No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Physiological investigation of cognitive load in real-life train travelers during information processing
Abstract
Management of travelers' cognitive load is crucial for efficient information processing for optimal railway operations. We investigated variations in travelers' cognitive load with different expertise levels, in a field study. We aimed to assess the use of three eye metrics: pupil diameter, saccade amplitude and gaze of fixation duration for cognitive load analysis between expert and novice travelers in a Mass Transit train station: Saint-Michel Notre Dame. Physiological measures of emotional activity through skin conductance responses were also investigated, together with subjective measures of mental load using NASA-Task Load Index. Our results followed our expectations, where novice travelers expressed higher cognitive load than expert travelers, characterized by wider pupil diameter, larger amplitude of saccade and longer gaze duration, as well as higher electrodermal activity and NASA-TLX. Additional observations showed that experts used hierarchical and symmetrical scan paths, with more intense exposure on relevant information, characterized by brighter heat maps. This difference in behavior showed a clear difference in strategies for information retrieval at different expertise levels. Metrics of eye tracking device, together with electrodermal activity, proved to be potent in cognitive load analysis of train travelers, and helped to provide insights for real-life information processing.
... Thus, working memory is responsible for such processes as way-finding and orientation, but also responsible for paying attention to others. A study by Armougum and colleagues 43 shows that working memory activity is also associated with increased physiological response while way-finding. Furthermore, walking in a dense crowd might also increase concerns of being pushed or hurt by others (for example, if they step on your feet). ...
... Possible explanations for this higher state of arousal include that more higher cognitive load is associated with walking alone at free speed, such as way-finding and orientation, whereas these processes are not needed while following a person. Two studies by Amougum and colleagues 43,49 show increased physiological responses when using cognitive processes in real-life travel experience and also in virtual reality travel experience. Additionally, people walking alone might have felt more insecure about whether they were performing the experiment "correctly" and might have felt observed by the experimenter. ...
Moving around in crowds is part of our daily lives, and we are used to the associated restriction of mobility. Nevertheless, little is known about how individuals experience these limitations. Such knowledge would, however, help to predict behavior, assess crowding, and improve measures for safety and comfort. To address this research gap, we conducted two studies on how constrained mobility affects physiological arousal as measured by mobile electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors. In study 1, we constrained walking speed by externally imposing a specific walking speed without physical proximity to another person, while, in study 2, we varied walking speed by increasing the number of people in a given area. In study 1, we confirmed previous findings showing that faster speeds led to statistically significantly higher levels of physiological arousal. The external limitations of walking speed, however, even if perceived as uncomfortable, did not increase physiological arousal. In the second study, subjects’ speed was gradually reduced by density in a single-lane experiment. This study shows that physiological arousal increased statistically significant with increasing density and decreasing speed, suggesting that people experience more stress when their movement is restricted by proximity to others. The result of study 2 is even more significant given the results of study 1: When there are no other people around, arousal increases with walking speed due to the physiology of walking. This effect reverses when the speed must be reduced due to other people. Then the arousal increases at lower speeds.
... Measurement. An objective method to measure stress and cognitive load in individuals is to observe the change in EDA. is is a method from the field of psychology, which is already widely used in transportation research, where stress is the measurement of EDA in reality and in virtual reality [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. is method is one of several physiological indicators of arousal and shows changes in sweat secretion from the hands. Our hands have two types of sweat glands: one is used for thermoregulation of the body while the other is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, which increases the ability to act when subjective stress increases and is responsible for the fight-or-flight response [22]. is reaction is a primal instinct to ensure human survival in threatening situations and is accompanied by an increase in arousal. ...
... Research. In the field of traffic research, EDA is mainly used in studies dealing with the stress level of car drivers in different situations [16,21,25], and also in studies of people in trains and on platforms [12,13]. e results from studies on stress measurement in car drivers can be neglected here due to the lack of physical proximity to other persons. ...
Crowd density, defined as persons per square meter, is a basic measuring unit for describing and analyzing crowd dynamics and for planning pedestrian infrastructure. However, little is known about the relationship between crowd density and psychological stress and well-being. This study uses an experimental approach to determine whether higher crowd densities result in higher levels of stress in participants. In this experiment, which was a case study at the university, participants (N = 29) wait in a wooden box of 1 m2 for three minutes. Two, four, six, or eight participants are present simultaneously in the box. It is varied whether participants are supposed to remain silent or to speak with each other. Stress is conceptualized as arousal and measured as skin conductance level/electrodermal activity (EDA). A questionnaire is administered after the experiment, and the positioning of participants in the box is videotaped. The results show that the correlation between crowd density and physiological arousal is more complex than expected. The specific social situation in the box appears to play a more important role than merely the number of people waiting there. Furthermore, our data indicate a temporal trend: participants seem to adapt to the crowd density in the box. Video data analysis reveals that participants choose their positioning and orientation in the box carefully, but that this social choreography works less smoothly in higher densities. This study shows promising results for using EDA as a measurement of arousal in the context of crowd research. However, the limitations of this method and the experiments conducted are also discussed in detail to further improve this approach.
... For large transportation hubs, scholars have conducted physiological and cognitive load monitoring and analysis on transfer passengers, finding that the individual's level of environmental perception can be obtained through measures such as skin conductance, heart rate, and eye movement [21]. Scholars have also used eye-tracking devices to record individuals' behavior in terms of gaze towards the surrounding crowd when searching for safe exits in buildings, revealing the influence of external factors on route selection and attention allocation [22]. Others have also conducted feature clustering analysis on visual scanning paths related to individual search behavior [23], providing new methods for evaluating evacuation behavior and performing psychological analysis. ...
