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Galtress, Tiffany. "Mechanisms of reward value, timing and choice." Thesis, University of York, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.444672.
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Williams, Elin. "Examining the social reward value of biological motion." Thesis, Bangor University, 2018. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/examining-the-social-reward-value-of-biological-motion(8a8e65c0-e9bf-4626-b465-74b31e9641b6).html.
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As humans, we share a strong desire to interact with other people. This strong motivation to engage socially directs our attention to social signals, guides us to participate in behaviours that help us to establish, maintain, and enhance our relationships with others, and allows us to enjoy social interactions and to find them rewarding. However, the Social Motivation Theory posits that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder may have deficits in social motivation, which may lead to difficulties in social interactions and communication. This thesis employs several methods (including behavioural, psychophysiological and neurological) to investigate social motivation in the typical population, and examines how autistic traits influence the reward value assigned to social stimuli. Specifically, this thesis investigates social motivation in relation to an important type of social stimulus, namely biological motion, which has not been the topic of research investigating social motivation. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 3) presents a behavioural experiment that investigates the reward value of biological motion, and how this value changes as a function of autistic traits among the participant sample. The following chapter (Chapter 4) comprises two eye-tracking experiments aiming to address how viewing biological motion affects attention and arousal. The final empirical chapter (Chapter 5) employs functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain regions involved in the anticipation of social reward or social punishment in a task where participants work to either receive positive feedback or avoid negative feedback. As a whole, this thesis sheds valuable new light on questions surrounding social motivation, such as whether individuals find a broad conceptualisation of social stimuli rewarding and whether the perceived reward value of social stimuli is influenced by autistic traits. The findings from this work have important implications for developing a greater understanding of social motivation and human social behaviour more broadly.
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Smith, Aaron Paul. "NEUROBEHAVIORAL MEASUREMENTS OF NATURAL AND OPIOID REWARD VALUE." UKnowledge, 2019. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/psychology_etds/164.
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In the last decade, (non)prescription opioid abuse, opioid use disorder (OUD) diagnoses, and opioid-related overdoses have risen and represent a significant public health concern. One method of understanding OUD is as a disorder of choice that requires choosing opioid rewards at the expense of other nondrug rewards. The characterization of OUD as a disorder of choice is important as it implicates decision- making processes as therapeutic targets, such as the valuation of opioid rewards. However, reward-value measurement and interpretation are traditionally different in substance abuse research compared to related fields such as economics, animal behavior, and neuroeconomics and may be less effective for understanding how opioid rewards are valued. The present research therefore used choice procedures in line with behavioral/neuroeconomic studies to determine if drug-associated decision making could be predicted from economic choice theories. In Experiment 1, rats completed an isomorphic food-food probabilistic choice task with dynamic, unpredictable changes in reward probability that required constant updating of reward values. After initial training, the reward magnitude of one choice subsequently increased from one to two to three pellets. Additionally, rats were split between the Signaled and Unsignaled groups to understand how cues modulate reward value. After each choice, the Unsignaled group received distinct choice-dependent cues that were uninformative of the choice outcome. The Signaled group also received uninformative cues on one option, but the alternative choice produced reward-predictive cues that informed the trial outcome as a win or loss. Choice data were analyzed at a molar level using matching equations and molecular level using reinforcement learning (RL) models to determine how probability, reward magnitude, and reward-associated cues affected choice. Experiment 2 used an allomorphic drug versus food procedure where the food reward for one option was replaced by a self-administered remifentanil (REMI) infusion at doses of 1, 3 and 10 μg/kg. Finally, Experiment 3 assessed the potential for both REMI and food reward value to be commonly scaled within the brain by examining changes in nucleus accumbens (NAc) Oxygen (O2) dynamics. Results showed that increasing reward probability, magnitude, and the presence of reward-associated cues all independently increased the propensity of choosing the associated choice alternative, including REMI drug choices. Additionally, both molar matching and molecular RL models successfully parameterized rats’ decision dynamics. O2 dynamics were generally commensurate with the idea of a common value signal for REMI and food with changes in O2 signaling scaling with the reward magnitude of REMI rewards. Finally, RL model-derived reward prediction errors significantly correlated with peak O2 activity for reward delivery, suggesting a possible neurological mechanism of value updating. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for current conceptualizations of substance use disorders including a potential need to change the discourse surrounding how substance use disorders are modeled experimentally. Overall, the present research provides evidence that a choice model of substance use disorders may be a viable alternative to the disease model and could facilitate future treatment options centered around economic principles.
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Fiallos, Ana Marcia. "Brain circuits for the representation of subjective reward value." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62716.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, February 2011.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-102).<br>Successful interaction with the external world requires choosing appropriate actions in the context of available choices. Such decisions require the evaluation of the reward magnitude, or value, associated with each potential action. Delineating the neural circuits involved in this process remains an important goal in systems neuroscience. However, little is known about the neural circuits that compute, or represent, low level primary reward signals. We have combined quantitative psychophysical measures of subjective reward magnitude elicited by rewarding electrical brain stimulation, fMRI as a readout of whole-brain neural activity, and local inactivation of brain structures, to identify the neural representation of subjective reward magnitude. We find that multiple brain regions are activated by rewarding brain stimulation, but only two brain regions, the nucleus accumbens and the central and basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, exhibit patterns of activity levels that track the reward magnitude measured psychophysically, suggesting a role in the neural representation of reward magnitude. Furthermore, pharmacological silencing of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) disrupts reward-tracking behavior and increases stimulus-dependent activity in the nucleus accumbens and amygdala. Together these data suggest that ascending and descending pathways combine to produce a signal that ultimately guides behavior and is subject to modulation by VTA inputs.<br>by Ana Marcia Fiallos.<br>Ph.D.
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James, Michael. "The estimation of reward and value in reinforcement learning." Thesis, University of York, 2003. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14066/.
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Roper, Zachary Joseph Jackson. "The manifold role of reward value on visual attention." Diss., University of Iowa, 2015. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2005.
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The environment is abundant with visual information. Each moment, this information competes for representation in the brain. From billboards and pop-up ads to smart phones and flat screens, in modern society our attention is constantly drawn from one salient object to the next. Learning how to focus on the objects that are most important for the current task is a major developmental hurdle. Fortunately, rewards help us to learn what is important by providing feedback signals to the brain. Sometimes, in adolescence for example, reward seeking can become the pre-potent response. This can ultimately lead to risky and impulsive behaviors that have devastating consequences. Until recently, little has been known about how rewards operate to influence the focus of attention.
In this document, I first demonstrate the robustness of various behavioral paradigms designed to measure reward processing in vision. I found that even mundane rewards, such as images of money, are effective enough to prime the attentional system on the basis of value. Remarkably, this effect extended to images of Monopoly money. This observation suggests that whole classes of visual stimuli, such as food, pornography, commercial logos, corporate brands, or money, each with its own reward salience value, are likely vying for representation in the brain. This work has implications for the growing digital economy as it suggests that novel value systems, such as the digital currency Bitcoin, could eventually become as psychologically relevant as physical currency provided sufficient use and exposure. Likewise, this work has implications for gamification in the industrial setting.
Next, I examined the sensitivity of the system to make optimal economic decisions. When faced with an economic choice normative theories of decision-making suggest that the economic actor will choose the response that affords the greatest expected utility. Contrary to this account, I developed a new behavioral paradigm (reward contingent capture) and reveal that the attentional homunculus is a fuzzy mathematician. Specifically, I found that low-level attentional processes conform to the same probability distortions observed in prospect theory. This finding supports a unified value learning mechanism across several domains of cognition and converges with evidence from monkey models.
Then, I demonstrate the influence of rewards on high-order search parameters. I found that images of money can implicitly encourage observers to preferentially adopt one of two search strategies – one that values salience versus one that values goals. Together, my results expose two distinct ways in which the very same rewards can affect attentional behavior – by tuning the salience of specific features and by shaping global search mode settings.
Lastly, I draw from my empirical results to present a unified model of the manifold role of rewards on visual attention. This model makes clear predictions for clinical applications of rewarded attention paradigms because it incorporates a dimension of complexity upon which learning processes can operate on attention. Thus, future work should acknowledge how individual traits such as developmental trajectory, impulsivity, and risk-seeking factors differentially interact with low- and high-level attentional processes.
In sum, this document puts forward the notion that rewards serve a compelling role in visual awareness. The key point however is not that rewards can have an effect on attention but that due to the nature of visual processing, reward signals are likely always tuning attention. In this way we can consider reward salience an attentional currency. This means then that deciding where to attend is a matter of gains and losses.
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Smedley, Lisa. "Customer Perceived Value of Credit Card Rewards : A study on Canadian Consumers." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-13865.
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Abstract Title: Customer Perceived Value of Credit Card Rewards - A study on Canadian Consumers Level: Final assignment for Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration Author: Lisa Smedley Supervisor: Jonas Kågström Date: 2013 - January Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate what influences Customer Perceived Value; where Canadian consumers’ preferences lie in terms of rewards in the Canadian credit card industry. Method: After researching previous studies and determining what constructs have been utilized prior on similar research topics, I implement a quantitative, and to some extend iterative, research approach. Through survey research, I investigate Canadian consumer preferences through a survey sample of 124 Canadian consumers in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Result & Conclusions: One finding in the study indicates that utilitarian benefits, which provide financial gain for the card holder, are perceived by respondents as the most valuable reward. Another finding is that inexperienced credit card holders see significantly greater value in symbolic benefits than experienced card holders do. The present study does not support the theory that customer involvement influences the customer’s perception of rewards. 2 Suggestions for future research: More extensive research is needed on the subject of whether Canadian consumers’ perceived value of rewards is influenced by their level of involvement in their credit card. Also, studies involving additional factors that could possibly determine a consumer’s perception of rewards, such as income and ethnicity should be investigated for a more well-rounded understanding of customer preferences. Contribution of the thesis: The present study contributes with new findings that can be of substantial significance for Canadian financial institutions as it provides insight into what credit card rewards Canadian consumers perceive as being valuable to them. Key words: Rewards programs, credit cards, customer loyalty, perceived customer value, timing of reward, type of reward, dimension of benefit, utilitarian, hedonic, symbolic
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Mattson, Karla M. "The value of signals for reward: Choice in concurrent chains." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Psychology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4642.
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A number of studies indicate that a signalling effect occurs when stimuli are presented during the terminal link of a concurrent-chains procedure, which signal whether or not probabilistic reinforcement is forthcoming at the end of the trial. The effect of these signals is a reduced preference for the richer alternative. This thesis includes five experiments aimed to investigate this. The overall purpose of this research is to investigate the effect on preference of differential signalling of reinforcement that differs in terms of the variable being signalled. Furthermore, these experiments are aimed at investigating the manner in which signalling affects preference when multiple dimensions of reinforcement are varied in a signalling procedure. Asking the question how does signalling affect sensitivity to various dimensions of reinforcement and how does this change when more than one dimension is varied?
The first experiment involved a simple replication of previous work with percentage-reinforcement procedures. It further extends that work by signalling the size of the reinforcer rather than its probability. Pigeons were given the choice between two alternatives with identical-duration initial and terminal links. Choice of one alternative (uncertain) led to one of two possible signalled outcomes, reinforcement (3.5 s) or blackout, with a probability of .5. Choice of the other alternative (certain) always resulted in food (3.5 s) at the end of the delay. When the scheduled outcome on the uncertain alternative was differentially signalled, there was a moderate preference for the certain side. Moreover, when the scheduled outcome on the uncertain side was not differentially signalled, preference for the certain side became more extreme. This result replicates the signalling effect. With a similar design, another three conditions manipulated the magnitude of primary reinforcement, rather than its probability. When primary reinforcement was arranged like this, a weaker signalling effect was obtained.
