4 - Cognition for HCI Flashcards
What is experimental cognition?
Type of cognition that is fast, intuitive and effortless
What is reflective cognition?
Type of cognition that is slow, requires mental effort and attention
Which type of cognition is more reliable?
Reflective cognition
Why is attention important in HCI?
Keeps users hooked and guides them through the system
What does attention depend on?
On whether the user has clear goals, and if the information is visible in the environment
What are the 2 types of goals a user can have?
Clear goals and unsure goals
What is a clear goal?
When the user knows exactly what they’re looking for, and just match it to the environment to find it
What is an unsure goal?
When the user browses through information and lets their attention be guided by what appeals to them
Why does the way information is presented matter?
It affects how the user understands it/ perceives it
What does effective multitasking depend on?
The nature of tasks and the amount of attention each task requires
What are the harms of multitasking?
Overloads one’s capacity to focus, the user is more prone to lose their train of thought
What is perception?
How information is acquired by the environment by the 5 senses and transformed into individual understandings of the world (sense + cognition)
What is proprioception?
Our body’s ability to sense movement, action and location
What is interoception?
Our sense of the internal state of our body (hunger, heart rate, pain, etc.)
What is the overarching theme of the Gestalt principles?
See the system as a whole, rather than individual units
What is closure (Gestalt)?
People fill in the blanks to perceive a complete object
What is common fate (Gestalt)?
Elements that coordinate movement are grouped together
What is continuation (Gestalt)?
The human eye follows the smoothest path
What is similarity (Gestalt)?
Similar elements are grouped together
What is figure-ground (Gestalt)?
Perceiving objects as either being in the foreground or the background
What is proximity (Gestalt)?
Things that are closer together appear to be more related than things that are spaced farther aprt
What is symmetry (Gestalt)?
The brain prefers symmetrical designs
What factors affect information retrieval?
- How much attention is allocated to it (the more attention, the more you process something)
- Context in which the information is encoded
- People are better at recognition than recall
What is incidental learning?
Learning when there is no intention to do so (ex. learn new words when reading a book for fun)
