Cognition:Memory

CS352

Cognition

• What goes on in our heads when we carry out activities (eg, use UIs)?

• Book:– attention, perception, memory, learning,

speaking/reading/listening, problem-solving/reasoning

Memory

• Number activity:

347 901 331 7347 89

Memory (cont)

• Chunking

• UIs use this.

Memory (Cont.)

• Number activity:

134 790 133 1734 789

Memory (Cont.)

• Number activity:

134 790 133 1734 789

347 901 331 7347 89

Memory (cont)

• UI implications from these two activities?

Structure of memory

• Short term memory (STM)– Demonstration.

• Long term memory (LTM)– Everything else. – Mostly when we say “memory”, we mean

LTM.

Recognition and Recall

• Money activity #1

• GUI strength: emphasize recognition over recall.– But usually slowed down by need for visual

scan in GUIs.– UI solutions.

People storing/retrieving knowledge

• Declarative knowledge– NYC is north of Miami.– To get key out of ignition, car must be in “park”.– Easy to teach.

• Procedural knowledge– How to spin a basketball on 1 finger.– How to boot a smart phone into recovery mode.– Best taught by demo, learned by practice.

Encoding and (lack of) precision

• How we encode affects: – what we retrieve (recall or recognize) and – how we retrieve

• Money activity #2 (if time permits)

Ways to encode (and constraints)

• Appearance attributes, sound, rhythm, rhyme.

• Traveling performers: how did they do that?– Thru encoding tied to constraints. (Storage for

retrieval).• Rhythm• Rhymes with• Must make sense

Encoding (cont.)

• Retrieval– Word guessing activities

• So, reduce and/or facilitate encoding:– Constraints reduce encoding needed.– Support external cognition (stay tuned) to remove

need to encode.• eg: Excel’s arrows make dependencies explicit.

– Provide users a variety of ways to encode (eg, color, flagging, position).

• eg: forgot filename, but it’s the red folder.

Case study

• The Microsoft Office (past) rearranging of menus due to recency.– Think about chunking/grouping– Think about imprecision of encoding.– What will do if don’t see what you want?

• Does this mean “most recent” is always a bad idea in a UI?

Encoding (cont.)

• Different amount of encoding needed for:– Remembering a bunch of arbitrary things.– Remembering things with meaningful

relationships.• Hotel is on north side of town.

– “Remembering” things that can be derived.• Tied to “mental models” (stay tuned).

Implications for your Project

• How can UI help user remember (store/retrieve) here? – Think about: recog/recall, practice, chunking,

declarative vs. procedural, encoding, constraints

• Ideas:– Grocery system content eg: what brand was that that

I bought last time?– Grocery system UI mechanism eg: how do I get a

subtotal?– Discussion: Your project examples?