A fast evacuation from buildings to emergency shelters is necessary and important after the occurrence of a disaster. We investigated the variations in physical behaviors and cognition processes while finding emergency shelter. The on-site emergency-shelter-finding experiments were conducted in Beijing, China. Participants performed the task by using a wearable eye-tracking device. We aimed to assess three eye metrics: fixation counts, mean fixation duration, and visual attention index, to perform cognitive searching analysis for the environmental elements. The results showed that most people spend more fixation time on digital maps (297.77 ± 195.90 ms) and road conditions (239.43 ± 114.91 ms) than signs (150.90 ± 81.70 ms), buildings (153.44 ± 41.15 ms), and plants (170.11 ± 47.60 ms). Furthermore, most participants exhibit hesitation and retracing behaviors throughout the wayfinding process. The participants with relatively rich disaster experience and a proactive personality exhibit better performance in the shelter-finding task, such as a shorter retracing distance (p = 0.007) and nearer destination (p = 0.037). Eye metrics, together with the questionnaire, can mirror the complexity and heterogeneity of evacuation behavior during emergency shelter-finding. In addition, this also provides insights for the optimization of guidance sign systems and improvements in emergency management.
... Added to this problem is the challenge of concurrently managing multimodal sensory stimuli, which can lead to processing demand overload and interference with normal cognitive processing. This sensory overload, or sensory processing flooding effect, can be found in cognitively unimpaired persons (120) and in diseases such as schizophrenia (121), but is magnified in disorders such as MS and mTBI that feature pathological sensory processing and cognitive impairment resulting from damaged WM. ...
The ability to simultaneously process and integrate multiple sensory stimuli is paramount to effective daily function and essential for normal cognition. Multisensory management depends critically on the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processing of sensory information, with white matter (WM) tracts acting as the conduit between cortical and subcortical gray matter (GM) regions. White matter tracts and GM structures operate in concert to manage both multisensory signals and cognition. Altered sensory processing leads to difficulties in reweighting and modulating multisensory input during various routine environmental challenges, and thus contributes to cognitive dysfunction. To examine the specific role of WM in altered sensory processing and cognitive dysfunction, this review focuses on two neurologic disorders with diffuse WM pathology, multiple sclerosis and mild traumatic brain injury, in which persistently altered sensory processing and cognitive impairment are common. In these disorders, cognitive dysfunction in association with altered sensory processing may develop initially from slowed signaling in WM tracts and, in some cases, GM pathology secondary to WM disruption, but also because of interference with cognitive function by the added burden of managing concurrent multimodal primary sensory signals. These insights promise to inform research in the neuroimaging, clinical assessment, and treatment of WM disorders, and the investigation of WM-behavior relationships.
... Lin et al. [38] found a highly positive correlation between subjective discomfort caused by luminance contrast and eye movement speed, which was consistent with our findings, that is, in the higher luminance contrast, the eye kept moving with a stronger feeling of glare. Pakkert et al. [39] concluded in their study that presenting a small number of lights yielded improvement would not show in the task performance. The author said that it was hard to determine the specific effect of the glare caused by extreme luminance contrast on the observer's eye because the human body could make a "strategic adaptation", our findings partially confirmed this conclusion. ...
This paper investigated the effect of luminance contrast between sign and surrounding object on the gaze behavior of pedestrian, static or dynamic 360° panorama rendered in a virtual environment applied to simulate the wayfinding of pedestrians in the metro stations. Fifty-five participants observed the sign posters and the advertisement boards with distinct luminance contrasts (31 of them were in static levels, 24 of the rest were in dynamic levels) and were asked to point out the graphic or textual changes in the area after 30s. The eye tracker recorded ocular data, and glare perception was inquired by questionnaire. The result of T-test and Regression analysis revealed that luminance contrast was a saliency feature distinguishing visual targets and surrounding objects. The correlation between the value of luminance contrast and fixations, fixation durations on the sign is negative. Each increase in luminance contrast by one unit reduces the mean of fixations by 0.826, accompanied by a stronger feeling of glare, which indicated the strategic adaption of visual attention. The study contributed to our understanding of a new sight of lighting design in public traffic places and confirmed that lighting simulation in an immersive virtual environment can effectively analyzes visual perception.
... It can further show the live stress and fatigue values of the trainee (Fig. 3), and they can be gathered on a by-task basis to visualize trends and enable day-to-day performance comparison. The fatigue and stress recognition algorithms are implemented based on the stateof-art methods published in [17][18][19][20], respectively. In the real-time stress and fatigue monitoring as shown in Fig. 3, the green and red ribbon represent the levels of fatigue and stress, where green color indicates a low level of fatigue/stress, red indicates a high level of fatigue/stress, and a yellow color indicates a medium level of fatigue/stress. ...
Shunting of trains is a task that requires meticulous adherence to all steps to guarantee safety for everyone involved during and after the procedure. These steps are currently taught using classical teaching materials, such as printouts, videos and training by experienced supervisors. However, due to limited availability of locomotives, hours for training and manpower, training of shunting operation becomes challenging in real life. In this paper, we implemented a lifelike, collaborative virtual environment for shunting training including a novel human factors evaluation system for fatigue and stress monitoring. An experiment with 12 subjects and 3 trainers has been designed and carried out to validate the usage of VR-based shunting training. Positive feedback toward the VR-based training was obtained from the subjects and trainers.
Social campaigns influence attitudes in society, but too much information can cause cognitive overload.
Traditional methods for measuring cognitive overload are subjective. There is potential for using cognitive
neuroscience methods because these tools measure consumers' unconscious responses and provide better
understanding of cognitive functions. We have elaborated an experimental framework to enable the
assessment of media messages in social campaigns concerning the cognitive overload that they cause. The
proposed framework will be tested by performing an experiment on specific social advertising to prove its
usefulness and show the research possibilities that it offers. As a result, we expect to expand the framework
into a system that could be used by practitioners for evaluating social advertising before launching the
campaign.
