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Previous research has shown that paramedics form intuitive impressions based on limited “pre-arrival” dispatch information and this subsequently affects their diagnosis. However, this observation has never been experimentally studied.

This was an experimental study of 83 Australian undergraduate paramedics and 65 Australian paramedics with median 14 years' experience (Range: 1–32 years). Participants responded to written vignettes in two parts that aimed to induce an intuitive impression by placing participants under time pressure and with a secondary task, followed by a diagnosis made without distraction or time pressure. The vignettes varied the likelihood of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and measured self-reports of typicality and confidence. Answer fluency, which is the ease with which the answer comes to mind, was also measured.

More participants exposed to the likely pre-arrival vignette recorded a final diagnosis of ACS, than those exposed to unlikely pre-arrival information (0.85 [95%CI: 0.78, 0.90] vs 0.74 [95%CI: 0.66, 0.81]; p = 0.03). This effect was greater in paramedics with more than 14 years' experience (0.94 [95%CI: 0.78, 0.99] vs 0.67 [95%CI: 0.48, 0.81]; p = 0.01). Answer fluency and confidence were associated with the impression, while the impression and confidence were associated with final diagnosis.

The authors have experimentally shown that pre-arrival information can affect subsequent diagnosis. The most experienced paramedics were more likely to be affected.

This is the first experimental study of diagnostic decision-making in paramedics and paramedic students.

The early 1990s saw the emergence of automated self‐service issue units in the UK. Since then we have seen the introduction of second and third generation systems, the launch of self‐return facilities and their adoption for use in both public and academic libraries. This paper re‐examines the position of self‐issue and return towards the end of the decade and century based on the literature and research conducted by Loughborough University. It describes the main self‐issue/return systems available, lists the benefits and opportunities of implementing them and discusses considerations such as objectives, costs, security, location of equipment, functionality and design of systems, and the effect self‐issue/return has on users and staff.

The University of Houston Libraries are developing an expert system to assist library users in selecting appropriate indexes and abstracts to meet their information needs. This project, which is being conducted by the Intelligent Reference Systems Committee, is the first step in a broader plan to develop reference expert systems.

Voluntary collective turnover can be costly for workplaces. The authors investigate the effectiveness of high-performance work system (HPWS) intensity as a tool to manage voluntary collective turnover. Further, the authors investigate a cynical workplace climate (CWC) as a boundary condition on the HPWS intensity–voluntary collective turnover relationship.

The unit of analysis is the workplace, with human resource (HR) managers providing data on HPWS practices in Time 1 (T1) and voluntary collective turnover two years later. Aggregated employee data were used to assess the cynical workplace climate. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

This study’s results demonstrate a negative relationship between HPWS intensity and voluntary collective turnover when there is a low cynical workplace climate. The authors find that in a high cynical workplace climate, HPWS intensity is ineffective at managing voluntary collective turnover.

This study’s results show that HPWS intensity needs to be well received by the workforce to be effective in reducing voluntary collective turnover.

To increase the chances of HPWS intensity reducing voluntary collective turnover, workplaces need to assess the level of employee cynicism in their workplace climates. When the climate is assessed as low in cynicism, the workplace can then consider implementing an HPWS.

The authors explain why the HPWS intensity–voluntary collective turnover relationship varies across workplaces. As HR practices are subject to interpretation, workplaces need to look beyond the practices in their HPWS and focus on employee receptivity to HR practices.

Timebanking is a generalized, voluntary service exchange that promotes use of otherwise idle resources in a community and facilitates community building. Participants offer and request services through the mediation of the timebank software. In timebanking, giving help and accepting help are both contributions; contributions are recognized and quantified through exchange of time-based currency. The purpose of this paper is to explore how users perceive timebank offers and requests differently and how they influence actual use.

This survey study, conducted in over 120 timebanks across the USA, examines users’ timebanking participation, adapting dimensions of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

The authors found that perceived ease of use in timebanking platforms was positively associated with positive attitudes toward both requests and offers, whereas perceived usefulness was negatively associated with positive attitudes toward requests and offers. The authors also found that having positive attitudes toward requests was important to elicit behavioral intention to make a request, but that positive attitudes toward offers did not affect behavioral intentions to make offers.

The authors discussed these results and proposed design suggestions for future service exchange tools to address the issues the authors raised.

The study is among the first few studies that examine timebanking participation using large-scale survey data. The authors evaluate sociotechnical factors of timebanking participation through adapting dimensions of TAM.