Introduction to Cognitive Science

Ben Posetti

Description

Visuo-Spatial Working Memory in Website Navigation
Cognitive processing of visual design elements in virtual environments

Sujets

• Techniques
• Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication
• Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication
• Technologies de l’Information
• Engineering
• Technology
• Sciences et techniques
• Industrial Design

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 08 novembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456620332
• Langue: English

Extrait

INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE SCIENCE
 
 
Visuo-Spatial Working Memory in
Website Navigation
Cognitive processing of visual design elements in virtual environments
 
 
Ben Posetti
University of Copenhagen

Copyright 2013 Ben Posetti,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
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ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2033-2
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
ABSTRACT
Visual elements designed in websites are important for structuring information, aiding navigation and overall enhancing website usability. This paper analyses how visual elements in websites are processed in visuo-spatial working memory and what that means for website usability. Specifically, the discussion considers how particular phenomena in visuo-spatial working memory inform how particular principles of visual representation used in websites might be processed in human cognition, and how that translates to usability.
First, the topic is introduced and the link between website design and human cognition is established. Second, visuo-spatial working memory is described and relevant findings for website processing are presented. Then this theory is linked to the concept of website usability. Finally, principles of visual representation are analysed in how they tax visuo-spatial working memory and how they influence usability. The analysis refers to examples from various real websites and an overall analysis of one tourism website.
1. INTRODUCTION
Visuo-Spatial Working Memory (VSWM) is the feature of cognitive working memory that temporarily stores and manipulates visuo-spatial input for use in processing (Logie, 1995). The concept was devised as a part of the Baddeley and Hitch (1974) original conception of working memory which entailed three elements: The visuo-spatial sketchpad which performs the functions of VSWM; the phonological loop performing a similar task for verbal (as opposed to visuo-spatial) material; and the central executive handling reasoning, decision making and coordinating the other two elements (Logie, 1995).
VSWM is a fundamental part of human cognition. It is involved in basic human tasks that use visual inputs such as body movements in space or navigation by mental mapping as well as basic processing of immediate visual stimuli. The thesis of this paper is that principles of VSWM can be applied to analyse cognitive load of individuals navigating in websites.
With the expansion of information publication facilitated by the internet, web users have a huge corpus of information and functions accessible through computing technologies. In this environment, a major challenge for web designers is to ensure navigability, accessibility and usability in a website. The field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has emerged in the last 30 years, dealing with how people interact with technology practically and in cognition and communication. The field incorporates diverse areas such as cognitive science, anthropology, graphic arts, computer science, communications and ergonomics (Carrol, 2012).
Research in HCI has established the role of various cognitive processes in the design of websites. Vörös, Rouet and Pléh (2009) have investigated the role of a spatial map versus an alphabetical list in learning website hypertext content finding that they facilitate different learning. Vaughan and Dillon (2006) found that mental representations of a website were better established when subjects experienced a ‘genre-conforming’ web design that they were accustomed too.
Farris, Jones and Elgin (2002) suggested that users do not form spatial representations within websites in a study where participants drew a website’s organisations and tended to make connections based on semantic relations rather than the true hypermedia structure. However the participants still drew a spatial configuration, even if it was structured semantically, meaning that a spatial mental representation may still be present (Juvina, 2006).
Other results suggest that a cognitive spatial element is involved. Van Hooijdonk, Maes and Ummelen (2006) analysed users use of spatial verbalisations such as “There is more information behind this hyperlink” while cognitively processing websites being navigated. Vörös, Rouet and Pléh (2009b) also found that users with a high spatial capacity more accurately mapped a website than those with low spatial capacity.
This paper will discuss the processing of websites as a source of visuo-spatial input, within a visuo-spatial working memory paradigm. Considering some interesting findings on the architecture of VSWM, I will analyse how visual features are used in websites and reflect on what that means for visuo-spatial cognitive processing and overall website usability. This analysis will be rendered based on principles of visual representation in a HCI context, with examples of how those principles play out in navigation of actual websites.
In section 2.1 I will first introduce VSWM in detail as a part of the working memory system. Section 2.2 will discuss the most recent developments dealing with the distinction between visual and spatial information and how VSWM will be treated for the remainder of the paper. Section 2.3 describes various findings on how VSWM processes information in different ways, which are relevant when considering websites as visual and spatial input.
Section 3 begins by broadly introducing the field of web design and its role in today’s environment of information technology dependence. Prior HCI research into visual web design and its influence on usability is also presented. Section 3.2 relates the usability concept to VSWM and conceptualises usability for the purpose of discussing visual features in websites.
Section 4 analyses seven principles of visual representation in websites as introduced by Blackwell (2011): Typography and text, maps and graphs, schematic drawings, pictures, node-and-link diagrams, icons and symbols and visual metaphor. These are discussed in terms of how they are used in websites, the relevance of the presented VSWM findings that shed light on how those visual features are processed, and what that means for usability of websites. This discussion refers to many examples from existing websites including screenshots presented in the appendices. One example website, visitnorway.com , is closely analysed in section 4.8 demonstrating how many of the discussed factors in web design and VSWM integrate in the processing of a single website.
2. WORKING MEMORY
2.1 Working memory in human cognition
Working memory is the cognitive system for temporal maintenance of newly acquired and reactivated stored information for the purpose of active manipulation for further information processing (Becker & Morris, 1999). The Baddeley and Hitch model of working memory originally posited in 1974 defines a central executive system and two slave systems – the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974).
The phonological loop retains speech-based and acoustic information while the visuo-spatial sketchpad retains visual and spatial representations for processing in cognitive tasks such as reasoning and comprehension (Baddley, 2007). The central executive plays an attentional control role with a general processing capacity for tasks such as memory updating, task switching, inhibition and dual-task performance (Logie, 2011).
Support for this tri-partite distinction comes from an extensive body of behavioural and neurophsychological studies demonstrating double dissociations between the systems (Logie, 2011). Behavioural studies typically validated findings that concurrent spatial tasks impaired performance on a visuo-spatial main task but not on a verbal main task, and concurrent verbal tasks impaired performance on verbal main tasks but not on visuo-spatial tasks. Tasks were also designed to tax executive control resources which, when performed simultaneously, impaired performance on both verbal and visuo-spatial main tasks (for a review of experimental results see Logie, 1996). 1
Working memory constitutes the basis of the fundamental dual process distinction of higher cognitive processes. The original Kahnemann and Tversky work outlining the distinction between fast, automatic, unconscious (system 1) processes and slow, deliberative, conscious (system 2) processes was based on evidence for heuristics and biases in human cognition and did not elaborate on the influence of working memory and executive control (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972; Tversky & Kahneman, 1971, 1973, 1974). As this dual process theory was increasingly investigated and theoretically expanded, access to a central working memory system has now become an operational definition of system 2 processing requirement (Evans, 2008). Suggesting extension of the dual process theory, Stanovich (2009) defines an algorithmic level of processing serving as a sub-aspect of system 2 processing which, together with a reflective aspect of system 2, is the defining feature of rationality unique to humans. The algorithmic level supports human rationality by means of cognitive decoupling of representations, performed by working memory, for hypothetical thinking and cognitive simulation. In this domain, working memory capacity is correlated with individual differences in fluid intelligence in its faculty of attentional control of representations (Engle, 2002; Stanovich, 2009).
This integral function of working memory in the attention to and maintenance and manipulation of mental representations is why elements of working memory are interesting to study in application to real-world cognitive tasks. In web navigation, working memory is involved in