Two further experiments investigated the effect of signals on preference for alternatives that differed in either relative variability or expected magnitude of reinforcement, while the other variable was held constant. In Experiment 2, pigeons were offered the choice between two alternatives that differed in relative variability of reinforcement. Each alternative delivered one of two possible reinforcer magnitudes at the end of a terminal link: these magnitudes were either the same (fixed) or were different (mixed). In some conditions, terminal-link outcomes were signalled and in others they were not. Results showed that pigeons preferred fixed over signalled mixed magnitudes of reinforcement, and signalled mixed over unsignalled mixed magnitudes of reinforcement. Thus, these alternatives could be ordered in terms of preference: fixed, signalled mixed and unsignalled mixed. Finally, signalling does indeed moderate the preference for fixed over mixed magnitudes.
In the third experiment, pigeons completed a two-component signalled concurrent-chains procedure in which the relative expected magnitude varied across alternatives as all other dimensions of reinforcement were held constant. Therefore, this experiment investigated the effects of signalling on preference between alternatives differing in relative expected magnitude of reinforcement. A slight signalling effect was obtained, with slightly reduced preference in the signalled relative to the unsignalled condition. Overall, these two experiments confirm that signalling acts on the preference for fixed magnitudes of reinforcement and to a lesser extent, preference for the larger of two expected magnitudes of reinforcement.
The final two experiments investigated the effect of signals on preference in a procedure that varied parametrically either relative probability and immediacy of reinforcement, or probability and magnitude of reinforcement. The effects of relative reinforcer immediacy or magnitude and probability on choice in concurrent chains were examined, under conditions in which terminal-link outcomes (reinforcement or extinction) were either signalled or unsignalled. Pigeons responded in a three-component concurrent-chains procedure with either independent or interdependent initial links. The percentage of reinforcement was varied across conditions, while the immediacy or magnitude of reinforcement was varied across components. Both signalled and unsignalled conditions were arranged. Generalised-matching analyses revealed a strong signalling effect: sensitivity to relative reinforcer probability was greater in the unsignalled compared to signalled conditions. However, sensitivities to relative immediacy and magnitude were also greater in the unsignalled conditions. Overall, the data suggest that signalling reinforcement and extinction outcomes may attenuate sensitivity to all terminal-link variables, not just reinforcer probability.
These experiments have investigated the signalling effect using a variety of methods. They have contributed several replications of the effect, and added valuable information regarding the effects on preference of signalling reinforcement outcomes. The most impressive finding of this research is that signalling has a global effect on sensitivity to all dimensions of reinforcement and that models of conditioned reinforcement are best suited to analyse these results.
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Skog, Emil. "The value of intrinsic motivation in relation to primary reward." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-136827.
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Intrinsically motivated behaviors have been defined as behaviors that do not come with any primary external rewards. Previous studies on intrinsic motivation has often depended on self-report measures, or only tested how subjects’ motivation is impacted by punishments or no gain differences. The present study aims to test these two conditions, with the addition of a third, where selecting an information gain option results in reward. This will be tested empirically using an existing information theoretic operationalization, where subjects will choose between information gain or no information gain. Results of the study show that information gain has some degree of attraction when subjects expect no gain differences, and when comparing punishment and reward conditions.<br>Curiosity and the reward of learning
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Tsoulfas, Georgios. "Temporal discounting of expected value of reward in the medial intraparietal cortex." Thesis, McGill University, 2011. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=103657.
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Previous work has shown that expected value of reward associated with a reach modulates neurons in the medial intraparietal cortex (MIP) and that this reward signal can be decoded. In this study, we investigated the reliability of reward coding in MIP by examining how given reward magnitudes are encoded when presented in different contexts. We are interested in determining how prior knowledge of reward is used to interpret information about the reward in the current trial. We recorded from single neurons in MIP while two rhesus macaque monkeys performed a memory reach task under two conditions. In the first condition, high and low reward values were randomly interleaved trial by trial (variable reward schedule), while in the second condition only one of these reward values was delivered for a block of trials (constant reward schedule). For both reward schedules, the reward magnitude was indicated by a cue preceding the delay period of each trial. Each recording session consisted of a variable reward schedule as well as a small and large constant reward schedule. For the same reward, the firing rate of neurons in the delay period changed significantly between the constant and variable reward schedule conditions. A model that discounts past acquired rewards and formulates a weighted history of reward for the present trial is proposed to explain the observed differences in firing rate between contexts. We identify neurons that fire in accordance to a temporal discount of reward, with significant correlation (R2 > 0.25) between the model and experimental data, suggesting that the neuronal activation within MIP is modulated both by current expected value of reward and discounted past reward magnitudes.<br>De précédents travaux ont démontré que l'espérance face à la valeur de la récompense associée à une tâche d'atteinte, affecte l'activité des neurones du cortex intraparietal médial (MIP) et que ce signal de récompense peut-être décodé. Dans cette étude, nous nous attaquons à la fiabilité de l'encodage de la récompense dans la région MIP en examinant comment la quantification de la récompense est encodée quand elle est présentée dans différents contextes. Nous sommes intéressés à savoir si la connaissance acquise au cours des essais précédents est utilisée pour interpréter l'information a propos de la récompense de l'essai courant. Nous avons échantillonné l'activité de neurones, un à un, alors que deux singes, macaque rhésus, performaient une tâche d'atteinte avec délai, sous deux conditions de remise de récompense. Soumis à première condition, les grandes et petites quantités de récompense ont été enchainées de façon aléatoire (ordonnancement de récompense aléatoire), alors que sous la deuxième condition un seul format de récompense a été maintenu pour toute la durée du bloc d'essais (ordonnancement de récompense constant). Pour les deux types d'ordonnancement, la quantité de récompense était indiquée par un signal précédent la période de délai de chaque essai. Chaque séance d'enregistrement comprend un bloc d'ordonnancement aléatoire, un bloc de grandes récompenses constantes et un bloc de petites récompenses constantes. Pour la même récompense, le taux de mise à feu des neurones dans la période de délai ont été affecté de façon significative par l'ordonnancement des récompenses. Un modèle est proposé pour expliquer la différence dans les taux de mises à feu. Nous identifions les neurones qui font feu en accord avec une réduction temporelle de la récompense, avec une corrélation significative (R2 > 0.25) entre le model et les données expérimentales, suggérant que l'activité neuronale dans MIP est fonction à la fois de l'espérance de la valeur de la récompense présente et de la réduction temporelle des récompenses passées.
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Moore, III William. "Sharing All the Way to the Bank: A Neuroimaging Investigation of Disclosure, Reward, and Self." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19656.
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No neuroimaging investigation to date has considered the effects of social context on self-referential processing, despite the fact that the hypothesis that people engage different selves in different contexts has been with psychology for more than a century. To address this gap in the empirical record, a suite of three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments was conducted in order to assess patterns of neural activity associated with self-referential (compared to non-self-referential) processes (Experiment 1), computational models of reinforcement-learning processes (Experiment 2), and social context modulation of personally relevant cognition (Experiment 3). I demonstrate that distinct patterns of neural activity in cortical midline structures and the mesial ventral striatum are associated with thinking about the self privately, sharing information about the self with a parent, and sharing with a friend. These differentiated disclosure responses (Experiment 3) are evident at the whole brain level and in regions of interest defined by functional activity in independent tasks of self (Experiment 1) and reward (Experiment 2). In addition to providing empirical evidence for contextually differentiated self-representations in the brain, this dissertation validates the use of fMRI paradigms designed to functionally localize self-referential and reward-related activity either independently or in conjunction, as well as distinguish components of ventral striatal activity unique to each task. Finally, I consider strategies for approaching future investigations of self and social cognition in terms of reinforcement learning.
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Wittmann, Marco. "From actions to agents : value representation in frontal cortex." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:37387351-cd95-4f24-ad16-1cc67d181a7b.
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In this thesis, I investigated computational and neural mechanisms underlying foraging-related behavior in humans. A consideration of the ecological constraints under which mammalian behavior first evolved guided my investigation of learning and decision-making in frontal cortex. When engaged in foraging, animals have to figure out how profitable their actions are and whether it is better to continue foraging in their current environment or to switch to an alternative. They have to track the reward income of their actions over time and also take into account that the actions of other foraging animals have a direct influence on their reward income (Chapter 1). Based on these observations, I looked at similar types of behavior in humans using computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging. I studied how people evaluate the profitability of their actions over time (Chapter 2). Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex carried a detailed representation of the value of the current foraging action, which was influenced by reward memories with different time constants (Chapter 3). Tracking the reward income of one's actions is not only important in order to learn about the profitability of the environment, it can also inform estimates of one's own and other people's abilities. Ability estimates can be used in a direct way to predict the reward outcome that the actions of one's own self and others will have. I found that people learn about their own and others' abilities in a rational manner but also that ability estimates of self and other were partly confused with each other, depending on whether subjects cooperated or competed with each other (Chapter 4). The confusion effect is reflected in Brodmann area 9 activity indicating that area 9 integrates self and other related information. Perigenual anterior cingulate tracked the ability estimates for oneself, suggesting that it might compute the success expectation of an action independent of particular features of the environment (Chapter 5). In sum, different subregions of medial frontal cortex carried different types of action-related value representations that can guide decision-making.
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Vang, Mao H. "The Effect of Avatar Behaviors in Health Interventions: Examining Immediacy and Communicator Reward Value Through Expectancy Violations Theory in Virtual Environments." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337884820.
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Laane, Kristjan. "The ins and outs of pleasure : roles and importance of hedonic value." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/236782.
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The focus of this thesis was the hedonic value of stimuli, which is more commonly known as pleasure or positive affect. First, the scientific meaning of hedonic value was dissected. Second, a classification identifying core causes of positive affect was created. The classification was derived from specific positive moments reported by individuals throughout a day (collected through experience sampling methodology). Seventeen triggers of positive affect were identified, which were extracted from the data rather than originating from theory. Third, affective influences on reflexive-like motor responses were investigated using an approach-avoidance task. Contrary to previous studies, approach reaction times were not speeded by highly affective stimuli. Instead, a novel non-emotional effect was found on reaction times, which could directly explain the current results, and those of previous studies, in non-affective terms. Fourth, the propagation of hedonic reactivity from pleasurable to neutral stimuli was investigated. Contrary to expectations, the evaluative conditioning procedure utilised did not exhibit a phenomenon called blocking. Instead, 'liking' spread non-selectively to all stimuli co-occurring with the source hedonic stimulus. Fifth, the positive effect of pleasure on goal-directed motivation was established: participants were found to press a food trigger harder for highly palatable snacks compared to bland snacks, even though participants were not informed about the hidden measurement of forces. Additionally, the impact of hedonic value on actual food intake was quantified with best-fit equations that predicted consumption at both the group and individual level. In the last study, hedonic habituation, or the inhibitory effect of pleasure on itself, was demonstrated: eating pleasant snacks, as compared to bland ones, reduced the hedonic ratings of test foods that were consumed afterwards. Finally, these inputs and outputs of hedonics were integrated into a model specifying principal roles of pleasure in human behaviour. This pleasure-incentive model explains the effects of pleasure on incentive motivation, and makes important predictions about the mechanisms of pathological conditions such as over-eating and drug addiction.
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Cameron, Jameason. "Acute and Chronic Energy Deprivation Improves Smell Performance and Heightens the Rewarding Value of Food: How Modality of Deprivation Differently Impacts Olfaction, Food Reward, Appetite, Peptide Hormones, and Energy Intake." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/24100.
