First impression bias refers to a limitation of human information processing in which people are strongly influenced by the first piece of information that they are exposed to, and that they are biased in evaluating subsequent information in the direction of the initial influence. The psychology literature has portrayed first impression bias as a virtually "inherent" human bias. Drawing from multimedia literature, this study identifies several characteristics of multimedia presentations that have the potential to alleviate first impression bias. Based on this literature, a set of predictions was generated and tested through a laboratory experiment using a simulated multimedia intranet. Half of the 80 subjects were provided with a biased cue. Subjects were randomly assigned to four groups: (1) text with first impression bias cue, (2) multimedia with first impression bias cue, (3) text without biased cue, and (4) multimedia without biased cue. The experimental task involved conducting a five-year performance appraisal of a department head. The first impression bias cue was designed to provide incomplete and unfavorable information about the department head, but the information provided subsequently was intended to be favorable of his performance. Results show that the appraisal score of the text with biased cue group was significantly lower than the text only (without biased cue) group. On the other hand, the appraisal score of the multimedia with biased cue group was not significantly different from the multimedia only (without biased cue) group. As a whole, the results suggest that multimedia presentations, but not text-based presentations, reduce the influence of first impression bias.
This paper reports a study that examined two types of exploratory computer learning methods: self-discovery vs. co-discovery, the latter of which involves two users working together to learn a system. An experiment was conducted to compare these two methods and the results were interpreted within a mental model framework. Co-discovery subjects were better than self-discovery subjects at making inferences about the capability and extended functions of the system. Furthermore, while working by themselves after an initial period of learning, they performed better in a similar, though more complex task than the one they encountered at the learning phase. Process tracing analysis showed that self-discovery subjects focused more on surface structures, such as detailed physical actions, for implementing the task. On the other hand, co-discovery groups focused more on relating lower level actions to higher level goals. Therefore, co-discovery subjects had a better understanding of the relationships between the physical actions and goals, and hence formed mental models with higher inference potential than self-discovery subjects.