Abstract
As information systems (IS) are increasingly able to induce highly engaging and interactive experiences, the phenomenon of flow is considered a promising vehicle to understand IS user behavior and to ultimately inform the design of flow-fostering IS. However, despite growing interest of researchers in the phenomenon, knowledge about how to continuously assess flow during IS usage is limited. Hereby, recent developments in NeuroIS and psychophysiology propose novel possibilities to overcome this limitation. This article presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) on peripheral nervous system indicators of flow. The findings revealed that currently four major approaches exist towards physiological measurement. Propositions for simple and unobtrusive measurement in IS research are derived in conclusion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Agarwal, R., Karahanna, E.: Time flies when you’re having fun: cognitive absorption and beliefs about information technology usage. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. 24, 665–694 (2000)
Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA (1975)
Webster, J., Trevino, L.K., Ryan, L.: The dimensionality and correlates of flow in human–computer interactions. Comput. Human Behav. 9, 411–426 (1993)
Ghani, J.A., Supnick, R., Rooney, P.: The experience of flow in computer-mediated and in face-to-face groups. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 229–237 (1991)
Mahnke, R., Benlian, A., Hess, T.: Flow experience in information systems research: revisiting its conceptualization, conditions, and effects. In: Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 1–22 (2014)
Rissler, R., Nadj, M., Adam, M.T.P.: Flow in information systems research: review, integrative theoretical framework, and future directions. In: International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, pp. 1051–1065 (2017)
Jackson, S.A., Eklund, R.C.: Assessing flow in physical activity: the flow state scale-2 and dispositional flow scale-2. J. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 24, 133–150 (2002)
Engeser, S., Rheinberg, F.: Flow, performance and moderators of challenge–skill balance. Motiv. Emot. 32, 158–172 (2008)
Peifer, C.: Psychophysiological correlates of flow-experience. In: Engeser, S. (ed.) Advances in Flow Research, pp. 139–164. Springer Science, New York (2012)
Riedl, R., Léger, P.-M.: Fundamentals of NeuroIS Information Systems and the Brain. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2016)
Riedl, R., Davis, F.D., Hevner, A.R.: Towards a NeuroIS research methodology: intensifying the discussion on methods, tools, and measurement. J. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 15, i–xxxv (2014)
Bastarache-Roberge, M.-C., Léger, P.-M., Courtemanche, F., Sénécal, S., Frédette, M.: Measuring flow using psychophysiological data in a multiplayer gaming context. In: Davis, F.D. (ed.) Information Systems and Neuroscience, Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, pp. 187–191 (2015)
Labonté-Lemoyne, É., Léger, P.-M., Resseguier, B., Bastarache-Roberge, M.-C., Fredette, M., Sénécal, S., Courtemanche, F.: Are we in flow? neurophysiological correlates of flow states in a collaborative game. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1980–1988 (2016)
Adam, M.T.P., Gimpel, H., Maedche, A., Riedl, R.: Designing stress-sensitive adaptive enterprise systems: theoretical foundations and design blueprint. In: Gmunden Retreat on NeuroIS, pp. 1–22 (2014)
Afergan, D., Peck, E.M., Solovey, E.T., Jenkins, A., Hincks, S.W., Brown, E.T., Chang, R., Jacob, R.J.K.: Dynamic difficulty using brain metrics of workload. In: Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems—CHI’14, pp. 3797–3806 (2014)
Liu, C., Agrawal, P., Sarkar, N., Chen, S.: Dynamic difficulty adjustment in computer games through real-time anxiety-based affective feedback. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact. 25, 506–529 (2009)
Keller, J.: The flow experience revisited: the influence of skills-demands-compatibility on experiential and physiological indicators. In: Flow Experience, pp. 351–374. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2016)
Harmat, L., de Manzano, Ö., Theorell, T., Högman, L., Fischer, H., Ullén, F.: Physiological correlates of the flow experience during computer game playing. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 97, 1–7 (2015)
De Manzano, O., Theorell, T., Harmat, L., Ullén, F.: The psychophysiology of flow during piano playing. Emotion 10, 301–311 (2010)
Ullén, F., De Manzano, Ö., Theorell, T., Harmat, L.: The physiology of effortless attention: correlates of state flow and flow proneness. In: Bruya, B. (ed.) Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action, pp. 205–217. MIT Press, Cambridge (2010)
Léger, P.M., Davis, F.D., Cronan, T.P., Perret, J.: Neurophysiological correlates of cognitive absorption in an enactive training context. Comput. Human Behav. 34, 273–283 (2014)
Kitchenham, B., Charters, S.: Guidelines for performing systematic literature reviews in software engineering. Tech. Rep. EBSE. (2007)
Webster, J., Watson, R.T.: Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. 26, xiii–xxiii (2002)
Bandara, W., Furtmueller, E., Gorbacheva, E., Miskon, S., Beekhuyzen, J.: Achieving rigor in literature reviews: insights from qualitative data analysis and tool-support. Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 37, 154–204 (2015)
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., Sarsa, H.: Does gamification work?—a literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In: Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 3025–3034 (2014)
