The Media Equation
This chapter was about politeness and the aspect of introducing that concept with the digital world. Humans and humans often have issues being honest between each other and politeness plays a big part in social interactions. Computers on the other hand are stoic and do not have feelings. When the aspect of emotions are placed on a non human device, can the same respect be given to these devices? A few experiments regarding computers and their ability to spark polite and/or truthful responses from human interactions were performed. A look into the placement of computers, who programmed them, and the type of survey conducted were all recognized as important aspects in humans being polite about computers.
What I found interesting is that although some people may argue that computers don't have feelings and don't warrant polite responses otherwise, they were programmed by a real human counter-part. Me personally, I would take into consideration the programmer's feelings even though the computer may not be real. This was talked about a bit and I found it interesting that something I normally do was conversed about.
One of the most important things I got out of this was that the author argued that quality, quantity, relevance, and clarity are four important principles that help with polite interaction. Quality pertains to accuracy or a degree of truth in something being said. Quantity pertains to partaking in response to only what the conversation asks. Relevance is along the same idea but should clearly relate to the purpose of the conversation. Clarity shouldn't obscure and should be precise in what it intends to convey.
Why We Make Mistakes
This chapter was part of an overall larger book and was authored by Joseph Hallinan. The chapter talks about mistakes, humans, and gives a few examples and reasons for why mistakes might commonly occur. It started out talking about a pilot who crashed his plane due to his inability to perform his duties. He was concerned about a burnt out light and failed to maintain proper plane control. Mistakes do happen in life and no one is exempt from this.
A big reason the author gives for the cause of mistakes are distractions from a primary task. He talks a bit more about this when going into the subject of multi-tasking. As the digital world evolves, it's becoming easier and easier to focus on one thing, put it aside, and then focus on another. Doing this causes a lack of focus on other areas, possibly resulting in some sort of mistake. A lack of efficiency seems to be a direct result from distractions and a low efficiency eating then causes mistakes.
The chapter then talks about and gives an example of this multi-tasking issue. A bus driver crashed his bus into a wall because he was doing other things instead of driving.
Relating this to computer science, this makes me realize the important of delegating tasks efficiently and making sure the right things get done in the right order. Priority is an aspect that I believe should be inherent and always exist no matter which task is switched to. Losing focus of what's important can be really harmful to important and primary tasks.
The author then went on to give a few more examples that resulted in automobile accidents and a few deaths. Overall , I believe this chapter is important in that it touches on what I talked about earlier. Maintaining focus and efficiency is key when evolving to a multi-tasked digital world.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Book Reading #6 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 1
In this chapter, we are introduced to the author and skinner's experiments. We learn a little of the background and learn that reward and consequence can have a great effect on a person's ability to perform an action. Specifically, the experiments Skinner had performed was in regards to animal training and how animals could be trained to do something specific if the reward was right and they were conditioned to do so. He explains that free will is a bit of an illusion and there are rewards and consequences that are considered when people do things. I don't really agree with this as I feel people are generally more complex than this, but it's an interesting topic. The thing I feel that differentiates us from more simple minded beings is that a lot more goes on in processing material than a simple trained animal. I think emotion plays a big part in how people think.
Chapter 2:
In this chapter, it caught me off guard a bit as it talked about Milgram's experiments and Obedience to Authority a bit more. He talked about how people are obedient and the vise versa and explained reasoning behind a few of Milgram's experiments. What caught my interest is that he interviewed people later on that were in his story and they very differently contrasted from how they were portrayed in the book. This either makes me think that the assumptions made by the author were incorrect or the two people interviewed had learned off what they had done and had changed as a result of it. I believe the first one more as I think it is hard to generalize someone without truly getting to know them deep down first.
Chapter 3:
This chapter was interesting. Mostly because I feel it touches on a subject most people usually have different opinions on. The author talked about an experiment in which normal-'seeming' people were 'diagnosed' with a mental problem and sent to a asylum to be 'taken care of'. A lot of what was in this chapter could be considered as interpretations and more definitely not factual, but I was interested in the author's view and how the psychiatrists reacted to the people who were supposed to be considered normal by most people.
I feel people in general are hard to categorize and most people who go about their lives probably have something deep down they deal with everyday and never realize. They instead think of themselves as normal, not realizing that other people think of life differently than they do (How could they?). They wake up everyday thinking some thought and considering the worry and physical pain from it to be normal and not realize they have a chemical deep down that makes that feeling appear more vibrant than most people do. Because you can't mentally put yourself in other people's minds, I do not believe it when people disagree with someone else's assumptions about themselves.
This chapter really got me thinking, especially when I heard how many people disagreed with people don't really have problems. True, you can get rid of most I feel from what I have read in the chapter through sheer will power, but to some people it is harder than most to do so. And the reason for that may be deeper than a simple worry at night.
Chapter 4:
This chapter was interesting to me in that it talked about social acceptance and how much another person's actions plays a part in your own actions. We learn how to survive life best by experiences and I feel that plays a part even until death. In some people it is more apparent than others. I feel that a lot of people never get out of that cycle and eventually don't give a second thought about their actions directly correlating to someone else's actions.
The chapter talked about an experiment in which smoke was produced inside a room with an actor and people who weren't yet acquainted with the room. The actor had acted like the smoke was a common occurrence and the people took his actions onto themselves and didn't make a big deal about the smoke.
I feel there are some people who are generally more independent and feel it is their own responsibility to act on their own accord even if other people don't think the same. But they are in the small percentage and usually people just accept what everyone else is doing. I think I am part of the first group, but I think it inside my head. If someone was in trouble and no one else was helping, I would act out if the time called for it. I have done it before and it is like another me is taking control.
Chapter 5:
This chapter was a little strange to me. I couldn't really make sense of what the author was trying to get it underneath it all. In short, it talked about dissonance and the ability of someone to do something else besides the norm based on social acceptance and recognition. It talked about a cult who believed a crazy myth and considered it to be normal because the other people in the cult followed the same way.
I think the author tried to generalize people too much in this chapter and like I have stated before, people aren't really that general and easy to predict. The example he gave that someone would change their mind over a dollar is an easy proof as to my belief that people aren't exactly sure themselves of what they want. But then again there are other people who are dead set in their ways and will not change for the end of the world. I feel that people are too inconsistent in general to be generalized like this.
Chapter 6:
This chapter talked about Harry Harlow and his experiments with bonds and monkeys. I didn't really like his experiments, but seemed to enjoy the reactions of other people in class more than his findings. I agreed with the people who said it was a horrible experiment to perform and that it took away a bond that should have been cherished to begin with. Who's to say that animals in general aren't as important to humans?
I found it interesting that bonds were important in the early stages of life, but I feel that is common sense and can be seen even by the normal events that happen in even humans lives. Many families are broken up because they lack this initial bond to begin with.
Chapter 7:
I found this chapter interesting. It talked about addiction and the belief Alexander and other people had that it wasn't the ingredients that caused addiction in drugs, but instead the environment of the drug-user to begin with. I found myself agreeing with both sides a bit. Like most things, too many things play a part in to most reasons that can't really be explained today. I do feel environments play a factor in addiction, but I think it's not the environment that makes this true, but the way the drug-user feels inside of the environment.
If their life just plain sucks, of course they will look to other actions that will make their lives seem better. On the other hand, someone who's life is perfect will most likely in my view use drugs with a less chance than the previous. But there are also people with lives so perfect that are messed up with a mistake as simple as this as well. It's hard to generalize, but I do feel what happens in peoples heads (non chemical) plays the most important part in this topic.
Chapter 8:
This chapter talked about memory and experiment Loftus did where a 'false' memory was considered as being the correct one. It was an experiment done to a person's memory where they were told they were lost in a mall at a young age. Being that young and with no recollection of this memory, it turns out around 1/4 of the people experimented on believed the false occurrence.
I found myself with a sharp contrast in belief to this experiment. This just makes me think at this point, were the first 8 chapters I have read so far all for nothing? I do not feel I fall with the 1/4 and cannot see how I can be told something about myself that I didn't already remember. When my parents tell me I was a certain way when I was younger, I feel I can support their claims with my own feelings at that age. If they told me something that wasn't in my collection and didn't make sense with something that I would normally do, I wouldn't trust it.
I personally feel my memory is better than my parents and I remember things when I was only 2 or 3 years old. They tell me that's not possible to remember at that young of an age, but I really do feel I remember. I can remember details they have forgotten and only realized were true many years later when they visited the house I said I remember. I feel I am strong in my views and that is really different than I feel most people think.
Chapter 9:
I feel as this chapter and the following were most interesting of all chapters as it talked about areas that are a bit more factual and go into a person's beliefs and their willingness to fix themselves. It talked about Eric Kandel and his patients when undergoing a surgery called a lobotomy. This is where the frontal lobe of the brain is poked, removed, and prodded until the symptom the patient is experiencing is removed and 'cured'. I do feel that humans are like computers in a way and certain parts of the brain control specific functions, so it makes sense that messing with a specific part of a brain can cure certain issues. But I do not feel we are far enough technologically to make this possible safely. The patient talked about the surgery working and his OCD being less apparent. I feel this may be true, but there was also another patient who did not recover and is living 'broken' unable to learn new memories. I feel the areas of science are important, but we should look at other ways to solving this than what was performed above.
Chapter 10:
This is the second most interesting chapter to me as it talked a bit more about the lobotomies performed and drugs that also alter a person's way he or her thinks. The downsides to both procedures and drugs were talked about and I do feel myself agreeing that drugs can have more of an effect in the long term than the short term issues that come up with surgeries. I feel drugs and surgeries are there for people if they need them, but feel it depends on if the person wants them or not. I feel alternatives should be suggested and a REAL actual effort must be put into self-cure if the ability is possible before so.
Summary:
Before this book, I had no idea who Skinner was. It was an interesting read but I feel afterwards that all this book makes me think is that what I read all a waste? People can't really be generalized and it can be harmful if a specific algorithm is applied to everyone as a whole. In relation to computer science, that was my belief. I do not feel there is enough information as we are not that technologically advanced yet to investigate this further. In the future, I do feel that people can be adapted to and 'modified' in their ways more scientifically but it will probably end up as a nanite or something small in everyone that detects the differences in people and takes those in consideration before modifying something.
In this chapter, we are introduced to the author and skinner's experiments. We learn a little of the background and learn that reward and consequence can have a great effect on a person's ability to perform an action. Specifically, the experiments Skinner had performed was in regards to animal training and how animals could be trained to do something specific if the reward was right and they were conditioned to do so. He explains that free will is a bit of an illusion and there are rewards and consequences that are considered when people do things. I don't really agree with this as I feel people are generally more complex than this, but it's an interesting topic. The thing I feel that differentiates us from more simple minded beings is that a lot more goes on in processing material than a simple trained animal. I think emotion plays a big part in how people think.
Chapter 2:
In this chapter, it caught me off guard a bit as it talked about Milgram's experiments and Obedience to Authority a bit more. He talked about how people are obedient and the vise versa and explained reasoning behind a few of Milgram's experiments. What caught my interest is that he interviewed people later on that were in his story and they very differently contrasted from how they were portrayed in the book. This either makes me think that the assumptions made by the author were incorrect or the two people interviewed had learned off what they had done and had changed as a result of it. I believe the first one more as I think it is hard to generalize someone without truly getting to know them deep down first.
Chapter 3:
This chapter was interesting. Mostly because I feel it touches on a subject most people usually have different opinions on. The author talked about an experiment in which normal-'seeming' people were 'diagnosed' with a mental problem and sent to a asylum to be 'taken care of'. A lot of what was in this chapter could be considered as interpretations and more definitely not factual, but I was interested in the author's view and how the psychiatrists reacted to the people who were supposed to be considered normal by most people.
I feel people in general are hard to categorize and most people who go about their lives probably have something deep down they deal with everyday and never realize. They instead think of themselves as normal, not realizing that other people think of life differently than they do (How could they?). They wake up everyday thinking some thought and considering the worry and physical pain from it to be normal and not realize they have a chemical deep down that makes that feeling appear more vibrant than most people do. Because you can't mentally put yourself in other people's minds, I do not believe it when people disagree with someone else's assumptions about themselves.
This chapter really got me thinking, especially when I heard how many people disagreed with people don't really have problems. True, you can get rid of most I feel from what I have read in the chapter through sheer will power, but to some people it is harder than most to do so. And the reason for that may be deeper than a simple worry at night.
Chapter 4:
This chapter was interesting to me in that it talked about social acceptance and how much another person's actions plays a part in your own actions. We learn how to survive life best by experiences and I feel that plays a part even until death. In some people it is more apparent than others. I feel that a lot of people never get out of that cycle and eventually don't give a second thought about their actions directly correlating to someone else's actions.
