Can auditory deviant stimuli temporarily suspend cognitive processing? Evidence from patients with anxiety

While anxiety is typically thought to increase distractibility, this notion mostly derives from studies using emotionally loaded distractors presented in the same modality as the target stimuli and tasks involving crosstalk interference. We examined whether pathological anxiety might also increase distractibility for emotionally neutral irrelevant sounds presented prior to target stimuli in a task where these stimuli do not compete for selection. Patients with anxiety and control participants categorized visual digits preceded by task-irrelevant sounds that changed on rare trials (auditory deviance). Both groups exhibited an equivalent increase in response times following a deviant sound but patients showed a reduction of response accuracy, which was entirely due to an increase in response omissions. We conclude that the involuntary capture of attention by unexpected stimuli may, in patients with anxiety, result in a temporary suspension of cognitive activity.     

Création et validation d’une version française du questionnaire AttrakDiff pour l’évaluation de l’expérience utilisateur des systèmes interactifs

IntroductionWhile user experience (UX) evaluation is a core concern within the field of human–computer interaction (HCI), there is currently no valid self-administered UX evaluation tool in French. The AttrakDiff 2 scale (Hassenzahl, Burmester, & Koller, 2003) is a UX evaluation tool, which relies on a theoretical model distinguishing pragmatic and hedonic qualities of interactive systems.ObjectiveThis paper describes the translation and validation of the French version of the AttrakDiff 2 scale in order to ease UX assessment in French-speaking users.MethodFollowing the cross-cultural methodology developed by Vallerand (1989), the questionnaire was translated by trilingual researchers before being back-translated and validated by a panel of experts. A pre-test was conducted on 26 participants. The characteristics of the French version of the AttrakDiff 2 scale were then evaluated through a quantitative online study involving a sample of 381 users.ResultsThe results confirm the expected 3 factors structure and a good internal consistency of each subscale. The links between factors are consistent with Hassenzahl's theoretical model (2003) where pragmatic and hedonic perceived attributes combine to form a judgment of attractiveness.ConclusionThe current French version of the AttrakDiff 2 scale is globally reliable with regards to the initial German version and presents satisfactory levels of validity and reliability.