About

Michael Byrne is a Professor of Psychological Sciences at Rice University. His research interests include human performance modeling, statistics, cognition, visual attention, and decision-making. Byrne holds a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan, both earned in 1991. He completed his M.S. in Experimental Psychology in 1993, and his M.S. in Computer Science in 1995, followed by a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1996, all from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is actively involved in professional societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery (SIGCHI), Cognitive Science Society, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Tau Beta Pi, and Psi Chi. Byrne has been recognized as a Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Science in Fall 2009 and has received several honors at Rice University, including Outstanding Associate and Distinguished Faculty Associate awards. His work integrates aspects of human factors, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science, contributing to the understanding of human performance and decision-making processes.

Research topics

• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Law
• Business
• Psychology

Selected publications

• Keeping It Smooth: The Role of Haptic Feedback in Shaping Motor Performance

  IEEE Transactions on Haptics · 2026-01-01

  article

  Training for complex motor tasks, such as those encountered in minimally invasive surgery, benefits from effective performance feedback mechanisms to accelerate skill acquisition and ensure retention. Prior work has demonstrated that haptic feedback based on movement smoothness quantified by the metric spectral arc length (SPARC), when provided in real-time as trainees perform complex motor tasks, can cause beneficial changes in task completion strategies resulting in faster completion times without loss of accuracy. The concept of movement smoothness is abstract, however, and more intuitive measures of movement smoothness like idle time and average velocity can be good alternatives to SPARC. Here, we demonstrate the effect of real-time objective performance feedback of movement smoothness, conveyed through a vibrotactile cue encoding alternative measures of movement smoothness, compared to feedback based on SPARC. Subjects receiving smoothness-based feedback based on average velocity performed the task fastest, but their accuracy was lower than the other two groups. We evaluated the effect of removing feedback for additional trials, and showed that performance improvements ceased. After training, the three groups were indistinguishable from each other.

  PublisherDOI

• Post-power law of practice: Comparing static and dynamical models of skill acquisition.

  Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · 2026-05-11

  articleOpen access

  Since the 1980s, the power law has been the dominant view of the trajectory of skill acquisition. More recent research has challenged this "law," suggesting other models may better capture individual-level data. Furthermore, the motor learning and recovery literature suggests dynamical models might better capture nonmonotonic behavior and the effect of feedback. This study compares the fits of six models on data from two mirror-tracing experiments with different feedback metrics delivered through haptics. This includes two power models, the exponential model, a hybrid power and exponential model, and two more recent dynamical models that allow for nonmonotonic learning curves and can incorporate the role of feedback. Like others before, these results show that the "power law" model is not necessarily the best way to describe individual learning. However, none of the models examined showed a clear advantage in fitting individual-level data, and we discuss multiple reasons why this might be the case. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Check it to Protect it: Understanding the Behaviors Driving Ballot Verification

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2025-09-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This study sought to understand the factors influencing voters to verify their paper ballots produced by an electronic Ballot Marking Device (BMD). To tackle this question, 60 undergraduate students from Rice University participated in mock elections where their votes on the electronic BMD displayed their selections accurately, but then a subset of their votes on the printed ballots were altered. After the system printed the paper ballot, two user interface (UI) interventions aimed at improving ballot verification rates were displayed in the following sequence: (1) a digital-based prompt instructing voters to “Carefully check your printed ballot. Take your time. Make sure everything is correct” and asked the question, “Are your printed selections correct?” requiring an on-screen response of “Yes” or “No,” and (2) a paper-based prompt requiring voters to handscribe their signature, a checkmark, or a sentence on the paper ballot. The results revealed that the paper-based intervention did not influence ballot verification performance, as all participants who detected at least one anomaly destroyed their compromised ballots after encountering the digital-based intervention. The overall detection rate on the digital-based intervention was high, with 88% of voters detecting changes in their ballots, suggesting that this ballot verification intervention was an effective countermeasure to encourage voters to check their paper ballots. The findings from this study can inform voting system design guidelines that motivate voters to independently audit their own ballot for anomalies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Tension: Fortifying Usability While Safeguarding Voter Independence in Military Voting Solutions

