The Influence of Robot-Assisted Learning System on Health Literacy and Learning Perception.

Healthy aging is a new challenge for the world. Therefore, health literacy education is a key issue in the current health care field. This research has developed a robot-assisted learning system to explore the possibility of significantly improving health literacy and learning perception through interaction with robots. In particular, this study adopted an experimental design, in which the experiment lasted for 90 min. A total of 60 participants over the age of 50 were randomly assigned to different learning modes. The RobotLS group learned by interacting with robots, while the VideoLS group watched health education videos on a tablet computer. The content dealt with hypertension related issues. This study used the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16), Health Knowledge Questionnaire, Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS), and Flow Scale as evaluation tools. The result shows no significant difference in the pre-test scores between the two groups. Compared with the video-assisted learning system, the robot-assisted learning system can significantly improve health knowledge, health literacy, learning motivation, and flow perception. According to the findings of this study, a robot-assisted learning system can be introduced in the future into homes and care institutions to enhance the health literacy of the elderly.

Exploring Factors Surrounding Students' Entrepreneurial Intentions in Medical Informatics: The Theory of Planning Behavior Perspective.

The implementation of entrepreneurship and innovation within the health informatics scientific community is comparatively sluggish when compared to other disciplines such as computer science and engineering. The purpose of this paper is to explore the cognitive processes involved in developing intentions to endorse entrepreneurial behaviors via discovering entrepreneurial awareness as a significant influence on an individual's intentions to identify and adventure market opportunities. In this conceptual paper, insights from Ajzen's Theory of Planning Behavior (TPB) coupled with self-efficacy beliefs are utilized to develop hypotheses from our research questions. TPB has often been applied to entrepreneurial studies, but for the voluminous body of research devoted to intentions, little has delved into the cognitive processes whereby people develop intentions to entrepreneurial behaviors. Thus, our extended framework can better understand the factors behind entrepreneurial intentions. This research uses a survey tool as a structured questionnaire to explore students' perceptions of entrepreneurial behavior. The source of the questionnaire is to survey many students from different types of universities in Taiwan. This method allowed respondents to clarify and pose questions. Of the 154 web questionnaires distributed till end of June, 120 were returned, constituting a response rate of 77.9% and Common Method Variance (CMV) had checked. Our results suggest that measuring self-efficacy beliefs in tandem with attitudes toward entrepreneurship provides a better analytical model based on the TPB. The R-Square is 41.2% for full model. Moreover, the results help understand entrepreneurial intentions specifically applied to the medical informatics (MI) field which has been under researched. Finally, this study also can guide educators in their efforts to reinforce entrepreneurial behaviors in entrepreneurship education, for example, awareness creation or attractiveness.

Development and Evaluation of Affective Domain Using Student's Feedback in Entrepreneurial Massive Open Online Courses.

Entrepreneurship education is a very important issue in the digital age. It aims to enable learners and society to respond to emergent economic and employment challenges. When entrepreneurs struggle to launch and sustain a new venture, the key question usually is not a lack of relevant knowledge, but the necessary fortitude and attitude to face down difficulties and challenges. Thus, entrepreneurs require development in the affective domain. However, most of courses emphasize the cognition and psychomotor functions, but neglect the affective domain. This study attempts to combine entrepreneurial Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and blended curriculum design for affective learning. A total of 32 students participated in a 9-week social entrepreneurship program. Content analysis was used for comparison of the learning performance. The findings suggest that social entrepreneurship courses can be effectively used to help learners achieve learning objectives of different affective levels, but this is a time-intensive process, particularly for higher levels. The affective development of the final level takes longer to achieve; therefore, course designers should adopt a spiral structure which frequently revisits concepts in the last three levels. Moreover, MOOCs are designed for mass usage, and treat all learners uniformly. MOOCs' course content should be supplemented and adjusted according to specific course goals and student needs.

