Human Information Processing

Abstract

present volume, by utilizing a tutorial approach, covers some seven discrete regions within general domain of human information processing. What does this volume convey that is truly unique, considering recent proliferation of such books? Most happily, there is much that is unique, and this volume is in no sense another redundant and tired repetition of past reviews of literature. Perhaps its most distinguishing characteristic is its approach to methodological issues and its emphasis on commonalities human performance and human cognition aspects of information (p. ix) rather than on differences between these two approaches. As editor says in his preface, the tutorial style is aimed at two audiences. Graduate students who have yet to select an area of specialization should find broad coverage an aid to this end. Sophisticated researchers who wish to learn more about a particular area of human information processing sufficiently removed from their own speciality that obtaining this information from a search of literature might prove tedious should also find this volume helpful. Both groups should benefit from heavy emphasis on methodology that is present throughout volume. Thus, this book should protect researcher who is new to an area or an approach from repeating some of errors that have been noted by authors. first chapter, Human Perceptual-Motor Performance by Richard W. Pew, addresses first properties and performance of rather mechanistic and simple-minded error-correction systems. Issues such as tracking of random signals and a simple model of compensatory tracking are discussed and examined critically and incisively. This develops naturally into a treatment of relationship between discrete and continuous models of tracking performance. Finally, various higher-order mechanisms in tracking are then offered, sources of signal predictability are outlined, and sine-wave tracking is given as an example, with overall analysis described in terms of 'block diagram' that by now is all too familiar. Approximately midway through Pew's treatment, his concern shifts from tracking performance per se to a deep and fundamental understanding of acquisition and performance of so-called voluntary movements. Perhaps Pew's most penetrating analysis of these issues is of different roles played by memory in tracking performance versus voluntary movement. His discussion of motor memory is highly illuminating, and his discussion of schema learning as introduced by Bartlett and its relation to problems of motor memory is exceptional. Pew's overall analysis results in another block diagram that summarizes his thinking on 'voluntary' motor control. He concludes that while a great deal of detail remains to be worked out, main thrust of this chapter is that there is nothing incompatible among representations of inner-loop control, higher-order tracking control, and formulation and execution of so-called voluntary movements (p. 36). Chapter 2, The Interpretation of Reaction Time in Information-Processing Research by Robert G. Pachella, is not only exceedingly timely but an excep695