Robert P. Mahan

Cognitive adaptation and its consequences: a test of cognitive continuum theory

Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT) is an adaptive theory of human judgement and posits a continuum of cognitive modes anchored by intuition and analysis. The theory specifies surface and depth task characteristics that are likely to induce cognitive modes at different points along the cognitive continuum. The current study manipulated both the surface (information representation) and depth (task structure) characteristics of a multiple-cue integration threat assessment task. The surface manipulation influenced cognitive mode in the predicted direction with an iconic information display inducing a more intuitive mode than a numeric information display. The depth manipulation influenced cognitive mode in a pattern not predicted by CCT. Results indicate this difference was due to a combination of task complexity and participant satisfacing. As predicted, analysis produced a more leptokurtic error distribution than intuition. Task achievement was a function of the extent to which participants demonstrated an analytic cognitive mode index, and not a function of correspondence, as predicted. This difference was likely due to the quantitative nature of the task manipulations. Copyright

Establishing the Measurement Equivalence of Online Selection Assessments Delivered on Mobile versus Nonmobile Devices

Recent usage data suggest job applicants are completing online selection assessments using mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) in greater numbers. To determine the appropriateness of this new technology, this study examined the measurement equivalence of selection assessments delivered on mobile and nonmobile devices (e.g., personal computers). Measurement invariance tests conducted with multigroup confirmatory factor analysis suggest mobile versions of a cognitive ability-type assessment, two biodata assessments, a multimedia work simulation, and a text-based situational judgment test appear to be equivalent to nonmobile versions. However, mobile device user latent means were half a standard deviation lower than their nonmobile counterparts for the situational judgment test. Implications for mobile device usage within selection and assessment are discussed.

Configural displays can improve nutrition-related. decisions: an application of the proximity compatibility principle.

The nutrition label format currently used by consumers to make dietary-related decisions presents significant information-processing demands for integrationbased decisions; however, those demands were not considered as primary factors when the format was adopted. Labels designed in accordance with known principles of cognitive psychology might enhance the kind of decision making that food labeling was intended to facilitate. Three experiments were designed on the basis of the proximity compatibility principle (PCP) to investigate the relationship between nutrition label format and decision making; the experiments involved two types of integration decisions and one type of filtering decision. Based on the PCP, decision performance was measured to test the overall hypothesis that matched task-display tandems would result in better decision performance than would mismatched tandems. In each experiment, a statistically significant increase in mean decision performance was found when the display design was cognitively matched to the demands of the task. Combined, the results from all three experiments support the general hypothesis that task-display matching is a design principle that may enhance the utility of nutrition labeling in nutrition-related decision making. Actual or potential applications of this research include developing robust display solutions that aid in less effortful assimilation of nutrition-related information for consumers.

Effects of task uncertainty and continuous performance on knowledge execution in complex decision-making

Abstract The emergence of complex automated systems in the workplace is changing both the nature of the work that people are asked to perform and their work environment. Many of these changes are, in part, toward (a) more cognitively-oriented tasks, such as those associated with complex decision making under uncertainty; and (b) work systems that call for extended and sustained work schedules to support round-the-clock industrial operations. The present study investigated the effects of task uncertainty and continuous performance on the ability of subjects to make multi-dimensional judgements concerning manufacturing production. Statistically significant decrements in accuracy of manufacturing production judgements were evident over the course of a 4th computerized work experiment, Further, the precision in judgements of production was inversely related to the level of task uncertainty. In contrast, performance accuracy on two analytical tasks remained high during the experiment. The findings are discusse...

TIME-ON-TASK EFFECTS WITHIN A PROBABILISTIC TASK ENVIRONMENT '

The emergence of complex automated systems in the workplace has been viewed by many as shifting the kind of work people are asked to perform. This shift has tended to be toward more cognitively-oriented tasks, such as those associated with inferential decision making. In addition, it is very likely the future workplace will require that people perform cognitive tasks for continuous periods of time. The present findings indicate that statistically significant decrements in accuracy of performance on a multicue-judgment task were evident over the course of a continuously performed 4-hr. computerized work experiment. In contrast, performance accuracy on two analytical tasks remained high during the experiment. These results are evaluated in the context of the fatigue explanation for decrements found in research on continuous performance.

Information Displays for Medical Diagnosis

The Proximity Compatibility Principle (PCP) states that a display format is well-suited to a given task if the information sources in the display are related to the same degree as information sources in the task. While experiments have shown that PCP can provide useful display design guidelines for many types of tasks, diagnosis tasks have not seemed to conform to PCPs predictions. The current experiment compared performance with integral, configural, and separable displays in three diagnosis tasks based on a medical diagnosis technique. As predicted, the integral display allowed the best performance. The results indicate that PCP is a useful theory for diagnosis tasks, but different diagnosis tasks can differ widely in their task demands.

