Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User

Valid measurement scales for predicting user acceptance of computers are in short supply. Most subjective measures used in practice are unvalidated, and their relationship to system usage is unknown. The present research develops and validates new scales for two specific variables, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which are hypothesized to be fundamental determinants of user acceptance. Definitions of these two variables were used to develop scale items that were pretested for content validity and then tested for reliability and construct validity in two studies involving a total of 152 users and four application programs. The measures were refined and streamlined, resulting in two six-item scales with reliabilities of .98 for usefulness and .94 for ease of use. The scales exhibited hgih convergent, discriminant, and factorial validity. Perceived usefulness was significnatly correlated with both self-reported current usage r = .63, Study 1) and self-predicted future usage r = .85, Study 2). Perceived ease of use was also significantly correlated with current usage r = .45, Study 1) and future usage r = .59, Study 2). In both studies, usefulness had a signficnatly greater correaltion with usage behavior than did ease of use. Regression analyses suggest that perceived ease of use may actually be a causal antecdent to perceived usefulness, as opposed to a parallel, direct determinant of system usage. Implications are drawn for future research on user acceptance.

Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology

There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

This survey of attitude theory and research published between 1996 and 1999 covers the conceptualization of attitude, attitude formation and activation, attitude structure and function, and the attitude-behavior relation. Research regarding the expectancy-value model of attitude is considered, as are the roles of accessible beliefs and affective versus cognitive processes in the formation of attitudes. The survey reviews research on attitude strength and its antecedents and consequences, and covers progress made on the assessment of attitudinal ambivalence and its effects. Also considered is research on automatic attitude activation, attitude functions, and the relation of attitudes to broader values. A large number of studies dealt with the relation between attitudes and behavior. Research revealing additional moderators of this relation is reviewed, as are theory and research on the link between intentions and actions. Most work in this context was devoted to issues raised by the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. The present review highlights the nature of perceived behavioral control, the relative importance of attitudes and subjective norms, the utility of adding more predictors, and the roles of prior behavior and habit.

http://psych415.class.uic.edu/Readings/Ajzen,%20Attitude%20theory,%20AnnRevPsy,%202001.pdf

Nature and Operation of Attitudes

A review is presented of the book “Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment,” edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman.

Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment

A number of problems associated with non-compensatory and compensatory decision rules are discussed It is suggested that these problems could be avoided if the rules are seen as operators in a search for a dominance structure, that is, a cognitive structure in which one choice alternative can be seen as dominant over the others The search for a dominance structure is assumed to go through four stages, viz, pre-editing, finding a promising alternative, dominance testing, and dominance structuring Each of these stages is related to particular decision rules Finally, directions are suggested for future research based on the framework presented in the paper

Decision Rules and the Search for a Dominance Structure: Towards a Process Model of Decision Making*

.— It is suggested that a decision in a complex situation can be described as a sequential process in which different decision rules and information processing strategies can be used at different points in time. Examples of possible decision rules are presented in an approximate order of complexity. Two ways for processing the information in a decision situation, viz., breadth-first or depth-first strategies, are discussed and suggestions are made about their relationship to particular decision rules. Finally, it is proposed that the order of application of particular rules in a decision process is guided by a tendency to minimize cognitive effort.

On decision rules and information processing strategies for choices among multiattribute alternatives

From cognition to action: The search for dominance in decision making.

The purpose of this study was to find the constituents of empathizers' and targets' experiences of empathy. We analyzed 28 empathizers' and 28 targets' narrative accounts of situations when they had experienced empathy. From both perspectives, the constituents of empathy included that (1) the empathizer understands the target's situation and emotions, (2) the target experiences one or more emotions, (3) the empathizer perceives a similarity between what the target is experiencing and something the empathizer has experienced previously, and (4) the empathizer is concerned for the target's well-being. The data suggested that actions associated with the fourth constituent - concern - make empathy an interpersonal phenomenon.

Empathy as an Interpersonal Phenomenon

According to Zsambok (1993), naturalistic decision making is "the way people use their experience to make decisions in field settings." The objective of this volume is to present recent advances in ...

/pdf/how-professionals-make-decisions-4rocgj9rhq.pdf

Henry Montgomery

Papers

Decision Rules and the Search for a Dominance Structure: Towards a Process Model of Decision Making*

On decision rules and information processing strategies for choices among multiattribute alternatives

From cognition to action: The search for dominance in decision making.

Empathy as an Interpersonal Phenomenon

How professionals make decisions.