Neuroergonomic Assessment of Hot Beverage Preparation and Consumption: An EEG and EDA Study

Abstract

Neuroergonomics is an emerging field that investigates the human brain about behavioral performance in natural environments and everyday settings. This study investigated the body and brain activity correlates of a typical daily activity, hot beverage preparation, and consumption in a realistic office environment where participants performed natural daily tasks. Using wearable, battery operated and wireless Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors, neural and physiological responses were measured in untethered, freely moving participants who prepared hot beverages using two different machines (a market leader and follower as determined by annual US sales). They later consumed the drinks they had prepared in three blocks. Emotional valence was estimated using frontal asymmetry in EEG alpha band power and emotional arousal was estimated from EDA tonic and phasic activity. Results from 26 participants showed that the market-leading coffee machine was more efficient to use based on self-reports, behavioral performance measures, and there were significant within-subject differences in valence between the two machine use. Moreover, the market leader user interface led to greater self-reported product preference, which was further supported by significant differences in measured arousal and valence (EDA and EEG, respectively) during coffee production and consumption. This is the first study that uses a multimodal and comprehensive assessment of coffee machine use and beverage consumption in a naturalistic work environment. Approaches described in this study can be adapted in the future to other task-specific machine usability and consumer neuroscience studies.

A Review on the Role of Affective Stimuli in Event-Related Frontal Alpha Asymmetry

“…In addition, the private label compared to major brand also showed higher approach in the visual and tactile exploration phases. Similarly, Sargent et al (2020) compared two machines to prepare hot beverages, one from a market leader and the other from a follower machine in an office setting (n = 26). It was shown that the market leader machine's user interface was preferred, indicated by self-reports and supported by significant valence measured by frontal alpha asymmetry and arousal extracted from electrodermal activity measures.…”

“…Sargent et al (2020) Two machines to prepare hot beverage. 26 participants (14 females) ++Brouwer et al (2017) Cooking and tasting chicken or mealworms stir-fry dishes.41 participants (19 female) ++ + Olszewska-Guizzo et al (2020) Six landscape scenes (urban green and urban downtown).…”

Neuroergonomics on the Go: An Evaluation of the Potential of Mobile EEG for Workplace Assessment and Design

“…Beside these basic cognitive aspects of work, another group of studies addressed the question of user experience in cognitive neuroergonomics. They deal with economic decisions or more generally with consumer behavior ( Khushaba et al, 2013 ; Muñoz et al., 2019 ; Roberts et al, 2018 ), user interaction ( Sargent et al, 2020 ), or user satisfaction ( Keum et al, 2018 ). On a more macroscopic level, several studies dealt with spatial cognition and sensation in real-life situations in urban environments ( Al-Barrak et al, 2017 ; Djebbara et al, 2019 ; Mavros et al, 2016 ) or while walking through an art museum ( Cruz-Garza et al, 2017 ).…”

Neuroergonomics on the go. A preview of the potential of mobile EEG for work-place evaluation and design

“…Beside these basic cognitive aspects of work, another group of studies addressed the question of user experience in cognitive neuroergonomics. They deal with economic decisions or more generally with consumer behavior (Khushaba et al, 2013;Munoz, Gallego, Salazar, & Rodriguez, 2019;Roberts et al, 2018), user interaction (Sargent, Watson, Ye, Suri, & Ayaz, 2020) or user satisfaction (Keum, Lee, Lee, & In, 2018). On a more macroscopic level, several studies dealt with spatial cognition and sensation in real life situations in urban environments (Al-Barrak, Kanjo, & Younis, 2017;Djebbara, Fich, Petrini, & Gramann, 2019;Mavros, Austwick, & Smith, 2016) or while walking through an art museum (Cruz-Garza et al, 2017).…”

“…This is crucial for situations that could entail hazardous results in case a system user is not able to respond to situational requirements due to maladjusted states of arousal or affect, as for example during driving (Thirunavukkarasu, Abdi, & Mohajer, 2016). It is also possible to improve usability evaluations using EEG emotion classification during the interaction with everyday utensils (Sargent et al, 2020).…”