Exposure to pictures of natural landscapes may reduce cigarette smoking.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Reducing temporal discounting may help smokers to reduce their smoking by improving inhibitory control. This study aimed to assess whether viewing pictures of natural versus urban scenes would cause participants to smoke fewer cigarettes mediated by lower temporal discounting. DESIGN: A single-factor (natural scene, urban scene and control) between-subjects design was employed. SETTING: Laboratory at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: A community sample of 93 daily smokers. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR: Participants were exposed to pictures of natural or urban scenes or no images (control). MEASUREMENTS: The discounting measure was implemented after the landscape exposure manipulation. Participants expressed their preferences related to winning a lottery by answering a series of nine binary choice questions, opting either to receive a certain amount of money immediately or varying amounts of money 1 year in the future. The dependent measure was cigarette consumption during an ostensible survey. FINDINGS: Participants exposed to pictures of natural scenes smoked fewer cigarettes [mean = 1.1 cigarettes, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.7, 1.6] than did those exposed to pictures of urban scenes (mean = 2.1 cigarettes, 95% CI = 1.7, 2.6, 0.002) and control participants (mean = 1.8 cigarettes, 95% CI = 1.4, 2.3, 0.029). The discounting rate mediated the association between exposure to nature and the amount of smoking (B = -0.62, 95% CI = -1.07, -0.20, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Exposing smokers to pictures of natural landscapes may lead to reduced smoking by lowering temporal discounting.

Construing Morality at High versus Low Levels Induces Better Self-control, Leading to Moral Acts.

Human morality entails a typical self-control dilemma in which one must conform to moral rules or socially desirable norms while exerting control over amoral, selfish impulses. Extant research regarding the connection between self-control and level of construal suggest that, compared with a low-level, concrete construal (highlighting means and resources, e.g., answering 'how' questions), a high-level, abstract construal (highlighting central goals, e.g., answering 'why' questions) promotes self-control. Hence, construing morality at higher levels rather than lower levels should engender greater self-control and, it follows, promote a tendency to perform moral acts. We conducted two experiments to show that answering "why" (high-level construal) vs. "how" (low-level construal) questions regarding morality was associated with a situational state of greater self-control, as indexed by less Stroop interference in the Stroop color-naming task (Experiments 1 and 2). Participants exposed to "why" questions regarding morality displayed a greater inclination for volunteerism (Experiment 1), showed a lower tendency toward selfishness in a dictator game (Experiment 2), and were more likely to return undeserved money (Experiment 2) compared with participants exposed to "how" questions regarding morality. In both experiments, self-control mediated the effect of a high-level construal of morality on dependent measures. The current research constitutes a new approach to promoting prosociality and moral education. Reminding people to think abstractly about human morality may help them to generate better control over the temptation to benefit from unethical acts and make it more likely that they will act morally.

Episodic Future Thinking about the Ideal Self Induces Lower Discounting, Leading to a Decreased Tendency toward Cheating.

Delay discounting refers to a pervasive tendency toward preferring smaller immediate gains over larger future gains. Recent empirical research has shown that episodic future thinking (EFT; i.e., projecting oneself into the future to pre-experience forthcoming events) can reduce the tendency toward discounting. A common tenet of psychological theories of crime is that delinquency results from focusing on short-term gains while failing to consider adequately the longer-term consequences of delinquent behavior. We investigated whether an EFT intervention involving the ideal self could induce lower discounting rates and, as a consequence, reduced delinquency. The results showed that, compared with control participants, participants engaging in EFT, that is, envisaging life events that would be experienced by their ideal selves, exhibited a lower discounting rate in a monetary choice task (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as a decreased tendency to make delinquent choices in imaginary scenarios (Experiment 1) and cheat in a matrix task (Experiment 2). The discounting tendency mediated the relationship between engaging in EFT pertaining to the ideal self and the tendency toward morally questionable behavior (Experiments 1 and 2). The findings of the two experiments indicate that engagement in EFT with a focus on the ideal self is sufficient to induce lower discounting rates, by promoting consideration of distant costs and thus increasing resistance to delinquent involvement and cheating (given the temptation of the immediate benefits that may accrue from such behavior). The current research constitutes an innovative approach to delinquency prevention and the promotion of morality.

