The Effect of Simulated Threat on Task Performance during Emotion Recognition

Tibor Bosse, Koen Schnitfink

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Being able to de-escalate aggressive behavior during face-to-face interactions is an important skill for employees in a variety of domains. To do this effectively, employees should learn to recognize the emotional state of their conversation partner. However, this task can be seriously hindered by the stress triggered by the aggressive encounter. To gain more insight in the impact of threat on task performance during emotion recognition, 30 participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task using pictures of virtual characters. Each participant performed the task two times, once under normal circumstances, and once in a ‘stress’ condition in which threatening stimuli were presented whenever a wrong answer was given. Additionally, all 30 participants performed a second, mathematical task, also under a normal and a ‘stress’ condition. Counterbalancing was used to control for order effects. The results indicate that there was a negative impact of the (simulated) threat on performance in the emotion recognition task, but not in the mathematical task. In follow-up research, these results will be used to develop an adaptive serious game for public service workers, with which they can train their aggression deescalation skills in a personalized manner.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEngineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics - 12th International Conference, EPCE 2015 Held as Part of HCI International 2015, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer/Verlag
Pages107-116
Number of pages10
Volume9174
ISBN (Print)9783319203720
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Event12th International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics (EPCE 2015), Held as Part of 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI International 2015) - Los Angeles, United States
Duration: 2 Aug 20157 Aug 2015

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume9174
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference12th International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics (EPCE 2015), Held as Part of 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI International 2015)
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLos Angeles
Period2/08/157/08/15

Bibliographical note

Proceedings title: Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI'15.
Publisher: Springer Verlag
Editors: D. Harris

Keywords

  • Emotion recognition
  • Task performance
  • Threatening stimuli

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Effect of Simulated Threat on Task Performance during Emotion Recognition'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this