Search

Subjective ratings have been central to the evaluation of icon characteristics. The current study examined biases in ratings in relation to the context in which icons are presented. Context was manipulated between participants, with some groups rating icon sets with limited variability, and others rating icon sets with wide variability. It was predicted that the context created by the icon set would influence participants’ ratings; when the range of icons was limited, this would create bias given participants’ expectation that a full range of icon values was being presented. Six key icon characteristics were rated, which were visual (visual complexity, appeal), affective (valence, feelings), and semantic (concreteness, semantic distance). Some icon characteristics were susceptible to rating bias while others were not. Where subjective judgements were being made of visual icon characteristics (appeal/complexity) and highly concrete icons which were very pictorial, there was clear evidence of substantial bias in ratings. The same susceptibility to bias was not evident when ratings relied solely on learned semantic associations or were associated with the emotional attributions made to icons. The dynamic nature of the ratings bias was demonstrated when the rating context was changed without participants’ knowledge. When participants rated further blocks of icons providing a different range of the to-be-rated characteristic, this resulted in rapid and dramatic changes in rating behaviour. These findings demonstrate the need for representative sampling of icon characteristics to avoid ratings bias. Practically, this is important when determining the usability of newly designed icon sets in order to avoid over-valuing or under-valuing of key characteristics.

Aesthetically appealing stimuli can improve performance in demanding target localisation tasks compared to unappealing stimuli. Two search-and-localisation experiments were carried out to examine the possible underlying mechanism mediating the effects of appeal on performance. Participants (N = 95) were put in a positive or negative mood prior to carrying out a visual target localisation task with appealing and unappealing targets. In both experiments, positive mood initially led to faster localisation of appealing compared to unappealing stimuli, while an advantage for appealing over unappealing stimuli emerged over time in negative mood participants. The findings are compatible with the idea that appealing stimuli may be inherently rewarding, with aesthetic appeal overcoming the detrimental effects of negative mood on performance.

The reserved set of audible alarm signals embodied within the global medical device safety standard, IEC 60601-1-8, is known to be problematic and in need of updating. The current alarm signals are not only suboptimal, but there is also little evidence beyond learnability (which is known to be poor) that demonstrates their performance in realistic and representative clinical environments. In this article, we describe the process of first designing and then testing potential replacement audible alarm signals for IEC 60601-1-8, starting with the design of several sets of candidate sounds and initial tests on learnability and localizability, followed by testing in simulated clinical environments. We demonstrate that in all tests, the alarm signals selected for further development significantly outperform the current alarm signals. We describe the process of collecting considerably more data on the performance of the new sounds than exists for the current sounds, which ultimately will be of use to end users. We also reflect on the process and practice of working with the relevant committees and other practical issues beyond the science, which also need constant attention if the alarms we have developed are to be included successfully in an updated version of the standard.

The study investigated the impact of trauma exposure and of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on spatial processing and active navigation in a sample (n = 138) comprising civilians (n = 91), police officers (n = 22) and veterans (n = 27). Individuals with previous trauma exposure exhibited significantly poorer hippocampal-dependent (allocentric) navigation performance on active navigation in a virtual environment (the Alternative Route task) regardless of whether or not they had PTSD (scoring above 20 on the PTSD Diagnostic Scale). No effect of trauma exposure was found in static perspective taking (the Four Mountains task). Moreover, an associative information processing bias in those with PTSD interfered with ability to use hippocampal-dependent processing in active navigation. This study provides new evidence of impaired active navigation in individuals with trauma exposure and highlights the importance of considering the relationship between trauma and spatial processing in clinical and occupational settings.

Given the ease with which the diverse array of environmental sounds can be understood, the difficulties encountered in using auditory alarm signals on medical devices are surprising. In two experiments, with nonclinical participants, alarm sets which relied on similarities to environmental sounds (concrete alarms, such as a heartbeat sound to indicate "check cardiovascular function") were compared to alarms using abstract tones to represent functions on medical devices. The extent to which alarms were acoustically diverse was also examined: alarm sets were either acoustically different or acoustically similar within each set. In Experiment 1, concrete alarm sets, which were also acoustically different, were learned more quickly than abstract alarms which were acoustically similar. Importantly, the abstract similar alarms were devised using guidelines from the current global medical device standard (International Electrotechnical Commission 60601-1-8, 2012). Experiment 2 replicated these findings. In addition, eye tracking data showed that participants were most likely to fixate first on the correct medical devices in an operating theater scene when presented with concrete acoustically different alarms using real world sounds. A new set of alarms which are related to environmental sounds and differ acoustically have therefore been proposed as a replacement for the current medical device standard. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

