A decade of international research experience in the field of UX/HMI. Specialties: user behavior analysis using both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a focus on eye tracking
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
This article proposes a method based on wavelet transform and neural networks for relating pupill... more This article proposes a method based on wavelet transform and neural networks for relating pupillary behavior to psychological stress. The proposed method was tested by recording pupil diameter and electrodermal activity during a simulated driving task. Self-report measures were also collected. Participants performed a baseline run with the driving task only, followed by three stress runs where they were required to perform the driving task along with sound alerts, the presence of two human evaluators, and both. Self-reports and pupil diameter successfully indexed stress manipulation, and significant correlations were found between these measures. However, electrodermal activity did not vary accordingly. After training, the four-way parallel neural network classifier could guess whether a given unknown pupil diameter signal came from one of the four experimental trials with 79.2% precision. The present study shows that pupil diameter signal has good discriminating power for stress d...
ABSTRACT In the era of small screens, traditional reading (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is ... more ABSTRACT In the era of small screens, traditional reading (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is called into question and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) represents one of the main alternatives. RSVP consists of displaying in sequential order one or more words at a time, thus minimizing saccades and eye blinks. Recently, a RSVP application has received a lot of media attention: it is the case of Spritz. According to Spritz’s developers, the elimination of saccades should reduce visual fatigue and improve comprehension. In this study, we had people read on a computer screen a selected part of a book either with Spritz or in the traditional way. Results seem to contradict these claims. The fact that Spritz suppresses parafoveal processing and regressions (i.e. rereadings of words) negatively affected literal comprehension. Furthermore, the important reduction of eye blinks observed for Spritz might contribute to the increase of visual fatigue.
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2011
The use of standardized methods in driver distraction research is essential for comparing results... more The use of standardized methods in driver distraction research is essential for comparing results across studies. This work examined the effects of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) usage on eye blinks in a simulated Lane Change Test (LCT), a simple driving task specifically designed by the International Organization for Standardization. Fifteen participants performed the LCT in a driving simulator in both
ABSTRACT We investigated the conjoint effect of screen luminance and ambient illuminance on visua... more ABSTRACT We investigated the conjoint effect of screen luminance and ambient illuminance on visual fatigue and arousal during prolonged digital reading (one hour) by means of a multidimensional approach based on eye, performance and subjective measures. Two levels of screen luminance (low, high) and two levels of ambient illuminance (low, high) were tested in a 2x2 between-subjects design in which participants were arbitrarily allocated to four groups, one for each combined level of luminance and illuminance. Results showed that reading under high levels of screen luminance increases visual fatigue, as reflected by a decrease of eye blinks. Concerning arousal, exposure to higher levels of either luminance or illuminance increased alertness and performance. Faster saccades, increased reading speed and less microsaccades were found under high screen luminance. Less regressive saccades and shorter reaction times were observed under high ambient illuminance. However, the reason why some of these measures are sensitive to screen luminance while other to ambient illuminance remains unknown. These findings might have practical implications for the implementation of adaptive brightness solutions and for the online detection of both visual fatigue and arousal levels during digital reading.,
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2013
ABSTRACT With the aim of studying attentional leftward bias in a driving context, we combined rec... more ABSTRACT With the aim of studying attentional leftward bias in a driving context, we combined recording of gaze behaviour with a simulated driving task (Lane Change Test – LCT) in spatial symmetry conditions. The LCT requires driving along a straight traffic-free three-lane road, changing lanes according to the information provided by two identical road signs displayed concurrently on both left and right sides of the road. Participants directed most of their attention to the left-hand signs. The prevalent visuospatial nature of the driving task – which is supposed to mostly activate the right cerebral hemisphere – could have caused a contralateral attention shift. The introduction of a secondary task – performed with the right hand, concurrently with the LCT – attenuated the leftward bias.
Visual perception takes place during fixations, with saccadic suppression interrupting it during ... more Visual perception takes place during fixations, with saccadic suppression interrupting it during saccades roughly three times per second (Zuber & Stark, 1966; Matin, 1974; Bridgeman, Hendry, & Stark, 1975; Irwin, 1992). During fixations, residual eye movements can be ...
