The effect of tele-assistance on task performance of people undertaking a collaborative task

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2012
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Abstract
For a collaborative task to be effective, it must allow a wide range of people to interact in a seamless manner. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) present ways for people to work collaboratively on a task. Research in CVEs has indicated that communication, awareness, and presence are factors that affect the task performance of people involved in a collaborative task. Although researchers have studied the effect of these three factors on performance, they have never identified the interaction strategies used by people involved in a collaborative task. Thus, the research in this thesis has taken an interest in investigating how different interaction strategies affect the task performance of people involved in a collaborative task. To undertake this investigation, the research in this thesis created a CVE that imitates the functionality of the ventral and dorsal streams of the human visual system found in the brain; as neuroscientists discovered that these two streams perform complementary functions, and yet able to interact efficiently. In particular, neuroscientists have proposed that these streams use an interaction strategy called tele-assistance. As a result, this investigation, comprised of three experiments, observed different levels of tele-assistance and tele-operation; and their effect on the task performance of people undertaking a collaborative task. Specifically, tele-assistance allowed people to perform the task using fewer steps and lesser workload than tele­operation. This suggests that tele-assistance can be used as an interaction strategy to allow people to complete a collaborative task efficiently; similar to the ventral and dorsal streams working together in a seamless manner. This finding implies that CVE designers could incorporate tele-assistance as an interaction strategy in facilitating collaboration between people.
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Bibliography: p. 155-161
Some pages are in colour.
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Lo, K. (2012). The effect of tele-assistance on task performance of people undertaking a collaborative task (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4957
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