Surface and Depth Task Characteristics Both Affect Cognitive Mode

The present study had two main goals: (a) to test whether surface and depth task characteristics, individually and combined, influence a judge’s cognitive activity and (b) to test if Hammond’s cognitive continuum theory (CCT) predict the directionality of the differences in cognitive activity. CCT principles were used to construct tasks that varied in both surface and depth characteristics. Task surface features were manipulated by presenting information sources as numbers or icons. CCT predicts that judgments made from perceptual cue measurements (iconic display) will result in more intuitive cognition than judgments made from objective cue measurements (numeric display). Intuition and analysis were operationally defined using a cognitive continuum index (CCI) (see Hammond, Harm-n, Grassia, & Pearson, 1987). Task depth features were manipulated by varying the number of information sources, cue intercorrelations, environmental predictability, and degree of equal cue weighting. Depth features were combined to create three tasks predicted to induce differences in cognition. Both surface and depth task characteristics had a significant effect on cognition. CCT accurately predicted the effects of display format on cognitive mode, but did not accurately predict the effects of task structure on cognitive mode. A possible explanation for this failure is that CCT, in its current form, does not adequately incorporate changes in task perception as a function of expertise.

The Effects of Task Structure on Cognitive Organizing Principles: Implications for Complex Display Design Practices

Cognitive engineering practices provide display design solutions that enhance the operators ability to manage and control complex systems. However, they often do so without adequate modeling of the cognitive system requirements for this process. This research report is a first in a series of reports illustrating, in part, that the depth and surface distinctions of a task influence the correspondence between cognitive information organizing principles and properties of the task. The congruence principle is offered as a potential explanatory mechanism for the findings that different task representations induce different cognitive organizing principles, and that performance is dependent, in part, upon the mapping between the task, display, and cognitive organizing principle of the operator. Using different display types as means of comparison, results of both Experiment 1 and 2 supported the hypothesized congruence principle.

Developing a Shared Language for System Design and Team CTA: A Boundary Object Perspective

Cognitive Task Analysis and System Design System modeling in human-computer interaction (HCI) has typically relied on the efforts of task analysis, and more recently cognitive task analysis (CTA), to understand how and what users do on the job (see; Meister, 1987; Brooks, 1991; Brannick, Salas, & Prince, 1997). The basic approach breaks down task components into smaller cognitive elements with the goal of improving system design through consideration of the various cognitive processing requirements necessary to successfully perform a task. However, designers do not often use CTA methods because a) they are too difficult to understand and learn, b) they require a considerable amount of time to apply, and c) the methods do not often scale to real-world scenarios or problems (Bellotti, 1988; Rouse & Boff, 1998). Further, when designers use CTA methods, the results are often less than satisfactory due to the problem of translating the information from cognitive theories into specific design principles. For example, blindly adhering to Miller’s (1956) “magic number” (7 +2) can result in poor display engineering practices. While, Miller’s number may bound STM for recalling briefly displayed unfamiliar items, people can recognize 250 or more items presented in context (Mosier & Smith, 1986). The amount of information contained in a channel can be “chunked” to form larger information units while still occupying only one information channel. The methods of CTA, in part, resemble the structured systems paradigm for specifying design protocols for building sequential batch-oriented computer systems (see Shalaer & Mellor, 1988). These procedures take a task-oriented view, which begins with the solution to the design problem (system analysis), followed by the design of the solution (system design). The proposed solution is broken down into a sequence of elemental components (modules) that act on system data to activate the solution. These subtasks represent the procedural application. However, the structured paradigm is often fragile when dealing with parallel interacting systems that define networked environments. In contrast, object oriented design was invented in order to escape the fragile character of structured systems. By its very nature, object oriented design defines both a foundation and a structure. Object oriented concepts can be used to define important team concepts such as modularity, information flow, access (public vs. private), inheritance (allocation of resources or functions) and others. The structure is the concept of the objects themselves, while defined hierarchical relations between classes of objects provide the foundation. Finally, object oriented design lends itself to modeling large multi-object environments through representations that include many object classes.

Using Reliability Information in Dynamic Decision Support: A Cognitive Engineering Approach

The absence of feedback on the quality of decision making complicates the efficacy of methods designed to represent probabilistic information, especially in dynamic decision environments. The present study investigated the effects of changes in task information reliability on the performance of multi-cue judgment across conditions where the reliability of stimulus information was presented as a feedforward information source to enhance performance. Significant decrements in judgment performance were found across discrete changes in the reliability of source information. A Graphic format for presentation of reliability information produced high task performance under high and medium information reliability conditions, whereas an Animated presentation of reliability information produced high task performance under high and low reliability conditions. The results are evaluated in the context of work settings that call for dynamic decision making skills where the absence of immediate feedback is a constraint on performance.