 10. The general characteristic of the “Web-software complex, the editor of scripts of the knowledge base” (work.inhost.com.ua) is given and its organizational structure is described. The results of the formation of an electronic network knowledge base in education in the “Knowledge Prism” format based on the use of the “Web-software complex, the knowledge base script editor” are presented. Provided like “Prism of Knowledge – Newton’s Law” and describes its characteristics. Discussion of the prospects of using the proposed method for constructing an electronic network knowledge base in the “Prism of knowledge” format, as a means of increasing the efficiency of information support for education. A conclusion is given on the relevance of the practical application of this method of forming an electronic network knowledge base on the platform of using the “Web-software complex, script editor of the knowledge base”, as a means of supporting distance education and a tool for building personal and corporate e-network knowledge bases in the “Prism of knowledge” format ... For example, such as an e-network knowledge base of lessons or curricula, electronic textbooks, presentations, etc.

Mapping prosody onto meaning – the case of information structure in American English

ABSTRACTProsody is a central part of human speech, with prosodic modulations of the signal expressing important communicative functions. Yet, the exact mechanisms of how listeners map prosodic aspects of the speech signal onto speaker-intended discourse functions are only poorly understood. Here we present three perception experiments that test the mapping between the prosodic form of a heard utterance and possible information structural categories (here: focus and givenness) determined by a discourse context. Results suggest varying degrees of accuracy dependent on the specific information structure categories that are presented to the listener in the experiment (the target and the competitor). Moreover, listeners are sometimes biased towards or against certain discourse contexts. These biases are compatible with the idea that listeners infer speaker intentions based not only on bottom-up processing of acoustic cues but also on probabilistic knowledge about how likely prosodic forms co-occur with specific discourse contexts.

This Is How We Do It: How Social Norms and Social Identity Shape Decision Making under Uncertainty

The current study aims to investigate how the presence of social norms defines belief formation on future changes in social identity (i.e., diachronic identity), and how those beliefs affect individual decisions under uncertainty. The paper proposes a theoretical model in which individuals have preferences over their own attributes and over specific information structures. The individual preferences are motivated by the presence of social norms. The norms, while establishing the socially acceptable attributes of an individual identity, also drive individuals’ preferences for information acquisition or avoidance. The model incorporates social norms as empirical expectations and provides a prior dependent theory that allows for prior-dependent information attitudes. Firstly, the model implies that decisions are mitigated by socially grounded behavioral and cognitive biases; and secondly, that it can create an incentive to avoid information, even when the latter is useful, free, and independent of strategic considerations. These biases bring out individual trade-offs between the accuracy of decision making and self-image motivated by social conformity. The two behavioral motivations are represented through a game of an intra-personal model of choice under uncertainty in which self-deception and memory manipulation mechanisms are used to overcome the individuals’ internal trade-off.

Relationships and Operations in a Sign-Based World Model of the Actor

According to the modern theories on the emergence of mental functions and the respective role of neurophysiological processes, the formation of mental functions is associated with the existence or communicative synthesis of specific information structures that contain three types of information of different origins: information from the external environment, information extracted from memory, and information from motivation centers. These components are bound together via their naming; this also ensures the stability of the emerging structures. We refer to such information structures as signs due to their resemblance to similar structures that have been studied in semiotics. A set of signs formed by a actor during activities and communication produces their sign-based world model, which reflects their ideas about the environment, themselves, and other actors. The sign-based world model allows setting and solving a number of tasks arising in behavior modeling for intelligent agents and their coalitions such as goal-setting, purposeful behavior synthesis, role distribution, and the interaction of agents in the coalition. This paper studies a special object, that is, the causal matrix, which describes the structure of the sign components. Operations and relationships in the sign-based world view model, which simulates the psychological characteristics of human behavior, are determined on this basis.

Exploding offers and unraveling in two-sided matching markets

Many two-sided matching markets tend to unravel in time with transactions becoming inefficiently early. In a two-period decentralized model, this paper shows that when a market culture allows firms to make exploding offers, unraveling is more likely to occur and lead to a less socially desirable matching outcome. A market with a larger uncertainty in early stages is not necessarily more vulnerable to the presence of exploding offers: the conclusion depends on the specific information structure. A market tends to be less vulnerable to exploding offers when there is an excess supply of labor. While a banning policy on exploding offers tends to be supported by high quality firms and workers, it can be opposed by those of low qualities. This explains the prevalence of exploding offers in practice.

Adverse Selection of Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme Proposed by the Hong Kong Government

<p><em>In response to increasing public heath expenditure, the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government) published a consultation document in October 2010 proposing a government-regulated</em><em> “Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme”</em><em>. The present study conducts game theoretic analysis and reveals that, under specific information structure, the implementation of such a proposal would result in adverse selection in medical insurance market, resulting in outcomes in opposition to the government’s intention.</em></p>

A Human Right to Internet Access: A Confucian Perspective

In this paper, I discussed the possibility to argue for a human right to internet access in Confucian society. I argued firstly that Confucianism could properly accommodate the concept of human rights, even though it does not have an explicit term for it. Secondly, Confucian concept of min xin (the will of people), as a similar concept of democracy with differences, is used in Confucianism as a normative concept to lay the foundation of the state and legitimatize the governance. Last but not least, I argued that the roles that min xin are supposed to play in reality are never fully carried out due to the specific hierarchical information structure of Confucian society. I proposed that with internet, the concept of min xin would have to be able to play its roles properly. As such, the arguments that disregard internet access by referting to the protection of the Confucian values might not stand.