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The study of feeding behavior, and in particular the study of subjective hedonic experience and objective measures of motivation, are central to understanding how appetite regulation can be compromised in certain individuals. Furthermore, with an integrated picture of physiological and behavioral changes that can occur as a result of energy deprivation what emerges is a better understanding of how palatable food can disrupt attempts at regulating body weight at lower levels of body energy stores. In Article I, the genetic association study examining a potential role for a dopamine-related polymorphism in weight loss, it was shown that contrary to the main hypothesis there was no association between TaqIA polymorphism and the amount of body weight loss. In Article II, it was shown that palatability and olfaction ratings increased as a result of a 24 hour fast and females demonstrated larger improvements in overall olfactory performance. Initial body weight was positively related to improved odor detection threshold and total odour score (TDI). Using the same population sample as Article II, Article III highlights that higher sensitivity to reward and disinhibition scores correlated with responding for palatable snack food stimuli in the relative-reinforcing value of food (RRV) task, further indicating that RRV has strong ties with impulsivity. There was a demonstrable lack of negative alliesthesia under the fasted condition where, after a 75% increase in ad libitum energy intake (EI) relative to the fed condition, this greater amount of food consumed was still rated as being more palatable than the lesser amounts consumed under the fed condition. In Article IV it was shown that an equicaloric (-25%) energy deficit by diet alone was a greater challenge to appetite regulation and resulted in greater compensatory increases in EI than deprivation by exercise alone. Independent of deprivation modality there were significant improvements in odour threshold scores. TDI score increased only under diet alone; furthermore, the noted increase in mean TDI score was positively related to increased ad libitum EI. The picture that emerges is that, acutely, a complete fast has more pronounced effects on appetite and ad libitum EI than dieting alone, which in turn had greater effects than exercise alone or controls. Also, TDI improved under all three methods of energy deprivation, but moreso under conditions of deprivation by diet alone.
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Rossi, Martina. "Opponent Modelling using Inverse Reinforcement Learning." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2021. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/22263/.
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Un’area di ricerca particolarmente attiva ultimamente nel campo dell'intelligenza artificiale (IA) riguarda lo studio di agenti autonomi, notevolmente diffusi anche nella vita quotidiana. L'obiettivo principale è sviluppare agenti che interagiscano in modo efficiente con altri agenti o esseri umani. Di conseguenza, queste relazioni potrebbero essere notevolmente semplificate grazie alla capacità di dedurre autonomamente le preferenze di altre entità e di adattare di conseguenza la strategia dell'agente. Pertanto, lo scopo di questa tesi è implementare un agente, in grado di apprendere, che interagisce con un'altra entità nello stesso ambiente e utilizza questa esperienza per estrapolare le preferenze dell'avversario. Queste informazioni possono essere impiegate per cooperare o sfruttare l'interlocutore, a seconda dell'obiettivo dell'agente. Pertanto, i temi centrali sono il Reinforcement Learning, gli ambienti multi-agente e il Value alignment. L'agente presentato apprende tramite Deep Q-Learning e riceve una ricompensa che viene calcolata combinando i feedback dell’ambiente e il reward dell'avversario. Questi valori sono ottenuti eseguendo l'algoritmo Maximum Entropy Inverse Reinforcement Learning sulle interazioni precedenti. Il comportamento dell’agente proposto viene testato in due diversi ambienti: il gioco Centipede e il gioco Apple Picking. I risultati ottenuti sono promettenti poiché dimostrano che l'agente può dedurre correttamente le preferenze dell'avversario e utilizzare questa conoscenza per adattare la sua strategia. Tuttavia, il comportamento finale non sempre corrisponde alle aspettative; sono quindi analizzati i limiti dell'approccio attuale e i gli sviluppi futuri per migliorare l'agente.
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Kapetanakis, Anna, and Johan Eriksson. "Lojalitet genom bonusprogram, en framgångsrik strategi? : En studie av servicenäringen." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för ekonomi, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-16886.
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Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka värden som på längre sikt har avgörande betydelse för att engagera en kund med avseende på lojalitetsprogram. Metod: I studien användes en kvantitativ metod där en enkät med stängda svarsalternativ skickades ut till ca 30 000 respondenter. Till enkäten användes ordinal- och nominalskala för att möjliggöra Spearman’s rho korrelationsanalys med hjälp av statistiska mjukvaran IBM SPSS. Analyserna användes sedan för acceptera eller förkasta de hypoteser som deducerats från teorin. Resultat: Resultatet visade att trots en pågående negativ trend för lojalitetsprogram så skapar de engagemang och är betydande för kunden. Det värde som visade sig ha signifikant betydelse för engagemanget var kundens mervärde. Kundens mervärde leder till upprepade köp och har en direkt påverkan på kundens lojalitet och kundens uppfattning av programmet som påverkar engagemanget. Resultatet av studien kan därför ses som en pågående interaktionsprocess där företagets aktiviteter påverkar kundens engagemang både i och utanför lojalitetsprogrammet. Ett ökat mervärde i interaktionsprocessen till följd av företagets aktiviteter och kundens värdering av varumärket, ökar kundens engagemang, vilket möjliggör att lojalitet kan skapas genom program på längre sikt. Förslag till fortsatta studier: Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för de värden som engagerar kunden med avseende på lojalitetsprogram. Författarnas ambition är att vidare forskning ska ta avstamp i studiens resultat och den modell som utvecklats. Förhoppningen är att studien ska ligga till grund för empirisk tillämpning inom servicenäringen samt utgöra underlag vid strategiska beslut och marknadsundersökningar.
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Li, Yansong. "Modulation du système de récompense par le risque et le type de récompenses chez l’homme sain et chez des joueurs pathologiques : une approche intégrative combinant enregistrements intracrâniens, mesures hormonales et IRMf." Thesis, Lyon 1, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014LYO10202/document.
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Comment notre cerveau traite l’information de la récompense, et comment un tel traitement est influence par des paramètres tels que la probabilité et le risque sont devenues des questions cruciales des neurosciences cognitives. De plus, des recherches récentes suggèrent un effet modulateur d’un certain nombre d’hormones sur le cerveau et sur le comportement, et également qu’un dysfonctionnement du système de récompense pourrait expliquer des comportements addictifs tels que le jeu pathologique. Durant cette thèse, nous avons eu recours à de l’EEG stéréotaxique (SEEG) et à une combinaison d’Imagerie à Résonnance Magnétique fonctionnelle (IRMf) et d’endocrinologie pour réaliser trois études s’intéressant au traitement de la récompense chez des sujets sains, chez des patients souffrant d’épilepsie chez qui des macroélectrodes ont été implantées, et chez des joueurs pathologiques. Ensemble, nos études améliorent la compréhension de nouveaux aspects du traitement de la récompense chez les sujets sains, chez les patients épileptiques, et chez les joueurs pathologiques<br>How our brain processes reward information and how such processing is influenced by parameters such as reward probability and risk have become key questions in cognitive neuroscience. In addition, recent researches suggest a modulatory effect of a number of hormones on brain and behavior and a dysfunction of the reward system in a number of behavioral addictions, such as gambling disorder. This Ph.D. used intracranial EEG (iEEG) and combined Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and endocrinology to perform four studies investigating reward processing in healthy subjects, patients with epilepsy implanted with depth electrodes and individuals with gambling disorder. Together, our series of studies advance our understanding of new aspects concerning reward processing in healthy subjects, patients with epilepsy and individuals with gambling disorder
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de, Dios Constanza. "Mapping Reward Values to Cues, Locations, and Objects: The Influence of Reward Associations on Visual Attention." Scholar Commons, 2019. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7995.
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Previous work has attempted to fit reward-driven attentional selection as being exogenous (stimulus-driven) or endogenous (goal-driven). However, recent work suggests that reward’s effects on attention depend on the type of stimulus feature that the motivational information is imparted during learning (incentive salience). If true, then reward should not be limited to solely impacting early perceptual or late categorization processes attention. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to test the idea that reward’s effects on attention depend on the process that the reward information is embedded – early perceptual or late categorization. Results demonstrated reward-driven effects on perceptual representation when value information was conveyed by cues in a spatial cuing task, but did not find any value-driven effects when value was introduced later in processing in target-defined features in a target detection task. The current work suggests that reward can be rapidly acquired and sustained throughout a task, recruiting mechanisms of both exogenous and endogenous attention.
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Botes, J. A. "Customer Loyalty and Employee Enthusiasm: An eclectic paradigm for strategic sales improvement at MB Silicon Systems." Thesis, Milpark Business School, 2008. http://www.milpark.co.za.
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The objective of this study was to examine the role that customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm can play as a strategic objective to increase sales at MB Silicon Systems. In order to address these two factors from a strategic perspective, elements from various concepts have been used to gain a new understanding of customer loyalty, employee enthusiasm and strategy. The final goal of the study was to use the knowledge gained throughout the report to propose a management framework which can be implemented to give MB Silicon Systems a competitive advantage in its competitive industry.The literature review suggested that a strategy of customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm will result in above average financial performance. Customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm cannot be separated from each other and they are linked by leadership, the vision and core values of the organisation. It is not possible to achieve customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm without the proper formulation and execution of a strategy. Such a strategy needs to utilize core management tools like the Balanced Scorecard which will bridge the vision of the organisation with goal setting mechanisms of motivation. The Balanced Scorecard will ensure that strategic objectives of the organisation will be mapped into the Balanced Scorecard while employees will be rewarded according to achieved targets of these objectives.Surveys which were conducted with customers and employees have shown that MB Silicon Systems performs below international standards with respect to customer loyalty and that the organisation is failing with its existing strategy. The surveys have also shown that employees are demotivated. This state of demotivation results in a lack of teamwork and mistrust between employees. The lack of teamwork and mistrust is only the symptoms of organisational problems which need to be resolved by organisational redesign, implementation of management principles and healthy corporate governance. The low base of loyal customers and the demotivated state of employees is resulting in below average financial performance.A management framework was recommended that will transform a strategy of customer loyalty and employee enthusiasm by using proven management tools. Implementation of the framework will ensure a competitive advantage to MB Silicon Systems which will result in above average financial performance.
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Au, Manix. "Automatic State Construction using Decision Trees for Reinforcement Learning Agents." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2005. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/15965/1/Manix_Au_Thesis.pdf.
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Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a learning framework in which an agent learns a policy from continual interaction with the environment. A policy is a mapping from states to actions. The agent receives rewards as feedback on the actions performed. The objective of RL is to design autonomous agents to search for the policy that maximizes the expectation of the cumulative reward.
When the environment is partially observable, the agent cannot determine the states with certainty. These states are called hidden in the literature. An agent that relies exclusively on the current observations will not always find the optimal policy. For example, a mobile robot needs to remember the number of doors went by in order to reach a specific door, down a corridor of identical doors.
To overcome the problem of partial observability, an agent uses both current and past (memory) observations to construct an internal state representation, which is treated
as an abstraction of the environment.
This research focuses on how features of past events are extracted with variable granularity regarding the internal state construction. The project introduces a new method that applies Information Theory and decision tree technique to derive a tree structure, which represents the state and the policy. The relevance, of a candidate feature, is assessed by the Information Gain Ratio ranking with respect to the cumulative expected reward.
Experiments carried out on three different RL tasks have shown that our variant of the U-Tree (McCallum, 1995) produces a more robust state representation and faster learning. This better performance can be explained by the fact that the Information Gain Ratio exhibits a lower variance in return prediction than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test used in the original U-Tree algorithm.
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Au, Manix. "Automatic State Construction using Decision Trees for Reinforcement Learning Agents." Queensland University of Technology, 2005. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/15965/.
