Chapter Two

Human in HCI
Human in HCI
🠶 Cognitive psychology (the study of internal mental
processes)
🠶 how humans perceive the world around them,
🠶 how they store and process information and solve problems,
and
🠶 how they physically manipulate objects
🠶 Basic overview of the capabilities and limitations that affect our
ability to use computer systems.
🠶 When we try to understand something, particularly new, we use
a combination of
🠶 What our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) are
telling
🠶 Past experience
🠶 Our expectations
3 Factors to be considered for
interaction.
🠶 Information input/output
🠶 Information stored in memory
🠶 sensory, short-term, long-term
🠶 Information processed and applied
🠶 Emotion influences human capabilities
🠶 Each person is different

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Factors to be considered for
interaction.
🠶 Humans are limited in their capacity to process information.
🠶 Human factors, or limitations, include
🠶 Limited concentration
🠶 Changes in mood
🠶 The need for motivation
🠶 Biases
🠶 Fears
🠶 Make errors
🠶 Misjudgement
🠶 Prefer speech
5 Information input and output

🠶 Interaction with the outside world occurs through

information being received and sent: input and output.
🠶 the human input is the data output by the computer and
vice versa.
🠶 Input in humans occurs mainly through the senses and
output through the motor controls of the effectors.
🠶 Vision, hearing and touch are the most important
senses in HCI.
🠶 The fingers, voice, eyes, head and body position are the
primary effectors.

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6 Vision

🠶 The two stages in vision are:

1. Physical reception of stimulus

2. Processing and interpretation of stimulus

🠶 both influence what can and cannot be perceived visually by a human
being,

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 7 The Eye - physical reception

🠶 Is the mechanism for receiving light and transforming it into

electrical energy
🠶 The process:
🠶 Light reflects from objects
🠶 Images are focused upside-down on retina
🠶 Retina contains rods for low light vision and cones for colour
vision
🠶 receptors in the eye transform it into electrical signals which are
passed to the brain
🠶 Ganglion cells (in brain) detect pattern and movement

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HCI
The Eye Cont.
 9
Interpreting the signal
🠶 Size and depth
🠶 Visual angle indicates how much of view object occupies. That is, the
eye perceive size and distance. E.g. If two smaller and larger objects
have the same distance from the eye the larger have the higher visual
angle
🠶 The visual angle measurement is given in either degrees or minutes of arc,
🠶 Visual acuity is the ability of a person to perceive fine detail
🠶 law of size constancy (Our Perception of Size relies on)
🠶 perception of depth
🠶 size and height of the object in our field of view
🠶 Familiarity

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 Interpreting Cont.
🠶 Brightness
🠶 Subjective reaction to levels of light
🠶 Affected by luminance (level of light emitted by an object) of object
🠶 Measured by just noticeable difference
🠶 Visual acuity increases with luminance
🠶 Colour
🠶 Made up of hue, intensity, saturation
🠶 Intensity is the brightness of the color, and
🠶 Hue is determined by the spectral wavelength of the light. Blues have short
wavelengths, greens medium and reds long.
🠶 saturation is the amount of whiteness in the color.

🠶 Cones sensitive to colour wavelengths. (blue, green and red).

🠶 8% males and 1% females color blind
Interpreting Cont.

🠶 A theory about vision is constructivism:

🠶 Our brains do not create pixel-by-pixel images
🠶 Our minds create, or construct, models that summarize what comes
from our senses
🠶 These models are what we perceive
🠶 When we see something, we do not remember all the details, only
those that have meaning for us
🠶 Design implication:
🠶 Do not expect people “see” all the details of an interface because
people filter out irrelevant information and save only the important
ones
12
13
14
Constructivism Cont.

🠶 Constructivist theory states that context plays a major role in

what we see in an image
🠶 Are these letters are the same?
Constructivism Cont.

🠶 With context, the answer will be different

🠶 Design implication:
🠶 Context can help in resolving ambiguity
 17
Reading
🠶 Several stages:
🠶 Visual pattern of the word is perceived
🠶 Decoded using internal representation of language
🠶 The word is processed as part of the sentence or phrase using knowledge
of syntax and semantics.

