Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Cognition: Memory, Attention,
and Learning
Abstract Memory, attention, learning are intertwined in the user's cognitive
processing. These are the basic mechanisms of the user's cognitive architecture
and thus provide the basis for cognition. Users have several types of memory that
are important for computer use. Attention can be seen as the set of items being
processed at the same time and how they are being processed. If there are more
items stored in memory or the items in memory are better organized these effects
will improve performance and provide the appearance of more attention. Users
also learn constantly. The effects of learning lead to more items being stored in
memory and allow the user to attend to more aspects of a task.
5.1 Introduction
Memory and attention both play an important role in interaction. Complementing
these two facilities is the user's ability to learn things in a variety of ways.
Together, these three concepts form the basics of the information processing
mechanisms of a user's cognitive architecture. We consider the three concepts
together here because of their interdependencies, focusing on the most important
aspects with respect to computer users, rather than covering everything that is
known about them.
It is worth noting at this point that the term memory is used in three different
ways. The first refers to the mental function of retaining information about
things—stimuli, events, images, ideas, and so on—when those things are no longer
present. The second refers to the hypothesized storage system in the brain where
this information is stored. The third refers to the information that is stored itself. In
order to avoid ambiguities we refer to storage of items in and retrieval (or recall) of
items from memory when we want the first meaning; we refer to memory when we
want the second meaning; and we refer to items (or information) in memory when
we want the third meaning.
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