Robert J. Youmans

• Head of Department at Google Inc., United States, Mountain View, CA

Technology now enables killing from remote locations. Killing remotely might be psychologically easier than killing face to face, which could promote more killing behavior and incur less severe emotional consequences. The current study manipulated the medium via which participants completed an ostensible ladybug-killing task. Participants who were...

User Experience Research (UXR) is a growing field and an attractive option for HF students post-graduation. However, previous research has shown that HF students do not feel prepared for careers in UXR. The goal of this work was to gather information about student expectations about what they imagine that they might actually spend time doing if the...

The advent of Virtual Reality (VR) has created new user-interaction paradigms that VR designers need to attend to in order to avoid usability issues. Currently, there are few formal methods for evaluating the usability of VR interfaces. In this paper, we introduce a new set of heuristics that can be used to carry out usability inspections of VR sys...

The objectives of this research were to (1) explore whether goal-activation models of procedurally based interrupted task performance can be applied to content production, and if not, (2) develop a new theoretical account, and (3) provide support for that theory. Experiment 1 found that interruptions during planning resulted in less developed plans...

Self-regulation may be influenced by multiple factors (Robinson, Schmeichel, & Inzlicht, 2010), some of which may be enhanced via meditation. The present study investigates the post-practice effects of meditation among experts, in order to determine whether there are state influences on self-regulatory functioning. No reliable differences were foun...

Researchers who employ traditional laboratory task-set switching paradigms often assume that their participants are using only one strategy to complete switch moves. In the current study, we hypothesized that real world task-set switching behaviors are facilitated by multiple processing strategies, including fast “heuristic” strategies that are emp...

Prototyping is a quick and effective way to facilitate iterative conceptual design, and allows user experience researchers to test the user experience of early conceptual designs. The current study compared usability testing that was supported by traditional paper prototyping methods with testing that was supported by a new iPhone software applicat...

Researchers investigating the relationship between individual differences and sustained attention tasks do not clearly find marked traits and abilities that are predictive of vigilant performance. Yet, this important research is applicable to tasks like driving, TSA monitoring, Air Traffic Control, and even for the Department of Homeland Security’s...

The term design fixation is often used interchangeably to refer to situations where designers limit their creative output because of an overreliance on features of preexisting designs, or more generally, an overreliance on a specific body of knowledge directly associated with a problem. In this paper, we argue that interdisciplinary interest in des...

This study examined the encoding specificity principle in relation to traditional and computer-based note taking and assessment formats in higher education. Students (N = 79) took lecture notes either by hand (n = 40) or by computer (n = 39) and then completed either a computer or a paper-based assessment. When note taking and assessment formats we...

The term design fixation is often used interchangeably to refer to situations where designers limit their creative output because of an overreliance on features of preexisting designs, or more generally, an overreliance on a specific body of knowledge directly associated with a problem. In this paper, we argue that interdisciplinary interest in des...

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a general behavioral assessment that contains a myriad of dependent variables, each contributing to the overall assessment of executive function. In this paper, the authors explore the underlying ability that is measured by the variable failure to maintain set (FMS). Two opposing theories, cognitive flexibi...

The Stress Resilience Training System (SRTS®) is a new game-based learning application for tablets that trains users to better control stress through interactive education and advanced biofeedback. The goal of using the application is to allow users to better manage the positive and negative effects of stress. The application is targeted at young s...

The objective of this Education Technical Group (ETG) panel is to discuss the problem of recruiting students into the Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) discipline and to offer strategies and solutions for effectively increasing awareness of HF/E among undergraduate students in psychology and engineering. Each panelist was selected because of his...

Concurrent verbal protocol (CVP) is a common usability testing and analysis technique that requires people to continuously vocalize their thoughts as they complete a task. Given the widespread use of concurrent verbal protocols in applied domains, it is surprising how little is known regarding concurrent verbal protocol’s effect on task performance...

This study reports the results of a usability analysis on a leading suite of software for the creation, management, tracking, and automation of business process management (BPM) software, a system designed to make collaborative work quicker and easier to complete. The analysis focuses on two tools within the suite, and their effectiveness in enabli...

Surprise quizzes are useful in higher education for motivating and assessing student preparation, but disliked by students. This session describes the use of random quizzing procedure whereby a chance event set in motion by a student from the class determines whether a quiz is administered. The session will explore why students may both prefer, and...

New research shows that even very simple forms of meditation training canenhance the cognitive skills required for successful knowledge retention. Thissession will explain why researchers believe that meditation can improve students'performance. Session participants will learn how to teach or administer a simpleform of meditation called the "counti...

The cognitive skills required for successful knowledge retention may be influenced by meditation training. The current studies examined the effects of meditation on the knowledge retention of students. In three experimental studies, participants from three introductory psychology courses randomly received either brief meditation training or rest, l...

Information search is one of the main reasons that older adults go online, but older adults experience more difficulties than younger adults when interacting with search engines. In this study, 15 younger and 14 older participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks, and then searched for information via a realistic search simulator. Older parti...

The current study investigates the effects of environmental disruptions and individual differences in working memory capacity on design performance in controlled laboratory and field settings. In the laboratory, we measured participants' working memory capacity, asked them to view a poster design, then asked them to design their own poster in eithe...

