Effects of input modality and expertise on workload and video game performance 2011

A recent trend in consumer and military electronics has been to allow operators the option to control the system via novel control methods. The most prevalent and available form of these methods is that of vocal control. Vocal control allows for the control of a system by speaking commands rather than manually inputting them. This has implications not only for increased productivity, but also for optimizing safety as well as for assisting the disabled population. Past research has examined the potential costs and benefits to this novel control scheme with varying results. The purpose of this study was to further examine the relationship between modality of input, operator workload, and expertise. The results obtained indicated that vocal control may not be ideal in all situations as a method of input, as participants experienced significantly higher amounts of workload than those in the manual condition. Additionally, expertise may be more specific than previously thought, as participants in the vocal condition performed nearly identical at the task regardless of gaming expertise. The implications of the findings for this study suggest that vocal control be further examined as an effective method of user input, especially with regards to expertise and training effects.

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