The research question in Psychological Informatics for Information Presentation is “How can we be controlled by presentational information in the coming constant information browsing environment, and how can we live healthier and happier lives by browsing information when we make good use of it, and to formulate its effects and make them predictable in advance”. Constant browsing is defined here as “always having an electronic display in front of you, and receiving electronic information on a continuous basis.”
Computers are deeply embedded in human society, and it is becoming increasingly common for people to live their lives while constantly receiving information from computers they wear or hold. For example, if a person wears a wearable display, he or she will be constantly viewing the screen in his or her life. In such an environment of constant screen viewing, various factors continuously influence the user’s mind and body, such as the colour of the screen, the numerical values presented and the type and shape of the objects presented.
For example, our experiments have shown that the user’s heart rate value can be controlled by the presentation of false information when constantly viewing biometric information (Ref. 1). It has also been shown that information and icons presented on a wearable display can cause an imprinting effect, attracting human attention to real-world objects associated with the information presentation (Ref. 2).
These research findings suggest that We believe that when evaluating information presentation methods, it is necessary to take into account their impact on the human mind and body, rather than simply using viewing efficiency or cognitive load as the axis of evaluation.
The central research tasks in presentational psycho-informatics are to elucidate the principles of the effects of presented information on the human mind and body, and to make it possible to predict the effects of presented information.
Specifically, we conduct the following research.
- Formulation of the relationship between various information presentation methods in wearable and mobile systems and their psychological and physical effects.
- Development of systems to support learning, sports and other activities that make positive use of the impact of the information presented.
- Development of methods for evaluating the safety of information presentation methods to ensure that humans are not negatively affected by the information presented.
- Exploration of methods to predict in advance how different ways of presenting information may affect the human body and mind.
The establishment of research in this field is essential to prevent the development of constant information presentation devices that have a negative impact on the human body and mind. We believe it is important to systematise the effects of information presentation and to promptly present reliable data to society through empirical experiments.
Ref 1: 中村憲史, 片山拓也, 寺田努, 塚本昌彦: 虚偽情報フィードバックを用いた生体情報の制御システム, インタラクション2012論文集, pp.17-24 (2012). https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110009579556