Cognitive Design

A recent study found that using surrealism or other devices to create “meaning threats” (e.g. fire that feels icy cold), pushes us into an enhanced cognitive state that can improve learning outcomes. In one study, subjects read Kafka’s “The Country Doctor” (filled with strange and nonsensical events) and were given an artificial grammar learning test where they were asked to find hidden patterns in text. Researchers found:

“People who read the nonsensical story checked off more letter strings –– clearly they were motivated to find structure,” said Proulx. “But what’s more important is that they were actually more accurate than those who read the more normal version of the story. They really did learn the pattern better than the other participants did.”

See  Connections From Kafka: Exposure to Meaning Threats Improves Implicit Learning of an Artificial Grammar

The implication for designers is that meaning threats can be a useful device for priming user’s cognition.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 7:32 am 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.