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2024-08-12

  articleOpen access

  Absentee voting presents a unique challenge for U.S. uniformed service members, as they often struggle to request and return absentee ballots while deployed, sometimes stationed far from their registered voting area. This research evaluates the usability of a proposed absentee voting system for military voters, which allows instant ballot requests and enables voters to verify their own votes, focusing on whether the user interface supports effective use among military personnel. Our evaluation revealed that military voters frequently relied on external assistance to navigate the electronic voting system, revealing opportunities for its improvement and design recommendations to facilitate absentee voting for U.S. military personnel.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Emergence of Paper-Digital Systems: A Usability Evaluation of Single-Page Versus Multipage Digital Instructions in a Ballot Mailing Task

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2024-08-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Findings from previous research that assessed the usability of single-page and multipage digital interfaces in purely digital interactions indicated that the single-page format is more efficient than its multipage counterpart. This research expands on previous work by applying the findings from these digital-only interactions to a paper-digital interaction. Specifically, this study assessed the usability of single-page and multipage instructional interfaces to guide voters through the paper-based ballot mailing process embedded in the prototype of an electronic voting system designed for overseas military voters. A detailed classification of errors and requests for assistance revealed that the multipage format had fewer occurrences of both than the single-page format. Statistical analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between the single-page and multipage interfaces in efficiency, contrary to previous research, as well as no differences in effectiveness, satisfaction, and workload. To conclude, we provide arguments in favor of utilizing the multipage format for the digital display of the ballot mailing instructions on electronic voting systems moving forward. These findings can reveal best practices for the design of digital instructions in emerging paper-digital systems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Context Contributes to Two-Factor Authentication Choices

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2024-08-29 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a security method for various types of accounts that adds an extra layer of verification. This second layer of verification improves the security of user accounts beyond the regular password. Despite its benefits, the adoption of 2FA has remained low amongst users. A consistent finding in the 2FA literature is that adoption has remained low because users prioritize usability over security benefits when choosing a 2FA method. However, this body of research overlooks the influence of perceived account importance on decisions to adopt 2FA. This study bridges this gap in the literature by offering evidence that, contrary to the current belief in the literature that 2FA adoption is based on perceptions of usability, account context also plays a role in users’ choices. This highlights the importance of incorporating users’ account importance perceptions in future research that aims to understand users’ perceptions of 2FA and in the design of 2FA set-up pages. Furthermore, users’ perceptions of 2FA were captured and compared to previous studies that used a similar sample pool (students who are forced to use DUO, a 2FA service). The results show inconsistent findings across studies and reveal that users have a common mental model of 2FA, regardless of the method used. This suggests interfaces can be redesigned to better match user perceptions with the actual needs of various contexts.

  PublisherDOI

• A Call to Arms for American Democracy

  Ergonomics in Design The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications · 2024-11-22

  articleSenior author

  Free, fair, and secure elections are the foundation of a democracy. However, the idea of voting is simple, whereas its execution is complex. There are over 3000 counties in the United States, representing 10,000 election jurisdictions with varying laws, demographics, logistics, and levels of technology integration. There are numerous open challenges that Human Factors expertise can directly translate, such as the design to maximize accessibility and security, improve poll worker training, and minimize errors. The time is now to get involved in this dynamic and rewarding applied research space, as ensuring election integrity has never been more critical.

  PublisherDOI

• Usability of Ranked-Choice Voting Paper Ballots

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2023-09-01

  articleSenior author

  Ranked choice voting (RCV) is a method of voting where individuals rank their choices for each race in an election, rather than selecting a single candidate. For paper ballot implementations, there are three basic formats: bubble grid, column, and handwritten. This study aimed to understand which format produces the best outcomes with the fewest errors. Using a between-subjects design, we measured voting time, errors, success rates, and overall subjective usability using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Results showed that the handwritten format took significantly longer to complete. However, the handwritten ballot errors were recoverable and generally did not invalidate the ballots. The column and bubble grid ballots had significant errors, with fewer errors on the bubble grid format. There was no significant difference in SUS scores, nor any contribution of demographics across ballot types. Ballot format directly dictates the time taken to vote, usability, and overall voter success.

