Physiological Responses to Events during Training

Abstract

Understanding the role of physiological responses within the behavioral, cognitive, and affective domains of a training intervention are an important step towards designing augmented adaptive systems that respond to the learner’s cognitive and affective states. Multiple studies have shown that specific affective states are related to learning (Craig, Graesser, Sullins, & Gholson, 2004; Graesser & D’ Mello, 2011; Kort, Reilly, & Picard, 2001). This paper explores trainees’ skin conductance responses to specific behavioral events and theorized cognitive and affective events, and their relationship to learning during a training session within the programming domain. A series of independent samples t-tests revealed that students who exhibited a skin conductance response (SCR) to the behavioral event of compile begins, as well as to affective events of displays of uncertainty, negative feedback, and minimizations of failure had significantly higher learning gain and post-test scores than students who did not exhibit a SCR to these events. These findings provide a step towards understanding the relationship between the physiological measure of skin conductance and affective experiences of the learner in the course of events during a training session, and inform the design of adaptive training and learning systems.