Cognitive Design

Psychology Press, a leading publisher of books and articles on all aspects of cognition, has open up some of their content.  Over 40 articles from 14 top journals are available online for free. The journals include for example, Memory, Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition.  They plan on updating the content on a regular basis.

Although the articles are theoretical in nature, many of them have implications for cognitive designers. For example:

How to Gain Eleven IQ Points in Ten Minutes, demonstrates that talking aloud while thinking improves the general intelligence of older adults but fails to have an impact on other cognitive tasks (e.g. visual memory) or boost cognition in younger adults.

Have You Got The Look? demonstrates a bias in visual cognition for faces that look directly at us rather than away. More specifically, a direct gaze (instead of averting your eyes) makes you more attractive to others.

The Influence of Affect on Higher Level Cognitive Functions reviews the literature on how emotion impacts interpretation, judgment, decision making and reasoning.  They found a pronounced and complex impact, challenging the dual-mode or hot (emotion-based) versus cool (reason-based) model of cognition that is popular now.  Instead they found a “dynamic interplay” of affect and cognition present in all higher cognitive functions.  They over a specific model of this interplay that has clear design implications for applications in interpretation, decision-making and general reasoning.

If you read any of the articles please share your insights and any design implications you see.