Data retrieval systems supporting the discovery and reuse of open data are emerging as important tools in the open data ecosystem. However, user satisfaction with them is relatively low. This study proposes the primacy-peak-recency effect to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying data searchers’ overall satisfaction. To test the primacy-peak-recency effect, primacy-peak-recency cubes consisting of eye movement indicators at primacy, peak, and recency moments and their combinations are constructed as the theoretical model. A user experiment was conducted to collect eye movement data and satisfaction scores generated during 48 doctoral students’ interactions with data retrieval systems. An ensemble machine learning framework was then applied to analyze eye movement data to assess the theoretical model. The results indicate that the primacy-peak-recency cubes are salient predictors of data searchers’ satisfaction (the prediction accuracy=0.682 and regression R2=0.749). This finding suggests that data searchers’ complex cognitive processes at primacy, peak, and recency moments measured by uni-, bi-, and three-dimensional eye movement indicators are predictors of overall satisfaction, confirming the primacy-peak-recency effect. In addition, combinations of varying types of influential moments and multidimensional eye movement events are the best predictors of overall satisfaction. This suggests that influential moments and cognitive processes have additive effects on overall satisfaction. Combining theory-driven and data-driven approaches, this study sheds light on the potential of machine learning approaches for analyzing neuropsychological data for heuristics examination. With these insights, practical strategies to predict data searchers’ satisfaction and optimize the user-experience design of data retrieval systems are proposed.
In urban rail trains, traditional printed guide information interfaces are being replaced by digital interfaces. An electronic guide screen is an important device for passengers to obtain information about the ride because the train is running underground. In particular, when the train is crowded, passengers must obtain information in advance and make appropriate decisions. Therefore, it is important to efficiently search for guidance interfaces. In this study, use scenarios of the guidance interface were simulated. The typical information layout and display mode in the current electronic guidance interface were the experimental variables. Through eye tracking and subjective evaluation, the effects of design features on user search performance, visual behavior, and usability satisfaction were discussed. The experimental results showed that the information layout and display mode of the guidance interface had an interactive effect on the task completion time, fixation counts, and usability score; they also had a significant effect on the recall accuracy and saccade ratio. Task completion time had a strong positive correlation with usability satisfaction and was correlated with visual behavior. The study confirmed that the split-screen display mode combined with interlaced layout could improve search performance and subjective satisfaction.
Relevance to industry
Printed guide signs in subway cars are being replaced by electronic guide screens of different styles. Passengers must search for the required information within a limited period. In this study, the effects of different interface layouts and display modes on search performance, visual behavior, and usability were studied. This had a positive significance in improving user experience.
Pupil responses are known to indicate brain processes involved in perception, attention and decision-making. They can provide an accessible biomarker of human memory performance and cognitive states in general. Here we investigated changes in the pupil size during encoding and recall of word lists. Consistent patterns in the pupil response were found across and within distinct phases of the free recall task. The pupil was most constricted in the initial fixation phase and was gradually more dilated through the subsequent encoding, distractor and recall phases of the task, as the word items were maintained in memory. Within the final recall phase, retrieving memory for individual words was associated with pupil dilation in absence of visual stimulation. Words that were successfully recalled showed significant differences in pupil response during their encoding compared to those that were forgotten - the pupil was more constricted before and more dilated after the onset of word presentation. Our results suggest pupil size as a potential biomarker for probing and modulation of memory processing.
Memory is one of the most important cognitive functions in a person’s life as it is essential for recalling personal memories and performing many everyday tasks. Although a huge number of studies have been conducted in the field, only a few of them investigated memory in realistic situations, due to methodological issues. The various tools that have been developed using virtual environments have gained popularity in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology because they enable to create naturalistic and controlled situations, and are thus particularly adapted to the study of episodic memory, for which an ecological evaluation is of prime importance. Episodic memory is the conscious recollection of personal events combined with their phenomenological and spatiotemporal encoding contexts. Using an original paradigm in a virtual environment, the objective of the present study was to characterize the construction of episodic memories. While the concept of working memory has become central in the understanding of a wide range of cognitive functions, its role in the integration of episodic memories has seldom been assessed in an ecological context. This experiment aimed at filling this gap by studying how episodic memory is affected by concurrent tasks requiring working memory resources in a realistic situation. Participants navigated in a virtual town and had to memorize as many elements in their spatiotemporal context as they could. During learning, participants had either to perform a concurrent task meant to prevent maintenance through the phonological loop, or a task aimed at preventing maintenance through the visuospatial sketchpad, or no concurrent task. Episodic memory was assessed in a recall test performed after learning through various scores measuring the what, where and when of the memories. Results showed that, compared to the control condition with no concurrent task, the prevention of maintenance through the phonological loop had a deleterious impact only on the encoding of central elements. By contrast, the prevention of visuo-spatial maintenance interfered both with the encoding of the temporal context and with the binding. These results suggest that the integration of realistic episodic memories relies on different working memory processes that depend on the nature of the traces.
Previous studies have related changes in attentional load to pupil size modulations. However, studies relating changes in attentional load and task experience on a finer scale to pupil size modulations are scarce. Here, we investigated how these changes affect pupil sizes. To manipulate attentional load, participants covertly tracked between zero and five objects among several randomly moving objects on a computer screen. To investigate effects of task experience, the experiment was conducted on three consecutive days. We found that pupil sizes increased with each increment in attentional load. Across days, we found systematic pupil size reductions. We compared the model fit for predicting pupil size modulations using attentional load, task experience, and task performance as predictors. We found that a model which included attentional load and task experience as predictors had the best model fit while adding performance as a predictor to this model reduced the overall model fit. Overall, results suggest that pupillometry provides a viable metric for precisely assessing attentional load and task experience in visuospatial tasks.
This work presents the result of a questionnaire study which investigates the design of dissuasive emergency signage, i.e. signage conveying a message of not utilizing a specific exit door. The work analyses and tests a set of key features of dissuasive emergency signage using the Theory of Affordances. The variables having the largest impact on observer preference, interpretation and noticeability of the signage have been identified. Results show that features which clearly negate the exit-message of the original positive exit signage are most effective, for instance a red X-marking placed across the entirety of the exit signage conveys a clear dissuasive message. Other features of note are red flashing lights and alternation of colour. The sense of urgency conveyed by the sign is largely affected by sensory inputs such as red flashing lights or other features which cause the signs to break the tendencies of normalcy.
