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ABSTRACT
Successful coping with technology is relevant for mastering daily life. Based on related conceptions, we propose affinity for technology interaction (ATI), defined as the tendency to actively engage in intensive technology interaction, as a key personal resource for coping with technology. We present the 9-item ATI scale, an economical unidimensional scale that assesses ATI as an interaction style rooted in the construct need for cognition (NFC). Results of multiple studies (n > 1500) showed that the scale achieves good to excellent reliability, exhibits expected moderate to high correlations with geekism, technology enthusiasm, NFC, self-reported success in technical problem-solving and technical system learning success, and also with usage of technical systems. Further, correlations of ATI with the Big Five personality dimensions were weak at most. Based on the results, the ATI scale appears to be a promising tool for research applications such as the characterization of user diversity in system usability tests and the construction of general models of user-technology interaction.
Acknowledgments
We want to thank our student assistants Rebecca Kroack, Tina Petersen, Manuela Ritter, and Sabine Wollenberg for their support in data collection and manuscript preparation. Further, we want to thank Alexandra Cook and Daniel Corlett for performing the translation of the ATI scale and Femke Johannsen, Susan Richter, and Michael Sengpiel for proof reading.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Thomas Franke
Thomas Franke is a professor of Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics at University of Lübeck. He received his PhD in 2014 from Chemnitz University of Technology. He is particularly interested in user diversity and a resource perspective on user-technology interaction.
Christiane Attig
Christiane Attig is an engineering and cognitive psychologist at Chemnitz University of Technology, where she received her Master of Science in Psychology in 2016. Besides her current project, which focuses on user state detection in human–computer interaction, she is particularly interested in user diversity and user interaction with activity trackers.
Daniel Wessel
Daniel Wessel is a researcher at the Institute for Multimedia and Interactive Systems at University of Lübeck. His research interests include mobile media, research methods and evaluation, and especially the interaction between psychology and computer technology.