text: Human errors in performing security-critical tasks are typically blamed on the complexity of those tasks. However, such errors can also occur because of (possibly unexpected) sensory distractions. A sensory distraction that produces negative effects can be abused by the adversary that controls the environment. Meanwhile, a distraction with positive effects can be artificially introduced to improve user performance. The goal of this work is to explore the effects of visual stimuli on the performance of security-critical tasks. To this end, we experimented with a large number of subjects who were exposed to a range of unexpected visual stimuli while attempting to perform Bluetooth Pairing. Our results clearly demonstrate substantially increased task completion times and markedly lower task success rates. These negative effects are noteworthy, especially, when contrasted with prior results on audio distractions which had positive effects on performance of similar tasks. Experiments were conducted in a novel (fully automated and completely unattended) experimental environment. This yielded more uniform experiments, better scalability and significantly lower financial and logistical burdens. We discuss this experience, including benefits and limitations of the unattended automated experiment paradigm.
  @cite_0: 
  @cite_5: Social traps are examples of social dilemma situations, where an individual acts for personal advantage that is damaging the group as a whole. Traps can be avoided, nevertheless, by the proper cooperation between the group members. A laboratory analog of social traps was implemented by Brechner in the 1970's. We built a a Second Life analog for Brechner's experiment to explore social traps and how coordination takes place in a 3D virtual world. While some of the groups that were not allowed to communicate succeeded in avoiding the trap, communication had a significant effect on how the participants regulated their resource. We observed very similar response patterns compared to the original experiment. That, in turn, shows a great potential for using virtual worlds as collaborative tools. We also analyzed the social traps experiment using game theory and the results of the experiments match the game theory predictions.
  @cite_4: The Internet can be an effective medium for the posting, exchange, and collection of information in psychology-related research and data. The relative ease and inexpensiveness of creating and maintaining Web-based applications, associated with the simplicity of use via the graphic-user interface format of form-based surveys, can establish a new research frontier for the social and behavioral sciences. To explore the possible use of Internet tools in psychological research, this study compared Web-based assessment techniques with traditional paper-based methods of different measures of Internet attitudes and behaviors in an Italian sample. The collected data were analyzed to identify both differences between the two samples and in the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaires. Even if we found significant differences between the two samples in the Internet attitudes and behaviors, no relevant differences were found in the psychometric properties of the different questionnaires. This result, simila...
summary: However, some prior work reinforces validity of virtually-attended remote experiments and unattended online surveys, in contrast with same efforts in a traditional lab-based setting. @cite_0 collected psychometric data in: (1) a physically attended experimental lab setting and (2) its virtually attended remote counterpart. No significant differences were found. This is further reinforced by @cite_4 who compared data collected from (1) unattended online, and (2) attended offline, questionnaires. Finally, Lazem and Gracanin @cite_5 replicated two classical social psychology experiments where both the participants and the experimenter were represented by avatars in Second Life See secondlife.com , instead of being physically co-present. Here too, no significant differences were observed.