The multivariate linear model is Y(n×m) = X (n×p) B (p×m) + E (n×m) The multivariate linear model can be fit with the lm function in R, where the left-hand side of the model comprises a matrix of response variables, and the right-hand side is specified exactly as for a univariate linear model (i.e., with a single response variable). This paper explains how to use the Anova and linearHypothesis functions in the car package to perform convenient hypothesis tests for parameters in multivariate linear models, including models for repeated-measures data.
Mental workload (MW)-based adaptive system has been found to be an effective approach to enhance the performance of human-machine interaction and to avoid human error caused by overload. However, MW estimated from the spontaneously generated electroencephalogram (EEG) was found to be task-specific. In existing studies, EEG-based MW classifier can work well under the task used to train the classifier (within-task) but crash completely when used to classify MW of a task that is similar to but not included in the training data (cross-task). The possible causes have been considered to be the task-specific EEG patterns, the mismatched workload across tasks and the temporal effects. In this study, cross-task performance-based feature selection (FS) and regression model were tried to cope with these challenges, in order to make EEG-based MW estimator trained on working memory tasks work well under a complex simulated multi-attribute task (MAT). The results show that the performance of regression model trained on working memory task and tested on multi-attribute task with the feature subset picked-out were significantly improved (correlation coefficient (COR): 0.740 ± 0.147 and 0.598 ± 0.161 for FS data and validation data respectively) when compared to the performance in the same condition with all features (chance level). It can be inferred that there do exist some MW-related EEG features can be picked out and there are something in common between MW of a relatively simple task and a complex task. This study provides a promising approach to measure MW across tasks.
This study employed eye-tracking technology to examine how students with different levels of prior knowledge process text and data diagrams when reading a web-based scientific report. Students' visual behaviors were tracked and recorded when they read a report demonstrating the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global climate change in 2 diagrams and 4 textual sections. Based on the pretest scores, 13 participants were categorized into high and low prior knowledge (PK) groups. Eye-tracking measures including the total reading time, total fixation duration, and total regression number on each area of interest of the 2 groups were compared. A heat map was further used to show the overall visual distribution of each group. In addition, the inter-scanning transitions between the textual and graphical information of the 2 groups were compared and further confirmed by the patterns of the scan paths. The results revealed that overall students spent more time reading the textual than the graphical information. The high PK students showed longer fixation durations and more regressions on the graphics than the low PK students. Meanwhile, the high PK students showed more inter-scanning transitions than the low PK students not only between the text and graphics but also between the 2 data diagrams. This suggests that the high PK students were more able to integrate text and graphic information and inspect scientific data which is essential for online inquiry learning. This study provides eye-tracking evidence to show that low PK students have difficulties integrating scientific diagrams with expository texts and inspecting scientific data diagrams that are commonly shown in websites. Suggestions are made for future studies and instructional design for online inquiry-based science learning.
KEY WORDS: eye tracking, inquiry-based data inspection, prior knowledge, text-graphic integration, web-based science reading
This paper summarizes research work conducted on the design and assessment of a set of usability dimensions called ' ergonomic criteria '. It also provides a detailed description of each of the individual criteria. The paper then mentions the inherent limitations of the method, discusses the notion of ergonomic quality , the differences in perspective compared to empirical testing, and identifies the potential users of the method.Finally,the paper stresses the limitations in the current state of development of the method and identifies research issues for further improving the method.
Process models are used by information professionals to convey semantics about the business operations in a real-world domain intended to be supported by an information system. The understandability of these models is vital to them being used for Information Systems development. In this article, we examine two factors that we predict will influence the understanding of a business process that novice developers obtain from a corresponding process model: the content presentation form chosen to articulate the business domain, and the user characteristics of the novice developers working with the model. Our experimental study provides evidence that novice developers obtain similar levels of understanding when confronted with an unfamiliar or a familiar process model. However, previous modeling experience, the use of English as a second language, and previous work experience in BPM are important influencing factors of model understanding. Our findings suggest that education and research in process modeling should increase the focus on human factors and how they relate to content and content presentation formats for different modeling tasks. We discuss implications for practice and research.
Holmqvist, K., Nyström, N., Andersson, R., Dewhurst, R., Jarodzka, H., & Van de Weijer, J. (Eds.) (2011). Eye tracking: a comprehensive guide to methods and measures, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Eye-tracking technology is a growing field used to detect eye movements and analyze human processing of visual information for interactive and diagnostic applications. Different domains in scientific research such as neuroscience, experimental psychology, computer science and human factors can benefit from eye-tracking methods and techniques to unobtrusively investigate the quantitative evidence underlying visual processes. In order to meet the experimental requirements concerning the variety of application fields, different gaze- and eye-tracking solutions using high-speed cameras are being developed (e.g., eye-tracking glasses, head-mounted or desk-mounted systems), which are also compatible with other analysis devices such as magnetic resonance imaging. This work presents an overview of the main application fields of eye-tracking methodology in psychological research. In particular, two innovative solutions will be shown: (1) the SMI RED-M eye-tracker, a high performance portable remote eye-tracker suitable for different settings, that requires maximum mobility and flexibility; (2) a wearable mobile gaze-tracking device--the SMI eye-tracking glasses--which is suitable for real-world and virtual environment research. For each kind of technology, the functions and different possibilities of application in experimental psychology will be described by focusing on some examples of experimental tasks (i.e., visual search, reading, natural tasks, scene viewing and other information processing) and theoretical approaches (e.g., embodied cognition).
High workload of nurses in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) has been identified as a major patient safety and worker stress problem. However, relatively little attention has been dedicated to the measurement of workload in healthcare. The objectives of this study are to describe and examine several methods to measure workload of ICU nurses. We then focus on the measurement of ICU nurses’ workload using a subjective rating instrument: the NASA TLX.
We conducted secondary data analysis on data from two, multi-site, cross-sectional questionnaire studies to examine several instruments to measure ICU nurses’ workload. The combined database contains the data from 757 ICU nurses in eight hospitals and 21 ICUs.