The chapter talked about an experiment in which smoke was produced inside a room with an actor and people who weren't yet acquainted with the room. The actor had acted like the smoke was a common occurrence and the people took his actions onto themselves and didn't make a big deal about the smoke.
I feel there are some people who are generally more independent and feel it is their own responsibility to act on their own accord even if other people don't think the same. But they are in the small percentage and usually people just accept what everyone else is doing. I think I am part of the first group, but I think it inside my head. If someone was in trouble and no one else was helping, I would act out if the time called for it. I have done it before and it is like another me is taking control.
Chapter 5:
This chapter was a little strange to me. I couldn't really make sense of what the author was trying to get it underneath it all. In short, it talked about dissonance and the ability of someone to do something else besides the norm based on social acceptance and recognition. It talked about a cult who believed a crazy myth and considered it to be normal because the other people in the cult followed the same way.
I think the author tried to generalize people too much in this chapter and like I have stated before, people aren't really that general and easy to predict. The example he gave that someone would change their mind over a dollar is an easy proof as to my belief that people aren't exactly sure themselves of what they want. But then again there are other people who are dead set in their ways and will not change for the end of the world. I feel that people are too inconsistent in general to be generalized like this.
Chapter 6:
This chapter talked about Harry Harlow and his experiments with bonds and monkeys. I didn't really like his experiments, but seemed to enjoy the reactions of other people in class more than his findings. I agreed with the people who said it was a horrible experiment to perform and that it took away a bond that should have been cherished to begin with. Who's to say that animals in general aren't as important to humans?
I found it interesting that bonds were important in the early stages of life, but I feel that is common sense and can be seen even by the normal events that happen in even humans lives. Many families are broken up because they lack this initial bond to begin with.
Chapter 7:
I found this chapter interesting. It talked about addiction and the belief Alexander and other people had that it wasn't the ingredients that caused addiction in drugs, but instead the environment of the drug-user to begin with. I found myself agreeing with both sides a bit. Like most things, too many things play a part in to most reasons that can't really be explained today. I do feel environments play a factor in addiction, but I think it's not the environment that makes this true, but the way the drug-user feels inside of the environment.
If their life just plain sucks, of course they will look to other actions that will make their lives seem better. On the other hand, someone who's life is perfect will most likely in my view use drugs with a less chance than the previous. But there are also people with lives so perfect that are messed up with a mistake as simple as this as well. It's hard to generalize, but I do feel what happens in peoples heads (non chemical) plays the most important part in this topic.
Chapter 8:
This chapter talked about memory and experiment Loftus did where a 'false' memory was considered as being the correct one. It was an experiment done to a person's memory where they were told they were lost in a mall at a young age. Being that young and with no recollection of this memory, it turns out around 1/4 of the people experimented on believed the false occurrence.
I found myself with a sharp contrast in belief to this experiment. This just makes me think at this point, were the first 8 chapters I have read so far all for nothing? I do not feel I fall with the 1/4 and cannot see how I can be told something about myself that I didn't already remember. When my parents tell me I was a certain way when I was younger, I feel I can support their claims with my own feelings at that age. If they told me something that wasn't in my collection and didn't make sense with something that I would normally do, I wouldn't trust it.
I personally feel my memory is better than my parents and I remember things when I was only 2 or 3 years old. They tell me that's not possible to remember at that young of an age, but I really do feel I remember. I can remember details they have forgotten and only realized were true many years later when they visited the house I said I remember. I feel I am strong in my views and that is really different than I feel most people think.
Chapter 9:
I feel as this chapter and the following were most interesting of all chapters as it talked about areas that are a bit more factual and go into a person's beliefs and their willingness to fix themselves. It talked about Eric Kandel and his patients when undergoing a surgery called a lobotomy. This is where the frontal lobe of the brain is poked, removed, and prodded until the symptom the patient is experiencing is removed and 'cured'. I do feel that humans are like computers in a way and certain parts of the brain control specific functions, so it makes sense that messing with a specific part of a brain can cure certain issues. But I do not feel we are far enough technologically to make this possible safely. The patient talked about the surgery working and his OCD being less apparent. I feel this may be true, but there was also another patient who did not recover and is living 'broken' unable to learn new memories. I feel the areas of science are important, but we should look at other ways to solving this than what was performed above.
Chapter 10:
This is the second most interesting chapter to me as it talked a bit more about the lobotomies performed and drugs that also alter a person's way he or her thinks. The downsides to both procedures and drugs were talked about and I do feel myself agreeing that drugs can have more of an effect in the long term than the short term issues that come up with surgeries. I feel drugs and surgeries are there for people if they need them, but feel it depends on if the person wants them or not. I feel alternatives should be suggested and a REAL actual effort must be put into self-cure if the ability is possible before so.
Summary:
Before this book, I had no idea who Skinner was. It was an interesting read but I feel afterwards that all this book makes me think is that what I read all a waste? People can't really be generalized and it can be harmful if a specific algorithm is applied to everyone as a whole. In relation to computer science, that was my belief. I do not feel there is enough information as we are not that technologically advanced yet to investigate this further. In the future, I do feel that people can be adapted to and 'modified' in their ways more scientifically but it will probably end up as a nanite or something small in everyone that detects the differences in people and takes those in consideration before modifying something.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Book Reading #?: Odedience to Authority
Chapter Summary 1:
This chapter serves as an intro the authority. I did not read the pretext before I began this book so I was a little caught off guard as to the nature of the experiment mentioned in this chapter. This chapter talked about the responsibility of authority and how people act under an authority figure with an agenda besides their own. They talked about the experiment of shocking others under the pretense that it was your responsibility to submit and follow rules. I have heard other people in discussions in class talk about how they don't know if they would follow their own morals and might do the same as the figures in this book, but this chapter made me think even stronger of my own morals. I don't think I would ever intentionally harm another like they do in this book.
Chapter Summary 2:
This chapter talked a bit more about the experiment and went a bit further in depth. It talked about the situation the experimenters and participants were in and mentioned that the situation was a bit more complicated than most people think. I disagree with this a bit in the sense that I believe people are often easily clouded in judgement and need to take an outside look on things instead of letting emotions get the better of them. In some cases, this is a bit harder to do. They must have had a overwhelming environment for the experimenters to act the way they did in this chapter. They talked about how they recruited volunteers, what the person undergoing the experiment had to go through, and how the shock worked. Changes were made apparently during the experiment based on the volunteer's responses. An actor was also present to make the experiment more dramatic and decrease the chance of non belief.
Chapter Summary 3:
This chapter talked about the different subjects that underwent the experiment and how the people who underwent the experiment were from a select group of people (Specifically college students, adults, and psychiatric experts). All participants seemed to be mature in age. The author mentioned that people are usually there with good intent and think independently, but are extremely susceptible to change and authority.
Chapter Summary 4:
This chapter talked about the experiment and the results. It went on to talk about how the participants (although originally good willed) usually submitted to authority and shocked people when they were told. They passed off their own morals in the sense as they were just doing what they were told. A few people told themselves they were doing it in the name of science. Disobedience was talked about a bit in this chapter and the relationship between the shocker and 'shockee' was further expanded upon. A sense of suffering and morals began to conflict with their submission to authority.
Chapter Summary 5:
This chapter talked about the subjects specifically and their own justifications on why they followed through with the experiment. An experimenter finally made an impression on me in this chapter in that he became disobedient and talked about how the experiment is really harmful for the person being shocked. It shows an outside point of view in this chapter and talked a bit about the pain involved.
Chapter Summary 6:
This chapter yet again talks about the experiment, but shows that they changed the experiment up a bit. The situation was changed a bit and they had some people not present that were normally present and watched to see if there was any change in people's view on authority and their willingness to follow through with the experiment. To my satisfaction, results were changed and people became less willing and less authoritative figures were present. Although the opposite was also true.
Chapter Summary 7:
This chapter was a bit different than the rest and talked about experiences some people had with the experiment and in one case how someone was able to justify his actions by passing off and forgetting about his own morals. Robot-like in my opinion. One lady mentioned that she acted different when trying to prove herself to other people than how she normally did. Another woman had became disobedient early and told the authoritative figures her views early on. She was more scientific and skilled than the other people. She had a more broad and outside view than the others as well. I found that interesting. She also seemed to give reason that it wasn't because she was having issues or she was stressed, but because she knew what was right. That was the most interesting and inspiring of all.
Chapter Summary 8:
This chapter talked about authority and the transfer or obligations a bit more. What caught me off guard is that the situation was reversed in this chapter. The person being shocked wanted it and the authority seemed to want to stop the experiment. Strangely enough, the person following directions stopped more willingly. I found this interesting but it follows the notion that people submit to authority and forget about the victim. Using this as a pretext, it's easy to see why they would still follow their initial beliefs and go with the authority figure instead of the one in pain.
Chapter Summary 9:
This chapter talked about changing the group up a bit to see different results. It talked about peer influence a bit more and that people were more willing to follow the group's view when banded together. Strangely, I think the group's view was more strong than the authority's view to the subject.
Chapter Summary 10:
This chapter talked about hierarchy, obedience, and the social aspect to it. The author said that people are usually trained at a young age to submit to authority and respect them. Most of society in general has a social hierarchy that people follow. The author also talked about a state of agency and the concept of agentic shift.
Chapter Summary 11:
This chapter talked about the process that usually influences people when it comes to obedience. It talked about his concept in the previous chapter of agentic shifts and that certain conditions have to be met before it can happen. (In his example usually the concept of family, environment, and rewards). Anxiety plays a big part in this concept.
Chapter Summary 12:
This chapter talks about the concept of strain and how it influences actions by people. Avoidance is used to help remove some of this strain, but strain plays a big part in obedience and the ways people think about issues they aren't comfortable with. This was an interesting chapter in that I never thought of strain itself as the thing that people struggle with. I usually had it the other way around than how the author describes this.
Chapter Summary 13:
This chapter talked about the author and his experiment's issues he faced. It seemed to me he wanted to counter people's disbelief in this experiment by providing reason of his own. People said that his subjects were in a different time period than the past WW2 setting he described, people weren't actually giving shocks, and that you can't generalize people by the actions of these few people. Everyone is different. I found myself siding with the dis beliefs rather than his counter points. I like to believe in people and will always try to follow through this. Most of his arguments somehow completely slipped my mind.
Chapter Summary 14:
This is the last chapter and talks about present day a bit. He also talks about people who have the ability to follow through with his experiments the most, soldiers. He says they're trained to follow authority and even kill people before they actually have to do so. Training is done early on and soldiers are extremely capable of passing morals off and submitting to authority. Rewards and punishments are talked about more in this chapter and he mentions people are coded to follow through with authority. Punishments await for people who don't.
Book Response:
I found this book interesting but not to my liking as much compared to previous books I have read for this course. Mostly because I found myself disagreeing with a lot of the author's points and his disbelief in people in general. I don't like the way he generalizes people and tried to justify his actions from the start in the name of science. I do however believe that a lot of people believe this way and are generally more susceptible to authority and committing acts that do not generally agree with their own morals. I think some people are too quick to give up on their own goals and morals and a lot of people are simply just bad people.
I learned a few terms and was interested though that more people than I realize have trouble with anxiety and stress. The difference between them and me though is that they are more willing to give up and do the unthinkable. The capacity of human kind is shown in this book and kind of elaborates what we see sometimes when people do horrible things.
This chapter serves as an intro the authority. I did not read the pretext before I began this book so I was a little caught off guard as to the nature of the experiment mentioned in this chapter. This chapter talked about the responsibility of authority and how people act under an authority figure with an agenda besides their own. They talked about the experiment of shocking others under the pretense that it was your responsibility to submit and follow rules. I have heard other people in discussions in class talk about how they don't know if they would follow their own morals and might do the same as the figures in this book, but this chapter made me think even stronger of my own morals. I don't think I would ever intentionally harm another like they do in this book.
Chapter Summary 2:
This chapter talked a bit more about the experiment and went a bit further in depth. It talked about the situation the experimenters and participants were in and mentioned that the situation was a bit more complicated than most people think. I disagree with this a bit in the sense that I believe people are often easily clouded in judgement and need to take an outside look on things instead of letting emotions get the better of them. In some cases, this is a bit harder to do. They must have had a overwhelming environment for the experimenters to act the way they did in this chapter. They talked about how they recruited volunteers, what the person undergoing the experiment had to go through, and how the shock worked. Changes were made apparently during the experiment based on the volunteer's responses. An actor was also present to make the experiment more dramatic and decrease the chance of non belief.
