Product development of an ergonomic keyboard

Abstract

The first truly ‘ergonomic’ keyboard for modern VDUs was shown to the public in April 1983 in Zurich. This split keyboard was the result of a research programme carried out by the Department of Hygiene and Work Physiology, ETH, Zurich. The ergonomic factors of the keyboard were convincing to the press, computer manufacturers and users. The steps from models of this keyboard to the final product and related problems of industrial design and engineering are explained. This will help in understanding the distinctive time lags between the results of scientific research and the availability of a product in the market–place.     

When debiasing backfires: Accessible content and accessibility experiences in debiasing hindsight.

Two studies demonstrated that attempts to debias hindsight by thinking about alternative outcomes may backfire and traced this to the influence of subjective accessibility experiences. Participants listed either few (2) or many (10) thoughts about how an event might have turned out otherwise. Listing many counterfactual thoughts was experienced as difficult and consistently increased the hindsight bias, presumably because the experienced difficulty suggested that there were not many ways in which the event might have turned out otherwise. No significant hindsight effects were obtained when participants listed only a few counterfactual thoughts, a task subjectively experienced as easy. The interplay of accessible content and subjective accessibility experiences in the hindsight bias is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counterfactual potency.

Counterfactual thoughts typically take the form of implied or explicit if–then statements. We propose that the multiplicative combination of “if likelihood” (the degree to which the antecedent condition of the counterfactual is perceived to be likely) and “then likelihood” (the perceived conditional likelihood of the outcome of the counterfactual, given the antecedent condition) determine the strength and impact of counterfactuals. This construct, termed counterfactual potency, is a reliable predictor of the degree of influence of counterfactual thinking upon judgments of regret, causation, and responsibility. Through 4 studies, we demonstrate the predictive power of this construct in a variety of contexts and show that it plays a causal role in determining the strength of the effects of counterfactual thought. Implications of counterfactual potency as a central factor of counterfactual influence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

反事实增强的对抗学习序列推荐

最近,强化学习技术在序列推荐系统取得成功,它能从用户长期反馈信号中学习有效的推荐策略.然而,模型的激励函数设计面临区分度过低的难题.这限制了模型学习不同用户反馈信号间的价值差异的能力,并导致推荐策略总是次优的.现有工作主要通过调节衰减因子来保证激励函数区分度,但它依赖专家先验知识缺乏理论基础.为了更合理地设计激励函数和提高其区分度,本文依据因果论来分析推荐系统,并提出一种基于反事实区分度增强的序列推荐算法CAL4Rec.首先,所提出方法用结构因果图描述序列推荐过程,并创造性地用因果图定义了因果可鉴别的价值激励区分度.其次,该方法用反事实生成对抗的自监督学习过程优化推荐策略网络,以学习用户的真实倾向.在一系列序列推荐基准数据集上,对CAL4Rec开展了广泛对比和消融实验,实验结果表明CAL4Rec的提升对多种网络实现结构有效(平均2.34%).     

不完美信息扩展式博弈中在线虚拟遗憾最小化

研究在不完美信息扩展式博弈中对次优对手弱点的利用.针对该领域中一种常用方法——对手建模方法——的不足,提出了从遗憾最小化的角度来利用次优对手弱点的思想,并基于一种离线的均衡计算方法——虚拟遗憾最小化方法——将其扩展到在线博弈的场景中,实现对次优对手弱点的利用.提出了从博弈结果中估计各个信息集的虚拟价值的方法,给出2种估计手段:静态估计法和动态估计法.静态估计法直接从博弈结果的分布中进行估计,并对每个结果给以相等的估计权重;而动态估计法则对新产生的博弈结果给以较高的估计权重,以便快速地适应对手的策略变化.基于2种估计方法,提出在线博弈中虚拟遗憾最小化的算法,并在基于单牌扑克的实验中,与4种在线学习算法(DBBR,MCCFR-os,Q-learning,Sarsa)进行了对比.实验结果显示所提出的算法不仅对较弱对手的利用效果最好,还能在与4种对比算法的比赛中取得最高的胜率.     

