Ard Heuvelman - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ard Heuvelman

Ninth Annual SIGCHI.NL Conference, 2005

In this experiment we investigate how older adults perceive an embodied agent as compared to youn... more In this experiment we investigate how older adults perceive an embodied agent as compared to younger people in the context of an information giving task. Our results show that older adults found the agent less friendly and likeable than the younger participants in our experiment, and that they had a strong preference for a human presenter. However, the older adults were relatively positive on some aspects of the agent's presentation, and their task performance for agent and human presenter was similar.

What kind of thief are you? Linking perceptions, personality traits and music taste to illegal do... more What kind of thief are you? Linking perceptions, personality traits and music taste to illegal downloading- how preferences, traits and notions affect online crime

newspapers: differences in reader consumption and recall

Entertainment product reviews are the subject of research in three fields; marketing research loo... more Entertainment product reviews are the subject of research in three fields; marketing research looks at review effects on movie performance and profitability, communication research inspects the rise of online consumer reviews, and a much smaller number of investigators focus on possible influences others' opinions can have on an individual's entertainment evaluation. The current study attempted to combine these fields by proposing an exploratory model that charts influence of critical reviews versus consumer reviews on post-viewing evaluation with involvement as a potential moderator, and tested this model for a short film in a controlled experiment. The results indicated polarised negative reviews can reduce enjoyment and involvement, though conclusions are tentative. Recommendations are made from the data to develop a confirmatory model that can unite the disparate fields of research.

This study tried to find the influence of gender and dominance on judgment of social media profil... more This study tried to find the influence of gender and dominance on judgment of social media profiles. Dominance was manipulated by using a high or low camera angle in photos and by putting different descriptions on the profile. The study especially focused on the influence of gender (of both the person in the photos, as the subjects) and the influence of descriptions and photos on dominance. A pilot study was done to choose the best photos for the profile and to check if the descriptions, based on five personality factors, were adequate. For the main experiment 82 subjects participated in an internet survey. In this survey the subjects filled in TIPI-tests to judge a male and a female social media profile on five personality factors. The results indicated that the man was not judged as more dominant than the woman. However, men were more extreme in judging the profiles, which confirmed the idea that men have more stereotype ideas than women. The descriptions seemed to be more influen...

The present research proposes a theory about the relationship between media news exposure and int... more The present research proposes a theory about the relationship between media news exposure and intended political participation based on the theory of planned behavior by Ajzen (1988). The main goal was to detect the causes of decreased political participation in Western societies and men’s higher political participation compared to women. This study examined the role of news consumption patterns through communication in the context of predicting intended political participation among Dutch and German college students. Two kinds of communication, interpersonal and through media were studied separately. An analysis of survey data (N = 104) showed no strong moderator role of the favorite media news source (Television, Newspapers, Internet). A significant medial influence of the two interpersonal communication variables, community integration and reflective integration on the relationship between media news exposure and political participation, could be demonstrated. The generally assum...

Poetics, 2015

With the advent of online consumer reviews, research into the way consumer and traditional review... more With the advent of online consumer reviews, research into the way consumer and traditional reviews relate to mainstream popularity of entertainment media has been predicated on aggregate results, such as box-office figures for movies. The current study adds to this field by proposing an exploratory model that charts the influence of both types of review on individual readers’ post-viewing evaluations. A controlled experiment was performed, observing credibility, trait empathy and viewer involvement with content. Results indicated that polarized, negative reviews lower enjoyment through reducing involvement. Moreover, credibility of reviews did not play a role in the effects found, with the least trustworthy review exerting the biggest influence. Recommendations are made from the data to develop a confirmatory model that can unite findings and theories from psychological, sociological, and market research.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005

Increasingly, embodied agents take over tasks which are traditionally performed by humans. But ho... more Increasingly, embodied agents take over tasks which are traditionally performed by humans. But how do users perceive these embodied agents? In this paper, we describe an experiment in which we compared a real person and a virtual character giving route instructions. The voice, the outfit and the gestures were kept (close to) identical for both cases. The participants judged them, among other things, on trustworthiness, personality and presentation style. In contrast to the outcome of earlier investigations, in most categories the agent scored better or comparable to the human guide. This suggests that embodied agents are suitable to take the place of humans in information-giving applications, provided that natural sounding speech and natural looking nonverbal behaviors can be achieved.

