Impact of video frame rate on communicative behaviour in two and four party groups

Abstract

There has been relatively little research on the impact of different levels of video quality on users of multimedia communication systems. This paper describes a study examining the impact of two levels of video frame rate on pairs and groups of four engaged on a design task, looking at one particular aspect of communication, namely reference. It was found that a low frame rate made speakers more communicatively cautious, using longer descriptions and more elaborations to refer to pictures used in the task, possibly as a result of being less certain that they had been understood. This only occurred in the two party groups despite a prediction that groups of four would be affected most by the frame rate manipulation. This study shows that video quality can have subtle effects on communication and that identical levels of quality may have different effects depending on the situation.