Douglas J. Gillan

Guidelines for Presenting Quantitative Data in HFES Publications

This article provides guidelines for presenting quantitative data in papers for publication. The article begins with a reader-centered design philosophy that distills the maxim “know thy user” into three components: (a) know your users′ tasks, (b) know the operations supported by your displays, and (c) match users operations to the ones supported by your display. Next, factors affecting the decision to present data in text, tables, or graphs are described: the amount of data, the readers′ informational needs, and the value of visualizing the data. The remainder of the article outlines the design decisions required once an author has selected graphs as the data presentation medium. Decisions about the type of graph depend on the readers′ experience and informational needs as well as characteristics of the independent (predictor) variables and the dependent (criterion) variable. Finally, specific guidelines for the design of graphs are presented. The guidelines were derived from empirical studies, analyses of graph readers′ tasks, and practice-based design guidelines. The guidelines focus on matching the specific sensory, perceptual, and cognitive operations required to read a graph to the operations that the graph supports.

Taste-Aversion Conditioning with Expected Versus Unexpected Drug Treatment.

Following differential conditioning in which a drug-predictive taste solution (D) infused into the oral cavity of rats was followed by a lithium injection and a no-drug-predictive solution (ND) was not reinforced, animals received a backward pairing between lithium and a novel saccharin flavor. Subjects infused with either the D solution or tap water immediately before backward conditioning learned weaker saccharin aversions than animals infused with the ND solution and animals given no infusion at this time (Experiments 1 and 3). These latter groups did not differ from each other (Experiment 3). The interference with aversion learning produced by water infusion appeared to be due to conditioned excitation that accrued to sensations of the infusion process. Extinction of the infusion sensations eliminated blocking produced by the infusion of water (Experiments 4 and 5). The blocking of saccharin-aversion learning produced by infusion of the D solution was due, to a large extent, to the conditioned aversiveness of the D taste. Extinction of the aversion to the D taste eliminated the interference with saccharin conditioning (Experiment 2), whereas extinction of the excitatory properties of the infusion process did not prevent the blocking of conditioning by infusion of the D solution (Experiment 5). These results are inconsistent with suggestions that taste-aversion learning is a primitive form of conditioning; rather, they demonstrate the influence of informational variables on conditioned taste aversions.

Navigation of HTML tables, frames, and XML fragments

In this paper, we provide a progress report on the development of technology to support the non-visual navigation of complex HTML and XML structures.

Taste-taste, odor-odor, and taste-odor mixtures: Greater suppression within than between modalities

Subjects judged the intensities of the component qualities of two taste stimuli [sucrose (S) and NaCl (N)], two odor stimuli [citral (C) and anethole (A)], and the mixtures of these stimuli [taste-taste (SN), odor-odor (CA), and taste-odor (SC, NC, SA, and NA)]. The within-modality mixtures, taste-taste and odor-odor, produced greater suppression of perceived intensity than did the between-modality mixtures, taste-odor. However, taste-odor mixtures also produced a significant amount of suppression of perceived intensity when compared with the individual taste and odor stimuli. The data are discussed with respect to peripheral and central mechanisms in mixture suppression.

Role of novelty in the aversion for increasingly concentrated saccharin solutions

Abstract In Experiment 1, the role of novelty in the aversion response to increasingly concentrated flavored solutions was determined by repeatedly testing independent groups with 0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0% saccharin. Initially, intakes quickly declined with increasing saccharin concentrations. However, animals drank more as they gained familiarity with the saccharin flavors, and their aversion to the more concentrated solutions became considerably attenuated. In Experiment 2, each animal was tested with 0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0% saccharin in an irregular order following training with one of the saccharin solutions. Animals extensively familiarized with the high saccharin concentrations prior to the test sessions showed much less aversion to these solutions than animals for which the high saccharin concentrations were novel. These results demonstrate that the aversion response to increasingly concentrated flavored solutions is in part a function of the relative novelty of the flavors, and suggest that adequate control of relative novelty is necessary in studies of other variables regulating intake.

