Effect of Continuous and Discrete Feedback on Agency and Frustration in a Brain-Computer Interface Virtual Reality Interaction

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide users with a means to control external devices or applications using only voluntarily produced brain activity. Controlling a BCI through motor imagery is a skill that must be acquired, however, little evidence is available on how the user's agency and frustration are affected by different types of feedback during an interaction with a BCI. This was investigated during a virtual reality interaction where 14 naive participants controlled an avatar with a BCI while receiving either continuous or discrete feedback on their performance. The agency, frustration, ownership and BCI performance were assessed after each of the two conditions (continuous and discrete feedback). There was no statistical difference between the conditions although the participants generally rated agency higher for the continuous feedback which was also uncorrelated to the BCI performance. This suggests that continuous feedback can be useful for increasing agency for users with poor BCI performance by providing them with some knowledge of performance.