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Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a learning framework in which an agent learns a policy from continual interaction with the environment. A policy is a mapping from states to actions. The agent receives rewards as feedback on the actions performed. The objective of RL is to design autonomous agents to search for the policy that maximizes the expectation of the cumulative reward. When the environment is partially observable, the agent cannot determine the states with certainty. These states are called hidden in the literature. An agent that relies exclusively on the current observations will not always find the optimal policy. For example, a mobile robot needs to remember the number of doors went by in order to reach a specific door, down a corridor of identical doors. To overcome the problem of partial observability, an agent uses both current and past (memory) observations to construct an internal state representation, which is treated as an abstraction of the environment. This research focuses on how features of past events are extracted with variable granularity regarding the internal state construction. The project introduces a new method that applies Information Theory and decision tree technique to derive a tree structure, which represents the state and the policy. The relevance, of a candidate feature, is assessed by the Information Gain Ratio ranking with respect to the cumulative expected reward. Experiments carried out on three different RL tasks have shown that our variant of the U-Tree (McCallum, 1995) produces a more robust state representation and faster learning. This better performance can be explained by the fact that the Information Gain Ratio exhibits a lower variance in return prediction than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test used in the original U-Tree algorithm.
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Pfafferott, Camron. "The value of non-financial rewards on semi-skilled workers." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/59750.
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Substantial research regarding skilled employee motivation exists, however the same
degree of insight into what motivates semi-skilled workers, specifically through nonfinancial
rewards, is sparse. Popular motivational theories postulate that financial
rewards are the forerunner in motivating semi-skilled employees. While this may be true
in certain circumstances, this approach can be costly and disregards the potential value
semi-skilled workers might ascribe to non-financial rewards. This study aims to
understand the value semi-skilled workers attribute to non-financial rewards.
Given the limited amount of research related to semi-skilled worker motivation through
non-financial rewards, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to gain deep
insights. 18 Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 75 respondents
acquired through non-probability sampling. Diversity was considered through the
selection of three companies across three different industries of building retail, hotel, and
contact centre services. Interviews were conducted at three employee levels of semiskilled
workers, middle management, and senior management. The inclusion of
management levels intended to understand differences in their perception of what
motivates semi-skilled workers.
This research uncovered that semi-skilled workers are chiefly motivated by non-financial
rewards as opposed to financial rewards. Dominant non-financial motivators identified
included customer satisfaction, interaction, and team spirit, while popular forms of
demotivation included lack of work-life balance and poor management. The role of
context became apparent with themes such as culture, industry, and individual
differences emerging as reward preference influencers. Management misperceptions
illustrated a shortfall in understanding what motivates semi-skilled workers. The study
concludes with the presentation of the SCMAL motivation model as a recommendation
for management seeking to increase semi-skilled worker loyalty and discretionary effort.<br>Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.<br>zk2017<br>Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)<br>MBA<br>Unrestricted
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Scislaw, Kenneth Edward. "Three essays on the value premium : can investors capture the promised rewards?" Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/936.
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A consensus exists in the body of academic literature that stocks with high BE/ME characteristics outperform stocks with low BE/ME characteristics. Researchers disagree, however, as to the cause of the phenomenon. Two competing theories have emerged. The value premium originates either from the relative riskiness of high BE/ME value and low BE/ME growth stocks or from the persistent irrational pricing of those stocks. Market participants question whether the long lineage of academic research showing the existence of the value premium can actually be applied to their portfolio decision-making. The lack of a pervasive value premium across stock size strata suggests the return phenomenon may result from information asymmetry or trading noise, and not from the pricing of greater risk. The value premium appears to be exclusively available to market participants who can effectively navigate the smallest, most illiquid segment of the stock market. In other words, the value premium does not appear to be available to large institutional investors.
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Dobrotková, Kamila. "Recognition of Omitted Intangible Assets: Risks and Rewards." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2015. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-207049.
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The aim of this thesis is to analyse the research area of omitted intangible assets from the balance sheet and consider rewards of their potential recognition in the statement of financial position. The theoretical part provides the reader with the current regulation in force and compares it to the regulation prior the standardization and convergence process. The empirical part focuses on valuation of equity of three companies from the pharmaceutical industry based on the model pursued by American professor Stephen Penman. The values obtained are subsequently compared to market prices which are believed to reflect also the possession of omitted intangible assets. Differences identified speak in favour of potential recognition, however these are believed to be marginal comparing to probable inherent risks, which include, inter alia, stock market run-ups and earnings management.
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Osborn, David R. "Will a short-term course for church leaders on evaluating a reward system help the leaders to evaluate more accurately the consistency of their reward system with their espoused values?" Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2005. http://www.tren.com.
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Ng, Hoi-yan, and 吳凱欣. "The mediating role of engagement in the relation between incentives and task value." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/196512.
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The present study examined the relations between incentive, engagement and task value with reference to the Regulatory Engagement Theory (Higgins, 2006).With two incentive interventions (reward and utility), contribution of engagement on task value was tested through a mediation analysis. Significant results were obtained in the utility intervention group. Participants demonstrated higher task value and stronger engagement after intervention, a significant mediated effect also revealed that engagement explained the effects of intervention on task value. Results in the reward intervention group did not yield statistical significance but were in expected direction. The mediating effect of engagement in the relation between incentive and task value was generally supported, but the strength of effect varied upon the choice of incentives. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Educational Psychology<br>Master<br>Master of Social Sciences
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Douglas, Jason G. "Towards a New Currency of Economic Criticism." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2008. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1466.
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“The Purloined Letter,” Edgar Allan Poe's third and final tale featuring the detective Dupin, has evoked a long history of critical response. Criticism has tended to read the text for its role in the development of detective fiction and as illustrative of various theoretical positions. However, the implications of the “The Purloined Letter,” as a tale of ratiocination, has largely been left unexplored. “The Purloined Letter” explores logical processes of value and exchange, particularly economic exchange, in a manner very similar to what Charles Sanders Peirce will call pragmatism several decades later. Dupin's deductive methods and Peirce's abductive logic express the nature of objects in terms of social systems of preference and perception rather metaphysics. Peirce's classification of signs as icon, index, or symbol provides a framework of signification which can be read in conjunction with “The Purloined Letter” to flesh out the role of materiality and value in the theory of economic criticism. Reading value and exchange as part of a social system of signs, perceptions, and representations of value will serve to expose a penchant for material fetishism in economic criticism and provide a theory of currency, value, and exchange that contextualizes representational and material notions of value within the social and economic system that provides the processes and mechanisms of value determination. The way that the Prefect, the Minister D___, and Dupin each conceptualize the purloined letter as having a different representational relationship with value can be used to demonstrate Poe's abductive framework for economy.
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Stokes, Laura-Jean Gresham. "Inter-temporal choice for high-value food rewards as a model of food-scheduling behaviour." Thesis, Bangor University, 2017. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/intertemporal-choice-for-highvalue-food-rewards-as-a-model-of-foodscheduling-behaviour(8631d3cb-a33b-4ef6-9f13-d9bcc3283c8a).html.
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The increased prevalence of obesity has become a worldwide problem in the last forty years (French, Epstein, Jeffery, Blundell, & Wardle, 2012; WHO, 2016). Obesity is associated with significant physical (WHO, 2016) and mental health problems (Luppino et al., 2010). From an evolutionary perspective, animals' food-seeking strategies promote the overconsumption of high-energy foods in environments where food can be scarce. Possibly, these inherited strategies are unhealthy in contemporary environments in which food is available and its energy costs low, promoting weight gain and obesity. However, this possibility has not been explored experimentally. My thesis is intended to test one such strategy in human subjects: tolerating risk to gain access to food quickly. One method of investigating our inherited food foraging strategies is to examine how we schedule our food intake, specifically intertemporal preferences to obtain food reward. My PhD used a novel task to measure individuals’ intertemporal preferences to food rewards. Participants chose between two reinforcement schedules, offering highly valued food rewards following variable or fixed delays. Overall, I found that preference for variable delay schedules was driven by the previous delivery of immediate rewards. Choice of the variable delay schedule following longer delays was enhanced following exposure to food aromas, perhaps indicating a role for food cues in tolerating prolonged delays to food rewards. By contrast, preferences for variable delay schedules were not straightforwardly related to delay discounting rates. Exploratory analyses showed only inconsistent associations with factors linked to future weight gain – body mass index (BMI), cognitive restraint, and emotional eating. However, preferences for variable delay schedules following immediate food rewards were only subtly enhanced in individuals with higher rather than lower BMIs and higher delay discounting rates. Preferences for variable delay schedules were sometimes reduced in individuals with higher restraint but increased in these individuals following exposure to food cues. This suggests that food cues might override restraint to enhance preferences for quick foods. Collectively, my findings suggest that further nvestigations of intertemporal preferences in food-scheduling behaviours might tell us about the value of quick foods in individuals vulnerable to weight gain.
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Hilli, Pia Elisabet Angelique. "Educating professionals and professionalising education in research-intensive universities : opportunities, challenges, rewards and values." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/25110.
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This study describes what higher education institutions (HEIs) that are known for their research excellence are doing to implement current student and teaching oriented higher education (HE) policies in England and Wales. Pressures to reach increasingly higher levels of excellence in both teaching and research challenge existing structures and mechanisms in these researchintensive universities (RIUs). Options for overcoming challenges are discussed by bringing together perspectives of different stakeholders. This thesis is based on analysis of documentary and empirical data to gain insight into perspectives and experiences of stakeholders of the implementation of current HE policies in England and Wales. Documentary data consisting of publicly available material about HE policies has been analysed by an interpretive analysis of policy, and papers about research have been systematically reviewed. The contents of interviews with academics in four RIUs have been analysed in case studies. This study contributes to existing research on ‘professionalism’ (see, for example, Kolsaker, 2008), ‘effective teaching’ (see, for example, Hunter & Back, 2011), and ‘evaluating teaching quality’ (see, for example, Dornan, Tan, Boshuizen, Gick, Isba, Mann, Scherpbier, Spencer, Timmins, 2014). This study also complements The UK Higher Education Academy’s (HEA) research in this area including Gibbs’ report on quality (2010) as well as earlier work on reward and recognition (2009). Key findings give insight into a troublesome relationship between teaching and research activities, which is at the core of many of the challenges RIUs are facing. Findings showing academics strong interest in their students, teaching, and research highlight their engagement in the development of these key activities. These support recommendations for development processes in RIUs involving organisation wide engagement to build parity of esteem between research and teaching to achieve aims to reach their full potential in terms of excellence in HE.
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Chanza, Alfred Witness Dzanja. "An assessment of the motivational value of rewards among health professionals in Malawi's Ministry of Health." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020330.
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The assessment of the motivational value of rewards in the world of work is interesting but difficult to understand. Variations in research reports and inadequate comprehension of the efficiency and motivational value of rewards have brought about confusions, controversies and contradictions among authors, researchers, consultants and practitioners in the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology (Mangham, 2007; Muula, 2006; Muula & Maseko, 2005; Palmer, 2006; World Bank, 2004). As a consequence, organisations are applying theories and models of motivation selectively depending on their beliefs, ideological framework of values and assumptions (Dzimbiri, 2009). The study was therefore carried out as a positive contribution to the existing knowledge and debate on the motivational value of rewards for health professionals in the public health sectors of the developing countries. Through a systematic sampling method, 571 health professionals were sampled for the study. Data were collected through the use of a self-administered questionnaire which was composed based on the data collected from desk research/literature review, focus group discussions and interviews. The findings of the study revealed that the Malawi‟s Ministry of Health (MoH) is failing to attract, motivate and retain health professionals; there is perception of inequity of the rewards among the health professionals; health professionals develop coping strategies to supplement their monthly financial rewards; health professionals engage in corrupt practices to supplement their monthly financial rewards; and there is erosion of industrial democracy in the Malawi‟s Public Health Sector. While the statistical testing of the hypothesized model proved a lack of fit between the variables, the statistical testing of the re-specified model suggests that there is a positive relationship between financial rewards and reward-related problems being faced by health professionals in the Malawi‟s MoH. Through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) exercise, an inverse (negative) relationship between financial and non-financial rewards was deduced, and scientifically and graphically demonstrated. Both the re-specified and graphical models symbolize a pragmatic departure from the theoretical model whose authors (Franco, Bennett, Kanfer & Stubblebine, 2004) are largely inclined to the use of non-financial rewards and suggest that financial rewards should be used with caution. These findings also reject the Herzberg‟s two factor theory (Herzberg, 1960) which claims that financial rewards (salaries) are not a motivator. The major recommendations of the study are that the Franco et al.‟s (2004) model should be adopted and adapted in the Malawi‟s MoH with the view that the value of both financial and non-financial rewards (as motivators) varies from individual to individual due to individual differences and prevailing factors/forces in both the work environment and wider society in which the MoH operates; a hybrid reward system combining the strengths of time-based, performance-based and competence-based reward systems should be developed and implemented; the results of scientifically testing the re-specified model and the inverse (causal) relationship established between financial and non-financial rewards (as demonstrated in a graphic model) should be re-tested with other samples in the public health sectors of the developing countries; and the motivational value of non-financial rewards should be scientifically established and compared with the motivational value of financial rewards used independent of each other in business organisations to make an objective conclusion on the rewards-motivation debate.