Chapter Summary 3:
This chapter talked about the different subjects that underwent the experiment and how the people who underwent the experiment were from a select group of people (Specifically college students, adults, and psychiatric experts). All participants seemed to be mature in age. The author mentioned that people are usually there with good intent and think independently, but are extremely susceptible to change and authority.
Chapter Summary 4:
This chapter talked about the experiment and the results. It went on to talk about how the participants (although originally good willed) usually submitted to authority and shocked people when they were told. They passed off their own morals in the sense as they were just doing what they were told. A few people told themselves they were doing it in the name of science. Disobedience was talked about a bit in this chapter and the relationship between the shocker and 'shockee' was further expanded upon. A sense of suffering and morals began to conflict with their submission to authority.
Chapter Summary 5:
This chapter talked about the subjects specifically and their own justifications on why they followed through with the experiment. An experimenter finally made an impression on me in this chapter in that he became disobedient and talked about how the experiment is really harmful for the person being shocked. It shows an outside point of view in this chapter and talked a bit about the pain involved.
Chapter Summary 6:
This chapter yet again talks about the experiment, but shows that they changed the experiment up a bit. The situation was changed a bit and they had some people not present that were normally present and watched to see if there was any change in people's view on authority and their willingness to follow through with the experiment. To my satisfaction, results were changed and people became less willing and less authoritative figures were present. Although the opposite was also true.
Chapter Summary 7:
This chapter was a bit different than the rest and talked about experiences some people had with the experiment and in one case how someone was able to justify his actions by passing off and forgetting about his own morals. Robot-like in my opinion. One lady mentioned that she acted different when trying to prove herself to other people than how she normally did. Another woman had became disobedient early and told the authoritative figures her views early on. She was more scientific and skilled than the other people. She had a more broad and outside view than the others as well. I found that interesting. She also seemed to give reason that it wasn't because she was having issues or she was stressed, but because she knew what was right. That was the most interesting and inspiring of all.
Chapter Summary 8:
This chapter talked about authority and the transfer or obligations a bit more. What caught me off guard is that the situation was reversed in this chapter. The person being shocked wanted it and the authority seemed to want to stop the experiment. Strangely enough, the person following directions stopped more willingly. I found this interesting but it follows the notion that people submit to authority and forget about the victim. Using this as a pretext, it's easy to see why they would still follow their initial beliefs and go with the authority figure instead of the one in pain.
Chapter Summary 9:
This chapter talked about changing the group up a bit to see different results. It talked about peer influence a bit more and that people were more willing to follow the group's view when banded together. Strangely, I think the group's view was more strong than the authority's view to the subject.
Chapter Summary 10:
This chapter talked about hierarchy, obedience, and the social aspect to it. The author said that people are usually trained at a young age to submit to authority and respect them. Most of society in general has a social hierarchy that people follow. The author also talked about a state of agency and the concept of agentic shift.
Chapter Summary 11:
This chapter talked about the process that usually influences people when it comes to obedience. It talked about his concept in the previous chapter of agentic shifts and that certain conditions have to be met before it can happen. (In his example usually the concept of family, environment, and rewards). Anxiety plays a big part in this concept.
Chapter Summary 12:
This chapter talks about the concept of strain and how it influences actions by people. Avoidance is used to help remove some of this strain, but strain plays a big part in obedience and the ways people think about issues they aren't comfortable with. This was an interesting chapter in that I never thought of strain itself as the thing that people struggle with. I usually had it the other way around than how the author describes this.
Chapter Summary 13:
This chapter talked about the author and his experiment's issues he faced. It seemed to me he wanted to counter people's disbelief in this experiment by providing reason of his own. People said that his subjects were in a different time period than the past WW2 setting he described, people weren't actually giving shocks, and that you can't generalize people by the actions of these few people. Everyone is different. I found myself siding with the dis beliefs rather than his counter points. I like to believe in people and will always try to follow through this. Most of his arguments somehow completely slipped my mind.
Chapter Summary 14:
This is the last chapter and talks about present day a bit. He also talks about people who have the ability to follow through with his experiments the most, soldiers. He says they're trained to follow authority and even kill people before they actually have to do so. Training is done early on and soldiers are extremely capable of passing morals off and submitting to authority. Rewards and punishments are talked about more in this chapter and he mentions people are coded to follow through with authority. Punishments await for people who don't.
Book Response:
I found this book interesting but not to my liking as much compared to previous books I have read for this course. Mostly because I found myself disagreeing with a lot of the author's points and his disbelief in people in general. I don't like the way he generalizes people and tried to justify his actions from the start in the name of science. I do however believe that a lot of people believe this way and are generally more susceptible to authority and committing acts that do not generally agree with their own morals. I think some people are too quick to give up on their own goals and morals and a lot of people are simply just bad people.
I learned a few terms and was interested though that more people than I realize have trouble with anxiety and stress. The difference between them and me though is that they are more willing to give up and do the unthinkable. The capacity of human kind is shown in this book and kind of elaborates what we see sometimes when people do horrible things.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Book Reading #4: Gang Leader for a Day
Chapter Thoughts:
Chapter 1:
This chapter was very descriptive and seemed like it was just setting a back-story of the author and his entry into the gang. It talked about a little about J.T and the author (Sudhir Venkatesh) stating that he wasn't that familiar with the gang surrounding and environment, thus thought his means of inquiry and study would not prove that useful. This chapter was interesting in that I was amazed how someone would freely someone would jump into an area so dangerous and be so naive about it. If I were in his shoes, I don't think I would be able to or frankly just want to jump into an area that I don't know much about. I like to get acquainted before I do what he does.
Chapter 2:
This chapter talked a lot about the introduction the author made into the gang and went more in depth on how J.T. had such an interesting background. The author was shocked to hear that the gang leader had an actual education but found it easier to make a living where he was now. They also talked about more of what the gang did in terms of who they were (Black King gang), and spoke a little about the community he would be living in as a community instead of just a project. There was also a little violence at the end of the chapter towards C-Note that filled expectations I had before reading this book. I knew there would probably be more conflicts to come at this point.
Chapter 3:
This chapter went more in depth about the author's actual experience and not just from testimonies from J.T. and the women he had met. As I anticipated last chapter, there was sure enough more violence, especially by the gang leader at this point, towards other members of the project. When the author had asked why this had to occur, J.T. stated that it was important to let the people know his position and the people under him their own place as well. The author sees at this point first-hand how the community is a community instead of just a place and how people are willing to lie and hurt others just to prove a point.
Chapter 4:
This chapter reflects the book's title in that Sudhir (the author) was allowed to be the leader of a gang for a day. He was told to deal with the issues J.T. normally encountered and had tried to stay away from violence and weapons to make his point towards the community. In my eyes, he really didn't do much as a leader and was apparent that he lacked the skill needed to manage others. Even the community had noticed this when he took charge as well. He encountered a problem later on in the chapter where someone stole money from Billy and punished the person responsible in the end. This chapter was really boring for me and seemed to lack a lot of interesting qualities the previous chapters have had.
Chapter 5:
This chapter talked about the author's encounter with everyday life for the community outside of the actual gang. To show this, J.T. became close in this chapter with Ms. Bailey (a member of the community) and found out what exactly she does to help manage the community members not a part of the gang. The author's initial approach on how Ms. Bailey handled and took charge of her area was really critical. I'm not sure if it was because he didn't respect her as much as J.T. or if it was because she was a girl during that time who took charge. But the author was shocked after getting to know her in that she handled things on her end a bit like J.T. in that she likes money and is really controlling. She did good things as well though as she lobbied a group to get things done for the families who needed it in her community as well as trying to raise donations to help the people in her community from businesses.
Chapter 6:
This chapter was really interesting in that it caused immediate conflict for the author between him and the people he had worked hard to get acquainted with. In this section ,the author began interviewing and getting to know people of the community outside of Ms. Bailey and J.T. He found out that there is a lot that goes on and many businesses practices that he did not know about initially before. After getting close to a lot of members in the community and establishing a neutral name for himself, he eventually got those residents to open up and talk to him about how they survived in the community and a few of them even their own business practices to make money. After finding out all of this information, he went back to J.T. and Ms. Bailey with what he had learned. They in return used the information against the others to try and boost their own status. This only created conflict to the author between him and the people he just met. It got me a little angry at this point how easily he betrayed every one's trust to gain a higher relationship between him and the leaders.
Chapter 7:
This chapter was a bit more violent than the others and made it apparent on how dangerous the lifestyle of a gang member is. Later on in the chapter, we learned that the author's status in the BK gang had become more important than it was before and he was learning more how people with authority worked. Related to this, he got to know an officer (Reggie) who was familiar with that community and tried to gain his perspective as an officer. He learned that the officers weren't as nice as the world portrays them to be and took great offense that he was relating to the gang. He learned that being seen with the police had very bad consequences and started to become questioned not only be the police, but by the members of the community as well. Towards the end of the chapter, one of J.T.'s men gets shot and the author helps him out dealing with the crisis. This only heightens his relationship between the two.
Chapter 8:
From the previous chapter, we can see that the author's research is coming to a close and things start to get a bit less interesting at this point. We eventually learn that the building they stay in (Robert Taylor) is scheduled to be demolished and the community is forced to evacuate. During this time, the author is introduced into actual King members and learns that things get less chaotic and more civil as you move up in gang rank. Everyone's true side comes out during this chapter and even the author starts to notice how he was now compared to how he was before. Ms. Bailey's true side in that she didn't help for free was really apparent when members of the community came to her for help in the evacuation process. All in all, this chapter was very neutral and felt it was an appropriate end to such a violent topic. For things to get from chaotic to more in control was something I had liked.
Book thoughts:
A lot of what I thought about the book was written in my chapter summaries, but I enjoyed reading this book. I would not probably go out and buy this book to read on my own, as I try to avoid topics like this and take a naive view on people like this. But for a school book, this was more interesting than other topics I had read in the past. It gives an insight on to how exactly a gang works and shows that most gangs (even during these days), have such of an importance on people's lives, that the gang becomes their life. When you have something that can be as potentially dangerous as this situation is, every small thing done in that environment carries over to your everyday life.
As for the characters, I did not like a majority of the them. Most of the people there didn't try to better themselves and let themselves get stuck in the lifestyle they were living in. Even the author annoyed me a bit on how naive he was an how he was so ready to betray people he had gained trust with just to move himself higher in rank. He didn't seem to understand how bad things actually were and became heavily biased (although he said he was not) towards everything that happened. A normal person with a conscience would disagree with the ways done here and try things in his power if strong enough to make a change. He just watched and adapted. I guess that is what you have to do to survive in an environment like that though. What got me annoyed though was that even in the end of the book, the author still had the same views and didn't see much wrong with that he had done in the past.
What shocked me was that the cops weren't as nice and benevolent as I had used to think they are. When you think about it, they are normal people. So it doesn't surprise me (after thinking about it) that they eventually got corrupted and were so violent in their ways.
I thought this book was an interesting read, but there were a lot of events that didn't seem to flow and follow. I found myself reading about problems in the community one page and him talking about his life before he had met J.T. the next page. I think he broke a lot of rules in both in terms of morals and ethnography. I myself would not put myself in his shoes in the first place. Our goals and interests are extremely different.
Chapter 1:
This chapter was very descriptive and seemed like it was just setting a back-story of the author and his entry into the gang. It talked about a little about J.T and the author (Sudhir Venkatesh) stating that he wasn't that familiar with the gang surrounding and environment, thus thought his means of inquiry and study would not prove that useful. This chapter was interesting in that I was amazed how someone would freely someone would jump into an area so dangerous and be so naive about it. If I were in his shoes, I don't think I would be able to or frankly just want to jump into an area that I don't know much about. I like to get acquainted before I do what he does.
Chapter 2:
This chapter talked a lot about the introduction the author made into the gang and went more in depth on how J.T. had such an interesting background. The author was shocked to hear that the gang leader had an actual education but found it easier to make a living where he was now. They also talked about more of what the gang did in terms of who they were (Black King gang), and spoke a little about the community he would be living in as a community instead of just a project. There was also a little violence at the end of the chapter towards C-Note that filled expectations I had before reading this book. I knew there would probably be more conflicts to come at this point.
Chapter 3:
This chapter went more in depth about the author's actual experience and not just from testimonies from J.T. and the women he had met. As I anticipated last chapter, there was sure enough more violence, especially by the gang leader at this point, towards other members of the project. When the author had asked why this had to occur, J.T. stated that it was important to let the people know his position and the people under him their own place as well. The author sees at this point first-hand how the community is a community instead of just a place and how people are willing to lie and hurt others just to prove a point.
