Matching Items (8)
Filtering by
- Genre: Masters Thesis
Description
Believe It! is an animated interactive computer program that delivers cognitive restructuring to adolescent females' irrational career beliefs. It challenges the irrational belief and offers more reasonable alternatives. The current study investigated the potentially differential effects of Asian versus Caucasian animated agents in delivering the treatment to young Chinese American women. The results suggested that the Asian animated agent was not significantly superior to the Caucasian animated agent. Nor was there a significant interaction between level of acculturation and the effects of the animated agents. Ways to modify the Believe It! program for Chinese American users were recommended.
ContributorsZhang, Xue (Author) / Horan, John J (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The Believe It! program developed and evaluated by Kovalski & Horan (1999) was the first interactive, multimedia, psychological-education intervention deployed on the Internet. In a controlled study, the authors reported that the ethnically diverse cartoon models were partially successful in using cognitive restructuring to promote more reasonable career beliefs among Caucasian middle-school young women. It was not clear if the program's lack of efficacy among minority young women was due to computer literacy factors affected by SES. Subsequently, three studies explored the role of matching or mismatching the ethnicity of animated agents in a graphically enhanced program with that of the young women receiving the cognitive restructuring treatment. Each of the studies used the same four outcome measures (Occupational Sex-Role Questionnaire, Believe It Measure, Career Beliefs Inventory, and the Career Myths Scale) before and after matched and mismatched participants received the Believe It! intervention. Webster (2010) analyzed data from African-American participants, Hardy (2011) Latinas, and Zhang (2013) Asian-Americans. The current study examined the matching hypothesis on a sample of ethnically isolated Caucasian young women in a rural setting. The results obtained in the three previous studies are consistent with similar research involving client and counselor dyads (e.g., Cabral & Smith, 2011). The Believe It! program had a clear impact on ethnically matched African-American young women, whereas pairings on ethnicity did not improve outcomes for either Latinas or Asian-Americans. A solitary effect on the Occupation Sex-Role Questionnaire in the current study suggests the hypothesis is worthy of further study.
ContributorsHacker, Robyn (Author) / Horan, John J (Thesis advisor) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The relationship between parent and child acculturation gaps and the child's well-being for Asian American families, with the child's perceived family conflict as a potential mediating variable were examined in this study. In addition to linear relationships of acculturation gaps, curvilinear relationships were also examined. The sample consisted of 165 first or second generation Asian Americans, aged between 18 to 22. Results indicated that native culture gap is predictive of participants' self-report of depression, and family conflict did function as a mediator to the relationship between native culture gap and depression. The curvilinear relationship between acculturation gaps and well-being was not supported by the results of the study. Further implications and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsShi, Yue (Author) / Tracey, Terence (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Computational thinking, the creative thought process behind algorithmic design and programming, is a crucial introductory skill for both computer scientists and the population in general. In this thesis I perform an investigation into introductory computer science education in the United States and find that computational thinking is not effectively taught at either the high school or the college level. To remedy this, I present a new educational system intended to teach computational thinking called Genost. Genost consists of a software tool and a curriculum based on teaching computational thinking through fundamental programming structures and algorithm design. Genost's software design is informed by a review of eight major computer science educational software systems. Genost's curriculum is informed by a review of major literature on computational thinking. In two educational tests of Genost utilizing both college and high school students, Genost was shown to significantly increase computational thinking ability with a large effect size.
ContributorsWalliman, Garret (Author) / Atkinson, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Yinong (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Yann-Hang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Lots of previous studies have analyzed human tutoring at great depths and have shown expert human tutors to produce effect sizes, which is twice of that produced by an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). However, there has been no consensus on which factor makes them so effective. It is important to know this, so that same phenomena can be replicated in an ITS in order to achieve the same level of proficiency as expert human tutors. Also, to the best of my knowledge no one has looked at student reactions when they are working with a computer based tutor. The answers to both these questions are needed in order to build a highly effective computer-based tutor. My research focuses on the second question. In the first phase of my thesis, I analyzed the behavior of students when they were working with a step-based tutor Andes, using verbal-protocol analysis. The accomplishment of doing this was that I got to know of some ways in which students use a step-based tutor which can pave way for the creation of more effective computer-based tutors. I found from the first phase of the research that students often keep trying to fix errors by guessing repeatedly instead of asking for help by clicking the hint button. This phenomenon is known as hint refusal. Surprisingly, a large portion of the student's foundering was due to hint refusal. The hypothesis tested in the second phase of the research is that hint refusal can be significantly reduced and learning can be significantly increased if Andes uses more unsolicited hints and meta hints. An unsolicited hint is a hint that is given without the student asking for one. A meta-hint is like an unsolicited hint in that it is given without the student asking for it, but it just prompts the student to click on the hint button. Two versions of Andes were compared: the original version and a new version that gave more unsolicited and meta-hints. During a two-hour experiment, there were large, statistically reliable differences in several performance measures suggesting that the new policy was more effective.
