Welcome to the Web site for the SRCT research group, a part of the Institute for Communication Research in the Communication Department at Stanford University, and a project in the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) at Stanford.
The fundamental SRCT research paradigm is that individuals' interactions with computers and other communication technologies are FUNDAMENTALLY social and natural. That is, people respond to computers and other communication technologies using the same social attitudes and behaviors that they apply to other people, and exhibit the same attitudes and behaviors toward mediated stimuli that they exhibit toward natural experience. Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves and their students use theories and experiments derived from psychology, sociology, and communication to develop and validate their theories.
The SRCT findings have many implications for the way software is designed. Often, current interfaces unintentionally evoke negative reactions from users due to improper use of social rules by the computer. Interface designers can use the SRCT findings and basic approach to help create a positive social encounter between user and computer. The fundamental principles and findings of SRCT were used in the creation of Microsoft's BOB software. Professors Nass and Reeves are currently writing a book about the SRCT findings and their implications.
last revised 26 MAY 1995 by
isbister@leland.stanford.edu