Chapter 4:
This chapter reflects the book's title in that Sudhir (the author) was allowed to be the leader of a gang for a day. He was told to deal with the issues J.T. normally encountered and had tried to stay away from violence and weapons to make his point towards the community. In my eyes, he really didn't do much as a leader and was apparent that he lacked the skill needed to manage others. Even the community had noticed this when he took charge as well. He encountered a problem later on in the chapter where someone stole money from Billy and punished the person responsible in the end. This chapter was really boring for me and seemed to lack a lot of interesting qualities the previous chapters have had.
Chapter 5:
This chapter talked about the author's encounter with everyday life for the community outside of the actual gang. To show this, J.T. became close in this chapter with Ms. Bailey (a member of the community) and found out what exactly she does to help manage the community members not a part of the gang. The author's initial approach on how Ms. Bailey handled and took charge of her area was really critical. I'm not sure if it was because he didn't respect her as much as J.T. or if it was because she was a girl during that time who took charge. But the author was shocked after getting to know her in that she handled things on her end a bit like J.T. in that she likes money and is really controlling. She did good things as well though as she lobbied a group to get things done for the families who needed it in her community as well as trying to raise donations to help the people in her community from businesses.
Chapter 6:
This chapter was really interesting in that it caused immediate conflict for the author between him and the people he had worked hard to get acquainted with. In this section ,the author began interviewing and getting to know people of the community outside of Ms. Bailey and J.T. He found out that there is a lot that goes on and many businesses practices that he did not know about initially before. After getting close to a lot of members in the community and establishing a neutral name for himself, he eventually got those residents to open up and talk to him about how they survived in the community and a few of them even their own business practices to make money. After finding out all of this information, he went back to J.T. and Ms. Bailey with what he had learned. They in return used the information against the others to try and boost their own status. This only created conflict to the author between him and the people he just met. It got me a little angry at this point how easily he betrayed every one's trust to gain a higher relationship between him and the leaders.
Chapter 7:
This chapter was a bit more violent than the others and made it apparent on how dangerous the lifestyle of a gang member is. Later on in the chapter, we learned that the author's status in the BK gang had become more important than it was before and he was learning more how people with authority worked. Related to this, he got to know an officer (Reggie) who was familiar with that community and tried to gain his perspective as an officer. He learned that the officers weren't as nice as the world portrays them to be and took great offense that he was relating to the gang. He learned that being seen with the police had very bad consequences and started to become questioned not only be the police, but by the members of the community as well. Towards the end of the chapter, one of J.T.'s men gets shot and the author helps him out dealing with the crisis. This only heightens his relationship between the two.
Chapter 8:
From the previous chapter, we can see that the author's research is coming to a close and things start to get a bit less interesting at this point. We eventually learn that the building they stay in (Robert Taylor) is scheduled to be demolished and the community is forced to evacuate. During this time, the author is introduced into actual King members and learns that things get less chaotic and more civil as you move up in gang rank. Everyone's true side comes out during this chapter and even the author starts to notice how he was now compared to how he was before. Ms. Bailey's true side in that she didn't help for free was really apparent when members of the community came to her for help in the evacuation process. All in all, this chapter was very neutral and felt it was an appropriate end to such a violent topic. For things to get from chaotic to more in control was something I had liked.
Book thoughts:
A lot of what I thought about the book was written in my chapter summaries, but I enjoyed reading this book. I would not probably go out and buy this book to read on my own, as I try to avoid topics like this and take a naive view on people like this. But for a school book, this was more interesting than other topics I had read in the past. It gives an insight on to how exactly a gang works and shows that most gangs (even during these days), have such of an importance on people's lives, that the gang becomes their life. When you have something that can be as potentially dangerous as this situation is, every small thing done in that environment carries over to your everyday life.
As for the characters, I did not like a majority of the them. Most of the people there didn't try to better themselves and let themselves get stuck in the lifestyle they were living in. Even the author annoyed me a bit on how naive he was an how he was so ready to betray people he had gained trust with just to move himself higher in rank. He didn't seem to understand how bad things actually were and became heavily biased (although he said he was not) towards everything that happened. A normal person with a conscience would disagree with the ways done here and try things in his power if strong enough to make a change. He just watched and adapted. I guess that is what you have to do to survive in an environment like that though. What got me annoyed though was that even in the end of the book, the author still had the same views and didn't see much wrong with that he had done in the past.
What shocked me was that the cops weren't as nice and benevolent as I had used to think they are. When you think about it, they are normal people. So it doesn't surprise me (after thinking about it) that they eventually got corrupted and were so violent in their ways.
I thought this book was an interesting read, but there were a lot of events that didn't seem to flow and follow. I found myself reading about problems in the community one page and him talking about his life before he had met J.T. the next page. I think he broke a lot of rules in both in terms of morals and ethnography. I myself would not put myself in his shoes in the first place. Our goals and interests are extremely different.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Blog Response: Ethanography Idea
It took me a while to try and think of what I would want to do a ethnography on, as I am interested in a lot of different areas of study but never actually gone through with my temptations. But if I would to do a ethnography on something, I think I would like to try it on gaming. I haven't been to many events and am not a 'pro gamer', but I have went once or twice to friend's events and the types of meetings and people they hold are really interesting. I would never have thought of a star athlete for A&M played a video game on the computer competitively. And although some people just look like typical geeky/energetic gamers the stereotype conveys, there are some really interesting characters there that don't mind being in the spotlight and frankly just being... weird. And there are also shy gamers as well that I have met. I would never have guessed they were gamers
If I were to suggest something to someone else it would be to do a study on foreign students transferring into A&M. Most students come here knowing no one, just trying to fit in and get an education. I found that a lot of them I have met have really interesting and motivating dreams. They inspire me because they worked so hard to get here and still managed to keep their dreams in focus.
If I were to suggest something to someone else it would be to do a study on foreign students transferring into A&M. Most students come here knowing no one, just trying to fit in and get an education. I found that a lot of them I have met have really interesting and motivating dreams. They inspire me because they worked so hard to get here and still managed to keep their dreams in focus.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Assignment 7: Nonobvious Observation
Group Video
The video we created as a group was repeated trials walking from the Zacary Building on campus to the McDonalds across the street. Everyone agreed to order food if they wanted, but ended up having all of us doing so when the predecessor before us came back with food. During the trip to McDonalds, we had to cross a light pole, several people going home from school, as well as the McDonalds staff when we were ordering our food. The most interesting responses from people near us were in regards to the camera attached to our head. We weren't allowed to hide the camera so it sparked people's interests, and in come cases worried them about being on film. We tried to make it as hard as possible to distinguish from one another, but I froze up during mine and made my own mistakes. Other people had defining traits on their arms and legs that would surely give their identities away as well. I've notice that no matter how hard you try to be the same, people's inert attributes about themselves are naturally given away.
Article Readings
We were assigned to read an article and chapter in regards to nonobvious observation. From reading the articles, I actually found myself really immersed in the topic. The articles started out a little boring but I eventually laughed as I noticed me noticing a lot of things in common with the author. She pointed out that pronouns can be used to find a person's type of personality. More so, she found that people were more prone to depression if they used negative words and talked about themselves/others all the time instead of mixing the viewpoint up. I found this the most interesting. People complain about their problems to people in hopes of making themselves feel better but usually end up doing the same thing the next time something occurs. They don't reflect upon it and look at the situation from an outside view.
I think I could tell a lot about people in how they write (rage, sad, happy) as well as using the content to figure out if they are looking at their problem from a critical view. Although some things can be taken out of context (satire,sarcasm, jest, etc), most people are usually blunt and straight forward about what they write to strangers.
The video we created as a group was repeated trials walking from the Zacary Building on campus to the McDonalds across the street. Everyone agreed to order food if they wanted, but ended up having all of us doing so when the predecessor before us came back with food. During the trip to McDonalds, we had to cross a light pole, several people going home from school, as well as the McDonalds staff when we were ordering our food. The most interesting responses from people near us were in regards to the camera attached to our head. We weren't allowed to hide the camera so it sparked people's interests, and in come cases worried them about being on film. We tried to make it as hard as possible to distinguish from one another, but I froze up during mine and made my own mistakes. Other people had defining traits on their arms and legs that would surely give their identities away as well. I've notice that no matter how hard you try to be the same, people's inert attributes about themselves are naturally given away.
Article Readings
We were assigned to read an article and chapter in regards to nonobvious observation. From reading the articles, I actually found myself really immersed in the topic. The articles started out a little boring but I eventually laughed as I noticed me noticing a lot of things in common with the author. She pointed out that pronouns can be used to find a person's type of personality. More so, she found that people were more prone to depression if they used negative words and talked about themselves/others all the time instead of mixing the viewpoint up. I found this the most interesting. People complain about their problems to people in hopes of making themselves feel better but usually end up doing the same thing the next time something occurs. They don't reflect upon it and look at the situation from an outside view.
I think I could tell a lot about people in how they write (rage, sad, happy) as well as using the content to figure out if they are looking at their problem from a critical view. Although some things can be taken out of context (satire,sarcasm, jest, etc), most people are usually blunt and straight forward about what they write to strangers.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Homework #4: Reflection on Ethnography Articles
Three different links were provided to us to gain a deeper understanding of what ethnography is.
Ethnography Itself:
Based on the Wikipedia and Book Description articles, I found this topic really interesting and really strange at the same. For a Technology and Computing course, this topic is a bit off topic, but I love it. From what I gathered, ethnography is the study of the nature of people, represented graphically and in writing. The goal of an ethnographer is to explain not the culture itself, but the culture from the point of view from the native. I found that to do this, the author has to get to know the native on a personal level and relate to them. They have to be able to see their life and beliefs as they see it and try to learn culturally what's different.
I thought this was interesting and unique as I feel most people do not put the effort to try and understand this. People fight, argue, and create resentment towards other because they do not understand others. They are stuck in their own belief and fail to try to put themselves in the other person's shoes. If more people attempt to try and see life like this, I think people would most definitely get along better. As long as they are open to the ideas besides their own.
Coming of Age in Samoa and Reception:
This article was about a book which was written by an anthropologist.who studied the coming of age in Samoa. Field work was conducted in Samoa and focused on young women between the ages of 9 and 20. She found that the "passage from childhood to adulthood in Samoa was a smooth transition and not marked by the emotional or psychological distress, anxiety, or confusion seen in " America. After publishing these findings, reception was somewhat mean and commented by people who did not agree with the casual encounters the people of Samoa had between each other. Cultures between these two different lands were very different and people took offense to those differences.
One of those people was Derek Freeman, who attacked the book and author herself because of what was written. Freeman tried to prove her wrong by stating her encounters were falsified and lied about, but eventually was proven wrong himself in that he wasn't able to see the life the Samoa people had because he didn't emotionally connect.
I think this topic is very interesting and will be something people will eventually come to appreciate as cultures and people begin to blend together.
Ethnography Itself:
Based on the Wikipedia and Book Description articles, I found this topic really interesting and really strange at the same. For a Technology and Computing course, this topic is a bit off topic, but I love it. From what I gathered, ethnography is the study of the nature of people, represented graphically and in writing. The goal of an ethnographer is to explain not the culture itself, but the culture from the point of view from the native. I found that to do this, the author has to get to know the native on a personal level and relate to them. They have to be able to see their life and beliefs as they see it and try to learn culturally what's different.
I thought this was interesting and unique as I feel most people do not put the effort to try and understand this. People fight, argue, and create resentment towards other because they do not understand others. They are stuck in their own belief and fail to try to put themselves in the other person's shoes. If more people attempt to try and see life like this, I think people would most definitely get along better. As long as they are open to the ideas besides their own.
Coming of Age in Samoa and Reception:
This article was about a book which was written by an anthropologist.who studied the coming of age in Samoa. Field work was conducted in Samoa and focused on young women between the ages of 9 and 20. She found that the "passage from childhood to adulthood in Samoa was a smooth transition and not marked by the emotional or psychological distress, anxiety, or confusion seen in " America. After publishing these findings, reception was somewhat mean and commented by people who did not agree with the casual encounters the people of Samoa had between each other. Cultures between these two different lands were very different and people took offense to those differences.
One of those people was Derek Freeman, who attacked the book and author herself because of what was written. Freeman tried to prove her wrong by stating her encounters were falsified and lied about, but eventually was proven wrong himself in that he wasn't able to see the life the Samoa people had because he didn't emotionally connect.
I think this topic is very interesting and will be something people will eventually come to appreciate as cultures and people begin to blend together.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Book Reading #3: Emotional Design
Perspective Comparison - Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design
For this assignment, we were asked to contrast the perspectives of two books, Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design. Both books were written in different contexts and with different considerations in mind. What both had in common though were that they both helped understand how to make a product better.
