Valerie Sims | University of Central Florida (original) (raw)

Papers by Valerie Sims

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Oct 19, 2009

This study was designed to examine natural free form communication that exists when a person inte... more This study was designed to examine natural free form communication that exists when a person interacts with robots versus live entities. Participants interacted with one of four entities: an AIBO robotic dog, Legobot, dog or cat. The amount of words spoken by the participant while interacting with the entity was recorded and coded for word count, average word length, number of questions and number of commands. It was found that participants spoke to the AIBO similarly to how they spoke to the cat and they did not speak to the AIBO as they spoke to the dog. This suggests that when speaking to an entity people are not distinguishing between organic and inorganic, and that when a robotic entity resembles a dog, it does not mean that people will behave toward it as they would toward a real dog.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2016

In recent years, text messaging (“texting”) has become the dominant method of communication for y... more In recent years, text messaging (“texting”) has become the dominant method of communication for young adults. This prevalence of texting has led to research exploring the beneficial and detrimental behaviors associated with texting, indicating wide-ranging social and human factors implications. As texting continues to take precedence over other forms of communication and research begins to address texting behaviors, the question arises about whether people use other mobile instant messaging applications (“IM apps”) similarly. The current study expands on the research of texting behaviors by asking how similarly young adults view apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.) to texting. Results indicated that young adults in the United States use texting more frequently than text-based apps, but that these apps are viewed similarly to texting. The implication is that research addressing texting behaviors may apply to other forms of text-based communication; however, texting remains the most prominent mode of communication, justifying its own continued examination.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2017

The measurement of technology behaviors occurs in everyday interactions with websites and smart d... more The measurement of technology behaviors occurs in everyday interactions with websites and smart devices, and can be applied to customize interfaces to improve users' experiences as well as increasing revenues via targeted ads. This is possible because technology behaviors can reflect underlying personal and psychological characteristics about users that can be utilized to deliver custom-tailored content to each user. Texting is a one technology behavior that has been shown to be associated with a variety of psychological variables, including personality, depression, and anxiety, and has been shown to relate to socio-developmental differences among different age groups. Thus, the measurement of texting behaviors could have potential applications for researchers and practitioners. The present study examined a new scale to measure texting behavior: the Texting Behaviors Index (TBX; Schroeder & Sims, 2017), alongside two scales that measure problematic aspects of mobile phone use (Merlo, Stone, & Bibbey, 2013) and motivations for texting (Reid & Reid, 2007). Results indicate that measures from the TBX converge with the other texting scales, and support the TBX's usefulness as a measure of texting behavior.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Nov 1, 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mobile device screen size and different p... more The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mobile device screen size and different positions on head posture. Participants’ angle of head flexion was measured when they were sitting, lying on their back, and standing while using mobile devices of different sizes. Results showed that participants had a greater head flexion when standing compared to both sitting and lying down. However, there were no significant differences in head flexion while participants used mobile devices of different sizes. There were no sex differences in the sitting and standing conditions. For lying down, females had a significantly greater angle of head flexion compared to males. Future research should examine sex differences in physical body structure to have a better understanding of the physical complications associated with device usage. Consumers should be advised how certain positions lead to greater head flexion, which could lead to greater musculoskeletal pain.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2018

The purpose of this study was to examine the types of risk communication received about Hurricane... more The purpose of this study was to examine the types of risk communication received about Hurricane Irma by a university sample, along with their perceptions of self-efficacy and susceptibility to the storm. Three days after the storm, 176 individuals completed a survey that asked about how they received alerts, the frequency of the alerts received, and their trust in the different risk communication mediums. Additionally, respondents completed a susceptibility measure, a self-efficacy measure, and a storm fear questionnaire. Results showed that most people received alerts from their university alert system or social media. Participants trusted risk communication the most from text alerts and radio reports, but the least from social media. Additionally, results showed that those who received more alerts also had higher levels of perceived susceptibility to the hurricane, except for those who received 16 to 20 alerts. Perceived self-efficacy was not related to the number of alerts received. These data suggest that although many urge the use of social media for spreading emergency warnings, people distrust social media for risk communication, and that this mistrust may be due to recent cases of misinformation spreading on various platforms. In addition, these data suggest that there may be a "critical point" of alerting, such that receiving more than 5 hurricane alerts may lead to significant increase in perceptions of susceptibility to the storm. Future research should investigate the critical point of effective alerting and the effect that trust in the different mediums of alert technology has on motivation to comply with the warning's protective action recommendations.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2010

