Mere Presence and PowerPoint: Examining Social Facilitation and Software

By: Will Osnato and Matt Worley

Robinson-Stavely & Cooper, 1990

Examined the social context effects of computing

Used the simplest meaning of public context, or the mere presence of others

(Robinson-Stavely & Cooper, 1990)

Princeton University men and women participated in a study to play with “Zork” , an adventure game. They were instructed to make the most progress that they possibly could in 20 minutesThey worked in a room completely alone or in the presence of another person

Always of the same sex Who was not playing Zork (a “mere presence” condition)

Features of “Zork”, the adventure game

Male-oriented metaphors, such as -finding treasure - slaying dragons - participants in public condition made

aware that other person was neither competing nor aware of their performance

Effects of the social context

Results showed that females were just as adept as the males at Zork in the private condition

However, in the public condition the females performed significantly worse and reported more anxiety than the males

It seems that the social context facilitated the gender difference in this study

Performance scores on Zork

02468

101214161820

Men Women

AloneTogether

What about aspects of computing other than computer games?

Computer application classes in high schools often teach software instruction in large, mixed-gender groups.

Students work in open computer labs with many other students working around them

This creates a possible situation for social facilitation to cause gender differences

How can we test performance at using office software?

We constructed a task that required participants to put together a simple 6-slide PowerPoint presentation

Participants used data provided by the experiment. No data search or computation was involved, in order to strictly assess performance at the presentation organization task

Sample Data: Baseball statistics

We used baseball statistics to comprise the sample data that participants would use for the presentation

Assuming that males are more comfortable and accustomed to baseball, this would create a task with male-oriented features, similar to the male oriented “Zork” game (Robinson-Stavely & Cooper, 1990)

In addition, participants completed the experiment in public or private conditions, allowing us to evaluate if the social context would facilitate the gender effects on performance

Hypothesis

Females completing a male-oriented PowerPoint task would be just as adept at males if they were alone.

However, in the presence of other people, females’ performance would suffer and they would experience more anxiety

Independent Variables

Half of the participants completed the task in private conditions

Half of the participants completed the task in a mixed-gender group

Dependent Measures

TimeWe assumed that participants would need more time if

they felt pressured by the social context

Self-reported anxiety, confidence, etc. Pre- and post-test questionnaires evaluated how

anxious, comfortable, confident, and overwhelmed participants felt before and during the task

Methods

Participants were asked to imagine themselves as a statistician for a sports news companyTheir task would be to organize a PowerPoint presentation involving the home run statistics for 3 players on a major league baseball team over the past 4 years. Stats for 4 teams would be presented, requiring 1 slide per team. In addition, participants would include a title slide and a final slide with a general analysis. Participants knew they were being timed. They were asked to complete the task as quickly as they could, while fulfilling all aspects of the task

Methods (cont.)

Pre-test questionnaireInstructions- Participants would make 6 slides (Title Slide, 4 Team Slides, Final Slide)Team Slides would include the team name, a bar graph displaying the home run statistics, and text summarizing the general trends of the graphFinal Slide required participants to make some analytical statement or prediction based on the information from the team slidesPost-test questionnaire

Sample stat chart from instructions

Participants took information from 4 charts such as this and converted it to the bar graph format.

New York Yankees 2000 2001 2002 2003Jason Giambi 43 38 41 41Jorge Posada 28 22 20 30Bernie Williams 30 26 19 15

Some examples of presentation slides

Homerun Production, 2000-2004

New York Yankees

Boston Red Sox

Anaheim Angels

St. Louis Cardinals

New York Yankees

Jason Giambi has been the Yankees most consistent homerun hitter, averaging just over 40 homers per season.Jorge Posada slumped in 2001 and 2002, while having his best season in 4 years in 2003.Bernie Williams has hit steadily fewer homeruns over the last 4 seasons.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2000 2001 2002 2003

JasonGiambiJorgePosadaBernieWilliams

2004 Predictions

Based on the past 4 seasons, the New York Yankees should expect around 75 HRs from their top three hitters.

The Red Sox can expect their three top hitters to produce at least 80 HRs in 2004.

Anaheim’s top hitters will break 70 HRs in 2004.

The Cardinals’ top hitters will surpass 75 HRs in 2004.

Results: Females in private condition seemed to expect worse performance going in

Pre-Test average scores when subject is alone

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Howcomfortable

How anxious How confident Rate your ability Howoverwhelmed

Using PowerPoint

Rating

MalesFemales

This coincides with previous data showing that females tend to be less comfortable and more anxious when using computers.

