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This paper aims to introduce and explores the use of electrodermal activity (EDA) data as a tool for obtaining data about youth engagement during maker learning activities.

EDA and survey data were collected from a yearlong afterschool maker program for teens that met weekly and was hosted at a children’s museum. Data from four youth who were simultaneously present for eight weeks were examined to ascertain what experiences and activities were more or less engaging for them, based on psychophysiological measures.

Most of the focal youth appeared to show higher levels of engagement by survey measures throughout the program. However, when examined by smaller time intervals, certain activities appeared to be more engaging. Planning of maker activities was one space where engagement was higher. Completing sewing projects with minimal social interaction appeared to be less engaging. Specific activities involving common maker technologies yielded mixed levels of engagement.

Some research is emerging that uses EDA data as a basis for generating inferences about various states while participating in maker learning activities. This paper provides a novel analysis building on some techniques established in the still emergent body of prior research in this area.

Reflecting, reliving and reforming experiences enhance longer-term effects of travel and tourism, and have been highlighted as an important aspect in determining loyalty, re-visitation and post-consumption satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to develop new methodological approaches to investigate emotion, memory creation and the resulting psychosocial effects.

The paper proposes a unique combination of physiological measures and photoelicitation-based discussions within a longitudinal design. A physiological measuring instrument (electrodermal activity [EDA] tracking technology through Empatica E4 wristbands) is utilised to capture the “unadulterated” emotional response both during the experience and in reliving or remembering it. This is combined with post-experience narrative discussion groups using photos and other artefacts to give further understanding of the process of collective memory creation.

EDA tracking can enhance qualitative research methodologies in three ways: through use as an “artefact” to prompt reflection on feelings, through identifying peaks of emotional response and through highlighting changes in emotional response over time. Empirical evidence from studies into participatory arts events and the potential well-being effects upon women over the age of 70 is presented to illustrate the method.

The artificial environment created using experimental approaches to measure emotions and memory (common in many fields of psychology) has serious limitations. This paper proposes new and more “natural” methods for use in tourism, hospitality and events research, which have the potential to better capture participants’ feelings, behaviours and the meanings they place upon them.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a laboratory experiment in which the paper investigated how expert and novice users differ in their emotional responses during use of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in a decision-making context, and how such a difference affects information sourcing behavior.

In a simulated SAP business environment, participants’ emotional responses were physiologically measured based on electrodermal activity (EDA) while they made business decisions.

Results show that both expert and novice users exhibit considerable EDA activity during their interaction with the ERP system, indicating that ERP use is an emotional process for both groups. However, the findings also indicate that experts’ emotional responses led to their sourcing information from the ERP, while novices’ emotional responses led to their sourcing information from other people.

From an academic standpoint, this paper responds to the recent call for more research on the role of emotions for information systems behavior.

The paper discusses the implications of this finding for the development of ERP system trainings.

Because emotions often do not reach users’ awareness level, the paper used EDA, a neurophysiological measure, to capture users’ emotional responses during ERP decision making, instead of using self-report measures that depend on conscious perception. Based on this method, the paper found that emotions can lead to different behavioral reactions, depending on whether the user is an expert or novice.

Construction work involves high-risk activities and requires intense focus and physical exertion. Accordingly, working conditions at construction sites contribute to physical fatigue and mental stress in workers, which is the primary cause of accidents. This study aims to examine the relation between construction accidents and physiological variables, indicative of physical fatigue and mental stress.

Four different real-time physiological values of the construction workers were measured including blood sugar level (BSL), electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR) and skin temperature (ST). The data were collected from 21 different workers during the summer and winter seasons. Both seasonal and hourly correlation analyses were performed between the construction accidents and the four physiological variables gathered.

The analysis results demonstrate that BSL values of the workers are correlated inversely with construction accidents taking place before lunch break. In addition, except BSL a significant seasonal association between the physiological variables and construction accidents was found.

It is disclosed that variations in physiological risk factors at certain working periods pose a high risk for construction workers. Therefore, efficient work-cycle rests can be arranged to provide frequent but short breaks for workers to overcome such issues. Besides, an early warning system could be introduced to monitor the real-time physiological values of the workers.

The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers, attract attention, elicit levels of pleasantness and calmness and transmit brand personality traits.

A within-subject experimental factorial design is applied to measure emotional arousal (indexed as electrodermal activity) and enhancement on perceptual processing (indexed as heart rate), as well as self-reported factors, namely, calmness/excitement, pleasantness and brand personality scales.

Results show a significant increase on electrodermal activity associated with fast-paced sonic logos and a decrease in heart rate in slow-paced long sonic logos. Also, fade-up, pitch-ascending fast sonic logos are defined as more exciting and descending-pitch sonic logos as more pleasant.

