Week 8 Cognitive Frameworks & Processes Flashcards
Cognition
Cognition includes all of the conscious and
unconscious processes involved in
perceiving, thinking, reasoning, and responding.
Cognition has two branches. What are they?
Frameworks & Processes
Cognitive Frameworks
Information processingmodel
Distributed cognition
External cognition
Information Processing Model
- Conceptualizes human performance in metaphorical terms
of information processing stages
Information Processing Model (Late 1970s)
- Assumptions:
- Information is unidirectional and sequential
- Each stages takes a certain amount of time
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What is missing from this model?
Information Processing Model (Extended, Barber 1988)
- Focus:
- How information is perceived by the perceptual processors
- How that information is attended
- How that information is processed and stored in memory
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What is missing from this model still?
Distributed Cognition
Distributed Cognition (Look at image on slides)
- Distributed problem solving
- Verbal and nonverbal behavior
- Communication in collaborative activities
- Sharing and accessing knowledge
- Coordinating mechanisms used (e.g. rules, procedures)
Traditional vs. Distributed Cognition(Look at image on slides)
Traditional: Inputs, Then person processes, then outputs
Distributed: Inputs cause different processes and lead to different combinations of other inputs and repetition of processing, leading to an output
Distributed Cognition - Examples
Pilot, Captain, and Air Traffic controller working together (Meaning whatever one of them does something the others have to respond accordingly)
Work place??
Airport
External Cognition (Look at image on slides)
Explains how users interact with external representations (e.g., maps, notes, diagrams)
* What are the cognitive benefits?
* Which cognitive processes are involved?
* How do they extend our cognition?
* Which computer-based representations can we develop to help?
Three Main Benefits of External Cognition
Externalizing to reduce memory load
Computational offloading
Annotation and cognitive tracing
- Externalizing to Reduce Memory Load
Use external representations to:
Remind us that we need to do something
* Buy cake for mother’s day
Remind us of what to do
* Buy a card
Remind us when to do something
* Send a card by a certain date
Remind us about events in the past
* Recall what happened on your graduation day
Information that is difficult to remember:
Phone numbers
Addresses
Personal contacts
Birthdays
Appointments
- Computational Offloading
Using a tool in conjunction with an external representation to carry
out a computation, e.g.:
* Pen & paper
* Calculator
Try doing the two products: of very large numbers
Ex: Calculators allow you to offload the thinking process
- Annotation and Cognitive Tracing
Annotation: modifying existing representations by creating marks
* Crossing off
* Ticking
* Underlining
* Highlighting
Cognitive tracing
* Manipulation of external
representations to form
new information
Cognitive tracing: e.g.
* Playing scrabble
* MS Word Review tool
* GitHub version control system
External Cognition - Design Implications
Understand how key cognitive
functions affect the way users
interact with UI
* E.g., perception and attention
* Reasoning and memory
Provide external representations
at the interface
* Reduces memory load
* Facilitates computational offloading
* E.g., information visualizations
* Calendar, contacts, annotations
Users are able to do more and
think more
* efficiently
Cognitive Processes (PeT-MALL)
Perception
Thought
Memory
Attention
Learning
Language
Attention: The “Gateway”
And
List the 3 types (SDC)
A filter in the brain:
* Focus on certain things…
* while ignoring the rest.
Three types (SDC):
* Selective: choose one thing to focus on
(endogenous control)
* Divided: focus on more than one thing simultaneously
* Captured: attention is ‘demanded’ externally (exogenous control)
Selective Attention (6)
Pick one thing to focus on
* amongst many possibilities
Voluntary
* under control of the observer
Eye movement to item of interest
Head movement to sounds of interest
Cocktail party effect:
* Ability to “tune out” numerous conversations
in same vicinity and focus on just one
Single “locus of attention”
Divided Attention
Multiple tasks take place:
* “simultaneous” or time
multiplexed (rapidly alternate)
Can degrade performance:
* if combined tasks
exceed human abilities
Interference between tasks
Cognitive Resource Sharing
Watching TV and Doing Homework
What resources are being shared? (Mental???)
To my understanding, spliting cognative resources between simultaious tasks. Basically multi tasking
Captured Attention
Reflexive, exogenous (external)
Attention automatically drawn to a stimulus
* caused by sudden change in the periphery
Under control of the stimulus
Examples
* A loud noise
* A blinking light
* Something moving
* E.g., in UI design?
Design Implications for Attention
Make information noticeable when it needs attention
Avoid cluttering the interface with too many competing elements
Information in the interface should be structured to manage users’ attention:
* Use perceptual boundaries,
color, sound and movement
Perception and Cognition
“How informationis acquired from the world and transformed into
experiences. Different senses involved, with visual being dominant.”
