20.330 speed matters, but who says?

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 20, No. 330.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
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         Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:14:28 +0000
         From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
         Subject: speed matters?

Dear colleagues,

Years ago I read a psychometric study of how people use computing
systems as a function of the time between a user-initiated action and
the system's response. The conclusion of the study was that if more
than ca 1.5 seconds elapsed, the delay would begin to affect what the
user then did. For example, this study suggested, if I put a query to
a system and more than the threshold delay occurs, then I will begin
to censor subsequent queries based on some assessment or other that I
make of the probability of a useful response. The conclusion seems
quite plausible. Consider, for example, unavoidable delays in
conversation between saying something and getting a response. Spontaneity goes.

My question is, can anyone here give me a reference to this or any
similar study?

Many thanks.

Yours,
WM

Dr Willard McCarty | Reader in Humanities Computing | Centre for
Computing in the Humanities | King's College London | Kay House, 7
Arundel Street | London WC2R 3DX | U.K. | +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax:
-2980 || willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
Received on Wed Nov 29 2006 - 01:51:23 EST