Neuromarketing is an interdisciplinary research field that brings together neuroscientific method... more Neuromarketing is an interdisciplinary research field that brings together neuroscientific methods and marketing research [1,2]. It focuses the attention on the application of neuroscientific insights, methods and technological solutions into the field of marketing, behavioral economics and consumer psychology, leading to a new academic discipline also known as “consumer neuroscience” [3,4]. Neuroscientific research takes advantage of brain imaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal and understand brain mechanisms. Neuromarketing emphasizes how some of these techniques might be proficiently used to study consumer experience, with the goal to understand how emotional and cognitive reactions can affect purchase intention and preference. Although the scientific debate about implications and understanding of brain processes involved in consumer experience elicited by products and services is still open, pioneering studies show how the possibility to investigate this experience by means of neuroscientific methods is a promising field enabling to improve the design of products and services [5]. In this vision, the present research project presents additional empirical evidence supporting the possibility to further develop the application of neuroscientific techniques based on EEG synchronized with portable eye-tracking and galvanic skin responses while subjects are exposed to a shopping experience “in vivo”, in a real shop, where real products, in this case sport shoes, are exposed to real clients. Preliminary results show how portable solutions enable to measure consumers emotional reactions by means of empirical methods while people are exposed to storefront displays, and how this kind of data can be combined with traditional ones based on self-reports and interviews according to Anthropological Marketing perspective [6], leading to the exploration of new insights about consumers’ reactions.
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
This article proposes a method based on wavelet transform and neural networks for relating pupill... more This article proposes a method based on wavelet transform and neural networks for relating pupillary behavior to psychological stress. The proposed method was tested by recording pupil diameter and electrodermal activity during a simulated driving task. Self-report measures were also collected. Participants performed a baseline run with the driving task only, followed by three stress runs where they were required to perform the driving task along with sound alerts, the presence of two human evaluators, and both. Self-reports and pupil diameter successfully indexed stress manipulation, and significant correlations were found between these measures. However, electrodermal activity did not vary accordingly. After training, the four-way parallel neural network classifier could guess whether a given unknown pupil diameter signal came from one of the four experimental trials with 79.2% precision. The present study shows that pupil diameter signal has good discriminating power for stress d...
ABSTRACT In the era of small screens, traditional reading (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is ... more ABSTRACT In the era of small screens, traditional reading (i.e. left-to-right, top-to-bottom) is called into question and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) represents one of the main alternatives. RSVP consists of displaying in sequential order one or more words at a time, thus minimizing saccades and eye blinks. Recently, a RSVP application has received a lot of media attention: it is the case of Spritz. According to Spritz’s developers, the elimination of saccades should reduce visual fatigue and improve comprehension. In this study, we had people read on a computer screen a selected part of a book either with Spritz or in the traditional way. Results seem to contradict these claims. The fact that Spritz suppresses parafoveal processing and regressions (i.e. rereadings of words) negatively affected literal comprehension. Furthermore, the important reduction of eye blinks observed for Spritz might contribute to the increase of visual fatigue.
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2011
The use of standardized methods in driver distraction research is essential for comparing results... more The use of standardized methods in driver distraction research is essential for comparing results across studies. This work examined the effects of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) usage on eye blinks in a simulated Lane Change Test (LCT), a simple driving task specifically designed by the International Organization for Standardization. Fifteen participants performed the LCT in a driving simulator in both
ABSTRACT We investigated the conjoint effect of screen luminance and ambient illuminance on visua... more ABSTRACT We investigated the conjoint effect of screen luminance and ambient illuminance on visual fatigue and arousal during prolonged digital reading (one hour) by means of a multidimensional approach based on eye, performance and subjective measures. Two levels of screen luminance (low, high) and two levels of ambient illuminance (low, high) were tested in a 2x2 between-subjects design in which participants were arbitrarily allocated to four groups, one for each combined level of luminance and illuminance. Results showed that reading under high levels of screen luminance increases visual fatigue, as reflected by a decrease of eye blinks. Concerning arousal, exposure to higher levels of either luminance or illuminance increased alertness and performance. Faster saccades, increased reading speed and less microsaccades were found under high screen luminance. Less regressive saccades and shorter reaction times were observed under high ambient illuminance. However, the reason why some of these measures are sensitive to screen luminance while other to ambient illuminance remains unknown. These findings might have practical implications for the implementation of adaptive brightness solutions and for the online detection of both visual fatigue and arousal levels during digital reading.,
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2013
ABSTRACT With the aim of studying attentional leftward bias in a driving context, we combined rec... more ABSTRACT With the aim of studying attentional leftward bias in a driving context, we combined recording of gaze behaviour with a simulated driving task (Lane Change Test – LCT) in spatial symmetry conditions. The LCT requires driving along a straight traffic-free three-lane road, changing lanes according to the information provided by two identical road signs displayed concurrently on both left and right sides of the road. Participants directed most of their attention to the left-hand signs. The prevalent visuospatial nature of the driving task – which is supposed to mostly activate the right cerebral hemisphere – could have caused a contralateral attention shift. The introduction of a secondary task – performed with the right hand, concurrently with the LCT – attenuated the leftward bias.