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Maglieri, Kristen A. "Assessing preference for and reinforcer value of employee- and manager-selected rewards in an organizational setting." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2005. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1433395.
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Alt, Jonathan K. "Learning from Noisy and Delayed Rewards The Value of Reinforcement Learning to Defense Modeling and Simulation." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/17313.
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited<br>Modeling and simulation of military operations requires human behavior models capable of learning from experi-ence in complex environments where feedback on action quality is noisy and delayed. This research examines the potential of reinforcement learning, a class of AI learning algorithms, to address this need. A novel reinforcement learning algorithm that uses the exponentially weighted average reward as an action-value estimator is described. Empirical results indicate that this relatively straight-forward approach improves learning speed in both benchmark environments and in challenging applied settings. Applications of reinforcement learning in the verification of the re-ward structure of a training simulation, the improvement in the performance of a discrete event simulation scheduling tool, and in enabling adaptive decision-making in combat simulation are presented. To place reinforcement learning within the context of broader models of human information processing, a practical cognitive architecture is devel-oped and applied to the representation of a population within a conflict area. These varied applications and domains demonstrate that the potential for the use of reinforcement learning within modeling and simulation is great.
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Davies, Timothy. "Temporal-difference learning underpins the acquisition of intertemporal preferences for high-value food rewards in humans." Thesis, Bangor University, 2018. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/temporaldifference-learning-underpins-the-acquisition-of-intertemporal-preferences-for-highvalue-food-rewards-in-humans(24c18d0a-22dc-4c0a-a1ac-acd98f9c76fd).html.
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Evolutionary perspectives posit that weight gain, obesity, and associated health complications occur due to the application of inherited foraging strategies in environments where highly-palatable, energy-dense food is easily obtainable (Lieberman, 2006). Human tolerance to risk is an obvious target to test this perspective experimentally. My thesis operationalised risk in terms of delay variability, where young, healthy participants made selections between two schedules that delivered high-value food rewards after either variable or fixed delays. I also applied a suite of computational models to specify the mechanisms of variable or fixed delay schedule preferences. Overall, preferences for variable delay schedules were enhanced when the last food reward received was delivered immediately. Experiment 1 found that this effect was not moderated by an operationalised environment of mild food scarcity. Experiment 2 demonstrated that individuals in states of heightened hunger were more likely to select the variable delay schedule following immediate food delivery. Experiment 3 revealed that individuals who attend towards visual cues that signal the duration of delays before the delivery of food rewards were more likely to select the variable delay schedule following short and fixed delays, but less likely following long delays, suggesting a form of delay aversion. I also found some evidence to suggest that variable delay schedule preferences were sensitive to BMI and temporal discounting, highlighting the potential relevance of this research for understanding food-seeking strategies in populations vulnerable to weight gain. A simple TD n-Step learning model was able to capture the acquisition of preferences when food rewards were delivered after every selection, and motivation to consume the rewards on offer was high. These data suggest that humans value the delivery and consumption of quick food more highly than food that is delayed, and will tolerate risks of longer delays for the possibility of receiving food rewards at the earliest opportunity. The acquisition of variable delay schedule preferences is likely underlined by temporal discounting and learning.
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Metereau, Elise. "Comparaison en IRMf des réseaux cérébraux impliqués dans le traitement de récompenses et de punitions de différente nature au cours de l’apprentissage et de la prise de décision pro-sociale." Thesis, Lyon 2, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011LYO20019.
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Cette thèse repose sur l’idée que les individus prennent des décisions en assignant des valeurs aux conséquences appétitives (récompenses) et aversives (punitions) associées aux différentes options proposées, puis comparent ces valeurs pour sélectionner l’une d’elles. Dans la plupart des cas, ces valeurs sont apprises par essais et erreurs. En neuroscience et neuro-économie, il a été proposé que le cerveau représente ces valeurs de manière abstraite dans une échelle de valeur commune indépendante de la nature des conséquences attendues. Cette hypothèse est soutenue par un grand nombre d’études qui se sont intéressées à l’évaluation et à l’apprentissage des récompenses. Ces études mettent en évidence une implication du mésencéphale, du striatum et du cortex préfrontal dans le traitement de récompense primaires, monétaires, morales ou sociales. Beaucoup moins de travaux se sont intéressés au traitement des punitions. L’objectif de cette thèse est donc de comparer les corrélats cérébraux des processus d’évaluation des stimuli appétitifs et aversifs. Dans un premier temps nous avons utilisé un paradigme d’apprentissage par conditionnement pavlovien pour comparer les régions cérébrales impliquées dans la représentation de l’erreur de prédiction au cours de l’apprentissage avec des récompenses et des punitions gustatives, visuelles et monétaires. Ensuite nous nous sommes intéressés aux régions cérébrales impliquées dans traitement de récompenses et punitions plus abstraites tel que l’approbation sociale ou les considérations morales, dans un contexte de prise de décision pro-sociale. Ces études nous ont permis de démontrer que l’erreur de prédiction et l’évaluation liées à des stimuli appétitifs et aversifs étaient, en partie, sous-tendus par des réseaux cérébraux communs<br>There is a growing consensus in behavioral neuroscience and neuroeconomic that individuals make decisions by assigning values to different options and comparing them to make a choice. Most often, these values are acquired on the basis of trial and error learning. A long-held view is that the brain assigns values to the different goods using an abstract signal that is encoded in a common currency. Multiple studies have found evidence for such value signals in midbrain, striatum and prefrontal cortex during learning or decision making involving primary or secondary rewards. An important open question is whether aversive outcomes expectation and learning engage the same or different valuation networks. The goal of this thesis is thus to compare the brain network involved in appetitive and aversive stimuli valuation. First we used a pavlovian conditioning paradigm to compare the cerebral correlates of prediction error during learning with gustative, visual and monetary rewards and punishments. Second, we investigated the brain regions involved in moral and social rewards and punishments in prosocial decision making. Overall, we found that prediction error and valuation related to appetitive and aversive stimuli are processed in part by common brain networks
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Alizadeh, Pegah. "Elicitation and planning in Markov decision processes with unknown rewards." Thesis, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016USPCD011/document.
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Les processus décisionnels de Markov (MDPs) modélisent des problèmes de décisionsséquentielles dans lesquels un utilisateur interagit avec l’environnement et adapte soncomportement en prenant en compte les signaux de récompense numérique reçus. La solutiond’unMDP se ramène à formuler le comportement de l’utilisateur dans l’environnementà l’aide d’une fonction de politique qui spécifie quelle action choisir dans chaque situation.Dans de nombreux problèmes de décision du monde réel, les utilisateurs ont despréférences différentes, donc, les gains de leurs actions sur les états sont différents et devraientêtre re-décodés pour chaque utilisateur. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressonsà la résolution des MDPs pour les utilisateurs ayant des préférences différentes.Nous utilisons un modèle nommé MDP à Valeur vectorielle (VMDP) avec des récompensesvectorielles. Nous proposons un algorithme de recherche-propagation qui permetd’attribuer une fonction de valeur vectorielle à chaque politique et de caractériser chaqueutilisateur par un vecteur de préférences sur l’ensemble des fonctions de valeur, où levecteur de préférence satisfait les priorités de l’utilisateur. Etant donné que le vecteurde préférences d’utilisateur n’est pas connu, nous présentons plusieurs méthodes pourrésoudre des MDP tout en approximant le vecteur de préférence de l’utilisateur.Nous introduisons deux algorithmes qui réduisent le nombre de requêtes nécessairespour trouver la politique optimale d’un utilisateur: 1) Un algorithme de recherchepropagation,où nous propageons un ensemble de politiques optimales possibles pourle MDP donné sans connaître les préférences de l’utilisateur. 2) Un algorithme interactifd’itération de la valeur (IVI) sur les MDPs, nommé algorithme d’itération de la valeurbasé sur les avantages (ABVI) qui utilise le clustering et le regroupement des avantages.Nous montrons également comment l’algorithme ABVI fonctionne correctement pourdeux types d’utilisateurs différents: confiant et incertain.Nous travaillons finalement sur une méthode d’approximation par critére de regret minimaxcomme méthode pour trouver la politique optimale tenant compte des informationslimitées sur les préférences de l’utilisateur. Dans ce système, tous les objectifs possiblessont simplement bornés entre deux limites supérieure et inférieure tandis que le systèmeine connaît pas les préférences de l’utilisateur parmi ceux-ci. Nous proposons une méthodeheuristique d’approximation par critère de regret minimax pour résoudre des MDPsavec des récompenses inconnues. Cette méthode est plus rapide et moins complexe queles méthodes existantes dans la littérature<br>Markov decision processes (MDPs) are models for solving sequential decision problemswhere a user interacts with the environment and adapts her policy by taking numericalreward signals into account. The solution of an MDP reduces to formulate the userbehavior in the environment with a policy function that specifies which action to choose ineach situation. In many real world decision problems, the users have various preferences,and therefore, the gain of actions on states are different and should be re-decoded foreach user. In this dissertation, we are interested in solving MDPs for users with differentpreferences.We use a model named Vector-valued MDP (VMDP) with vector rewards. We propose apropagation-search algorithm that allows to assign a vector-value function to each policyand identify each user with a preference vector on the existing set of preferences wherethe preference vector satisfies the user priorities. Since the user preference vector is notknown we present several methods for solving VMDPs while approximating the user’spreference vector.We introduce two algorithms that reduce the number of queries needed to find the optimalpolicy of a user: 1) A propagation-search algorithm, where we propagate a setof possible optimal policies for the given MDP without knowing the user’s preferences.2) An interactive value iteration algorithm (IVI) on VMDPs, namely Advantage-basedValue Iteration (ABVI) algorithm that uses clustering and regrouping advantages. Wealso demonstrate how ABVI algorithm works properly for two different types of users:confident and uncertain.We finally work on a minimax regret approximation method as a method for findingthe optimal policy w.r.t the limited information about user’s preferences. All possibleobjectives in the system are just bounded between two higher and lower bounds while thesystem is not aware of user’s preferences among them. We propose an heuristic minimaxregret approximation method for solving MDPs with unknown rewards that is faster andless complex than the existing methods in the literature
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Burton, Kimberley Fay. "The Effects of Cultural, Demographic and Occupational Variables on Individuals' Work Values and Preference for Workplace Reward Type and Allocation." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Psychology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7233.
