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

This paper presents a theoretical model of situation awareness based on its role in dynamic human decision making in a variety of domains. Situation awareness is presented as a predominant concern in system operation, based on a descriptive view of decision making. The relationship between situation awareness and numerous individual and environmental factors is explored. Among these factors, attention and working memory are presented as critical factors limiting operators from acquiring and interpreting information from the environment to form situation awareness, and mental models and goal-directed behavior are hypothesized as important mechanisms for overcoming these limits. The impact of design features, workload, stress, system complexity, and automation on operator situation awareness is addressed, and a taxonomy of errors in situation awareness is introduced, based on the model presented. The model is used to generate design implications for enhancing operator situation awareness and future directio...

Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems

The authors address the role of marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments (CMEs). Their approach considers hypermedia CMEs to be large-scale (i.e., national or global) networked enviro...

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Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations

Undergraduates expressed their attitudes about a product after being exposed to a magazine ad under conditions of either high or low product involvement. The ad contained either strong or weak arguments for the product and featured either prominent sports celebrities or average citizens as endorsers. The manipulation of argument quality had a greater impact on attitudes under high than low involvement, but the manipulation of product endorser had a greater impact under low than high involvement. These results are consistent with the view that there are two relatively distinct routes to persuasion.

/pdf/central-and-peripheral-routes-to-advertising-effectiveness-3df6ux9pca.pdf

Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement

The purpose of this article is to review basic empirical results from the psychological literature in a way that provides a useful foundation for research on consumer knowledge. A conceptual organization for this diverse literature is provided by two fundamental distinctions. First, consumer expertise is distinguished from product-related experience. Second, five distinct aspects, or dimensions, of expertise are identified: cognitive effort, cognitive structure, analysis, elaboration, and memory. Improvements in the first two dimensions are shown to have general beneficial effects on the latter three. Analysis, elaboration, and memory are shown to have more specific interrelationships. The empirical findings related to each dimension are reviewed and, on the basis of those findings, specific research hypotheses about the effects of expertise on consumer behavior are suggested.

Dimensions of Consumer Expertise

We examine the applicability of Anderson's (1982) procedural learning framework to consumer decision making within the context of how marketing communications influence people's procedural knowledge about selecting decision criteria for a buying decision. In particular, we explore the importance of explicit, conditional “if-then” statements (e.g., “if you are choosing amongst ..., then you should ...”) in which the recommended decision-making operation is compatible with prior procedural knowledge. We test this framework in an exploratory study on advertising effects on women's decision criteria for fitness centers.

Procedural learning, consumer decision making, and marketing communication

Persuasion by Design: The State of Expertise on Visual Inﬂuence Tactics

Retrospective Reports on Consumer Decision Processes: QI Can Remember If I Want To, But Why Should I Bother Trying?Q

The electromigration lifetimes of aluminum lines with low capacitance air-gap structures is evaluated and compared to the case of traditional gapfill passivation. Electromigration lifetime of air-gap interconnect structures is determined to be significantly higher than that of the gapfill case. Failure analysis indicates that the elasticity of the airgap sidewall passivation reduces the line stress incurred during electromigration and increases the time necessary to reach the critical stress for void nucleation. Simulations support the experimental results. Capacitance measurements and simulations show the air-gap structures reduce capacitance by as much as 40%.

Electromigration reliability of low capacitance air-gap interconnect structures

The fabrication of submicrometer contacts of Al, PtSi, TiN, and CVD W to both arsenic- and boron-doped junctions using e-beam lithography and photolithography in a mix-and-match mode is described. The contact resistances obtained indicate that this will not be a major barrier for future ULSI scaling. The measured resistance values are compared to those obtained using a 2-D model and the discrepancies are discussed. A generalized scaling law for electromigration at contacts is also developed by taking into account the current distribution in the contact area. >

Peter Wright

Papers

Procedural learning, consumer decision making, and marketing communication

Persuasion by Design: The State of Expertise on Visual Inﬂuence Tactics

Retrospective Reports on Consumer Decision Processes: QI Can Remember If I Want To, But Why Should I Bother Trying?Q

Electromigration reliability of low capacitance air-gap interconnect structures

Low-resistance submicrometer contacts to silicon