The current study aims to explore factors affecting trust in human-drone collaboration. A current gap exists in research surrounding civilian drone use and the role of trust in human-drone interaction and collaboration. Specifically, existing research lacks an explanation of the relationship between drone pilot experience, trust, and trust-related behaviors as well as other factors. Using two dimensions of trust in human-automation team—purpose and performance—the effects of experience on drone design and trust is studied to explore factors that may contribute to such a model. An online survey was conducted to examine civilian drone operators’ experience, familiarity, expertise, and trust in commercially available drones. It was predicted that factors of prior experience (familiarity, self-reported expertise) would have a significant effect on trust in drones. The choice to use or exclude the drone propellers in a search-and-identify scenario, paired with the pilots’ experience with drones, would further confirm the relevance of the trust dimensions of purpose versus performance in the human-drone relationship. If the pilot has a positive sense of purpose and benevolence with the drone, the pilot trusts the drone has a positive intent towards them and the task. If the pilot has trust in the performance of the drone, they ascertain that the drone has the skill to do the task. The researcher found no significant differences between mean trust scores across levels of familiarity, but did find some interaction between self-report expertise, familiarity, and trust. Future research should further explore more concrete measures of situational participant factors such as self-confidence and expertise to understand their role in civilian pilots’ trust in their drone.

The utilization of multimedia videos has increasingly become more popular, especially in the field of education. In order to facilitate learning it is important to create a natural interaction between the learner and the on-screen material. This study focused on improving the facilitation of the information within a multimedia learning video by focusing on the gender and quality of computer-synthesized voices. Using a randomized pretest - posttest design the study looked at how the gender of the narrator affected a person's ability to learn and implement a new task. Narration was performed by a male and female, classic and modern synthesized voices to determine if there were gender effects across both generations of voices. The participants’ learned knowledge was assessed through a multiple-choice assessment and a word to image matching transfer assessment. Results showed no significant results. Future studies should consider a more reliable knowledge assessment and utilize and larger sample size.

Minimally invasive surgery is a surgical technique that is known for its reduced

patient recovery time. It is a surgical procedure done by using long reached tools and an

endoscopic camera to operate on the body though small incisions made near the point of

operation while viewing the live camera feed on a nearby display screen. Multiple camera

views are used in various industries such as surveillance and professional gaming to

allow users a spatial awareness advantage as to what is happening in the 3D space that is

presented to them on 2D displays. The concept has not effectively broken into the

medical industry yet. This thesis tests a multi-view camera system in which three cameras

are inserted into a laparoscopic surgical training box along with two surgical instruments,

to determine the system impact on spatial cognition, perceived cognitive workload, and

the overall time needed to complete the task, compared to one camera viewing the

traditional set up. The task is a non-medical task and is one of five typically used to train

surgeons’ motor skills when initially learning minimally invasive surgical procedures.

The task is a peg transfer and will be conducted by 30 people who are randomly assigned

to one of two conditions; one display and three displays. The results indicated that when

three displays were present the overall time initially using them to complete a task was

slower; the task was perceived to be completed more easily and with less strain; and

participants had a slightly higher performance rate.

Human-robot interaction has expanded immensely within dynamic environments. The goals of human-robot interaction are to increase productivity, efficiency and safety. In order for the integration of human-robot interaction to be seamless and effective humans must be willing to trust the capabilities of assistive robots. A major priority for human-robot interaction should be to understand how human dyads have been historically effective within a joint-task setting. This will ensure that all goals can be met in human robot settings. The aim of the present study was to examine human dyads and the effects of an unexpected interruption. Humans’ interpersonal and individual levels of trust were studied in order to draw appropriate conclusions. Seventeen undergraduate and graduate level dyads were collected from Arizona State University. Participants were broken up into either a surprise condition or a baseline condition. Participants individually took two surveys in order to have an accurate understanding of levels of dispositional and individual levels of trust. The findings showed that participant levels of interpersonal trust were average. Surprisingly, participants who participated in the surprise condition afterwards, showed moderate to high levels of dyad trust. This effect showed that participants became more reliant on their partners when interrupted by a surprising event. Future studies will take this knowledge and apply it to human-robot interaction, in order to mimic the seamless team-interaction shown in historically effective dyads, specifically human team interaction.

The advancement of technology has transformed information consumption into an accessible and flexible process. The open learning ecosystem that exists online relies on self-direction. Learners are able to effectively fulfill personal learning goals with preferred content forms, specifically by utilizing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). It is essential to investigate the role of mediums in distributed learning to initiate human-centric design changes that best support the learner. This study provides insight into how choice influences self-learning and highlights the major engagement difficulties of MOOCs. Significant attrition was experienced while issuing text and audio material to participants for three weeks. Although this prevented valid statistical tests from being run, it was clear that text was the most desirable and effective medium. Students that read exhibited the highest comprehension levels and selected it as their de-facto consumption method even if audio was made available. Since this study involved complex topics, this supported the transient information effect. Future studies should focus deeply on the structure of online courses by implementing personable engagement features that improve overall participation rate.

