Elsa Eiriksdottir

Procedural instructions, principles, and examples: how to structure instructions for procedural tasks to enhance performance, learning, and transfer.

Objective: The goal of this article is to investigate how instructions can be constructed to enhance performance and learning of procedural tasks. Background: Important determinants of the effectiveness of instructions are type of instructions (procedural information, principles, and examples) and pedagogical goal (initial performance, learning, and transfer). Method: Procedural instructions describe how to complete tasks in a stepwise manner, principles describe rules governing the tasks, and examples demonstrate how instances of the task are carried out. The authors review the research literature associated with each type of instruction to identify factors determining effectiveness for different pedagogical goals. Results: The results suggest a trade-off between usability and learnability. Specific instructions help initial performance, whereas more general instructions, requiring problem solving, help learning and transfer. Learning from instructions takes cognitive effort, and research suggests that learners typically opt for low effort. However, it is possible to meet both goals of good initial performance and learning with methods such as fading and by combining different types of instructions. Conclusion: How instructions are constructed influences their effectiveness for the goals of good initial performance, learning, and transfer, and it is therefore important for researchers and practitioners alike to define the pedagogical goal of instructions. Application: If the goal is good initial performance, then instructions should highly resemble the task at hand (e.g., in the form of detailed procedural instructions and examples), but if the goal is good learning and transfer, then instructions should be more abstract, inducing learners to expend the necessary cognitive effort for learning.

This is not a one-horse race: understanding player types in multiplayer pervasive health games for youth

Technology-based interventions for promoting health behavior-change frequently leverage multiplayer game mechanics such as group-based competitions. However, health interventions successful for groups writ large may not always translate to successful behavior change at the individual level. In this paper, we explore the tension between group and individual success, based on an empirical study on a long-term real-world deployment of a pervasive health game for youth. We report five distinctive player types along the dimensions of motivation, behavior, and influence on others. Based on the findings, we provide design suggestions to help game designers integrate group-based mechanisms that maximize intervention effectiveness.

Experiences with an AR evaluation test bed: Presence, performance, and physiological measurement

This paper discusses an experiment carried out in an AR test bed called “the pit”. Inspired by the well-known VR acrophobia study of Meehan et al. [18], the experimental goals were to explore whether VR presence instruments were useful in AR (and to modify them where appropriate), to compare additional measures to these well-researched techniques, and to determine if findings from VR evaluations can be transferred to AR. An experimental protocol appropriate for AR was developed. The initial experimental findings concern varying immersion factors (frame rate) and their effect on feelings of presence, user performance and behavior. Unlike the VR study, which found differing frame rates to affect presence measures, there were few differences in the five frame rate modes in our study as measured by the qualitative and quantitative instruments, which included physiological responses, a custom presence questionnaire, task performance, and user behavior. The AR presence questionnaire indicated users experienced a high feeling of presence in all frame rate modes. Behavior, performance, and interview results indicated the participants felt anxiety in the pit environment. However, the physiological data did not reflect this anxiety due to factors of user experience and experiment design. Efforts to develop a useful AR test bed and to identify results from a large data set has produced a body of knowledge related to AR evaluation that can inform others seeking to create AR experiments.

Designing pervasive health games for sustainability, adaptability and sociability

Active video games (AVG) have become widespread as more physical interfaces are introduced in video games. Lab based studies have indicated that AVGs can increase the amount and intensity of physical activity compared to non-active games and TV, however, the long-term effectiveness of AVGs has yet been established. In fact, most of the existing studies show a reduction of interest and participation over time. This paper presents our findings from a long-term, multi-site deployment of a pervasive health game, the American Horsepower Challenge (AHPC). Similar to previous studies, our findings also show reduced effectiveness of the game, but on a much larger scale. Moreover, we analyze reasons for this and report what kind of game related online and offline activities happened during the deployment. We argue that a shift of evaluation metrics and design goals is required to make real-world sustainable behavior changes. Based on empirical data, we propose three goals for AVGs---sustainability, adaptability and sociability. Behavior-changing games can learn how to achieve these goals from existing game genres, such as alternate reality games, location-based games, family games, and multiplayer online games etc.

User Preferences for Auditory Device-driven Menu Navigation

A device-driven auditory menu interface that “pushes” the menu options to the user and requires minimal user input can be beneficial to users with both limited vision and input range. Presentation rate is important for auditory menus; they need to be slow enough for comprehension and responding, but fast enough to prevent frustration. User preferences for inter-item gap on an auditory device-driven cell phone menu were investigated. Participants (n=11) navigated a two-level auditory menu to target a randomly chosen item. Before each trial participants set the inter-item gap by manipulating a slider. Results showed a mean preference for .853 second inter-item gap in experimental trials, and a significant decrease in preferences between practice (15) and experimental (30) trials [t(10) = 4.28, p = .002]. Accuracy was 91.5% over all the trials. The findings indicate that it is feasible to design a limited-input cell phone with an auditory device-driven menu.

The effects of timing of exposure to principles and procedural instruction specificity on learning an electrical troubleshooting skill.

Domain principles provided in task instructions are assumed to help performance as learners can later apply this knowledge when faced with new tasks. The goal of the research was to investigate whether the timing of the exposure to principles-studying the principles before or while completing training tasks-and the specificity in the accompanying step-by-step procedural instructions would influence learning to troubleshoot a simulated electrical circuit. The results of a pilot study suggested that timing of principle exposure and specificity might interact. This was investigated by comparing the performance of 4 groups of participants (n = 24) who received either general or detailed procedural instructions and were either exposed to the principles before or during the training. The results showed that studying the principles before training benefited test task performance when the procedural instructions were detailed but not when they were general. The results also showed that using general procedural instructions benefited test task performance while using detailed procedural instructions benefited training task performance. Overall the results reveal how the learning situation as a whole must be considered when determining the efficacy of instructional materials, and how conditions can be created where principles enhance learning.

How do People Use Instructions in Procedural Tasks

Instructions for procedural tasks are often designed to be read before starting the task, but evidence suggests that people often do not use instructions that way. Participants (N = 20) completed knot and assembly tasks using stepwise instructions and the time viewing the instructions in the course of completing the tasks was measured. Half the participants reported that they read the instructions first and half say they usually attempt the task first, but no difference was found between those groups in how they used the instructions. Rather, it was found to depend on the type of task; instructions were used more in the course of completing the knot tasks than the assembly tasks. This indicates that the nature of the task determines how instructions are used and that people might not consistently adhere to a preferred strategy for using instructions.