Chapter Two

Human in HCI
 The human
To develop usable interface we need to know.
 how humans perceive the world around them,
 how they store and process information and solve
problems, and
 how they physically manipulate objects.
 The human
Information i/o …
– visual, auditory, haptic, movement

Information stored in memory

– sensory, short-term, long-term

Information processed and applied

– reasoning, problem solving, skill, error

Emotion influences human capabilities

– Each person is different
 Input-output channels
• In interaction with a computer, the human input is the
data output by the computer vice versa.
• Input in humans occurs mainly through the senses and
output through the motor controls of the effectors.
• Vision, hearing and touch are the most important senses
in HCI.
• The fingers, voice, eyes, head and body position are the
primary effectors.
 Vision
• Two stages in vision
Physical reception of stimulus
Processing and interpretation of stimulus
 The Eye - physical reception
• The eye is a mechanism for receiving light and transforming it

into electrical energy.

• Light is reflected from objects in the visual field.

• Image is focused on the back of the eye, where it is transformed

into an electrical signal and passed to the brain.

• The most important components are the cornea and lens.

• The retina with the blind spot and photoreceptors: rods and

cones, located on the fovea.

 Cont..

• Rod are highly sensitive to light and usable under

low illumination.

• The cones are less sensible to light and can

distinguish color.

• Ganglion cells (brain!) detect pattern and

movement.
 Interpreting the signal
• The eye can perceive size and depth using the
visual angle.
• If two objects are at the same distance from the
eye, the larger one will have a larger visual angle.
• Similarly, if two objects of the same size are at
different distances from the eye, the furthest one
will have the smaller visual angle.
 Cont..
• The visual angle is given in degrees or minutes of arc (1 degree = 60
minutes of arc).

• Visual acuity is the ability of a person to perceive small details.

• If the visual angle is to small, the detail will not be perceived.

• The minimum visual angle is approximately .5 seconds of arc.

• However, according to the law of size constancy, our perception of

size relies on more factors than the visual angle
 Cont..
• Brightness
– subjective reaction to levels of light
– affected by luminance of object
– measured by just noticeable difference
– visual acuity increases with luminance as does flicker/shine

• Colour
– made up of hue, intensity, saturation

– cones sensitive to colour wavelengths

– blue acuity is lowest
– 8% males and 1% females colour blind
 Cont..
• The visual system compensates for:
– movement

– changes in luminance.

• Context is used to resolve ambiguity

• Optical illusions sometimes occur due to over
compensation
Cont...:Optical Illusions
 Cont..:Reading
• Several stages:
– visual pattern perceived

– decoded using internal representation of language

– interpreted using knowledge of syntax, semantics, pragmatics

• Reading involves saccades/eye mov’t/ and fixations

• Perception occurs during fixations

• Word shape is important to recognition
• Negative contrast improves reading from computer screen
 Hearing
• Provides information about environment:
distances, directions, objects etc.

• Physical apparatus:
– outer ear – protects inner and amplifies sound
– middle ear – transmits sound waves as vibrations to inner ear
– inner ear – chemical transmitters are released
and cause impulses in auditory nerve

• Sound
– pitch – sound frequency

– loudness – amplitude
– timbre – type or quality
 Cont..
 Humans can hear frequencies from 20Hz to 15kHz
– less accurate distinguishing high frequencies than low.

 Auditory system filters sounds

– can attend to sounds over background noise.
– for example, the cocktail party phenomenon.
 Touch
• Provides important feedback about environment.

• May be key sense for someone who is visually impaired.

• Stimulus received via receptors in the skin:

– Thermo receptors – heat and cold
– nociceptors – pain
– mechanoreceptors – pressure
(some instant, some continuous)

• Some areas more sensitive than others e.g. fingers.

• Kinesthesis - awareness of body position

– affects comfort and performance.
 Movement
• Time taken to respond to stimulus:
reaction time + movement time
• Movement time dependent on age, fitness etc.
• Reaction time - dependent on stimulus type:
– visual ~ 200ms
– auditory ~ 150ms
– pain ~ 700ms

• Increasing reaction time decreases accuracy in the unskilled

operator but not in the skilled operator.
 Cont..
• Accuracy is a second measure of motor skill.

• A fast respond does not always mean a less accurate response.

• The time taken to hit a target is a function of the size of the

target and the distance that has to be moved.
• This is formalized in Fitts.law, which is commonly written as:

• Movementtime = a + b log2(distance=size + 1)

• where a and b are empirically constants.