As automation becomes more prevalent in society, the frequency that systems involve interactive human-automation control increases. Previous studies have shown accountability to be a valuable way of eliciting human engagement and reducing various biases, but these studies have involved the presence of an authority figure during the research. The current research sought to explore the effect of accountability in the absence of an authority figure. To do this, 40 participants took part in this study by playing a microworld simulation. Half were told they would be interviewed after the simulation, and half were told data was not being collected. Eleven dependent variables were collected (accountability, number of resources shared, player score, agent score, combined score, and the six measures of the NASA- Task Load Index), of which statistical significance was found in number of resources shared, player score, and agent score. While not conclusive, the results suggest that accountability affects human-automation interactions even in the absence of an authority figure. It is suggested that future research seek to find a reliable way to measure accountability and examine how long accountability effects last.

This is a report on an experiment that examines if the principles of multimedia learning outlined in Richard E. Mayer’s journal article, “Using multimedia for e-learning”, located in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning would apply to haptic feedback used for haptic robotic operation. This was tested by developing and using a haptic robotic manipulator known as the Haptic Testbed (HTB). The HTB is a manipulator designed to emulate human hand movement for haptic testing purposes and features an index finger and thumb for the right hand. Control is conducted through a Leap Motion Controller, a visual sensor that uses infrared lights and cameras to gather various data about hands it can see. The goal of the experiment was to have test subjects complete a task where they shifted objects along a circuit of positions where they were measured on time to complete the circuit as well as accuracy in reaching the individual points. Analysis of subject responses to surveys as well as performance during the experiment showed haptic feedback during training improving initial performance of individuals as well as lowering mental effort and mental demand during said training. The findings of this experiment showed support for the hypothesis that Mayer’s principles do apply to haptic feedback in training for haptic robotic manipulation. One of the implications of this experiment would be the possibility for haptics and tactile senses to be an applicable sense for Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning as most of the current work in the field is mostly focused on visual or auditory senses. If the results of the experiment were replicated in a future experiment it would provide support to the hypothesis that the principles of multimedia learning can be utilized to improve the training of haptic robotic operation.

Multimedia educational technologies have increased their presence in traditional and online classrooms over the course of the previous decade. These tools hold value and can promote positive learning outcomes but are reliant on students’ degree of cognitive engagement and self-regulation. When students are not cognitively engaged or have low self-regulation capabilities, their interaction with the technology becomes less impactful because of decreased learning outcomes. Building or altering technologies to cognitively engage students is costly and timely; the present study investigates if introducing higher agency roles, to change the role of the student, increases learning outcomes. Specifically, this study investigates if higher agency roles of a designer or teacher enhances cognitive engagement and improves learning when compared to the conventional role of a learner. Improved learning outcomes were observed from the pretest to posttest for the learner, designer, and teacher role. Participants engaged with higher agency roles did not demonstrate more growth from pretest to posttest when compared to the control group, but participants in the teacher role outperformed those in the designer role. Additionally, reading ability did not impact learning gains across groups. While students who engaged with higher agency roles did not achieve greater learning outcomes than students in the control group, results indicate a learning effect across groups. Results of this study suggest that it was underpowered. Further research is needed to determine the extent of the impact that higher agency roles have on learning outcomes.

Using a modified news media brand personality scale developed by Kim, Baek, and Martin (2010), this study measured the personalities of eight news media outlets and combined them into the same associative network with participants’ self-image via the Pathfinder tool (Schvaneveldt, Durso, & Dearholt, 1989). Using these networks, this study was able to both explore the personality associations of participants and observe if self-congruity, measured by the distance between the self-image node and a brand, is significantly related to participant preference for a brand. Self-congruity was found to be significantly related to preference. However, this relationship was mediated by participants’ fiscal and social orientation. Overall, using Pathfinder to generate associative networks and measure self-congruity could be a useful approach for understanding how people perceive and relate to different news media outlets.

The knowledge of cognitive processes of teams and how they work as a system, has drastically broadened in recent years. However, few researchers have applied their findings to an orchestral setting. In the current study, team cognition was observed and analyzed based off an 8th grade orchestra, in addition to the middle and highest-level orchestras at a junior high and high school in the Arizona Public School system. It was found, that in the 8th grade orchestra, most communication is either given or received in the form of auditory cues both verbal and musical. Regardless of skill level, groups that have higher interactions during practices have better performances.