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Participant Motivation (participant + motivation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

Experimental Evidence of the Knowledge Gap: Message Arousal, Motivation, and Time Delay

HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008
Maria Elizabeth Grabe
This study experimentally tested the knowledge gap from an information processing perspective. Specifically, knowledge acquisition was investigated under conditions of medium and low news message arousal, with time delay. Results show the persistence of a knowledge gap, particularly for low arousing messages. In fact, at low levels of message arousal, the gap is larger than at medium levels of arousal. Some existing research suggests that message salience explains the knowledge gap. Findings from this study show that information processing aptitude may also be a significant factor. Measures of several dimensions of participant motivation to cognitively engage with news messages were added as covariates to statistical analyses. These were found not to affect the knowledge gap outcomes in this data set. Résumé Des preuves expérimentales de l,écart des savoirs : intérêt des messages, motivation et décalage de temps Cette étude a testé expérimentalement l'écart des savoirs à partir d,une perspective du traitement de l'information. En particulier, l,acquisition des connaissances fut étudiée dans des conditions d'intérêt moyen et faible des messages d,information, avec un décalage de temps. Les résultats démontrent la persistance d'un écart des savoirs, particulièrement pour les messages à faible intérêt. En fait, l,écart est plus large à de faibles niveaux d'intérêt qu,à des niveaux moyens. Des recherches préalables suggèrent que la prépondérance des messages explique l'écart des savoirs. Les résultats de cette étude démontrent que les aptitudes de traitement de l,information peuvent aussi être un facteur important. Les mesures de plusieurs dimensions de la motivation des participants à s'impliquer cognitivement avec les messages informatifs furent ajoutées comme covariables aux analyses statistiques. Elles n,ont pas paru avoir d'effets sur les résultats de l,écart des savoirs dans cet ensemble de données. Mots clés : écart des savoirs, modèle de capacité limitée du traitement motivé des messages médiatiques (limited capacity model of mediated motivated message processing), cognition, statut socioéconomique, éducation, intérêt des messages, mémoire, décalage de temps, motivation, prépondérange des messages, informations Abstract Ein experimenteller Nachweis der Wissenskluft: Botschaftserregung, Motivation und Zeitverzögerung Diese Studie testete die Wissensklufthypothese experimentell aus einer Informationsverarbeitungsperspektive. Insbesondere wurde die Wissensaneignung bei Nachrichten unter Bedingungen eines mittleren und niedrigen Botschaftserregungsniveaus mit Zeitverzögerung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen das Fortdauern einer Wissenskluft insbesondere bei wenig erregenden Botschaften. Tatsächlich ist die Kluft bei einem geringen Niveau der Botschaftserregung größer als bei mittleren Erregungsniveaus. Bestehende Forschung legt nahe, dass die Wissenskluft durch die Botschaftssalienz erklärt werden kann. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie zeigen, dass die Informationsverarbeitungsfähigkeit ebenfalls ein signifikanter Faktor sein könnte. Messungen verschiedenen Dimensionen der Motivation der Teilnehmer, sich kognitiv mit den Nachrichtenbotschaften zu beschäftigen, wurden als Kovariate in die statistische Analyse einbezogen. Diese zeigten keine Auswirkungen auf die Wissenskluft in dieser Stichprobe. Resumen La Evidencia Experimental de la Brecha de Conocimiento: La Excitación del Mensaje, la Motivación, y la Demora de Tiempo Este estudio puso a prueba experimental la brecha de conocimiento desde la perspectiva del procesamiento de la información. Específicamente, la adquisición de conocimiento fue investigada bajo condiciones de excitación mediana y baja a los mensajes de noticias, con una demora de tiempo. Los resultados muestran la persistencia de la brecha de conocimiento, particularmente en los mensajes de excitación baja. De hecho, en los niveles de excitación de mensaje bajos la brecha fue mayor que en los niveles de excitación medianos. Algunas investigaciones existentes sugieren que la notabilidad del mensaje explica la brecha de conocimiento. Los hallazgos de este estudio muestran que la aptitud de procesamiento de información puede ser un factor significante también. Las medidas de varias dimensiones de la motivación del participante para involucrarse cognitivamente con los mensajes de noticias fueron agregadas como covarianzas a los análisis estadísticos. Se encontró que éstos no afectaron los resultados de la brecha de conocimiento en este grupo de datos. Palabras claves: brecha de conocimiento, modelo de capacidad limitada de procesamiento de mensajes motivadores mediatizados, cognición, estatus socioeconómico, educación, excitación del mensaje, memoria, demora de tiempo, motivación, notabilidad del mensaje, noticias. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source]

