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In many emergency situations, hum an operators are required to derive countermeasures based on contingency rules whilst under time pressure. In order to contribute to the hum an success in playing such a role, the present study intends to examine the eOE ectiveness of using expert systems to train for the time-constrained decision domain. Emergency managem ent of chem ical spills was selected to exemplify the rule-based decision task. An Expert System in this dom ain was developed to serve as the training tool. Forty subjects participated in an experiment in which a com puterized information board was used to capture subjects' rule-based performance under the manipulation of time pressure and training. The experiment results indicate that people adapt to time pressure by accelerating their processing of rules where the heuristic of cognitive availability was employed. The simplifying strategy was found to be the source of hum an error that resulted in undesired decision performance. The results also show that the decision behaviour of individuals who undergo the expert system training is directed to a norm ative and expeditious pattern, which leads to an improved level of decision accuracy. Implications of these ® ndings are examined in the present study.

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The present study examined the extent to which age had impacts on the performance of hypertext perusal as a function of text topologies. Ten subjects, five young (mean = 27.4) and five seniors (mean = 61.6), participated in an experiment where three levels of text linearity were manipulated. The data showed that both age and text topologies were significant sources of variability in hypertext browsing and navigation. On each text topology, older subjects browsed less text with a larger number of nodes repeatedly visited, which suggested more severe disorientation. With respect to navigation, a significant age x topology interaction indicated that the effect of age differences was mainly derived from the network topology, evidenced by the more extra links searched by the senior subject. Implications for the design of hypertext systems that accommodate the age effects are discussed.

Information security has come to the forefront as an organizational priority since information systems are considered as some of the most important assets for achieving competitive advantages. Despite huge capital expenditures devoted to information security, the occurrence of security breaches is still very much on the rise. More studies are thus required to inform organizations with a better insight on how to adequately promote information security. To address this issue, this study investigates important factors influencing hospital staff’s adherence to Information Security Policy (ISP). Deterrence theory is adopted as the theoretical underpinning, in which punishment severity and punishment certainty are recognized as the most significant predictors of ISP adherence. Further, this study attempts to identify the antecedents of punishment severity and punishment certainty by drawing from upper echelon theory and well-acknowledged international standards of IS security practices. A survey approach was used to collect 299 valid responses from a large Taiwanese healthcare system, and hypotheses were tested by applying partial least squares-based structural equation modeling. Our empirical results show that Security Education, Training, and Awareness (SETA) programs, combined with internal auditing effectiveness are significant predictors of punishment severity and punishment certainty, while top management support is not. Further, punishment severity and punishment certainty are significant predictors of hospital staff’s ISP adherence intention. Our study highlights the importance of SETA programs and internal auditing for reinforcing hospital staff’s perceptions on punishment concerning ISP violation, hospitals can thus propose better internal strategies to improve their staff’s ISP compliance intention accordingly.