A Preliminary Study on Learners Physiological Measurements in Educational Hypermedia

This paper presents the findings of a preliminary study about the use of bio-feedback sensors in the context of an educational hypermedia environment, skin conductance, blood volume pulse and heart rate physiological data were gathered. The aim of the study was to examine learners’ emotional arousal variability, and possible correlations of the physiological data with other psychological constructs such as trait and self-reported anxiety. Ten university students participated in two identical experiments, with a mixed between-within experimental design (20 samples). According to the findings, heart rate was significantly correlated with trait and self-reported state anxiety (in the second experiment), but not with academic performance in an on-line exam. Skin conductance and blood volume pulse had only marginal variations, perhaps due to the absence of intense stimuli.

[1]  A. Halberstadt,et al.  Emotional experience and expression: An issue overview , 1993 .

[2]  Mayur S. Desai Computer Anxiety and Performance: An Application of a Change Model in a Pedagogical Setting. , 2001 .

[3]  Michael Minge,et al.  Measuring multiple components of emotions in interactive contexts , 2006, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[4]  Hua Wang,et al.  Communicating emotions in online chat using physiological sensors and animated text , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[5]  E. Phelps,et al.  Arousal-Mediated Memory Consolidation: Role of the Medial Temporal Lobe in Humans , 1998 .

[6]  Veikko Surakka,et al.  Emotions and heart rate while sitting on a chair , 2005, CHI.

[7]  Terri Gullickson,et al.  Encyclopedia of human behavior , 1995 .

[8]  Michael Muller,et al.  Multiple paradigms in affective computing , 2004, Interact. Comput..

[9]  Jonathan Klein,et al.  This computer responds to user frustration: Theory, design, and results , 2002, Interact. Comput..

[10]  K. Ochsner,et al.  Are affective events richly recollected or simply familiar? The experience and process of recognizing feelings past. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[11]  Jerrell C. Cassady,et al.  Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance , 2002 .

[12]  Panagiotis Germanakos,et al.  An Experimental Assessment of the Use of Cognitive and Affective Factors in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.

[13]  J. Russell A circumplex model of affect. , 1980 .

[14]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , 1970 .

[15]  C. Spielberger Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Form Y , 1983 .

[16]  Robert D. Ward,et al.  Physiological responses to different WEB page designs , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[17]  E. Kensinger,et al.  Remembering Emotional Experiences: The Contribution of Valence and Arousal , 2004, Reviews in the neurosciences.

[18]  D. Schunk,et al.  Self-Efficacy and Academic Motivation , 1991 .

[19]  V. Hamilton,et al.  A cognitive model of anxiety: implications for theories of personality and motivation. , 1985, Issues in mental health nursing.

[20]  Christine L. Lisetti,et al.  A User Model of Psycho-physiological Measure of Emotion , 2007, User Modeling.

[21]  R. Gunderman,et al.  Emotional intelligence. , 2011, Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR.