HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

B.V. Raju Institute of Technology

(Autonomous)
Vishnupur, Narsapur, Medak (District) – 502313
Department of Computer Science and
Engineering

SYLLABUS

Unit I: (12 Periods)

Interactive system design: Concept of usability, HCI and software engineering, GUI Design
and aesthetics. Prototyping techniques.
Model-based design and Evaluation: Basic idea, introduction to different types of models,
GOMS family of models (KLM and CMN-GOMS), Fitt’s law and and Hick-hyman’s
law,Model-based design.
Unit II: (10 Periods)
Guidelines in HCI: Shneiderman’s eight golden rules, Norman’s seven principles, Norman’s
model of interaction, Nielsen’s ten heuristics with example of its use , Heuristic evaluation,
contextual inquiry, Cognitive walkthrough.
Unit III: (10 Periods)
Empirical research methods in HCI: Introduction (motivation, issues, research question
formulation techniques), experiment design and data analysis.
Task modeling and analysis: Hierarchical task analysis (HTA), Engineering task models
and Concur Task Tree (CTT).
Unit IV: (6 Periods)
Dialog Design: Introduction to formalism in dialog design design using FSM (Finite State
Machines), State charts and (Classical) Petri Nets in dialog design.
Unit V: (8 Periods)
Cognitive Architecture: Introduction to CA, CA types, relevance of CA in IS design, Model
Human Processor (MHP).

Textbooks:
1. Dix A., Finlay J.,Abowd G. D. and Beale R. Human Computer Interaction, 3 rd edition,
Pearson Education, 2005
References:
1. Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp, Jennifer Preece; Interaction Design 3 rd Edition Wiley 2011.
2. Preece J., Rogers Y.,Sharp H.,Baniyon D., Holland S. and Carey T. Human Computer
Interaction,Addison-Wesley, 1994.
3. B.Shneiderman; Designing the User Interface,Addison Wesley 2000 (Indian Reprint).
NPTEL Course https://nptel.ac.in/content/syllabus_pdf/106103115.pdf

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Unit V

Cognitive Architecture: Introduction to CA

Cognitive architecture is a theory about the structures that create a mind in natural or
artificial systems. It focuses on how these structures work with each other and use the knowledge
and skills that are incorporated into the architecture to create and manage intelligent behavior in
various complex environments.

The Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer (EPAM), created in 1960 by Ed Feigenbaum was
one of the first possible cognitive architecture models. He intended to use the EPAM cognitive
architecture model to glean insights into the inner workings of the human brain.
Generically cognitive architectures include creating artificial intelligence and modeling
natural intelligence at appropriate levels of abstraction. A grand unified architecture is integrated
across higher-level thought processes as well as aspects that are essential for successful
intelligent behavior in human-like environments. These include emotions, motor control, and
perception. Functionally elegant architectures bring an expanse of capabilities from interactions
with a tiny set of mechanisms. These can be considered to be a set of cognitive Newton’s laws.
A cognitive architecture is more than just a theory of cognition. It has been defined to be an
embodiment of “a scientific hypothesis aboutthose aspects of human cognition that are relatively
constant over time and relatively independent of task.”
Essentially, that means that it is an attempt to describe those aspects of the human cognitive
system that are pretty much universal, both across as well as within individuals. A cognitive
architecture alone usually is not able to describe human performance on any specific task, it
needs to be provided information about how to carry out that particular task. This information is
usually based on a thorough task analysis of the target activity that is being modeled.
A cognitive architecture is also a piece of executable software. It is code written by a
programmer or several programmers (usually the latter). This is a major way in which cognitive
architectures are different from the majority of theories in cognitive psychology.

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Typesof Cognitive architecture

The things that research on cognitive architectures brings to HCI isn’t quite obvious right off
the bat. It could seem like rather highly theoretical cognitive science, especially when researchers
are debating the ramifications of low-level features of the architecture. But cognitive
architectures may in fact be some of the most HCI-relevant cognitive science work there is.
There are several roles that cognitive architectures can fill in HCI research and practice.

Purpose of cognitive architecture

Cognitive architecture seeks to employ the research that is carried out in the domain of
cognitive psychology to build a complete computer model of cognition. Cognitive architecture
acts as a blueprint for creating and implementing intelligent agents.
It concentrates on merging cognitive science and artificial intelligence and seeks to create
artificial computational system processes which behave like natural cognitive systems.
The ultimate purpose of cognitive architecture is to model the human brain and eventually
empower us to build artificial intelligence that is on par with humans (Artificial General
Intelligence).

