par Debue, Nicolas ;Van De Leemput, Cécile ;Pradhan, Anish PA;Atkinson, Robert
Référence Lecture notes in computer science, 10906, page (1-16)
Publication Publié, 2018-04-01
Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : This study compares the use of a laptop versus a touch-screen PC to perform web-based information search tasks. Thirty-six participants took part in a lab-based experiment. They were asked to use either a laptop or a touch-screen PC to seek information on the web and retrieve relevant pieces of information while their sessions were recorded. Cognitive load was measured through eyerelated data and cortical activity (EEG) along with a self-reported scale. Main results indicated that participants who used the laptop outperformed those who used the touch-screen PC, with more relevant webpages bookmarked (F = 9.678, p = .004) and more relevant elements retrieved (F = 6.302, p = .018). Participants with the touch-screen PC also spent more time on each webpage than their counterparts (F = 9.2141, p = .005). These results suggest that using the touch-screen PC required more mental effort, which is supported by cognitive load measurements. Linear mixed-model analyses showed significant differences across devices in both pupil size variation (F = 3.692, p = .05) and EEG-based cognitive load index (F = 5.181, p = .028). This study raises issues about whether touchscreen computers are suited for every computing needs.