Interface Metaphors for Automated Mobile Phone Services Mark Howell, Steve Love Mark Turner, Darr... more Interface Metaphors for Automated Mobile Phone Services Mark Howell, Steve Love Mark Turner, Darren Van Laar Department of Information Systems Department of Psychology, and Computing, University of Portsmouth, Brunei University, King Henry Building, Uxbridge ...
As the evidence base for coaching develops, so there is increasing expectation that coaching prac... more As the evidence base for coaching develops, so there is increasing expectation that coaching practitioners evaluate their work. Coaches require relevant, valid and reliable measures. Some assessments will do more than just measure change – they can help better understand a client’s circumstances and so assist in identification of appropriate strategies for intervention. We will argue that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) may offer a framework for part, at least, of that evaluative process. This article briefly reviews evaluation in the coaching context, introduces the concept of QoWL, and then presents a freely available measure of QoWL by way of illustration: the Work-Related Quality of Life scale (WRQoL).
Content and FocusWhilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred thro... more Content and FocusWhilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred through employer funded employee assistance schemes and similar can routinely use established assessments of mood, or behaviours indicative of psychological distress, it may also be useful and relevant to evaluate effects on the individual’s experience of and at work. It may be the case that a broader range of outcomes should appropriately be evaluated to allow assessment at both an individual case level and at a broader service evaluation level in the work setting. This paper proposes that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) can make a valuable contribution to the evaluation of workbased counselling and psychological therapy. Further we argue that such an evaluation can assist in the process of formulation, and thereby the effective targeting of interventions. This article briefly reviews the concept of QoWL, and goes on to discuss the r...
Abstract Objectives We aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes’ in-compe... more Abstract Objectives We aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes’ in-competition emotions, which would reduce the practical and conceptual limitations of previous measures. Design Four studies were designed to develop and assess the validity of the new Brief In-Competition Emotion (BICE) scale. Method In Study 1, the content validity of 39 emotion adjectives was investigated using expert analysis, 9 adjectives were subsequently removed. In Study 2, 402 university athletes used the remaining 30 adjectives to record their in-competition emotions and confirmatory factor analyses and a reliability removal method was used to create the 10-item BICE scale. Study 3 (N = 109) and Study 4 (N = 74) consisted of both concurrent and predictive validity assessments of the BICE scale. Results Construct validity, reliability and confirmatory factor analyses completed during Study 1 and Study 2 resulted in the development of the 10-item BICE scale, consisting of five composite emotion factors: anger, anxiety, excitement, dejection and happiness. The findings from Study 3 and Study 4 showed that the BICE scale presented acceptable levels of concurrent and predictive validity. Conclusions The BICE scale is a rigorously developed parsimonious scale which offers researchers new opportunities for investigation and provides applied practitioners with a new method of evaluating in-competition intervention efficacies.
Humans live in unusually large groups, where relationships are thought to be maintained through c... more Humans live in unusually large groups, where relationships are thought to be maintained through complex socio-communicative abilities. The size and quality of social networks are associated with health and well-being outcomes throughout life. However, how some individuals manage to form larger social networks is not well understood. If socio-communicative traits evolved to form and maintain relationships, personality traits should be associated with variation in network size. Here, using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we investigate the impact of extraversion, agreeableness, and verbal communication on network size ( N = 5,202) and network size change over time ( N = 1,511) in later life for kin and friend networks. Higher levels of extraversion and agreeableness were associated with greater social network sizes but did not predict network size change over 14 years. The findings are discussed considering the evolutionary hypothesis that communicative and affiliativ...
Background Good colour coding of complex control room displays can be used to improve the time ta... more Background Good colour coding of complex control room displays can be used to improve the time taken to complete tasks, to reduce errors, increase learnability, decrease workload, and to raise subjective ratings of the displays. However, poor colour coding can lead to a ...
GENERATING INTERFACE METAPHORS: A COMPARISON OF 2 METHODOLOGIES Mark Howell1, Steve Love1, Mark T... more GENERATING INTERFACE METAPHORS: A COMPARISON OF 2 METHODOLOGIES Mark Howell1, Steve Love1, Mark Turner2 and Darren Van Laar2 1Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH 2Department of ...
