Unit -II

UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN

Rasika P. Saste
AISSMSIOIT

1
 Outline
• Input-output channels
• Human memory
• Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving
• Human emotions
• Individual differences
• Psychology and Design
 Introduction
Model Human Processor
Perceptual System: handles sensory stimulus of outside
world
Motor System :controls action
Cognitive System: gives Processing
 Input-output channels

 Human o/p becomes computer i/p and vice

versa.
 Human input and output are called as input
and output channels.
 Human having 5 senses sight, hearing , touch
taste and smell.
 For HCI o/p(sight ,hearing ), i/p (touch) plays
an important role.
Vision
 Vision
• The eye receives light and transform it into
electrical energy
• These electrical signals produced by receptor
are passed to the brain
• Human eye consists of cornea, Iris, Lens,
Blind spot, Retina(rods, cons), optic nerve.
 Vision
• Light reflected from the object firstly appear on
the cornea to the lens & form the lens to
upside down onto the retina.
• App 120 million rods were present in a normal
human eye.
• The rods are the photoreceptor based at retina
which are more sensitive to light and provides
low level of illumination.
• Eg. After walking into the dark light sudden
appearance of sunlight . We are unable to see
anything for a while.
 Vision
• Another receptor of retina is called as cons.
• Compare to rods they are not much sensitive
to light .
• App 6 million cones are available.
• Optic nerve extends in the eye via blind spot .
• Blind spot does not contain rods and cones.
 Perceiving Size and Depth
• An ability of a human to perceive fine details is
by its visual acuity. The large number of tests
are available to measure visual acuity.
• In case of moving object , once you can see ie
perceive the object and even it went away .
Our perception about that object remains
same .
• This phenomenon is known as “Law of size
constancy”
 Perceiving Brightness
• Brightness is directly concerned with level of
lights and luminance i.e. light excreted or
emitted by object.
• Luminance depends on surface properties of
an object and light falling upon it . Photometer
is unit to be used to measure the intensity of
light
 Reading
• Reading is combination of perception and
processing of the text, is important aspect of
design where test data is used in interaction.
• The movement of eyes forward and backward
on text is called as regressions. The more text
is complex regression is more.
 Auditory channel
• Sight is considered as primary sense while hearing
is secondary sense.
• The hearing mechanism begins with vibration in
sound waves.
• The received wave transformed by three sections
of ear, inner ear , middle ear, outer ear.
• A normal human ear is averagely capable to hear
with range of 20 hz to 15 Khz frequencies.
 Human Memory
• Memory is like hard disk drive we store and
retrieve information but from memory few
things can not be recalled as Human Forget.
• On pattern of store , recall information human
memory grouped into three types.
• Sensory Memory
• Short Term Memory(STM)
• Long Term Memory(LTM)
Types of Human Memory
 Sensory Memory
• Sensory memory works like buffer for
memory system. Its buffer get input from
stimuli received via senses:

Sensory Channel Stimuli Approx Duration

Iconic Memory Visual 0.5 sec long

Echoic Memory Aural 3 to 4 sec long

Haptic Memory Touch < 1 sec long

 Short Term Memory
• Short term memory is also called as working
memory , it as a scratch pad as used for temporal
recall.
• Short term memory has a rapid access approx 70
ms. Similarly its decay factor is also rapid , Its
capacity is less.
• Two methodologies for measurement of memory
capacity
1. Length of sequence
2. random recall
 Short Term Memory
• Avg person can recall 7+ - 2 digits from the
experiments of miller.
• If you can recall digits from a pattern around
five to nine , it means your digit span is
average
Try it:
5,6,2,4,9,5,6,7,4,3,5,6
 Short Term Memory
Try it :
256 567 876 543 346
• Recalling digits from above pattern is little
more easy because digits are arranged in
groups or chunks
• 7+- rule is nothing but 7+- 2 chunks we can
recall.
• Successfully created chunks are known as
closure . Chunks and closure helps to improve
short term memory.
• From a sentence , we can recall last word
more easily than middle is called recency
effect
 Long Term Memory
• It is more vital part of Human memory , it is
main storage of what so ever we know by our
stimuli , reading , writing , observation,
listening activity, past experience and so on.
• Episodic memory has information of events
and experience in serial approach . It is made
from our lives daily experience.
• Semantic memory is factual experience , the
skills human posses.
 Theory of forgetting
• Decay and interference are the two factors
which lead to forget information .
• The decay theory proposes
that memory fades due to the mere passage
of time.
• Interference happens as new information
acquired , old information get lost , it is also
known as “Retroactive interference”.
 Thinking : Reasoning & Problem solving

