Improving performance of repetitive computer-based tasks through visual stimuli tailored to the individual

AbstractWhen humans conduct simple and repetitive tasks, their task performance can decrease depending on time. At this time, by deciding stimulus timing and delivering stimuli to humans, speed and accuracy of the task can be improved. To clearly investigate the effectiveness of such stimuli, we designed this study as repetitive tasks on a PC that could be conducted simply and were not much affected by other environmental variables. For our experiment, a total of 20 participants were asked to perform mouse pointing and keyboard typing tasks; usual speed and accuracy of each participant on each task were determined after completing the task. Next, the participant’s level of concentration was assessed using several metrics. When concentration was deemed to have declined during the task, a stimulus was delivered to the participant in the form of a screen flash, which resulted in an increased focus on the task. Through the proposed approach, speed was boosted by 11.6% on a pointing task and 3.8% on a typing task. Moreover, these results were found to be statistically significant in analysis of variance and paired t test. Our experiments and studies focus on improvements in reaction time caused by effect of stimulus and our presented approach.

[1]  Christophe Kolski,et al.  The Stroop and Reverse Stroop Effects as Measured by an Interactive Tabletop , 2016, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[2]  J. Komaki.  Toward effective supervision: An operant analysis and comparison of managers at work. , 1986 .

[3]  Nathan Bennett,et al.  Electronic Surveillance as Employee Control: A Procedural Justice Interpretation , 1994 .

[4]  K. A. Kovach,et al.  Electronic communication in the workplace--something's got to give , 2000 .

[5]  M. Loeb,et al.  The Psychology of Vigilance , 1982 .

[6]  P. S. Greenlaw,et al.  The Impact of Federal Legislation to Limit Electronic Monitoring , 1997 .

[7]  R. Zamar,et al.  A multivariate Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of goodness of fit , 1997 .

[8]  B. Stein,et al.  The role of anterior ectosylvian cortex in cross-modality orientation and approach behavior , 1996, Experimental Brain Research.

[9]  A. Sanyal,et al.  Validation of EncephalApp, Smartphone-Based Stroop Test, for the Diagnosis of Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy. , 2015, Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

[10]  Jeffrey M. Stanton,et al.  Traditional and Electronic Monitoring from an Organizational Justice Perspective , 2000 .

[11]  J. Stroop.  Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. , 1992 .

[12]  I. Robertson,et al.  `Oops!': Performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects , 1997, Neuropsychologia.

[13]  William S. Helton,et al.  The Effects of Arousing Negative and Neutral Picture Stimuli on Target Detection in a Vigilance Task , 2011, Hum. Factors.

[14]  Donald E. Broadbent,et al.  Decision and stress , 1971 .

[15]  Robert S. Bolia,et al.  Aurally Aided Visual Search in Three-Dimensional Space , 1999, Hum. Factors.

[16]  Justin G. Hollands,et al.  Target Detection and Identification Performance Using an Automatic Target Detection System , 2017, Hum. Factors.

[17]  W. Helton,et al.  Working memory load and the vigilance decrement , 2011, Experimental Brain Research.

[18]  Michael W. Haas,et al.  Effects of Localized Auditory Information on Visual Target Detection Performance Using a Helmet-Mounted Display , 1998, Hum. Factors.

[19]  J. Warm.  Sustained attention in human performance , 1984 .

[20]  T. Demiralp,et al.  Time-frequency analysis of the event-related potentials associated with the Stroop test. , 2014, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[21]  Steve Ngai Hung Tsang,et al.  Hand- and Foot-Controlled Dual-Tracking Task Performance Together with a Discrete Spatial Stimulus-Response Compatibility Task , 2017, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[22]  William S. Helton,et al.  The effects of emotional stimuli on target detection: Indirect and direct resource costs , 2011, Consciousness and Cognition.

[23]  Peter A. Hancock,et al.  Defeating Terrorism: What Can Human Factors/Ergonomics Offer? , 2002 .

[24]  M HERSHENSON,et al.  Reaction time as a measure of intersensory facilitation. , 1962, Journal of experimental psychology.

[25]  Neville A. Stanton,et al.  Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff: A Study of the Detection of Alarms , 2000, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[26]  N. Brewer.  The Effects of Monitoring Individual and Group Performance on the Distribution of Effort Across Tasks1 , 1995 .

[27]  Zachary P. Barnett,et al.  Interactions between the spatial and temporal stimulus factors that influence multisensory integration in human performance , 2012, Experimental Brain Research.

[28]  G. Stoney Alder,et al.  Examining the relationship between feedback and performance in a monitored environment: A clarification and extension of feedback intervention theory , 2007 .

[29]  G. Stoney Alder,et al.  Electronic Performance Monitoring , 1997 .

[30]  Craig H. M. Donald,et al.  Task disengagement and implications for vigilance performance in CCTV surveillance , 2014, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[31]  J. G. Hollands,et al.  Engineering Psychology and Human Performance , 1984 .

[32]  D. Besner,et al.  A Resource-Control Account of Sustained Attention , 2015, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[33]  I. Robertson,et al.  The absent mind: further investigations of sustained attention to response , 1999, Neuropsychologia.

[34]  P A H A N C O C K,et al.  DEFEATING TERRORISM : Principles described here , though focusing on aviation security , apply to all aspects of human interaction with technology to facilitate homeland defense . What Can Human Factors / Ergonomics Offer ? , 2022 .

[35]  Christopher A. Higgins,et al.  Monitoring service workers via computer: The effect on employees, productivity, and service , 1989 .

[36]  A. Diederich,et al.  Bimodal and trimodal multisensory enhancement: Effects of stimulus onset and intensity on reaction time , 2004, Perception & psychophysics.

[37]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Vigilance Requires Hard Mental Work and Is Stressful , 2008, Hum. Factors.

[38]  Makoto Itoh,et al.  Effects of arousing attention on distracted driver’s following behaviour under uncertainty , 2013, Cognition, Technology & Work.