The Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Human Computer Interaction Parameters: Linear or Non-linear?

During a survey based study, it has been revealed that psychological distress is reflected in the way computer users interact with computers. Based on the feedback of the subjects, the types of stress-reflector interactions were also identified. However, the specific interactions related to the stress, the nature of the relationship between the identified ‘stress-reflectors’ and the actual level of psychological distress was yet to be investigated. Accordingly, the initial survey was then followed by a series of activities with the objective of uncovering the nature of the relationship exists between the two. Initially, the most frequented interaction behaviors of computer users under stress were identified. Secondly these behaviors were recorded using a background analyzer together with a simultaneous measure of the distress level of the relevant computer user. Finally, behavior measures of individuals were mapped with their personal distress scores, producing the dataset using which the nature of correlations were explored. This paper presents the work carried out during this exploration, keeping the initial focus on linear methods, and provides justifications for the claim: The relationship between the distress score and the human computer interaction parameters is non-linear.