A novel approach to cognitive engineering: Manipulating access cost

Morgan, Phillip; Smy, Victoria; Seeby, Helen; Patrick, John

Abstract

The traditional approach to cognitive engineering involves reducing workload by providing operators with immediately accessible relevant information. We suggest that such immediate access may not always improve human performance. Somewhat counter-intuitively, making some information harder to access by slightly increasing the time, physical and mental effort to view it can induce a more memory-based planning strategy that can improve performance. Studies are described that find increasing access cost leads to improved recall, more efficient problem solving, and resilience to interruption. Implications for cognitive engineering are discussed.

Citation

Morgan, P., Smy, V., Seeby, H., & Patrick, J. (2013, July). A novel approach to cognitive engineering: Manipulating access cost. Poster presented at The 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: The 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Start Date: Jul 21, 2013
• End Date: Jul 26, 2013
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 437-441
• Keywords: information access cost, cognitive engineering, display design, soft constraints, memory, planning, problem solving, task interruption
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39473-7_87
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Communications in Computer and Information Science