Colloquium - Bradner

Dr. Bradner will present two experimental studies examining the effects of videoconferencing and application sharing on task performance. Performance on a cognitive reasoning task was recorded while subjects were observed by a confederate in three conditions: two-way video, one-way video and application sharing. Results demonstrate that performance is impaired when subjects are observed via media compared to when they are not observed. Yet, surprisingly, no significant difference in performance was found between the application sharing and the two-way video conditions. This is surprising because application sharing lacks visual feedback of an observer. This finding calls into question various media theories, such as social presence theory, that attribute a sense of presence to those media that provide visual feedback of conversational partners. These findings are used to extend social presence theory and argue that the social dimensions of collaboration need to be considered in the design and deployment of computer-mediated communication technologies for use among geographically distributed workgroups. Contributions from Dr. Bradner's other research will also be discussed. These contributions include a detailed understanding of the social context of technology use and recommendations for the design of communication technologies. She offers the concept of social affordances to conceptually bridge the gap between the social context of technology use and design rationale.

Dr. Bradner is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine in the Department of Information and Computer Science. She received her PhD in Information and Computer Science from UC Irvine where she was the recipient of the University of California Regents' Dissertation Fellowship and the Chancellor's Fellowship. She also holds an MS in Information and Computer Science from UC Irvine and a BS from UC San Diego in Cognitive Science. Dr. Bradner's research examines issues of workgroup cohesion, productivity and satisfaction arising from the interplay between collaboration technologies and social behavior. She has conducted several empirical studies of technology use at locations including IBM, Intel, Boeing Corporation, AT&T, and Sun Microsystems. She draws on her research findings to generate design recommendations and requirements specifications and also to interpret adoption outcomes of collaboration technologies. She contributes publications in the areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Dr. Bradner has served as an interface design consultant to organizations in a variety of technology sectors including advertising, procurement, entertainment, and online services.

Hosted by Kenneth Anderson.
Refreshments will be served immediately following the talk in ECOT 831.