Information Processing Psychology Research Articles

How Officials Use Intelligence Analysis: A Situational Theory

What explains variation in how officials use intelligence analysis? How can one official acting on one issue within one bureaucratic and political reality seem alternately to use, misuse, and not use analysis at different times? This article proposes an answer by introducing a new theory and evaluating it with a plausibility probe centered on Robert McNamara’s experiences during the Vietnam War. The theory claims that officials use analysis adaptively to meet situational needs. It builds on research into the psychology of mindsets, emotions, and information processing to specify mechanisms of situational patterns of use—an account with marked implications for research and practice.

Human Computer Interface (HCI) using EEG signals.

Abstract Human Computer Interface (HCI) is a field which studies about the applied information-processing psychology that occurs when humans interact with computers. A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is one method to achieve this, and a cursor-controlled application is proposed in this paper. This prototype allows users to control the cursor by converting real-time synaptic commands. An electroencephalogram (EEG) data collection exercise was conducted and the experimental subjects were trained to learn how to control the EMOTIV Insight. Each of them had to decide their mental commands and calibrate the headset before the experiment started. Two different training methods, namely normal training and special training, were applied to the experimental group and control group respectively, and the progress of learning and using the cursor-controlled application were recorded in questionnaires. The control group used the normal training method, which has been widely used in other studies while the experimental group used the special training method, which allows them to decide the content and strategy of mental commands. The objective of this project is to have all the subjects from both experimental groups control 2 commands with an accuracy above 80% after 4 hours of training and observe which group gets better results. It was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and double-blind trial, and one of the subjects turned his strategy from control group to experimental group during the experiment without informing the experimenter in advanced. In the outcome, the highest accuracy obtained by the 3 subjects in the experimental group are 50%, 81.25% and 100% respectively, and the highest accuracy obtained by the subject in the control group is 62.5%. In short, the accuracy of the experimental group is averagely higher compared to the control group, and 66.6% of the experimental group managed to control 2 commands with an accuracy above 80%.

Machinery for managers: secretaries, psychologists, and ‘human–computer interaction’, 1973–1983

AbstractThis article characterizes early research in the field of ‘human–computer interaction’ (HCI) by analysing the first decade of ‘user psychology’ research at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). PARC's Applied Information-Processing Psychology Project (AIP) provided an initial theoretical foundation for HCI in the early 1980s. Like researchers in artificial intelligence (AI), researchers at AIP drew from information-processing psychology. However, AIP researchers argued that their focus on human behaviour distinguished their research from AI and other fields allied with computer science. Previous scholarship has shown that United States computer engineers became concerned with ‘users’ as they sought to commercialize military-funded developments in interactive computing. This paper argues that the decision made by upper management in computerizing workplaces to shift some text production work from clerical workers to middle managers during the 1970s and 1980s led AIP to perceive ambiguities around gender and technical skill. This shaped the initial theoretical foundations that the research group offered to HCI – especially the group's conception of the ‘user’. Computer designers went from presenting word-processing programs as clerical machines for women workers to presenting them as tools for masculine thinking. AIP's research diverged from industrial engineering and AI in response to this transformation.

From the Cognition of the Sick at Heart to the Cognition of Ghosts: The Knowledge Transformation of Cognitive Psychology in the Late Qing/ Republican Era (1895-1949)