Results show that the different methods to measure workload of ICU nurses, such as patient-based and operator-based workload, are only moderately correlated, or not correlated at all. Results show further that among the operator-based instruments, the NASA TLX is the most reliable and valid questionnaire to measure workload and that NASA TLX can be used in a healthcare setting. Managers of hospitals and ICUs can benefit from the results of this research as it provides benchmark data on workload experienced by nurses in a variety of ICUs.
Traditionally, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has focused on instructional methods to decrease extraneous cognitive load so that available cognitive resources can be fully devoted to learning. This article strengthens the cognitive base of CLT by linking cognitive processes to the processes used by biological evolution. The article discusses recent developments in CLT related to the current view in instructional design that real-life tasks should be the driving force for complex learning. First, the complexity, or intrinsic cognitive load, of such tasks is often high so that new methods are needed to manage cognitive load. Second, complex learning is a lengthy process requiring learners motivational states and levels of expertise development to be taken into account. Third, this perspective requires more advanced methods to measure expertise and cognitive load so that instruction can be flexibly adapted to individual learners needs. Experimental studies are reviewed to illustrate these recent developments. Guidelines for future research are provided.
Within the cognitive load theory research community it has become customary to report theoretical and empirical progress at international conference symposia and in special issues of journals (e.g., Educational Psychologist 2003; Learning and Instruction 2002). The continuation of this custom at the 10th European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 2003, in Padova, Italy, has materialized in this special issue of Instructional Science on the instructional implications of the interaction between information structures and cognitive architecture. Since the 1990s this interaction has begun to emerge as an explicit field of study for instructional designers and researchers. In this introduction, we describe the basics of cognitive load theory, sketch the origins of the instructional implications, introduce the articles accepted for this special issue as a representative sample of current research in this area, and discuss the overall results in the context of the theory. It is generally accepted that performance degrades at the cognitive load extremes of either excessively low load (underload) or excessively high load (overload) – see e.g., Teigen (1994). Under conditions of both underload and overload, learners may cease to learn. So, whereas learning situations with low processing demands will benefit from practice conditions that increase the load and challenge the learner, learning situations with an extremely high load will benefit from practice conditions that reduce the load to more manageable levels (Wulf and Shea 2002). Cognitive load theory (CLT; Paas, Renkl and Sweller 2003; Sweller 1988, 1999) is mainly concerned with the learning of complex cognitive tasks, where learners are often overwhelmed by the number of information elements and their interactions that need to be processed simultaneously before meaningful learning can commence. Instructional control of this (too) high load, in order to attain meaningful learning in complex cognitive domains, has
With a focus on presenting information at the right time, the ubicomp community can benefit greatly from learning the most salient human measures of cognitive load. Cognitive load can be used as a metric to determine when or whether to interrupt a user. In this paper, we collected data from multiple sensors and compared their ability to assess cognitive load. Our focus is on visual perception and cognitive speed-focused tasks that leverage cognitive abilities common in ubicomp applications. We found that across all participants, the electrocardiogram median absolute deviation and median heat flux measurements were the most accurate at distinguishing between low and high levels of cognitive load, providing a classification accuracy of over 80% when used together. Our contribution is a real-time, objective, and generalizable method for assessing cognitive load in cognitive tasks commonly found in ubicomp systems and situations of divided attention.
We report on the results of a study in which pairs of subjects were involved in spoken dialogues and one of the subjects also operat- ed a simulated vehicle. We estimated the driver's cognitive load based on pupil size measurements from a remote eye tracker. We compared the cognitive load estimates based on the physiological pupillometric data and driving performance data. The physiologi- cal and performance measures show high correspondence suggest- ing that remote eye tracking might provide reliable driver cogni- tive load estimation, especially in simulators. We also introduced a new pupillometric cognitive load measure that shows promise in tracking cognitive load changes on time scales of several seconds. CR Categories: H.5.2 (Information Interfaces and Presentation): User Interfaces
This paper describes our proposal for storytelling in virtual environments from a virtual guide perspective, detailing the involved knowledge representation and algorithms. In our model the guide begins at a particular location and starts to navigate the world telling the user stories related to the places she visits. Our guide tries to emulate a real guides behaviour in such a situation. In particular, she behaves as a spontaneous real guide who knows stories about the places in the virtual world but has not prepared an exhaustive tour nor a storyline.
When new information is presented to learners, it must be processed in a severely limited working memory. Learning reduces working memory limitations by enabling the use of schemas, stored in long-term memory, to process information more efficiently. Several instructional techniques have been designed to facilitate schema construction and automation by reducing working memory load. Recently, however, strong evidence has emerged that the effectiveness of these techniques depends very much on levels of learner expertise. Instructional techniques that are highly effective with inexperienced learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences when used with more experienced learners. We call this phenomenon the expertise reversal effect. In this article, we review the empirical literature on the interaction between instructional techniques and levels of learner experience that led to the identification of the expertise reversal effect.
Electrodermal activity is characterized by the superposition of what appear to be single distinct skin conductance responses (SCRs). Classic trough-to-peak analysis of these responses is impeded by their apparent superposition. A deconvolution approach is proposed, which separates SC data into continuous signals of tonic and phasic activity. The resulting phasic activity shows a zero baseline, and overlapping SCRs are represented by predominantly distinct, compact impulses showing an average duration of less than 2 s. A time integration of the continuous measure of phasic activity is proposed as a straightforward indicator of event-related sympathetic activity. The quality and benefit of the proposed measure is demonstrated in an experiment with short interstimulus intervals as well as by means of a simulation study. The advances compared to previous decomposition methods are discussed.
