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Week 4 - Cognitive Aspects

The document discusses cognitive aspects relevant to human-computer interaction. It explains what cognition is, including attention, perception, memory, and learning. It discusses how cognitive processes like attention, which can be limited by multitasking, should inform interface design. Memory can be enhanced through organization and context. Mental models represent user understanding, while distributed cognition examines external representations and their role in problem-solving. The document aims to provide knowledge about cognitive limitations and theories to help design better interactive products and experiences.

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Raymond Ramirez
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94 views24 pages

Week 4 - Cognitive Aspects

The document discusses cognitive aspects relevant to human-computer interaction. It explains what cognition is, including attention, perception, memory, and learning. It discusses how cognitive processes like attention, which can be limited by multitasking, should inform interface design. Memory can be enhanced through organization and context. Mental models represent user understanding, while distributed cognition examines external representations and their role in problem-solving. The document aims to provide knowledge about cognitive limitations and theories to help design better interactive products and experiences.

Uploaded by

Raymond Ramirez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cognitive Aspects

Human and Computer Interaction

Week 4
Learning Goals and Standard
At the end of the lesson the learners will able to:
• Explain what cognition is and why it is important for interaction design.
• Discuss what attention is and its effects on our ability to multitask.
• Describe how memory can be enhanced through technology aids.
• Explain what mental models are.
• Show the difference between classic internal cognitive frameworks (e.g.
mental models) and more recent external cognitive
• approaches (e.g. distributed cognition) that have been applied to HCI.
• Enable you to try to elicit a mental model and be able to understand what it
means.
What is Cognition?
• Experiential cognition is a state of mind in which we
perceive, act and react to events around us effectively and
effortlessly (Norman, 1993)

Examples include
• driving a car
• reading a book
• discussing
Cognitive processes
• Cognition can also be described in terms of cognitive
processes
• Examples include:
Attention
Perception and recognition
Memory
Learning
Reading, speaking and listening
Problem-solving, planning, reasoning and decision- making
Importance of Cognition
• Interacting with technology is involves a number of cognitive
processes
• Need to take into account cognitive processes involved and cognitive
limitations of users
• Provides knowledge about what users can and cannot be expected to
do
• Identifies and explains the nature and causes of problems users
encounter
• Supply theories, modelling tools, guidance and methods that can
lead to the design of better interactive products
Attention
• Selecting things to concentrate on at a point in time from the mass
of stimuli around us
– Allows us to focus on information that is relevant to what we are doing
– Involves audio and/or visual senses
– Enables us to be selective in terms of the mass of stimuli but limits our
ability to keep track of all events
• Information at the interface should be structured to capture users’
attention appropriately, e.g. use perceptual boundaries (windows),
colour, video/sound
Multitasking and attention
• Is it possible to perform multiple tasks without one or more of them
being detrimentally affected?
• Ophir et al (2009) compared heavy vs light multi- taskers
• Heavy were more prone to being distracted than those who
infrequently multitask
• Heavy multi-taskers are easily distracted and find it difficult to filter
irrelevant information
Design implications for attention
• Make information salient when it
needs attending to
• Use techniques that make things stand
out like color, ordering, spacing,
underlining, sequencing and
animation
• Avoid cluttering the interface with too
much information An Example of Over-use of Graphics

• Avoid using too much because the


software allows it
Perception
• How information is acquired from the environment
and transformed into experiences
• Vision is the most dominant sense for sighted
individuals
Design representations that are readily perceivable, e.g.
Text should be legible
Icons should be easy to distinguish and readable
Is color contrast good? Are borders and white space better?
Find Italian Find French
Memory
• Involves first encoding and then retrieving knowledge
• We don’t remember everything - involves filtering
and processing what is attended to
• We recognize things much better than being able to
recall things
Context is important
• Context affects the extent to which information can be subsequently
retrieved
• Sometimes it can be difficult for people to recall information that
was encoded in a different context:
• – “You are on a train and someone comes up to you and says hello. You don’t recognize
him for a few moments but then realize it is one of your neighbors. You are only used to
seeing your neighbor in the hallway of your apartment block and seeing him out of context
makes him difficult to recognize initially”
Recognition versus recall
• Command-based interfaces require users to recall from
memory a name from a possible set of 100s
• GUIs provide visually-based options that users need only
browse through until they recognize one
• Web browsers, MP3 players, etc., provide lists of visited
URLs, song titles etc., that support recognition memory
Design implications
• Don’t overload users’ memories with complicated procedures for
carrying out tasks
• Design interfaces that promote recognition rather than recall
• Provide users with various ways of encoding information to help
them remember
– e.g. categories, color, flagging, time stamping
Learning in HCI
• Learning in HCI can be considered in terms of:
How to learn to use a computer-based application
Using a computer-based application to understand a given topic

• People find it hard to learn by following instructions in a manual


• prefer to learn by doing
Cognitive frameworks
• Developed to explain and predict user behaviour based on theories of
cognition
• We will cover in the next pages some of the models described on your
textbook
Mental models
• Users develop an understanding of a system through learning
about and using it
• Knowledge is sometimes described as a mental model:
How to use the system (what to do next)
What to do with unfamiliar systems or unexpected situations (how
the system works)
• People make inferences using mental models of how to carry
out tasks
Gulfs of execution and evaluation
• The ‘gulfs’ explicate the gaps that exist between the user and the
interface
• The gulf of execution
• the distance from the user to the physical system
• The gulf of evaluation
• the distance from the physical system to the user
• Bridging the gulfs can reduce cognitive effort required to perform
tasks
External cognition
• Concerned with explaining how we interact with external
representations (e.g. maps, notes, diagrams)
• What are the cognitive benefits and what processes involved
• How they extend our cognition
• What computer-based representations can we develop to help even
more?
• Externalizing
• Computational offloading
• Annotating and cognitive tracing
Distributed cognition
• Concerned with the nature of cognitive phenomena across
individuals, artifacts, and internal and external representations
(Hutchins, 1995)
• Describes these in terms of propagation across representational state
• Information is transformed through different media (computers,
displays, paper, heads)
How it differs from information processing
Integration

What influences your perception of


the people around you? How do
you think your own unique
perception influences the way you
communicate?
Assessment
• First, elicit your own mental model. Write down how you think a cash
machine (ATM) works. Then answer the following questions
(abbreviated from Payne, 1991):
• How much money are you allowed to take out? If you took this out and
then went to another machine and tried to withdraw the same amount,
what would happen? What is on your card? How is the information
used? What happens if you enter the wrong number? Why are there
pauses between the steps of a transaction? How long are they? What
happens if you type ahead during the pauses? What happens to the card
in the machine? Why does it stay inside the machine? Do you count the
money? Why?
Reference
• HCI: Fundamentals and Practice, CRC Press, 2018-2019
• Schwartz, Lopsie (2015). Precision Photoshop: creating powerful
visual effects, CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group
• Gustafson, Aaron (2016). Adaptive web design: crafting rich
experiences with progressive enhancement. New Riders
• Maivald, James J. (2015). Adobe dreamweaver CC: 2014 release,
Adobe Press Books.

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