Information Technology Reference
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networks, and ''Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain'' is a mnemonic for the
colors of the rainbow in sequence.
Probably the most useful aid to recalling items for users is recognition. Rec-
ognition memory is more robust than recall memory. It is easier to recognize
something that you have previously seen than it is to recall what it was that you
saw. Many interfaces take advantage of recognition memory by putting objects or
actions in a place where they can be recognized instead of requiring the user to
recall them. Dialogue boxes and explicit links in web pages are the most overt
form of this. Menus hide the cues one level or more, but the same process is at
work.
The trade-off here is that for experts the recognition process and its application
in an interface is often much slower than the recall process. For example, looking
for and then recognizing objects on a menu to perform a file manipulation task is
typically slower than recalling and using keystroke commands to do the same task.
More expert users, or those doing a task quite often, will be able to use recall
memory, and most likely will want to for greater efficiency. The use of recognition
memory appears to require offering the user multiple, related items from which the
user has to recognize (and select) the one they want. This represents a design trade-
off, which will be best addressed if you know your user's tasks as well as the
available technologies. A simple solution is to provide shortcuts of some kind, and
provide the user with access to them as they use the interface, almost turning the
interface into a tutor of itself.
Anomalous or interesting things are better retrieved from memory. As noted
earlier, the learning of declarative information is influenced by the content. For
example, Nepal is not in South America, so if you knew this when you were
reading a previous section of this chapter, you are likely to recall that section better
because it stood out. This von Restorff effect was originally seen when looking at
learning lists of words. If a bell was rung when a word was presented, that word
was subsequently better recalled. This effect applies in general to things that are
distinctive. For example, a word in red will be easier to recall if it appears in a list
of words in black. (Putting all the words in red will not work nor will highlighting
all of a section to memorize; the point is for objects to stand out from similar
items, so highlighting the entire book does not work!)
Finally, practice and repetition of the target task helps. This is another example
of the Von Restorff effect. You should now be able to recall it better because you
have seen it and, more importantly, processed it more often. Practice and repetition
help to increase the amount of information stored for later retrieval from memory,
but only if attention is paid to the stimuli and the stimuli are elaborated. A basic
and early theory in memory research was about levels of processing. Greater
processing of stimuli leads to better subsequent retrieval of those stimuli. Counting
the number of vowels in a piece of text does not lead to very good retention of that
text. Reading the text leads to better retention, and arguing with the text or another
reader helps even more; rewriting in your own words is even better. This is one
reason that teachers ask you about what you have read and encourage you to
process it actively.
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