Cognitive studies of expertise that were reviewed in Chapter I indicated that prior knowledge is the most important 1earner characteristic that influences learning processes. Recently, it has been established that learning procedures and techniques that are beneficial for learners with low levels of prior knowledge may become relatively inefficient for more knowledgeable learners due to cognitive activities that consume additional working memory resources. This expertise reversal effect could be related to aptitude-treatment interactions (interactions between learning outcomes of different instructional treatments and student aptitudes) that were actively investigated in 1960-70s. The learner level of prior knowledge or level of expertise is the aptitude of interest in this case. The effect is explained by the cognitive overload that more knowledgeable learners may experience due to processing redundant for these learners instructional components (as compared to information without redundancy). As a consequence, instructional outcomes of different multimedia learning formats and procedures are always relative to levels of learner task-specific expertise. This chapter describes cognitive processes that cause expertise reversal effect and major instructional implications of this effect. The chapter provides a review of empirical evidence obtained in the original longitudinal studies of the effect, the expertise reversal for methods of enhancing essential cognitive load, and expertise reversal phenomena when learning from textual and hypertextual materials. The chapter also describes relations between the expertise reversal effect and studies of Aptitude-Treatment Interactions. Additional empirical evidence for the effect in other areas will be described in the following chapters in Section 2 of the book.
We develop an approach to using microsaccade dynamics for the measurement of task difficulty/cognitive load imposed by a visual search task of a layered surface. Previous studies provide converging evidence that task difficulty/cognitive load can influence microsaccade activity. We corroborate this notion. Specifically, we explore this relationship during visual search for features embedded in a terrain-like surface, with the eyes allowed to move freely during the task. We make two relevant contributions. First, we validate an approach to distinguishing between the
ambient
and
focal
phases of visual search. We show that this spectrum of visual behavior can be quantified by a single previously reported estimator, known as Krejtz's
$\mathcal {K}$
coefficient. Second, we use ambient/focal segments based on
$\mathcal {K}$
as a moderating factor for microsaccade analysis in response to task difficulty. We find that during the focal phase of visual search (a) microsaccade magnitude increases significantly, and (b) microsaccade rate decreases significantly, with increased task difficulty. We conclude that the combined use of
$\mathcal {K}$
and microsaccade analysis may be helpful in building effective tools that provide an indication of the level of cognitive activity within a task while the task is being performed.
This paper researches the airport signage system design based on human cognition. Taking American airport of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chinese airport of Hong Kong, Chong Qing as case studies to compare the difference of signage design in form, color matching, icon, intelligent map design, and the evaluate the visibility, legibility, readability cognition items in these four airports by passenger questionnaire and interview. Getting out the results that the Hong Kong airport signage cognition evaluation score is the highest and the lowest one Los Angeles airport signage. The reason is Hong Kong airport alternative horizontal and vertical signage design form of appropriating ergonomics size and color. The problem in Los Angeles airport signage is the weak visibility of narrow striped horizontal signage form. And in the future intelligent map will be applied more as its high efficiency of navigation information providing.
Storytelling for Virtual Reality serves as a bridge between students of new media and professionals working between the emerging world of VR technology and the art form of classical storytelling. Rather than examining purely the technical, the text focuses on the narrative and how stories can best be structured, created, and then told in virtual immersive spaces. Author John Bucher examines the timeless principles of storytelling and how they are being applied, transformed, and transcended in Virtual Reality. Interviews, conversations, and case studies with both pioneers and innovators in VR storytelling are featured, including industry leaders at LucasFilm, 20th Century Fox, Oculus, Insomniac Games, and Google.
This study investigates the user experience to clarify what it is like to experience stories in VR (virtual reality) and how immersion influences story experiences in immersive storytelling. This study explores the immersive storytelling context, developing and testing a VR experience model that integrates presence, flow, empathy, and embodiment. The results imply that users’ personal traits correlates immersion in VR: user experience in VR depend on individual traits, which in turns influence how strongly users immerse in a VR. The way users view and accept VR stories derives from the way they envisage and intend to experience them. Rather than simply being influenced by technological features, users have intentional and purposeful control over VR stories. The findings of this study suggest that the cognitive processes by which users experience quality, presence, and flow determine how they will empathize with and embody VR stories.
In this paper we use pupil diameter as an indicator for measuring cognitive load for six different tasks on common web maps. Two eye tracking data sets were collected for different basemaps (37 participants and 1,328 trials in total). We found significant differences in mean pupil diameter between tasks, indicating low cognitive load for free exploration, medium cognitive load for search, polygon comparison, line following, and high cognitive load for route planning and focused search. Pupil diameter also changed over time within trials which can be interpreted as an increase in cognitive load for search and focused search, and a decrease for line following. Such results can be used for the adaptation of maps and geovisualizations based on their users’ cognitive load.
The smooth and fast evacuation of a pedestrian group is dependent on guidance services provided by signage systems. This paper investigates the location method of an evacuation signage system in a public space. We proposed a calculation method to determine the guidance efficiency of signage and further present a piece-wise probability function to explain interactions between pedestrians and signage. The interaction between one pedestrian and one signage was extended to the interaction between a pedestrian crowd and a signage system. A location model of the signage system was proposed to determine the minimum number of signs necessary to meet guidance demands. The location model was based on the Cooperative Location Set Cover Problem (CLSCP) and was correspondingly solved by a proposed exponential binary heuristic search algorithm (EBHS), i.e., a combined exponential binary search method and a heuristic search algorithm for solving the Cooperative Maximum Cover Location Problem (CMCLP). Finally, the proposed model was applied to determine the location of an evacuation signage system in a hall. The parameters used in the location model were calibrated based on experimental data. The model results showed that the proposed model can suggest the optimal number and best locations of signs. A sensitivity analysis showed that the guidance capacity of the signage system can be increased by improving the attractiveness of signage and pedestrian trust and familiarity with environment. The same number of signs is suggested for evacuation scenarios wherein crowd following behavior is present.
This chapter focuses on the use of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) for cognitive load measurement. GSR is a measure of conductivity of human skin, and provides an indication of changes within the human sympathetic nervous system.
The redundancy principle (or redundancy effect) suggests that redundant material interferes with rather than facilitates learning. Redundancy occurs when the same information is presented concurrently in multiple forms or is unnecessarily elaborated. According to cognitive load theory, coordinating redundant information with essential information increases working memory load, which may interfere with learning. Eliminating such redundant information removes the requirement to coordinate multiple sources of information. Accordingly, instructional designs that eliminate redundant material can be superior to those that include redundancy. This chapter summarizes research and theory concerned with the effect of processing redundant information in multimedia learning, a history of research in instructional redundancy, the conditions of applicability of this principle, and its instructional implications.