During reading, the eye makes jerky movements called

saccades followed by fixations.
The eye moves backwards over the text as well as forwards, in what are known as
regressions. If the text is complex there will be more regressions.

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 18
Reading

🠶 Word shape is important to recognition

we need to be aware that we will not always perceive things

exactly as they are.The way that objects are composed
together will affect the way we perceive them.

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 19

Hearing
🠶 Provides information about environment: factors to be considered
are: distances, directions, objects etc affect hearing.
🠶 Physical apparatus of are:
🠶 Outer ear – Protects inner and amplifies sound
🠶 Middle ear – Transmits sound waves as vibrations to inner ear
🠶 Inner ear – Chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve

🠶 Sound (vibrations) characteristics:

🠶 Pitch: sound frequency
🠶 Loudness: amplitude
🠶 Timbre: type of the sound

🠶 Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to 15kHz

🠶 Less accurate in distinguishing high frequencies than low frequencies.

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20
Touch
🠶 Also called haptic perception, stimuli received through skin.
🠶 Provides important feedback about environment.
🠶 May be key sense for someone who is visually impaired.
🠶 Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
🠶 Thermoreceptors: for heat and cold perception
🠶 Nociceptors: for pain perception
🠶 Mechanoreceptors: for pressure perception: (some instant, some continuous)
🠶 If continuous pressure is applied, they stop to respond.

🠶 Some areas more sensitive /acuite than others e.g. fingers.

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21 Movement
🠶 Time taken to respond to stimulus:
reaction time + movement time

🠶 Movement time dependent on age, fitness etc.

🠶 Reaction time - dependent on stimulus type:

🠶 visual ~ 200ms
🠶 auditory ~ 150 ms
🠶 pain ~ 700ms
🠶 One question that we should ask is whether speed of reaction results in
reduced accuracy?
🠶 Increasing reaction time decreases accuracy in the unskilled operator but not
in the skilled operator.
🠶 Speed and accuracy of movement are important considerations in the design
of interactive systems.
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22 Memory
There are three types of memory function: A model of the structure of
memory

It allows us to repeat actions, to use language, and to use new information

received via our senses
Selection of stimuli governed by level of arousal.
But how does our memory work? How do we remember arbitrary lists such
as those generated in the memory game? Why do some people remember
more easily than others? And what happens when we forget?
In order to answer questions such as these, we need to understand some of
the capabilities and limitations of human memory
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23 Sensory memory

🠶 Buffers for stimuli received through senses, continuously

overwritten
🠶 Iconic memory: visual stimuli
🠶 Echoic memory: aural stimuli
🠶 Haptic memory: tactile stimuli
🠶 Information is passed from the sensory memory to the
short term memory by:
🠶 Attention
🠶 Filtering stimuli at that moment of interest

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 24
Short-term memory (STM)
🠶 Store information which is only required fleetingly.
🠶 STM is scratch - pad for temporary recall
🠶 STM is accessed and decayed rapidly
🠶 Rapid access ~ 70ms
🠶 Rapid decay ~ 200ms
🠶 STM is limited in capacity
🠶 STM can store 5-9 chunks of information
🠶 Chunks can be items or groups (like 2 digit number in telephone numbers)
🠶 STM recall is damaged by other information interference.
🠶 HEC ATR ANU PTH ETR EET

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25 Design focus
🠶 Closure gives you a nice ‘done it’ when we complete some part of a
task. At this point our minds have a tendency to flush short-term
memory in order to get on with the next job.
🠶 Why do ATMs give you your card first?

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26
Long-term Memory (LTM)
🠶 Repository for all our knowledge
🠶 Slow access ~ 1/10 second
🠶 Slow decay, if any
🠶 LTM has huge or unlimited capacity
🠶 Two types of LTM
🠶 Episodic: represents our memory of events and experiences in a serial form
🠶 we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at a
given point in our lives.
🠶 Semantic: structured record of facts, concepts and skills that we have acquired, derived
from the episodic LTM
🠶 such that we can learn new facts or concepts from our experiences.
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27 LTM
🠶 Semantic memory structure :
🠶 Allow access to information
🠶 Represents relationships between bits of information
🠶 Supports inference

🠶 LTM can be modelled using:

🠶 Semantic network
🠶 Frames
🠶 Scripts
🠶 Production rule

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28 LTM Model: semantic network
🠶 According to the semantic network model, the semantic
memory is structured as a network
🠶 Inheritance – child nodes inherit properties of parent
nodes(classes)
🠶 Relationships between bits of information is shown explicitly
🠶 Supports inference through inheritance
🠶 The more general the information is, the higher is the level
on which it is stored. This allows us to generalize about
specific cases.
🠶 The connections in the network are made using associations.