In Donald Norman's book, Design of Everyday Things, he focused on design and how function and the process behind that design should be easy to use. It should require limited thought on the user's mind compared to a complicated process, and should also put the ability to easily use the product as the most important concept. Confusing products and hard to understand instructions only make the process worse and so he conveys that is important to have a good design when initially creating the product. That way the product will easily appeal to the user himself.
In the book Emotional Design, the author focuses mainly on emotion and aesthetics of a product. In the previous book, I found that the psychological aspects of his writing were the most interesting. What interests me about this book is that it goes a step further and really explores that aspect a bit further. Specifically, the emotions and aesthetics have a lot to do with psychology and how a person thinks. In this book, he mainly focused on how two objects that function exactly the same would have different results if one object was more aesthetically pleasing than the other. He gave a few examples, one of which the ATM machine example, where he demonstrated that very same aspect. Even though function remained the same, people commented how the more pleasing ATM was easier to use. He also talked about different levels of brain activity (visceral, behavioral, and reflective), and how those functions links to how a person feels. I found when talking about this that both focus and creativity should be utilized to their fullest.
I am really interested in seeing where the psychological side to this book leads.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Assignment #2 - Design of Everyday Things
My Reaction to Design of Everyday Things
When I first began the course and opened the book, I immediately took a disliking to it as it was a book on technology that was written many years ago. This may seem like a bad habit to some people, but I like to stay up to date with technology and usually try not to look back and analyze older technology. But as I continued reading, I found more of a psychological view on the objects he was writing about that were issues that I could relate to. He also gave many examples of basic and simple objects that he knew would remain the same for years to come and that really helped establish a feeling of relation. He gave examples of light-switches, tools, and appliances and not examples of products I never heard of. I really liked the fact that he took the time to find discussions that everyone reading could relate to.
But if I had to find something I really liked the most, it would most definitely be the psychological sides to things. Chapter five when the author talked about dealing with human error was probably the most interesting chapter that I could relate to. I like understanding how people work and like having a process to things that are usually unstable or hard to understand. Usually when I notice people around me have issues with things, people, or subjects in general, I naturally always try to find out the deeper reason why they took a disliking to it. The author states that many items aren't designed well and says it's because people forget the key elements to balancing having a good design with good functionality. Most of the time one of those areas are sacrificed for another.
In my own life, I have often found myself making the same mistake when trying to operate a product. Some of the times I can never get a light switch correct when attempting to turn it on in the dark. The same process applies when I try to turn on my fan at night. Half of the time I pull the light cord instead of the fan. Examples like these are what the author mentions and I really do think it is a subject that could be further expanded upon.
In conclusion, I really liked the book. I was initially proven wrong when the book began a deeper and more thoughtful analysis over the things we do wrong and often overlook. These usually consists of small things that seem too insignificant to expand upon and attempt to fix. I think that the book is a good topic for this class and really helps people think about how their product will be seen and used by their end-user. Overlooking this area I think is a bad choice and is often the downfall of some really great ideas.
Chapter Analysis
Chapter 1 - The Start!
We were assigned to read the first chapter of The Design in Everyday Things. The book was written by Donald Norman and was a very interesting read for such an old book. The author began telling the story by giving plain examples that we see in our everyday world. The things listed were everyday encounters we see in our lives but never really think about.
The most dominant example he gave on how technology is worked by others is a simple door. A glass door had the person behind it confused as there were no instructions or visible way to actually open the door. The way we interact with objects and the ease of being able to use it are highly dependent on a few key concepts the author mentioned. The conceptual model is how we think something should work. A affordance on the other hand is the actual properties and features of the object. In the case of the glass door, visibility is a key concept in that it has to convey the correct message to the user. Other important terms were feedback and mappings as well as an image. Feedback was the message sent to the user after operating the object. Mappings were an actual map and link between two objects. And a system image was how the object is shown.
In all, the chapter was a really interesting read and was important in letting me know that there are in fact simple concepts to keep in mind in getting an easy interaction between technology and a user.
Chapter 2 - The Psychology of Actions
This chapter was titled by the author as The Psychology of Everyday Actions. He began by talking about a situation where he had helped someone else open a drawer when she couldn't open it herself. She than began to blame herself falsely for not being able to do it herself. Donald Norman, the author, then went on to state that most people blame themselves for not being able to figure out something that they perceived to be easy. He countered that argument by stating that sometimes the product itself is usually at fault for not being able to convey itself properly and instead confuses the user. He talked about how humans think a certain way and try to find reason for the inability to perform.
The author then began to talk about society and humans themselves to try and explain why people had blamed themselves for a products poor design. He then talked about in length about seven stages of action. Perceive, Interpretation, Purpose, Intent, Action. He talked about how that is how it is a typical order people follow when something is performed. Another term I thought useful since it was on a quiz in class was Gulf of Evaluation. It's the gap between two actions that a user expects when he learns more about the device.
I thought this chapter was interesting as people do in fact find fault in themselves for their inability to surpass flaws of something else. They attribute that to themselves instead. I think that products should be better designed to help people, but there is also a limit to how much effort should be put into that. If too much is put into simplicity, it often sacrifices creativity and complexity some users desire.
Chapter 3 - Knowledge in Head and World
In this chapter, the author talked about different forms of knowledge and the processes usually used to learn about them. The title Knowledge in the Head and in the World seemed like a fitting title for it. To learn how to use a product, a user usually goes through a process of learning before he can fully understand and comprehend it. The author went on to say that there are different levels of 'knowing' information. The first is just memorization. Short term memory that usually fades away and is sometimes hard to make sense of. The next level is mapping or making sense of information based off of previous relationships or correlations. The final step of understanding information it that itself. Understanding or 'learning' information is key in truly understanding something and having it readily accessible. This stage of often harder to get through but is more of a long term process than the rest.
He also talked about constraints that help a user understand or fill in gaps when needed. If something had a physical constraint like he stated in the book, for example a LEGO set. Some pieces won't fit on other pieces and makes it easier to build when it only fits on a certain set.
I thought this chapter was interesting but not as interesting as the previous chapter. It talked about learning, but I think the more important questions were the psychology ones behind the problems. Thinking about how to learn about learning I think is slightly counter productive. I think it's best to let the mind do what it does best and instead think deeper about the problems to fix and understand them.
Chapter 4 - Knowing What to Do
This chapter was titled Knowing What To Do. In this chapter, Norman talked more about the constraints he did in the previous chapter. He went on further to talk about different kinds of constraints, logical cultural and physical constraints. Physical was talked in my previous summary and involved something physical that our mind filled in to make sense of. Cultural constraints are a bit harder to understand but involved using cultural usuals or constraints to make sense of things. These things are learned and are a different form of constraint. The logical constraints he talked about was about using the previously learned experiences help make sense of what they were trying to do.
I liked this chapter because this was form of the learning experience he talked about in the previous chapter. It was a combination of that and actually went into a more in-depth look into understanding how people think.
Chapter 5 - To Err is Human
In this chapter, the author talked about error in more of a deeper way. This chapter seemed to ask the question why humans do what they do more than other chapters and I really took a liking to that. It was more of the psychological look that I like to view things in. I liked how the author suggested a few things in a way that designers should assume that users won't follow directions but instead do something wrong. Accounting for that would help with a few of his arguments.
I liked this chapter the most out of all the chapters and would indeed suggest the design recommendations he gave towards the end of the chapter. Assuming error is the most important concept I had gotten out of this chapter.
Chapter 6 - The Design Challenge
This chapter talked about more of the design process involved when creating a product and ways that can often be looked at in a deeper aspect to compensate for errors and better usability. The author had a lot of information that I found a bit hard to understand, but understood that he was trying to accomplish. I probably liked this chapter the least because I found myself re-reading parts just to understand it. The author seemed to jump around at times and concepts were a bit hard to follow at some points. It was an interesting chapter though as it seemed like he combined everything together into a process that can help with the design itself.
In the end, I jump back to my previous comments about the chapter being a bit harder to understand than the other chapters. A few of the examples I had a hard time relating to but I liked the design process he was getting towards at the end.
Chapter 7 - User Centered Drive
The thing that caught my attention most out of everything else it touched on all of the previous subjects he talked about as well as bringing in the design process to fix the issues at hand. He gave many examples of everyday things that I found myself relating to in order to understand the concepts. After coming form reading a chapter that was hard to understand, this chapter seemed more in focus and followed a path of explaining everything he had written about before (Users will almost always go through errors, designers problems, fixes, etc).
He talked about standardization which was on a quiz in class and explained that it helped overall problems. I agreed with this as Google and many other companies solve design problems with this very same standardization and process.
Items with a Good-Design
1.) The Galaxy S3 - Very Customizable
The Samsung Galaxy S3 pictured above I think is a very well designed phone. It has a lot of features a phone usually has and places the buttons in the right places that most other phones places theirs. Instead of putting the power, volume, and control buttons in other areas like a few other phones do, they follow what popular phones do and place them in separate and easy to access areas that users would know where to look. None of the buttons are close together that have totally different functions. The nicest thing I like about this design is that the software is open-source and highly customizable. Left handed users can set a specific setting to make it their own due to the accessabillity of the software and customizations. When you leave things open and include an API, it's easier to fix the things other people need.
2.) iPhone - Simple
Although I have an android and left the phone a while back, I applaud Apple for sticking with simplicity is usually best. Complicated things tend to well... complicate things and users often find themselves frustrated with the lack of ease with their devices. The iPhone is a concept that I believe really pushed the market further and convinced users to ditch their t9 phones and try a new technology. Even old users found themselves finding how to use an iPhone with ease. Although I don't like the lack of customization with the iPhone, a lot of users find the simplicity of this the biggest plus of all.
3.) Shoes - Simple and rarely difficult to use
Although there are some exceptions to shoes in general, shoes are usually the simplest of things to do. Learning to tie your shoe is probably the most complex a tennis shoe will give people. What I like about it best is that most people have become accustomed to not going through the process of doing and undoing your shoe. Most people wake up half awake, SLIP on their shoe, and go straight to where ever they need to go. It's simple, something most people don't think twice about, and is highly customizable. Nike for instance takes the cake in this aspect where it combines customization with ease of use.
4.) Musical Keyboard - Grouped and Ease to Use
I like the keyboard listed above the best because of it's design. It's made by M-Audio and is called an Axiom keyboard. I plugs into the computer and lets people control the music they make. In general, I think pianos are a really good way to learn how to play music. They have a note for the basic sounds and are not as difficult as guitars to use since each note is separate and you just press down to make a noise. Nothing complicated is required to learn a basic song. The hardest part would be to train your mind to play separately to play more difficult songs.
What I like about this design in particular though is that they group functions together. It has knobs, buttons, and even pads. It isn't jumbled all together and really helps people play perfect and not mis-hit notes while performing live. Because of all the options, it is highly customizable and usually never lets a user go desiring a feature that wasn't implemented.
5.) The Logitech Mouse - Fits to a User
The mouse is something I have found myself taking a strangely important liking to. It is often hard to find a mouse that fits my needs and I find myself returning mouses that make me uncomfortable. Because Logitech designs their mouses well, when one breaks and I have to use another cheap mouse, I find myself wishing my first one didn't break in the first place. They design their mouses to fit the user's hand instead of making a regular mouse round. They even place buttons in places the fingers would even rest and let the users decide what actions those buttons would perform. I find them highly customizable and comfortable to use, even hours on hours of usage. My hand never gets tired like it used to when computers had first come to the market.
Items with a Bad-Design
1.) Chopsticks - Can't easily pick up for most people
The above pictured chopsticks are an attempt a designer had in fixing what most people had issues with while eating. I'm still amazed how widely difficult it is for most people to try, while the other side of the earth uses with ease on a normal basis. Because a utensil is a utensil, documentation usually isn't provided. This is a perfect example in how users often get confused on the simplest issue. Most people fumble with their rice and can never get a good grasp when using chop sticks. With something as simple as eating, chopsticks make what should be viewed as a delight into something tiresome and difficult. Hard to use, Splinter-filled, and No documentation easily makes the chopsticks at my number one bad design object.
2.) The Door Lock - 50/50 Chance
The door lock is something I often found myself second guessing myself on. Most doors open by turning the lock towards the hinges, but other doors work by turning the lock towards the other way. When first entering a house or apartment, no one ever knows initially which way to unlock the door until they actually try it. Even while living at my place for many years, I have often found myself sometimes turning the key the wrong way to open the door, especially when other things are on my mind.
