THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE FIT - Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations - page 156

Figure 8.5 Dual-Task Model of Problem Solving in an IS Context

Task of
Understanding
Application Domain

Internal
Representation of
Application Domain

Mental
Representation
of Application
Domain

External
Representation of
Application Domain

Mental
Representation
for Task Solution

Problem-
Solving
Performance

Internal
IS Problem
Representation

Mental
Representation
of IS Task

External
IS Problem
Representation

IS Task

solution. Such a situation occurs, for example, in making a modification to a piece of software, a
task that requires substantial software comprehension (Shaft and Vessey, 2006). In typical cogni-
tive fit fashion, performance is enhanced when the mental representation of each of the sub-tasks
emphasizes the same type of information. However, when the mental representation that a soft-
ware maintainer has of a piece of software does not match the mental representation of the mod-
ification to be conducted, dual-task problem solving results in dual-task interference.
Shaft and Vessey conducted an experiment with professional programmers that showed that
higher levels of software comprehension are associated with better performance on software modi-
fication tasks only when the maintainer's mental model of the software matched the type of modifi-
cation to be conducted, in other words, when cognitive fit existed. However, when cognitive fit did
not exist, problem solvers improved their knowledge of the software along dimensions with which
they were already familiar and not those dimensions needed to conduct the modification task.
Hence, increases in software comprehension that occurred during modification were inversely
related to performance on the modification task, resulting in dual-task interference. Therefore in
dual-task problem solving involving ill-structured tasks, cognitive fit moderates the relationship
between the two tasks (in this case, modification and comprehension).
When the task is well structured, however, all of the information necessary for task solution is
available via the problem representation alone. Such a situation occurs, for example, in compre-
hending a conceptual schema (Khatri et al., 2006; note that the dual-task context of this paper did
not survive the review process. Nonetheless, the theory is appropriate, and the arguments on