From the Publisher:
Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book provides an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. Special features: emphasizes cost-effective methods that will help developers improve their user interfaces immediately, shows you how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects, provides step-by-step information about which methods to use at various stages during the development life cycle, and offers information on the unique issues relating to informational usability. You do not need to have previous knowledge of usability to implement the methods provided, yet all of the latest research is covered.

Usability Engineering

because observed behavior is the result of interactions between environmental factors and genes during the extended period of development. Therefore, to better understand expert and exceptional performance, we must require that the account specify the different environmental factors that could selectively promote and facilitate the achievement of such performance. In addition, recent research on expert performance and expertise (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson & Smith, 1991a) has shown that important characteristics of experts' superior performance are acquired through experience and that the effect of practice on performance is larger than earlier believed possible. For this reason, an account of exceptional performance must specify the environmental circumstances, such as the duration and structure of activities, and necessary minimal biological attributes that lead to the acquisition of such characteristics and a corresponding level of performance. An account that explains how a majority of individuals can attain a given level of expert performance might seem inherently unable to explain the exceptional performance of only a small number of individuals. However, if such an empirical account could be empirically supported, then the extreme characteristics of experts could be viewed as having been acquired through learning and adaptation, and studies of expert performance could provide unique insights into the possibilities and limits of change in cognitive capacities and bodily functions. In this article we propose a theoretical framework that explains expert performance in terms of acquired characteristics resulting from extended deliberate practice and that limits the role of innate (inherited) characteristics to general levels of activity and emotionality. We provide empirical support from two new studies and from already published evidence on expert performance in many different domains.

/pdf/the-role-of-deliberate-practice-in-the-acquisition-of-expert-3j9768t5su.pdf

The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.

Three-dimensional (3D) displays have become important for many applications including vision research, operation of remote devices, medical imaging, surgical training, scientific visualization, virtual prototyping, and more. In many of these applications, it is important for the graphic image to create a faithful impression of the 3D structure of the portrayed object or scene. Unfortunately, 3D displays often yield distortions in perceived 3D structure compared with the percepts of the real scenes the displays depict. A likely cause of such distortions is the fact that computer displays present images on one surface. Thus, focus cues-accommodation and blur in the retinal image-specify the depth of the display rather than the depths in the depicted scene. Additionally, the uncoupling of vergence and accommodation required by 3D displays frequently reduces one's ability to fuse the binocular stimulus and causes discomfort and fatigue for the viewer. We have developed a novel 3D display that presents focus cues that are correct or nearly correct for the depicted scene. We used this display to evaluate the influence of focus cues on perceptual distortions, fusion failures, and fatigue. We show that when focus cues are correct or nearly correct, (1) the time required to identify a stereoscopic stimulus is reduced, (2) stereoacuity in a time-limited task is increased, (3) distortions in perceived depth are reduced, and (4) viewer fatigue and discomfort are reduced. We discuss the implications of this work for vision research and the design and use of displays.

Vergence-accommodation conflicts hinder visual performance and cause visual fatigue.

Two experiments, theoretically motivated by the construction-integration model of text comprehension (W. Kintsch, 1988), investigated the role of text coherence in the comprehension of science texts. In Experiment 1, junior high school students' comprehension of one of three versions of a biology text was examined via free recall, written questions, and a key-word sorting task. This study demonstrates advantages for globally coherent text and for more explanatory text. In Experiment 2, interactions among local and global text coherence, readers' background knowledge, and levels of understanding were examined. Using the same methods as in Experiment 1, we examined students' comprehension of one of four versions of a text, orthogonally varying local and global coherence. We found that readers who know little about the domain of the text benefit from a coherent text, whereas high-knowledge readers benefit from a minimally coherent text. We argue that the poorly written text forces the knowledgeable readers t...

Are Good Texts Always Better? Interactions of Text Coherence, Background Knowledge, and Levels of Understanding in Learning From Text

Immersion is the subjective impression that one is participating in a comprehensive, realistic experience. Interactive media now enable various degrees of digital immersion. The more a virtual immersive experience is based on design strategies that combine actional, symbolic, and sensory factors, the greater the participant's suspension of disbelief that she or he is "inside" a digitally enhanced setting. Studies have shown that immersion in a digital environment can enhance education in at least three ways: by allowing multiple perspectives, situated learning, and transfer. Further studies are needed on the capabilities of immersive media for learning, on the instructional designs best suited to each type of immersive medium, and on the learning strengths and preferences these media develop in users.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/323/5910/66.full.pdf

Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning.

/pdf/handbook-of-virtual-environments-5brgdjv4t8.pdf

Handbook of virtual environments

Prospective memory (PM), which is the ability to remember to carry out actions that are planned for the future, plays an important role in professional and social life as well as in activities of daily living. This study examined PM performance among adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) and evaluated the efficacy of a mnemonic strategy, implementation intentions. Compared to controls, adults with MS were impaired on PM, both in terms of acting when encountering the correct circumstances (prospective component) and in terms of remembering the correct action to perform (retrospective component). The prospective-component deficit was greater for tasks that depended on more resource-demanding cognitive processes and smaller on tasks that could be performed more automatically. Use of implementation intentions improved MS-group performance on the prospective component, particularly on the more resource-demanding tasks, consistent with the explanation that implementation intentions improved performance by allowing the use of more automatic processes to perform these PM tasks. Implications for providing environmental support to encourage the use of mnemonic strategies are discussed.

Prospective memory and the efficacy of a memory strategy in multiple sclerosis.

Skills are generally acquired by learning a set of facts about a task and developing appropriate
procedures. For example, to learn to fly a plane, you first might learn the function of the
flight controls and their locations and then practice manipulating the controls in appropriate
sequences for a flight procedure. The practice part of training often cannot be done in the actual
situation; a plane may not be available or the cost of the plane and an instructor on a regular
basis may be prohibitive. In these situations, training is provided in alternative environments,
or simulators, that mimic the target task. Designing simulators that will produce effective
training has been a long-standing goal for those involved in skill acquisition, and the success
of such simulations is generally measured by the effectiveness of subsequent performance on
the actual task-the degree of “transfer” from the simulated to the real environment.

Using Virtual Environments as Training Simulators: Measuring Transfer

: We received three classes of guidelines we found to optimize long-term retention. The first class concerned ways to optimize the conditions of training. We discussed three general guidelines in this class. The first concerned the contextual interference found, for example, with random sequences of tasks as opposed to fixed or predictable sequences. The second concerned training parts of a task versus the whole task. The third concerned the distinction between generating and reading. The second class of guidelines concerned ways to optimize the strategies used. We found that in tasks that require deliberate retrieval from memory, training that promotes efficient encoding strategies maximizes long-term retention. The third class of guidelines concerned ways to attain direct access, or automatic retrieval, from memory. We found in several domains that achieving automaticity requires extensive practice. Further, even when retrieval appears automatic after extensive practice, mediators may still continue to exert their influence.

The Long-Term Retention of Knowledge and Skills.

Objective:The goal of this study was 2-fold, first, to compare decision making in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients and healthy adults using the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), and, second, to identify the regions of gray matter atrophy associated with bvFTD patients' BART

Deborah M. Clawson

Papers

Handbook of virtual environments

Prospective memory and the efficacy of a memory strategy in multiple sclerosis.

Using Virtual Environments as Training Simulators: Measuring Transfer

The Long-Term Retention of Knowledge and Skills.

Regional brain atrophy and impaired decision making on the balloon analog risk task in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.