INLS 150

Organizing Information

Getting Ready for Session #4 (September 4, 1996)

Human Information Processing

The readings for this session raise the issue of human performance and ability as possible orienting perspectives for organizing information.

1. [The following item is optional; I couldn’t resist including something from this book somewhere in our travels because of the wonderful cartoons spread throughout its pages.

Preece, Jenny. (1993). A Guide to Usability: Human Factors in Computing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley (pp. 23-32). [QA76.9.H85.G85 1993] or [PAM Box]

This selection very briefly and very basically raises major issues that arise in cognitive psychology that may impact on people’s capacity to benefit from the value added by organizing information. These issues include visual perception (note especially Figure 2.1), attention, human information processing, memory, learning, mental models, and metaphor.]

2. Carroll, David W. (1994). Psychology of Language. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole (pp. 49-52, 102-118).

This selection elaborates on the human information processing system and considers how humans store and access information, particularly the meaning of words.

• What might an understanding of our patterns of cognitive structure and abilities like the Human Information Processing System contribute to our efforts to organize information?
• What does the discussion of research into meaning and the internal lexicon contribute to dealing with problems of information organization (e.g., the development of conceptual schema including representation approaches, classification schemes, and display arrangements)?

3. Norman, D.A. (1993). Things that make us smart : defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. [T14 .N67 1993] & [PAM] [pp. 15-17 & 22-41]

This selection introduces the concepts of experiential and reflective cognition, their relationship to different forms of learning, and the idea of "optimal flow." All of these are illustrated with a discussion of the "goods" and "bads" of multimedia.

• How might Norman’s ideas help us in organizing information as we begin to develop skills as well as novel solutions to difficult problems? Help the users of our information systems in the same way?

4. Reflect on our discussion of information, etc. during Session 3 (August 28, 1996).

• What clues does the outcome of that discussion provide to us regarding the way that people conceptualize concepts?
• Do we all have the same thoughts or visions when we read or hear such terms as dog, information, or freedom?
• What problems/opportunities does the possibility of a variety of conceptualizations for the same nominal concept provide to us as organizers of information?

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