Episodic Future Thinking Involving the Nonsmoking Self Can Induce Lower Discounting and Cigarette Consumption.

OBJECTIVE: Building on recent advances showing that the engagement in episodic future thinking (EFT) rather than semantic future thinking (SFT) can induce individuals to delay gratification and that activation of the ideal self may promote goal attainment, we tested whether imagining life events after smoking cessation led to lower discounting and reduced smoking. METHOD: Ninety smokers (21 women, 69 men) with intentions to quit or reduce smoking were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions: EFT, SFT, and control. The dependent measures were discounting rate and number of cigarettes smoked during an ostensible survey. The number of cigarettes smoked in the following week was also recorded. RESULTS: Participants who engaged in EFT that involved imagining positive life experiences after smoking cessation discounted the future less (M = 0.43, SD = 0.25) in a monetary choice task than did participants who engaged in SFT (M = 0.56, SD = 0.20) and control participants (M = 0.58, SD = 0.22). Participants under the EFT condition were less likely to smoke (50.0%) at a subsequent survey than were participants under the SFT condition (73.3%) and controls (80.0%). During the post-experimental week, the EFT group also smoked less (M = 88.90 cigarettes, SD = 30.12) than did the SFT group (M = 108.67 cigarettes, SD = 32.56) and the control group (M = 112.97 cigarettes, SD = 36.24). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that smokers who engage in EFT involving the self after smoking cessation show reduced smoking, and this suggests that EFT involving the ideal self (e.g., the nonsmoking self for smokers intending to quit or reduce smoking) may constitute a new approach to controlling impulsive or addictive behaviors.

Analgesic effect of Facebook: Priming with online social networking may boost felt relatedness that buffers against physical pain.

Social networking sites (SNSs) are extremely popular for providing users with a convenient platform for acquiring social connections and thereby feeling relatedness. Plenty of literature has shown that mental representations of social support can reduce the perception of physical pain. The current study tested whether thinking about SNS would interfere with users' perceptions of experimentally induced pain. Ninety-six undergraduate Facebook users were recruited to participate in a priming-based experiment. They were randomly assigned to one of the three study conditions (SNS prime, neutral prime, or no prime) via rating the aesthetics of logos. The results showed that participants exposed to SNS primes reported less pain of immersion in hot water than did both control groups (neutral- and no-prime). Felt relatedness mediated the link between SNS primes and diminished pain perceptions. This research provides the first demonstration that thinking about SNS can lower experienced physical pain among Facebook users. Online social networking may serve as an analgesic buffer against pain experience than previously thought. The SNS-enabled analgesia has far reaching implications for pain relief applications and the enhancement of well-being in human-interaction techniques.

Cloud-Based Service Information System for Evaluating Quality of Life after Breast Cancer Surgery.

OBJECTIVE: Although recent studies have improved understanding of quality of life (QOL) outcomes of breast conserving surgery, few have used longitudinal data for more than two time points, and few have examined predictors of QOL over two years. Additionally, the longitudinal data analyses in such studies rarely apply the appropriate statistical methodology to control for censoring and inter-correlations arising from repeated measures obtained from the same patient pool. This study evaluated an internet-based system for measuring longitudinal changes in QOL and developed a cloud-based system for managing patients after breast conserving surgery. METHODS: This prospective study analyzed 657 breast cancer patients treated at three tertiary academic hospitals. Related hospital personnel such as surgeons and other healthcare professionals were also interviewed to determine the requirements for an effective cloud-based system for surveying QOL in breast cancer patients. All patients completed the SF-36, Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) and its supplementary breast cancer measure (QLQ-BR23) at baseline, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively. The 95% confidence intervals for differences in responsiveness estimates were derived by bootstrap estimation. Scores derived by these instruments were interpreted by generalized estimating equation before and after surgery. RESULTS: All breast cancer surgery patients had significantly improved QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 subscale scores throughout the 2-year follow-up period (p<0.05). During the study period, QOL generally had a negative association with advanced age, high Charlson comorbidity index score, tumor stage III or IV, previous chemotherapy, and long post-operative LOS. Conversely, QOL was positively associated with previous radiotherapy and hormone therapy. Additionally, patients with high scores for preoperative QOL tended to have high scores for QLQ-C30, QLQ-BR23 and SF-36 subscales. Based on the results of usability testing, the five constructs were rated on a Likert scale from 1-7 as follows: system usefulness (5.6±1.8), ease of use (5.6±1.5), information quality (5.4±1.4), interface quality (5.5±1.4), and overall satisfaction (5.5±1.6). CONCLUSIONS: The current trend in clinical medicine is applying therapies and interventions that improve QOL. Therefore, a potentially vast amount of internet-based QOL data is available for use in defining patient populations that may benefit from therapeutic intervention. Additionally, before undergoing breast conserving surgery, patients should be advised that their postoperative QOL depends not only on the success of the surgery, but also on their preoperative functional status.