Teenagers are a high-risk group for food-hypersensitivity fatalities, engage in risk-taking behav... more Teenagers are a high-risk group for food-hypersensitivity fatalities, engage in risk-taking behaviours and may experience impaired quality of life. Understanding their experience is important to inform their care. This study aimed to describe the lived experiences of teenagers with food hypersensitivity. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 teenagers (13-18 yr) with food hypersensitivity to a variety of foods and analysed using a phenomenological approach. Teenagers described living with (or coming to know) food hypersensitivity (FHS) as a way of life but still found living with food hypersensitivity to be burdensome. A necessary part of living with food hypersensitivity was coping with associated burden; a variety of coping strategies were employed to this effect. Teenagers described ways in which the burden of living with food hypersensitivity was alleviated or exacerbated by others. Management of food hypersensitivity was based on an assessment of acceptable risk resulting in varying levels of precaution taking. Teenagers' understanding of their FHS and ability to cope with it needs to be regularly assessed. Educational support may be required to ensure they take an appropriate level of precautions to minimize the chance of future reactions while not over compromising their quality of life. Psychological support may be required to help them to utilize healthy adaptive strategies to cope with the stresses of living with FHS. This approach is also likely to facilitate the smooth handover of responsibility from parent to teenager.
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2007
To evaluate which of three color coding methods (monochrome, maximally discriminable, and visual ... more To evaluate which of three color coding methods (monochrome, maximally discriminable, and visual layering) used to code four types of control room display format (bars, tables, trend, mimic) was superior in two classes of task (search, compare). It has recently been shown that color coding of visual layers, as used in cartography, may be used to color code any type of information display, but this has yet to be fully evaluated. Twenty-four people took part in a 2 (task) x 3 (coding method) x 4 (format) wholly repeated measures design. The dependent variables assessed were target location reaction time, error rates, workload, and subjective feedback. Overall, the visual layers coding method produced significantly faster reaction times than did the maximally discriminable and the monochrome methods for both the search and compare tasks. No significant difference in errors was observed between conditions for either task type. Significantly less perceived workload was experienced with the visual layers coding method, which was also rated more highly than the other coding methods on a 14-item visual display quality questionnaire. The visual layers coding method is superior to other color coding methods for control room displays when the method supports the user's task. The visual layers color coding method has wide applicability to the design of all complex information displays utilizing color coding, from the most maplike (e.g., air traffic control) to the most abstract (e.g., abstracted ecological display).
Within (and between) cultures, people tend to agree on which parts of colour space are easiest to... more Within (and between) cultures, people tend to agree on which parts of colour space are easiest to name and what the names for these regions are. Therefore it is likely that the manipulation of ease of naming (nameability) of colours should change performance in tasks where categorisation by colour name is important. More specifically, highly ‘nameable’ colour sets should lead to better performance than metrically equivalent but less categorically distinct sets, when the task requires categorisation. This hypothesis was investigated by testing observers on a name-based task, the naming and subsequent identification by name of colour sets with up to sixteen members. These sets were designed to be easy to name (nameable), maximally discriminable, or matched discriminable. The first were derived from previously generated data, the second by a standard algorithm to space colours widely in colour space, and the latter by closely matching their metric characteristics to those of an easy-to...
The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linea... more The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linearity in the relationship between treatment and outcomes, viewing behaviour change as a 'before and after event'. In this study we aim to examine how the direction of the trajectory of the process from addiction to recovery is constructed in personal narratives of active and recovering users. 21 life stories from individuals at different stages of recovery and active use were collected and analysed following the principles of narrative analysis. Personal trajectories were constructed in discontinuous, non-linear and long lasting patterns of repeated, and interchangeable, episodes of relapse and abstinence. Relapse appeared to be described as an integral part of a learning process through which knowledge leading to recovery was gradually obtained. The findings show that long-term recovery is represented as being preceded by periods of discontinuity before change is stabilised. Such...