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29 LTM - semantic network

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30 LTM - semantic network
🠶 Semantic networks represent the associations and
relationships between single items in memory.
🠶 However, they do not allow us to model the representation
of more complex objects or events, which are perhaps
composed of a number of items or activities.
🠶 Structured representations such as frames and scripts
organize information into data structures.

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31

Models of LTM - Frames

🠶 Information organized in data structures
🠶 Slots in structure instantiated with values
for instance of data
🠶 Type–subtype relationships

DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: carniverous Default
sound: bark size: 65 cm
Variable Variable
size: colour
colour
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 Models of LTM - Scripts
32
🠶 Model of stereotypical information required to interpret
situation
🠶 Script has elements that can be instantiated with values for
context
John took his dog to the surgery. After seeing the vet, he
left.
Script for a visit to the
vet
Entry conditions: dog ill Roles: vet examines
vet open diagnoses
owner has money treats
owner brings dog in
Result: dog better
pays
owner poorer
takes dog out
vet richer
Scenes: arriving at reception
Props: examination table
waiting in room
medicine
examination
instruments
paying
Tracks: dog needs medicine
dog needs operation
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33 Models of LTM – Production rules

🠶 Representation of procedural knowledge:our

knowledge of how to do something
🠶 Condition-action rules
if condition is matched
then use rule to determine action.

IF dog is wagging tail

THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling
THEN run away

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34 LTM

🠶 There are 3 main activities related to LTM:

🠶 Storage of information
🠶 Forgetting
🠶 Information retrieval

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 35 LTM
🠶 Storage
🠶 The rehearsal of a piece of information from the STM stores it
in the LTM.
🠶 If the total learning time is increased, information is
remembered better-total time hypothesis.
🠶 However, the learning time should be well spread-
distribution of practice effect.
🠶 Spreading learning over time
🠶 But repetition alone is not enough, that is:
🠶 Information should be meaningful and familiar, so it can
be related to existing structures and more easily
incorporated into memory.
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36 LTM
🠶 Forgetting
🠶 There are 2 main theories of forgetting:
🠶 Decay
🠶 Interference.
🠶 Decay
🠶 Suggests that information held in LTM may eventually be forgotten.
🠶 Interference
🠶 Information can also be lost through interference: if we acquire new
information, it causes the loss of old information: retroactive
interference.
🠶 It is also possible that the older information interferes with the newly
acquired information: proactive inhibition.
🠶 Forgetting is affected by emotional factors too.

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 37 LTM
🠶 Information retrieval
There are two types of Information retrieval
recall
🠶 information reproduced from memory can be
assisted by clues, e.g. categories, imagery
recognition
🠶 the presentation of the information provides the
knowledge that the information has been seen
before.
🠶 less complex than recall - information is clue

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 Thinking: Reasoning and problem
38
solving
🠶 Thinking can require different amounts of knowledge.
🠶 Some thinking activities are very directed and the
knowledge required is constrained. Others require vast
amounts of knowledge from different domains.
🠶 Thinking can be divided in:
🠶 Reasoning:is the process by which we use the knowledge we
have to draw conclusions or infer something new about the
domain of interest.
🠶Deduction,
🠶Induction,
🠶 Problem solving
🠶 Skill acquisition
🠶 Errors and mental models
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39 Deductive reasoning:
🠶Derive logically necessary conclusion from given premises.
e.g. If it is Friday then she will go to work
It is Friday
Therefore she will go to work.
- Logical conclusion not necessarily true but
valid:
e.g. If it is raining then the ground is dry
It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
Inductive reasoning:
🠶Generalize from cases seen to cases unseen
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e.g. All birds we have seen fly