Two groups of first, third, and fifth grade children were interviewed about their mental models o... more Two groups of first, third, and fifth grade children were interviewed about their mental models of computers. The first group was interviewed in 1999, and the second in 2009. In both data sets, children as young as 6 years of age generated well developed analogies for computers. However, the 2009 data showed that children are increasingly able to generate these analogies at a younger age. Further, the types of analogies generated differed as a function of time, with those interviewed in 1999 more likely to describe perceptual qualities of computers (e.g., it is square), and those interviewed in 2009 relating computers to both cell phones and entertainment devices. Children&amp;#39;s knowledge of technology provides a glimpse into the future user&amp;#39;s mindset.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2012

It is becoming commonplace for humans to use technology to enhance and augment their understandin... more It is becoming commonplace for humans to use technology to enhance and augment their understanding of the world. In this study, we investigated whether attention to these forms of technology can be predicted by scores on the Technomorphic Tendencies Scale (TTS) (Lum et al., 2011). Participants completed the TTS and were eye tracked while viewing pictures of models wearing various types of technological devices (e.g., an eye tracker; a Bluetooth headset). Higher TTS scorers tended to have more fixations and for a shorter duration of time when compared with the lower TTS Scorers. The Technomorphic Tendencies Scale is predictive of attention directed to technology when making first impressions.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2011

ABSTRACT The mental models that participants had about the common technological device of a compu... more ABSTRACT The mental models that participants had about the common technological device of a computer were examined in 1999 and 2009. The participants were prompted with the question “What is like a computer?” in order to generate analogies that were used to access their mental models. Results indicated that more analogies were generated in 1999 rather than 2009. In addition there was a reduction in the amount of analogies generated by males. The top popular analogies produced in 1999 and 2009 were found to be different. These results suggest that the general knowledge base people have about computers has shifted in the past decade. Further, the individual differences that one has may impact their beliefs and knowledge about computers.

Weather, Climate, and Society, Sep 23, 2021

The goal of this research was to examine students’ risk perception of hurricanes and hurricane-re... more The goal of this research was to examine students’ risk perception of hurricanes and hurricane-related storms to address a critical gap in the literature. Participants were asked to rate their perceptions of a tropical storm, tropical depression, and category 1 through 5 hurricanes on five dimensions and define the storms based on wind speed. Lastly, individual differences in sex and growing up on the coast were examined to determine whether they explain differences in risk perceptions. Findings showed that participants’ perceptions of category 1 through 5 hurricanes followed a linear pattern and each pair was perceived to be significantly different. However, participants rated tropical storm and tropical depression as more severe than a category 1 hurricane and were unable to define any of the storms based on wind speed. In fact, coastal natives were less accurate at defining the storms and believed the low-tier storms to be less severe than non-coastal natives. This research is the first to show that people implicitly understand the Saffir-Simpson Scale that defines category 1 through category 5 hurricanes, but not the lesser-tiered storms. The present work demonstrates a need for enhanced education of hurricanes, as students do not make important distinctions at the lower-end of the hurricane scale.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2017

The purpose of this research was to examine how false alarm experience of weather-related emergen... more The purpose of this research was to examine how false alarm experience of weather-related emergencies affects the relationship between perceived danger and desire for warnings. Participants reported how dangerous they perceived each event to be, whether they believed warnings should be distributed, whether they had experienced the event, and whether they had experienced a false alarm of the event. Participants indicated strong agreement for the desire for weather warnings. Although the literature implies that people who have experienced many false alarms may perceive that danger as less severe in the future due to the "crywolf effect," our data suggest that people have a heightened risk perception and desire for warnings of those events. Because memories inform mental representations that guide decision-making in uncertain situations, it is imperative that future research continue to examine what people have stored in memory of false alarm experiences to settle debates in the contentious literature of false alarms and risk perception.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2016

