| Human-Centered Computing Keeping It Too Simple: How the Reductive Tendency Affects Cognitive Engineering (2008) | |||||||||||||
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| Certain features of tasks make them especially difficult for humans. These constitute leverage points for applying intelligent technologies, but there’s a flip side. Designing complex cognitive systems is itself a tough task. Cognitive engineers face the same challenges in designing systems that users confront in working the tasks that the systems are intended to aid. Research background Research conducted under the rubric of Cognitive Flexibility Theory examined learning and performance in medical education and, in particular, how people learn and understand the cardiovascular system. 1,2 The research identified characteristics of learning material and performance situations that cause cognitive difficulty for learners and operators. It also determined how people respond to these elements of difficulty. That research found that learners and practitioners often deal with complexity through oversimplification, which can lead to misconception and faulty knowledge application. The dimensions of difficulty Eleven dimensions make tasks difficult and require mental effort. Static vs. dynamic. Are important aspects of a situation | |||||||||||||
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