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Chapter 2

The document discusses several key aspects of human cognition and perception: 1) It outlines the main human senses - vision, hearing, touch - and how we process incoming sensory information through various memory systems like sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. 2) It describes two stages of vision - physical reception and processing/interpretation. The eye receives light which is processed in the brain to determine attributes like size, depth, brightness, and color. 3) It discusses various types of reasoning like deductive, inductive, abductive and how humans solve problems using approaches such as means-ends analysis and analogy. 4) Emotion influences how humans respond to situations and can

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Moti Diro
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44 views

Chapter 2

The document discusses several key aspects of human cognition and perception: 1) It outlines the main human senses - vision, hearing, touch - and how we process incoming sensory information through various memory systems like sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. 2) It describes two stages of vision - physical reception and processing/interpretation. The eye receives light which is processed in the brain to determine attributes like size, depth, brightness, and color. 3) It discusses various types of reasoning like deductive, inductive, abductive and how humans solve problems using approaches such as means-ends analysis and analogy. 4) Emotion influences how humans respond to situations and can

Uploaded by

Moti Diro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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chapter 2

the human
the human

• Information i/o …
– visual, auditory, haptic, movement
• Information stored in memory
– sensory, short-term, long-term
• Information processed and applied
– reasoning, problem solving, skill, error
• Emotion influences human capabilities
• Each person is different
Vision

Two stages in vision

• physical reception of stimulus

• processing and interpretation of


stimulus
The Eye - physical reception

• mechanism for receiving light and


transforming it into electrical energy
• light reflects from objects
• images are focused upside-down on
retina
• retina contains rods for low light vision
and cones for colour vision
• ganglion cells (brain!) detect pattern
and movement
Interpreting the signal

• Size and depth


– visual angle indicates how much of view
object occupies
(relates to size and distance from eye)
– visual acuity is ability to perceive detail
familiar objects perceived as constant size
(in spite of changes in visual angle when far away)
Interpreting the signal (cont)
• Brightness
– subjective reaction to levels of light
– affected by luminance of object
– measured by just noticeable difference
– visual acuity increases with luminance as does
flicker

• Colour
– cones sensitive to colour wavelengths(reflaction)
– blue acuity is lowest
– 8% males and 1% females colour blind
Reading
• Several stages:
-Perception occurs during fixations
– decoded using internal representation of language
– interpreted using knowledge of syntax, semantics,
pragmatics

• Word shape is important to recognition


• Negative contrast improves reading from
computer screen
Hearing
• Provides information about environment:
distances, directions, objects etc.
• Physical apparatus:
– 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
Hearing (cont)

• Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to


15kHz
– less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than
low.
Touch
• Provides important feedback about environment.
• May be key sense for someone who is visually
impaired.
• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:
– thermoreceptors – heat and cold
– nociceptors – pain
– mechanoreceptors – pressure

• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers.


Memory

There are three types of memory function:

Sensory memories

Short-term memory or working memory

Long-term memory
sensory memory

• Buffers for stimuli received through


senses
– iconic memory: visual stimuli
– echoic memory: aural stimuli
– haptic memory: tactile stimuli
Short-term memory (STM)

• acts as a kind of “scratch-pad” for


temporary recall of the information
which is being processed at any point in
time. at the same time. It holds a small
amount of information in mind in an
active, readily-available state for a
short period of time (typically from 10
to 15 seconds, or sometimes up to a
minute).
Long-term memory (LTM)
• Is a part of human memory which holds information
permanently.
• Information to be stored in long term memory it must
go through working memory.
• The Lerner must give attention.
• It depend on three process
• Attention-- encoded-- retrived
Thinking

Reasoning
deduction, induction, abduction
Problem solving
Deductive Reasoning
• Deduction:
– 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:


e.g.If it is raining then the ground is dry
It is raining
Therefore the ground is dry
Deduction (cont.)

• When truth and logical validity clash …


e.g. Some people are babies
Some babies cry
Inference - Some people cry
Correct?

• People bring world knowledge to bear


Inductive Reasoning
• Induction:
– generalize from cases seen to cases unseen
e.g. all elephants we have seen have trunks
therefore all elephants have trunks.

• Unreliable:
– can only prove false not true

… but useful!
• Humans not good at using negative evidence
Abductive reasoning

• reasoning from event to cause


e.g. Sam drives fast when drunk.
If I see Sam driving fast, assume
drunk.

• Unreliable:
– can lead to false explanations
Problem solving
• Process of finding solution to unfamiliar task
using knowledge.
• Several theories.
• Gestalt
– problem solving both productive and reproductive
– productive draws on insight and restructuring of problem
– attractive but not enough evidence to explain `insight'
etc.
– move away from behaviourism and led towards
information processing theories
Problem solving (cont.)

Problem space theory


– problem space comprises problem states
– problem solving involves generating states using legal
operators
– heuristics may be employed to select operators
e.g. means-ends analysis
– operates within human information processing system
e.g. STM limits etc.
– largely applied to problem solving in well-defined areas
e.g. puzzles rather than knowledge intensive areas
Problem solving (cont.)
• Analogy
– analogical mapping:
• novel problems in new domain?
• use knowledge of similar problem from similar domain
– analogical mapping difficult if domains are semantically
different

• Skill acquisition
– skilled activity characterized by chunking
– conceptual rather than superficial grouping of problems
– information is structured more effectively
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
Emotion
• 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
Emotion (cont.)
• 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”
(Donald Norman)
Emotion (cont.)

• 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
Individual differences

• long term
– physical and intellectual abilities
• short term
– effect of stress or fatigue
• changing
– age
Any Question?

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