creators_name: Muter, Paul
creators_name: Furedy, J.J.
creators_name: Vincent, A.
creators_name: Pelcowitz, T.
type: journalp
datestamp: 2005-06-30
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:56:06
metadata_visibility: show
title: User-hostile systems and patterns of psychophysiological activity
ispublished: pub
subjects: comp-sci-hci
full_text_status: public
keywords: usability, psychophysiology
abstract: Psychophysiological measures, which are not contaminated by demand characteristics, are potentially useful for improving systems and for examining psychological processes in human-computer interaction. In this study we report the use of minute-by-minute scored heart-rate (HR) and skin-conductance level (SCL) in a 25-subject experiment. Each subject was presented with two simulated bank-transaction tasks, one user-friendly and the other user-hostile. To check whether any differences were due simply to sheer difficulty, easy (forward digit-span) and hard (backward digit-span) memory tasks were presented to all subjects. The HR was higher during the computer (problem-solving) tasks than the memory tasks, but was unaffected by task difficulty, whereas SCL was uniquely elevated during the hard (user-hostile) computer task. The HR result is interpreted as reflecting parasympathetic withdrawal, while the SCL result suggests that the user-hostile software produced sympathetic excitation of the sort associated with the fight-or-flight reaction. SCL may serve as a good measure of user-friendliness.
date: 1993
date_type: published
publication: Computers in Human Behavior
volume: 9
publisher: Computers in Human Behavior
pagerange: 105-111
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: 
Brown, C. M. (1988). Human-computer interface design guidelines. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Furedy, J. J. (1983). Operational, analogical, and genuine definitions of psychophysiology. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 1, 13-19.
Furedy, J. J. (1987). Beyond heart-rate in the cardiac psychophysiological assessment of mental effort: The T-wave amplitude component of the electrocardiogram. Human Factors, 29, 183-194.
Furedy, J. J., & Heslegrave, R. J. (1983). A consideration of recent criticisms of the T-wave amplitude index of myocardial sympathetic activity. Psychophysiology, 20, 204-211.
Heslegrave, R. J., & Furedy, J. J. (1979). Anticipatory HR deceleration as a function of perceived control and probability of aversive loud noise: A deployment of attention account. Biological Psychology, 7,147-166.
Nickerson, R. S. (1986). Using computers: Human factors in information systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Norman, D. A. (1988). The psychology of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Shneiderman, B. (1987). Designing the user interface: Strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
What new age?. (1990, August 12). Time, pp. 42-44.
citation:   Muter, Paul and Furedy, J.J. and Vincent, A. and Pelcowitz, T.  (1993) User-hostile systems and patterns of psychophysiological activity.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/4429/1/Abs1993.htm