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Pleasure and Pain: Perceptual Bias and Its Implications for Software Engineering
May/June 2002 (vol. 19 no. 3)
pp. 63-69
ASCII Text
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Sheila Guilford, Gordon Rugg, Niall Scott, "Pleasure and Pain: Perceptual Bias and Its Implications for Software Engineering," IEEE Software, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 63-69, May/June, 2002.
 
 
BibTex
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@article{ 10.1109/MS.2002.1003458,
author = {Sheila Guilford and Gordon Rugg and Niall Scott},
title = {Pleasure and Pain: Perceptual Bias and Its Implications for Software Engineering},
journal ={IEEE Software},
volume = {19},
number = {3},
issn = {0740-7459},
year = {2002},
pages = {63-69},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MS.2002.1003458},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}
 
 
RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote
x 
 
TY - MGZN
JO - IEEE Software
TI - Pleasure and Pain: Perceptual Bias and Its Implications for Software Engineering
IS - 3
SN - 0740-7459
SP63
EP69
EPD - 63-69
A1 - Sheila Guilford,
A1 - Gordon Rugg,
A1 - Niall Scott,
PY - 2002
KW - usability evaluation; judgment and decision making; perceptual bias; peak and end effect
VL - 19
JA - IEEE Software
ER -
 

This article describes a bias in human perception that has practical and ethical implications for product evaluation in general and software evaluation in particular. The bias affects a user?s recall of how pleasant or unpleasant an experience was overall; this recall is skewed by the most intense episode within the experience and by the last few minutes of the experience. As a result, a user?s recall of an experience could significantly differ from their feelings during the experience. This has practical and ethical implications for usability design and for debugging strategy, as well as other areas. The authors describe the effect and discuss its implications for software engineering.

Index Terms:
usability evaluation; judgment and decision making; perceptual bias; peak and end effect
Citation:
Sheila Guilford, Gordon Rugg, Niall Scott, "Pleasure and Pain: Perceptual Bias and Its Implications for Software Engineering," IEEE Software, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 63-69, May-June 2002, doi:10.1109/MS.2002.1003458
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