You Want Me to Trust a ROBOT? The Development of a Human–Robot Interaction Trust Scale

Trust plays a critical role when operating a robotic system in terms of both acceptance and usage. Considering trust is a multidimensional context dependent construct, the differences and common themes were examined to identify critical considerations within human–robot interaction (HRI). In order to examine the role of trust within HRI, a measurement tool was generated based on five attributes: team configuration, team processes, context, task, and system (Yagoda in Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, pp. 304–308, 2010). The HRI trust scale was developed based on two studies. The first study conducts a content validity assessment of preliminary items generated, based on a review of previous research within HRI and automation, using subject matter experts (SMEs). The second study assesses the quality of each trust scale item derived from the first study. The results were then compiled to generate the HRI trust measurement tool.

Usability Science. I: Foundations

In this article, we describe and analyze the emergence of a scientific discipline, usability science, which bridges basic research in cognition and perception and the design of usable technology. An analogy between usability science and medical science (which bridges basic biological science and medical practice) is discussed, with lessons drawn from the way in which medical practice translates practical problems into basic research and fosters technology transfer from research to technology. The similarities and differences of usability science to selected applied and basic research disciplines-human factors and human-computer interaction (HCI) is also described. The underlying philosophical differences between basic cognitive research and usability science are described as Wundtian structuralism versus Jamesian pragmatism. Finally, issues that usability science is likely to continue to address-presentation of information, user navigation, interaction, learning, and methods-are described with selective reviews of work in graph reading, controlled movement, and method development and validation.

An analysis of the facilitative effect of similarity on second-order conditioning.

Five experiments used autoshaping in pigeons to investigate the effect of stimulus similarity on second-order conditioning of one stimulus (S2) when it signals another, previously conditioned stimulus (S1). Experiment 1 found that the artificial induction of similarity between S2 and S1, by the addition of experimentally separable common elements, improved performance during second-order conditioning of S2. An analysis of these results is given in terms of stimulus similarity encouraging the selection of particular components of S1 for association with S2. That selection is described as a natural consequence of the temporal relations among components of S2 and S1 which their similarity ensures. The analysis is used to generate circumstances under which the normal facilitative effect of similarity could be reversed once observed (Experiment 2A and 2B) or prevented from developing initially (Experiments 3 and 4). These experiments support a particular account of how a qualitative relation can affect the course of conditioning. However, that account requires the introduction of no special principles of conditioning unique to the case of similarity.

Minimalism and the syntax of graphs

Four experiments examined Tuftes syntactic rule that graphs should have maximal data-ink ratios produced by erasing non-data-ink and redundant data-ink. In Experiment 1, the data-ink ratios of bar and line graphs affected the accuracy and response times for comparison, difference, and mean questions: the higher the data-ink ratio, the faster the response time and the greater the accuracy. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the effects of ink in the syntactic elements of a graph depend on the location and function of the element: redundant ink in the indicators had limited effects on performance, pictorial backgrounds generally increased response time and decreased accuracy, y axis tick marks generally increased response time, and the y axis line and the x axis generally decreased response time. The effect of each graphical element was conditional on the type of graph and task and the presence of other graphical elements. The discussion focuses on psychological principles that may underlie the effects of each syntactic element.

Cognitive analysis of equation reading: Application to the development of the math Genie

Can information about the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in equation reading be applied in the creation of assistive technology for blind equation readers? The present research used four cognitive/perceptual studies to examine several hypotheses about equation reading: people (1) read equations from left to right, one element at a time, (2) back scan when reading equations, (3) substitute the outcome of a parenthetical expression for the initial elements, and (4) scan the entire equation before element by element reading to create a schematic structure. The process tracing study provided evidence for all of the hypotheses, with three experiments supporting the first three hypotheses, but not the fourth. These results have been implemented in assistive software for visually-impaired users, the Math Genie – an auditory browser.