Valery Nosulenko

Smart artefacts as affordances for awareness in distributed teams

The manifolds of spaces and places we are entering, populating, transiently crossing and eventually leaving (only to immerse in another subsequent context) as part of our daily activities in our personal, public and professional lives are undergoing a dramatic change. Although this change is taking place we are aware of it only in a limited fashion due to its unobtrusive character as illustrated in the statement by Streitz and Nixon (2005): “It seems like a paradox but it will soon become reality: The rate at which computers disappear will be matched by the rate at which information technology will increasingly permeate our environment and our lives”.

Man-technology interaction : some of the Russian approaches

The purpose of this article is to analyse original Russian studies in the field of man technology interaction in connection with the psychological theory of activity developed by Rubinstein and Leontiev. The main part of the article focuses on the studies carried out in the framework of Lomovs anthropocentric approach and is based on a concept of the mental image as a regulator of human activity. In this connection, several examples are given of psychological empirical studies run in the field of aviation and the main components of a mental image of a flight are considered: a spatial position mental image, a feeling of an airplane and an instrumental models mental image.

Psychological Methods for the Study of Augmented Environments

In this chapter, some psychological perspectives to study activities in Augmented Environments are outlined. Main concepts related to theories of activity are discussed namely, subjects’ goals and motives as well as tools used during its realization. It is argued that knowledge about the structure of the users’ activity facilitates elaborates the corresponding techniques of its recording and analysis. An overview of the so called “perceived quality” approach is given and the questions about what is perceived by individual (group) as the actor of digitized environment as well as about how to study the perceived quality of such environments are discussed. Several examples of results obtained using this approach are presented.

Multi-dimensional listening test: selection of sound descriptors and design of the experiment

A method for the selection of parameters used in multi-dimensional listening tests is presented. It allows the presentation to subjects, through a very short learning process, of a complete set of parameters which are unambiguously understood. This set is built after a first test in which other listeners are asked to freely describe differences and similarities between sounds. A method of analysing these free verbalizations allows the determination of peculiarities for sounds belonging to the same context. Two multi-dimensional test methods are compared. The method in which all sounds (or pairs of sounds) are evaluated according to each parameter give slightly more reliable results than the classical method, in which each sound or pair of sounds is evaluated according to all parameters before repeating the operation for the next pair or sounds. These two methods are examined using the idling noise of small diesel cars.

Capter et transférer le savoir incorporé dans un geste professionnel

Les savoirs experts dans le monde professionnel sont difficiles à capter en raison de leur nature en grande part tacite (difficilement verbalisable). On détaille ici un ensemble de méthodes et techniques (capture numérique du geste en vue subjective et en vue externe; protocole de verbalisation guidé par les buts en situation; entretiens d’auto-confrontation et de reconstruction) qui permettent de récupérer ces savoir-faire en coopération entre l’analyste et l’expert-geste. Le protocole vise: (1) à reconstruire avec l’expert la logique intentionnelle du geste, son modèle mental; et (2) à le montrer au mieux au travers de la vidéo, pour que d’autres puissent le comprendre et l’internaliser à leur tour. Ce protocole de capture aboutit à la réalisation d’un support multimédia pour la représentation et la transmission du savoir-faire métier. L’approche s’inscrit dans une perspective de gestion des connaissances (approche globale, du point de vue de l’organisation, souci pédagogique), adopte une posture proche de celle de l’ergonomie (sympathie pour l’acteur, observation détaillée in situ), et utilise des théories et méthodes issues de la psychologie cognitive et de l’ethnographie numérique. Les principaux cadres théoriques mobilisés sont les théories de l’activité et de la qualité perçue. Expert knowledge in the professional world is difficult to capture because of its largely tacit nature (difficult to verbalize). We detail here a set of methods and techniques (dual digital video capture with subjective and external perspective; situated goal-oriented verbalization protocol; self-confrontation and reconstruction interviews) that help recover the know-how by cooperation between analyst and expert. The protocol aims to: (1) reconstruct the intentions of the experts, their mental models; and (2) produce training video material for novices to learn and internalize the practice. Based on this protocol we have realized a multimedia platform for the representation and transmission of professional know-how. This approach takes the perspective of knowledge management (organizational approach, attention to training), adopts an ergonomic posture (sympathy for the actor, detailed field observation), and uses theories and methods from cognitive psychology and digital ethnography. The major theoretical frameworks mobilized are those of activity theory and perceived quality.

Vibro-acoustical comfort in cars at idle: human perception of simulated sounds and vibrations from 3- and 4-cylinder diesel engines

A bench was used to reproduce the vertical vibrations of the seat, the vibrations of the steering wheel and the noise measured at the drivers ears of cars running at hot idle. In a first experiment, subjects were only submitted to seat vertical vibrations; it appeared that comfort could be described by rms values of signals, without using ISO-2631 weightings. In a second experiment, subjects were submitted to all stimuli; the analysis of free verbalisations could explain the perceptual dimensions and were helpful for identifying the contribution of noise and vibration stimuli to overall comfort.

Cognition et communication: Un paradigme de recherche et d’application

The paradigm ‘Cognition and Communication’ has served as a methodological basis for interdisciplinary studies carried out within the framework of Franco-Russian research projects in the field of psychology. The importance of investigating human cognition and activity in relationship with communication processes has been taken as a starting-point for these studies. This 25-year collaboration has made possible the development of new perspectives (e.g. the perceived quality approach) and research methods (e.g. techniques of free verbalization analysis) as well as their application in field studies. This collaboration has also resulted in a fruitful exchange of theoretical approaches among French and Russian researchers. The studies carried out in the field of cognition and communication have involved a number of disciplines: general, experimental and social psychology, ergonomics and education. This article presents a synthesis of a number of results obtained within the framework of Franco-Russian projects as well as various perspectives for future collaboration.

In‐situ observation of the perceptive process linked to dashboard tapping sounds

It is well‐known that in show‐rooms some people might tap on the dashboard of vehicles. The aim of this study was to determine the importance of this phenomenon and to identify which properties of the vehicle are perceived through the sound thus produced. An ethomethodological observation was conducted to collect data about the action/perception process of a subject exploring a static vehicle. The work was based on the methodology developed by Nosulenko and Saymolenko to evaluate perceived quality using free verbalisations in a comparison task. 52 naive subjects were placed in ecologically valid conditions. Their task consisted in freely exploring two vehicles and selecting their preferred one. From a qualitative analysis of audiovisual recordings, a data base was built. It linked verbalisations, operations and perceived objects, and allowed the quantification of indicators related to activity and perception. The analysis of operations validated that the tapping operation was not anecdotal. Moreover, dash...

Construction of a minimal set of sound parameters for multidimensional tests

In a multidimensional test, the selection of sound parameters may be difficult, because these parameters must not be numerous while describing the whole perception and have to be understood unambiguously by naive listeners. The method of free verbalizations [E. Samoylenko, S. McAdams, and V. Nosulenko, Int. J. Psych. 31(6), 255–278 (1996)] allows the construction of a minimal set of parameters. A minimal set of seven parameters was built for diesel engine idle noise. These parameters were then used for a semantic differential test, with other listeners and no sound training session. It was checked that the characterizations of sounds thus obtained for each parameter were very close to those given by the first test using free verbalizations. That means that the parameters were well understood by listeners and that all semantic ambiguities were avoided. Such a parameter set can be used for routine tests in the same sound context.