Full textAbstract:
There is a need for organisations and managers to acknowledge and respond to the increasing diversity in the New Zealand labour force, through making appropriate changes in structures, systems and management. By gaining a greater understanding as to how individuals differ in their work values and reward preferences, the effects of this diversity can be explored and findings could help inform the development of effective compensation systems. This study used a New Zealand sample of 521 participants to investigate the effects of cultural, demographic and occupational variables on work values and preference for workplace rewards and allocations. More specifically, it was hypothesised that differences in culture, marital status, dependents, age, managerial status and employment status would lead to differences in work values and preferences for workplace rewards and allocations. Results showed considerable support for hypotheses. Among findings, within-country cultural differences were reported for Stability work values and for financial reward preference. Certain demographics and occupational variables were also found to relate to particular work values and reward preferences. Practical implications and limitations of this study are discussed.
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Lovick-McDaniel, Tawana. "Nonmonetary Strategies to Increase Employee Job Satisfaction in Nonprofit Organizations." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7553.
Full textAbstract:
Nonprofit organizations' managers face challenges in creating nonmonetary rewards to increase the job satisfaction of staff and productivity of the organization. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the nonmonetary reward strategies that nonprofit organizations' managers used to increase employee job satisfaction. The targeted population included nonprofit managers who had successfully implemented nonmonetary reward strategies to increase employee job satisfaction. Kalleberg's theory of job satisfaction was the conceptual framework for the study. The primary data collection method was semistructured, face-to-face interviews with 3 participants. Secondary data sources included review of company documents such as employee evaluations and work-from-home request forms. Methodological triangulation of data and information was accomplished by comparing data collected from interviews and company documents. Through coding and thematic analysis, 3 primary themes emerged: experience, effective communication, and flexibility. The primary conclusion of this study was that managers use personal experiences as an employee to develop and implement effective reward systems. The implications of this study for social change include the potential to improve employee job satisfaction in nonprofit organizations, which may result in improved employee productivity and promote social development in the community.
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Murtaza, Ghulam. "Unfairness and stress at work : an examination of two competing approaches : organizational justice and effort reward imbalance." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017AIXM0066/document.
Full textAbstract:
L’injustice au travail engendre des émotions négatives chez les employés, ces émotions influencent les résultats du travail. Cette recherche vise à mettre en évidence cette perspective en utilisant deux approches théoriques alternatives de l’injustice au travail : La justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense ainsi que leurs conséquences sur les deux différents échantillons. Basé sur une étude transversale, ce travail compare la justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense en examinant les perceptions de l’injustice par les employés et leurs relations aux rendements au travail au Pakistan (N=583) et en France (N=241). En plus, nous examinons les effets modérateurs des valeurs humaines sur la relation entre l’injustice au travail et le rendement. Cependant, les résultats de l'analyse de la régression hiérarchique révèlent que les deux modèles théoriques de l’injustice (la justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense) étaient positivement liés à l'épuisement lié au travail et à l'intention de départ, et négativement liés à l'engagement organisationnel, et au comportement au travail. Nous avons démontré que les valeurs humaines et la sensibilité à l’équité modèrent la relation entre l’injustice et les conséquences du stress dans les deux échantillons. Nous avons aussi abordé notre contribution à la littérature existante, les multiples implications managériales et les pistes de recherches<br>Unfairness at work often causes in inducing negative emotions among employees that influence their work outcomes or strains. In this research, we seek to advance this perspective by using two alternative theoretical models of unfairness at work: organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance and its consequences on two different samples of employees. Based on cross-sectional two different samples this study offered a comparison between organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance in examining employees' unfair perceptions and their relationships to work outcomes in Pakistan (N=583) and in France (N=241).Further, this research examined the moderating effects of personal human values and equity sensitivity between the relationships of unfairness at work and outcomes. However, results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both theoretical models of unfairness (organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance) were positively related to job-burnout, turnover intention whereas negatively related to organizational commitment, employees’ performance, and employees in role behavior. We also found that personal human values and equity sensitivity moderated the relationship between unfairness and stress outcomes in both samples. Contribution towards the existing literature, managerial implications, and future research direction was also discussed
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Murtaza, Ghulam. "Unfairness and stress at work : an examination of two competing approaches : organizational justice and effort reward imbalance." Electronic Thesis or Diss., Aix-Marseille, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017AIXM0066.
Full textAbstract:
L’injustice au travail engendre des émotions négatives chez les employés, ces émotions influencent les résultats du travail. Cette recherche vise à mettre en évidence cette perspective en utilisant deux approches théoriques alternatives de l’injustice au travail : La justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense ainsi que leurs conséquences sur les deux différents échantillons. Basé sur une étude transversale, ce travail compare la justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense en examinant les perceptions de l’injustice par les employés et leurs relations aux rendements au travail au Pakistan (N=583) et en France (N=241). En plus, nous examinons les effets modérateurs des valeurs humaines sur la relation entre l’injustice au travail et le rendement. Cependant, les résultats de l'analyse de la régression hiérarchique révèlent que les deux modèles théoriques de l’injustice (la justice organisationnelle et le déséquilibre effort-récompense) étaient positivement liés à l'épuisement lié au travail et à l'intention de départ, et négativement liés à l'engagement organisationnel, et au comportement au travail. Nous avons démontré que les valeurs humaines et la sensibilité à l’équité modèrent la relation entre l’injustice et les conséquences du stress dans les deux échantillons. Nous avons aussi abordé notre contribution à la littérature existante, les multiples implications managériales et les pistes de recherches<br>Unfairness at work often causes in inducing negative emotions among employees that influence their work outcomes or strains. In this research, we seek to advance this perspective by using two alternative theoretical models of unfairness at work: organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance and its consequences on two different samples of employees. Based on cross-sectional two different samples this study offered a comparison between organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance in examining employees' unfair perceptions and their relationships to work outcomes in Pakistan (N=583) and in France (N=241).Further, this research examined the moderating effects of personal human values and equity sensitivity between the relationships of unfairness at work and outcomes. However, results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both theoretical models of unfairness (organizational (in)justice and effort-reward imbalance) were positively related to job-burnout, turnover intention whereas negatively related to organizational commitment, employees’ performance, and employees in role behavior. We also found that personal human values and equity sensitivity moderated the relationship between unfairness and stress outcomes in both samples. Contribution towards the existing literature, managerial implications, and future research direction was also discussed
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Glaeser, Amanda. "Differences in current and desired work values amongst academic employees within a Higher Education Institution in the Western Cape." Thesis, University of Western Cape, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3475.
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Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS)<br>Empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that organisations, including higher education
institutions (HEI‘s) have a propensity to focus on extrinsic rewards as a main motivator that attracts and retains staff (Kubler & De Luca, 2006). Twenge, Stacy, Campbell and Hoffman (2010) maintain that work values represent people‘s expectations from the workplace. Studies performed to determine the impact of intrinsic work values, as opposed to extrinsic work values and rewards, indicate that the sustainable factors influencing long-lasting career choices can be found in the attainment of intrinsic work values (Kovach, 1987; Masibigiri & Nienaber, 2011). With respect to leadership behaviours, intrinsic work values and rewards are seldom considered when focusing on the factors that lead to attracting and retaining academic staff. Werner (2011) posits the view that an understanding of underlying work values of employees can assist in sound people practices to foster engagement and retention of staff. Aspects of intrinsic
work values become more important in the context of literature relative to research done about younger generations, who have different expectations from leadership and different ideas of desired work cultures (Sujansky, 2010). Brown (2003), as cited by Patton and McMahon (2009 p.41), states that ―occupational tenure is partially the result of the match between the culture and work values of the worker, supervisor and
colleagues‖. The alignment of leadership culture to strategies is therefore important (Rhodes & Mc Guire, 2009). Moreover, the alignment between desired organizational work values and perceived current work values is contended to influence the effective functioning of a workplace. The current research was undertaken based on a cross-sectional, quantitative survey approach which requested participants to select work values out of a pre-designed list of approximately a hundred possible work-related values as positioned in the vision and mission statements of the institution at
which the research was undertaken. The results of the research indicate that the two younger groups of academic staff who were targeted in this research, accord importance to intrinsic work values which relate to meaningful and fulfilling work.
An analysis of the trends which emerged from the data suggest that leadership and cultural aspects designed to support desired work values may influence successful attraction and retention of these younger generations for academic careers. These findings emphasise the importance for leadership to act in alignment with change needs of academic staff and their own stated vision and mission strategies. The results provide useful insight into the current and perceived work-related values and could be used to inform strategic debates within the HEI. Although tentative in nature, the findings
provide a heuristic framework within which to align work-related values across generations of academics and serve as an impetus for future research.
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Patrocínio, Pedro Tiago Rodrigues. "Estudo de caso no Água Hotels Vale da Lapa Resort & SPA (Análise de Recompensas)." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/7524.
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Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos<br>O tema deste Trabalho Final de Mestrado tem como objectivo central o estudo da retenção dos profissionais do Água Hotels Vale da Lapa Resort&SPA com o sistema de recompensas de que beneficiam. A lógica subjacente ao seu desenvolvimento privilegia, primeiro, uma abordagem sobre os conceitos de recompensa, sistema de recompensas e de retenção, e consequentemente, as estratégias de retenção de talentos tendo em vista a redução da taxa de rotação de pessoal. Foi aplicado um inquérito por questionário aos 33 profissionais da unidade Água Hotels Vale da Lapa Resort&SPA localizada na região do Algarve. A análise dos resultados permite concluir que: 1) é menor a satisfação com o sistema de recompensas entre os colaboradores do sexo feminino; 2) a valorização atribuída às recompensas é maior nos profissionais acima dos 30 anos; 3) os profissionais do Água Hotels Vale da Lapa&SPA valorizam o sistema de recompensas como factor de diferenciação entre empresas; 4) a satisfação com o sistema de recompensas beneficia a retenção dos profissionais na empresa. Na parte final deste Trabalho de projecto são discutidas as principais implicações teóricas e práticas destes resultados, algumas limitações bem como sugestões para futura pesquisa.<br>The subject of this Final Master Work has as its central objective the study of retention of professionals Água Hotels Vale da Lapa Resort & SPA with the system of rewards that benefit. The logic underlying its development focuses, first, an approach to the concepts of reward, reward system and retention, and consequently the talent retention strategies aimed at reducing the rate of staff turnover. The underlying point of its development privileges, first, an approach to the concepts of rewards, rewards system and retention, and consequently the retention strategies aimed at reducing the turnover rate. It was applied an inquire to the 33 workers of Água Hotels Vale da Lapa Resort&SPA located in Algarve. The analyses of the results conclude that: 1) there is less satisfaction with the reward system among female employees; 2) the value attributed to rewards is greater among professionals over age 30; 3) professionals of Água Hotels Vale da Lapa & SPA value the rewards system as a differentiating factor between companies; 4) satisfaction with the system of rewards benefit the retention of professionals in the company. The final part of this Project work discusses the main theoretical and practical implications of these results, some limitations and suggestions for future research.
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Fischer, Ronald. "Organisational justice and culture in Europe : the effects of national culture, structural variables and values on the perceived justice of reward allocation and the impact of justice on work behaviour." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.391875.
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Hollström, Tilda. "What's in it for me? : En kvalitativ fallstudie gällande utvecklingen av ett Employer Value Proposition." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-173260.