All surgical procedures carry with them the potential for adverse events. Dealing with the sequelae of the complications and errors that arise in the course of normal practice is therefore part and parcel of a surgeon’s working life. The challenges and stresses that this creates are now well recognised although surgical training has, until recently, done little to help surgeons prepare for such events and on-going professional and personal support is limited. This review shows that much of the research examining the impact of adverse events has been concentrated in healthcare systems outside of the UK, often markedly different to our own. With notable exceptions, sample sizes are often small and studies are often qualitative. While the latter provide rich and fascinating data, they may not always be representative, particularly if the focus is on serious errors where there is a risk of litigation. Despite the preponderance of complications, which are an acknowledged risk of surgical procedures, there is no research to date which has examined whether or not there are differences in the impact of complications versus errors on surgeons’ professional and personal lives. A national survey is currently planned to provide detailed information about the impact of adverse events – both complications and errors – which will map the way for better targeted support for surgeons to help them use their experiences to enhance their wellbeing and improve their practice.

The current studies examined the effect of aesthetic appeal on performance. According to one hypothesis, appeal would lead to overall decrements or enhancements in performance [e.g. Sonderegger & Sauer, (Applied Ergonomics, 41, 403–410, 2010)]. Alternatively, appeal might influence performance only in problem situations, such as when the task is difficult [e.g. Norman, (2004)]. The predictions of these hypotheses were examined in the context of an icon search-and-localisation task. Icons were used because they are well-defined stimuli and pervasive to modern everyday life. When search was made difficult using visually complex stimuli (Experiment 1), or abstract and unfamiliar stimuli (Experiment 2), icons that were appealing were found more quickly than their unappealing counterparts. These findings show that in a low-level visual processing task, with demand characteristics related to appeal eliminated, appeal can influence performance, especially under duress. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13423-014-0794-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective Four sets of eight audible alarms matching the functions specified in IEC 60601-1-8 were designed using known principles from auditory cognition with the intention that they would be more recognizable and localizable than those currently specified in the standard. Background The audible alarms associated with IEC 60601-1-8, a global medical device standard, are known to be difficult to learn and retain, and there have been many calls to update them. There are known principles of design and cognition that might form the basis of more readily recognizable alarms. There is also scope for improvement in the localizability of the existing alarms. Method Four alternative sets of alarms matched to the functions specified in IEC 60601-1-8 were tested for recognizability and localizability and compared with the alarms currently specified in the standard. Results With a single exception, all prototype sets of alarms outperformed the current IEC set on both recognizability and localizability. Within the prototype sets, auditory icons were the most easily recognized, but the other sets, using word rhythms and simple acoustic metaphors, were also more easily recognized than the current alarms. With the exception of one set, all prototype sets were also easier to localize. Conclusion Known auditory cognition and perception principles were successfully applied to an existing audible alarm problem. Application This work constitutes the first (benchmarking) phase of replacing the alarms currently specified in the standard. The design principles used for each set demonstrate the relative ease with which different alarm types can be recognized and localized.

Although icons appear on almost all interfaces, there is a paucity of research examining the determinants of icon appeal. The experiments reported here examined the icon characteristics determining appeal and the extent to which processing fluency - the subjective ease with which individuals process information - was used as a heuristic to guide appeal evaluations. Participants searched for, and identified, icons in displays. The initial appeal of icons was held constant while ease of processing was manipulated by systematically varying the complexity and familiarity of the icons presented and the type of task participants were asked to carry out. Processing fluency reliably influenced users' appeal ratings and appeared to be based on users' unconscious awareness of the ease with which they carried out experimental tasks.

This study examined the effects of extraversion and neuroticism on participants' reported vividness of visual imagery and on their memory performance for concrete and abstract nouns. Groups of extraverts (n = 15) and introverts (n = 15) were selected from a larger original sample and asked to remember a series of concrete and abstract nouns, including a set of lexically ambiguous concrete homonyms (e.g., earth = 1. planet, 2. soil). Extraverts reported more vivid imagery than introverts but this did not translate into better recall for extraverts, even for concrete stimuli. Recall was best for unambiguous concrete nouns, followed by concrete homonyms, then abstract nouns. While initial analyses suggested that there was an interaction between extraversion and the type of word presented, later analyses revealed that neuroticism was the main driver in differences in recall between different word types. While differences in recall were best explained by context availability theory (Schwanenflugel, 1991) rather than dual coding theory (Paivio, 1991), questions remain about the power of either theory to explain the role of individual differences in personality on recall, particularly given that imagery vividness effects were related to extraversion while differences in recall were related to neuroticism. The implications of these findings for future research and theoretical development are discussed.

