Memory and Mental Models

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• Memory and Mental Models

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Memory constraints

• What gets stored in memory? What doesnt?
• What are the challenges in designing for memory
  constraints?
• How does recognition differ from recall?

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What gets stored?

• Meaningful things
• Familiar, map-able things or unique things
• Assimilation/accommodation
• Frequently encountered things
• Remarkable things
• Telephone exercise

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Theories of knowledge organization

• Semantic networks
• Nodes links
• Schema /scripts
• General knowledge based on previous experience
• Guidelines, routines for interpretation and
  behavior
• Knowledge anchored to context

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Theories of knowledge organization

• Mental models
• Dynamically constructed on-the-fly by activating
  schema
• Runnable simulations of activity
• Analogical and propositional

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Features of Mental models

• Structural
• Structural knowledge of how the system or device
  works in memory
• Functional
• Internalized procedural knowledge of how to use
  device or system
• Cases
• Rich, experience-based models
• Transferable

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How do we get things out?

• Voluntary/involuntary
• Automatic/focused
• Aided/unaided

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Attention and memory

• Cognitive aids knowledge in the world
• External representations/cues
• Support activity/practice-Majestic study
• Anticipate routines of behavior
• Time sensitive

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Learning as an active process

• Its difficult-frustration, blame, time
• Its interpretive--what to do and what it means
• It entails generalizing-mapping to what is known
• It resists directions
• It is cascading-problems beget problems

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Stages of knowing
Inert/declarative
Know you dont know
Know you know about
Dont know you dont know
Dont know you know
Robust/procedural
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Kinds of knowing

• Declarative VS procedural
• Cognitive stage
• Associative stage
• Autonomous stage

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So how do we facilitate computer learning?

• Restrict options
• User modeling
• Design that forces interaction