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Det ställs idag högre krav på arbetsgivare att uppfattas som attraktiva och intressanta för att kunna särskilja sig från sina konkurrenter och således attrahera kvalificerad arbetskraft. Detta eftersom arbetsmarknaden inom vissa yrken har förändrats vilket innebär att utbudet av kompetent arbetskraft inte speglar de behov som finns. Genom att arbeta med Employer Branding kan arbetsgivare lättare tillgodose kompetensförsörjningen och undvika brist på kompetenta medarbetare. Syftet med denna undersökning var att genom en fallstudie undersöka hur arbetsgivare kan utveckla en enhetlig strategi inom Employer Branding, genom att identifiera delarna i ett Employer Value Proposition. Studien ämnar ge insikter hur organisationer kan stärka attraktiviteten som arbetsgivare samt hur denna strategi kan kommuniceras till nuvarande och potentiella medarbetare. Den metod som användes var kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex informanter på ett Umeå-baserat fastighetsbolag. Studien visade att delarna i ett Employer Value Proposition bör innehålla fem delar för att ses som komplett; affiliation, work content, compensation, benefits och career samt att det kan kommuniceras såväl online som offline. Fallorganisationen bör vid marknadsföring av deras kommande Employer Value Proposition uppmärksamma deras värdegrund, de varierande och utvecklande arbetsuppgifterna, den stora möjligheten att påverka, förmånerna, den trygga anställningen samt de långsiktiga möjligheterna till utveckling inom sin arbetsroll och meningsfullheten att bidra till Umeås utveckling. Dessa faktorer lyfts fram som mest attraktiva och unika samtidigt som de är sanna, tydliga och konkreta vilket är något som rekommenderas i utvecklandet av ett Employer Value Proposition.
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sg, suchan@pacific net, and Su Hoon Chan. "A Theory of Cooperative Learning as Incentive-ValuesExchange: Studies of the Effects of Task-Structures, Rewards and Ability on Academic and Social-Emotional Measures of Mathematics Learning." Murdoch University, 2004. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051019.151329.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD thesis is concerned with the social psychology of cooperative learning and its effects in cognitive and social-emotional domains. It comprises two main studies and two exploratory studies undertaken during two 10-day, 16-hour learning intervention programmes for Maths Word Problem-Solving (MWPS), respectively for 285 and 451 Grade-5 students in Singapore.
Study 1 used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the outcomes of task-structures in an Individual Learning condition and three dyadic Cooperative Learning conditions that varied in the key elements: positive interdependence, individual accountability and group goals. The results indicated that a Cooperative Learning condition with a high level of positive interdependence in combination with a low level of individual accountability resulted in significantly lower MWPS academic achievement and peerself-concept outcomes than the other conditions; whereas the other Cooperative conditions with lower levels of positive interdependence did not differ significantly from the Individual Learning condition in MWPS academic outcomes but produced better peerself-concept outcomes. The discussion theorises how task-structured positive interdependence in cooperative conditions can potentially be so rigid that it limits individual control in overcoming a dyadic partners error. In turn, this increases the likelihood that members of dyads would sink together (rather than swim together) which appears to produce relatively worse MWPS academic outcomes as well as being detrimental to peerself-concept outcomes. Therefore, optimal cooperative learning conditions for mathematics should allow interaction amongst student partners but not preclude individual control over any stage of the learning task.
Study 2 comprised three interrelated investigations of the effects of rewarding learning behaviours and the effects of ability-structures on Individual, Equals (homogeneous) and Mixed (heterogeneous) dyads. All children were eligible to be rewarded for their own MWPS academic mastery achievements, but comparison groups in each of the ability-structures were either eligible or not eligible to be rewarded for displaying target learning behaviours (LB-Rewards or No-LB-Rewards). The academic programme was based on Polyas problem-solving strategies of understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and checking the results. Children in all learning conditions were instructed to use these problem-solving strategies and, according to their differently assigned learning conditions, to use learning behaviours (LBs) either for helping oneself in Individual conditions or helping ones partner in Equals and Mixed conditions. In LB-Rewards conditions, teachers rewarded the childrens displays of the assigned behaviours for learning alone or learning together, whereas in LB-No-Rewards conditions they did not.
The investigation in Study 2a encompassed the same dependent variables as Study 1. The results indicated that for maths (MWPS), Learning Behaviour rewards were detrimental to Individual Learning conditions with significantly lower MWPS gains when the rewards were used compared to when they were not, whereas the opposite pattern was found for Equals where the effects of Learning Behaviour significantly enhanced MWPS outcomes. For peerself-concept, effects varied across the Cooperative conditions Learning Behaviour rewards conditions. An exploratory analysis of High-, Low- and Medium-ability revealed patterns of the inter-relationships between ability-structures and effects of rewarding.
Study 2b is exploratory and involved traversing the traditional theoretical dichotomy of individual vs social learning, to develop a measure combining them both in self-efficacy for learning maths together and learning maths alone. The effects of the various experimental conditions on factors in this measure were explored, allowing detailed insight into the complex, multi-dimensional and dynamic inter-relationships amongst all the variables. The findings have been developed into a theory of Incentive-valuesExchange in Individual- and Cooperative-learning, arguing that there are four main cooperative learning dimensions individual cognitive endeavour, companionate positive influence, individualistic attitudes development and social-emotional endeavour. The argument is that students motivation to learn cooperatively is the product of perceived equalization of reward-outcomes in relation to each dyadic members contributions to learning-goals on these dimensions. Hence, motivation varies across ability-structures and reward-structures in a complex manner. A further proposition of the theory is that social-emotional tendencies and biases form a dynamic system that tends to maintain dyadic partners achievement levels relative to their ability-positioning.
Study 2c is exploratory and extends Study 2b by illustrating its Incentive-valuesExchange theory. Samples of childrens written descriptive reflections of their experiences in cooperative dyads are provided to illustrate the point made about the childrens relationships and effects on each other for each of the factors on the individual- and cooperative-learning scales. As such, this section of the thesis offers a parsimonious explanation of cooperative learning and the effects of various learning conditions on the integrated cognitive, social and emotional domains.
Practical implications in light of the studys findings of optimal conditions include the possibility of practitioners more closely tailoring cooperative learning conditions to meet the academic or social-emotional needs of learners at specific ability levels. Future directions for research include testing some of the learning dimensions and proposed theoretical configurations for them using controls identified by the statistical analyses together with qualitative observations, and further developing new methodologies for investigating the social-psychological causes and consequences of learning motivation.
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Chan, Su Hoon. "A theory of cooperative learning as incentive-values-exchange: studies of the effects of task-structures, rewards and ability on academic and social-emotional measures of mathematics learning." Thesis, Chan, Su Hoon (2004) A theory of cooperative learning as incentive-values-exchange: studies of the effects of task-structures, rewards and ability on academic and social-emotional measures of mathematics learning. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2004. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/512/.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD thesis is concerned with the social psychology of cooperative learning and its effects in cognitive and social-emotional domains. It comprises two main studies and two exploratory studies undertaken during two 10-day, 16-hour learning intervention programmes for Maths Word Problem-Solving (MWPS), respectively for 285 and 451 Grade-5 students in Singapore.
Study 1 used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the outcomes of task-structures in an Individual Learning condition and three dyadic Cooperative Learning conditions that varied in the key elements: positive interdependence, individual accountability and group goals. The results indicated that a Cooperative Learning condition with a high level of positive interdependence in combination with a low level of individual accountability resulted in significantly lower MWPS academic achievement and peer-self-concept outcomes than the other conditions; whereas the other Cooperative conditions with lower levels of positive interdependence did not differ significantly from the Individual Learning condition in MWPS academic outcomes but produced better peer-self-concept outcomes. The discussion theorises how task-structured positive interdependence in cooperative conditions can potentially be so rigid that it limits individual control in overcoming a dyadic partner's error. In turn, this increases the likelihood that members of dyads would 'sink together' (rather than 'swim together') - which appears to produce relatively worse MWPS academic outcomes as well as being detrimental to peer-self-concept outcomes. Therefore, optimal cooperative learning conditions for mathematics should allow interaction amongst student partners but not preclude individual control over any stage of the learning task.
Study 2 comprised three interrelated investigations of the effects of rewarding learning behaviours and the effects of ability-structures on Individual, Equals (homogeneous) and Mixed (heterogeneous) dyads. All children were eligible to be rewarded for their own MWPS academic mastery achievements, but comparison groups in each of the ability-structures were either eligible or not eligible to be rewarded for displaying target learning behaviours (LB-Rewards or No-LB-Rewards). The academic programme was based on Polya's problem-solving strategies of understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and checking the results. Children in all learning conditions were instructed to use these problem-solving strategies and, according to their differently assigned learning conditions, to use learning behaviours (LB-s) either 'for helping oneself' in Individual conditions or 'helping one's partner' in Equals and Mixed conditions. In 'LB-Rewards' conditions, teachers rewarded the children's displays of the assigned behaviours for learning alone or learning together, whereas in 'LB-No-Rewards' conditions they did not.
The investigation in Study 2a encompassed the same dependent variables as Study 1. The results indicated that for maths (MWPS), Learning Behaviour rewards were detrimental to Individual Learning conditions with significantly lower MWPS gains when the rewards were used compared to when they were not, whereas the opposite pattern was found for Equals where the effects of Learning Behaviour significantly enhanced MWPS outcomes. For peer-self-concept, effects varied across the Cooperative conditions' Learning Behaviour rewards conditions. An exploratory analysis of High-, Low- and Medium-ability revealed patterns of the inter-relationships between ability-structures and effects of rewarding.
Study 2b is exploratory and involved traversing the traditional theoretical dichotomy of individual vs social learning, to develop a measure combining them both in 'self-efficacy for learning maths together and learning maths alone'. The effects of the various experimental conditions on factors in this measure were explored, allowing detailed insight into the complex, multi-dimensional and dynamic inter-relationships amongst all the variables. The findings have been developed into a theory of Incentive-values-Exchange in Individual- and Cooperative-learning, arguing that there are four main cooperative learning dimensions - 'individual cognitive endeavour', 'companionate positive influence', 'individualistic attitudes development' and 'social-emotional endeavour'. The argument is that students' motivation to learn cooperatively is the product of perceived equalization of reward-outcomes in relation to each dyadic member's contributions to learning-goals on these dimensions. Hence, motivation varies across ability-structures and reward-structures in a complex manner. A further proposition of the theory is that social-emotional tendencies and biases form a dynamic system that tends to maintain dyadic partners' achievement levels relative to their ability-positioning.
Study 2c is exploratory and extends Study 2b by illustrating its Incentive-values-Exchange theory. Samples of children's written descriptive reflections of their experiences in cooperative dyads are provided to illustrate the point made about the children's relationships and effects on each other for each of the factors on the individual- and cooperative-learning scales. As such, this section of the thesis offers a parsimonious explanation of cooperative learning and the effects of various learning conditions on the integrated cognitive, social and emotional domains.
Practical implications in light of the study's findings of optimal conditions include the possibility of practitioners more closely tailoring cooperative learning conditions to meet the academic or social-emotional needs of learners at specific ability levels. Future directions for research include testing some of the learning dimensions and proposed theoretical configurations for them using controls identified by the statistical analyses together with qualitative observations, and further developing new methodologies for investigating the social-psychological causes and consequences of learning motivation.
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Chan, Su Hoon. "A theory of cooperative learning as incentive-values-exchange : studies of the effects of task-structures, rewards and ability on academic and social-emotional measures of mathematics learning /." Chan, Su Hoon (2004) A theory of cooperative learning as incentive-values-exchange: studies of the effects of task-structures, rewards and ability on academic and social-emotional measures of mathematics learning. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2004. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/512/.
Full textAbstract:
This PhD thesis is concerned with the social psychology of cooperative learning and its effects in cognitive and social-emotional domains. It comprises two main studies and two exploratory studies undertaken during two 10-day, 16-hour learning intervention programmes for Maths Word Problem-Solving (MWPS), respectively for 285 and 451 Grade-5 students in Singapore.