Comparative Response to a Survey Executed by Post, E-mail, & Web Form

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 1 2000
Gi Woong Yun
Recent developments in communication technologies have created alternative survey methods through e-mail and Web sites. Both methods use electronic text communication, require fewer resources, and provide faster responses than traditional paper and pencil methods. However, new survey methodologies also generate problems involving sampling, response consistency and participant motivation. Empirical studies need to be done to address these issues as researchers implement electronic survey methods. In this study we conduct an analysis of the characteristics of three survey response modes: post, e-mail, and Web site. Data are from a survey of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), in which science writers' professional use of e-mail and the Web is evaluated. Our analysis offers two lessons. First, a caution. We detect a number of potentially important differences in the response characteristics of these three groups. Researchers using multi-mode survey techniques should keep in mind that subtle effects might be at play in their analyses. Second, an encouragement. We do not observe significant influences of survey mode in our substantive analyses. We feel, at least in this case, that the differences detected in the response groups indicate that using multi-mode survey techniques improved the representativeness of the sample without biasing other results. [source]

Motivational sources of confirmation bias in criminal investigations: the need for cognitive closure

JOURNAL OF INVESTIGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND OFFENDER PROFILING, Issue 1 2005
Karl Ask
Abstract In two experiments, criminal investigators (N = 50) and undergraduate students (N = 68) read a set of facts from the preliminary investigation of a homicide case. Participants' initial hypothesis regarding the crime was manipulated by providing background information implying that the prime suspect had a jealousy motive or that there might be an alternative perpetrator. Students displayed a framing effect, such that guilt was ascribed to the prime suspect only when a potential motive was presented, whereas investigators did so regardless of hypothesis, thus being less sensitive to alternative interpretations. Investigators' need for cognitive closure (NFC) moderated the effect of the hypothesis on perceptions of the strength of the evidence against the prime suspect; high (v low) NFC investigators were less likely to acknowledge inconsistencies in the material when presented with a potential motive, but were more likely to do so when made aware of the possibility of an alternative perpetrator. Interpretations are somewhat clouded by the fact that dispositional NFC did not seem to affect in a consistent manner participants' motivation toward the experimental task. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

BENEFITS TO RESEARCH SUBJECTS IN INTERNATIONAL TRIALS: DO THEY REDUCE EXPLOITATION OR INCREASE UNDUE INDUCEMENT?

DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS, Issue 3 2008
ANGELA BALLANTYNE
ABSTRACT There is an alleged tension between undue inducement and exploitation in research trials. This paper considers claims that increasing the benefits to research subjects enrolled in international, externally-sponsored clinical trials should be avoided on the grounds that it may result in the undue inducement of research subjects. It proceeds from the premise that there are good grounds for thinking that, at least some, international research sponsors exploit trial participants because they do not provide the research population with a fair share of the benefits of research. This provides a prima facie argument for increasing the benefits for research participants. Concern over undue inducement is a legitimate moral concern; however, if this concern is to prevent research populations from receiving their fair share of benefits from research there must be sufficient evidence that these benefits will unduly influence patients' decision-making regarding trial participation. This article contributes to the debate about exploitation versus undue inducement by introducing an analysis of the available empirical research into research participants' motivations and the influence of payments on research subjects' behaviour and risk assessment. Admittedly, the available research in this field is limited, but the research that has been conducted suggests that financial rewards do not distort research subjects' behaviour or blind them to the risks involved with research. Therefore, I conclude that research sponsors should prioritise the prevention of exploitation in international research by providing greater benefits to research participants. [source]

"Between Mamas": The Anthropology of a Dispute, or,The Perils of Having Sons in the Field

ANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 1 2002
Bilinda StraightArticle first published online: 28 JUN 200
This article both narrates and analyzes a conflict that my son and I were the center of in 1994 while I was conducting fieldwork with Samburu pastoralists in Northern Kenya. I draw upon a classic anthropological literature on conflict, most notably Gulliver's notion of "prehistory" to enframe a discussion of the participants' motivations, including my own. In discussing the moot held to settle the conflict and its dramatic consequences, I address the issues of inside/outside status and the role of our interlocutors in constructing our ethnographic personae in a mutually transforming process. [source]