3.) Fan Switches - Also a 50/50 Chance
The fan is also another product that I believe can be better designed and standardized. Trying to figure out which chain is the light and which chain is the light is sometimes difficult, even after living years at a place that I have always lived at. Even the polarity switch on the motor is sometimes difficult to understand. Trying to figure out which direction the switch will make the fan turn is hard. You flip the switch, wait for the blades to slow down enough to actually see their direction, and realize you had it on the right setting in the first place. I find it funny how other people, especially at night, struggle with this as well.
4.) Water faucets - Sometimes Strange
The above water faucet is a faucet I have seen in person before. It starts at the Shut setting, but then has the next setting set at Scalding. I applaud the makers for actually letting the user know that it is a setting so hot you may burn yourself at, but I find it strange in general. In order to get a warm shower, you have to pass the super hot and potentially dangerous setting first (depending on the water heater), and then go to the setting you like. Having to risk burning yourself every time you shower may be something you want to re-think about.
5.) AC Thermostat - Varies depending on maker
The thermostat is something that I have found myself often wondering about. The unit at my house is very different than the unit at my apartment and I found myself setting the wrong setting when I first moved into my apartment. For some units, the temperature you set is the temperature you desire. For other units, it's the temperature you want the unit to turn the unit on at. Then you set another temperature at the temperature you want to stop at. On other units I have found that the heat setting is different than the cold setting. Other units have this combined together. The varied product really makes me think about how changing places is often difficult when you have to get re-aquainted with the unit again.
When I first began the course and opened the book, I immediately took a disliking to it as it was a book on technology that was written many years ago. This may seem like a bad habit to some people, but I like to stay up to date with technology and usually try not to look back and analyze older technology. But as I continued reading, I found more of a psychological view on the objects he was writing about that were issues that I could relate to. He also gave many examples of basic and simple objects that he knew would remain the same for years to come and that really helped establish a feeling of relation. He gave examples of light-switches, tools, and appliances and not examples of products I never heard of. I really liked the fact that he took the time to find discussions that everyone reading could relate to.
But if I had to find something I really liked the most, it would most definitely be the psychological sides to things. Chapter five when the author talked about dealing with human error was probably the most interesting chapter that I could relate to. I like understanding how people work and like having a process to things that are usually unstable or hard to understand. Usually when I notice people around me have issues with things, people, or subjects in general, I naturally always try to find out the deeper reason why they took a disliking to it. The author states that many items aren't designed well and says it's because people forget the key elements to balancing having a good design with good functionality. Most of the time one of those areas are sacrificed for another.
In my own life, I have often found myself making the same mistake when trying to operate a product. Some of the times I can never get a light switch correct when attempting to turn it on in the dark. The same process applies when I try to turn on my fan at night. Half of the time I pull the light cord instead of the fan. Examples like these are what the author mentions and I really do think it is a subject that could be further expanded upon.
In conclusion, I really liked the book. I was initially proven wrong when the book began a deeper and more thoughtful analysis over the things we do wrong and often overlook. These usually consists of small things that seem too insignificant to expand upon and attempt to fix. I think that the book is a good topic for this class and really helps people think about how their product will be seen and used by their end-user. Overlooking this area I think is a bad choice and is often the downfall of some really great ideas.
Chapter Analysis
Chapter 1 - The Start!
We were assigned to read the first chapter of The Design in Everyday Things. The book was written by Donald Norman and was a very interesting read for such an old book. The author began telling the story by giving plain examples that we see in our everyday world. The things listed were everyday encounters we see in our lives but never really think about.
The most dominant example he gave on how technology is worked by others is a simple door. A glass door had the person behind it confused as there were no instructions or visible way to actually open the door. The way we interact with objects and the ease of being able to use it are highly dependent on a few key concepts the author mentioned. The conceptual model is how we think something should work. A affordance on the other hand is the actual properties and features of the object. In the case of the glass door, visibility is a key concept in that it has to convey the correct message to the user. Other important terms were feedback and mappings as well as an image. Feedback was the message sent to the user after operating the object. Mappings were an actual map and link between two objects. And a system image was how the object is shown.
In all, the chapter was a really interesting read and was important in letting me know that there are in fact simple concepts to keep in mind in getting an easy interaction between technology and a user.
Chapter 2 - The Psychology of Actions
This chapter was titled by the author as The Psychology of Everyday Actions. He began by talking about a situation where he had helped someone else open a drawer when she couldn't open it herself. She than began to blame herself falsely for not being able to do it herself. Donald Norman, the author, then went on to state that most people blame themselves for not being able to figure out something that they perceived to be easy. He countered that argument by stating that sometimes the product itself is usually at fault for not being able to convey itself properly and instead confuses the user. He talked about how humans think a certain way and try to find reason for the inability to perform.
The author then began to talk about society and humans themselves to try and explain why people had blamed themselves for a products poor design. He then talked about in length about seven stages of action. Perceive, Interpretation, Purpose, Intent, Action. He talked about how that is how it is a typical order people follow when something is performed. Another term I thought useful since it was on a quiz in class was Gulf of Evaluation. It's the gap between two actions that a user expects when he learns more about the device.
I thought this chapter was interesting as people do in fact find fault in themselves for their inability to surpass flaws of something else. They attribute that to themselves instead. I think that products should be better designed to help people, but there is also a limit to how much effort should be put into that. If too much is put into simplicity, it often sacrifices creativity and complexity some users desire.
Chapter 3 - Knowledge in Head and World
In this chapter, the author talked about different forms of knowledge and the processes usually used to learn about them. The title Knowledge in the Head and in the World seemed like a fitting title for it. To learn how to use a product, a user usually goes through a process of learning before he can fully understand and comprehend it. The author went on to say that there are different levels of 'knowing' information. The first is just memorization. Short term memory that usually fades away and is sometimes hard to make sense of. The next level is mapping or making sense of information based off of previous relationships or correlations. The final step of understanding information it that itself. Understanding or 'learning' information is key in truly understanding something and having it readily accessible. This stage of often harder to get through but is more of a long term process than the rest.
He also talked about constraints that help a user understand or fill in gaps when needed. If something had a physical constraint like he stated in the book, for example a LEGO set. Some pieces won't fit on other pieces and makes it easier to build when it only fits on a certain set.
I thought this chapter was interesting but not as interesting as the previous chapter. It talked about learning, but I think the more important questions were the psychology ones behind the problems. Thinking about how to learn about learning I think is slightly counter productive. I think it's best to let the mind do what it does best and instead think deeper about the problems to fix and understand them.
Chapter 4 - Knowing What to Do
This chapter was titled Knowing What To Do. In this chapter, Norman talked more about the constraints he did in the previous chapter. He went on further to talk about different kinds of constraints, logical cultural and physical constraints. Physical was talked in my previous summary and involved something physical that our mind filled in to make sense of. Cultural constraints are a bit harder to understand but involved using cultural usuals or constraints to make sense of things. These things are learned and are a different form of constraint. The logical constraints he talked about was about using the previously learned experiences help make sense of what they were trying to do.
I liked this chapter because this was form of the learning experience he talked about in the previous chapter. It was a combination of that and actually went into a more in-depth look into understanding how people think.
Chapter 5 - To Err is Human
In this chapter, the author talked about error in more of a deeper way. This chapter seemed to ask the question why humans do what they do more than other chapters and I really took a liking to that. It was more of the psychological look that I like to view things in. I liked how the author suggested a few things in a way that designers should assume that users won't follow directions but instead do something wrong. Accounting for that would help with a few of his arguments.
I liked this chapter the most out of all the chapters and would indeed suggest the design recommendations he gave towards the end of the chapter. Assuming error is the most important concept I had gotten out of this chapter.
Chapter 6 - The Design Challenge
This chapter talked about more of the design process involved when creating a product and ways that can often be looked at in a deeper aspect to compensate for errors and better usability. The author had a lot of information that I found a bit hard to understand, but understood that he was trying to accomplish. I probably liked this chapter the least because I found myself re-reading parts just to understand it. The author seemed to jump around at times and concepts were a bit hard to follow at some points. It was an interesting chapter though as it seemed like he combined everything together into a process that can help with the design itself.
In the end, I jump back to my previous comments about the chapter being a bit harder to understand than the other chapters. A few of the examples I had a hard time relating to but I liked the design process he was getting towards at the end.
Chapter 7 - User Centered Drive
The thing that caught my attention most out of everything else it touched on all of the previous subjects he talked about as well as bringing in the design process to fix the issues at hand. He gave many examples of everyday things that I found myself relating to in order to understand the concepts. After coming form reading a chapter that was hard to understand, this chapter seemed more in focus and followed a path of explaining everything he had written about before (Users will almost always go through errors, designers problems, fixes, etc).
He talked about standardization which was on a quiz in class and explained that it helped overall problems. I agreed with this as Google and many other companies solve design problems with this very same standardization and process.
Items with a Good-Design
1.) The Galaxy S3 - Very Customizable
The Samsung Galaxy S3 pictured above I think is a very well designed phone. It has a lot of features a phone usually has and places the buttons in the right places that most other phones places theirs. Instead of putting the power, volume, and control buttons in other areas like a few other phones do, they follow what popular phones do and place them in separate and easy to access areas that users would know where to look. None of the buttons are close together that have totally different functions. The nicest thing I like about this design is that the software is open-source and highly customizable. Left handed users can set a specific setting to make it their own due to the accessabillity of the software and customizations. When you leave things open and include an API, it's easier to fix the things other people need.
2.) iPhone - Simple
Although I have an android and left the phone a while back, I applaud Apple for sticking with simplicity is usually best. Complicated things tend to well... complicate things and users often find themselves frustrated with the lack of ease with their devices. The iPhone is a concept that I believe really pushed the market further and convinced users to ditch their t9 phones and try a new technology. Even old users found themselves finding how to use an iPhone with ease. Although I don't like the lack of customization with the iPhone, a lot of users find the simplicity of this the biggest plus of all.
3.) Shoes - Simple and rarely difficult to use
Although there are some exceptions to shoes in general, shoes are usually the simplest of things to do. Learning to tie your shoe is probably the most complex a tennis shoe will give people. What I like about it best is that most people have become accustomed to not going through the process of doing and undoing your shoe. Most people wake up half awake, SLIP on their shoe, and go straight to where ever they need to go. It's simple, something most people don't think twice about, and is highly customizable. Nike for instance takes the cake in this aspect where it combines customization with ease of use.
4.) Musical Keyboard - Grouped and Ease to Use
I like the keyboard listed above the best because of it's design. It's made by M-Audio and is called an Axiom keyboard. I plugs into the computer and lets people control the music they make. In general, I think pianos are a really good way to learn how to play music. They have a note for the basic sounds and are not as difficult as guitars to use since each note is separate and you just press down to make a noise. Nothing complicated is required to learn a basic song. The hardest part would be to train your mind to play separately to play more difficult songs.
What I like about this design in particular though is that they group functions together. It has knobs, buttons, and even pads. It isn't jumbled all together and really helps people play perfect and not mis-hit notes while performing live. Because of all the options, it is highly customizable and usually never lets a user go desiring a feature that wasn't implemented.
5.) The Logitech Mouse - Fits to a User
The mouse is something I have found myself taking a strangely important liking to. It is often hard to find a mouse that fits my needs and I find myself returning mouses that make me uncomfortable. Because Logitech designs their mouses well, when one breaks and I have to use another cheap mouse, I find myself wishing my first one didn't break in the first place. They design their mouses to fit the user's hand instead of making a regular mouse round. They even place buttons in places the fingers would even rest and let the users decide what actions those buttons would perform. I find them highly customizable and comfortable to use, even hours on hours of usage. My hand never gets tired like it used to when computers had first come to the market.
Items with a Bad-Design
1.) Chopsticks - Can't easily pick up for most people
The above pictured chopsticks are an attempt a designer had in fixing what most people had issues with while eating. I'm still amazed how widely difficult it is for most people to try, while the other side of the earth uses with ease on a normal basis. Because a utensil is a utensil, documentation usually isn't provided. This is a perfect example in how users often get confused on the simplest issue. Most people fumble with their rice and can never get a good grasp when using chop sticks. With something as simple as eating, chopsticks make what should be viewed as a delight into something tiresome and difficult. Hard to use, Splinter-filled, and No documentation easily makes the chopsticks at my number one bad design object.
2.) The Door Lock - 50/50 Chance
The door lock is something I often found myself second guessing myself on. Most doors open by turning the lock towards the hinges, but other doors work by turning the lock towards the other way. When first entering a house or apartment, no one ever knows initially which way to unlock the door until they actually try it. Even while living at my place for many years, I have often found myself sometimes turning the key the wrong way to open the door, especially when other things are on my mind.