Electrodermal activity is one of the most frequently used psychophysiological evaluations in psychology research. Based on the 1992 edition of this work Electrodermal Activity covers advances in the field since the first publication in 1992. The current volume includes updated information on brain imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI, which provide further insight into the brain mechanisms underlying EDA. In addition, this volume is able to describe more reliably hypotheses that have been successfully tested since the first publication. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012. All rights reserved.
An overview is given of the problems of defining, quantifying, and measuring mental workload during interactive human/machine tasks, based on the author's work in the areas of: aircraft handling qualities; human operator modelling, measurement, and prediction; multi-display scanning; and psychophysiological correlates of mental workload. The frustrating cycle of promises-then-problems with psychophysiological measures of mental effort is assessed, and the importance of workload rating techniques is emphasized. The lack of a unifying theoretical approach is identified as the main impediment to progress, and an approach is suggested that can handle both continuous and discrete task loads. A review is given of some "new" (c 1980) workload measurement concepts such as: multi-dimensional ratings, the "imbedded surrogate" auxiliary task method, and the measurement of "workload margin" via the Cross-Coupled-Instability Task (CCIT).
Signage represents more than directions or policies; it is informational, promotional, and sets the tone of the environment. To be effective, signage must be consistent, concise, and free of jargon and punitive language. An efficient assessment of signage should include a complete inventory of existing signage, including an analysis of the types of signs, its location, language, and its design. This article outlines the steps involved in a comprehensive signage audit, which along with a literature review, provides the foundation for creating a signage policy, best practices guidelines, and a branding strategy for future signage.
Because of the centrality of working memory load to cognitive load theory, measuring this load has been a high priority for
researchers. While it is possible to demonstrate support for the validity of the theory by predicting experimental outcomes,
it is useful to additionally provide independent measures of cognitive load. In this chapter we describe the various methods
used to measure cognitive load and how they have developed over the last 30 years.
The modality effect occurs when audio/visual instructions are superior to visual only instructions. The effect was explored in two experiments conducted within a cognitive load theory framework. In Experiment 1, two groups of primary school students (N = 24) were presented with either audio/visual or visual only instructions on how to read a temperature graph. The group presented with visual text and a diagram rather than audio text and a diagram was superior, reversing most previous data on the modality effect. It was hypothesized that the reason for the reversal was that the transitory auditory text component was too long to be processed easily in working memory compared to more permanent written information. Experiment 2 (N = 64) replicated the experiment with the variation of a reduced length of both auditory and visual text instructions. Results indicated a reinstatement of the modality effect with audio/visual instructions proving superior to visual only instructions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This article discusses ggplot2, an open source R package, based on a grammatical theory of graphics. The underlying theory has been discussed in depth elsewhere so this article illustrates some of the consequences of the theory for creating new graphics, the importance of programmable graphics, and the rich ecosystem that has grown up around ggplot2. WIREs Comp Stat 2011 3 180–185 DOI: 10.1002/wics.147
This article is categorized under: Software for Computational Statistics > Software/Statistical Software
Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Statistical Graphics and Visualization
Anxiety was defined by Freud as “something felt,” an emotional state that included feelings of apprehension, tension, nervousness, and worry accompanied by physiological arousal. Consistent with Darwin's evolutionary perspective, Freud observed that anxiety was adaptive in motivating behavior that helped individuals cope with threatening situations and that intense anxiety was prevalent in most psychiatric disorders. In measuring anxiety, Cattell (1966) emphasized the importance of distinguishing between anxiety as an emotional state and individual differences in anxiety as a personality trait.
Keywords:
anxiety;
STAI;
emotion;
personality;
state anxiety;
trait anxiety
In cognitive load theory, element interactivity has been used as the basic, defining mechanism of intrinsic cognitive load
for many years. In this article, it is suggested that element interactivity underlies extraneous cognitive load as well. By
defining extraneous cognitive load in terms of element interactivity, a distinct relation between intrinsic and extraneous
cognitive load can be established based on whether element interactivity is essential to the task at hand or whether it is
a function of instructional procedures. Furthermore, germane cognitive load can be defined in terms of intrinsic cognitive
load, thus also associating germane cognitive load with element interactivity. An analysis of the consequences of explaining
the various cognitive load effects in terms of element interactivity is carried out.
KeywordsCognitive load theory-Element interactivity-Extraneous cognitive load-Intrinsic cognitive load-Germane cognitive load
This paper is concerned with some of the factors that determine the difficulty of material that needs to be learned. It is suggested that when considering intellectual activities, schema acquisition and automation are the primary mechanisms of learning. The consequences of cognitive load theory for the structuring of information in order to reduce difficulty by focusing cognitive activity on schema acquisition is briefly summarized. It is pointed out that cognitive load theory deals with learning and problem solving difficulty that is artificial in that it can be manipulated by instructional design. Intrinsic cognitive load in contrast, is constant for a given area because it is a basic component of the material. Intrinsic cognitive load is characterized in terms of element interactivity. The elements of most schemas must be learned simultaneously because they interact and it is the interaction that is critical. If, as in some areas, interactions between many elements must be learned, then intrinsic cognitive load will be high. In contrast, in different areas, if elements can be learned successively rather than simultaneously because they do not interact, intrinsic cognitive load will be low. It is suggested that extraneous cognitive load that interferes with learning only is a problem under conditions of high cognitive load caused by high element interactivity. Under conditions of low element interactivity, re-designing instruction to reduce extraneous cognitive load may have no appreciable consequences. In addition, the concept of element interactivity can be used to explain not only why some material is difficult to learn but also, why it can be difficult to understand. Understanding becomes relevant when high element interactivity material with a naturally high cognitive load must be learned.
