Cognitive Design

When we design for how the mind works we can achieve some interesting effects by focusing on the body, or so says the theory of embodied cognition. In this theory cognitive processes are strongly determined by the bodies interaction with the world. For example, taking a walk to think something out or making a complex point with our hands.

A new insight comes from a recent study at Ohio State on How Body Posture Affects Confidence in Your Own Thoughts.

“Students who held the upright, confident posture were much more likely to rate themselves in line with the positive or negative traits they wrote down.

In other words, if they wrote positive traits about themselves, they rated themselves more highly, and if they wrote negative traits about themselves, they rated themselves lower.”

The implication for designers  is clear – adjusting body posture may change the intensity of beliefs even on important issues.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Technique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.