These results indicate that subjects used emoticons when available and that they were satisfied with the system more so than subjects who had no access to emoticons. Also, the presence of emoticons did not affect decision conformity, memory for communication events or message length, but it did affect the focus of the messages. In a previous study conducted by the authors when the ratio of positive to negative emoticons was 9 to 1 subjects talked to the simulated members in about equal proportions. However, in this study subjects with access to emoticons spent much of their time communicating with the group member who consistently displayed negative emoticons (angry, frustrated, confused), as opposed to the members who displayed positive emoticons (happy, surprise) the ratio of positive to negative emoticons was 1 to 1. Perhaps this explains why emoticon users were frustrated with the communication process. This focus on negative emoticons is not unlike face-to-face communication in which negative events have a higher impact compared to positive events (6). Users appear to attend to emoticons and interpret them as intended. Thus, an emoticon palette could be a useful tool for users trying to communicate emotional expressions via remote.