Site Visit to ICT

As part of our last face to face session we visited the Institute of Creative Technologies (ICT) http://www.ict.usc.edu/ . ICT creates simulations that are used for learning.

"Humans remember more if they have an emotional response" (http://www.ict.usc.edu/content/view/62/118 ) . They have a way of monitoring participant's emotional responses to the simulations through monitoring physiological responses. The evaluation system they have developed is called SEE (Sensory Environments Evaluation). "Analysis of data to date has shown that high arousal states in the virtual environment equate to increased retention, and that participants with high first person shooter (FPS) game skills may need enhanced stimulation to achieve the same amount of arousal/retention as non-FPS game players" (http://www.ict.usc.edu/content/view/62/118 ) . Some of the ways they measure this is through participant's heart rate and skin conductance response (SCR). See an example of SCR report at http://projects.ict.usc.edu/see/ under the Bio Feedback link.

When we visited the simulation lab, there were devices that had the ability to track eye movements and cameras that recorded head movements as we were watching the simulation.