1,721,072 research outputs found
The impact of informal social networks and irrationality on small groups’ task performances: an experimental study
Get PDFSocial network empirical studies, focused on small groups, usually aim to identify structural properties that allow greater performances in relation to specific tasks. In recent decades, behavioral economics has shown that individuals may be, in a specific sense, irrational and there are certain circumstances in which they perform irrationally in a predictable way; these circumstances constitute what I call “irrationality inducements”. This phenomenon, in different social structured groups, is still largely unexplored; therefore, I aim to answer the following research question:
Which is the impact of informal social networks and irrationality on
small groups’ task performances?
In order to answer this question, I chose to run several laboratory experiments on 4-person small groups. They were constructed by the researcher on the basis of existing trust relations among 300 individuals who have known each other
for some time. One type of group defined by the researcher was centralized (a sociometric star): all trust relations involved a single central person. A second type of group was a sociometric clique: everyone trusted every one. A third type of group was an empty graph: no trust ties within the group at all. The laboratory experiments allowed us to input irrationality inducements such as “anchor effect”, “asymmetric dominance effect” and “different level of incentives” on these differently structured groups. In each experiment I have been able to measure readily performances at the group level.
Like the Bavelas-Leavitt experiments of the 1950s, I was able to measure several aspects of each group’s performance. A number of interesting results emerged from this study, including the marked tendency for stars to be more suscettible
to anchoring bias in estimation tasks and cliques to be more suscettible to the irrational detrimetral effect of incentives in decision making tasks. We can say that irrationality has significant impact on group performance as predicted by behavioral economics. However, this result seems to be driven interestingly by the informal structure and the assigned task.
Are all groups less irrational than individuals? The impact of cognitive trust structure on small groups’ anchoring bias
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The mutual effects of irrationality and informal social networks on small group performance in decisional tasks
No full textFew processes are important for an organization than the decisional ones. Increasing attention is received by problem-solving (an analytical process in which it must be found a way to reach a goal) and decision-making (a selection process where one of the possible solutions is chosen to reach a desired goal). As demonstrated by behavioral economics, decisions can be irrational, and, under specific inputs, this irrationality is predictable. An example of predictability of irrationality in decision making processes is explained by the theory of the Asymmetrical Dominance Effect (ADE) that occurs when a predefined choice set, composed of a target alternative and an alternative competitor (equally best choices), is augmented by a decoy option dominated by the target alternative; the preference would, in most of the cases, be the target alternative despite his “rational” equality with the competitor one (Huber et al., 1982). Another relevant example is the use of high incentives which yield the weakest individual performance in cognitive tasks when compared with the low and middle valued incentives (Arieli et al., 2009) despite the logic according to which people having the possibility of receiving them should be more motivated and work harder (Lazaer, 2000). The experiment is the elective methodology to test behavior (and his susceptibility to irrationality) during cognitive tasks. Laboratory experiments testing cognitive task-performance have been run since 1950 by scientist interested in testing the relationship between social network structure of small groups and performances (Bavelas, 1950, Levitt; 1951). Although the consequences of ADE and the use of high incentives, as well as the consequences of specific network structures on cognitive task-performance have been largely explored, the mutual effects of these factors have not been tested yet. The innovative aim of the present research is:
to study the mutual effects of irrationality and informal social networks on small group performance in decisional tasks
In order to accomplish our aim, we conducted two laboratory experiments on small groups having three different informal social network structures and we asked them to complete two tasks organized similarly to cards' game simulating a problem-solving job and a decision making one. Some groups were treated by irrationality-inducing elements such as the decoy alternative and high incentives. To assemble the groups, we mapped two real networks based on cognitive trust (since the tasks were cognitive) using students taking business classes at a major European university. Individuals were assigned to various kinds of 4-person groups. One type of group was a sociometric star: the central person had the maximum in-degree centrality and the group the maximum centralization value. A second type of group was a sociometric clique: in this group each participant was equal in terms of centrality and the group had the maximum density. A third type of group was an empty one: there were no ties within the group at all. We obtained 71 groups: 16 stars, 15 cliques and 40 empties. Interesting mutual effects of irrationality and informal social network on small groups’ performances in decision tasks were found
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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