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- Title
- THE IMPACT OF MENTAL TRANSFORMATION TRAINING ACROSS LEVELS OF AUTOMATION ON SPATIAL AWARENESS IN HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION.
- Creator
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Rehfeld, Sherri, Jentsch, Florian, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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One of the problems affecting robot operators' spatial awareness involves their ability to infer a robot's location based on the views from on-board cameras and other electro-optic systems. To understand the vehicle's location, operators typically need to translate images from a vehicle's camera into some other coordinates, such as a location on a map. This translation requires operators to relate the view by mentally rotating it along a number of axes, a task that is both...
Show moreOne of the problems affecting robot operators' spatial awareness involves their ability to infer a robot's location based on the views from on-board cameras and other electro-optic systems. To understand the vehicle's location, operators typically need to translate images from a vehicle's camera into some other coordinates, such as a location on a map. This translation requires operators to relate the view by mentally rotating it along a number of axes, a task that is both attention-demanding and workload-intensive, and one that is likely affected by individual differences in operator spatial abilities. Because building and maintaining spatial awareness is attention-demanding and workload-intensive, any variable that changes operator workload and attention should be investigated for its effects on operator spatial awareness. One of these variables is the use of automation (i.e., assigning functions to the robot). According to Malleable Attentional Resource Theory (MART), variation in workload across levels of automation affects an operator's attentional capacity to process critical cues like those that enable an operator to understand the robot's past, current, and future location. The study reported here focused on performance aspects of human-robot interaction involving ground robots (i.e., unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs) during reconnaissance tasks. In particular, this study examined how differences in operator spatial ability and in operator workload and attention interacted to affect spatial awareness during human-robot interaction (HRI). Operator spatial abilities were systematically manipulated through the use of mental transformation training. Additionally, operator workload and attention were manipulated via the use of three different levels of automation (i.e., manual control, decision support, and full automation). Operator spatial awareness was measured by the size of errors made by the operators, when they were tasked to infer the robot's location from on-board camera views at three different points in a sequence of robot movements through a simulated military operation in urban terrain (MOUT) environment. The results showed that mental transformation training increased two areas of spatial ability, namely mental rotation and spatial visualization. Further, spatial ability in these two areas predicted performance in vehicle localization during the reconnaissance task. Finally, assistive automation showed a benefit with respect to operator workload, situation awareness, and subsequently performance. Together, the results of the study have implications with respect to the design of robots, function allocation between robots and operators, and training for spatial ability. Future research should investigate the interactive effects on operator spatial awareness of spatial ability, spatial ability training, and other variables affecting operator workload and attention.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001468, ucf:47102
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001468
- Title
- DIALECTICAL TENSIONS BETWEEN GLOCALIZATION AND GROBALIZATION FOR WAL-MART IN THE UNITED STATES.
- Creator
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Lord, Laura, Matusitz, Jonathan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This qualitative analysis examines Wal-Mart managers perspectives of the strategies that the U.S. corporation has implemented in order to increase its sales and profits at more than 4,000 stores in local U.S. communities. Two theoretical paradigms are specifically used: glocalization and grobalization. The former refers to cultural adaptation; the latter means standardization. The ultimate goal of the researcher is to identify the dialectical tensions between those two current forms of...
Show moreThis qualitative analysis examines Wal-Mart managers perspectives of the strategies that the U.S. corporation has implemented in order to increase its sales and profits at more than 4,000 stores in local U.S. communities. Two theoretical paradigms are specifically used: glocalization and grobalization. The former refers to cultural adaptation; the latter means standardization. The ultimate goal of the researcher is to identify the dialectical tensions between those two current forms of globalization. In-depth, face-to-face, qualitative interviewing of ten Wal-Mart managers in Central Florida allowed the researcher to actually comprehend managers perspectives, gather fresh data, and construct a final product to enlighten readers on the current Wal-Martization of the United States. Throughout the data reduction process, four key themes surfaced as the most relevant to the initial research questions: (1) Awareness of Glocalization as Key to Success, (2) Grobalization Strategies Implemented, (3) Centralization as a Pattern of Grobalization, and (4) Organizational Socialization. Overall, it was found that Wal-Martization is a process that requires complex strategies and efforts to match the contemporary conditions of globalization. Meeting the needs of local Wal-Mart stores varies from one geographical location to the next. While, by definition, grobalization is a reversal of the meaning of glocalization, this study has revealed that part of Wal-Mart's phenomenal success is to be both grobalizing and glocalizing. Wal-Mart offers its customers the opportunity of consuming locally (e.g., Hispanic products, Mediterranean food), globally (e.g., universal U.S. merchandise), or both simultaneously (like products and traditions found in Orlando stores). In this sense, both glocalization and grobalization are effective for the successful Wal-Martization of U.S. communities.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003474, ucf:48978
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003474
- Title
- The State of the Anti-Union Address: A Rhetorical Critique of Select Service Worker Training Methods.
- Creator
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Ries, Richard, Dombrowski, Paul, Hirumi, Atsusi, Jones, Dan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This is an interdisciplinary master's level thesis that explores links among technical writing, training manuals, surveillance, and anti-union rhetoric used with service workers in select American chains and franchises. Brief histories are provided, including those of technical writing, the rise of unions in America, and how technical writing became inextricably linked with labor. A major shift occurred in the 20th century when workers began interacting less with products and more with the...
Show moreThis is an interdisciplinary master's level thesis that explores links among technical writing, training manuals, surveillance, and anti-union rhetoric used with service workers in select American chains and franchises. Brief histories are provided, including those of technical writing, the rise of unions in America, and how technical writing became inextricably linked with labor. A major shift occurred in the 20th century when workers began interacting less with products and more with the public. The research focuses on training manuals, techniques, and rehearsed dialogues of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, and Publix, though similar organizations are referenced. Service worker language, uniforms, and store decorum are sometimes analyzed for their rhetorical content. The idea of a single, technically written training manual in the service sector is a misnomer; training is delivered through a pastiche of manuals, videos, computers, apps, flipcharts, and on the job training. Unions are avoided through franchising (and therefore eat outlet not possessing enough workers to organize), creating conditions of high turnover rates, rhetoric, and use of euphemism. Global corporations are likened to "superfiefdoms," with service workers equated to modern serfs. If the world has evolved into supercorporations, it is argued then that the Publix employee-owned model may be the best approach and the most dignified of all. The technical writing and instruction in state-sponsored and federalized school pedagogies, which emphasize drills and compliance, may be culturally linked to the training found in these entry-level service jobs, and more academic study exploring these links is called for.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005700, ucf:50134
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005700
