Permission lo copy wilhoul fee al! or parl of ihis malarial isgranled provided thai the copies are nol made or dislributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of Ihe publicalion and iis date appear, and notice is given Ihat copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission, tcj ig83 ACM 0001-0782/83/1200-1051 75CThe interaction between human beings and computers is becoming an area of growing interest [1] because of the need for a wide cross-section of people to utilize them in the workplace. The study of this interaction extends from not only the ergonomic/design considerations of hardware, bul also to the cognitive needs of users and their requirements for efficient operating systems and friendly software [3], Another area, somewhat overlooked but growing in attention, concerris the influence of user attitudes toward computers and its effect on man-computer interaction.Some of this research has manipulated user attitudes within the laboratory, while otber work has measured subjects' "preformed" attitudes. Orcutt and Anderson [9]. for example, allowed subjects to play the "prisoner's dilemma" via a computer terminal. Half the subjects were told their opponent was human for the first 30 game trials, and a computer for the second 30 game trials. The remaining subjects were led to believe the reverse. In reality, though, the computer served as opponent in all game trials and only the strategy employed by the computer was varied. Results indicated that the "apparent" opponent had no effect on the player's performance. But post-experimental questioning showed that subjects perceived the computer player as more depersonalizing and more powerful than the human opponent, SOME PRE\TOUS STUDIES Other work [10] has demonstrated the susceptibility of these attitudes to manipulation (at least in an experimental context), regardless of the baseline attitudes of the individual. In this study, introductory psychology students were exposed to a textbook-based quiz administered by either a human-like program (invoking the use of the subject's name, use of the personal pronoun, expressions of affect, etc.) or a mechanistic program requiring numerical responses. The experimental design was such thai all subjects failed the initial quiz, undertook a period of relearning, then subsequently passed the retest.Results showed the human and mechanistic type programs ABSTRACT: What do people really think about computers and their impact? In 1970. a study of people's attitudes in North America showed computers to be regarded as either "beneficial tools of mankind" or as "awesome thinking machines." A recent survey taken in Australia and reported in this article, though, suggests there may have been a change in attitudes over the past decade. The Australians expressed much concern over the computer's possible disemploying and dehumanizing effects-as well as disquiet over the control computers could exercise ove...

The Austin (or Milner) Maze consists of a 10 x 10 array of electrical contacts through which the subject must discover a hidden pathway by touching successive points in the matrix. Trials needed to reach 3 consecutive errorless performances, errors committed, and time taken to reach this criterion are commonly regarded as indicators of frontal lobe function. This study evaluated the equivalence of a computer-based version of this task. Thirty-two male computer science students completed both forms of the maze in counterbalanced order, separated by an interval of 4 weeks. In a 2-year follow-up, 25 remaining subjects completed the tasks in reverse order, again separated by a 4-week interval. Correlational data and analysis of variance supported the proposition that the computer-based version could act as a substitute for the more tediously administered traditional form. Although the sample characteristics may limit the generalizability of this conclusion, the application and development of the software by independent investigators may facilitate its clinical application and allow a more efficient resolution of relevant theoretical issues.

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Many international bodies and agencies such as the UNDP and the World Bank are embracing IT, telecommunications and the Internet in particular as promising vehicles for development of the least developed countries. Internet and related technologies are being investigated as more ef cient mechanisms for delivery of government services, health care and civil administration in remote areas. The paper is an analysis of the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) Internet Pilot Project-a trial project funded under the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (RTIF) to implement e-mail and Internet capabilities in four remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. The pilot is a precursor to a much larger proposal which aims to provide similar capabilities to 66 community government councils throughout the Northern Territory. The paper concludes that Internet and e-mail have an important future in remote areas of the Northern Territory and, more importantly, that community councils are an appropriate, resilient locus for their development.

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