Skin conductance during remote collaborative communication under noisy, reverberant and delayed communication transmission conditions

Abstract

This study, which is part of a larger study, was designed to monitor skin conductance during remote collaborative communication. Ninety (45 men and 45 women) participants were divided into 30 teams with three members in each team. Each team built different LEGO models under three communication transmission delay conditions in the following order: No delay, 750 ms delay and 5000 ms delay. One individual served as the LEGO builder, who did not have the instruction manual. The remaining two team members provided instructions for building the models. Participants were in separate rooms and communicated via earphones. Background white noise (50 dB SPL) was introduced in the ear canals and reverberation was applied to the transmitted communication. Participants were fitted with Empatica E4 wristbands. The ANOVA revealed that the Sum of non-specific skin conductance response (NS-SCR) amplitude/minute was significantly reduced in the 5000 ms delay condition compared to the No delay and 750 ms delay conditions with a medium effect size. These results suggest that participants tend to adapt to the task yielding reduced stress in the last delay condition. Acknowledgement: Graduate students Sydney Osbarn and Melissa Reyes assisted in data collection. Sydney Osbarn also assisted in pre-processing the data.