Chuck Huff
1) Moral Exemplars in Computing
Based on “life-story” interviews with computer professionals
in the UK and Scandinavia who have been identified by an expert
panel as moral exemplars in the profession. We also have big-5
 personality data on each respondent. How do these people see
the stories of their lives? What differences are there based
on gender, culture, industry vs. academia, reformers vs. helpers,
older vs. younger etc.? How can this help us understand moral
commitment and action in professional life? How can this inform
the way
we teach moral and ethical issues to professional
(and liberal arts students)? We are still transcribing interviews
and getting them approved by interviewees (should be done
by summer 2005). We have done some preliminary coding of interviews
but have yet to do the real hard-core work. This needs someone
willing to get immersed in the literature and be creative
about designing coding approaches, but also willing to organize
the hard grunt work of actually doing them.
2) Schema-based moral reasoning
Based on a mostly-developed scale of four dimensions of moral
reasoning: justice, care, sacredness, self-interest. The scale
is designed to track the moral schemas that are primed by
particular situations rather than to track the “moral
development stage” of a particular individual. But it
could also track whether a particular person was “schematic”
for a particular dimension. This needs a final validation
study that both shows the scale(s) correlate with other, established
scales and that explores the situational priming and schematicity
aspects of the scales. Much prep has already been done for
this study, but it needs a motivated organizer to get it all
pulled together and done. Folks interested in using this scale
to ask questions about how religious people do moral reasoning,
or how politics affects moral reasoning are welcome to join
and help design studies that use the scale.
3) Scale
design for ethical expertise in computing.
This is only in the very preliminary stages. I am working
with Simon Rogerson of Demontfort Univ. in Leicester, UK to
design two different scales of ethical expertise: a values
based scale and a skills based scale.The
values based scale would likely use a “least favored
co-worker” paradigm to look for the virtues desired in
a co-worker. The skills based scale would involve detecting
the ethical issues in a complex case. Both these may be too
early in development for student collaboration, but if you
are willing to read a raft of literature and become familiar
with some statistical scaling issues, then you could get in
on the ground floor.All these programs offer opportunity for
practicing the kinds of skills that look good on a graduate
school application, but also on an application for management
positions. (1) and (2) likely would lead to relatively quick
(e.g. 1-2 years) presentation and publication of results.
(3) might do so, but is a much more risky bet. |
Bonnie
Sherman
Francis Galton first used the term “number form”
in the 1880’s to describe certain individuals’ persistent
cognitive representations of numbers. Since then, research has identified
number forms as a type of synesthesia, a union of senses in which
each number is perceived in a specific and consistent spatial representation.
Based on certain characteristics, individuals can be classified
as having either idiosyncratic (I), horizontal (H) or no forms (N).
Our research, examining the influence of number forms on the performance
of basic arithmetic, suggests that people with number forms may
be less accurate on these types of tasks. Sir Francis Galton (1822
1911) has contributed to many fields including psychology, meteorology,
genetics, statistics, anthropology, and criminology. Galton first
started his work with number forms in the 1880s, focusing mostly
on case studies of individuals with number forms. His work provided
a foundation for research on this topic and also spurred many questions
for future study including the effect of number forms on simple
arithmetic. |
Howard Thorsheim
Working together with students in my research group, my research interest is "cognitive load" and "cognitive arousal" using physiological and behavioral measures. It is known that information is additive in its demand on a limited attention budget. As one's attention budget becomes depleted by too many things to pay attention to, people experience cognitive overload. Practical implications of the research may be to provide insight into the possible relationships among cognitive overload and stress, resulting in new ways to reduce stress during examinations, and stress leading to aggression on the road known as road rage. An example of this is a feeling sometimes experienced when drawing a blank on an exam for something one has tried to study by cramming, or driving and saying to one's companion, "Wait! I can't talk now there are too many things going on in the traffic for me to pay attention to talking with you as well!" If this sounds interesting to you, let's talk! You and your particular interests could make a significant contribution to our research group. |
Donna McMillan
The Human Relationship with the Natural World.
My research focuses on the psychological significance of the natural  world,investigating how nature affects people, as well as how human attitudes and behaviors affect the natural environment. I explore the effects that interaction (or lack of interaction) with the natural world can have on a wide range of affective, cognitive, and behavioral variables.. In addition I research how human behaviors, values, attitudes, beliefs, and cultural practices affect the natural world. In this area, my research focuses on the effects of consumer culture on the natural environment, in particular examining what effects a materialistic value orientation has on the natural world and on human lives
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