• Thinking is the ability carried with the help of

memory past experiences , knowledge ,
information etc.
• Reasoning is selective and controlled approach
of thinking at higher level in a systematic and
with the help of stepwise meaningful mental
abilities.
Thinking : Reasoning & Problem solving
• Decision making is an art of choosing best
policies among wide set of policies.
• Problem solving is an ability to define a
problem , understand problem , thinking on
reason to arise problems, remedies to be
applied to solve problem.
Types of reasoning
 Deductive reasoning
• In general terms, deductive reasoning means using a
given set of facts or data to deduce other facts from
by reasoning logically. Deductive reasoning can be
used to proof that these new facts are true. For
instance the classic example:
Major premise: All humans are mortal
Minor premise: Socrates is human
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal
• Applying the deduction method on the general rule
“all humans are mortal” (major premise) in the
specific situation “Socrates is human” (minor
premise), the conclusion can be drawn that “Socrates
is mortal”.
 Inductive Reasoning
• Inductive reasoning is looking for a pattern or a trend and then
generalizing it. When you generalize and extrapolate the information, you
don’t know for sure if this trend will continue, but you assume it will. You
therefore don’t know for sure that a conclusion based on inductive
reasoning will be 100% true.
• Example of inductive reasoning used in actual aptitude testing are number
sequences. Try to determine the pattern, generalize to find the next
number in the series.

6, 9, 12, 15, ?

The logical answer to this trend seems 18, but you can’t ever be 100%
sure, maybe the number represent days or hours or something weird that
you don’t expect and which causes extrapolating to give different results.
 Abductive Reasoning

• Abductive reasoning is the third form of logical reasoning and is somewhat

similar to inductive reasoning. It was first introduced by the term
“guessing”, since conclusions drawn here are based on probabilities. In
abductive reasoning it is presumed that the most plausible conclusion is
also the correct one. Example:

Major premise: The jar is filled with yellow marbles

Minor premise: Rahul has a yellow marble in his hand
Conclusion: The yellow marble in Rahul’s hand was taken out of the jar

By abductive reasoning, the possibility that Rahul took the yellow

marble from the jar is reasonable, however it is purely based on the
speculation. The yellow marble could have been given to Rahul by anyone,
or Rahul could have bought a yellow marble at a store. Therefore,
abducing that Rahul took the yellow marble, from the observation of “the
yellow marble filled jar” can lead to a false conclusion. Unlike deductive
and inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning is not commonly used for
psychometric testing.
 Problem Solving
• It is a process of solving a problem with the
best of Human past experience , Knowledge
ability.
• Two problem solving approach:
1. Reproductive Problem Solving approach
requires previous experience
2. Productive problem solving approach requires
insights & reconstruction of the problem.
 Human Emotions
• Emotions are the interpretation of the human
psychological response. Psychologically we try
to respond to a stimulus and try to interpret the
same in emotion.
• Emotion is generated with the help of cognitive
and physical event.
• Emotion has powerful impact on our daily
decision making , reasoning and thinking ability.
Human capabilities are influenced by emotions
 Individual differences
• Age
• Physical disabilities
 Visual impairment
 Hearing impairment
 Dyslexia
• Cultural differences
 Psychology and Design
• It works as a bridge between user thinking and
reasoning capability with the technology which
is used to solve a problem.
• Three goals are in consideration at the time of
interaction design.
• 1. Interaction Design: For young age group
learners who want to design highly interactive
applications.
e.g. social networking websites.
 Psychology and Design
2. Strategic Design Planning: It’s a beginner
stage of learners and experts of human
computer interaction.
3. Creative Activity : For researchers and
developers who deeply interested in every
user with their own psychology or distinct and
different thinking ability to create a new
interface