Considering Etiquette in the Design of an Adaptive System

In this article, the authors empirically assess the costs and benefits of designing an adaptive system to follow social conventions regarding the appropriateness of interruptions. Interruption management is one area within the larger topic of automation etiquette. The authors tested these concepts in an outdoor environment using the Communications Scheduler, a wearable adaptive system that classifies users’ cognitive state via brain and heart sensors and adapts its interactions. Designed to help dismounted soldiers, it manages communications in much the same way as a good administrative assistant. Depending on a combination of message priority, user workload, and system state, it decides whether to interrupt the user’s current tasks. The system supports decision makers in two innovative ways: It reliably measures a mobile user’s cognitive workload to adapt its behavior, and it implements rules of etiquette adapted from human-human interactions to improve human-computer interactions. Results indicate costs and benefits to both interrupting and refraining from interrupting. When users were overloaded, primary task performance was improved by managing interruptions. However, overall situation awareness on secondary tasks suffered. This work empirically quantifies costs and benefits of “appropriate” interruption behaviors, demonstrating the value of designing adaptive agents that follow social conventions for interactions with humans.