CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: A Theory of Human Microstrategy Selection and Integration in Human-Computer Interaction.

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Better science is needed to predict how people will interact with new computer systems in dual-task settings, such to operate on board navigation systems while driving. Existing psychological theory can inform the problem but does not adequately address many issues such as that, in many dual-task circumstances, two subtasks become so interleaved that they become an altogether new third task. This project will investigate the cognitive strategies that people form, sometimes subconsciously, to integrate human information processes (such eye movements and hand movements). The project will provide scientific theory that can be used to analyze and improve the usability of a broad range of user interfaces that are used multitasking settings, including commonly-used handheld devices and in-vehicle interfaces, as well as specialized interfaces in mission control centers, nuclear power plants, and emergency rooms. The project will (a) develop a theory of Human Microstrategy Selection and Integration (HMSI) that will predict how two tasks would be interleaved, with a special emphasis on the formation of complex cognitive strategies, (b) apply the HMSI theory as the foundation for a new methodology that analysts can use to transform two conventional hierarchical task analysis (HTA) diagrams, one for each of the two tasks, into an interleaved set of microstrategies, and (c) evaluate the HMSI theory and methodology with human experiments, including the analysis of the eye movements that people make when interacting with an on board navigation system in a driving simulator. The project will advance a theory of cognitive psychology and provide a scientific approach for solving human-computer interaction problems.