CSC 484 Lab Notes Week 2
Discussion of "Attractiveness" Paper and Friday's Quiz



These brief notes cover three topics related to this fortnight's research reading. Under the heading "Knowledge Questions" are things you need to know when reading the paper. The answers to these questions come largely from the fields of statistics and psychology. You can look them up easily online. While I have some significant reservations about the use of Wikipedia for scholarly work, I think it's fine for purposes such as this reading assignment.

It is up to you to come up with answers to these questions. I.e., we won't be answering them directly in lab on Wednesday. Any amount of collaboration and discussion with your classmates IS allowed.

Under the heading "Discussion Questions" are topics for Wednesday's lab discussion. There is no fixed amount of time assigned for this discussion. The listed questions are intended to provoke thought about the practical application of the paper. Other discussion questions or topics are welcome.

Under the heading "Friday Quiz Procedure" are some details about how the quiz will be conducted.

Knowledge Questions:

  1. What is the authors' definition of attractiveness?
  2. What is ADM theory and how is it used in this study?
  3. What are the halo and framing effects?
  4. What does "design x culture" mean in the first paragraph on page 390?
  5. What is the Likert five-point scale?
  6. What is ANOVA?
  7. What do Chronbach's Alpha and Spearman's coefficient measure?
  8. What's up with Table 2, and what does it mean for the reader?
  9. How is the authors' theoretical framework put to use in their study?

Discussion Questions:

  1. In the context of this paper, how apt is the following quote, popularized by Mark Twain (and attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, among others):
    "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
  2. Did the authors choose sufficiently representative websites, enough human subjects, and appropriate questions to ask the subjects?
  3. Suppose you were a high-level manager at Amazon, and one of your bright young employees brought this paper enthusiastically to your attention. To what practical use, if any, would you put the analyses and findings of this paper?
  4. What useful knowledge, if any, do you bring away from this paper, in terms of its use for CSC 484, and your potential future work in user interface design?

Friday Quiz Procedure

The quiz will focus specifically on the "Attractiveness" paper. It will last 25 minutes. Unless you have a remarkable memory, you'll need a copy of the paper when you take the quiz. You can bring a paper copy, or look at it online using a lab computer.

The quiz will ask specific questions designed to test your knowledge of the paper's subject matter. They will be short-answer style. It will NOT ask detailed questions about any of the necessary background knowledge. E.g., you need to know what ANOVA means, but not the technical details of how to conduct an ANOVA study.