William Volante

Investigating Cross-Cultural Differences in Trust Levels of Automotive Automation

Our work examines the levels and perceptions of trust in automotive automation, and the influences of cultural differences concerning trust and automation, with respect to automated automobiles. We found the expected style of communication of the drivers in the autonomous automobile, showed a great effect on trust levels, both at initial contact and with sustained use. This communication style was dependent upon the client culture’s level of context, individualism, and collectivism. Across cultures, the balance of trust levels was found to need to be at moderate levels (not too high or low) to reduce automation misuse, disuse, and abuse. These findings align with the goal to create a positive flow state wherein there are reduced accidents, improved safety and satisfaction with use, across cultures. Future research is needed to assess physiological measures which may be useful to monitor and adapt to the drivers and passengers of automated automobiles.

Defeating the Vigilance Decrement

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS We tested the boundaries of Parasuramans vigilance taxonomy to see how porous they are. The degree of porosity is especially informative in mitigating and eliminating the vigilance decrement. These results are relevant to every form of human operation in automated, semi-automated, and autonomous computer-mediated systems. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: When vigilance was stultified, and threatened to become moribund, Parasuramans vigilance taxonomy revivified the area of research. The taxonomic description features dichotomies across event rate and target comparison type to establish the boundaries of consistent monitoring degradation. This insight implicated resource theory as the causal explanation for the vigilance decrement, founded on the depleting attentional demands of increasing memory load. Despite its manifest value, taxonomic differentiations still require the fixation of constraints that continually have to be challenged and re-evaluated in light of emerging evidence. Such a challenge is erected here. Purpose: To re-examine and re-evaluate the fundamental vigilance taxonomy in order to provide methods to defeat the vigilance decrement, predominantly by design. Methods: Using synthetic integration of accrued knowledge since its original inception down to the present time, our work evaluates and explicates limits to the boundaries represented in the classic vigilance taxonomy. This synthesis serves as a precursor to identifying ways to mitigate or eliminate the vigilance decrement. Results: The thresholds that connote the taxonomic limits are shown to be frangible and the very natures of their identified dis-continuities are themselves informative for methods of remediation. Conclusions: These results are relevant to every form of human operation in automated, semi-automated, and autonomous computer-mediated systems.

Implicit Attitudes Toward Robots

This study explores employing a measurement of implicit attitudes to better understand attitudes and trust levels towards robots. This work builds upon an existing implicit measure (Implicit Associations Test) to compare attitudes toward humans with attitudes toward robots. Results are compared with explicit self-report measures, and future directions for this work are discussed.

Specifying Influences that Mediate Trust in Human-Robot Interaction

In this work we investigate the effects of robot appearance and reliability on a user’s trust levels through an experiment where participants reacted to three different robot forms that either behaved reliably or unreliably during a series of experimental trials. A final trial was implemented to evaluate use choice by allowing participants to choose their preferred robot and complete an additional trial with that robot. Results from this pilot experimentation indicated differences based on the reliability of the robot, as well as whether the participant chose to interact with the robot.

The Influence of Robot Form on Trust

Assistive robotics is a rapidly progressing field of study that contains facets yet to be fully understood. Here we look at the effect of robot form on user’s level of trust placed on the robot. Form-based trust was evaluated in this study by comparing participant trust ratings based on four robot designs: Lego Mindstorm, Keepon, Sphero and Ozzy. The first view of the robot and the interactions with the robots were examined with pre and post measurements of trust. Sphero and Lego received consistently higher trust ratings than Keepon and Ozzy. Pre-post measures reveal a difference between the initial measure of trust based on form, and the second measure of trust based on the observation of robot function.

Cognition and Physiological Response Towards a Model of Validated Physiological Measurement

Complex tasks in large and error-prone environments require unobtrusive, unbiased and real-time measurement of cognitive variables to promote safety and to achieve optimal performance. Despite the prevalence of physiological measurement of cognitive constructs and cognitive performance, such as workload, little has been done to justify the inference of cognitive states from physiological measures. We develop a framework based on the extant literature to provide the groundwork for further validation of physiological measurement. Specifically, we leverage theoretically-grounded conditions of measurement to aid in investigating the logical sampling and construct validity for use of such metrics. Further meta-analytic investigation is warranted to validate the model and justify use of physiological measures.

Time Flies: Investigating Duration Judgments in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular in today’s society. With this proliferation it becomes even more important to study the effects such environments may have on one’s perception of reality. Two pilot studies were run in order to provide insight into the relationship between time perception and flow in a virtual environment. In Experiment 1 participants played a music-oriented virtual game for 2 minutes. In Experiment 2 participants played a space-shooter virtual game for 5 minutes. Duration Judgment Ratio (DJR) and Flow State Scale (FSS-2) measures were taken and compared to one another. Though a relationship between DJR and Flow was not found in each experiment individually, insights gained from the comparison of the two experiments may provide additional understandings. The results of this pilot study could aid researchers in developing objective ways to measure components of flow especially with respect to virtual environments. Additional insights and applications are discussed.

Sharpening the Tool of Language: Examining Anchors and AMBIGUITIES

Language, though a powerful human tool, can often be imprecise. Such underspecifications often lead to misconceptions and misrepresentations in communication. These issues arise not only in everyday speech, but can also be present in forms of psychological evaluation. Many researchers, psychologists in particular, regularly rely on qualitative measures in the form of subjective response. Methods employing Likert scales use lexical choices to denote cognitive meaning, yet much variation in what is meant by specific words remain. Here we investigated the ambiguity that is inherently involved in such communication. We documented the responses of 94 participants on the quantitative value they placed on scale anchors such as “agree”, “disagree”, strongly agree”, etc. Participants rated each of these terms on a scale from -100 to +100. Also, participants rated terms related to reasonability and doubt on a 0 to 100 point scale. Results indicated that positive valence anchors fell significantly further from the midpoint of the scale, as compared to peer, negative valence anchors. Intervals between each anchor were not consistent across the spectrum. We concluded that the imprecision of language can be a significant source of confusion and discord leading to human-system failure regardless of the reliability of the technology to hand.

Trust and Prior Experience in Human-Robot Interaction:

This experiment explored the influence of users’ experience (prior interaction) with robots on their attitudes and trust toward robotic agents. Specifically, we hypothesized that prior experience would lead to 1) higher trust scores after viewing a robot complete a task, 2) smaller differences in trust scores when comparing a human and a robot completing the same task, and 3) more positive general attitudes towards robots. These hypotheses were supported although not all results achieved significant levels of differentiation. These findings confirm that prior experience plays an important role in both user trust and general attitude in human-robot interactions.

Quantifying Qualitative Probabilties: A Cross-Cultural Examination

Language is a powerful tool and essential for human communication. Despite this criticality, linguistic terms often produce different percepts across differing individuals. Such variations can, and do lead to miscommunication and confusion. To assess the qualitative degree of such ambiguity, we look to quantify how different probability terms were characterized based upon an individual’s personality and culture. Thus, we evaluated the probability ratings of 35 participants in the United States and 50 participant in Germany on sixty-four terms such as “always,” “certain,” “unusual” etc. Participants rated the likelihood of these descriptions on a 0-100 scale. Additionally, participants were asked to rate the strength of statements that included terms such as “safety,” “guarantee,” “health” etc. Results indicated that there is a wide range of these probability ratings between participants. Additionally, cultural differences were found: German participants score higher on low-probability ratings, whereas Americans score higher on high-probability ratings. The implications of these findings for communications between individuals and between humans and machines are discussed.