Books as informational artefacts

The article focuses on the model based on the information levels of books as artefacts and the importance of information levels for preservation strategy. The historical and museological approaches to books as objects will be discussed. Books are artefacts just like any other objects made, modified, or used by human beings. Different authors have presented various approaches for describing the information architecture of artefacts. Th is study is based on a three-level model, according to which three different information levels are identified: structural information or structural properties; functional information or functional properties; context and the object’s relationship to it. Preservation is not a passive activity from the point of view of the information structure of the artefact. While choosing preservation strategies it is essential to consider the information structure of the artefact, especially when using information reformatting technologies, which create a new object with a specific information structure (photocopies, microforms, digitisation, etc.). The preservation of artefacts presumes the prior identification of the set of information to be preserved. Keywords: artefact, information, models, book, preservation

Internal innovation or external innovation? An organizational context-based analysis in China

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore how enterprises choose innovation pattern from the perspective of internal organization context. This article distinguishes between internal innovation and external innovation, such that human capital and information structure are the core factors affecting firm's choice decision for internal or external innovation. Based on a survey in China, this study analyzes the relationships among specific human capital, information structure and innovation pattern. Further we also examine the moderating effect of cooperative motivation including R&D motivation, technical learning motivation and strategy motivation. The results suggest that with the degree of specific human capital increase, enterprises tend to choose internal innovation pattern and with the information structure more dispersed/horizontal, enterprises more tend to choose internal innovation pattern. What's more, motives related to research and development, and technology learning are two relatively significant moderators in the relationships among specific human capital, information structure and innovation pattern.

Constraints on noun phrase discontinuity in an Australian language: The role of prosody and information structure

Discontinuous noun phrases have posed a long-standing challenge for syntactic analysis. While there exists increasing evidence that discontinuous NPs are associated with specific information structure constellations crosslinguistically, Australian languages continue to be presented in the literature as radically non-configurational, with unlimited freedom of word order. We argue for Jaminjung, an Australian language of the Mirndi family, that once true NP discontinuity is carefully distinguished from other, superficially similar constructions, it is in fact highly constrained and can be described in terms of very specific information structure categories. The first of these, contrastive argument focus on an NP containing a given element, is widely attested crosslinguistically. The second, sentence focus, has only rarely been associated with noun phrase discontinuity in the literature. We show that the two types can be distinguished on prosodic grounds. Our account of both types challenges some previous analyses which rely on different information structure values for the parts of the discontinuous NP. The findings underscore the importance of taking into account prosodic information and discourse context in the syntactic analysis of spoken language.

An Exploration of the Relationships among Specific Human Capital, Information Structure and Innovation Pattern

The paper discussed the relationships among specific human capital, information structure and innovation pattern. The organizational pattern of technological innovation is called innovation pattern in short, which includes two typical patterns: internal and external innovation from the perspective of transaction-cost theory. Information structure includes horizontal and vertical information structure, and the degree of human capital specificity is different in different enterprises. Based on a detailed analysis to the connotations of specific human capital, information structure and innovation pattern, the paper analyzed the relationships of them from theoretical perspective, and considers that enterprise’s horizontal information structure corresponds with special human capital and internal innovation pattern separately; while vertical information structure corresponds with versatile human capital and external innovation pattern separately.

Towards integrated service innovation: from strategic goals to organisational structures

Service innovation is emerging as a critical source of competitive advantage for firms in the 21st century. The success of service innovation requires an integrated approach that can align abstract service strategies with specific organisation and information structures. This paper proposes a methodology that can systematically guide the creation and concretisation of new service strategies. Specifically, by integrating theories, techniques and heuristics from the fields of service innovation, strategic management and organisation modelling, we create a service-oriented organisational ontology and a process model for service strategy analysis and design. We illustrate the methodology with a real-life based case study and preliminarily evaluate the effectiveness of the methodology with a small behavioural experiment.

An information model for project evaluation

This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating and selecting projects to pursue. The project evaluation process requires information that has not been well defined by project specific information structures developed in previous information modelling efforts. The information in the OBIA is separated into five main categories: organization, commitment, process, environment, and facility. The OBIA categories were identified through expert interviews. The model was then evaluated through a detailed analysis of 10 project case studies. Each case study focused on the evaluation of a particular project from one organization's perspective. A method of applying the model to analyse projects is presented. The structure is also believed to be applicable for other strategic decision types including strategic planning and market selection.

The design and evaluation of hypertext structures for supporting design problem solving

Computer-based complex information systems are used increasingly more often, for a growing variety of purposes, in both educational and professional contexts. Since the effectiveness of information systems will largely depend on the particular purpose and the particular task context at hand, at least part of our research efforts should be directed at studying specific application areas. This paper reports a study on the use of hypertext information systems during architectural-design problem solving. Theoretical notions on design problem solving, such as distinguishing between a problem-structuring and a problem-solving phase, provide us with expectations about the changing informational needs during the design process. Specific information structures are proposed, incorporating design principles from learning research, to accommodate these informational needs. Results of an empirical study indeed showed interactions between design phase and information structure when separately inspecting the outcomes for problem structuring and problem solving. Educational implications include the use of a combination of hierarchical decomposition and cross-referencing for certain instructional goals, such as teaching complexity and abstraction.

Optimal Aggregation of Money Supply Forecasts: Accuracy, Profitability and Market Efficiency

ABSTRACTWe present a general procedure for aggregating expert forecasts which exploits regularities in the structure of information within the forecaster population. Specific information structures lead to aggregation methods which adjust for additive bias, differences in individual accuracy, and correlation among forecasts. As an application, we construct composite predictions of the weekly change in the money supply from forecasts made by twenty major securities dealers, for which high positive correlation is found to be a significant characteristic. Due to instability in the information structure, our methods cannot improve on the accuracy of a simple average in this case. However, they do capture information about the correlation among money supply forecasts which is not fully impounded in short‐term interest rates. Forecasts from our models accurately predict the direction of price changes for Treasury bills and Treasury bill futures after a money supply announcement.