Conversation dynamics in a multiplayer video game with knowledge asymmetry.

Despite the challenges associated with virtually mediated communication, remote collaboration is a defining characteristic of online multiplayer gaming communities. Inspired by the teamwork exhibited by players in first-person shooter games, this study investigated the verbal and behavioral coordination of four-player teams playing a cooperative online video game. The game, Desert Herding, involved teams consisting of three ground players and one drone operator tasked to locate, corral, and contain evasive robot agents scattered across a large desert environment. Ground players could move throughout the environment, while the drone operator's role was akin to that of a "spectator" with a bird's-eye view, with access to veridical information of the locations of teammates and the to-be-corralled agents. Categorical recurrence quantification analysis (catRQA) was used to measure the communication dynamics of teams as they completed the task. Demands on coordination were manipulated by varying the ground players' ability to observe the environment with the use of game "fog." Results show that catRQA was sensitive to changes to task visibility, with reductions in task visibility reorganizing how participants conversed during the game to maintain team situation awareness. The results are discussed in the context of future work that can address how team coordination can be augmented with the inclusion of artificial agents, as synthetic teammates.

Assessing Team Effectiveness by How Players Structure Their Search in a First-Person Multiplayer Video Game.

People working as a team can achieve more than when working alone due to a team's ability to parallelize the completion of tasks. In collaborative search tasks, this necessitates the formation of effective division of labor strategies to minimize redundancies in search. For such strategies to be developed, team members need to perceive the task's relevant components and how they evolve over time, as well as an understanding of what others will do so that they can structure their own behavior to contribute to the team's goal. This study explored whether the capacity for team members to coordinate effectively can be related to how participants structure their search behaviors in an online multiplayer collaborative search task. Our results demonstrated that the structure of search behavior, quantified using detrended fluctuation analysis, was sensitive to contextual factors that limit a participant's ability to gather information. Further, increases in the persistence of movement fluctuations during search behavior were found as teams developed more effective coordinative strategies and were associated with better task performance.

Evaluating Operator Training Performance Using Recurrence Quantification Analysis of Autocorrelation Transformed Eye Gaze Data.

OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to investigate the relationship between gaze behaviour dynamics and operator performance. BACKGROUND: Individuals differ in their approach when learning a new task often resulting in performance disparity. During training some individuals learn the structure and dynamics of the task and develop a systematic approach, whereas others may achieve the same result albeit with increased perceived workload, or indeed some may fail to achieve superior performance levels. Previous research has shown that comparing gaze of experts with novices can provide unique insights into cognitive functioning of superior performers. METHODS: Twenty-five individuals participated in a computer-based simulation task. The concept of coefficient of variation (CoV) of task scores was used to compute the participants' consistency of performance. Based on CoV, the cohort was split into two performance categories. The temporal patterns in participants gaze data were transformed using autocorrelation, and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) was employed to analyse and quantify the patterns. RESULTS: A Mann-Whitney U analysis demonstrated significantly (p < .01) higher determinism, entropy and laminarity in the superior group compared to the moderate group. Pearson's correlation revealed a significant (p < .01) negative correlation between the consistency of task performance (CoV) and the RQA measures. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrated that eye gaze dynamics can be used as an objective measure of performance. Participants classified as superior performers consistently demonstrated a systematic gaze activity which were in line with the task structure. APPLICATION: The methods presented here are applicable to observe and evaluate operators' strategic distribution of gaze. Specifically, for tactical monitoring and decision making in task environments where spatial locations of elements-of-interest vary continuously.

Validating team communication data using a transmission-duration threshold and voice activity detection algorithm.

The processes underlying team effectiveness can be understood by analyzing the temporal dynamics of team communication sequences. The results of such analyses have shown that the complexity of team communication is associated with team performance on task-related variables, and hence communication complexity statistics have been proposed for use as measures for real-time feedback on team performance. In two analyses of historical team communication sequences, we found that filtering via use of a transmission-duration threshold and voice activity detection algorithm resulted in significant changes in complexity relative to not filtering the data or using a transmission-duration filter alone. The use of these filtering techniques showed significant effects on the complexity of communication sequences in both a laboratory-based experiment, with participants with little experience with voice communication protocols, and in a mission simulation with trained military operators. There was also a significant non-linear relationship between the complexity of communication sequences and task performance. However, an analysis of the impact of the changes in communication dynamics gained through filtering did not demonstrate that the changed temporal dynamics of filtered data better explained team performance. It is concluded that pre-filtering of invalid communication data should be included during the data cleaning stage of statistical analysis as a matter of good scientific practice. Furthermore, such use of filtering will ensure that inferences made about the relationship between the complexity of communication between team members and their performance are not confounded by the presence of invalid communication events.

Visual cues for manual control of headway.

