Software ease-of-use evaluation using magnitude estimation

1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Cordes
1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Schiavetti ◽  
Richard R. Martin ◽  
Samuel K. Haroldson ◽  
Dale Evan Metz

The purpose of this study was to determine through psychophysical comparison of scaling data whether speech naturalness judgments of stutterers and nonstutterers from audiovisual recordings form a prothetic or a metathetic continuum. Comparison of direct magnitude estimation and equal-appearing interval scale data indicated that speech naturalness forms a metathetic continuum when observers judge audiovisual recordings, suggesting that either scaling procedure is valid for the quantification of this dimension. Ease of use, an existing body of comparative data from different clinics, and somewhat better reliability favor the interval scaling procedure.


Author(s):  
Ray Keller

The amphibian embryo offers advantages of size, availability, and ease of use with both microsurgical and molecular methods in the analysis of fundamental developmental and cell biological problems. However, conventional wisdom holds that the opacity of this embryo limits the use of methods in optical microscopy to resolve the cell motility underlying the major shape-generating processes in early development.These difficulties have been circumvented by refining and adapting several methods. First, methods of explanting and culturing tissues were developed that expose the deep, nonepithelial cells, as well as the superficial epithelial cells, to the view of the microscope. Second, low angle epi-illumination with video image processing and recording was used to follow patterns of cell movement in large populations of cells. Lastly, cells were labeled with vital, fluorescent dyes, and their behavior recorded, using low-light, fluorescence microscopy and image processing. Using these methods, the details of the cellular protrusive activity that drives the powerful convergence (narrowing)


1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 698-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Harris ◽  
Donald Fucci ◽  
Linda Petrosino

The present experiment was a preliminary attempt to use the psychophysical scaling methods of magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching to investigate suprathreshold judgments of lingual vibrotactile and auditory sensation magnitudes for 20 normal young adult subjects. A 250-Hz lingual vibrotactile stimulus and a 1000-Hz binaural auditory stimulus were employed. To obtain judgments for nonoral vibrotactile sensory magnitudes, the thenar eminence of the hand was also employed as a test site for 5 additional subjects. Eight stimulus intensities were presented during all experimental tasks. The results showed that the slopes of the log-log vibrotactile magnitude estimation functions decreased at higher stimulus intensity levels for both test sites. Auditory magnitude estimation functions were relatively constant throughout the stimulus range. Cross-modal matching functions for the two stimuli generally agreed with functions predicted from the magnitude estimation data, except when subjects adjusted vibration on the tongue to match auditory stimulus intensities. The results suggested that the methods of magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching may be useful for studying sensory processing in the speech production system. However, systematic investigation of response biases associated with vibrotactile-auditory psychophysical scaling tasks appears to be a prerequisite.


1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Preece ◽  
Richard S. Tyler

Minimum-detectable gaps for sinusoidal stimuli were measured for three users of a multi electrode cochlear prosthesis as functions of stimulus level, frequency, and electrode place within the cochlea. Stimulus level was scaled by sensation level and by growth-of-loudness functions generated for each condition by direct magnitude estimation. Minimum-detectable gaps decreased with increase in either sensation level or loudness, up to a plateau. When compared at equal sensation levels, the minimum-detectable gaps decreased with frequency increases. The frequency effect on minimum-detectable gaps is reduced if the data are considered at equal loudness. Comparison across place of stimulation within the cochlea showed minimum-detectable gaps to be shorter for more basal electrode placement at low stimulus levels. No differences in minimum-detectable gap as a function of place were found at higher stimulus levels.


1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Cabanac ◽  
Chantal Pouliot ◽  
James Everett

Previous work has shown that sensory pleasure is both the motor and the sign of optimal behaviors aimed at physiological ends. From an evolutionary psychology point of view it may be postulated that mental pleasure evolved from sensory pleasure. Accordingly, the present work tested empirically the hypothesis that pleasure signals efficacious mental activity. In Experiment 1, ten subjects played video-golf on a Macintosh computer. After each hole they were invited to rate their pleasure or displeasure on a magnitude estimation scale. Their ratings of pleasure correlated negatively with the difference par minus performance, i.e., the better the performance the greater the pleasure reported. In Experiments 2 and 3, the pleasure of reading poems was correlated with comprehension, both rated by two groups of subjects, science students and arts students. In the majority of science students pleasure was significantly correlated with comprehension. Only one arts student showed this relationship; this result suggests that the proposed relationship between pleasure and cognitive efficiency is not tautological. Globally, the results support the hypothesis that pleasure is aroused by the same mechanisms, and follows the same laws, in physiological and cognitive mental tasks and also leads to the optimization of performance.


1971 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. 142-147
Author(s):  
M. RENAUD ◽  
M. AQARQ ◽  
R. GERARD-MARCHANT ◽  
M. WOLFF-TERROINE

A method is presented for processing data from the histopathological laboratory of a cancer hospital. Emphasis is laid on the ease of use, the connection of medical, administrative and financial data, and the strictness of control of patient’s identification number. The system can be used separately; it is also a module for a large integrated system covering all the activities of the hospital.


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