From what might have been to what must have been: Counterfactual thinking creates meaning.

Four experiments explored whether 2 uniquely human characteristics—counterfactual thinking (imagining alternatives to the past) and the fundamental drive to create meaning in life—are causally related. Rather than implying a random quality to life, the authors hypothesized and found that counterfactual thinking heightens the meaningfulness of key life experiences. Reflecting on alternative pathways to pivotal turning points even produced greater meaning than directly reflecting on the meaning of the event itself. Fate perceptions (“it was meant to be”) and benefit-finding (recognition of positive consequences) were identified as independent causal links between counterfactual thinking and the construction of meaning. Through counterfactual reflection, the upsides to reality are identified, a belief in fate emerges, and ultimately more meaning is derived from important life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Angry, guilty, and conflicted: Injustice toward coworkers heightens emotional labor through cognitive and emotional mechanisms.

This study drew on fairness theory and affective events theory to explain why individuals' emotional labor is impacted by injustice extended toward coworkers by their customers. Pairs of participants worked side by side as customer-service representatives for a simulated organization. They interacted with fair/unfair customers as well as observed face-to-face service encounters between their coworker and fair/unfair customers. Results indicated that participants' emotional labor increased both as a result of unfairness directed toward themselves as well as toward their coworkers. These effects were mediated by both discrete emotions and fairness-related counterfactual thinking and were significant even when the participants themselves had been treated fairly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Surveillance Begets Perceptions of Dishonesty: The Case of the Counterfactual Sinner.

Three studies support the hypothesis that observers' impressions of actors reflect not only what actors do but also what they can easily be imagined doing. Participants in Studies 1 and 2 observed a 10-year-old boy take a math test in a context in which the incentive to cheat and the constraints against cheating varied. When the incentive to cheat was high but the likelihood of getting caught was also high, observers perceived a target who resisted the temptation to cheat as less honest than the average boy. This effect was not found when the incentive to cheat was low, which suggests that its occurrence under high temptation resulted from observers in that condition generating the counterfactual thought that the target would have cheated had the likelihood of detection been low. Study 3 further supported the link between spontaneous counterfactual thought and inferences of dishonesty. The implications of the counterfactual correspondence bias are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

一种基于贝叶斯网络的燃气轮机故障诊断方法

针对电厂中现役燃气轮机故障样本少,以往的故障诊断方法依赖于海量的带有故障标签的数据,无法在实际生产中取得预期的诊断效果的现象,本文将重点着眼于利用贝叶斯网络进行反事实推理,完成对燃气轮机故障原因的分析。本文首先介绍了贝叶斯网络的基本原理,其次将故障模式和影响分析及故障树技术用于贝叶斯网络的搭建,弥补了基于数据驱动的故障诊断方法缺少专业知识支撑的缺陷,最后通过实际案例分析,表明了这一方法用于燃气轮机的故障诊断时,可以根据燃气轮机在运行中出现的异常现象,分析出可能出现的故障,以及相应的故障原因,帮助运行及检修人员及时发现故障,及时排除故障。为实际生产中的燃气轮机的故障诊断技术提供了一种灵活,高效,可靠的方法。     

'It's Not My Fault-But Only I Can Change It": Counterfactual and Prefactual Thoughts of Managers.

In testing for the self-serving bias in performance evaluation, the authors propose that comparing managers' counterfactual and prefactual thoughts about subordinates' performance is more conclusive than the attributional approach and also offers practical advantages. In a study with 120 managers, a 4-way interaction of subordinate performance, temporal perspective, direction, and reference confirmed the predicted pattern. Managers' thoughts about how a weak performance could have been enhanced had external references, but thoughts about how such a performance could be enhanced in the future focused on the leader. This asymmetry was only observed for weak performance. Results are discussed with regard to biases in leaders' performance evaluations and to how counter- and prefactual thoughts could be used for leadership research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)