Interface Metaphors for Automated Mobile Phone Services Mark Howell, Steve Love Mark Turner, Darr... more Interface Metaphors for Automated Mobile Phone Services Mark Howell, Steve Love Mark Turner, Darren Van Laar Department of Information Systems Department of Psychology, and Computing, University of Portsmouth, Brunei University, King Henry Building, Uxbridge ...
As the evidence base for coaching develops, so there is increasing expectation that coaching prac... more As the evidence base for coaching develops, so there is increasing expectation that coaching practitioners evaluate their work. Coaches require relevant, valid and reliable measures. Some assessments will do more than just measure change – they can help better understand a client’s circumstances and so assist in identification of appropriate strategies for intervention. We will argue that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) may offer a framework for part, at least, of that evaluative process. This article briefly reviews evaluation in the coaching context, introduces the concept of QoWL, and then presents a freely available measure of QoWL by way of illustration: the Work-Related Quality of Life scale (WRQoL).
Content and FocusWhilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred thro... more Content and FocusWhilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred through employer funded employee assistance schemes and similar can routinely use established assessments of mood, or behaviours indicative of psychological distress, it may also be useful and relevant to evaluate effects on the individual’s experience of and at work. It may be the case that a broader range of outcomes should appropriately be evaluated to allow assessment at both an individual case level and at a broader service evaluation level in the work setting. This paper proposes that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) can make a valuable contribution to the evaluation of workbased counselling and psychological therapy. Further we argue that such an evaluation can assist in the process of formulation, and thereby the effective targeting of interventions. This article briefly reviews the concept of QoWL, and goes on to discuss the r...
Abstract Objectives We aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes’ in-compe... more Abstract Objectives We aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes’ in-competition emotions, which would reduce the practical and conceptual limitations of previous measures. Design Four studies were designed to develop and assess the validity of the new Brief In-Competition Emotion (BICE) scale. Method In Study 1, the content validity of 39 emotion adjectives was investigated using expert analysis, 9 adjectives were subsequently removed. In Study 2, 402 university athletes used the remaining 30 adjectives to record their in-competition emotions and confirmatory factor analyses and a reliability removal method was used to create the 10-item BICE scale. Study 3 (N = 109) and Study 4 (N = 74) consisted of both concurrent and predictive validity assessments of the BICE scale. Results Construct validity, reliability and confirmatory factor analyses completed during Study 1 and Study 2 resulted in the development of the 10-item BICE scale, consisting of five composite emotion factors: anger, anxiety, excitement, dejection and happiness. The findings from Study 3 and Study 4 showed that the BICE scale presented acceptable levels of concurrent and predictive validity. Conclusions The BICE scale is a rigorously developed parsimonious scale which offers researchers new opportunities for investigation and provides applied practitioners with a new method of evaluating in-competition intervention efficacies.
Humans live in unusually large groups, where relationships are thought to be maintained through c... more Humans live in unusually large groups, where relationships are thought to be maintained through complex socio-communicative abilities. The size and quality of social networks are associated with health and well-being outcomes throughout life. However, how some individuals manage to form larger social networks is not well understood. If socio-communicative traits evolved to form and maintain relationships, personality traits should be associated with variation in network size. Here, using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we investigate the impact of extraversion, agreeableness, and verbal communication on network size ( N = 5,202) and network size change over time ( N = 1,511) in later life for kin and friend networks. Higher levels of extraversion and agreeableness were associated with greater social network sizes but did not predict network size change over 14 years. The findings are discussed considering the evolutionary hypothesis that communicative and affiliativ...
Background Good colour coding of complex control room displays can be used to improve the time ta... more Background Good colour coding of complex control room displays can be used to improve the time taken to complete tasks, to reduce errors, increase learnability, decrease workload, and to raise subjective ratings of the displays. However, poor colour coding can lead to a ...
GENERATING INTERFACE METAPHORS: A COMPARISON OF 2 METHODOLOGIES Mark Howell1, Steve Love1, Mark T... more GENERATING INTERFACE METAPHORS: A COMPARISON OF 2 METHODOLOGIES Mark Howell1, Steve Love1, Mark Turner2 and Darren Van Laar2 1Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH 2Department of ...