We present a fast, robust, and low cost pupil detection technique that uses two near-infrared time multiplexed light sources synchronized with the camera frame rate. The two light sources generate bright and dark pupil images, which are used for pupil segmentation. To reduce artifacts caused mostly by head motion, a larger temporal support is used. This method can be applied to detect and track several pupils (or several people). Experimental results from a real-time implementation of the system show that this technique is very robust, and able to detect pupils using wide field of view low cost cameras under different illumination conditions, even for people with glasses, from considerable long distances.
Despite rapid growth in the number of web sites, there is still a significant number of ergonomic problems which hinder web users. Many studies focus on analysing cognitive processes and difficulties experienced by web users, but very few are interested in web designers’ difficulties or in comparing their respective activities. Towards this end, the two experimental studies presented in this article compare the strategies developed both by professional web designers and (novice vs. experienced) web users while searching for information on web sites of varying ergonomic quality. More precisely, we investigated whether web designers can effectively use their own strategies as web users when designing web sites. We presented a comparison of novice web users, experienced web users and professional web designers searching behavior and cognitive load when using ergonomic and non-ergonomic web sites. In addition, we asked web designers to predict the strategy used by novice web users. Based on the results obtained in the two experiments, we conclude that web designers are not able to predict strategies of novice users and do not behave like novice users. Consequently, ways for supporting web designers in developing a user-centered activity are necessary, and certain ways are suggested at the end of this article.
This special issue comprises a set of six papers, in which studies are presented that use eye tracking to analyse multimedia learning processes in detail. Most of the papers focus on the effects on visual attention of animations with different design features such as spoken vs. written text, different kinds of cues, or different presentation speeds. Two contributions concern effects of learner characteristics (prior knowledge) on visual attention when learning with video and complex graphics. In addition, in some papers eye tracking is not only used as a process measure in itself, but also as input for verbal reports (i.e., cued retrospective reporting). In the two commentaries, the contributions are discussed from a multimedia learning perspective and an eye tracking perspective, by prominent researchers in those fields. Together, the contributions to this issue give an overview of the various possibilities eye tracking opens up for research on multimedia learning and instruction.
This paper presents a review of eye gaze tracking technology and focuses on recent advancements that might facilitate its use in general computer applications. Early eye gaze tracking devices were appropriate for scientific exploration in controlled environments. Although it has been thought for long that they have the potential to become important computer input devices as well, the technology still lacks important usability requirements that hinders its applicability. We present a detailed description of the pupil–corneal reflection technique due to its claimed usability advantages, and show that this method is still not quite appropriate for general interactive applications. Finally, we present several recent techniques for remote eye gaze tracking with improved usability. These new solutions simplify or eliminate the calibration procedure and allow free head motion.
This study examined the effects of cognitive load on driving performance for interactions with an in-vehicle information system (IVIS) that varied in duration from 1 to 4 min. Twelve participants drove in a simulator while intermittently performing the IVIS task. There were three IVIS conditions: interacting with the IVIS, non-IVIS periods between IVIS interactions, and baseline driving without the IVIS task. Contrary to our hypothesis, driver response to lead vehicle braking was surprisingly uniform across IVIS conditions. IVIS interaction did undermine driver ability to detect the bicyclist along the side of the road, and some of these performance decrements persisted after the IVIS interaction had ended. Reaction time for bicyclist detection increased from the first to the subsequent minutes of the interaction. Eye movements were influenced by the IVIS conditions but not by task duration. Both ANOVA and factor analyses revealed that some of the changes in eye movements were concurrent with IVIS interaction while others persisted after the driver completed the IVIS interaction. Overall, the findings suggest that two mechanisms might account for the distraction-related performance decrements in this study: competition for processing resources and interference due to activation of competing goals.
Dixon (1991) and Goldman (1991) have provided thoughtful commentaries on Chandler and Sweller (1991). The general issue they raise concerns the scientific procedures we should use when conducting research in cognition and instruction. It is an issue of great importance, and we welcome the opportunity provided by their criticisms to discuss the techniques we use. To clarify the findings based on cognitive load theory, we begin by indicating the essential characteristics of a theory concerned with cognition and instruction, followed by a brief history of cognitive load theory to make clear that it has these characteristics. These statements will then be used to address specific comments made by Goldman and Dixon.
. Cognitive load theory suggests that many conventional instructional formats are ineffective as they involve extraneous cognitive activities, which interfere with learning. The split-attention effect provides one example of the consequences of inappropriate cognitive activities caused by poor instructional design. Learners are often forced to split their attention between and mentally integrate disparate sources of information (e.g., text and diagrams) before the instructional material can be rendered intelligible. This preliminary process of mental integration, while an essential precursor to learning, is likely to impose a heavy extraneous cognitive load. Physical integration (e.g., combining text and diagrams) may reduce cognitive load and so facilitate learning. This study reports findings from two experiments investigating the split-attention effect. Using an engineering programming language (Numerical Control programming), the first experiment investigated the possible advantage of physically integrating text and diagrams. In a normal training environment, the integrated instructions group outperformed the conventional group. Experiment 2 was designed to see if the split-attention effect would generalise to an area where mutually referring segments of text are conventionally separated, namely, empirical reports in psychology and education. In a laboratory study, Experiment 2 showed that students in an integrated group spent less time processing instructions yet still outperformed students in a conventional group on test questions. The consequences of these results for cognitive load theory and for instruction design are discussed.
Degree of pupil dilation has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of cognitive load, but the effect of aural versus visual task presentation on pupil dilation is unknown. To evaluate effects of presentation mode, pupil dilation was measured in three tasks spanning a range of cognitive activities: mental multiplication, digit sequence recall, and vigilance. Stimuli were presented both aurally and visually, controlling for all known visual influences on pupil diameter. The patterns of dilation were similar for both aural and visual presentation for all three tasks, but the magnitudes of pupil response were greater for aural presentation. Accuracy was higher for visual presentation for mental arithmetic and digit recall. The findings can be accounted for in terms of dual codes in working memory and suggest that cognitive load is lower for visual than for aural presentation.