Élise Labonté-LeMoyne

The delayed effect of treadmill desk usage on recall and attention

Walking while working with the use of a treadmill desk has a beneficial delayed effect on attention and memory.Participants who walked perceived themselves to be more attentive.Neurophysiological measures demonstrated increased attention and memory after walking. The treadmill desk is a new human-computer interaction (HCI) setup intended to reduce the time workers spend sitting. As most workers will not choose to spend their entire workday walking, this study investigated the short-term delayed effect of treadmill desk usage. An experiment was conducted in which participants either sat or walked while they read a text and received emails. Afterward, all participants performed a task to evaluate their attention and memory. Behavioral, neurophysiological, and perceptual evidence showed that participants who walked had a short-term increase in memory and attention, indicating that the use of a treadmill desk has a delayed effect. These findings suggest that the treadmill desk, in addition to having health benefits for workers, can also be beneficial for businesses by enhancing workforce performance.

Exercise during pregnancy enhances cerebral maturation in the newborn: A randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Accumulating research indicates that the regular practice of physical exercise is beneficial to the human brain. From the improvement of academic achievement in children to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly, exercise appears beneficial across the developmental spectrum. Recent work from animal studies also indicates that a pregnant mother can transfer the benefits of exercise during gestation to her offspring’s brain. Exercising pregnant rats give birth to pups that have better memory and spatial learning as well as increased synaptic density. To investigate whether this transfer from the pregnant mother to her child also occurs in humans, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (n = 18) and measured the impact of exercise during pregnancy on the neuroelectric response of the neonatal brain with electroencephalography (EEG). Here we show that, compared to the newborns of mothers who were inactive during their pregnancy, the children of exercising pregnant women are born with more mature brains. This was measured with the infant slow positive mismatch response (SPMMR), an electroencephalographic potential known to decrease in amplitude with age. The SPMMR reflects processes associated with brain maturation via its response to sound discrimination and auditory memory. In this study, the children of the mothers who exercised throughout their pregnancy have a smaller SPMMR than the children of mothers who remained sedentary (p = .019). Our results demonstrate the impact regular exercise during pregnancy can have on the development of the human fetal brain.

Assessing the Multiple Dimensions of Engagement to Characterize Learning: A Neurophysiological Perspective.

In a recent theoretical synthesis on the concept of engagement, Fredricks, Blumenfeld and Paris defined engagement by its multiple dimensions: behavioral, emotional and cognitive. They observed that individual types of engagement had not been studied in conjunction, and little information was available about interactions or synergy between the dimensions; consequently, more studies would contribute to creating finely tuned teaching interventions. Benefiting from the recent technological advances in neurosciences, this paper presents a recently developed methodology to gather and synchronize data on multidimensional engagement during learning tasks. The technique involves the collection of (a) electroencephalography, (b) electrodermal, (c) eye-tracking, and (d) facial emotion recognition data on four different computers. This led to synchronization issues for data collected from multiple sources. Post synchronization in specialized integration software gives researchers a better understanding of the dynamics between the multiple dimensions of engagement. For curriculum developers, these data could provide informed guidelines for achieving better instruction/learning efficiency. This technique also opens up possibilities in the field of brain-computer interactions, where adaptive learning or assessment environments could be developed.

The Psychophysiological Effect of a Vibro-Kinetic Movie Experience: The Case of the D-BOX Movie Seat

Watching a film in a movie theater can be an immersive experience, but to what extent does the experience differ when the moviegoer is using a vibro-kinetic seat, i.e., a seat providing motion and vibration feedback synchronized with the movie scenes? This paper seeks to measure the effect of a multi-sensory cinema experience from a psychophysiological standpoint. Using electroencephalography, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and facial micro-expression measures, this study compares the difference between two movie viewing experiences, i.e. one without movement and one with artistically enhanced vibro-kinetic feedback. Results of a within-subject experiment suggest that there are significant differences in psychophysiological states of users. Users exhibit more positive emotions, greater arousal, and more cognitive immersion in the vibro-kinetic condition. Therefore, multi-sensory stimulation, in the context of cinema, appears to produce an enhanced experience for spectators.

