Using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) to Measure Trust and Cognitive Load in the Text-Chat Environment

ABSTRACT

Exchanging text messages via software on smart phones and computers has recently become one of the most popular ways for people to communicate and accomplish their tasks. However, there are negative aspects to using this kind of software, for example, it has been found that people communicating in the text-chat environment may experience a lack of trust and may face different levels of cognitive load [1, 11]. This study examines a novel way to measure interpersonal trust and cognitive load when they overlap with each other in the text-chat environment. We used Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), a physiological measurement, to collect data from twenty-eight subjects at four gradients and overlapping conditions between trust and cognitive load. The findings show that the GSR signals were significantly affected by both trust and cognitive load and provide promising evidence that GSR can be used as a tool for measuring interpersonal trust when cognitive load is low and also for measuring cognitive load when trust is high.

References

1. Bos, N., Olson, J., Gergle, D., Olson, G. and Wright, Z. Effects of four computer-mediated communications channels on trust development. In Proc. CHI 2002, ACM Press (2002), 135--140.
2. Costa, A., Roe, R., and Taillieu, T. Trust within teams: The relation with performance effectiveness. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 10, 3 (2001), 225--244.
3. Khawaja, M. A., Chen, F., Marcus, N. Using Language Complexity to Measure Cognitive Load for Adaptive Interaction Design. In Proc. IUI 2010, ACM Press (2010), 333--336.
4. Khawaji, A., Chen, F., Marcus, N., and Zhou, J. Trust and Cooperation in Text-Based Computer-Mediated Communication. In Proc. OzCHI 2013, 37--40.
5. Leichtenstern, K., Bee, N., André, E., Berkmüller, U., and Wagner, J. Physiological Measurement of Trust-Related Behavior in Trust-Neutral and Trust-Critical Situations. Trust Management, 358, (2011), 165--172.
6. NASA. Nasa Task Load Index, Ver. 1.0, 1986.
7. Peuscher, J. Galvanic Skin Response, Ver. 3, 2012.
8. Quan-Haase, A., Cothrel, J., and Wellman, B. Instant messaging for collaboration: A case study of a high-tech firm. Computer-Mediated Communication, 10, 4 (2005).
9. Scissors, L., Gill, A., Geraghty, K., and Gergle, D. In CMC we trust: the role of similarity. In Proc. CHI 2009, 527--536.
10. Shi, Y., Ruiz, N., Taib, R., Choi, E., and Chen, F. Galvanic skin response (GSR) as an index of cognitive load. In Proc. CHI 2007, 2651--2656.
11. Thirunarayanan, M, Ryan, C. and Perez-Prado, A. An Exploratory Study of Cognitive Load in Instructional Chat Rooms. In Proc. ICCE 2002.
12. Westerink, J., Broek, E., Schut, M., Herk, J., and Tuinenbreijer, K. Computing Emotion Awareness Through Galvanic Skin Response and Facial Electromyography. Probing Experience, 8, (2008).
13. Wang, H-C., Fussell, S. and Cosley, D. From Diversity to Creativity: Stimulating Group Brainstorming with Cultural Differences and Conversationally-Retrieved Pictures. In Proc. CSCW 2011, 265--274.
14. Zand, D. Trust and Managerial Problem Solving. Administrative Science Quarterly 17, 2 (1972).
15. Zhou, J., Sun, J., Chen, F., Wang, Y., Taib, R., Khawaji, A., and Li, Z. Measurable Decision Making with GSR and Pupillary Analysis for Intelligent User Interface. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI), 2014. In press.
16. Zheng, J., Veinott, E., Olson, J. and Olson, G. Trust without touch jumpstarting long-distance trust with initial social activities. In Proc. CHI 2002, 141--146.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing