Shared visual spaces in computer-mediated communication

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Speaker
Susan Fussell
Systems Scientist, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

When
-

Where
Wean Hall 5409

Description

Increasingly, collaborating with other people is as likely to take place over distance or time as it is face-to-face. Technologies that provide visual information to people collaborating at a distance have been available for many years. Yet, to date there has been no consensus on the effects of video on the quality of an interaction or the success of a task.

In this talk I will provide an overview of a recently funded NSF KDI project that addresses the role of shared visual spaces in remote collaborations.

In the first part of the talk I will present the theoretical framework that is guiding our work. This framework is based on the collaborative model of communication developed by Herbert H. Clark and colleagues, which focuses on how participants ground their messages—that is, the interactive process by which communicators exchange evidence that messages have been understood as intended. I consider how affordances of various media, particularly the presence or absence of a shared physical context, affect the grounding process. In the second part of the talk I will present findings on grounding in face-to-face, video, and audio-based conversations during a bicycle repair task, which suggest that participants have difficulty ensuring that messages have been understood in computer-mediated conversations. I will end with a brief description of current projects we are pursuing to further investigate how video-based systems can be designed to facilitate grounding and task performance.

Speaker's Bio

Susan Fussell has been a system scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon since 1997 working with Jane Siegel and Robert Kraut. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University in 1990. Her previous positions include member of technical staff in the Interpersonal Communications Group at Bellcore and an assistant professorship in the Psychology Department at Mississippi State University. Dr. Fussell’s research interests include face-to-face and computer-mediated communication, shared mental models in work groups, and the communication of affect and emotion. She is editor, with Roger Kreuz, of “Social and Cognitive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication” (Erlbaum, 1998).