Females in public condition also expected to perform worse than males

Results: Time measures revealed that females were just as able as males

Time to complete presentation

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

40.00

45.00

1

Subjects

Times

Males AloneFemales AloneMales in GroupFemales in Group

Females did not report more anxiety or less confidence in public condition

Post-Test average scores when subjects were not alone

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How anxiousHow confidentRate your abilityHow overwhelmed

How tense

How satisfied with importance

How would you like using in future

How confident with slide 6How anxious with slide 6

How aware of other's progress

How did their progress affect yours

How aware were others of your progress

Using PowerPoint

Rating

Males Females

Against hypothesis

We expected females in the public condition to feel more anxiety, less confidence, less ability, and more tense at the task.

In contrast, data for females and males was similar in this domain.

Any explanation why?

Females in public condition expected to perform better than those in private

Pre-Test average scores for females

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How comfortable How anxious How confident Rate your ability How overwhelmed

Using PowerPoint

Rating

Females AloneFemales in Group

It is possible that females in the public condition felt more comfortable with the task based on their own ability, rather than the experimental conditions.

Females in the public condition also responded with low ratings of belief that others were aware of their progress,

Comparison of pre-test and post-test responses in private condition

Comparision of Pre- and Post-Test answers when subjects are alone

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How anxious How confident Rate your ability How overwhelmed

Using PowerPoint

Rating

Pre-Test MalesPost-Test MalesPre-Test FemalesPost-Test Females

Comparison of pre-test and post-rest responses in public condition

Comparision of Pre- and Post-Test answers when subjects are in groups

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How anxious How confident Rate your ability How overwhelmed

Using PowerPoint

Rating

Pre-Test MalesPost-Test MalesPre-Test FemalesPost-Test Females

Implications from comparisons

In both private and public conditions, females rated themselves as less anxious, more confident, less overwhelmed, and having more ability in the post-test questionnaire.

Likely that females realized that they were as able as males. When thinking about the experiment, they realized that it wasn’t actually all that bad, and felt less anxious.

Females less confident and more anxious when making analytical prediction

Post-Test average scores when subject is alone

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How anxious How confidentRate your ability

How overwhelmed

How tense

How satisfied with importanceHow would you like using in future

How confident with slide 6How anxious with slide 6

Using PowerPoing

Rating

MalesFemales

Why are females significantly worse at this task?

Likely due to male-oriented subject of baseballFemales, having less experience with baseball statistics, felt much less confident when making predictions. Making analytical prediction based much more on experience than the rest of the presentation task.

Implications and Error Analysis

Not all hypotheses supported

Results were not significant in the predicted direction for all measures. Evidence showed that females did have more worries about the task before-hand, but any deficits in performance were not correlated with the presence of other people. Females in the public condition actually self-reported as being less anxious than those in private after the experiment. We expected females to need more time in the public condition. They did not.

Why?

Low number of participantsLeads to high standard deviations, need to run more

experiments

Subject of baseballCould confound the male/female difference in or against

the predicted direction. Also, this makes the results inapplicable to PowerPoint tasks that do not use male-oriented metaphors.

Other confounds

Typing speed of participant

Computer processing speed

Subjects using a mouse vs a touchpad on a laptop

Time as a dependent measure

Cognizance of speedSome participants may have forgotten that speed was important.

Participants in the public condition were likely to be aware of others’ progress and subsequently work faster

Interest and CreativityWe assumed that females, less familiar with baseball, would take

longer in public. In contrast, those familiar with baseball (males) could have been more interested in the presentation, gotten more creative, and made a more elaborate presentation, thus taking more time.

Interest and Creativity

Likely exerted strong effects in subjective part of experiment where participants were required to summarize each graph. Here, there existed great variability in the amount of information that subjects included.

The following 2 slides were from identical parts of the experiment, from 2 different subjects.

St. Louis Cardinals

Albert Pujols seems to be the Cardinals’ best bet for the future of their home run hitting.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2000 2002

AlbertPujols

JimEdmondsTinoMartinez

St Louis Cardinals

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2000 2001 2002 2003

Albert Pujols*Jim EdmondsTino Martinez

The St. Louis Cardinal hitters fluctuated in their performance. Each player peaked at different years during this four year period (Martinez peaked in 2001, Edmonds in 2000 and Pujols in 2003. Martinez appears to be on a general downward trend after 2001, overall Edmonds has also experienced a dip in performance over the years but he did achieve 39 hits in 2003 which was comparable to 2000, like Edmonds, Pujols appears to be doing significantly better than 2002.*Pujols did not play in 2000

Future Research

More objective measuresTasks that can be scored on content, rather than being based on

time alone

TimeIf included, there should be less variability in the complexity of

responses. Also, participants should always be aware of need to work fast

Non-biased subject matterTo evaluate if effects are due to content of information, or to actual

software itself

Obviously, more participants

ConclusionDue to the subjective nature of the experiment, it is difficult to validate our hypothesis. Generally, our experiment supports the idea that females are more anxious going into a PowerPoint task. Such anxiety can be decreased by a task that is completed successfully and relatively quickly. Further research into gender differences and software is warranted, requiring more subjects and more objective methods