The ability to maintain appropriate gaps to objects in one's environment is important when navigating through a three-dimensional world. Previous research has shown that the visual angle subtended by a lead/approaching object and its rate of change are important variables for timing interceptions, collision avoidance, continuous regulation of braking, and manual control of headway. However, investigations of headway maintenance have required participants to maintain a fixed distance headway and have not investigated how information about own-speed is taken into account. In the following experiment, we asked participants to use a joystick to follow computer-simulated lead objects. The results showed that ground texture, following speed, and the size of the lead object had significant effects on both mean following distances and following distance variance. Furthermore, models of the participants' joystick responses provided better fits when it was assumed that the desired visual extent of the lead object would vary over time. Taken together, the results indicate that while information about own-speed is used by controllers to set the desired headway to a lead object, the continuous regulation of headway is influenced primarily by the visual angle of the lead object and its rate of change. The reliance on visual angle, its rate of change, and/or own-speed information also varied depending on the control dynamics of the system. Such findings are consistent with an optimal control criterion that reflects a differential weighting on different sources of information depending on the plant dynamics. As in other judgements of motion in depth, the information used for controlling headway to other objects in the environment varies depending on the constraints of the task and different strategies of control.

The influence of optic expansion rates when judging the relative time to contact of familiar objects.

Previous research has shown that size-dependent errors in time-to-contact (TTC) judgments can be attenuated when approaching objects are familiar to the observer and have a known size. We describe two experiments that show that the effect of size on relative TTC judgments can be modeled on observers' reliance on the instantaneous optic expansion rates of the approaching objects. This reliance on optic expansion rates occurred independently of object familiarity and when the actual TTC of the approaching objects was relatively brief or relatively long. However, observers' sensitivity to differences in TTC was improved for familiar objects when TTC was large. These results are consistent with other research showing that optic expansion rate is a critical variable for judging TTC.

The effects of familiar size and object trajectories on time-to-contact judgements.

Many interceptive actions involve interactions with objects that are familiar to the observer and have known sizes. Two experiments investigated how known size influences observers' perception of time-to-contact (T(c)). Participants made T(c) judgements of objects that were either ambiguously sized, standard-size in identity/familiarity, or off-size in identity/familiarity, and simulated as approaching on linear trajectories (Experiment 1), or linear versus parabolic trajectories (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, T(c) judgements were influenced by the size of the object in the three object identity/familiarity conditions; the greatest size effect occurred in the off-size condition compared to the ambiguous size and standard-size conditions. The results of Experiment 2 replicated these results and found that size effects were not reduced with displays simulating parabolic trajectories, that is, displays simulating ecologically valid free-falling objects. Taken together, the finding that T(c) judgements are influenced by object identity/familiarity does not provide support for the tau hypothesis, nor the hypothesis that T(c) judgements are based solely on optic expansion rates. However, the results do provide support for the proposition that T(c) judgements are based on a combination of rate of retinal image expansion and object identity/familiarity information, the latter information requiring observers to have prior experience with, or knowledge about, the objects.

The visual search patterns and hazard responses of experienced and inexperienced motorcycle riders.

Hazard perception is a critical skill for road users. In this study, an open-loop motorcycle simulator was used to examine the effects of motorcycle riding and car driving experience on hazard perception and visual scanning patterns. Three groups of participants were tested: experienced motorcycle riders who were experienced drivers (EM-ED), inexperienced riders/experienced drivers (IM-ED), and inexperienced riders/inexperienced drivers (IM-ID). Participants were asked to search for hazards in simulated scenarios, and click a response button when a hazard was identified. The results revealed a significant monotonic decrease in hazard response times as experience increased from IM-ID to IM-ED to EM-ED. Compared to the IM-ID group, both the EM-ED and IM-ED groups exhibited more flexible visual scanning patterns that were sensitive to the presence of hazards. These results point to the potential benefit of training hazard perception and visual scanning in motorcycle riders, as has been successfully demonstrated in previous studies with car drivers.

The effects of text messaging on young drivers.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effects of using a cell phone to retrieve and send text messages on the driving performance of young novice drivers. BACKGROUND: Young drivers are particularly susceptible to driver distraction and have an increased risk of distraction-related crashes. Distractions from in-vehicle devices, particularly, those that require manual input, are known to cause decrements in driving performance. METHOD: Twenty young novice drivers used a cell phone to retrieve and send text messages while driving a simulator. RESULTS: The amount of time that drivers spent not looking at the road when text messaging was up to approximately 400% greater than that recorded in baseline (notext-messaging) conditions. Furthermore, drivers' variability in lane position increased up to approximately 50%, and missed lane changes increased 140%. There was also an increase of up to approximately 150% in drivers' variability in following distances to lead vehicles. CONCLUSION: Previous research has shown that the risk of crashing while dialing a handheld device, such as when text messaging and driving, is more than double that of conversing on a cell phone. The present study has identified the detrimental effects of text messaging on driving performance that may underlie such increased crash risk. APPLICATION: More effective road safety measures are needed to prevent and mitigate the adverse effects on driving performance of using cell phones to retrieve and send text messages.

Predicting driver drowsiness using vehicle measures: recent insights and future challenges.

INTRODUCTION: Driver drowsiness is a significant contributing factor to road crashes. One approach to tackling this issue is to develop technological countermeasures for detecting driver drowsiness, so that a driver can be warned before a crash occurs. METHOD: The goal of this review is to assess, given the current state of knowledge, whether vehicle measures can be used to reliably predict drowsiness in real time. RESULTS: Several behavioral experiments have shown that drowsiness can have a serious impact on driving performance in controlled, experimental settings. However, most of those studies have investigated simple functions of performance (such as standard deviation of lane position) and results are often reported as averages across drivers, and across time. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is necessary to examine more complex functions, as well as individual differences between drivers. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: A successful countermeasure for predicting driver drowsiness will probably require the setting of multiple criteria, and the use of multiple measures.