In examining the historical changes in cognitive psychology from 1895 to 1949, it is necessary to transform cognitive psychology into cognitive practice. In the late Qing and early Republic era (1895-1919), cognitive practice mainly appeared as the cognition of the sick at heart. Against the background of the late Qing importation of Western learning aimed at securing national salvation, the intellectual class, represented by Tan Sitong, hastily dressed the wound to the traditional Chinese learning of Heaven and man inflicted by late nineteenth century scientific knowledge from Europe and America. They regarded cognition as the understanding gained in the practice of self-cultivation, as affording man a spiritual resting place between Heaven and Earth. By the time of the Republic of China (1920-1949), the main form of cognitive practice had become ghostly cognition. Under the banner of saving the country by means of science, higher education researchers, represented by Lu Zhiwei, explored cognition with the help of such intermediaries as physiological mechanisms and language structure. Men could easily become ghosts trapped in intermediaries when they plunged into the conceptual world in search of truth, as their cognitive practice evolved into the conceptual grasp of ghosts. This ghostly cognition continued into later information processing psychology and was disseminated among the mass of the public. A deeper level of the cognition of the sick at heart remains for future study, on the lengthy road home.

Research on Social Development Characteristics of Children with Learning Difficulties and Corresponding Educational Strategies

With the rise of social information processing psychology, people begin to understand the social development of children with learning difficulties with the possible obstacles in the process of social information processing. There are many factors leading to children's learning difficulties. In addition to neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, social development and mental health characteristics, there are also their own physical quality and the influence of school and family. Educators should promote their cognitive development and correct their social development on the basis of improving their health level. Based on the systematic analysis of the characteristics of neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, social development and mental health of children with learning difficulties, this paper puts forward the educational countermeasures of training learning strategies, attribution strategies and cognitive monitoring strategies for children with learning difficulties. By studying and analyzing the social psychological characteristics of children with learning difficulties, this paper tries to understand the psychological status of children with learning difficulties in school at present. This paper tries to explain how to provide suitable education for children with different learning difficulties according to their social characteristics, so that they can get out of the predicament and face life optimistically.

Evidence-based medicine and problem based learning a critical re-evaluation.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been the subject of controversy since it was introduced in 1992. However, it has yet to be critically examined as an alternative paradigm for medical education, which is how it was proposed. This commentary examines EBM on the terms on which it was originally advanced and within the context that gave rise to it, the problem-based learning (PBL) environment at McMaster University in the 1970s and 80s. The EBM educational prescription is revealed to be aligned with the information processing psychology (IPP) model of learning through acquisition of general problem solving skills that characterized the early McMaster version of PBL. The IPP model has been identified in the literature as discordant with an alternative, constructivist, model that emerged at Maastricht University in the Netherlands over the subsequent period. Strengths and weaknesses of EBM are identified from the standpoint of the underlying cognitive theories. Principles are proposed with which to guide an educationally viable approach to learning and teaching the valuable skills included within the original EBM formula.

The Impact of Risk Communication on Consumption and Consumer Well-Being

In this monograph, we build on the risk communication and the psychology of information processing and decision-making literatures, while extending this work through an explicit discussion of the philosophical foundations of risk communication, regulations, and the implications for communication and policy decisions. In addition, we explore the multidimensional context in which individuals confront risks and make trade-offs with respect to the costs and benefits in specific situations. We discuss various examples of risk-related products and behaviors, which are offered to illustrate the issues that arise when addressing risk in a multidimensional context where scientific information is incomplete and/or ambiguous and there are economic and social costs, as well as benefits, associated with any policy related to communicating and managing risk. Questions remain about how government and policy can respond to the increasing pace of technology change. The regulatory process is, by definition, slow and has difficulty keeping up with the accelerating dynamics of the environment. Are there more responsive market mechanisms that can substitute for government regulation, while still providing protection to individuals? Finally, as society creates “safer” products and processes, there is the potential for triggering more severe risks as a result of the feeling of safety and security.

Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: theoretical implications.