The purpose of this study was to measure response and reaction time (RT) to call 911 for five wea... more The purpose of this study was to measure response and reaction time (RT) to call 911 for five weather emergencies in order to determine whether participants considered them “serious” enough to call for help. Past research has shown that people fail to take emergency warnings seriously, possibly due to past experience and poor risk assessment. Participants were asked if they would call 911 if they witnessed weather emergencies. Response and RT were recorded. Results showed that participants did not agree on whether to call 911, showing a 50-50 split on most decisions. Participants were fast to indicate they would call 911 for tornadoes and hurricanes. No sex differences in RTs were found, but there was some variation within each sex. Fast RTs were predicted by news exposure, suggesting that recent experience is influential on one’s mental model, processing speed, and decision-making. Future research should use professionals and emergency personnel as a comparison group to this sample of young adults and further examine reasons why people decide to call 911.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2011

ABSTRACT A plethora of research has examined video games in the context of training and violence.... more ABSTRACT A plethora of research has examined video games in the context of training and violence. However, little has been done in examining the individual differences that may exist as it relates to success or failure during game play. Few studies have focused on empirically testing usability and performance issues specifically related to sports games. In this study, a football simulation video game was used to investigate how video game experience interacts with football knowledge in explaining performance within the game. Football video game simulations are a complicated game that appears best played when the user has both knowledge of football and experience playing video games. This study has implications for the individual differences that dictate performance within games.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2017

Human-computer interfaces are changing to meet the evolving needs of users and overcome limitatio... more Human-computer interfaces are changing to meet the evolving needs of users and overcome limitations of previous generations of computer systems. The current state of computers consists largely of graphical user interfaces (GUI) that incorporate windows, icons, menus, and pointers (WIMPs) as visual representations of computer interactions controlled via user input on a mouse and keyboard. Although this model of interface has dominated human-computer interaction for decades, WIMPs require an extra step between the user's intent and the computer action, imposing both limitations on the interaction and introducing cognitive demands (van Dam, 1997). Alternatively, natural user interfaces (NUI) employ input methods such as speech, touch, and gesture commands. With NUIs, users can interact directly with the computer without using an intermediary device (e.g., mouse, keyboard). Using the body as an input device may be more "natural" because it allows the user to apply existing knowledge of how to interact with the world (Roupé, Bosch-Sijtsema, & Johansson, 2014). To utilize the potential of natural interfaces, research must first determine what interactions can be considered natural. For the purpose of this paper, we focus on the naturalness of gesture-based interfaces. The purpose of this study was to determine how people perform natural gesture-based computer actions. To answer this question, we first narrowed down potential gestures that would be considered natural for an action. In a previous study, participants (n=17) were asked how they would gesture to interact with a computer to complete a series of actions. After narrowing down the potential natural gestures by calculating the most frequently performed gestures for each action, we asked participants (n=188) to rate the naturalness of the gestures in the current study. Participants each watched 26 videos of gestures (3-5 seconds each) and were asked how natural or arbitrary they interpreted each gesture for the series of computer commands (e.g., move object left, shrink object, select object, etc.). The gestures in these videos included the 17 gestures that were most often performed in the previous study in which participants were asked what gesture they would naturally use to complete the computer actions. Nine gestures were also included that were created arbitrarily to act as a comparison to the natural gestures. By analyzing the ratings on a continuum from "Completely Arbitrary" to "Completely Natural," we found that the natural gestures people produced in the first study were also interpreted as the intended action by this separate sample of participants. All the gestures that were rated as either "Mostly Natural" or "Completely Natural" by participants corresponded to how the object manipulation would be performed physically. For example, the gesture video that depicts a fist closing was rated as "natural" by participants for the action of "selecting an object." All of the gestures that were created

