This study examined the effect of autonomy support and autonomous self-regulation on self-reported weight loss. Participants reported significantly greater weight loss when they perceived their family and friends as autonomy supportive of their weight loss efforts. Autonomy support from family and friends was also shown to moderate the effects of an experimental intervention that was delivered ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relation of behavioral autonomy to psychological, behavioral, and physical health among emerging adults with and without type 1 diabetes. METHODS High school seniors with (n = 118) and without type 1 diabetes (n = 122) completed online questionnaires for three consecutive years. Behavioral autonomy, psychological health, risk behaviors, and diabetes outcomes were asse...

The principal goal of this project is to develop the technology and algorithms that will enable an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to operate fast and autonomously in unknown riverine environments, including tropical rivers. Robust autonomy requires that the USV senses the surface and subsurface environments, discriminates waterways that are navigable from those that are not, identifies stationa...

Complex social and economic forces have placed patient autonomy at the center of medical ethics, and thereby displaced an older ethic of physician beneficence. This development arose, and is sustained, by waning trust in the traditional doctor-patient relationship. As patients have increasingly become clients and consumers, a contract basis for medical care has put the ancient covenant of care ...

The study of adapting and evolving autonomous agents should be based on a complex systems-theoretic framework which requires both self-organizing and symbolic dimensions. An inclusive framework based on the notions of semiotics and situated action is advanced to build models capable of representing, as well as evolving in their environments. Such undertaking is pursued by discussing the ways in...

The autonomy of various subsystems in complex real-time distributed computer systems (DCS's) is a highly desired attribute. Highly autonomous subsystems enable concurrent and largely independent testing/verification and maintenance of the subsystems. In recent years, we formulated two system structuring techniques which could be used as fundamental tools for enhancing the subsystem autonomy: (1...

Roboticists have frequently found that users are notoriously unwilling to pass control to autonomy, even when appropriate. It is important to find ways to promote the use of autonomy when switching out of manual mode is needed. This becomes important when autonomy is inherently better equipped to support the task at hand, especially when autonomy is safer than manual control. This paper propose...

Four studies examined associations between E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan's (1985, 2000) construct of autonomy, responses to relationship disagreements, and dissatisfaction after conflict. In Study 1, diary data showed that trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, which in turn predicted relative satisfaction after disagreements. In Study 2, trait autonomy predicted relationship autonomy, whi...

In this paper we present effects of reciprocal exchanges on trust and autonomy of peer level agents. We present models of trust and autonomy and show changes to autonomy and trust in an abstract problem domain. As social exchanges increase, average agent autonomy is increased. Autonomy and trust are more susceptible to certain number of social ties among agents mirroring the principle of peak p...

The empirical evidence for the relationship between autonomy-supportive environments and physiological stress is inconsistent. Whereas some studies report a decrease in stress in autonomy-supportive environments, other studies show a negative effect of autonomy on physiological stress. As previous research has not considered individual differences within this relationship, the present research ...