Cognitive Design

Why do we make the choices we do?  Part of the answer has to do with dopamine or so argues an online article published in Trends in Cell Biology and reported on here.

“We found dopamine seems to have a role in determining the expected pleasure we will receive if we make a certain choice. We then use that information to make our choices.”

Dopamine is an import source of “mental energy” and as such this article supports the idea that we tend to act in ways to maximize our mental energy.

According to the article this effect lasted at least 24 hours in 80% of the subjects.  A powerful effect indeed which explains why it can sway even the most important life decisions.

Habits spreading like infectious diseases through social networks appear to be all the rage. Catching your eating, smoking, happiness, mood and hygiene habits from those you hang out with is under the microscope. For a quick overview and some interesting reader comments (that challenge) check out Eva Judson’s post in the New York Times on Social Medicine. Please note that is social (as via social networks) not socialized (as via single payer government system) medicine.

I have read the literature around this topic for some time in the hopes of gaining new scientific insight into how we form (or fail to form) habits.  The key question from a cognitive design standpoint is what is the social cognitive psychology behind behavioral contagions?  The answer unfortunately, is not clear.

 ”But then, how does something like obesity get “caught”? That’s not clear. One idea is that people judge their own weight by that of their friends — you think of yourself as thin if you are thinner than the people you know — and eat accordingly. Another is that friends mirror one another’s eating habits. Many studies have found that people tend to eat less when they are eating with someone who is not eating much. Also, people tend to eat more when they eat with friends rather than with strangers. Perhaps, too, a habit of eating, say, dessert when you are with your friends makes you more likely to eat it when you are alone. ”

Perhaps there is a mystery here because we are not looking at the entire picture.

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Movies and short films are designed experiences. As such they should be fertile ground for the cognitive designer.  A recent PhD thesis by Gregory Hale explores A Cognitive Schematic Analysis of Films.  As far as a I can tell it is a unique contribution using schema theory from cognitive science to research and provide design insights into short-film experiences.The study reveals some 23 design implications for how film makers can have greater impact via surprise, conflict resolution, interest, causality, intensification, rapid orientation and other effects using schema.  

In addition, the thesis provides some reusable methods (Schematic Analysis Design Method) that might be useful in other domains. I don’t plan on digging any deeper into this but would love to hear from any readers that do.

I am amazed at how many projects aimed at trying to create and sustain behavior change end up including a website as a least part of their design.  If your behavior change program includes a website you need to check out this article, that focuses on the information architecture of behavior change websites.

The authors look at various information architecture or website designs (matrix, hierarchical, tunnel and hybrid) and explain how they influence certain types of user behaviors. The article does not go on to link the feature-behavior discussion into the psychology of self-regulation but that is what we cognitive designers can do!

“unprecedented insight into how digital games can improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes” 

The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article outlining recently funded University research into the affect of video games on health. The questions is can we develop video games that help people change behaviors or self-manage chronic illnesses? The Robert Wood Johnson foundation is giving $1.8M to nine teams to find out.

If this research is productive it should throw off many insights into designing for how minds work.  Consider:

“For example, the research teams will delve into the popular dance pad video game Dance Revolution to see how it might help Parkinson’s patients reduce the risk of falling, or how facial recognition games might be designed to help people with autism better identify others’ emotions.

The studies will focus on diverse population groups that vary by race and ethnicity, health status, income level and game-play setting, with age groups ranging from elementary school children to 80-year-olds. The research teams will study participants’ responses to health games played on a variety of platforms, such as video game consoles, computers, mobile phones and robots.”

Hopefully the results will have implications far beyond the use of video games.

Pro-change behavior systems is a cool company. They have taken the evidence-based guidelines or science we have for the transtheoretical approach to behavior change and translated it into products and services.  For example, they built an algorithmic measure of your change readiness into a traditional health risk assessment.  This should help tune the behavior changes strategies you are most ready to act on.  

To hear more about how they are translating the science of behavior change into action look at the proactive health consumer demo.

Interesting post in the Cognitive Daily about Attention Restoration Theory (ART). The idea is that if you are doing heavy mental lifting – studying, writing or thinking - going outside and taking a walk for a break recharges your mental batteries more effectively than staying in place and relaxing. This seems to work because:

“ART says that the natural world engages your attention in a bottom-up fashion, by features of the environment (e.g. a sunset, a beautiful tree). The artificial world demands active attention, to avoid getting hit by cars or to follow street signs. Since intellectual activities like studying or writing also demand the same kind of attention, taking a break in the artificial world doesn’t really function like a rest.”

Clear implications for the design of  cognition-intense learning and work practices.

Exerting mental effort to pay attention means bad design!

Distraction and multi-tasking are getting more attention as design problems. Distracted students, drivers, parents and workers appear to be less productive and even unsafe. More broadly, we think and live in the future or the past and fail to be mindful of the present.   We have been driven to such a high level of distraction in our daily life that some researchers and authors see a “coming dark age” and are calling for a national movement to regain our focus. I am alluding to Maggie Jackson’s book on Distraction:The erosion of attention and the coming dark age.  A great read for cognitive designers dealing with distraction and multi-tasking.

From a cognitive design standpoint, distraction and attention come down to how well we manage a user’s mental energy.

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The frequency and duration of exposure to information as well as the length of the rest period between exposures all impact how well we can learn new information.

Balancing these variables to optimize memory function or “managing your learning schedule” is well beyond most of us and even the most well intentioned instructors-  until now.  A new type of memory enhancer that uses adaptive algorithms are beginning to appear. Technology Review has a good article, An App so you’ll never forget, that focuses on the latest,  a new iPhone app smart.fm.  Definitely cognitive design in action.

Check out this short video on the science behind smart.fm

One way to probe the mind of your customer and surface unmet cognitive needs is through instruments that assess styles. These take the form of questionnaires that can be used to categorize and interpret how people perceive, think, learn, make decisions, manage emotions and otherwise process information. For cognitive designers this is one way to build a psychographic profile.

Just found an excellence source on the web - the decision making individual differences inventory. They describe and provide materials for 15 major cognitive and decision style assessments.