Chapter 1: The Human

Introduction
In 1983, Card, Moran and Newell described the Model Human Processor: a simplified view of the
human processing involved in interacting with computer systems. MHP comprises 3 subsystems: the
perceptual system, the motor system and the cognitive system. Each of them has a processor and
memory. MHP also includes a number of Principles of operation which dictate the behavior of the
system under certain conditions.

Input-Output channels
In interaction with a computer, the human input is the data output by the computer vice versa.
Input in humans occurs mainly through the senses and output through the motor controls of the
effectors.

Vision, hearing and touch are the most important senses in HCI. The fingers, voice, eyes, head and
body position are the primary effectors

1.1.1 Vision

Visual perception can be divided in 2 stages: the physical reception of the stimulus from the outside
world, and the processing and interpretation of that stimulus.

The eye is a mechanism for receiving light and transforming it into electrical energy. Light is
reflected from objects in the visual field and their image is focused on the back of the eye, where it
is transformed into an electrical signal and passed to the brain. The most important components are

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the cornea and lens and the retina with the blind spot and photoreceptors: rods and cones, located
on the fovea. Rods are highly sensitive to light and usable under low illumination, but do not
distinguish fine details. The cones are less sensible to light and can distinguish color.

The eye can perceive size and depth using the visual angle. If two objects are at the same distance
from the eye, the larger one will have a larger visual angle. Similarly, if two objects of the same size
are at different distances from the eye, the furthest one will have the smaller visual angle.

The visual angle is given in degrees or minutes of arc. Visual acuity is the ability of a person to
perceive small details. If the visual angle is too small, the detail will not be perceived. The minimum
visual angle is approximately .5 seconds of arc. However, according to the law of size constancy, our
perception of size relies on more factors than the visual angle, for example, the perception of depth.
Depth can be perceived through various cues, e.g. indications in the visual context about an object’s
distance and familiarity with

Perception of brightness is a subjective reaction to levels of light emitted by an object: luminance

Contrast is related to luminance, since it is the function of the luminance of the object and the
background. Visual acuity increases with increased luminance. However, on screen, the flicker also
increases with the luminance. The eye perceives color because the cones are sensitive to light of
different wavelengths. It should be reminded that 3-4% of the fovea is sensitive to blue, making blue
acuity lower.

The context in which an object appears allows our expectations to clearly disambiguate the
interpretation of the object. In class, the example B/13 is used to illustrate this. however, it can also
create optical illusions, for example in the Muller-Lyer illusion.

Reading consists of several stages:

First, the visual pattern of the word is perceived.

Second, it is decoded with reference to an internal representation of language.

Finally, the word is processed as part of the sentence or phrase using syntactic and semantic
analysis. During the first two stages, the eyes make saccades (jerky movements), followed by
fixations. The eye moves both forwards and backwards over the text, called regressions, which is
increased when the text is more complex.

1.1.2 Hearing

The ear receives vibrations on the air and transmits them through various stages to the auditory
nerves. The ear compromises 3 sections, the outer ear (pinna and auditory canal), middle ear
(tympanic membrane (with ossicles) and cochlea) and inner ear (with cilia). The inner ear is filled
with cochlean liquid. The sound waves are transmitted to the liquid using the ossicles. The
vibrations, now in the liquid, bend the cilia which releases a chemical transmitter. The transmitter

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causes impulses in the auditory nerves. The human ear can hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 15 kHz.
The sound we perceive is (selectively) filtered, which is illustrated by the cocktail party effect: we
can notice our name spoken out in a noisy room.

Sounds (vibrations) have a number of characteristics. The pitch is the frequency of the sound. The
higher the frequency, the higher the sound. The loudness corresponds to the amplitude of the
sound. Timbre relates to the type of the sound, independent of frequency and amplitude.

1.1.3 Touch

The apparatus of touch (haptic perception) is not localized. Stimuli are received through the skin,
which contains various types of sensory receptors. Mechanoreceptors, responding to pressure, are
important in HCI.