Teenagers are a high-risk group for food-hypersensitivity fatalities, engage in risk-taking behav... more Teenagers are a high-risk group for food-hypersensitivity fatalities, engage in risk-taking behaviours and may experience impaired quality of life. Understanding their experience is important to inform their care. This study aimed to describe the lived experiences of teenagers with food hypersensitivity. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 teenagers (13-18 yr) with food hypersensitivity to a variety of foods and analysed using a phenomenological approach. Teenagers described living with (or coming to know) food hypersensitivity (FHS) as a way of life but still found living with food hypersensitivity to be burdensome. A necessary part of living with food hypersensitivity was coping with associated burden; a variety of coping strategies were employed to this effect. Teenagers described ways in which the burden of living with food hypersensitivity was alleviated or exacerbated by others. Management of food hypersensitivity was based on an assessment of acceptable risk resulting in varying levels of precaution taking. Teenagers' understanding of their FHS and ability to cope with it needs to be regularly assessed. Educational support may be required to ensure they take an appropriate level of precautions to minimize the chance of future reactions while not over compromising their quality of life. Psychological support may be required to help them to utilize healthy adaptive strategies to cope with the stresses of living with FHS. This approach is also likely to facilitate the smooth handover of responsibility from parent to teenager.
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 2007
To evaluate which of three color coding methods (monochrome, maximally discriminable, and visual ... more To evaluate which of three color coding methods (monochrome, maximally discriminable, and visual layering) used to code four types of control room display format (bars, tables, trend, mimic) was superior in two classes of task (search, compare). It has recently been shown that color coding of visual layers, as used in cartography, may be used to color code any type of information display, but this has yet to be fully evaluated. Twenty-four people took part in a 2 (task) x 3 (coding method) x 4 (format) wholly repeated measures design. The dependent variables assessed were target location reaction time, error rates, workload, and subjective feedback. Overall, the visual layers coding method produced significantly faster reaction times than did the maximally discriminable and the monochrome methods for both the search and compare tasks. No significant difference in errors was observed between conditions for either task type. Significantly less perceived workload was experienced with the visual layers coding method, which was also rated more highly than the other coding methods on a 14-item visual display quality questionnaire. The visual layers coding method is superior to other color coding methods for control room displays when the method supports the user's task. The visual layers color coding method has wide applicability to the design of all complex information displays utilizing color coding, from the most maplike (e.g., air traffic control) to the most abstract (e.g., abstracted ecological display).
Within (and between) cultures, people tend to agree on which parts of colour space are easiest to... more Within (and between) cultures, people tend to agree on which parts of colour space are easiest to name and what the names for these regions are. Therefore it is likely that the manipulation of ease of naming (nameability) of colours should change performance in tasks where categorisation by colour name is important. More specifically, highly ‘nameable’ colour sets should lead to better performance than metrically equivalent but less categorically distinct sets, when the task requires categorisation. This hypothesis was investigated by testing observers on a name-based task, the naming and subsequent identification by name of colour sets with up to sixteen members. These sets were designed to be easy to name (nameable), maximally discriminable, or matched discriminable. The first were derived from previously generated data, the second by a standard algorithm to space colours widely in colour space, and the latter by closely matching their metric characteristics to those of an easy-to...
The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linea... more The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linearity in the relationship between treatment and outcomes, viewing behaviour change as a 'before and after event'. In this study we aim to examine how the direction of the trajectory of the process from addiction to recovery is constructed in personal narratives of active and recovering users. 21 life stories from individuals at different stages of recovery and active use were collected and analysed following the principles of narrative analysis. Personal trajectories were constructed in discontinuous, non-linear and long lasting patterns of repeated, and interchangeable, episodes of relapse and abstinence. Relapse appeared to be described as an integral part of a learning process through which knowledge leading to recovery was gradually obtained. The findings show that long-term recovery is represented as being preceded by periods of discontinuity before change is stabilised. Such...
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