Journal of Educational Media, 1996

While the European Union recognises the importance of ageing and falling populations in a number ... more While the European Union recognises the importance of ageing and falling populations in a number of official documents, the findings require focus. In this article, the author first identifies the documents' failure to name a target birth rate. Second, he stresses that the often mentioned fertility level of an average of 1.5 children per woman underestimates the real figure. Thirdly, he points out the futility of fertility policies when ageing processes will continue regardless of birth rate changes. In response, policies must be coordinated in a number of areas including gender policy, employment policy, immigration policy, housing policy, family policy and economic policy.

In this study, the relationship between personality and a preference for either arthouse or mains... more In this study, the relationship between personality and a preference for either arthouse or mainstream movies is investigated. Research on this topic is very ample. By means of a survey, personality is assessed using the NEO-FFI and preference for either type of movies is assessed by using nine statements and summaries based on non-existent movies. The subjects were mainly University students. Results show that a significant effect has been found between a preference for arthouse movies (based on the nine statements) and the openness personality trait. The summaries didn't measure a difference between arthouse and mainstream, therefore a suggestion for future research is using scenes from real movies instead of movie summaries.

Learning, Media and Technology, 2011

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2009

As our climate is changing, it seems we are increasingly facing climate-related disasters like hu... more As our climate is changing, it seems we are increasingly facing climate-related disasters like hurricanes, floods and droughts. Although not every disaster may be climate or weather related, the beginning of the 21st century saw a number of very serious natural disasters. Typhoons in 2006 in China, the Philippines and Vietnam, and hurricane Katrina in 2005 in the US, to name a few, killed thousands of people. In addition, of course, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and following tsunami, killed over 200,000 people and left tens of thousands of people missing. The victims of disasters need help, and the increasing frequency of serious natural disasters has placed enormous pressure on relief organizations. Often, while the relief operation for the victims of one disaster is still continuing, a new operation has already begun. It becomes more and more important to determine the factors leading to public donation to relief organizations and operations. Public donation to relief operations can, together with voluntary actions and donating blood, be seen as pro-social behaviour (Penner, Dovidio, Piliavin, & Schroeder, 2005). Research on pro-social behaviour generally focuses on explaining and discovering why people volunteer and donate (Bekkers, 2004; Bendapudi, Singh, & Bendapudi, 1996; Meier, 2004). The present research examined the relation between different factors underlying donating behaviour and explored whether a causal model could be constructed. Cheung and Chan (2000) developed and tested a causal model for donating money to charity. They examined factors affecting donation to an International Relief Organization using a social cognitive framework to establish a causal model of intention to donate. The causal model they tested included causal linkage among the following factors:

Displays, 2010

The rapid development of new media has made it increasingly possible to present people with ever ... more The rapid development of new media has made it increasingly possible to present people with ever richer experiences. The two experiments in this paper examine the mediating role of presence in a 3-D display as compared to a 2-D display with respect to commercials in a public environment. The results show that an autostereoscopic multiview 3-D display enhances the feelings of presence and produces a more positive brand attitude. Hence, autostereoscopic 3-D displays outperform 2-D displays for eye-catching outdoor advertising.

Computers in Human Behavior, 2012

The current article attempts to refine and specify a model based on other researchers' applicatio... more The current article attempts to refine and specify a model based on other researchers' applications of the Social Cognitive Theory originally posited by Bandura to allow the behaviour and attitudes downloaders exhibit to be analysed and compared to the amount of movies they consume (measured as an monthly average estimate). The new model is then tested against data obtained from college students as well as from a technological lifestyle forum. After the revisions these analyses suggested were applied, the model explained nearly 23% of the variance in the number of movies downloaded. The most important factors in this model were, among others: the drives to see many different and new movies, the social environment and its perceived attitude toward the behaviour, and the degree to which downloading has embedded itself in the daily routine. Because the Dutch government and lobbyists are superficially unclear about the current legislature, the unique opportunity existed to study the impact of knowing about legislature on the behaviour. Other results indicate an unexpected openness to an alternative film-distribution method where both the producers and the consumers get an honest deal, presenting options to release the current political and social tension without prosecuting an increasing portion of the population.

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2007