Visual perception takes place during fixations, with saccadic suppression interrupting it during ... more Visual perception takes place during fixations, with saccadic suppression interrupting it during saccades roughly three times per second (Zuber & Stark, 1966; Matin, 1974; Bridgeman, Hendry, & Stark, 1975; Irwin, 1992). During fixations, residual eye movements can be ...
Neuromarketing is an interdisciplinary research field that brings together neuroscientific method... more Neuromarketing is an interdisciplinary research field that brings together neuroscientific methods and marketing research [1,2]. It focuses the attention on the application of neuroscientific insights, methods and technological solutions into the field of marketing, behavioral economics and consumer psychology, leading to a new academic discipline also known as “consumer neuroscience” [3,4]. Neuroscientific research takes advantage of brain imaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal and understand brain mechanisms. Neuromarketing emphasizes how some of these techniques might be proficiently used to study consumer experience, with the goal to understand how emotional and cognitive reactions can affect purchase intention and preference. Although the scientific debate about implications and understanding of brain processes involved in consumer experience elicited by products and services is still open, pioneering studies show how the possibility to investigate this experience by means of neuroscientific methods is a promising field enabling to improve the design of products and services [5]. In this vision, the present research project presents additional empirical evidence supporting the possibility to further develop the application of neuroscientific techniques based on EEG synchronized with portable eye-tracking and galvanic skin responses while subjects are exposed to a shopping experience “in vivo”, in a real shop, where real products, in this case sport shoes, are exposed to real clients. Preliminary results show how portable solutions enable to measure consumers emotional reactions by means of empirical methods while people are exposed to storefront displays, and how this kind of data can be combined with traditional ones based on self-reports and interviews according to Anthropological Marketing perspective [6], leading to the exploration of new insights about consumers’ reactions.
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Papers by Simone Benedetto
techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and
electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal and understand brain mechanisms. Neuromarketing emphasizes how
some of these techniques might be proficiently used to study consumer experience, with the goal to understand
how emotional and cognitive reactions can affect purchase intention and preference. Although the scientific debate about implications and understanding of brain processes involved in consumer experience elicited by products and services is still open, pioneering studies show how the possibility to investigate this experience by means of
neuroscientific methods is a promising field enabling to improve the design of products and services [5]. In this
vision, the present research project presents additional empirical evidence supporting the possibility to further
develop the application of neuroscientific techniques based on EEG synchronized with portable eye-tracking and galvanic skin responses while subjects are exposed to a shopping experience “in vivo”, in a real shop, where real products, in this case sport shoes, are exposed to real clients. Preliminary results show how portable solutions enable to measure consumers emotional reactions by means of empirical methods while people are exposed to storefront displays, and how this kind of data can be combined with traditional ones based on self-reports and interviews according to Anthropological Marketing perspective [6], leading to the exploration of new insights
about consumers’ reactions.
techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and
electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal and understand brain mechanisms. Neuromarketing emphasizes how
some of these techniques might be proficiently used to study consumer experience, with the goal to understand
how emotional and cognitive reactions can affect purchase intention and preference. Although the scientific debate about implications and understanding of brain processes involved in consumer experience elicited by products and services is still open, pioneering studies show how the possibility to investigate this experience by means of
neuroscientific methods is a promising field enabling to improve the design of products and services [5]. In this
vision, the present research project presents additional empirical evidence supporting the possibility to further
develop the application of neuroscientific techniques based on EEG synchronized with portable eye-tracking and galvanic skin responses while subjects are exposed to a shopping experience “in vivo”, in a real shop, where real products, in this case sport shoes, are exposed to real clients. Preliminary results show how portable solutions enable to measure consumers emotional reactions by means of empirical methods while people are exposed to storefront displays, and how this kind of data can be combined with traditional ones based on self-reports and interviews according to Anthropological Marketing perspective [6], leading to the exploration of new insights
about consumers’ reactions.