Models of Cognitive Architecture

Over the years, there have been many successful cognitive architecture models under
development. They include:
Learning Intelligent Distribution Agent (LIDA) - developed as an integrated model that
tries to broadly model human cognition, from action and perceptions to high-level reasoning.

Active Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) - attempts to study how the human brain
organizes itself into singular processing modules and reduces cognitive functions to the most
basic operations that can still allow cognition to happen.
Soar - this model is inspired by both ACT-R and LIDA with the objective of creating
generalized intelligent agents to perform various tasks functioning as the building blocks to
emulate human cognitive capacity.
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Model Human Processor (MHP)

The Model Human Processor is a model of a series of information flows in a human from the
viewpoint of information processing. In the model, sensory information is input to perceptual
processor, and then processed in cognitive processor, and finally an action is output through the
motor system by motor processor.

A set of memories and processors together with (2) a set of principles, the "principles of
operation"
Three interacting subsystems:
(1) perceptual system
(2) The cognitive system
(3) The motor system
Each of these has their own memories and processors
 The perceptual processor (consists of sensors and associated buffer memories, the most
important being a Visual Image Store and an Auditory Image Store to hold the output of the
sensory system whilre it is being symbolically coded)

 The cognitive processor (receives symbolically coded information from the sensory image
store in its Working memory and uses previously stored information stired in Long term
memory to make decision about how to respond)

 The motor processor (carries out the specified response)

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How to Calculate Process Time

The calculations depend on the ability to break down every step of a task into the
basic process level. The more detailed the analysis the more accurate the model will be to predict
human performance. The method for determining processes can be broken down into the
following steps.
 Write out main steps based on: a working prototype, simulation, step by step walk-
through of all steps
 Clearly identify the specific task and method to accomplish that task
 For each final step identify sub-levels down to a basic process
 Convert into pseudo code (writing out methods for each step)
 List all assumptions (will be helpful as multiple iterations are completed)
 Determine time of each operation
 Determine if operation times should be adjusted (slower for elderly, disability,
unfamiliarity, etc.)
 Sum up execution times
 Iterate as needed and check with prototyping if possible

Human Processor Cycle Time

Processors have a cycle time
 T_p ~ 100ms [50-200 ms]
 T_c ~ 70ms [30-100 ms]
 T_m ~ 70ms [25-170 ms]

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MHP: Example 1: perception, visual

Compute the frame rate at which an animated image on a video display must be refreshed to
give the illusion of movement
Consider: cycle time of the Perceptual Processor: closely related images which appear nearer
in time than the processing time will be fused into a single image. Therefore
frame rate > 1/cycle time of processor = 1/(100 msec frame)
= 10 frames/second
Frame rate should be faster than this. Upper bound specified by for how fast the rate needs to
be can be found by redoing the calculation for fast-man
max frame rate for fusion = 1/(50 msec/frame)
= 20 frames/sec

MHP: Example 2: motor skills typing behaviour

Motor skill - calculator
On a certain pocket calculator, the heavily used gold F button employed to sift the meaning
of keys is located on the top row. How much time would be saved if it were located in a more
convenient position just above the numbers?
Assume that the poistiom of the 5 button is a fair representation of where the hand is just
before pressing the F button. From the diagram, the distance from the 5 button to the present F
button is 2 inches, to the proposed location 1 inch. The button is .25 inch wide. By a version of
Fitt's Law, where movement time is Im log2 (D/S + .5) where Im is expected to be about 100
msec/bit. So the difference between the two locations in time is
T = 100 [log2 (2/.25 + .5) - log2 (1/.25 + 5)]
= 100(3.09 - 2.17)
= 90 msec
Note redesign entails trade-offs!

MHP: Example 3: motor skills, typing behaviour

A manufacturer is considering whether to use an alphabetic keyboard on his small business
computer system. Among several factors influencing his decision is the question of whether
experienced users will find the keyboard slower for touch-typing than the standard Sholes
(QWERTY) keyboard arrangement. What is the relative typing speed for expert users on the two
keyboards?
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Typing rate = 152/ks (72 words/min)
Typing rate (alphabetic) = 164 msec/ks (66.5 words/min)

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