3.) Fan Switches - Also a 50/50 Chance
The fan is also another product that I believe can be better designed and standardized. Trying to figure out which chain is the light and which chain is the light is sometimes difficult, even after living years at a place that I have always lived at. Even the polarity switch on the motor is sometimes difficult to understand. Trying to figure out which direction the switch will make the fan turn is hard. You flip the switch, wait for the blades to slow down enough to actually see their direction, and realize you had it on the right setting in the first place. I find it funny how other people, especially at night, struggle with this as well.
4.) Water faucets - Sometimes Strange
The above water faucet is a faucet I have seen in person before. It starts at the Shut setting, but then has the next setting set at Scalding. I applaud the makers for actually letting the user know that it is a setting so hot you may burn yourself at, but I find it strange in general. In order to get a warm shower, you have to pass the super hot and potentially dangerous setting first (depending on the water heater), and then go to the setting you like. Having to risk burning yourself every time you shower may be something you want to re-think about.
5.) AC Thermostat - Varies depending on maker
The thermostat is something that I have found myself often wondering about. The unit at my house is very different than the unit at my apartment and I found myself setting the wrong setting when I first moved into my apartment. For some units, the temperature you set is the temperature you desire. For other units, it's the temperature you want the unit to turn the unit on at. Then you set another temperature at the temperature you want to stop at. On other units I have found that the heat setting is different than the cold setting. Other units have this combined together. The varied product really makes me think about how changing places is often difficult when you have to get re-aquainted with the unit again.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Book Reading #2: Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 2 - The Psychology of Actions
This chapter was titled by the author as The Psychology of Everyday Actions. He began by talking about a situation where he had helped someone else open a drawer when she couldn't open it herself. She than began to blame herself falsely for not being able to do it herself. Donald Norman, the author, then went on to state that most people blame themselves for not being able to figure out something that they perceived to be easy. He countered that argument by stating that sometimes the product itself is usually at fault for not being able to convey itself properly and instead confuses the user. He talked about how humans think a certain way and try to find reason for the inability to perform.
The author then began to talk about society and humans themselves to try and explain why people had blamed themselves for a products poor design. He then talked about in length about seven stages of action. Perceive, Interpretation, Purpose, Intent, Action. He talked about how that is how it is a typical order people follow when something is performed. Another term I thought useful since it was on a quiz in class was Gulf of Evaluation. It's the gap between two actions that a user expects when he learns more about the device.
I thought this chapter was interesting as people do in fact find fault in themselves for their inability to surpass flaws of something else. They attribute that to themselves instead. I think that products should be better designed to help people, but there is also a limit to how much effort should be put into that. If too much is put into simplicity, it often sacrifices creativity and complexity some users desire.
Chapter 3 - Knowledge in Head and World
In this chapter, the author talked about different forms of knowledge and the processes usually used to learn about them. The title Knowledge in the Head and in the World seemed like a fitting title for it. To learn how to use a product, a user usually goes through a process of learning before he can fully understand and comprehend it. The author went on to say that there are different levels of 'knowing' information. The first is just memorization. Short term memory that usually fades away and is sometimes hard to make sense of. The next level is mapping or making sense of information based off of previous relationships or correlations. The final step of understanding information it that itself. Understanding or 'learning' information is key in truly understanding something and having it readily accessible. This stage of often harder to get through but is more of a long term process than the rest.
He also talked about constraints that help a user understand or fill in gaps when needed. If something had a physical constraint like he stated in the book, for example a LEGO set. Some pieces won't fit on other pieces and makes it easier to build when it only fits on a certain set.
I thought this chapter was interesting but not as interesting as the previous chapter. It talked about learning, but I think the more important questions were the psychology ones behind the problems. Thinking about how to learn about learning I think is slightly counter productive. I think it's best to let the mind do what it does best and instead think deeper about the problems to fix and understand them.
Chapter 4 - Knowing What to Do
This chapter was titled Knowing What To Do. In this chapter, Norman talked more about the constraints he did in the previous chapter. He went on further to talk about different kinds of constraints, logical cultural and physical constraints. Physical was talked in my previous summary and involved something physical that our mind filled in to make sense of. Cultural constraints are a bit harder to understand but involved using cultural usuals or constraints to make sense of things. These things are learned and are a different form of constraint. The logical constraints he talked about was about using the previously learned experiences help make sense of what they were trying to do.
I liked this chapter because this was form of the learning experience he talked about in the previous chapter. It was a combination of that and actually went into a more in-depth look into understanding how people think.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Homework #3: Chinese Room
For this paper we were assigned to read, it asked a question that I believe won't be answered for a very long time. John Searle talked about a situation that involved a Chinese Room. This room was an experiment to help elaborate on the question on if AI can really understand translation if it were able to translate something as if a human would. If a computer could replicate everything a human could and produce the same or even better output, would it still be considered as being understood if it is just doing what it told? The computer in this case would just be translating symbols and matching questions with the appropriate response.
I think in this scenario, this is not understanding the material. I think it goes deeper than this simple experiment and understanding means being able to 'understand' or actually know what it means in depth. In a way, maybe a little emotionally involved in it.
I've heard a lot of other students in the debate in lecture today say that the question isn't important and that as long as it does what it's told, it doesn't matter. I in fact believe this to be false. I do believe that one day, computers will be able to replicate human thought process and possibly be able to take thought processes further than humans would. This is something that I believe won't happen for a very long time, but I believe it will eventually take place. If anything, the computers would design their own algorithm and 'learn' just as an infant would. In this case, there would be an issue of computer thinking being limited by their hardware, just as I believe humans are in a short way. I think it's an important concept to think about and will be very important in the future. Ideally, humans and machines would eventually become integrated in a way that the line is hard to see. Much like races started out as and how segregation is becoming a thing of the past.
In short, I liked the concept, but didn't like the article. I think he was too emotionally involved and not open to the bigger picture. There is no one answer to this question and I believe everyone's answer is their own correct answer. In the end though, I believe the machines will be the ones who have the final decision in this issue, not us.
I think in this scenario, this is not understanding the material. I think it goes deeper than this simple experiment and understanding means being able to 'understand' or actually know what it means in depth. In a way, maybe a little emotionally involved in it.
I've heard a lot of other students in the debate in lecture today say that the question isn't important and that as long as it does what it's told, it doesn't matter. I in fact believe this to be false. I do believe that one day, computers will be able to replicate human thought process and possibly be able to take thought processes further than humans would. This is something that I believe won't happen for a very long time, but I believe it will eventually take place. If anything, the computers would design their own algorithm and 'learn' just as an infant would. In this case, there would be an issue of computer thinking being limited by their hardware, just as I believe humans are in a short way. I think it's an important concept to think about and will be very important in the future. Ideally, humans and machines would eventually become integrated in a way that the line is hard to see. Much like races started out as and how segregation is becoming a thing of the past.
In short, I liked the concept, but didn't like the article. I think he was too emotionally involved and not open to the bigger picture. There is no one answer to this question and I believe everyone's answer is their own correct answer. In the end though, I believe the machines will be the ones who have the final decision in this issue, not us.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Book Reading 1: The Design in Everyday Things
We were assigned to read the first chapter of The Design in Everyday Things. The book was written by Donald Norman and was a very interesting read for such an old book. The author began telling the story by giving plain examples that we see in our everyday world. The things listed were everyday encounters we see in our lives but never really think about.
The most dominant example he gave on how technology is worked by others is a simple door. A glass door had the person behind it confused as there were no instructions or visible way to actually open the door. The way we interact with objects and the ease of being able to use it are highly dependent on a few key concepts the author mentioned. The conceptual model is how we think something should work. A affordance on the other hand is the actual properties and features of the object. In the case of the glass door, visibility is a key concept in that it has to convey the correct message to the user. Other important terms were feedback and mappings as well as an image. Feedback was the message sent to the user after operating the object. Mappings were an actual map and link between two objects. And a system image was how the object is shown.
In all, the chapter was a really interesting read and was important in letting me know that there are in fact simple concepts to keep in mind in getting an easy interaction between technology and a user.
The most dominant example he gave on how technology is worked by others is a simple door. A glass door had the person behind it confused as there were no instructions or visible way to actually open the door. The way we interact with objects and the ease of being able to use it are highly dependent on a few key concepts the author mentioned. The conceptual model is how we think something should work. A affordance on the other hand is the actual properties and features of the object. In the case of the glass door, visibility is a key concept in that it has to convey the correct message to the user. Other important terms were feedback and mappings as well as an image. Feedback was the message sent to the user after operating the object. Mappings were an actual map and link between two objects. And a system image was how the object is shown.
In all, the chapter was a really interesting read and was important in letting me know that there are in fact simple concepts to keep in mind in getting an easy interaction between technology and a user.
Paper Reading #6: Becoming-Sound: Affect and Assemblage in Improvisational Digital Music Making
Reference Information
Ben Swift. "Becoming Sound: Affect and Assemblage in Improvisational Digital Music Making." Australian National University, 05 May 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2012.
Authors
Ben Swift- Studies at the Australian National University in the Research School of Computer Science Department.
Article Summary
Photo Credit: Becoming Sound Article
In this article, the author talked about the importance of 'affect', the process which something affects one another, has on the assemblage of the people 'coming together' to create music. To demonstrate this, the user talked about an application developed for the iOS called the Discotheque musical collaboration device. The paper then talked about how it was important to both visualize the gestures made on the device as well as being able to collaborate successfully between each other. Although the author talked about the process the users used when 'jamming' with each other, he mainly focused on the elements that 'affected' each user.
In conclusion, the author found that it is important to understand the history of the devices that are used to innovate music collaboration as well as the importance of music itself. He talked about the ability music had to make the users themselves want to create the gestures needed to make music. He talked about music being a form of assemblage and the ability of that assemblage being able to create and become a part of another assemblage as well. All those parts worked together to form one single form.
Related Work
There were a few related pieces of work on this subject. They are listed below.
- Clay Spinuzzi. Describing Assemblages: Genre Sets, Systems, and Ecologies
- Jim Tuedio, The culture of Chaotic Synergy in Grateful Dead Improvisation and Music
- House of Blues Foundation, Creating an Assemblage
- Jeremy Wade Morris, Understanding the Digital Music Commodity
- Georgina Born, Distributed Creativity: What do we mean by it?
- William Murray Allison, The impact of improvisational musics on the creative processes
- Guderian Lois, Effects of Applied Music Composition and Improvisation Assignments
- Alvin Curran, Musicand Basics. What is improvisation? The Art of Becoming Sound
- Mercedes Pavlicevic, Improvisation in Music Therapy: Human Communication in Sound
- Andrew Stewart, Everybody to the power of one, for soprano T-stick
Most of the above papers talked about the ability assemblage has on the creation of music. It talks about being able to combine different things together (either humans or pieces of technology) to create one single body that can be used for creative entertainment. I enjoyed the topics related more than this piece of work. Assemblage is perceived to me as more important than the effects of affect.
Evaluation
The author in this article talked about the theory assemblage and affect had when creating digital work. The tests done and the data gathered were shown to us in a qualitative state as well as subjective and objective forms. Some areas of his study were fathered in a subjectively biased manner and the end result of the users creation was very objective. That data was qualitative as well. The data was gathered when asking the users to record their video and music and streaming it to the server.
Discussion
The subject talked about was a little difficult to understand, but I eventually understood the main idea in the end. I did not agree with his initial theory that designer's "capacity to build interactive systems continues to outpace our capacity to understand what we have built". I think he is misinterpreting the ability of the devices we create being able to be innovated for other purposes. I think he is taking a look into assemblage too deep and overlooks the aspect of creativity itself. The more time spent in analyzing the affect and assembly correlation, the less room there is for creativity. Creativity to me is the ability to express one self freely without the constraints this experiment put on the users.Thursday, September 6, 2012
Paper Reading #5: Intimacy in Long-Distance Relationships over Video Chat
Reference Information
Carman Neustaedter, Saul Greenberg. "Intimacy in Long-Distance Relationships over Video Chat." University of Calgary and Simon Fraser University, 05 May 2012. Web. 05 Sept. 2012.
Authors
Carman Neutaedter: Teaches at the School of Interactive Arts + Technology with a degree from Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC, Canada.
Saul Greenberg: In the department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary
Saul Greenberg: In the department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary
Article Summary
Photo Credit: Shutterstock - (http://shutterstock.com)
The authors of this paper talked about using technology to bridge the gap in a long distance relationship. Although it's been possible for years, the authors talked about the problem of a loss of intimacy when communicating through this way. Although widely done, especially among students, this form of communication slowly fades over time as the users become tired of it.
