H. van Oostendorp

Enhancing Online Community Activity: Development and validation of the CA framework

Factors contributing to development of active communities are identified and combined into the Community Activity framework, which is useful in setting up new, or revitalizing inactive, communities. Found factors include: notifying members of new messages by e-mail, having a news section, and ability to add pictures to member profiles. During application of the framework to an inactivecommunity,changeshavebeenmadetoprivacyoptions,polls,activitynotifications,andother areas. Significant positive effects have been found in the number of visits, volume of posted messages, and number of topics. Interest of community members in both user profiles and the message board increased significantly. We conclude that the Community Activity framework is able to contribute in developing active online communities.

Virtual Vandalism: The Effect of Physical Incivilities on the Affective Appraisal of 3D Urban Models

3D models of an urban area were manipulated to create an impression of neglect and dilapidation. In an experimental study the affective appraisals of the original and the manipulated models were compared. Results demonstrate that unfavourable elements in an urban environment, that are usually omitted from 3D models, influence the appraisal of the participants about the area, but only slightly and less than expected. Moreover, the judgment of the environment seems to be influenced by expectations of the representation. When 3D models are used for decision making in urban planning, this effect has to be taken into account. The experiment thus demonstrates that measuring instruments should be designed in such a way that the content (the environment) can be assessed separately from the chosen representation.

Memory for Text

Processes such as making inferences and integrations, and constructing and updating situation models during text comprehension determine the quality of the representation that is stored in episodic memory. This article examines the textual, individual, and contextual factors that are relevant to the construction process of this episodic memory representation.