2.2.3. Conclusions

During the post-trial debrief interviews, participants were asked what cued them to pick up the jug. In the lights case, 64% said the handle rising, 18% said the lights on the jug and 18% said the "pick me up" sound. This is in contrast with the no lights case where 90% said the handle rising and 10% said the sound cued to pick up the jug. Participants preferred the "pour me" (69%) sound than the water pouring sound (31%) as a cue to begin pouring. This was because the "pour me" is a clear instruction, whereas the water pouring was unclear. Participants preferred the water pouring sound to be after the "pour me" sound whilst they were pouring. Participants said that the water pouring sound made the experiment more realistic and indicated when they should stop pouring. When the sound stopped, all participants stopped pouring.

When the cup lit up, some participants would wait for the sound before pouring, thus the light is not strong enough as a cue to perform an action, but highlights which object the action should be performed with. Similarly, the lights did not have any effect on the number of attempts needed before the "pick me up" voice was no longer required. Without the lights, participants still picked up the jug as the animation and sound were strong cues. When participants were asked, what cued them to pick up the jug, there was less variation in the responses in the no lights case as there were fewer cues.

Change in the intensity of lights does not prompt an action. The presence of the light cued an action (as seen on the spoon and cups), but changing the brightness did not. Participants stated that when the green light appeared, it meant that an action had to be performed with the object, and they were looking for the simplest possible action. Participants also recognised that the red light meant stop pouring or do not use.

Baseline performance was also recorded. In these trials, participants were asked to complete the pick up and pour actions without waiting for cues. We found that, with the cues, Participants never reached their fastest performance when pouring. In the fastest performance, participants had a clear plan of action with clear instructions. But when cued, participants were waiting for the correct cup to light up before pouring, so there was a clear instruction and introduced a level of uncertainty. This confirms the theory that the action currently being performed is in anticipation of the next action; if the next action is unknown, then participants must wait. Another explanation is that participants were being provided with redundant information.
