Authors:
Erin Treacy Solovey Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Francine Lalooses Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Krysta Chauncey Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Douglas Weaver Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Margarita Parasi Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Matthias Scheutz Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Angelo Sassaroli Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Sergio Fantini Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Paul Schermerhorn Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Audrey Girouard Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Robert J.K. Jacob Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Published In:
CHI '11 Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems
Summary
Hypothesis:
The authors of this paper set out to accomplish a few things with their paper:
- Prove that fNIRS is a reliable mean of measuring various brain states as compared to fMRI
- Show that fNIRS can be used in different study models
- Build a proof of concept system that has a user be able to control a robot while a fNIRS based system can control an adaptive interface to manage distractions
Testing the Hypothesis:
The authors performed quite a few experiments in order to fully test their hypothesis. They first constructed a simple test to determine if fNIR can be used to tell the differences in the brain between various states of multi-tasking. This experiment had twelve participants press a certain key depending on the order of capital and lower case letters in a series of words.
The next two experiments they performed were somewhat related to each other. They both involved a human controlling a robot to perform the task of sorting rocks. The user then had to press certain buttons based on certain characteristics of the rock samples.
Results of the Hypothesis:
The conclusion from the studies was that using response time alone, delay, branching, and dual task are statistically impossible to differentiate, however, it was considerable easy by comparing the levels of oxygenated blood in various regions of the brain.
Discussion
In my opinion, the authors definitely accomplished what they set out to do. I am very confident about this because they were especially thorough in their case study part of their paper. Most papers if they involve some sort of experiment, maybe have one example with a few participants. In this paper, however, the authors performed three separate studies each with over twelve people. As far as relevancy goes? As our smart phones become smarter the problem of multi-tasking will only increase. It is very important to look into ways to increase human efficiency while multi-tasking takes place and to determine if it possible to reduce distractions in today's society.