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2015

The goal of this research was to examine individuals’ proximity, gender, and memories about a spe... more The goal of this research was to examine individuals’ proximity, gender, and memories about a specific situation in which emergency alerts were distributed. Students, faculty, and alumni were surveyed online one week after an averted campus shooting and again nine months later. Overall, this research suggests that closer living proximity to campus positively influences subscription to the emergency alert system and that women are more interested in safety than men. Data suggest that participants’ memory of their emotional reaction to the event and their memory of perceiving the alerts as serious warnings stayed approximately the same. Responses immediately after the crisis indicated that people were significantly more confident in their memory and remember feeling more worry over not receiving a warning than did the responses nine months later. The uniqueness of the situation may have influenced the lack of memory inaccuracies, due to the reduced negativity and affect towards the situation.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2011

ABSTRACT While traditionally researchers have focused on making robotics more user-friendly from ... more ABSTRACT While traditionally researchers have focused on making robotics more user-friendly from a human perspective, a new theory has begun to take shape in which the human makes decisions based on how a robot would. The following study examines the concept of technomorphism which is the attribution of technological features and characteristics to humans. Because there is very little empirical or theoretical research performed in this area, researchers set out to formally define technomorphism as well as create a scale to measure a person’s propensity to use a technomorphic schema. The findings from this work should help fuel the desire of others in the field to think about the potential influences of technomorphism during the design and implementation of new devices as well as in how we technology may influence how we perceive each other.

Ergonomics in Design, Nov 15, 2016

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Sep 1, 2016

The present study surveyed a sample of middle school students on their technology habits, with a ... more The present study surveyed a sample of middle school students on their technology habits, with a primary focus on texting behaviors. A secondary sample of college students was surveyed as a comparison group to examine individual differences in texting behaviors. Results indicate that college students text more frequently than middle schoolers; however, college students’ texting behaviors decrease in frequency as they get older, whereas middle schoolers’ texting behaviors increase in frequency. Females also generally reported texting more frequently than males. Extraversion was found to be predictive of texting in the middle school sample, but both Extraversion and Neuroticism were found to be predictive of texting in the college sample. Results are discussed in the context of previous research and with respect to human factors and developmental psychology, such that the study of technology use could offer insight into the social development of adolescents and young adults.

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Oct 1, 2007

This study further examines the issue of whether perception of automobile “faces” can be predicte... more This study further examines the issue of whether perception of automobile “faces” can be predicted based on the way in which people process human faces. Specifically, this work examined whether consumer ratings are correlated with the relative size of features on the front end of an automobile. Participants rated twenty-three cars on a variety of consumer attributes. Greater distance between headlights, like distance between human eyes, predicted positive ratings on several consumer attitudes. Results are consistent with the idea that processes used for perception of faces are involved in the attributions made for artifacts displaying minimal features.

Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

ObjectiveThe goal was to examine the effectiveness of fear language in the protective action reco... more ObjectiveThe goal was to examine the effectiveness of fear language in the protective action recommendation of an emergency warning, which instructs people how to prepare and stay safe.BackgroundPast work is limited because it has focused on describing the severity of the weather crisis, not improving the recommendation. Likewise, other research has examined fear appeals that overemphasize death, which leads to poor risk perceptions.MethodIn Experiment 1, the presence of fear language and second-person personal pronouns (i.e., “you”) in a recommendation was manipulated. Experiment 2 examined how fear language and a hurricane changing in intensity influenced risk perceptions across three decision points.ResultsExperiment 1 suggested that fear language was more influential than a pronoun on risk perceptions. Experiment 2 suggested that fear language in a protective action recommendation was most impactful in the case of a hurricane decreasing in intensity.ConclusionProtective action r...

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2016

The present study investigated several factors hypothesized to affect player performance in a rea... more The present study investigated several factors hypothesized to affect player performance in a real-time strategy computer game, StarCraft II (SC2). User preferences for certain game settings (e.g., custom hotkey shortcuts) and peripheral equipment (e.g., gaming keyboards, laser mice) were surveyed along with usability perceptions and individual differences. In addition to these self-reports, participants uploaded replays of their perceived strongest SC2 games, offering a snapshot of players’ in-game behavioral data. Results indicated that perceived usability problems and higher neuroticism were linked to poorer performance, but multitasking tendencies and custom hotkeys were predictive of greater performance. Gaming keyboards were related to performance, although a performance benefit is inconclusive. Implications for individual differences, ergonomics, and usability are discussed.