Applying Implicit Association Test Techniques and Facial Expression Analyses in the Comparative Evaluation of Website User Experience.

This research project has the goal to verify whether the application of neuromarketing techniques, such as implicit association test (IAT) techniques and emotional facial expressions analyses may contribute to the assessment of user experience (UX) during and after website navigation. These techniques have been widely and positively applied in assessing customer experience (CX); however, little is known about their simultaneous application in the field of UX. As a specific context, the experience raised by different websites from two well-known automotive brands was compared.

Looking at One's Self Through Facebook Increases Mental Stress: A Computational Psychometric Analysis by Using Eye-Tracking and Psychophysiology.

The aim of this study was to investigate if Mental Stress was superior, inferior, or equal navigating on Facebook own profile or others profiles. An experimental manipulation would invalidate the results since it would force the participants to navigate in only one condition each time. To overcome this problem, we used an eye-tracker to get clear time markers that identified the areas where the participants focused during all of the Facebook navigation.

A Stimulus-Response Processing Framework for Pupil Dynamics Assessment during Iso-Luminant Stimuli.

Pupil size is governed by the synergic action of the Autonomic Nervous System. Pupil Diameter (PD) is primarily influenced by the light level and it is responsive to variations of global luminance level. However, recent studies have shown that there is also a high-level interpretation which could modulate this physiological response.

Computational Psychometrics in Communication and Implications in Decision Making.

Recent investigations emphasized the role of communication features on behavioral trust and reciprocity in economic decision making but no studies have been focused on the effect of communication on affective states in such a context. Thanks to advanced methods of computational psychometrics, in this study, affective states were deeply examined using simultaneous and synchronized recordings of gazes and psychophysiological signals in 28 female students during an investment game. Results showed that participants experienced different affective states according to the type of communication (personal versus impersonal).

Characterization of affective states by pupillary dynamics and autonomic correlates.

With the recent advent of new recording devices and an easier access to signal processing tools, researchers are increasingly exploring and studying the Pupil Dilation (PD) signal. Recently, numerous studies pointed out the relations between PD dynamics and psychophysiological states. Although it is well known that PD is controlled by the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), and ANS responses are related to emotional events/stimuli, the relationship between emotional states and PD is still an open issue.

Reconstruction and analysis of the pupil dilation signal: Application to a psychophysiological affective protocol.

Pupil dilation (PD) dynamics reflect the interactions of sympathetic and parasympathetic innervations in the iris muscle. Different pupillary responses have been observed with respect to emotionally characterized stimuli. Evidences of the correlation between PD and respiration, heart rate variability (HRV) and blood pressure (BP) are present in literature, making the pupil dilation a candidate for estimating the activity state of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), in particular during stressful and/or emotionally characterized stimuli.

Why is Facebook so successful? Psychophysiological measures describe a core flow state while using Facebook.

People are more and more using social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace to engage with others. The use of SNSs can have both positive and negative effect on the individual; however, the increasing use of SNSs might reveal that people look for SNSs because they have a positive experience when they use them. Few studies have tried to identify which particular aspects of the social networking experience make SNSs so successful.

Psychophysiological signals associated with affective states.

We present a preliminary quantitative study aimed at developing an optimal standard protocol for automatic classification of specific affective states as related to human- computer interactions. This goal is mainly achieved by comparing standard psychological test-reports to quantitative measures derived from simultaneous non-invasive acquisition of psychophysiological signals of interest, namely respiration, galvanic skin response, blood volume pulse, electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram. Forty-three healthy students were exposed to computer-mediated stimuli, while wearable non-invasive sensors were applied in order to collect the physiological data.

Automatic quantitative evaluation of emotions in E-learning applications.

The long term goal of our research is to develop a tool for recognizing human emotions during e-learning processes. This could be accomplished by combining quantitative indexes extracted from non-invasive recordings of four physiological signals: namely skin conductance, blood volume pulse, electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram. Wearable, non-invasive sensors, communicating with a PC, were applied to 30 students and data were collected during exposure to three different computer-mediated content stimuli designed to evoke specific emotional states: stress, relaxation and engagement.