1. Affect and Human-Computer Interaction
IS 588
Spring 2007
Week 4
Dr. Dania Bilal
Dr. Lorraine Normore

2. What is Affect? The type and degree of emotion a person displays
The experienced, subjective, and conscious aspect of feeling or emotion
Positive
Negative
Neutral

3. Affect Theory Developed by Silvan S. Tomkins in 1962
Tomkins believed that the affect system is the motivating force in human life.
Organized affect into 3 main categories:
Positive, negative, and neutral
Total of nine affects (see Affect Class Exercise)

4. The Nine Affects
“Can be used as a blueprint for optimal mental health” (Tomkins, 1962)
Maximize positive affect and minimize negative affect
Students: In what other daily life or practice can these affects be applied?

5. Computer Interaction Today’s use of computers has become the norm
Most interface design is not user-centered
No matter how hard researchers perfect computers and interface design, frustration can happen during the interaction (Picard, 1999).

6. User Frustration See Text, p. 147.
Reducing user frustration and other negative affect:
Design interfaces that support user positive behavior
Students to give suggestions

7. Affective Computing Coined by Rosalind Picard
Founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab.
Book, Affective Computing (1997) lays the groundwork for giving machines the skills of emotional intelligence.

8. Picard’s Research
Develop “new technologies and theories that advance basic understanding of affect and its role in human experience.”
“Aim to restore a proper balance between emotion and cognition in the design of technologies for addressing human needs” (

9. Affective Computing Projects
Agents
Robots
Wearable devices, toys, mirrors, etc.

10. Coping Skills Balance of cognition and emotion
Ability to know what you’re feeling (e.g., frustrated, worried), to rise above it and handle the situation productively.
Need meta-affective skills
Project: MIT Fostering Affect Awareness and Regulation in Learning

11. Emotional Intelligence (EI)
IQ is not the only indicator of intelligence (Emotional Intelligence book by Daniel Goleman, 1995)
EI: Awareness and ability to manage one’s emotions in a healthy manner.
EI: Ability to sense, perceive, understand, and assess own and other people’s emotions