There are 2 kinds of MR’s: Rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors, responding to immediate pressure
as the skin is intended. They stop responding as continuous pressure is applied, to which slowly
adapting mechanoreceptors respond. Some areas of the body have greater sensitivity/acuity than
others. This can be measured using the two-point threshold test. A second aspect of haptic
perception is kinesthesis: awareness of the position of the body and limbs, due to receptors in the
joints. There are 3 types: rapidly adapting (respond when moving limb in direction), slowly adapting
(respond to movement and static position) and positional receptors (only responding to static
positions).

1.1.4 Movement

When making movements, a stimulus is received through the sensory receptors and transmitted to
the brain. After processing, the brain ‘tells’ the appropriate muscle to respond. The movement time
is dependent on the physical characteristics of the subjects. The reaction time varies according to
the sensory channel through which the stimulus is received. Accuracy is a second measure of motor
skill. A fast respond does not always mean a less accurate response. The time taken to hit a target is
a function of the size of the target and the distance that has to be moved. This is formalized in Fitt’s
law, which is commonly written as:

Movement time = a + b log2 (distance=size + 1)

Where a and b are empirically constants

Human Memory
We can distinguish 3 types of memory: sensory buffers, short-term memory (or working memory)
and long-term memory.

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Figure 1.1 Memory Duration. Memory can characterized in terms of stages — the length of time that
information remains available to us.

1.1.5 Sensory memory

The sensory memories act as buffers for stimuli received through each of the senses: iconic memory
for vision, echoic memory for sounds and haptic memory for touch. These memories are constantly
overwritten by new information coming in on these channels. Information is passed from the
sensory memory into short-term memory by attention, filtering the stimuli to those that are at that
moment of interest (arousal, or shift of attention).

1.1.6 Short-term memory

STM is used to store information which is only required fleetingly. STM can be accessed rapidly,
however, also decays rapidly. It has a limited capacity. Miller stated the 7+/-2 rule, which means
that humans can store 5-9 chunks of information. Chunks can be single items or groups of items, like
2 digits of a telephone number grouped together. Patterns can be useful as aids to memory.

The recency effect suggests that STM recall is damaged by interferences of other information. Long-
term memory is not affected.

1.1.7 Long-term memory

LTM differs from STM in various ways. It has an unlimited capacity, a slow access time and forgetting
occurs more slowly or not at all. Information is stored here from the STM through rehearsal.

There are 2 types of LTM: episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic memory represents our
memory of event and experiences in a serial form. Semantic memory is a structured record of facts,
concepts and skills that we have acquired, derived from the episodic memory.

According to the semantic network model, the semantic memory is structured as a network. The
more general the information is, the higher is the level on which it is stored. This allows us to
generalize about specific cases. The connections in the network are made using associations. There

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are other models about the organization of our LTM. Structured representations like frames and
scripts, for example, organize information into data structures. Frames have slots to add attribute
values. A script comprises a number of elements, which, like slots, can be filled with appropriate
information. Another model is the production system, which holds IF-THEN rules: if information
coming into the STM matches one of the conditions in the LTM, the appropriate action is executed.

There are 3 main activities related to LTM: storage of information, forgetting and information
retrieval.

• Storage: The rehearsal of a piece of information from the STM stores it in the LTM. If the
total learning time is increased, information is remembered better (total time hypothesis).
However, the learning time should be well spread (distribution of practice effect). But
repetition alone is not enough: information should be meaningful and familiar, so it can be
related to existing structures and more easily incorporated into memory.

• Forgetting: There are 2 main theories of forgetting: decay and interference. Decay suggests
that information held in LTM may eventually be forgotten. Jost’s Law states that if 2
memory traces are equally strong at the same time, the older one will be more durable.
Information, however, can also be lost through interference: if we acquire new information,
it causes the loss of old information: retroactive interference. It is also possible that the
older information interferes with the newly acquired information: proactive inhibition.
Forgetting is affected by emotional factors too

• Retrieval: There are 2 types of information retrieval: recall and recognition. In recall the
information is produced from memory. It can be facilitated by providing cues, e.g. the
category in which the information may be placed. In recognition, the presentation of the
information provides the knowledge that the information has been seen before.