Foveal vs. Peripheral Vision
Visual Field: approx. 135 degrees
Foveal Vision Field:
* strong acuity
* for color vision
* approx. 2-degree field
Peripheral Vision Field:
* Poor acuity, color blind
* Strong motion detection
Perception: Spread of Attention
(This seems to just be referencing that clutter divides a users attention, hence we need to pick specific points to direct their attention to in order to create good flowing design)
Cluttered interface
Where is spread of
attention higher?
* high- or low-clutter
websites?
Design Implications (7) For attention with UI
Avoid cluttered interface
* Can negatively impact…
* performance
* UX and
* accessibility
Icons should enable users to readily distinguish their meaning
Bordering and spacing are effective visual ways of grouping information
Sounds should be audible and distinguishable
Speech output should enable users to distinguish between the set of spoken words
Text should be legible and distinguishable from the background
Tactile feedback should allow users to
recognize and distinguish different meanings
Other Factors Affecting User Performance: Examples
- Arousal & vigilance
- Fatigue
- Perceptual load
- Sensory deprivation
- Knowledge of results
- Monotony & boredom
- Sleep deprivation
- Anxiety & fear
- Isolation
- Drugs & alcohol
- Circadian rhythms
Designs must Accommodate for Diversity
Physical abilities (e.g. size, strength):
* ergonomics
Cognitive and perceptual abilities
Personality differences (Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator):
* extroversion vs. introversion
* sensing vs. intuition
* perceptive vs. judging
* feeling vs. thinking
Cultural international origins:
* customs, metaphors, etiquette, patterns of usage
Disabilities (permanent, temporary)
How does Human Memory Work?
Involves first encoding and then retrieving
knowledge
We don’t remember everything -
* involves filtering and
* processing what is attended to
Context is important in affecting our memory
* i.e., where, when
We recognize things much better than being
able to recall thing
Accessing memory: Recognition vs. Recall
Recall: information must
be reproduced from
memory. EX CLI, Command Line Interface
Recognition: browse
among choices to find
what you need. EX GUI
Types of Memory: Atkinson-Shiffrin Model (Big List, hopefully not needed :( ) Hierarchy
Human memory
Sensory Memory, Short Term Memory, Long Term memory
(From Long): Explicit, Implicit
Explicit: Declarative -> Episodic, Semantic
Implicit: Procedural
Sensory Memory Types
Iconic
* visual
echoic
* auditory
haptic
* touch
Working (Short-Term) Memory
Rapid access (~ 70ms)
Limited capacity
(“scratch-pad”):
* 7 ± 2 “chunks”
“Flush” when finished with a task
* or move into long-term via conscious rehearsal
Long-Term Memory
Slower and larger
Virtually unlimited capacity
Slower access time (~100 ms)
* with little decay
Access is a complicated operation
* depends on recent past
The Magical Number Seven - Plus or Minus Two (Miller, 1956)
Theory of how much information people can keep in working memory
Can remember between
* 5 to 9 items (7 +/- 2)
Caution:
* Working memory is not long-termmemory
* Accessing working memory is not recognition
* Chunking can overcome apparent limits
How Some Designers Interpret this Rule (Magical Number 7)?
- Present only 7 options on a menu
- Display only 7 icons on a tool bar
- Have no more than 7 bullets in a list
- Place only 7 items on a pull-down menu
- Place only 7 tabs on the top of a website page
It this wrong…why?(Magical Number 7 on how designers use it)
Inappropriate application of the theory
People can scan lists of bullets, tabs,
menu items for the one they want
They don’t have to recall them from
memory…
* having only briefly heard or seen them
Sometimes a small number of items is
good
But depends on task and available screen
space
Chunking
- Chunking extends capacity of working memory:
How do We Do Chunking?
- Visual separation: use whitespace to
separate group info - Visual differentiation: change visual
characteristics of groups
How Do We Apply Chunking to Menus?
Not enough groups, Too many groups, Just right?
Essentially grouping enough common things together by association, not too little or too many in one group
Context is Important
Context affects the extent
* to which information can be
subsequently retrieved
Sometimes difficult to recall information
* encoded in a different context
* Example: next slide
Context is Important - Example (Feel free to read and/or recall mentally)
“You are at the airport 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”
Visual memory (Maybe look at slide if you don’t recall this)
Exceptional ability to
remember images
* Calkins 1898, Shepard 1967
* Paivio et al. 1968
* Standing 1973
* Bower et al. 1975
Pictorial Superiority
Effect
* Images are more easily
remembered than words
* Explained by: dual-coding
theory (Paivio 1969, 1973)
Design Implications (Design interfaces)
Don’t overload users’ memories
* with complicated procedures
for carrying out tasks
Generally, design interfaces that
promote recognition
* rather than recall
Provide users with various ways
of encoding information to help
them remember
* Categories
* Color
* flagging
* time stamping