Study 1 used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the outcomes of task-structures in an Individual Learning condition and three dyadic Cooperative Learning conditions that varied in the key elements: positive interdependence, individual accountability and group goals. The results indicated that a Cooperative Learning condition with a high level of positive interdependence in combination with a low level of individual accountability resulted in significantly lower MWPS academic achievement and peer-self-concept outcomes than the other conditions; whereas the other Cooperative conditions with lower levels of positive interdependence did not differ significantly from the Individual Learning condition in MWPS academic outcomes but produced better peer-self-concept outcomes. The discussion theorises how task-structured positive interdependence in cooperative conditions can potentially be so rigid that it limits individual control in overcoming a dyadic partner's error. In turn, this increases the likelihood that members of dyads would 'sink together' (rather than 'swim together') - which appears to produce relatively worse MWPS academic outcomes as well as being detrimental to peer-self-concept outcomes. Therefore, optimal cooperative learning conditions for mathematics should allow interaction amongst student partners but not preclude individual control over any stage of the learning task.
Study 2 comprised three interrelated investigations of the effects of rewarding learning behaviours and the effects of ability-structures on Individual, Equals (homogeneous) and Mixed (heterogeneous) dyads. All children were eligible to be rewarded for their own MWPS academic mastery achievements, but comparison groups in each of the ability-structures were either eligible or not eligible to be rewarded for displaying target learning behaviours (LB-Rewards or No-LB-Rewards). The academic programme was based on Polya's problem-solving strategies of understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and checking the results. Children in all learning conditions were instructed to use these problem-solving strategies and, according to their differently assigned learning conditions, to use learning behaviours (LB-s) either 'for helping oneself' in Individual conditions or 'helping one's partner' in Equals and Mixed conditions. In 'LB-Rewards' conditions, teachers rewarded the children's displays of the assigned behaviours for learning alone or learning together, whereas in 'LB-No-Rewards' conditions they did not.
The investigation in Study 2a encompassed the same dependent variables as Study 1. The results indicated that for maths (MWPS), Learning Behaviour rewards were detrimental to Individual Learning conditions with significantly lower MWPS gains when the rewards were used compared to when they were not, whereas the opposite pattern was found for Equals where the effects of Learning Behaviour significantly enhanced MWPS outcomes. For peer-self-concept, effects varied across the Cooperative conditions' Learning Behaviour rewards conditions. An exploratory analysis of High-, Low- and Medium-ability revealed patterns of the inter-relationships between ability-structures and effects of rewarding.
Study 2b is exploratory and involved traversing the traditional theoretical dichotomy of individual vs social learning, to develop a measure combining them both in 'self-efficacy for learning maths together and learning maths alone'. The effects of the various experimental conditions on factors in this measure were explored, allowing detailed insight into the complex, multi-dimensional and dynamic inter-relationships amongst all the variables. The findings have been developed into a theory of Incentive-values-Exchange in Individual- and Cooperative-learning, arguing that there are four main cooperative learning dimensions - 'individual cognitive endeavour', 'companionate positive influence', 'individualistic attitudes development' and 'social-emotional endeavour'. The argument is that students' motivation to learn cooperatively is the product of perceived equalization of reward-outcomes in relation to each dyadic member's contributions to learning-goals on these dimensions. Hence, motivation varies across ability-structures and reward-structures in a complex manner. A further proposition of the theory is that social-emotional tendencies and biases form a dynamic system that tends to maintain dyadic partners' achievement levels relative to their ability-positioning.
Study 2c is exploratory and extends Study 2b by illustrating its Incentive-values-Exchange theory. Samples of children's written descriptive reflections of their experiences in cooperative dyads are provided to illustrate the point made about the children's relationships and effects on each other for each of the factors on the individual- and cooperative-learning scales. As such, this section of the thesis offers a parsimonious explanation of cooperative learning and the effects of various learning conditions on the integrated cognitive, social and emotional domains.
Practical implications in light of the study's findings of optimal conditions include the possibility of practitioners more closely tailoring cooperative learning conditions to meet the academic or social-emotional needs of learners at specific ability levels. Future directions for research include testing some of the learning dimensions and proposed theoretical configurations for them using controls identified by the statistical analyses together with qualitative observations, and further developing new methodologies for investigating the social-psychological causes and consequences of learning motivation.
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Blini, Elvio A. "Biases in Visuo-Spatial Attention: from Assessment to Experimental Induction." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Padova, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11577/3424480.
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In this work I present several studies, which might appear rather heterogeneous for both experimental questions and methodological approaches, and yet are linked by a common leitmotiv: spatial attention. I will address issues related to the assessment of attentional asymmetries, in the healthy individual as in patients with neurological disorders, their role in various aspects of human cognition, and their neural underpinning, driven by the deep belief that spatial attention plays an important role in various mental processes that are not necessarily confined to perception.
What follows is organized into two distinct sections. In the first I will focus on the evaluation of visuospatial asymmetries, starting from the description of a new paradigm particularly suitable for this purpose. In the first chapter I will describe the effects of multitasking in a spatial monitoring test; the main result shows a striking decreasing in detection performance as a function of the introduced memory load. In the second chapter I will apply the same paradigm to a clinical population characterized by a brain lesion affecting the left hemisphere. Despite a standard neuropsychological battery failed to highlight any lateralized attentional deficit, I will show that exploiting concurrent demands might lead to enhanced sensitivity of diagnostic tests and consequently positive effects on patients’ diagnostic and therapeutic management. Finally, in the third chapter I will suggest, in light of preliminary data, that attentional asymmetries also occur along the sagittal axis; I will argue, in particular, that more attentional resources appear to be allocated around peripersonal space, the resulting benefits extending to various tasks (i.e., discrimination tasks).
Then, in the second section, I will follow a complementary approach: I will seek to induce attentional shifts in order to evaluate their role in different cognitive tasks. In the fourth and fifth chapters this will be pursued exploiting sensory stimulations: visual optokinetic stimulation and galvanic vestibular stimulation, respectively. In the fourth chapter I will show that spatial attention is highly involved in numerical cognition, this relationship being bidirectional. Specifically, I will show that optokinetic stimulation modulates the occurrence of procedural errors during mental arithmetics, and that calculation itself affects oculomotor behaviour in turn. In the fifth chapter I will examine the effects of galvanic vestibular stimulation, a particularly promising technique for the rehabilitation of lateralized attention disorders, on spatial representations. I will discuss critically a recent account for unilateral spatial neglect, suggesting that vestibular stimulations or disorders might indeed affect the metric representation of space, but not necessarily resulting in spatial unawareness. Finally, in the sixth chapter I will describe an attentional capture phenomenon by intrinsically rewarding distracters. I will seek, in particular, to predict the degree of attentional capture from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data and the related brain connectivity pattern; I will report preliminary data focused on the importance of the cingulate-opercular network, and discuss the results through a parallel with clinical populations characterized by behavioural addictions.<br>In questo lavoro presenterò una serie di ricerche che possono sembrare piuttosto eterogenee per quesiti sperimentali e approcci metodologici, ma sono tuttavia legate da un filo conduttore comune: i costrutti di ragionamento e attenzione spaziale. Affronterò in particolare aspetti legati alla valutazione delle asimmetrie attenzionali, nell'individuo sano come nel paziente con disturbi neurologici, il loro ruolo in vari aspetti della cognizione umana, e i loro substrati neurali, guidato dalla convinzione che l’attenzione spaziale giochi un ruolo importante in svariati processi mentali non necessariamente limitati alla percezione.
Quanto segue è stato dunque organizzato in due sezioni distinte. Nella prima mi soffermerò sulla valutazione delle asimmetrie visuospaziali, iniziando dalla descrizione di un nuovo paradigma particolarmente adatto a questo scopo. Nel primo capitolo descriverò gli effetti del doppio compito e del carico attenzionale su un test di monitoraggio spaziale; il risultato principale mostra un netto peggioramento nella prestazione al compito di detezione spaziale in funzione del carico di memoria introdotto. Nel secondo capitolo applicherò lo stesso paradigma ad una popolazione clinica contraddistinta da lesione cerebrale dell’emisfero sinistro. Nonostante una valutazione neuropsicologica standard non evidenziasse alcun deficit lateralizzato dell’attenzione, mostrerò che sfruttare un compito accessorio può portare ad una spiccata maggiore sensibilità dei test diagnostici, con evidenti ricadute benefiche sull'iter clinico e terapeutico dei pazienti. Infine, nel terzo capitolo suggerirò, tramite dati preliminari, che asimmetrie attenzionali possono essere individuate, nell'individuo sano, anche lungo l’asse sagittale; argomenterò, in particolare, che attorno allo spazio peripersonale sembrano essere generalmente concentrate più risorse attentive, e che i benefici conseguenti si estendono a compiti di varia natura (ad esempio compiti di discriminazione).
Passerò dunque alla seconda sezione, in cui, seguendo una logica inversa, indurrò degli spostamenti nel focus attentivo in modo da valutarne il ruolo in compiti di varia natura. Nei capitoli quarto e quinto sfrutterò delle stimolazioni sensoriali: la stimolazione visiva optocinetica e la stimolazione galvanico vestibolare, rispettivamente. Nel quarto capitolo mostrerò che l’attenzione spaziale è coinvolta nella cognizione numerica, con cui intrattiene rapporti bidirezionali. Nello specifico mostrerò da un lato che la stimolazione optocinetica può modulare l’occorrenza di errori procedurali nel calcolo mentale, dall'altro che il calcolo stesso ha degli effetti sull'attenzione spaziale e in particolare sul comportamento oculomotorio. Nel quinto capitolo esaminerò gli effetti della stimolazione galvanica vestibolare, una tecnica particolarmente promettente per la riabilitazione dei disturbi attentivi lateralizzati, sulle rappresentazioni mentali dello spazio. Discuterò in modo critico un recente modello della negligenza spaziale unilaterale, suggerendo che stimolazioni e disturbi vestibolari possano sì avere ripercussioni sulle rappresentazioni metriche dello spazio, ma senza comportare necessariamente inattenzione per lo spazio stesso. Infine, nel sesto capitolo descriverò gli effetti di cattura dell’attenzione visuospaziale che stimoli distrattori intrinsecamente motivanti possono esercitare nell'adulto sano. Cercherò, in particolare, di predire l’entità di questa cattura attenzionale partendo da immagini di risonanza magnetica funzionale a riposo: riporterò dati preliminari focalizzati sull'importanza del circuito cingolo-opercolare, effettuando un parallelismo con popolazioni cliniche caratterizzate da comportamenti di dipendenza.
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Hult, Carl. "The way we conform to paid labour : Commitment to employment and organization from a comparative perspective." Doctoral thesis, Umeå : Sociologiska institutionen, Umeå universitet, 2004. http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_umu_diva-343-1__fulltext.pdf.
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Hobart, Leigh. "The current context of Queensland primary teacher engagement with professional learning through professional associations." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/46122/1/Leigh_Hobart_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Engaging Queensland primary teachers in professional associations can be a challenge, particularly for subject-specific associations. Professional associations are recognised providers of professional learning. By not being involved in professional associations primary teachers are missing potential quality professional learning opportunities that can impact the results of their students. The purpose of the research is twofold: Firstly, to provide a thorough understanding of the current context in order to assist professional associations who wish to change from their current level of primary teacher engagement; and secondly, to contribute to the literature in the area of professional learning for primary teachers within professional associations. Using a three part research design, interviews of primary teachers and focus groups of professional association participants and executives were conducted and themed to examine the current context of engagement. Force field analysis was used to provide the framework to identify the driving and restraining forces for primary teacher engagement in professional learning through professional associations. Communities of practice and professional learning communities were specifically examined as potential models for professional associations to consider. The outcome is a diagrammatic framework outlining the current context of primary teacher engagement, specifically the driving and restraining forces of primary teacher engagement with professional associations. This research also identifies considerations for professional associations wishing to change their level of primary teacher engagement. The results of this research show that there are key themes that provide maximum impact if wishing to increase engagement of primary teachers in professional associations. However the implications of this lies with professional associations and their alignment between intent and practice dedicated to this change.