Individual differences in cognitive flexibility may underlie a variety of different user behaviors, but a lack of effective measurement tools has limited the predictive and descriptive potential of cognitive flexibility in human-computer interaction applications. This study presents a new computerized measure of cognitive flexibility, and then prov...

Design fixation is a robust phenomenon that has been shown to affect amateurs, experts, and groups of designers across a variety of design domains. An area of confusion concerning the concept of design fixation is whether it is a conscious decision made by a designer or an unconscious action that occurs without awareness. The current research addre...

The universal television remote control is one of the most common pieces of household technology in the industrialized world. In spite of the ubiquity of the television remote, the complexity of the device often means that consumers find universal remotes to be confusing to operate, particularly when programming the remote to operate a new device o...

To be successful at creative tasks, people are often required to think flexibly by selectively switching from one cognitive strategy to a more optimal strategy when presented with changing environmental cues [1]. In this study, we measured differences in students’ cognitive flexibility, and then examined how well flexibility predicted performance o...

Americans often describe being deeply dissatisfied with their commercial air travel experience, even though ticket prices, flight delays, and lost baggage have all declined. This apparent paradox is best explained by research that suggests that customer dissatisfaction is a function of the anxiety associated with the uncertainties of the air travel...

Dancers often have difficulty remembering choreography they see in a class or workshop. This project investigated strategies dancers can use to effectively learn choreography so that they will be more likely to perform it correctly in the future. Using the Nintendo Wii’s Just Dance video game, we developed and tested two new strategies designed to...

The current study investigates how design fixation, a negative limitation in a designer’s creative output due to an overreliance on features of preexisting designs, is affected by a designer’s environment and his or her working memory capacity. Participants in this study were 29 undergraduate students (21 women, 8 men) enrolled at a large metropoli...

This paper explores the optimal location of gesture based in-vehicle technology for minimizing driver distraction, as well as the specific manipulative gestures that would accompany such gesture based in-vehicle technologies. Three different vehicle locations and ten different driver gestures were evaluated during testing. Participants in the study...

‘Real-world’ vigilance tasks are difficult to perform because they require sustained and divided attention. The present study investigated whether individual differences in a person’s cognitive flexibility, the ability to abandon one cognitive strategy in favor of another, can predict performance on a vigilance task. Sixty-one undergraduate student...

Researchers are often faced with practical hurdles to data collection stemming from poorly designed research tools. In this set of studies, we utilized an iterative design process to develop a new assessment of individual differences in cognitive flexibility. The development cycle began with paper prototypes of the cognitive flexibility assessment...

Many usability software packages exist to serve the needs of user experience practitioners. However, these options are often expensive and possess steep learning curves. The purpose of this paper is to provide novice practitioners a usability toolkit that is easy to use, versatile, and affordable. Using basic presentation software, PowerPoint™, gra...

Consumers are often exposed to advertisement variations—several similar advertisements about the same product or service over time. This study tested whether participants' initial attitudes about a product changed as cosmetic or substantive features of the advertisement were modified, and whether or not the effect of these modifications depended on...

In two studies, students at California State University, Northridge wrote papers that were checked for plagiarism using plagiarism-detection software. In the first study, half of the students in two classes were randomly selected and told by the professor that their term papers would be scanned for plagiarism using the software. Students in the rem...

Individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) have been shown to predict how well people perform tasks that require directed attention, but the individual differences responsible for task-set switching and noticing behaviors are less well understood. In this study, 86 undergraduate students from California State University, Northridge com...

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to abandon an active cognitive strategy in favor of another, may predict successful performance in tasks that require divided attention, but measuring cognitive flexibility is challenging. Here, two studies assessed cognitive flexibility using Grant and Berg’s (1948) Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) and an easy-...

Many studies of design fixation ask designers to work in controlled laboratory or classroom environments, but innovative design work frequently occurs in dynamic, social environments. The two studies reviewed in this paper investigated how three independent variables likely to be present in many design environments affect design fixation. The first...

Innovation is important for successful designs, but design fixation likely prevents designers from reaching their innovative potential. Participants in this study were 120 students, 80 of which had design backgrounds. Participants saw an example tool, and then worked alone or in small groups to design two new tools using a construction set. All par...

The operation of machines typically requires attention to instruments that signal the state of the machine. One safeguard against primary instrument malfunction is to provide backup instruments, but this works only if the operators react to malfunction by switching attention to the backups. Little is known about the effect of negative outcomes or f...

Student evaluations provide important information about teaching effectiveness. Research has shown that student evaluations can be mediated by unintended aspects of a course. In this study, we examined whether an event unrelated to a course would increase student evaluations. Six discussion sections completed course evaluations administered by an i...

This study utilized Extended MSE Analysis to investigate the effects of two types of cognitive feedback on judgmental accuracy. Participants judged the income levels of respondents to the General Social Survey in both dilution and non-dilution scenarios, received feedback, and then repeated those judgments. Task information feedback produced improv...

The operation of machines typically requires attention to instruments that signal the state of the machine. One safeguard against instrument failure is to provide backup instruments, but this works only if the operators react to failure by switching attention to the backups. Little is known about the effect of negative outcomes or feedback on atten...

One safeguard against instrument malfunction is to provide backup instruments for machine operators. In previous studies, prior training caused operators of a simulated machine to adapt to instrument malfunction by adopting a suboptimal decision rule rather than by reallocating attention to backup instruments. One hypothesis for these findings is t...