The Case for Animal Privacy in the Design of Technologically Supported Environments

Privacy is an essential consideration when designing interactive systems for humans. However, at a time when interactive technologies are increasingly targeted at non-human animals and deployed within multispecies contexts, the question arises as to whether we should extend privacy considerations to other animals. To address this question, we revisited early scholarly work on privacy, which examines privacy dynamics in non-human animals (henceforth “animals”). Then, we analysed animal behaviour literature describing privacy-related behaviours in different species. We found that animals use a variety of separation and information management mechanisms, whose function is to secure their own and their assets' safety, as well as negotiate social interactions. In light of our findings, we question tacit assumptions and ordinary practises that involve human technology and that affect animal privacy. Finally, we draw implications for the design of interactive systems informed by animals' privacy requirements and, more broadly, for the development of privacy-aware multispecies interaction design.

OSCE rater cognition – an international multi-centre qualitative study

Introduction This study aimed to explore the decision-making processes of raters during objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), in particular to explore the tacit assumptions and beliefs of raters as well as rater idiosyncrasies. Methods Thinking aloud protocol interviews were used to gather data on the thoughts of examiners during their decision-making, while watching trigger OSCE videos and rating candidates. A purposeful recruiting strategy was taken, with a view to interviewing both examiners with many years of experience (greater than six years) and those with less experience examining at final medical examination level. Results Thirty-one interviews were conducted in three centres in three different countries. Three themes were identified during data analysis, entitled ‘OSCEs are inauthentic’, ‘looking for glimpses of truth’ and ‘evolution with experience’. Conclusion Raters perceive that the shortcomings of OSCEs can have unwanted effects on student behaviour. Some examiners, more likely the more experienced group, may deviate from an organisations directions due to perceived shortcomings of the assessment. No method of assessment is without flaw, and it is important to be aware of the limitations and shortcomings of assessment methods on student performance and examiner perception. Further study of assessor and student perception of OSCE performance would be helpful.

Beyond Stereotypes: Using Socioemotional Selectivity Theory to Improve Messaging to Older Adults

The tremendous heterogeneity in functional and demographic characteristics of the over-65 age group presents challenges to effective marketing and public-health communications. Messages grounded on tacit assumptions that older people are frail, incompetent, and needy risk being overlooked by most of the older population; on the other hand, ignoring age-associated vulnerabilities is problematic. We argue that although traditional approaches to market segmentation based on chronological age often fail, reliable age differences in motivation influence the types of information that older people typically prefer, attend to, and remember, and these differences can be used to inform communication efforts. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that as future time horizons grow limited—as they typically do with age—emotional goals are prioritized over goals that focus on exploration. As time left becomes more limited, positive messages are remembered better than negative ones, and products that help people savor the moment are preferred over those that benefit the long-term future. In addition, emphasizing individual strengths and personal resilience is likely to be especially appealing to older people.

Experimental and Cross-Cultural Epistemology

Chapter 10 examines how contemporary trends in experimental philosophy can benefit from the study of Buddhist epistemology. In particular, it explores the question of whether an appreciation of Buddhist epistemology could inform philosophers about both the merits of experimental epistemology and experimental philosophy’s emphasis on probing intuitions about knowledge. The second half of the chapter steps back from this examination of experimental philosophy and argues that there is value to be found in contemporary philosophers learning more about other traditions of epistemological theorizing, including the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions of epistemology. Among other things, it can serve to change the way we view our own tradition of epistemology and lay bare the tacit assumptions that undergird contemporary discussions of knowledge.

Many realities, one world: Dharavi, stranded migrants, and the lockdown in India

In India a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID has stranded 600 million internal migrants, laborers who move within the country from its underdeveloped regions to cities and production hubs. My own experience of the pandemic in Michigan has prompted reflections on links between past experiences with an educational project for children in a slum in Mumbai and the situation of stranded migrants in India today. Although the pandemic knows no boundaries, some groups are disproportionately impacted and experience greater vulnerabilities. But while some stories are foregrounded, the struggles of female migrants are nearly invisible. Although “displaced” from India presently, I juxtapose earlier tacit assumptions related to Dharavi’s children with the present reality of the lockdown where gender is invisible.

OSCE Rater Cognition – An International Multi-centre Qualitative Study.

Introduction This study aimed to explore the decision-making processes of raters during objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), in particular to explore the tacit assumptions and beliefs of raters as well as rater idiosyncrasies.MethodsThinking aloud protocol interviews were used to gather data on the thoughts of examiners during their decision-making, while watching trigger OSCE videos and rating candidates. A purposeful recruiting strategy was taken, with a view to interviewing both examiners with many years of experience and those with less experience examining at final medical examination level.ResultsThirty-one interviews were conducted in three centres in three different countries. Three themes were identified during data analysis, entitled ‘OSCEs are inauthentic’, ‘looking for glimpses of truth’ and ‘evolution with experience’. ConclusionThis study gives an insight into how raters approach OSCEs, and how the perceived shortcomings of OSCEs affect how examiners consider candidate behaviours. Some examiners, more likely the more experienced group, may deviate from an organisation’s instructions due to perceived shortcomings of the assessment.

Utopia without us?

As the prospect of self-authored human extinction increasingly appears as a plausible scenario of human futures, a growing number of efforts aim at comprehending it as the prospect of the world without us. Patrícia Vieira convincingly shows in her essay on utopia and dystopia in the Anthropocene that utopianism has become a prominent interpretive strategy to render the possibility of human extinction meaningful. This brief reflection argues against the feasibility of considering the world without us in utopian terms. It identifies three tacit assumptions in utopian interpretations of our disappearance: they (1) take for granted that prospects of human extinction and post-apocalyptic themes are of the same kind; (2) presume that the biological character of human extinction needs no special attention when situating it with the social character of utopian thinking; and (3) remain committed to an anthropocentric view in assuming that we are the ones to attribute meaning even to the world defined by our absence. In challenging these assumptions, the essay develops three theses on the relation of utopia and the prospect of the world without us.

Under Material Skin Lie the Bones of Identity

This paper explores the automated recognition of objects and materials and their relation to depictions in images of all kinds: photographs, artwork, doodles by children, and any other visual representation. The way artists of all cultures, ages and skill levels depict objects and materials furnishes a gamut of ‘depictions’ so wide as to present a severe challenge to current algorithms — none of them perform satisfactorily across any but a few types of depiction. Indeed, most algorithms exhibit a significant performance loss when the images used are non photographic in nature. This loss can be explained using the tacit assumptions that underlay nearly every algorithm for recognition. Appeal to the art history literature provides an alternative set of assumptions, that are more robust to variations in depiction and which offer new ways forward for automated image analysis. This is important, not just to advance computer vision, but because of the new understanding and applications that it opens.

Using Reflective Videos to Enhance Entrepreneurial Learning

Reflection is a key component of learning. However, getting students to reflect critically and in-depth can present a challenge. In this exploratory study we show how using reflective video clips can trigger and support reflection in entrepreneurship education. Data from 77 reflective video clips from a cohort of BA students in Denmark and Finland were analyzed to help understand how these clips had stimulated reflection, the nature of the reflection and its outcomes in terms of students’ learning. Findings show that the video clips provided a useful vehicle for stimulating in-depth reflection, reflection that brought to the fore tacit assumptions, helped make sense of experiences and even led to a level of personal reframing in relation to entrepreneurship that changed career aspirations.