Tutorial 3

Methods of Cognitive Analysis for HCI

Douglas J. Gillan, Nancy J. Cooke, New Mexico State University

Sunday, May 7

Objective

This tutorial will (1) introduce interface designers and user-testing specialists to the principal methodologies used by cognitive psychologists in measuring cognitive structures and processes, (2) relate these methods to interface design and testing, (3) provide hands-on, active training in each method, and (4) give designers and test specialists sufficient background and reference materials to continue learning about these and related methods on their own.

Content

This tutorial focuses on the analysis of cognitive content and processes throughout the user interface design process. The tutorial structure centers around a specific design problem: the design of a computer-based expert assistant to help CHI participants. The tutorial follows the flow of a typical design process from (a) an initial phase of collecting and analyzing data related to users and their tasks to (b) iterative design and diagnostic testing to (c) system testing. We strongly encourage participants to e-mail descriptions of their design and evaluation problems before the tutorial (gillan@crl.nmsu.edu, cooke@nmsu.edu) or bring their descriptions to the tutorial to serve as additional examples. The content of the tutorial covers the four major topic areas in cognitive psychology: high-order perception, memory, thinking and reasoning, and language.

Audience

This introductory-level tutorial addresses the concerns of participants who do not have an advanced degree in Experimental Psychology. However, those with advanced degrees in Experimental Psychology may wish to attend to review certain methods, learn new methods (e.g., multivariate methods), or think about and discuss applying research techniques to interface design and user testing.

Presentation

Lecture, demonstration, exercises

Instructors

Douglas J. Gillan has research experience in both industrial and academic settings. His current research at New Mexico State University centers around the design and use of cognitive artifacts. Nancy J. Cooke's research has focused on cognitive psychology as applied to expert systems, intelligent tutoring, and HCI. She has written extensively on methods for capturing users' mental models, especially by means of multivariate methods.

Keith Instone / instone@acm.org / 95-01-05