Computer anxiety: A comparison of pen-based personal digital assistants, conventional computer and paper assessment of mood and performance

The recent growth of pen-based devices, such as the Personal Digital Assist ant (PDA), offer mobility and a more natural interface than that of a conve ntional computer. The feasibility and application of the PDA for mood and c ognitive assessment were investigated by examining possible interactions of individual characteristics and administration medium. Previous studies hav e provided evidence that individual characteristics of 'computer anxiety' a nd 'private self-consciousness' divergently covaried with mood scores measu red by computer and paper methods. To investigate the relationship between individual characteristics and medium effects, 136 paid participants were a llocated to and completed mood assessment tasks and a short battery of cogn itive tasks by either the computer, PDA or the paper method. Self-ratings o f mood measured by these three modalities covaried divergently with measure s of computer anxiety and private self-consciousness. In addition, computer anxiety covaried with reaction time on the visual search task obtained on computers, but there was no such relationship when measured by a PDA. These results show that computer anxiety can affect the results of assessments o f cognitive function as well as of mood ratings, and suggest that pen-based systems may have advantages over conventional computers in this respect.