 Problem solving
40

🠶 Problem solving is the process of finding a solution to an

unfamiliar task, using (adapting) the knowledge we have.
different views of how people solve problems.
Gestalt view
🠶 Based on insight and restructuring of problem
🠶 that problem solving is a matter of reproducing known responses
or trial and error.
Problem space theory
🠶 The problem has an initial state and a goal state and people use the
operators to move from the former to the latter.
🠶 Means-ends analysis [the initial state is compared with the goal
states and then operator chosen to reduce the difference]
🠶 Largely applied to problem solving in well-defined areas e.g
puzzle
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41 Problem solving
Analogy
🠶 Analogical mapping: Uses knowledge of similar problem from
similar domain
🠶 Analogical mapping is difficult if domains are semantically
different
🠶 Old knowledge is used to solve a new problem.

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 42
Skill acquisition
Skill acquisition
🠶 Most often, problems that we face are not completely new
unlike the previous ones(unfamiliar problems)
🠶 considering the difference between novice and expert
behavior in given domains.
🠶 Experts often have a better encoding of knowledge:
information structures are fine tuned at a deep level to enable
efficient and accurate retrieval.
🠶 These skills are acquired through 3 levels:
🠶 The learner uses general-purpose rules which interpret facts
about a problem. (slow, memory-demanding)
🠶 The learner develops rules specific to the task, using procedures.
🠶 The rules
HCI are tuned to speed up performance, using 12/14/2021

generalization.
 Errors and mental models
Types of error
🠶 slips
🠶 right intention, but failed to do it right
🠶 causes: poor physical skill, inattention etc.
🠶 change to aspect of skilled behaviour can cause slip
🠶 mistakes
🠶 wrong intention
🠶 cause: incorrect understanding
humans create mental models to explain behaviour.
if wrong (different from actual system) errors can occur
44 Emotion

🠶 Emotion is a psychological response to a stimuli

🠶 Various theories of how emotion works
🠶 James-Lange: emotion is our interpretation of a physiological response
to a stimuli
🠶 Cannon: emotion is a psychological response to a stimuli
🠶 Schacter-Singer: emotion is the result of our evaluation of our
physiological responses, in the light of the whole situation we are in
🠶 Emotion clearly involves both cognitive and physical
responses to stimuli
🠶 . Our emotional response to situations affects how we perform.
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45
Emotion

🠶 The biological response to physical stimuli is called affect

🠶 Affect influences how we respond to situations
🠶 Positive → creative problem solving
🠶 Negative → narrow thinking

“Negative affect can make it harder to do even easy tasks; positive affect can
make it easier to do difficult tasks”
🠶 Implications for interface design
🠶 Stress will increase the difficulty of problem solving
🠶 Relaxed users will be more forgiving of shortcomings in design
🠶 Aesthetically pleasing and rewarding interfaces will increase positive affect

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46 Individual differences

🠶 The principles and properties discussed apply to the majority of people,

but humans are not all the same.
🠶 Differences should be taken into account in the designs
🠶 Divide the users in target groups and ask yourself:
will design decision exclude section of user population?
🠶 3 causes for individual difference:
🠶 Long term
– Sex, physical and intellectual abilities
🠶 Short term
– Effect of stress or fatigue
🠶 Changing
– Age
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47 Personal differences
🠶 For example, the current emphasis on visual
interfaces excludes those who are visually
impaired, unless the design also makes use of the
other sensory channels.

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 How to design interactive system
48
🠶 We use the basic understandings Like recognition is
simpler than recall.
🠶 Use visual, hearing sense very well
🠶 Think about the skills the user have

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 Assignment 2
Discuss the following in detail
49

1. Suggest ideas for an interface which uses the properties of sound

effectively.
2. E-commerce has become very successful in some areas of sales,
such as travel services,
books and CDs, and food. However, in some retail areas, such as
clothes shopping, e-commerce has been less successful. Why?
3. Describe ‘forgiveness’ which is one of the characteristics of
effective UI.
4. Discuss the Long-term memory semantic network?
5. What are mental models, and why are they important in interface
design?
6. What can a system designer do to minimize the memory load of the
user?
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