Adaptive testing: effects on user performance

  • Authors:

  • Eva Jettmar;Clifford Nass

  • Affiliations:

  • Stanford University, Stanford, CA;Stanford University, Stanford, CA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

This study examines the effects of interface adaptation on user performance in HCI and CMC. No studies to date have explored the psychological effects of a combination of software performance monitoring and adaptation. This combination is the focus of the present study. Two competing possible effects of adaptive interfaces are presented: 1) Social facilitation, according to which users with high task confidence should perform better, and users with low task confidence should perform less well because their performance is monitored by the interface; and 2) "choking", according to which users with high task confidence should perform less well, and users with low task confidence should perform better because the interface adapts to their performance. A 2 (adaptive vs. non-adaptive) x 2 (high user task confidence vs. low task confidence) x 2 (HCI vs. CMC) laboratory experiment was conducted. Results indicate that for CMC, the social facilitation explanation holds true, while results for HCI were consistent with the "choking" explanation. Implications for the theory and design of adaptive interfaces are discussed