François Courtemanche

Consumers’ Cognitive Lock-in on Websites: Evidence from a Neurophysiological Study

The objective of this research was to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive lock-in. Cognitive lock-in describes a situation in which a consumer has learned how to use a website, based on repeated interactions with it, with the consequence that more experience reduces the probability to switch to a competitors website. A major reason for the reduced switching probability is that interaction with an unfamiliar website typically implies high levels of cognitive load. Researchers conducted an experiment measuring cognitive load while consumers performed online purchasing tasks. Results show that participants visiting the same website multiple times have different cognitive load patterns than participants visiting different websites. The former group rapidly moved from controlled processing to automatic processing, which is metabolically less costly, leading to cognitive lock-in. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.

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.

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.

Measuring Flow Using Psychophysiological Data in a Multiplayer Gaming Context

Flow is a desirable state where an individual is focused and satisfied. Traditional flow models are based on an individual’s skills and the challenges he faces. The objective of this ongoing research is to investigate, in a gaming context, how a player’s and his teammate’s personality and neurophysiological reactions can contribute in explaining a player’s flow assessment. Our preliminary results show that adding these measures significantly increases the performance of predicting flow models.

The Adoption of Physiological Measures as an Evaluation Tool in UX

One of the challenges associated with the use of physiological signals as an evaluation tool in measuring user experience (UX) is their reduced usefulness when they are not specifically associated with user behavior. To address this challenge, we have developed a new evaluation tool which contextualizes users’ physiological and behavioral signals while interacting with a system. We have conducted interviews with 11 UX practitioners, from various industries, to evaluate the usefulness of our tool. Through these interviews we gained a better understanding of the challenges facing industry practitioners when using physiological measures and assessed the functionalities provided by our tool.

Multiresolution Feature Extraction During Psychophysiological Inference: Addressing Signals Asynchronicity

Predicting the psychological state of the user using physiological measures is one of the main objectives of physiological computing. While numerous works have addressed this task with great success, a large number of challenges remain to be solved in order to develop recognition approaches that can precisely and reliably feed human-computer interaction systems. This chapter focuses on one of these challenges which is the temporal asynchrony between different physiological signals within one recognition model. The chapter proposes a flexible and suitable method for feature extraction based on empirical optimisation of windows’ latency and duration. The approach is described within the theoretical framework of the psychophysiological inference and its common implementation using machine learning. The method has been experimentally validated (46 subjects) and results are presented. Empirically optimised values for the extraction windows are provided.

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.

Measuring Visual Complexity Using Neurophysiological Data

The effects of design and aesthetics on interface usability has become an important research topic in recent years. In this paper, we propose a new method of visual complexity evaluation based on the users’ neurophysiological signals. In order to be truly insightful, a visual representation of such signals will be mapped onto the interface using physiological heatmaps. The method’s intended purpose is to inform practitioners and researchers in information system on how different interface designs affect perceived visual complexity.