Approaches Based on Physiological Measurements

Abstract

Physiological measures assess how the body functions. They may be simple, e.g., measuring body temperature with a thermometer, or more complicated, e.g., measuring heart function using an electrocardiograph [8]. Physiological measures of interest to us are those related to cognitive or affective states that can be captured by sensors, cameras, or software. These include measures gathered through:

• Eye tracking, where measures such as pupil dilation and fixation have been used as indicators of task difficulty, attention, fatigue, mental activity, and intense emotion;

• Mouse pressure, which has been associated with stress, or certainty of response; and

• Biosensors, including temperature (used to assess negative affect and relaxation), electrodermal activity (associated with arousal), blood flow (used as an indicator of stress and emotion intensity); and muscle movement or facial expression (associated with emotional response and attention).