Mauri, M., Cipresso, P., Balgera, A., Villamira, M., Riva, G.: Why is facebook so successful? psychophysiological measures describe a core flow state while using facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behav. Soc. Netw. 14, 723–731 (2011)
Tozman, T., Magdas, E.S., MacDougall, H.G., Vollmeyer, R.: Understanding the psychophysiology of flow: a driving simulator experiment to investigate the relationship between flow and heart rate variability. Comput. Human Behav. 52, 408–418 (2015)
Kivikangas, J.M., Puttonen, S.: Psychophysiology of flow experience: an explorative study (2006)
Nacke, L.E., Lindley, C.A.: Flow and Immersion in first-person shooters: measuring the player’s gameplay experience. In: Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share, pp. 81–88. ACM Press, New York (2008)
Ulrich, M., Keller, J., Grön, G.: Neural signatures of experimentally induced flow experiences identified in a typical fMRI block design with BOLD imaging. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 11, 496–507 (2016)
Peifer, C., Schulz, A., Schächinger, H., Baumann, N., Antoni, C.H.: The relation of flow-experience and physiological arousal under stress—Can u shape it? J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 53, 62–69 (2014)
Tozman, T., Peifer, C.: Experimental paradigms to investigate flow-experience and its psychophysiology: inspired from stress theory and research. In: Harmat, L., Orsted, F., Ullén, F., Wright, J., and Sadlo, G. (eds.) Flow Experience, pp. 329–350. Springer, Heidelberg (2016)
Tozman, T., Zhang, Y.Y., Vollmeyer, R.: Inverted U-shaped function between flow and cortisol release during chess play. J. Happiness Stud. 18, 247–268 (2017)
Berntson, G.G., Quigley, K.S., Lozano, D.: Cardiovascular psychophysiology. In: Cacioppo, J.T., Tassinary, L.G., Berntson, G.G. (eds.) Handbook of Psychophysiology, pp. 182–210. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007)
Porges, S.W.: Orienting in a defensive world: mammalian modifications of our evolutionary heritage. A polyvagal theory (1995)
Boucsein, W.: Electrodermal Activity. Springer Science+ Business Media, New York, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London (2012)
Bian, Y., Yang, C., Gao, F., Li, H., Zhou, S., Li, H., Sun, X., Meng, X.: A framework for physiological indicators of flow in VR games: construction and preliminary evaluation. Pers. Ubiquitous Comput. 20, 821–832 (2016)
Addas, S., Pinsonneault, A.: The many faces of information technology interruptions: a taxonomy and preliminary investigation of their performance effects. Inf. Syst. J. 25, 231–273 (2015)
Parent-Thirion, A., Vermeylen, G., van Houten, G., Wilkens, M., Wilczynska, A.: Sixth European working conditions survey (EWCS). Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, LU (2015)
Lehrer, P.M., Gevirtz, R.: Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work? Front. Psychol. 5, 1–9 (2014)
Walker, C.J.: Experiencing flow: is doing it together better than doing it alone? J. Posit. Psychol. 5, 3–11 (2010)
Keith, M., Anderson, G., Dean, D., Gaskin, J., Wiser, T., Gremmert, S., Payne, K.: The effects of video gaming on work group performance. In: Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Information Systems, pp. 1–20 (2016)
Noy, L., Levit-Binun, N., Golland, Y.: Being in the zone: physiological markers of togetherness in joint improvisation. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9, 1–14 (2015)
Murch, W.S., Chu, S.W.M., Clark, L.: Measuring the slot machine zone with attentional dual tasks and respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Psychol. Addict. Behav. 1–11 (2017)
Peifer, C., Schächtinger, H., Engeser, S., Antoni, C.H.: Cortisol effects on flow-experience. Psychopharmacology 232, 1165–1173 (2015)
Gaggioli, A., Cipresso, P., Serino, S., Riva, G.: Psychophysiological correlates of flow during daily activities. In: Wiederhold, B.K. and Riva, G. (eds.) Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine 2013, pp. 65–69. IOS Press (2013)
Keller, J., Bless, H., Blomann, F., Kleinböhl, D.: Physiological aspects of flow experiences: skills-demand-compatibility effects on heart rate variability and salivary cortisol. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 47, 849–852 (2011)
Nacke, L.E., Grimshaw, M.N., Lindley, C.A.: More than a feeling: measurement of sonic user experience and psychophysiology in a first-person shooter game. Interact. Comput. 22, 336–343 (2010)
Drachen, A., Pedersen, A.L.: Correlation between heart rate, electrodermal activity and player experience in first-person shooter games. In: Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games, pp. 49–54 (2009)
Drachen, A., Nacke, L.E., Yannakakis, G., Pedersen, A.L.: Psychophysiological correlations with gameplay experience dimensions. In: Brain, Body and Bytes, Workshop—CHI 2010, pp. 1–4 (2010)
Nacke, L.E., Lindley, C.: Affective ludology, Flow and immersion in a first-person shooter: measurement of player experience. Loading 3, 1–21 (2010)
Klarkowski, M., Johnson, D., Wyeth, P., Phillips, C., Smith, S.: Psychophysiology of challenge in play: EDA and self-reported arousal. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1930–1936. ACM Press, New York (2016)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Knierim, M.T., Rissler, R., Dorner, V., Maedche, A., Weinhardt, C. (2018). The Psychophysiology of Flow: A Systematic Review of Peripheral Nervous System Features. In: Davis, F., Riedl, R., vom Brocke, J., Léger, PM., Randolph, A. (eds) Information Systems and Neuroscience. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67431-5_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67431-5_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67430-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67431-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)