Who willed it? Decreasing Frustration by Manipulating Perceived Control through Fabricated Input for Stroke Rehabilitation BCI Games

To reduce frustration while performing no-risk tasks (e.g. in training and games) for BCI users, we propose increasing their perceived level of control through fabricated input - system-generated positive task outcomes. Two surrogate BCI studies injected fabricated input creating additional positive task outcomes to a 50% baseline. Users' perceived control increased significantly compared to the 50% baseline. In turn, frustration levels decreased. Fabricated input worked equally well in a game story context that provided an emotional stake in the protagonist's success and a simpler task lacking such incentives. People's number of input attempts during the tasks determined perceived control more than our controlled ratios of positive to negative task outcomes. Delays between users' input attempts and subsequent fabricated inputs further moderated their perceived control.