The use of sonic logos with no voice does limit its implications. Besides, the use of three variables simultaneously with 18 versions of sonic logos in a laboratory setting may have driven participants to fatigue; hence, findings should be cautiously applied.

First, sonic logos are best processed in a fade-up form. Second, fast pace is recommended to orient response, whereas slow pace is recommended to transmit calmness. Practitioners may opt for fast-paced sonic logos if the design is new or played in a noisy environment and opt for slow-paced sonic logos in already highly recognized sound designs.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to combine psychophysiological measures and self-reported scales in a laboratory experiment on how sonic logo’s acoustic features orient response, transmit emotions and personality traits.

Student competency in science learning relies on students being able to interpret and use multimodal representations to communicate understandings. Moreover, collaborative learning, in which students may share physiological arousal, can positively affect group performance. This paper aims to observe changes in student attitudes and beliefs, physiology (electrodermal activity; EDA) and content knowledge before and after a multimodal, cooperative inquiry, science teaching intervention to determine associations with productive science learning and increased science knowledge.

A total of 214 students with a mean age of 11 years 6 months from seven primary schools participated in a multimodal, cooperative inquiry, science teaching intervention for eight weeks during a science curriculum unit. Students completed a series of questionnaires pertaining to attitudes and beliefs about science learning and science knowledge before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) the teaching intervention. Empatica E3 wristbands were worn by students during 1 to 3 of their regularly scheduled class sessions both before and after the intervention.

Increases in EDA, science knowledge, self-efficacy and a growth mindset, and decreases in self-esteem, confidence, motivation and use of cognitive strategies, were recorded post-intervention for the cohort. EDA was positively correlated with science knowledge, but negatively correlated with self-efficacy, motivation and use of cognitive strategies. Cluster analysis suggested three main clusters of students with differing physiological and psychological profiles.

First, teachers need to be aware of the importance of helping students to consolidate their current learning strategies as they transition to new learning approaches to counter decreased confidence. Second, teachers need to know that an effective teaching multimodal science intervention can not only be associated with increases in science knowledge but also increases in self-efficacy and movement towards a growth mindset. Finally, while there is evidence that there are positive associations between physiological arousal and science knowledge, physiological arousal was also associated with reductions in self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation and the use of cognitive strategies. This mixed result warrants further investigation.

Overall, this study proposes a need for teachers to counter decreased confidence in students who are learning new strategies, with further research required on the utility of monitoring physiological markers.

Since construction workers often need to carry various types of loads in their daily routine, they are at risk of sustaining musculoskeletal injuries. Additionally, carrying a load during walking may disturb their walking balance and lead to fall injuries among construction workers. Different load carrying techniques may also cause different extents of physical exertion. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different load-carrying techniques on gait parameters, dynamic balance, and physiological parameters in asymptomatic individuals on both stable and unstable surfaces.

Fifteen asymptomatic male participants (mean age: 31.5 ± 2.6 years) walked along an 8-m walkway on flat and foam surfaces with and without a load thrice using three different techniques (e.g. load carriage on the head, on the dominant shoulder, and in both hands). Temporal gait parameters (e.g. gait speed, cadence, and double support time), gait symmetry (e.g. step time, stance time, and swing time symmetry), and dynamic balance parameters [e.g. anteroposterior and mediolateral center of pressure (CoP) displacement, and CoP velocity] were evaluated. Additionally, the heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) was assessed to estimate physiological parameters.

The gait speed was significantly higher when the load was carried in both hands compared to other techniques (Hand load, 1.02 ms vs Head load, 0.82 ms vs Shoulder load, 0.78 ms). Stride frequency was significantly decreased during load carrying on the head than the load in both hands (46.5 vs 51.7 strides/m). Step, stance, and swing time symmetry were significantly poorer during load carrying on the shoulder than the load in both hands (Step time symmetry ration, 1.10 vs 1.04; Stance time symmetry ratio, 1.11 vs 1.05; Swing time symmetry ratio, 1.11 vs 1.04). The anteroposterior (Shoulder load, 17.47 mm vs Head load, 21.10 mm vs Hand load, −5.10 mm) and mediolateral CoP displacements (Shoulder load, −0.57 mm vs Head load, −1.53 mm vs Hand load, −3.37 ms) significantly increased during load carrying on the shoulder or head compared to a load in both hands. The HR (Head load, 85.2 beats/m vs Shoulder load, 77.5 beats/m vs No load, 69.5 beats/m) and EDA (Hand load, 14.0 µS vs Head load, 14.3 µS vs Shoulder load, 14.1 µS vs No load, 9.0 µS) were significantly larger during load carrying than no load.

The findings suggest that carrying loads in both hands yields better gait symmetry and dynamic balance than carrying loads on the dominant shoulder or head. Construction managers/instructors should recommend construction workers to carry loads in both hands to improve their gait symmetry and dynamic balance and to lower their risk of falls.