 Human memory
There are three types of memory function:

Sensory memories

Short-term memory or working memory

Long-term memory
Selection of stimuli governed by level of arousal.
 Sensory memory
• The sensory memories act as buffers for stimuli received
through each of the senses:
• Iconic memory for vision, echoic memory for sounds and
haptic memory for touch.
• These memories are constantly overwritten by new
information coming in on these channels.
• Information is passed from the sensory memory into short-
term memory by attention, filtering the stimuli to those that
are at that moment of interest.
 Short-term memory
• STM is used to store information which is only required
rapidly.
• STM can be accessed rapidly, however, also decays rapidly. It
has a limited capacity.
• Miller stated the 7+/-2 rule, which means that humans can store
5-9 chunks of information.
• Chunks can be single items or groups of items, like 2 digits of a
telephone number grouped together.
• Patterns can be useful as aids to memory.
 Long-term memory
• LTM differs from STM in various ways.

• It has an unlimited capacity, a slow access time and forgetting occurs more
slowly or not at all.

• Information is stored here from the STM through rehearsal.

• There are 2 types of LTM:

• Episodic memory and semantic memory.

• Episodic memory represents our memory of event and experiences in a

serial form.

• Semantic memory is a structured record of facts, concepts and skills that we

have acquired, derived from the episodic memory.
 Cont..
• Semantic memory structure
– provides access to information
– represents relationships between bits of information
– supports inference

• Model: semantic network

– inheritance – child nodes inherit properties of parent nodes
– relationships between bits of information explicit
– supports inference through inheritance
Cont...:semantic network
 Models of LTM - Frames
• Information organized in data structures

• Slots in structure instantiated with values for

instance of data
• Type–subtype relationships
DOG COLLIE

Fixed Fixed
legs: 4 breed of: DOG
type: sheepdog
Default
diet: carniverous Default
sound: bark size: 65 cm
Variable Variable
size: colour
colour
 Models of LTM - Scripts
• A script comprises a number of elements, which,
like slots, can be filled with appropriate
information. Script for a visit to the vet

Entry conditions: dog ill Roles: vet examines

vet open diagnoses
owner has money treats
owner brings dog in
Result: dog better
pays
owner poorer
takes dog out
vet richer
Scenes: arriving at reception
Props: examination table
waiting in room
medicine
examination
instruments
paying
Tracks: dog needs medicine
dog needs operation
 Models of LTM - Production rules
• Representation of procedural knowledge.

• Condition/action rules
– if condition is matched

– then use rule to determine action.

IF dog is wagging tail

THEN pat dog

IF dog is growling
THEN run away
 Activities of LTM
• There are 3 main activities related to LTM:
– storage of information,

– forgetting
– information retrieval.
 Storage
• The rehearsal of a piece of information from the STM stores it
in the LTM.
• If the total learning time is increased, information is
remembered better.
• However, the learning time should be well spread.

• But repetition alone is not enough:information should be

meaningful and familiar,
• So it can be related to existing structures and more easily
incorporated into memory.
 Forgetting
• There are 2 main theories of forgetting: decay and interference.

• Decay suggests that information held in LTM may eventually be

forgotten.

• Jost.s Law states that if 2 memory traces are equally strong at the
same time, the older one will be more durable.

• Information, however, can also be lost through interference: if

we acquire new information, it causes the loss of old
information: retroactive interference.
• Forgetting is affected by emotional factors too.
 Retrieval
• There are 2 types of information retrieval: recall and
recognition.
• In recall the information is produced from memory.

• It can be facilitated by providing hints, e.g. the category

in which the information may be placed.
• In recognition, the presentation of the information
provides the knowledge that the information has been
seen before.
 Emotion
• Emotion involves both physical and cognitive events.
• Our body responds biologically to an external
stimulus and we interpret that in some way as a
particular emotion.
• That biological response changes the way we deal
with different situations and this has an impact on the
way we interact with computer systems.
 Cont..
• Implications for interface design
– stress will increase the difficulty of problem solving
– relaxed users will be more forgiving of shortcomings in
design
– aesthetically pleasing and rewarding interfaces will
increase positive affect
 Individual differences
• The principles and properties discussed apply to
the majority of people, but
• humans are not all the same. Differences should be
taken into account in the
• designs: divide the users in target groups, for
example.
 Cont..
• long term
– sex, physical and intellectual abilities
• short term
– effect of stress or fatigue
• changing
– age