  PublisherDOI

• Can Voters Detect Errors on Their Printed Ballots? Absolutely

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2022-04-20 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  There is still debate on whether voters can detect malicious changes in their printed ballot after making their selections on a Ballot Marking Device (BMD). In this study, we altered votes on a voter's ballot after they had made their selections on a BMD. We then required them to examine their ballots for any changes from the slate they used to vote. Overall accuracy was exceptionally high. Participants saw 1440 total contests, and of those 1440, there were a total of 4 errors, so total accuracy was 99.8%. Participants were able to perform with near-perfect accuracy regardless of ballot length, ballot type, number of altered races, and location of altered races. Detection performance was extremely robust. We conclude that with proper direction and resources, voters can be near-perfect detectors of ballot changes on printed paper ballots after voting with a BMD. This finding has significant implications for the voting community as BMD use continues to grow. Research should now focus on identifying administrative and behavioral methods that will prompt and encourage voters to check their BMD-generated ballots before they drop them in the ballot box.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluation of Robotic-Assisted Carotid Artery Stenting in a Virtual Model Using Motion-Based Performance Metrics

  Journal of Endovascular Therapy · 2022-09-22 · 7 citations

  article

  PURPOSE: Robotic-assisted carotid artery stenting (CAS) cases have been demonstrated with promising results. However, no quantitative measurements have been made to compare manual with robotic-assisted CAS. This study aims to quantify surgical performance using tool tip kinematic data and metrics of precision during CAS with manual and robotic control in an ex vivo model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Transfemoral CAS cases were performed in a high-fidelity endovascular simulator. Participants completed cases with manual and robotic techniques in 2 different carotid anatomies in random order. C-arm angulations, table position, and endovascular devices were standardized. Endovascular tool tip kinematic data were extracted. We calculated the spectral arc length (SPARC), average velocity, and idle time during navigation in the common carotid artery and lesion crossing. Procedural time, fluoroscopy time, movements of the deployed filter wire, precision of stent, and balloon positioning were recorded. Data were analyzed and compared between the 2 modalities. RESULTS: Ten participants performed 40 CAS cases with a procedural success of 100% and 0% residual stenosis. The median procedural time was significantly higher during the robotic-assisted cases (seconds, median [interquartile range, IQR]: 128 [49.5] and 161.5 [62.5], p=0.02). Fluoroscopy time differed significantly between manual and robotic-assisted procedures (seconds, median [IQR]: 81.5 [32] and 98.5 [39.5], p=0.1). Movement of the deployed filter wire did not show significant difference between manual and robotic interventions (mm, median [IQR]: 13 [10.5] and 12.5 [11], p=0.5). The postdilation balloon exceeded the margin of the stent with a median of 2 [1] mm in both groups. Navigation with robotic assistance showed significantly lower SPARC values (-5.78±3.14 and -8.63±3.98, p=0.04) and higher idle time values (8.92±8.71 and 3.47±3.9, p=0.02) than those performed manually. CONCLUSIONS: Robotic-assisted and manual CAS cases are comparable in the precision of stent and balloon positioning. Navigation in the carotid artery is associated with smoother motion and higher idle time values. These findings highlight the accuracy and the motion stabilizing capability of the endovascular robotic system. CLINICAL IMPACT: Robotic assistance in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease is an emerging field and may be a tool for radiation protection and the geographic distribution of endovascular interventions in the future. This preclinical study compares the characteristics of manual and robotic-assisted carotid stenting (CAS). Our results highlight, that robotic-assisted CAS is associated with precise navigation and device positioning, and smoother navigation compared to manual CAS.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• EAGER: Protecting Election Integrity Via Automated Ballot Usability Evaluation

  NSF · $300k · 2015–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher D. Wickens

  Colorado State University

  31 shared

• Becky L. Hooey

  Ames Research Center

  31 shared

• David C. Foyle

  Ames Research Center

  30 shared

• Kevin Corker

  28 shared

• Philip Kortum

  Rice University

  27 shared

• Ken Leiden

  Mosaic ATM (United States)

  26 shared

• Stephen I. Deutsch

  Eastern Virginia Medical School

  25 shared

• Marcia K. O’Malley

  Rice University

  20 shared

Labs

• Michael Byrne's LabPI

  Not provided

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  1996

• M.S., Computer Science

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  1995

• M.S., Psychology

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  1993

• B.S., Engineering

  University of Michigan

  1991

• B.A., Psychology

  University of Michigan

  1991

Awards & honors

• Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Science, Fall 2009
• Outstanding Associate for 2001-2002, Mary Gibbs Jones reside…
• Distinguished Faculty Associate for 2003-2004, 2004-2005, an…
• NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow