AN EMPIRICAL VALIDATION OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY THEORY with respect to text, graphics and table editing

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of cognitive complexity theory. The large-scale introduction of office systems with multifunctional application software has led to several attempts to make the different functions of such a system usable. The different aspects of usability have to be related to psychological models of performance, learning, transfer, and development of cognitive skills and competence. One approach is based on the assumption that both ease of learning and efficiency in use are mainly determined by the degree of consistency between the human–computer interfaces of the respective functional domains. For the construction of indicators of consistency among computerized tasks, one needs a formal language to describe tasks in relation to operations to be performed by a user on a given target system. Cognitive complexity modeling is done using production systems for the representation of procedural knowledge. Production rules as elements of a production system form a complete and consistent description of the task to be fulfilled by the user. They are treated as elementary units of cognitive skill that are acquired in an all-or-none and once-and-for-all fashion