Timing Interruptions for Better Human-Computer Coordinated Planning

The high operations tempo and growing complexity of planning (and re-planning) in various mission-critical domains suggest an approach in which systems act as primary planners rather than assisting the user in planning. We present a high-level overview of our design of a Coordination Autonomy (CA) module as part of such planning system, responsible to intelligently initiate and manage the necessary interactions with the user for enhancing the system's performance.Engineering and Applied Science

Examining the qualitative gains of mediating human interruptions during hci

Recent trends in software development directed toward intelligence, distribution, and mobility have brought sophisticated software artifacts that often come with some unwanted side effects; frequent interruptions, for instance. In general, people are less effective when exposed to interruptions. We have created a framework that helps in selecting the most appropriate timing for interruption as a way to mediate human interruptions by the computer. The proposed framework is based on a new Interruption Taxonomy and uses Bayesian Belief Networks for selecting the best timing when mediating interruptions. An empirical study was conducted to empirically measure the qualitative gains of mediating interruptions compared to condition with no interruption control i.e., interruptions were presented immediately at random-generated points. The experimental results suggest that mediated coordination of interruption was effective in decreasing some disruptive effects of interruptions on a socioemotional level, such as: the feelings of frustration, distraction, annoyance and workload.

Can I Have Your Attention? Implications of the Research on Distractions and Multitasking for Reference Librarians

The media have identified the last decade as “the age of distraction.” People today find it harder to work on long, sustained tasks because distractions are eroding their attention span, fostering a culture of discontinuity. Fields as diverse as psychology, business, education, human-computer interaction, and communication studies have produced a wealth of studies on interruptions, distractions, and multitasking–research that has important implications for reference librarians. The nature of our jobs invites interruptions by the public, requires familiarity with the latest technology, stimulates curiosity about a broad range of subjects, and demands adeptness at multitasking–all factors which can atomize attention

Continuous Interaction with a Virtual Human

Attentive Speaking and Active Listening require that a Virtual Human be capable of simultaneous perception/interpretation and production of communicative behavior. A Virtual Human should be able to signal its attitude and attention while it is listening to its interaction partner, and be able to attend to its interaction partner while it is speaking – and modify its communicative behavior on-the-fly based on what it perceives from its partner. This report presents the results of a four week summer project that was part of eNTERFACE’10. The project resulted in progress on several aspects of continuous interaction such as scheduling and interrupting multimodal behavior, automatic classification of listener responses, generation of response eliciting behavior, and models for appropriate reactions to listener responses. A pilot user study was conducted with ten participants. In addition, the project yielded a number of deliverables that are released for public access

The Timing of Discrepant Interruptions and its Influence on Team Performance

Discrepant interruptions are inevitable in today’s highly dynamic and turbulent environment. Organizations need to handle discrepant interruptions effectively in order to survive. Since organizations mostly rely on teams to do task and achieve goals, teams are required to deal with the discrepant interruptions and modify their plans and strategies to address the interruptions. A team’s approach in handling discrepant interruptions has a significant effect on team effectiveness and accordingly affects the organization’s performance. In addition, team development literature suggests that project teams working on a creative task under a deadline engage in task transition during their allotted time (Gersick, 1988, 1989; Waller, Zellmer-Bruhn, & Giambatista, 2002). This dissertation focuses on the timing of the discrepant interruptions with regards to task transition. More specifically, I aim to explore how the relative timing of a discrepant interruption affects how a team works under a deadline. Building on the literature, I hypothesize that teams facing discrepant interruptions after their task transition would perceive the interruption as a hindrance to their performance, and thus have lower team coordination and performance. In contrast teams who face the discrepant interruptions before their task transition would perceive the interruption as a challenge, and thus have higher team coordination and performance. To test these hypothesis, I conduct an experiment in which teams of three work on a creative task for 40 minutes. Their goal is to create an audio commercial for an existing airline. All teams face the same discrepant interruption at 20 minutes into the task. I measure their appraisal of the discrepant interruption and team coordination using a questionnaire and code their video for the time lapse of their task transition. My analysis shows no support for any of the hypotheses except for the positive association between team coordination and team performance. As next step, I present some exploratory analysis on my data and identify a number of interesting findings. I find that teams working on a creative task under deadline go through their task transitions at different times within their allotted time. Teams that have their first task transition before a discrepant interruption have higher performance than others. Moreover, in this setting, teams have lower performance if they make their transition too early or too late. Observing team coordination, I find that team coordination positively affects team performance given the context I created. Finally, exploring team members’ pacing style, I find that, for teams delaying their task transition until after a discrepant interruption, having a deadline action style increases team performance

Making intelligent systems team players: Case studies and design issues. Volume 1: Human-computer interaction design

Initial results are reported from a multi-year, interdisciplinary effort to provide guidance and assistance for designers of intelligent systems and their user interfaces. The objective is to achieve more effective human-computer interaction (HCI) for systems with real time fault management capabilities. Intelligent fault management systems within the NASA were evaluated for insight into the design of systems with complex HCI. Preliminary results include: (1) a description of real time fault management in aerospace domains; (2) recommendations and examples for improving intelligent systems design and user interface design; (3) identification of issues requiring further research; and (4) recommendations for a development methodology integrating HCI design into intelligent system design

Making intelligent systems team players: Overview for designers

This report is a guide and companion to the NASA Technical Memorandum 104738, 'Making Intelligent Systems Team Players,' Volumes 1 and 2. The first two volumes of this Technical Memorandum provide comprehensive guidance to designers of intelligent systems for real-time fault management of space systems, with the objective of achieving more effective human interaction. This report provides an analysis of the material discussed in the Technical Memorandum. It clarifies what it means for an intelligent system to be a team player, and how such systems are designed. It identifies significant intelligent system design problems and their impacts on reliability and usability. Where common design practice is not effective in solving these problems, we make recommendations for these situations. In this report, we summarize the main points in the Technical Memorandum and identify where to look for further information

Analytical Methods for Planning and Scheduling Daily Work in Inpatient Care Settings: Opportunities for Research and Practice

This article identifies current challenges in the planning and execution of daily work in inpatient care settings. Inadequate planning of the processes and resources associated with inpatient care services may negatively affect their effectiveness. It may also lead to burnout of healthcare workers when the resulting work plan is unknowingly infeasible or does not incorporate the necessary human factors considerations. This paper provides with an overview of current research on inpatient care workflow planning, as well as with directions for researchers and practitioners to advance this problem using a combination of human factors engineering and analytical methods