Think abstractly, smoke less: a brief construal-level intervention can promote self-control, leading to reduced cigarette consumption among current smokers.

AIMS: Inadequate self-control has been linked to behavioural and impulse-control problems such as overeating, alcohol and drug abuse and smoking. Construal-level theory (CLT) suggests that a high-level construal (highlighting central goals associated with an event), relative to a low-level construal (highlighting means and resources), promotes self-control. Inspired by CLT, we examined whether smokers primed with a high-level (versus low-level) construal mind-set would show reductions in smoking that might be mediated by improved self-control. DESIGN: A single-factor (construal level: high, low, control) between-subjects design was employed. We used a widely employed why/how paradigm to induce high/low construal levels, whereby participants were asked to respond to questions about 'why' or 'how' they would maintain good physical health. SETTING: Laboratory at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: A community sample consisting of 102 daily smokers participated in this experiment. MEASUREMENTS: The Stroop task measuring self-control was implemented after the construal-level manipulation. The dependent measure was actual cigarette consumption during an ostensible survey. FINDINGS: Participants in a high-level construal mind-set smoked fewer cigarettes [mean = 1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9, 1.7] than those in a low-level construal mind-set (mean = 2.6, 95% CI: 2.2, 3.0; P < 0.01). A bootstrapping analysis supported for the role of self-control (B = -1.14, 95% CI: -1.65, -0.74, P < 0.01) as a mechanism underlying this effect. CONCLUSIONS: Smokers primed with a high-level construal mind-set (i.e. cognitive abstraction) may induce greater self-control that leads to reduced cigarette consumption. Thus, reminding smokers to think abstractly about health may be an effective strategy that could help them to smoke fewer cigarettes.

A randomized experiment to examine unintended consequences of dietary supplement use among daily smokers: taking supplements reduces self-regulation of smoking.

AIMS: We examined whether smokers' use of dietary supplements (e.g. vitamin C, multi-vitamins) induces illusory invulnerability that in turn disinhibits smoking. Such supplement use may be perceived as conferring health credentials. DESIGN: A single-factor (credentials: with or without) between-subjects design was employed. Smokers were assigned randomly to take either a known placebo pill or a dietary supplement (in fact, the same placebo) in an ostensible health-food test. SETTING: Laboratory at Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: Study 1 involved of a student sample consisting of 74 daily smokers, whereas study 2 involved a community sample consisting of 80 daily smokers. MEASUREMENTS: In Study 1, participants reported their perceived invulnerability following the manipulation. In study 2, pre- and post-test measures of invulnerability were administered, and attitudes towards dietary supplements were assessed prior to the manipulation. In both studies, the dependent measure was the number of cigarettes smoked during completion of an unrelated survey. FINDINGS: Participants who believed that they were taking a dietary supplement smoked more cigarettes than did controls. Study 1 found support for the role of perceived invulnerability as a mechanism underlying this effect. Study 2 demonstrated the moderating effect played by attitudes towards dietary supplements: a more positive attitude towards supplements increased susceptibility to licensing effects. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary supplement use may create illusory invulnerability, reducing the self-regulation of smoking. Reminding health-conscious smokers that multi-vitamins do not prevent cancer may help such smokers to control their smoking and encourage them to stop.