The interactions of wearable computers and cognitive processes: Can cognitive theory help wearables improve human performance and mitigate device distraction?

Abstract

The prevalence of smart devices and wearable computers is steadily increasing (IDC, 2014a; 2014b). Despite this, there is little research on the interaction of these devices and cognitive processes such as attention, perception, and working memory. In particular, head-mounted computers known as smart eyewear have the potential to both greatly improve and greatly harm their users’ cognitive processes by taking on difficult tasks or presenting distracting information, respectively. We conducted three experiments that investigate these potential interactions by simulating smart eyewear in a simple 3D virtual environment. Our primary focus was determining if presenting different types of information with different timing schedules would improve or harm participants’ performance during visual search and basic navigation tasks. We found that facilitating information often improved performance in both tasks, distracting information often harmed performance, and mixed information resulted in differing effects across tasks. Presentation timing also mediated these effects in visual search tasks, but did not affect navigation tasks. These findings provide a foundation for research into the manners in which wearable computers can affect the way humans process information in various situations.