Cognitive Design

The Design with Intent Blog is providing a toolkit including 47 design patterns for achieving behavior change. We have discussed many of the patterns on this blog but having them summarized, categorized (architectural, error proofing, persuasive, visual, cognitive and security) and illustrated in one spot is a real advantage.

Conspicuous consumption for men and conspicuous charity for women. 

The New Scientist reports on an interesting series of studies that examines how being mating-primed shapes our behaviors.  The study, Sex and Shopping – it’s a guy thing, reports:

“The results were dramatic: men in the mating condition said they would spend much more money than men in the non-mating condition – for example, they might take the European vacation rather than saving that money – but there was no mating effect on women’s consumption decisions. On the other hand, women in the mating condition said they would spend much more time volunteering than women in the non-mating condition. There was no mating effect on men’s volunteering. This study confirmed that conspicuous consumption (for men) and conspicuous charity (for women) can be increased by thinking about mating opportunities, and so can function strategically as a form of mating display.”

The seeming differences between men and women can be explained with costly signalling theory or the idea that “that animals, including humans, use costly, intricate and hard-to-fake signals to flaunt their biological fitness to potential mates and social partners.” 

Look here for some interesting insight into how we perceive time. This is a technical article on short-time perception but the intro section is must reading for cognitive designers. It explains the neurological foundation for two built in clocks – one that runs on a 24-hour clock much like a wall clock and the other that runs like a variable speed stop watch.

It is sometimes claimed that the herb Ginko Biloba can delay the decline of cognitive functioning in adults. PsychCentral reports on recent research that challenges this claim:  “In the largest randomized controlled research trial ever conducted on the herb ginko, new research suggests that older adults who used the herbal supplement Ginkgo biloba for several years did not have a slower rate of cognitive decline compared to adults who received placebo.”

An important finding for those taking an evidence-based approach to the design of cognitive programs for the elderly.