Current Research
The main focus of our research is in examining the psychological aspects of using technology. The context (e.g., workplace, home, hospital patient room) and the users (e.g., older adults, students, nurses) may differ but these situations all involve humans interacting with technology. Below are summaries of current research projects that my students and I are conducting.
Patient Room of the Future (PRoF)
The PROF is a multidisciplinary research partnership between Clemson University and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare Systemand is partially funded by the Department of Defense’s Hospital of the Future program and NXT. Working with Dr. Dina Battisto from the School of Architecture and psychology graduate student Nicole Fink our first study will examine the influence of a newly designed patient headwall on nursing-task performance. |
finding information online
Looking for information on your computer or on the Web is a frequent activity. What is the relationship between basic cognitive abilities and performance in computerized tasks? How does this relationship change as we get older? Margaux Price is examining how different methods of organizing electronic information (e.g., e-mails, documents) and age-related change in abilities affects our ability to quickly and efficiently find information. This research will be funded by a Google Research Award to Richard Pak. |
User interface consistency
User interface consistency, or the extent to which an interface looks and behaves similar to another interface, is thought to be useful for performance. However, it remains uncertain a) how to define user interface consistency, and b) under what conditions consistency is beneficial to performance. Psychology graduate student Jeremy Mendel, through funding from Deere and Company, will soon examine the above questions. |
Education in the Virtual World
Virtual worlds (VW) have the potential to enhance learning and education beyond distance education. However, there are a multitude of issues that must be understood before VW can effectively be used. With Dr. Sean Williams (professional communications), and Dr. Deborah Switzer (School of Education), and psychology graduate student Jeremy Mendel and undergraduate student Abe Webber, we are examining under what circumstances VW enhances education. |
Attention and Computer Displays
In many daily tasks, we must pay attention to many sources of information. For example, when you are using a computer, you are focusing your attention on one task, but may need to monitor another area. In this project, we are examining what affects your ability to do these multiple visual tasks at the same time. It is important to understand these basic issues because they are directly applicable to the design of systems that require us to do many things at once.