CYBERPSYCHOLOGY

1. CYBERPSYCHOLOGY An Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction Emily Wilson Nov. 26, 2009 COMP 3851

2. Kent L. Norman • Associate Professor in the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Iowa. • Always interested in science and electronics but decided to major in Psychology • Only took one Computer Science course – Computers and Society • Book wrote in 2008

3. Cyberpsychology • “Cyber” – from the work “cybernetics,” meaning the study of the operation of control communication systems and “psychology” – the study of human behavior and cognitive processes • Put together they create the overlap of both fields

4. An Introduction to Human – Computer Interaction • Part 1: Fundamentals • Part 2: Systems • Part 3: Relationships • Part 4: Applications

5. Part 1: Fundamentals – History of HCI • Generation 0: the beginning of computers – very little Human-Computer interface • Generation 1: computer terminals with teletype keyboards. Users gave commands to the computer and the printout or display was the feedback. The HCI began to take shape • Generation 2: closer to where we are today, computers became more user friendly. HCI began important in designing user friendly GUIs

6. Part 1: Fundamentals – Human vs. Computer • Much more known about computers than humans, even though humans have been studied longer • Differences: Humans can easily change themselves • Similarities: Both humans and computers must interpret the information that the other one gives them correctly.

7. Part 2: Systems – The Sensory-Motor Interface • Vision • Audition • Touch • Proprioception – the sense of bodily perception

8. Part 2: Systems – Visual Perception Visual perception involves: • Recognizing shapes • Interpreting depth • Sensing motion • Maintaining Consistencies

9. Part 2: Systems – Visual Perception • We organize figures in the foreground and everything else in the background • The desktop screen takes advantage of this principle having icons on the desktop as a foreground with the rest as the background • Ambiguous and Hierarchical Layouts

10. Part 2: Systems – Visual Perception • Good Form and Closure: the perceptual system tries to fill in the gaps • Continuity: Our system follows the edges and wants to see nice continuous lines rather than jagged complex ones

11. Part 2: Systems – Visual Perception • These principles, along with the principles of proximity and similarity are extremely important in how we perceive and organize our desktops, or how we create layouts of web pages.

12. Part 3: Relationships – Our Emotions Emotional experiences that happen at the human computer interface: • Email – Good or bad news • Computer games – getting a new high score • Online media – being entertained or disgusted • Successes or failures at work

13. Part 3: Relationships – Expressing our emotions Ways we express ourselves online by: • Using Smileys in chats, emails and online forums • Mood descriptions in blogs: can be monitored and evaluated – showed that the “sad” mood shot up afterterrorist attacks in Londonin 2005 • Our behavior when usingthe computer can indicate ourmood.

14. Part 3: Relationships – Computer Disorders • Anxiety Disorders – technological environments may be a source of anxiety • OCD – repeatedly checking software and updating software, repeatedly backing up files or saving all files, versions and saving all your emails, and repeatedly filing your files • Mood Disorders: Depression – person can turn to the internet when depressed, and find unhealthy sites about things like suicide

15. Part 3: Relationships – Computer Addiction • Importance – Craving the activity all the time. Takes over a person’s thoughts. When they are not doing it all they can think about is doing it • Mood modification – feelings of numbness and escape when engaged in the activity. • Tolerance – To satisfy a persons cravings excessive amounts of time are required to do the activity. • Withdrawal Symptoms –discontent feelings when not doing activity • Conflict – intrapersonal conflicts can occur between the person and their friends, or conflicts can occur with work or other activities, conflicts caused by their excessive use of the computer • Relapse – Tendency for a person to slip back into addiction

16. Part 3: Relationships – Mental Help Info Online • Disadvantage: Not always reliable – could be false information or advertisement for a product • Psychotherapy over the internet – Advantages: • synchronous/asynchronous • Text/sensory • Imaginary/real • Automated/interpersonal • Invisible/present

17. Part 4: Applications - Automation Assistive Technologies: • Pre-computers: hearing aids , corrective lenses, walkers and wheelchairs, Braille, etc. • Computers: Screen magnifiers for people with low or bad vision, and screen readers for those who are blind, controlling the mouse with your eyes and facial expressions for people with motor impairment

18. Part 4: Applications – Future Predictions • Some predict that the HCI will become so blurred in the future that we will become so much like machines or machines will become so much like humans that we will not think of them as machines. • In one sense computers will be everywhere and in another sense they will disappear altogether Will automation go toofar in the future?

19. Part 4: Applications – Future Predictions • Norman predicts rather than going out to places like pubs, common rooms or the mall people will be logging into social networking sites like facebook.com or myspace.com. • Things like identity theft, and imaginary profiles will become more and more of a problem.  Today we have profiles that are fake or get hacked, but in the future there may be more profiles that are maintained by simulation agents.

20. Part 4: Applications – Human in the Machine The ways we as humans are in the machine: • We transfer much of our memory and knowledge to the computer in things like digital calendars, blogs, and so on.  • Parts of our personality reside in the computer on social networking sites. • As time goes on we will probably rely on the computer for more and more things and thus more of us will be inputted into the computer.

21. Part 4: Applications – Machine in the Human • Alternatively, we may become more bionic with the increase of Human-Brain interaction • Today we have things like artificial pacemakers that stimulate the heart muscles • Microchip implants, can store personal identification, medical information, and can also be used for GPS tracking, and identification verification • Brain pacemakers send electric impulses to areas of the brain and nervous system to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and depression

22. Part 4: Applications – Machine in the Human (cont.) • In the future computer sensors may be used to pick up brain functions and may even intervene to optimize the processing. • Neuroprosthetics may be used to replace damaged or missing parts of the brain. • A cochlear implant used to restore hearing to the deaf is a neuroprosthetic device in use today, and one that will restore vision to the blind, is currently being worked on. 

23. Cyberpsychology – Wrap Up How well will these devices be received by the rest of our nervous system? At what point to we cease being ourselves and become the machine?  What about ethical issues?