Thinking: Reasoning and Problem Solving

Thinking can require different amounts of knowledge. Some thinking activities are much directed
and the knowledge required is constrained. Others require vast amounts of knowledge from
different domains. Thinking can be divided in reasoning and problem solving.

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 Figure 1.2: Thinking: reasoning and problem solving

1.1.8 Reasoning

Reasoning is the process by which we use the knowledge we have to draw conclusions or infer
something new about the domain of interest. There are different types of reasoning: deductive,
inductive and abductive.

• Deduction: Deductive reasoning derives the logically necessary conclusion from the given
premises. The logical conclusion does not have to correspond to our notion of truth. The
human deduction is weak at the points where truth and validity clash.

• Induction: Inductive reasoning is generalizing from cases we have seen to infer information
about cases we have not seen. In practice, induction is used to fill in missing details while
reasoning.

• Abduction: Abduction reasons from a fact to the action or state that caused it. Abduction is
used to derive explanations for the events we observe.

1.1.9 Problem Solving

Problem solving is the process of finding a solution to an unfamiliar taste, using (adapting) the
knowledge we have. There are different views on problem solving:

• Gestalt theory: The Gestalt theory states that problem solving is both productive and
reproductive; insight is needed to solve a problem. However, this theory has not been
accepted as ‘sufficient’.

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 • Problem space theory: The problem space comprises problem states and problem solving
involves generating these states using legal state transition operators. People use these to
move from the initial state to the goal state. Heuristics (e.g. Means-end analysis) are
employed to select the right operators.

• Use of analogy: Problems are solved by mapping knowledge relating to a similar known
domain to the new problem: analogical mapping.

1.1.10 Skill Acquisition

Experts often have a better encoding of knowledge: information structures are one tuned at a deep
level to enable efficient and accurate retrieval. According to the ATC model, these skills are acquired
through 3 levels:

• The learner uses general-purpose rules which interpret facts about a problem. (slow,
memory-demanding)
• The learner develops rules specific to the task, using proceduralization.
• The rules are tuned to speed up performance, using generalization.

1.1.11 Errors and Mental Models

There are different types of errors: changes in context of skilled behavior can cause errors. An
incorrect understanding/model of a situation can cause errors too, because humans tend to create
mental models, based on experience, which may differ from the actual situation.

Emotion
Emotion involves both physical and cognitive events. Our body responds biologically to an external
stimulus and we interpret that in some way as a particular emotion. That biological response (a§ect)
changes the way we deal with different situations and this has an impact on the way we interact
with computer systems.

Individual differences
The principles and properties discussed apply to the majority of people, but humans are not all the
same. Differences should be taken into account in the designs: divide the users in target groups, for
example.

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Psychology and the design of interactive systems

1.1.12 Guidelines

General design principles and guidelines (straightforward or complex) can be and have been derived
from the above discussed theories.

1.1.13 Models to support design

Psychological analysis has led to the development of analytic and predictive models of user
behavior.

1.1.14 Techniques for evaluation

Psychology provides a range of empirical techniques which we can employ to evaluate designs and
systems.

Summary
• Humans are limited in their capacity to process information. This has important implications
for design.
• Information is received and responses given via a number of input and output channels:
o visual channel
o auditory channel
o haptic channel
o movement
• Information is stored in memory:
o sensory memory
o short-term (working) memory
o long-term memory
• Information is processed and applied:
o reasoning
o problem solving
o skill acquisition
o error
• Emotion influences human capabilities.
• Users share common capabilities but are individuals with differences, which should not be
ignored.

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For more information, please follow the links below:

https://hcibook.com/e3/plain/chaps/ch1

https://www.slideshare.net/LukmanulhakimAlmamalik/e3-chap03

https://openpress.usask.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/memories-as-types-and-stages/

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/human-computer-
interaction#:~:text=Human%2Dcomputer%20interaction%20(HCI)%20is%20a%20multidisciplinary%
20field%20of,forms%20of%20information%20technology%20design.

HCI-1: Human and Computer Interaction