Information-Processing Approaches to the Study of Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

This symposium brings together several researchers studying different aspects of human-computer interaction. All of the researchers share the assumption that it is important to understand the cognitive processes involved in human-computer situations. Each presentation focuses on a unique aspect of the cognitive component of human-computer situations, however.

Human-computer interaction is a growing area that includes many human factors issues. Physical factors in human-computer situations are common across the range tasks for which computers are used and are similar to traditional ergonomic considerations in other contexts. When the focus is on human performance in a particular task, however, the important issues become the design of the software interface and the cognitive components involved in manipulating the interface and understanding the system behind it.

We hope that this set of talks will focus interest on “cognitive human factors” and provide insight into which components of the cognitive system are relevant to particular kinds of tasks and which methodologies might be appropriate in different research contexts. Thus, the tasks studied and methodologies discussed are diverse. Two studies focus on procedural skills (text editing and image processing). The researchers in these cases describe plans and strategies and rely on naturalistic observation and formal simulation to characterize the observed behavior. Another study focuses on database manipulation and utilizes a more traditional experimental methodology. The researcher describes the characteristics of different memory representations resulting from different database interfaces and shows the importance of “interface-representation compatability.” Yet another study concerns the task of software development. The researcher examines problem solving strategies and the interaction between development methodology and the programming problem to be solved. Finally, one presentation explicitly explores the use of a particular theoretical orientation and research tool, signal detection theory, in the general context of human-computer interaction.