Is Augmented Reality Leading to More Risky Behaviors? An Experiment with Pokémon Go

Released in the summer of 2016, Pokemon Go is one of the world’s most downloaded applications. Using augmented reality technology, this game has become the latest craze among young people and adults. However, it has also caused several accidents because of players getting distracted while walking. Following the research that has been conducted on texting while walking, it would be interesting to compare the risks arising from gaming while walking. This research therefore compares dangerous behaviors exhibited in three conditions using a smartphone while walking, Pokemon Go with augmented reality, Pokemon Go without, and texting while walking. We can conclude that playing Pokemon Go, with and without augmented reality, leads to more dangerous behaviors overall than texting. We also observe the appearance of a new risky behavior when playing Pokemon Go that is unseen in texting while walking, abrupt stops.

Proposal for the Use of a Passive BCI to Develop a Neurophysiological Inference Model of IS Constructs

The measurement of constructs in the field of information systems (IS) is often performed with the use of retrospective or intrusive psychometric tools that may be subject to biases. Using a passive brain–computer interface (BCI) to measure these constructs continuously in real-time without interrupting the participants would be a great addition to the toolbox of IS researchers. While the development of BCIs has been explored elsewhere, we present here a specific framework using passive BCIs to develop a neurophysiological inference model of IS constructs.

Research Directions for Methodological Improvement of the Statistical Analysis of Electroencephalography Data Collected in NeuroIS

This proposed research will study and improve the statistical methodology used with neurophysiological data collected from subjects using information systems (IS). This research thus aims to provide guidelines and propose new statistical models constructed explicitly for the analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data in IS research, where the number of EEG trials is often limited to preserve the ecological validity of the experiment. Two new modeling strategies are proposed: first, we will model explicitly the correlation between repeated trials by finding appropriate correlation structures. Secondly, we will reduce the measurement’s error by using explicitly the cyclic behavior of an electrical brain signal. These new models will then be taken into account to derive new formulas for sample size determination.

Keep Calm and Read the Instructions: Factors for Successful User Equipment Setup

This paper explores the factors that predict a user’ success at installing a home electronic device. Specifically, the objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of a range of attitudinal, psychophysiological, and behavioral factors on the success of an electronic equipment setup. Building upon an experiment conducted with 29 participants, two factors appears to have an impact on successful equipment setup: (i) when the user remains calm during the installation and (ii) when the user takes the time to read the instructions. These findings contribute to human-computer interaction research by highlighting the importance pre-experience stages such as unboxing and installation as they may impact the overall experience of use.

Virtual Reality: Impact of Vibro-Kinetic Technology on Immersion and Psychophysiological State in Passive Seated Vehicular Movement

In this paper, we investigate the effect of a vibro-kinetic seat, i.e., a seat using movement and vibration synchronized with a given media, on psychophysiological states and head movements of users immersed in virtual reality. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which a vibro-kinetic seat can contribute to create a more immersive virtual reality experience than with a classic seat, including fewer cybersickness discomfort symptoms. We test our hypothesis with a between-subject design where we assigned 45 participants to a specific condition: Vibro-kinetic condition (with the seat moving according to the virtual reality experience) or non-vibro-kinetic condition (where the seat was motionless). Users’ physiological states were captured using electrodermal activity and heart rate variability. Users’ head movements were captured using automatic video detection. The results suggest that the vibro-kinetic condition leads to more immersion and a better psychophysiological state to livirtual learning environmentve a more optimal virtual reality experience without cybersickness symptoms. Also, based on the head movement detection, the vibro-kinetic seat seems to contribute to increasing head movements for a large number of users, an indication of the increased presence feeling in virtual reality. Moreover, users in the vibro-kinetic condition live an enhanced experience and are more immersed in the VR experience.

Expertise as a Mediating Factor in Conceptual Modeling

We use eye-tracking to better understand the notion of expertise in conceptual modeling of complex systems. This research-in-progress paper describes an ongoing experiment to exploit the capacity of eye-tracking to explore the significance of expertise as a mediating factor in conceptual modeling. The proposed methodology highlights the applicability, validity, and potential of well-established eye-tracking methods to measure the effects of expertise. By identifying the differences in the strategies that novices and experts use to search, detect, and diagnose errors, we anticipate being able to help define training curricula appropriate for each level to improve performance and model result quality.