ContributorsRanganathan, Rajagopalan (Author) / VanLehn, Kurt (Thesis advisor) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Burleson, Winslow (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Virtual Reality (hereafter VR) and Mixed Reality (hereafter MR) have opened a new line of applications and possibilities. Amidst a vast network of potential applications, little research has been done to provide real time collaboration capability between users of VR and MR. The idea of this thesis study is to develop and test a real time collaboration system between VR and MR. The system works similar to a Google document where two or more users can see what others are doing i.e. writing, modifying, viewing, etc. Similarly, the system developed during this study will enable users in VR and MR to collaborate in real time.
The study of developing a real-time cross-platform collaboration system between VR and MR takes into consideration a scenario in which multiple device users are connected to a multiplayer network where they are guided to perform various tasks concurrently.
Usability testing was conducted to evaluate participant perceptions of the system. Users were required to assemble a chair in alternating turns; thereafter users were required to fill a survey and give an audio interview. Results collected from the participants showed positive feedback towards using VR and MR for collaboration. However, there are several limitations with the current generation of devices that hinder mass adoption. Devices with better performance factors will lead to wider adoption.
The study of developing a real-time cross-platform collaboration system between VR and MR takes into consideration a scenario in which multiple device users are connected to a multiplayer network where they are guided to perform various tasks concurrently.
Usability testing was conducted to evaluate participant perceptions of the system. Users were required to assemble a chair in alternating turns; thereafter users were required to fill a survey and give an audio interview. Results collected from the participants showed positive feedback towards using VR and MR for collaboration. However, there are several limitations with the current generation of devices that hinder mass adoption. Devices with better performance factors will lead to wider adoption.
ContributorsSeth, Nayan Sateesh (Author) / Nelson, Brian (Thesis advisor) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Human-Robot collaboration can be a challenging exercise especially when both the human and the robot want to work simultaneously on a given task. It becomes difficult for the human to understand the intentions of the robot and vice-versa. To overcome this problem, a novel approach using the concept of Mixed-Reality has been proposed, which uses the surrounding space as the canvas to augment projected information on and around 3D objects. A vision based tracking algorithm precisely detects the pose and state of the 3D objects, and human-skeleton tracking is performed to create a system that is both human-aware as well as context-aware. Additionally, the system can warn humans about the intentions of the robot, thereby creating a safer environment to work in. An easy-to-use and universal visual language has been created which could form the basis for interaction in various human-robot collaborations in manufacturing industries.
An objective and subjective user study was conducted to test the hypothesis, that using this system to execute a human-robot collaborative task would result in higher performance as compared to using other traditional methods like printed instructions and through mobile devices. Multiple measuring tools were devised to analyze the data which finally led to the conclusion that the proposed mixed-reality projection system does improve the human-robot team's efficiency and effectiveness and hence, will be a better alternative in the future.
An objective and subjective user study was conducted to test the hypothesis, that using this system to execute a human-robot collaborative task would result in higher performance as compared to using other traditional methods like printed instructions and through mobile devices. Multiple measuring tools were devised to analyze the data which finally led to the conclusion that the proposed mixed-reality projection system does improve the human-robot team's efficiency and effectiveness and hence, will be a better alternative in the future.
ContributorsRathore, Yash K (Author) / Amor, Hani Ben (Thesis advisor) / Nelson, Brian (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Although women of color have increased their presence in the workplace, many obstacles restricting career opportunities still exist. It is important that mental health professionals contribute in providing interventions to increase career opportunities for women of color. The purpose of this research is to add to the repertoire of interventions by studying the irrational career beliefs of Black women. This research utilizes the Believe It! program, an online career development program that focuses on altering irrational/maladaptive career beliefs that can prevent young females from pursuing career opportunities. An early study of Believe It! found it to be effective for Caucasian females, however the effects for minority females were less clear. The current study re-examined the effectiveness of Believe It! for minorities by altering the appearance of the animated character within the program. It was hypothesized that young African American women interacting with African American animated agents would display greater rationality in terms of career beliefs compared to young African American women interacting with Caucasian animated agents. Forty-four African American girls between the ages of eleven to fifteen were pre-tested with a battery of assessment devices addressing the irrationality of the girls' career beliefs. The measures included the Career Myths Scale, the Career Beliefs Inventory, the Occupational Sex-role Questionnaire, and the Believe It! measure. Four to eight days later, participants engaged in the online Believe It! Program; they were randomly assigned to either a matched condition (viewing the program with an African American animated agent) or a mismatched condition (viewing the program with a Caucasian animated agent). After completion of the intervention, participants were post-tested with the same assessment battery. MANCOVA and ANCOVA analyses showed that participants in the matched condition consistently benefitted from the matched intervention. Implications for this research are discussed.
ContributorsWebster, Jacqueline (Author) / Horan, John J (Thesis advisor) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010