Designing effective instructions for everyday products is challenging. One reason is that designers lack a set of design principles for producing visually comprehensible and accessible instructions. We describe an approach for identifying such design principles through experiments investigating the production, preference, and comprehension of assembly instructions for furniture. We instantiate these principles into an algorithm that automatically generates assembly instructions. Finally, we perform a user study comparing our computergenerated instructions to factory-provided and highly rated hand-designed instructions. Our results indicate that the computer-generated instructions informed by our cognitive design principles significantly reduce assembly time an average of 35 % and error by 50%. Details of the experimental methodology and the implementation of the automated system are described.

Abstract. Diagrams are an effective means of conveying concrete, abstract or symbolic information about systems. Here, individuals or pairs of participants produced assembly instructions after assembling an object. When working individually, nearly all participants used a combination of text and diagrams. Those high in spatial ability produced the step-by-step action diagrams that in later studies were rated higher by all and improved performance of low ability participants. In a second experiment, pairs of participants assembled the object and produced instructions jointly. Pairs assembled the object faster and more accurately than individuals. Surprisingly, in the instructions produced, fewer than half the dyads used diagrams, and dyads produced fewer of the more effective diagrams. We speculate that the social verbal nature of the interactions of pairs encouraged verbal instructions. 1

Spatial cognition and program development have both been examined using contrasting models. We suggest that sex-based differences in one’s perception of risk is the key to relating these models. Specifically, the survey map approach to navigation and the top-down development/comprehension strategy use similar and related high risk cognitive skills that males show a preference towards. Conversely, the route-based approach to navigation and the bottom-up development/comprehension strategy use similar and related low risk cognitive skills that women show a preference towards. On the assumption that programmers are consistent in their risk-taking behaviours, we believe that they will, as much as possible, tend to use the same strategy when performing program development and comprehension. In an experimental setting, we compare programmer’s performance on spatial cognition and program comprehension tasks. The correlations that we found suggest that programmers use equivalently risky strategies for program comprehension and spatial cognition. Thus, there is evidence that similar cognitive skills are used for spatial cognition and program comprehension/development, and that the similarities are a consequence of sex-based differences in risk-taking behaviour. 1

Abstract. Individuals vary across many dimensions due to the effects of gender-based, personality, and cultural differences. Consequently, programming contests with a limited and restrictive structure (e.g., scoring system, questioning style) are most favourable and attractive to a specific set of individuals with the characteristics that best match this structure. We suggest that a more inclusive and flexible structure will allow contests to be more appealing to a wider range of participants by being less biased towards specific traits. As well, by making contests more broadly appealing, they become better post secondary recruiting tools that can potentially be used to attract under-represented populations to the discipline of computer science. In this paper, we focus on gender-based differences and the effect of a competition’s structure on female participants. Key words: programming contests, scoring systems, gender bias. 1.

Abstract-Regional cerebral blood flow was measured in 19 subjects during the performance of three tasks thought to primarily involve right hemisphere processing: judgement ofline orientation, mental rotation of three-dimensional cube arrays, and a fragment puzzle task. Asymmetries in hemispheric flow (right side greater) were only observed in the line orientation and rotation conditions and were present in both sexes. The magnitude of the asymmetry was greater in the rotation task which also showed an asymmetry in parietal flow. Thus mental rotation placed the most asymmetric demand on cerebral resources. This provides a task that more reliably activates the right hemisphere than those previously reported and suggests a truly “mental manipulative ” aspect to right hemisphere advantage in visuospatial performance.

The incremental validity of the Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) scale (Goff & Ackerman, 1992) as a predictor of academic performance (AP) was tested over and above other established determinants of AP, namely, psychometric g (as extracted from 5 cognitive ability tests) and the Big Five personality traits, assessed by the Neuroticism–Extraversion–Openness Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992). One hundred four British students were tested on arrival to university, and AP measures were collected longitudinally throughout a 3-year period. TIE, g, and Conscientiousness were the highest correlates of AP. A series of multiple-hierarchical regressions showed that TIE had significant incremental validity (over and above g and the Big Five) in the prediction of AP. Implications are discussed in light of the investment theory of intellectual competence and the utility of self-report inventories as predictors of academic achievement. For many decades, in fact almost a century, the study of individual differences was marked by the relatively independent contribution of the largely unrelated fields of personality and intelligence (Barratt, 1995; Zeidner & Matthews, 2000). In recent years however, researchers have attempted to integrate these two major variables of differential psychology. In doing so, some studies have focused on the identification of psychometric links between measures of intelligence (ability tests) and personality (preference inventories). Another, equally important route of research has examined the extent to which a combination of both ability and nonability traits can contribute to the prediction of real-life outcomes, in particular, academic performance. The first approach is usually referred to as the personality–intelligence interface, whereas the second approach may simply be coined applied differen-