Relationships between physiological signals and stress levels in the case of automated technology failure

Abstract

Although successful automation can bring abundance to people’s lives, the prolonged use of unreliable automation causes negative impacts on users. This study aims to examine how prolonged use of an unreliable auto-proofreading system affects users’ trust levels and physiological responses. Nineteen native English speakers participated in tasks that correct grammatical errors in each of the 20 sentences in reliable and unreliable proofreading conditions. During the tasks, the participants’ electrodermal activities (EDA) were recorded and their perceived trust in the proofreading system was evaluated. As the unreliable auto-proofreading system worked improperly, perceived trust decreased gradually, and a noticeably increasing pattern of EDA signals was observed. In contrast, perceived trust increased gradually, and a stable or a decreasing pattern of EDA signals were observed in the reliable auto-proofreading system. Prolonged use of an unreliable system results in aggravating anxiety, causing an increase in distrust and EDA signals. The findings of this study provide empirical data that can be used for designing a fail-safe feature of automation by minimizing a user’s anxiety level.