Norman K. Powell

The role of cognitive style in educational computer conferencing

This paper reports an investigation of the impact of students’ cognitive style on their effective use of educational text-based computer-mediated conferences. The research centres on an empirical study involving students from three courses run by the British Open University. Statistical analysis of the data does not suggest that cognitive style has a strong influence on student participation in the conference, but does suggest that, contrary to expectations, ‘imagers’ may send more messages to conferences than ‘verbalisers’. The data also suggest a possible link between certain cognitive styles and course completion, and that the interaction of different styles within a group, as described by ) team roles, may have an indirect influence on task completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human interactions and personal space in collaborative virtual environments

As humans start to spend more time in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) it becomes important to study their interactions in such environments. One aspect of such interactions is personal space. To begin to address this, we have conducted empirical investigations in a non immersive virtual environment: an experiment to investigate the influence on personal space of avatar gender, and an observational study to further explore the existence of personal space. Experimental results give some evidence to suggest that avatar gender has an influence on personal space although the participants did not register high personal space invasion anxiety, contrary to what one might expect from personal space invasion in the physical world. The observational study suggests that personal space does exist in CVEs, as the users tend to maintain, in a similar way to the physical world, a distance when they are interacting with each other. Our studies provide an improved understanding of personal space in CVEs and the results can be used to further enhance the usability of these environments.

Bridging the gap between production management and economics Part 1 A micro production model

This paper attempts to bridge the gap between where economic theory leaves the concept of the production function and where the pragmatic production manager stands, devoid of an adequate theoretical understanding of the multivariate, compounding set of real-time factors associated with manufacturing systems. The mathematical approach has been changed from calculus to topology in an attempt to provide a more visual vehicle for everyday use. Essentially the topological building block is a three-dimensional vector space which is used to model both the microeconomic and the microproduction function. As the number of dimensions in the model increases to match practical needs, so a new method of defining the production function was evolved.

Enhancing human-computer-interaction in collaborative virtual environment

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are recently getting more popularity as mediums for conducting virtual interactions. Little is known, however, about the difficulties the CVE users experience during interactions in these environments and the means to make such interactions more productive. To begin to address this, we first, review the results of several CVE researchers about personal space (i.e. preferred interpersonal distance) and personal space invasion anxiety level. Second, we propose an interaction model to relief the CVE users form the feeling of anxiety by protecting their personal space from invasion, and thus enhancing the quality of these interactions in the CVEs.

Evaluation of human interactions in virtual reality environments

While personal space invasion anxiety has been studied widely in the physical world, little research has been conducted about it in virtual reality environments. This paper, then, discusses and evaluates the anxiety level caused by personal space invasion in a virtual reality environment (VRE) using two different methodologies. The results of the two approached did not straightforwardly parallel each other and possible reasons for that are presented and discussed.

An Identification of Four Examples of Fuzzy Set Membership Classes in Production Function Modelling at Micro and Macro Levels

This paper follows the arguments developed in two earlier papers on production function modelling.