Emotional mapping for medical monitoring
Speaker: Vivian Shek, ITEE
When: 2007-03-27 16:00:00
Venue: 78-421
Host: Prof Penelope Sanderson
Abstract:In studies of how people perform complex cognitive tasks in
safety-critical systems, the role of emotions is often
overlooked. However, many theorists argue that emotion has an
important role (Dolan, 2003; Estrada, Isen & Young,
1997). Researchers at UQ have examined the role of auditory displays
for anaesthesia monitoring where clinicians must quickly notice
potentially life-threatening changes in patient state. Some
theorists argue that such urgent situations should be indicated by
acoustically urgent-sounding alarms (Hellier, Edworthy & Dennis,
1993). However, this has not led to satisfactory auditory
information systems (Mondor & Finley, 2003; Sanderson, 2006). Given
the powerful yet informal informational role of auditory cues in the
operating room, I speculate that for a trained clinician, perceived
urgency is largely the result of learned emotional associations
between patient state and auditory cues. Therefore, I propose a
series of laboratory-based experiments to investigate the relative
importance of acoustically urgent-sounding properties vs. learned
associations in attracting people's attention to abnormal
conditions. If the experiments indicate there is an important role
of learned emotional associations in the effectiveness of auditory
displays, designers will need different principles for designing
auditory displays from those currently in existence.
Biography:Vivian Shek obtained her undergraduate degree in Information
Technology (Hons) and Arts (Psychology) from The University of
Queensland. She commenced her PhD candidature within the Cognitive
Engineering Research Group and the School of ITEE under the
supervision of Professor Penelope Sanderson in 2005.
Type: Ph.D confirmation
Contact:Prof Penelope Sanderson, seminar host (psanderson@itee.uq.edu.au)
or Guido Governatori (ITEE seminar co-ordinator)
(guido@itee.uq.edu.au)