Following Langer (1992), this article reviews a series of experimental studies that demonstrate that individuals mindlessly apply social rules and expectations to computers. The first set of studies illustrates how individuals overuse human social categories, applying gender stereotypes to computers and ethnically identifying with computer agents. The second set demonstrates that people exhibit overlearned social behaviors such as politeness and reciprocity toward computers. In the third set of studies, premature cognitive commitments are demonstrated: A specialist television set is perceived as providing better content than a generalist television set. A final series of studies demonstrates the depth of social responses with respect to computer “personality. ” Alternative explanations for these findings, such as anthropomorphism and intentional social responses, cannot explain the results. We conclude with an agenda for future research. Computer users approach the personal computer in many different ways. Experienced word processors move smoothly from keyboard to mouse to menu, mixing prose and commands to the computer automatically; the distinction between the hand and the tool blurs (Heidegger, 1977; Winograd & Flores, 1987). Novices cautiously strike each key, fearing that one false move will initiate an uncontrollable series of unwanted events. Game players view computers as *Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Clifford Nass, Department of

Activities are located behaviors, taking time, conceived as socially meaningful, and usually involving interaction with tools and the environment. In modeling human cognition as a form of problem solving (goal-directed search and operator sequencing), cognitive science researchers have not adequately studied "off-task" activities (e.g., waiting), non-intellectual motives (e.g., hunger), sustaining a goal state (e.g., playful interaction), and coupled perceptual-motor dynamics (e.g., following someone). These aspects of human behavior have been considered in bits and pieces in past research, identified as scripts, human factors, behavior settings, ensemble, flow experience, and situated action. More broadly, activity theory provides a comprehensive framework relating motives, goals, and operations. This paper ties these ideas together, using examples from work life in a Canadian High Arctic research station. The emphasis is on simulating human behavior as it naturally occurs, such that "working" is understood as an aspect of living. The result is a synthesis of previously unrelated analytic perspectives and a broader appreciation of the nature of human cognition. Simulating activities in this comprehensive way is useful for understanding work practice, promoting learning, and designing better tools, including human-robot systems.

There is a common perception shared by athletes, sports fans, and perhaps anybody who has ever attempted a skilled activity that there are moments when a person is “hot, ” or “in the zone, ” or alternatively is “cold, ” or in a slump. M. Csikszentmihalyi (1975, 1990; M. Csikszentmihalyi & I. S. Csikszentmihalyi, 1988) has written extensively about the notion of flow as a dimension of experience where the intimate coupling of actor and activity results in a specific psychological state anecdotally referred to as being “hot. ” Other investigators have been leery of flow as a description of performance and have questioned its empirical support. An issue germane to studies of subjective probability is whether the alleged signature of the flow state, streaky performance, arises from some factual aspect of skilled activity or from mistaking chance fluctuations as evidence of a heightened state of ability. Judgments of one’s own and other’s performance would not be controversial if it were not for the well-documented observation (Tversky & Kahneman, 1971, 1974) that people have systematic biases concerning what a random process looks like, and therefore are not competent to discriminate chance occurrence from truly remarkable performance. Understandings of random processes incorporate a bias known as the “law of small numbers ” (Tversky & Kahneman, 1971); people expect statistical regularities that hold only in the long run to also obtain locally in the short run. The gambler’s fallacy (e.g., the belief that tails are “due ” after a long run of heads) illustrates this type of thinking. When asked to mimic the flip of a fair coin, people invariably generate sequences that have too few long runs of heads and tails, they balance the frequencies of heads and tail in short runs, and they produce an excessive number of runs compared with the output from a We wish to extend special thanks to Kerstin MacDonald for assistance in running the experiments and preparing the data for analysis.

Guided by interpersonal deception theory and the principle of interactivity, this investigation examined whether communication modalities differentially affect the extent to which group members develop trust or are vulnerable to manipulation and deceit, based on the degree of interactivity the modalities afford. According to the principle of interactivity, involvement and mutuality should increase as one moves from text, to audio and audiovisual (AV) modalities, to face-to-face (FtF) communication. Under nondeceptive circumstances, greater interactivity should elicit corresponding increases in trust and credibility; under deceptive circumstances, it should produce greater truth biases and inaccurate detection of deceit. This effect should be partly mitigated in text and audio modalities due to the presence of diagnostic deception indicators Pairs were assigned to a truthful or deceptive condition in one of three mediated conditions, or in a face-to-face condition. In the deceptive condition, one member of each pair was enlisted to deceive during the interaction. Following discussion, participants rated their communicative behavior and the credibility of the truthful or deceptive actor. Truth bias and accuracy in judging deceptive information was calculated. Results are compared to previous findings from face-to-face deception. Implications for collaborative technologies are advanced.

As the Internet has changed communication, commerce, and the distribution of information, so too it is changing psychological research. Psychologists can observe new or rare phenomena online and can do research on traditional psychological topics more efficiently, enabling them to expand the scale and scope of their research. Yet these opportunities entail risk both to research quality and to human subjects. Internet research is inherently no more risky than traditional observational, survey or experimental methods. Yet the rapidly changing nature oftechnology, norms, and online behavior means that the risks and safeguards against them will differ from those characterizing traditional research and will themselves change over time. This paper describes some benefits and challenges of conducting psychological research via the Internet and offers recommendations to both researchers and Institutional Review Boards for dealing with the challenges. Send comments and editorial correspondence to:

As the Web becomes a part of peoples ’ everyday lives, there is a growing need to understand user behaviour on the Web. Recently, the flow construct has been proposed as important for understanding the nature of user online experience. Researchers assert that the benefits of flow online include increased learning, exploratory and positive behavior, positive subjective experience, and perceived sense of control over their interaction. Overall, flow could affect outcomes such as navigation patterns and repeat visits on commercial Web sites. Although widely studied over the past years, a review of the literature indicates discrepancies among various flow models and some unclear conceptualization and operationalization of the construct. This paper examined flow according to two specific conceptualizations with respect to its measurement, and tests each conceptualization in an identical nomological network. The results indicate that there is better fit of a reflective flow model compared with a formative flow model to the study data. The results of the study may aid in the understanding of the relationships between the higher order flow construct and its first order dimensions, which may help inform system designers to better assess flow and, thus, be more conducive to flow. Keywords: Computer-Mediated Environment, Flow, Multidimensionality, Web 1.

Flow theory has been applied to computer-mediated environments to study positive user experiences such as increased exploratory behavior, communication, learning, positive affect, and computer use. However, a review of the existing flow studies in computer-mediated environments in Psychology, Consumer Behavior, Communications, Human-Computer Interaction, and Management Information Systems shows ambiguities in the conceptualization of flow constructs and inconsistency in the flow models. It thus raises the question of whether the direct adoption of traditional flow theory is appropriate without a careful re-conceptualization to consider the uniqueness of the computer-mediated environments. This paper focuses on flow antecedents and identifies the importance of separating the task from the artifact within a computer-mediated environment. It proposes a component-based model that consists of person (P), artifact (A), and task (T), as well as the interactions of these components. The model, named the PAT model, is developed by understanding the original flow theory, reviewing existing empirical flow studies within computer-mediated environments, and analyzing the characteristics of computer-mediated environments. A set of propositions is constructed to demonstrate the predictive power of the model. Keywords: flow theory, flow antecedents, computer-mediated environment (CME), perceived ease of use (PEOU), computer playfulness, Person Artifact Task (PAT) model, affect 1 1.

This research study attempted to use a design-based experiment approach to look at Flow in a computer game simulation of a foreign language environment. Measuring Flow in this setting would allow us to look at how a computer game could be used to provide Spanish language students an environment to practice their language skills outside of the classroom. We also were testing the effectiveness of using a commercial off-the-shelf game, Neverwinter Nights, for rapid prototyping of an educational environment. We quickly discovered that a preexisting knowledge about computer games, in general, and about Neverwinter Nights, in specific, greatly enhanced participants ’ ability to become engaged with our game module. The study was hampered with usability problems, but, in the end, we are at least one step closer to measuring Flow in a game simulation.

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The potential for real-time sonifications to enhance attention for specific movement sections in athletics has led to a growing interest from the elite sports community. Early examples of sonifications for swimming and (ergometer) rowing have demonstrated the functionality of this idea. These pioneering sport sonifications use simple sine-tones to achieve real-time responsiveness. However further improvements in technology will enable more complex sounds to be synthesised, opening up the design possibilities. During the COST-SID workshop on sonification, different design possibilities were explored using the rowing movement and data as a case study. The results identify the potential to include the motivational and physiological aspects of music and the richness of natural sounds. In further related work the initial sine-wave sonification was trialed in action with rowers on the water with improvements in speed demonstrating the effectiveness. Responses to a questionnaire about the sound indicate that functionality is a primary dimension in the aesthetics of a sonification in elite sports. The results from the workshop combined with the questionnaire identify many issues and raise many questions about function and aesthetics in sonifications designed specifically for elite sports applications. 1.