The topic editors, Cornelia Herbert and colleagues, have noted that language has historically been assumed to be independent from emotions. The historical backdrop to this is the long reign of faculty psychology, which viewed the human mind as composed of discrete abilities (see discussion in Barrett, 2013). The mental modularity popularized by Chomsky (1965) and Fodor (1983) continued this view following the cognitive revolution of mid-century. Emotion had no role in information processing psychology, leading to its neglect in the cognitive sciences (Cromwell and Panksepp, 2011). Indeed, the classic emotion-cognition divide has been criticized in the past decades by theorists who are otherwise not natural allies (e.g., Damasio, 1994; Cromwell and Panksepp, 2011; Lindquist, 2013). An alternative to faculty psychology is psychological construction (Lindquist, 2013). On this view, mental abilities and mental states like emotions are constructed from the dynamic interaction of physiological states, situation-specific information, and conceptual knowledge. In the modular view of mind, emotion and language should have little overlap in their processes and representations. However, according to psychological constructivism, an emotional reaction can be influenced by any aspect of the on-going situation, such as the language being spoken, which is the topic of this commentary. I describe here findings on the emotionality differences between a native and a foreign language. Bilingual speakers 1 frequently report that swearing, praying, lying, and saying I love you feel differently when using a native rather than a foreign language (see, e.g., Pavlenko, 2005; Dewaele, 2010). My goal is to highlight the relevance of this body of work for the theoretical assumptions regarding language-emotion independence.

Intentional learning with educational games: A Deweyan reconstruction

Intentional learning has customarily been construed from a perspective that foregrounds cognitive engagement and mental life in meaning making. In this paper, I interrogate the said perspective. I argue that a theoretical positioning based on the dominant paradigm of human information processing psychology leads to incoherence because this paradigm results in “meaning-less cognition.” To get out of this conundrum, I offer a reconstruction of intentional learning from the perspective of Deweyan inquiry and the philosophy of pragmatism. I situate this reconstruction in the context of game-based learning.

Negotiation Offers and the Search for Agreement

AbstractA key component of negotiation dynamics is the search for mutually beneficial agreements, and offer exchange is a key element of that process. Rooted in the tradition of information processing psychology, we develop a theoretical model that conceives of negotiation as the collaborative search of a complex offer space. Negotiators simplify and coordinate search via information contained in offer exchanges, isolating subregions of the offer space for potential solutions. We suggest that early search is more exploratory and primarily influenced by the value of offers; later search is more focused on refinement and is influenced by the content of offers. In that, search by value is substantially more difficult than search by content, and parties seek value through communicating about content. Important information about the negotiators’ perspectives is revealed in comprehensive offers, and critical insight into this search process can be gained by examining the pattern of comprehensive offers.

Newell and Simon's Logic Theorist: Historical Background and Impact on Cognitive Modeling

Fifty years ago, Newell and Simon (1956) invented a “thinking machine” called the Logic Theorist. The Logic Theorist was a computer program that could prove theorems in symbolic logic from Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica. This was perhaps the first working program that simulated some aspects of peoples' ability to solve complex problems. The Logic Theorist and other cognitive simulations developed by Newell and Simon in the late 1950s had a large impact on the newly developing field of information-processing (or cognitive) psychology. Many of the novel ideas about mental representation and problem solving instantiated in the Logic Theorist are still a central part of the theory of cognitive psychology, and are still used in modeling the complex tasks studied in human factors psychology. This paper presents some of the theoretical precursors of the Logic Theorist, describes the principles and implementation of the program, and discusses its immediate and long-term impacts.

Information processing and management control: A note exploring the role played by information media in reducing role ambiguity

Role ambiguity is problematic for organizations because it leads to various unfavourable personal outcomes (such as stress, lower levels of performance, a desire to leave the job), which are likely to prove dysfunctional. At the same time, role ambiguity may be countered or avoided through the acquisition of ‘clear’ information about expected role behaviours. Information itself is obtained through communication channels or information media, and this paper examines the extent to which the utilisation of information media of both high and low information-carrying capacity for performance evaluation purposes may affect managers’ vulnerability to experiencing role ambiguity. The central argument the paper makes is that role ambiguity will decrease as the manager attaches increasing importance to information media for the purposes of performance evaluation. Findings support this argument for information media of low ‘richness’ (i.e. control reports), but not for information media of high richness (face-to-face, telephone). Overall, the research suggests that exploring the psychology of information processing may help to advance understanding on the role played by information media in the process of management control.