The studies talked about people who usually had video sessions, where users allocated one or two hours of their day of video chatting with their significant other. Depending on the type of communication needed, they found that users found it inconvenient to use video chats with uncomfortable conversations or quick messages. Users who routinely did it were often found to be less intimate with each other than users who used it for long periods of time or users who just used it as a one-time thing.
From users connecting at work to private conversations with a significant other, the authors found that it was best to have a constant connection with each other open over a long period of time. By convincing themselves and making it a routine part of their day, it would allow them to be more natural with each other. With this method, intimate gestures would be more comfortably done, and the message would be convened.
Related Work
This was a hard subject to find related work on, but I did find a few on the authors conclusion. A video window open up over a long period of time had different effects on users.
- Alexander, Ljung, Eric Wahlforss. Sensation: A Presence Enabler for Long-Distance Relationships using Skype and Visual Presence Representation
- Diana Mok, Barry Wellman. Does distance Still MAtter in the Age of the Internet?
- Scott Golder, Dennis Wilkinson. Rhythms of social interaction: messaging within a MMO Network
- Irina Shklovski, Robery Kraut. Keeping in Touch By Technology: Maintaining Frienships after a Residual Move
- Kately McKenna, Amie Green, Marci E. Gleason. Relationship Formation on the Internet: What's the Big Attraction?
- Shanyang Zhao. The Internet and the Transformation of the Reality of Everyday Life
- Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Patricia Greenfield. Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships
- Daria Kuss, Mark Griffiths. Online Social Networking and the Psychological Addicion
- David DeAndrea, Stephanie Tom Tong. Mediated Communication.
- Bonka Boneva, Robert Kraut. Using E-Mail for Personal Relationships
Evaluation
The authors of this study focused a little subjectively towards the issue as they tried to see what the best way possible was to keep the intimacy between two long distance couples. They measured using a quantitative approach in that they measured their data using the numbers and quantity of the people it concerned. The subject is not as novel as other ideas and the topic was unique in that it focused directly on the subject of intimacy instead of overall communication via an online service.
Discussion
The subject of a long-distance relationship has always been interesting to me. As technology grows and people have a ever growing desire to stay social through technical means, I think it will be more 'natural' to communicate with others regularly over some form of technology but to most people, this subject is a little weird. Why talk to each other online when they can do it through the phone or in person. I think that the idea of using what you're comfortable most and making the computer a second piece of themselves is key in getting people who use it more and keeping their connection alive between each other.Paper Reading #4: Can a Community of Players be a Community of Practice
Reference Information
Jodi Asbell-Clarke and Elisabeth Sylvan. "Martian Boneyards: Can a Community of Players be a Community of Practice." Educational Gaming Environments, 05 May 2012. Web. 05 Sept. 2012.
Authors
Jodi Asbell-Slarke: Works at Educational Gaming Environments in the EdGE division.
Elisabeth Sylvan: Works at Educational Gaming Environments in the EdGE division as well.
Elisabeth Sylvan: Works at Educational Gaming Environments in the EdGE division as well.
Article Summary
This article focused on the effects a virtual community had on the players it cased. The the two author's case study worked on a game called Martian Boneyards, an experimental MMO game, and took a deeper look into the community of players itself. The designers of the game were mixed among the players themselves and set up a reward system as well for collaborating among the members in the game.
The game was modeled to closely relate to real life scenarios and skill sets. There were scientists, hunters, students, and even a pool of random volunteers. In the game, academic and accomplishments in skills were rewarded by visual enhancements. New players were shown to be drawn to the players with the most visual prowess, hopeful in being able to solve their need of leveling up their own characters.
The authors found that many interesting questions were brought up by users and found that the questions were separated by the type of person they actually were in real life. They found that many of the scientific questions and theories were largely popular with the science community and had a direct correlation with even their avatar type.
Related Work
A few related pieces of work were found on the effects a virtual.community had on a user.
- Pat Gannon-Leary, Elsa Fontainha. Communities of Practice and Virtual Learning
- Karen Swan, Peter J. Shea. The Development of Virtual Learning Communities
- Amrit Tiwana, Ashley Bush. Peer to Peer Valuation as a Machanism for Active Learning
- Computing Research Association. Cyberinfrastructure for Education. Learning for the Future
- Karen Swan. Relationships Between Interactions and Learning In Online Environments
- Gerhard Fischer, Masonori Sugimoto. Supporting Self-Directed Learning and Learning Communities with Sociotechnical Environments
- Joseph Tront, Brandon Muramatsu. A Community to Develop Materials for an Engineering Learning Environment
- Ruth E Brown. The Process of Community Building In Distance Learning Classes
- Linnea Carlson-Sabelli, Lous Fogg. The effect of a Virtual Community on Work-Life, Recruitment, and Retension among Nursing Faculty.
- Bunchball. An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior
Most of the above papers talk about the effect a virtual environment has on a specific community of academics.
Evaluation
The authors used very qualitative descriptions to talk about the experiences the users had within the community. Many users were described subjectively in groups such as scientists and engineers. The scientists usually felt a specific way towards something while the other types of users felt an entirely different way. The interests they talked about the users having taking a liking to were usually discussed subjectively by the users themselves. The designers took a far-away approach and listened to everything the users had brought up when being talked to. They tried to stay as objective as possible.
Discussion
The authors didn't look at the effects the game's community could have in today's world, but instead looked at the potential the game could have on the future. In the future, it's expected that virtual avatars would be a thing of common practice. With the increase in technology and the increasing desire for social experience, mixing a rewarding virtual community with the future could produce promising results.I think in the future, virtual communities will be big practices and the largest communities will probably be the most popular. Taking advantage of that for the use of academics is a area I feel strongly about. I would be proud to be a part of developing that if I had to do that in the future.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Paper Reading #3: The Role of Challenge in the Gaming Experience
Reference Information
Anna Cox, Paul Cairns, Pari Shah, and Michael Carroll. "Not Doing But Thinking: The Role of Challenge in the Gaming Experience." University College London and University of York, 05 May 2012. Web. 03 Sept. 2012.
Authors
Anna L Cox - At University College London studying UCL Interaction Centre
Paul Cairns - Resides at Department of Computer Science at University of York
Pari Shah - Studies Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London
Michael Carroll - At the department of Computer Science at University of York
Paul Cairns - Resides at Department of Computer Science at University of York
Pari Shah - Studies Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London
Michael Carroll - At the department of Computer Science at University of York
Article Summary
Photo Credit: StockPhoto - (http://www.istockphoto.com/)
This article looked into an important aspect of gaming, increasing the overall experience. It has previously been thought that the more challenging a game is, the more immersed and fun the game appears to a user. The authors instead looked at defining exactly which challenges are the most important and which gaming aspects are the most effected.
The authors created separate control groups with each it's respective study aspect. The first group they studied showed that increased actual involvement with the game did not result in a direct manner with an increased immersion. The gamer sometimes enjoyed the game while other gamers with the same interest did not enjoy playing it.
In other studies, they measured how pressure affects the users who play the games. The users who were playing campaign and experienced an increase in pressure while playing were shown to enjoy the game more and the rewards that followed. Sometimes they rewarded gamers for completing special tasks and other instances they set gamers against each other increase the pressure of playing.
The conclusion of their study, they found that the level of challenge in a game and the effect of immersion it had on the gamers was directly linked to the level of expertise of the players. It was important to note that the players had to also see a possibility of accomplishment with the game as well. Playing a game they know to be impossible decreased the amount of immersion the player had, no matter what pressure and challenges the game had programmed to have.
Related Work
Finding out what aspects of games interest gamers the most was a important widely talked about subject. I found a few papers that were related the same line of study.
- Jose Zagal. Novices, Gamers, and Scholars: Exploring Challenges of Teaching Games.
- Wolfgang Kramer. What Makes a Game Good?
- John Hallam and Georgios Yannakakis. Capturing Player Enjoyment in Games
- Kyoung Jin Shim. Player Performance, Motivation, and Enjoyment in MMO Games.
- Jiming Wu. The effects of Trust and Enjoyment on intention to play online games.
- Nicole Lazzaro. Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story.
- Niklas Ravaja, The Psychophysiology of Gaming: Phasic Emotional Responses to Events
- Barbaros Bostan. Game Challenges and Difficulty Levels: Lessons Learned from RPGs
- Zhi-Hong Chen, Influence of Game Quests on Pupils Enjoyments and Goal-pursuing in Math
- Brendan Sinclair. Teens interest in gaming on the decline, habits and forms.
Most the the papers above studied the effect that certain gaming events or triggers had on gamer's emotional response, which is also like immersion within the game itself.
Evaluation
The authors of this study tried to study their subjects and control groups without a bias. They were merely looking to see if there was a direct link between certain gaming events and the responses the gamers had within the game. Quantitative descriptions such as the time in seconds the players showed signs of pressure and stress and also the amount of subjects immersion within the games as well. The idea of this subject is not novel and is a common topic of marketing employees for game companies.
Discussion
The subject is important and I feel most game developers often overlook this aspect when developing a game. They become immersed themselves with the art of the game and sometimes lose focus of what the gamers actually want in their game. I think having some sort of compensation increases the pressure while playing a game. This actually helps the gamer perform better and in the end (if he's successful), gets to reap the benefits of the rewards of win.The authors were very quantitative in their study and it was interesting to see how not benefits, but pressure actually affected the gamer instead.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Paper Reading #2: Protecting Artificial Team-Mates: More Seems Like Less
Reference Information
Tim Merritt, and Kevin McGee. "Protecting Artificial Team-mates: More Seems like Less." Protecting Artificial Team-mates. National University of Singapore, 05 May 2012. Web. 03 Sept. 2012.
Authors
Tim Merritt - Pursuing his PhD at the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering.
Kevin McGee - Researching the development of partner technologies that increase human participation in life's interesting and important challenges.
Kevin McGee - Researching the development of partner technologies that increase human participation in life's interesting and important challenges.
Article Summary
Photo Credit: StockPhotos - (http://www.ehow.com/article-new/getty/xc/86531465.jpg)
This article looked into the relationship between people's behavior toward human and AI in cooperative gaming. Both human and AI team-mates' beliefs about their behavior differed depending on who they thought they were playing with. In the past, it has been suggested that humans and AI agents in games both had different impacts on humans when being played cooperatively with.
After beginning with this initial idea, they recruited 32 participants and examined logged data of game performance when playing with an AI subject along with a human. Additionally, the emotions and playing style differed depending on who they were playing with as well. Taking all this into consideration, the team of two were trying to see if the participants could be tricked into thinking they were playing with an artificial teammate.
In the end, it was interesting to see that even when playing with an artificial teammate, as long as they think they were playing with a real human, the results would mimic that of a real player.
Related Work
When looking at work related to this specific idea, there were a few other pieces of work that were similar in nature. They focused on behavior and the human response in a cooperative interaction. Most of these studies also tried to deceive humans a bit to get the data they needed. Here are a few of the related work I found:
- Blascovich, J. A theoretical model of social influence for increasing the utility of collaborative virtual environments.
- Nass, C., Fogg, B.J. Can computers be teammates?
- Oviatt, S. Designing and evaluating conversational interfaces with animated characters.
- Abraham, A.T. AI for dynamic team-mate adaptation in games.
- Kiesler, S. A prisoner's dilemma experiment on cooperation with people and computers
- Merritt, T. Did you notice? Artificial team-mates take risks for players intelligent v. agents
- Merritt, T. Choosing human team-mates: higher enjoyment and preference for humans
- Miwa, K. Analysis of human-human and human-computer agent interactions...
- Weibel, D. Playing online games against computers vs humans. Effects on presence...
- Williams, T. Agression, competition and computer games: computer & human opponents.
Most of the above work didn't expressively look into whether humans preferred AI or human teammates, but instead focused on thee effect it had on their playing styles.
Evaluation
The two authors evaluated the work with a slight bias. They had to deceive the participants a bit to make the players they were instead playing with someone of a different nature than themselves. They used quantitative words that played with emotions and described how the participants felt and behaved instead of numbers. They looked at the study group as a whole and went further in depth depending on the type of opponent they thought they were playing with. Both ways were combined and appropriately measured.
Discussion
This paper is important because it shows that perception has a lot to do with how people think they act. When being deceived, some users had the same reactions as they had when they thought they were playing with a real player. I think the analysis done on this subject is interesting and their evaluation was appropriate for this nature of work.If human AI can eventually be at the level humans are at, then I believe that perception will play an important part in how humans respond to the game. I learned from this that although humans played better with AI, they had more fun with humans because of the peer aspect towards cooperation.
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