The potential changes in gait and balance parameters during various load carrying methods will aid the assessment of fall risk in construction workers during loaded walking. Wearable insole sensors that monitor gait and balance in real-time would enable safety managers to identify workers who are at risk of falling during load carriage due to various reasons (e.g. physical exertion, improper carrying techniques, fatigue). Such technology can also empower them to take the necessary steps to prevent falls.

This is the first study to use wearable insole sensors and a photoplethysmography device to assess the impacts of various load carrying approaches on gait parameters, dynamic balance, and physiological measures (i.e. HR and EDA) while walking on stable and unstable terrains.

The aim of this study is to investigate subject independent emotion recognition capabilities of EEG and peripheral physiological signals namely: electroocoulogram (EOG), electromyography (EMG), electrodermal activity (EDA), temperature, plethysmograph and respiration. The experiments are conducted on both modalities independently and in combination. This study arranges the physiological signals in order based on the prediction accuracy obtained on test data using time and frequency domain features.

DEAP dataset is used in this experiment. Time and frequency domain features of EEG and physiological signals are extracted, followed by correlation-based feature selection. Classifiers namely – Naïve Bayes, logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis, logit boost and stacking are trained on the selected features. Based on the performance of the classifiers on the test set, the best modality for each dimension of emotion is identified.

 The experimental results with EEG as one modality and all physiological signals as another modality indicate that EEG signals are better at arousal prediction compared to physiological signals by 7.18%, while physiological signals are better at valence prediction compared to EEG signals by 3.51%. The valence prediction accuracy of EOG is superior to zygomaticus electromyography (zEMG) and EDA by 1.75% at the cost of higher number of electrodes. This paper concludes that valence can be measured from the eyes (EOG) while arousal can be measured from the changes in blood volume (plethysmograph). The sorted order of physiological signals based on arousal prediction accuracy is plethysmograph, EOG (hEOG + vEOG), vEOG, hEOG, zEMG, tEMG, temperature, EMG (tEMG + zEMG), respiration, EDA, while based on valence prediction accuracy the sorted order is EOG (hEOG + vEOG), EDA, zEMG, hEOG, respiration, tEMG, vEOG, EMG (tEMG + zEMG), temperature and plethysmograph.

Many of the emotion recognition studies in literature are subject dependent and the limited subject independent emotion recognition studies in the literature report an average of leave one subject out (LOSO) validation result as accuracy. The work reported in this paper sets the baseline for subject independent emotion recognition using DEAP dataset by clearly specifying the subjects used in training and test set. In addition, this work specifies the cut-off score used to classify the scale as low or high in arousal and valence dimensions. Generally, statistical features are used for emotion recognition using physiological signals as a modality, whereas in this work, time and frequency domain features of physiological signals and EEG are used. This paper concludes that valence can be identified from EOG while arousal can be predicted from plethysmograph.

This paper aims to clarify how affect-based adaptation can improve implicit recognition of playing style of individuals during game sessions. This study presents the “Rush for Gold” game using dynamic difficulty adjustment of tasks based on both player performance and affectation inferred through electrodermal activity and facial expressions of the player. The game applies linear regression for calculating playing styles to be applied for achieving a style-based adaptation in other educational video games.

The experimental procedure included subject selection, demonstration, informed consent procedure, two game sessions in random order – one without and another with affective adaptation control – and post-game self-report. The experiment was conducted with participation of 30 master students and university lecturers in informatics.

This study presents experimental results concerning the impact of affective adaptation over playing style recognition, game session time, task’s effectiveness, efficiency and difficulty and, as well, player’s assessment of affectively adaptive gameplay obtained by an adaptation control panel embedded into the game and by post-game self-report.

The proposed adaptive game limits recognised styles to such based on the Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory model. Another limitation of the study is the relatively small number of participants constrained by the extended experimental procedure and the desktop game version.

The paper presents an original research on the effect of affect-based adaptation on a novel approach for implicit recognition of playing styles.

The purpose of this study is to highlight and demonstrate how the study of stress and related responses in construction can best be measured and benchmarked effectively.

A range of perceptual and physiological measures are obtained across different time periods and during different activities in a fieldwork setting. Differences in the empirical results are analysed and implications for future studies of stress discussed.

The results of this study strongly support the use of multiple psychometrics and biosensors whenever biometrics are included in the study of stress. Perceptual, physiological and environmental factors are all shown to act in concert to impact stress. Strong conclusions on the potential drivers of stress should then only be considered when consistent results apply across multiple metrics, time periods and activities.

Stress is an incredibly complex condition. This study demonstrates why many current applications of biosensors to study stress in construction are not up to the task and provides empirical evidence on how future studies can be significantly improved.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to focus explicitly on demonstrating the need for multiple research instruments and settings when studying stress or related conditions in construction.