An instructional model for web‐based e‐learning education with a blended learning process approach

AbstractWeb‐based e‐learning education research and development now focuses on the inclusion of new technological features and the exploration of software standards. However, far less effort is going into finding solutions to psychopedagogical problems in this new educational category. This paper proposes a psychopedagogical instructional model based on content structure, the latest research into information processing psychology and social contructivism, and defines a blended approach to the learning process. Technologically speaking, the instructional model is supported by learning objects, a concept inherited from the object‐oriented paradigm.

Keynes' Attack on the Versailles Treaty: An Early Investigation of the Consequences of Bounded Rationality, Framing, and Cognitive Illusions

The Paris Peace Conference was arguably the most complex negotiation ever undertaken. The principal product of the conference, the Treaty of Versailles, failed to accomplish any of the major goals of its framers. Relations between Allies and with the defeated enemies seriously deteriorated as a consequence of the negotiations and attempts to implement the treaty. Economic conditions in Germany, the rest of Europe, and eventually the United States deteriorated as well. At the time of the Treaty's publication, John Maynard Keynes and a number of other participants predicted these events, pointing to the errors and oversights of the negotiators as a primary cause. The logic of Keynes' argument is re-examined in light of recent research on the psychology of human information processing, judgment and choice. The analysis reveals that his approach was quite consistent with and actually anticipated both Simon's conception of bounded rationality and recent work on cognitive heuristics and illusions. Negotiator bias has been studied almost exclusively using simple laboratory settings. The catastrophic lose-lose nature of the Versailles Treaty illustrates the way in which complexity necessitates the reliance on simplifying heuristics and organization while propagating and amplifying the impact of the bias that is generated. Evidence from the treaty negotiations and the failed implementation of the treaty suggest some very significant boundary conditions for the application of rational choice models in business, politics, and international relations. It also demonstrates the need for negotiations researchers to focus much more attention on the implementation of agreements and their long-term effect on relationships.

Keynes' Attack on the Versailles Treaty: An Early Investigation of the Consequences of Bounded Rationality, Framing, and Cognitive Illusions

AbstractThe Paris Peace Conference was arguably the most complex negotiation ever undertaken. The principal product of the conference, the Treaty of Versailles, failed to accomplish any of its framers' major goals. Relations between the Allies themselves and the Allies and their defeated enemies seriously deteriorated as a consequence of the negotiations and attempts to implement the treaty. Economic conditions in Germany, the rest of Europe, and eventually the United States declined as well. At the time of the Treaty's publication, John Maynard Keynes and a considerable number of other participants predicted these events, pointing to the negotiators' errors and oversights as a primary cause. The logic of Keynes' argument is re-examined in light of recent research on the psychology of human information processing, judgment and choice. It reveals that his approach is actually very consistent with and anticipates both Simon's conception of bounded rationality and recent work on cognitive heuristics and illusions. Negotiator bias has been studied almost exclusively using simple laboratory settings. The catastrophic lose-lose nature of the Versailles Treaty illustrates the way in which complexity necessitates reliance on simplifying heuristics while propagating and amplifying the impact of the bias that is generated. Evidence from the treaty negotiations and the failed implementation of the treaty suggest some very significant boundary conditions for the application of rational choice models in the business, politics, and international relations contexts. It also demonstrates the need for negotiations researchers to focus more attention on the implementation of agreements and the long-term effects of those agreements on relationships.

Hierarchical decomposition of laparoscopic surgery: a human factors approach to investigating the operating room environment

Hierarchical decomposition of complex behaviour and systems is a valuable research methodology from human factors and information-processing psychology that can be applied to laparoscopic surgery. This article describes results of research on surgeons performing several different laparoscopic procedures, conducted in Vancouver, Canada 1995–98. Through top-down analyses of surgical procedures and bottom-up analyses of tool motions, results included detailed decomposition of the procedures through surgical steps, sub-steps, tasks, sub-tasks and tool motions. Analyses at all levels provided valuable information. In addition to specific surgeon- and technology-related observations, such as the effect of dividing the short gastrics on performance of Nissen fundoplication, gaze patterns of surgeons and factors related to patient safety were analysed. The hierarchical decomposition approach can be extended to other aspects of the complex system that consists of the surgeon and operating room team, the technologies and the operating room environment. Other frameworks for assessment are also considered.

Formación de modelos mentales en la resolución de problemas de genética

From the perspective of the so-called «Psychology of Information Processing» we analyse the building of mental models through the resolution of problems in the field of classical genetics. This analysis is focused on the representation of the knowledge and the problems, as well as on the inference process, used by students while trying to find a solution. The methodology used in the research, of a causal-explanatory type, has finally rendered hypotheses on the general principles controlling the formation of mental representations and their redescription to develop more consistent and flexible models.

Inscribing the Winch: Mechanisms by Which Students Develop Knowledge Structures for Representing the Physical World With Algebra

I propose and test an account of mechanisms by which students develop knowledge structures for modeling the physical world with algebra. The account begins to bridge the gap between current mathematics curricula, in which modeling activities play an important role, and theoretical accounts of how students learn to model, which lag behind. After describing the larger study, in which I observed 12 pairs of 8th-grade students introduce and refine algebraic representations of a physical device called a winch, I then focus on 1 pair that generated an unconventional yet sound equation. Because the prevailing genetic accounts of knowledge structures in mathematics education, cognitive science, and information-processing psychology do not explain key characteristics of the data, I begin to construct a new developmental account that does. To do so, I use forms, a class of schemata that combine patterns of algebra symbols with patterns of experience in the physical world, and 2 mechanisms, notation variation and mapping variation. I then use forms and the 2 mechanisms to analyze how the selected pair of students introduced and refined initial, faulty algebraic representations of the winch into an unconventional yet sound equation.

Activity theory: History, research and application

This paper outlines activity theory (henceforth called AT), a theoretical approach developed by the psychologists of the former Soviet Union beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the present. AT defines 'activity' as a goal directed system in which cognition, behaviour and motivation are integrated and organized by goals and the mechanisms of self-regulation. The purpose of this paper is to describe AT, and to compare it to the orientations widely adopted in the West, primarily information processing and cognitive psychology.

Successive Approximations to an Adequate Model of Attention

Everybody knows the phenomena summarized with the term attention: concentration, focalization, limitation, selection, and intensification (see, e.g., James, 1890/1950). The explanation of these phenomena is, however, a different matter. Problems easily arise with regard towhathas to be explained and with regard to thestyleof explanation. A problem of the first kind is the “methodology of ‘bad focus’”: the explanation starts with and is fixated on an intuitively striking but nonessential behavioral feature or cognitive achievement. A problem of the second kind is a “virtus dormitiva” explanation: the explanation starts with emphasizing one aspect of the observed phenomena, the emphasized aspect receives an interesting and suggestive name, and that name with its connotations is used as a concept in the explanation. At the start of contemporary, behavior-based, information processing psychology, avirtus dormitivaexplanation infiltrated the functional accounts of the phenomena of attention; the empirical observation that people show performance limitations was translated into the theoretical concept of a communication channel with a limited capacity. That limited capacity notion became the core concept in what can be called the standard theory of attention. This standard theory of attention faced severe difficulties in explaining the guidance of attention by the information processor's goals and intentions. Subsequent modifications, concerned with removing these difficulties, revealed that selection, guided by goals and intentions, is the essential behavioral feature and that the observed performance limitations are a result of this selection. So, the limited capacity theorizing was not only plagued by avirtus dormitivaexplanation, it also suffered from the methodology of bad focus.