The influence of genes and the environment on the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) continues to motivate neuropsychological research, with one consistent focus being the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) gene, given its impact on the integrity of the hippocampal memory system. Research into human navigation also considers the BDNF gene in relation to hippocampal dependent spatial processing. This speculative paper brings together trauma and spatial processing for the first time and presents exploratory research into their interactions with BDNF. We propose that quantifying the impact of BDNF on trauma and spatial processing is critical and may well explain individual differences in clinical trauma treatment outcomes and in navigation performance. Research has already shown that the BDNF gene influences PTSD severity and prevalence as well as navigation behaviour. However, more data are required to demonstrate the precise hippocampal dependent processing mechanisms behind these influences in different populations and environmental conditions. This paper provides insight from recent studies and calls for further research into the relationship between allocentric processing, trauma processing and BDNF. We argue that research into these neural mechanisms could transform PTSD clinical practice and professional support for individuals in trauma-exposing occupations such as emergency response, law enforcement and the military.

Thirty preschoolers from low-income families participated in a 12-month intervention programme, funded by Sure Start, which engaged them in scaffolded educational activities delivered at home by their mothers. Immediately following the programme, the intervention group outperformed matched controls in tests of academic knowledge, receptive vocabulary, and inhibitory control, but not short-term memory or theory of mind. Teachers' ratings of children's capabilities upon school entry favoured the intervention group, especially in terms of listening, responding, writing, mathematics, and personal/social skills. Superior inhibitory control, short-term memory, and numerical skills were associated with higher ratings whereas theory of mind made a unique, negative contribution to responding. We discuss the implications of these findings for efforts to nurture the development of cognitive self-regulation and school readiness during early childhood.

Communication using icons is now commonplace. It is therefore important to understand the processes involved in icon comprehension and the stimulus cues that individuals utilize to facilitate identification. In this study, we examined predictors of icon identification as participants gained experience with icons over a series of learning trials. A dynamic pattern of findings emerged in which the primary predictors of identification changed as learning progressed. In early learning trials, semantic distance (the closeness of the relationship between icon and function) was the best predictor of performance, accounting for up to 55% of the variance observed, whereas familiarity with the function was more important in later trials. Other stimulus characteristics, such as our familiarity with the graphic in the icon and its concreteness, were also found to be important for icon design. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, with particular emphasis on the parallels with picture naming. The icon identification norms from this study may be downloaded from brm.psychonomic-journals .org/content/supplemental.

Objective: This research examined the relative importance of icon characteristics in determining the speed and accuracy of icon identification. Background: Studies to date have focused on the role of one or two icon characteristics when users first experience an icon set. This means that little is known about the relative importance of icon characteristics or how the role of icon characteristics might change as users gain experience with icons. Methods: Thirty participants carried out an icon identification task over a long series of trials to simulate learning through experience. Icon characteristics investigated included semantic distance, concreteness, familiarity, and visual complexity. Results: Icon characteristics were major determinants of performance, accounting for up to 69% of the variance observed in performance. However, the importance of icon characteristics changed with experience: Semantic distance is crucial initially while icon-function relationships are learned, but familiarity is important later because it has lasting effects on access to long-term memory representations. Conclusion: These findings suggest that icon concreteness may not be of primary importance when identifying icons and that semantic distance and familiarity may be more important. Application: Designers need to take into account icon characteristics other than concreteness when creating icons, particularly semantic distance and familiarity. The precise importance of the latter characteristics will vary depending on whether icons are rarely encountered or frequently used.

Nicola Grove, speech/language therapist, and Sine McDougall, psychologist, from the Division of Psychiatry of Disability, Department of Mental Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, explore use of Makaton signs in teacher-directed and free play settings by children with severe learning difficulties.

Objective Doctors’ confidence in their actions is important for clinical performance. While static confidence has been widely studied, no study has examined how confidence changes dynamically during clinical tasks. Method The confidence of novice (n = 10) and experienced (n = 10) trainee anaesthetists was measured during two simulated anaesthetic crises, bradycardia (easy task) and failure to ventilate (difficult task). Results As expected, confidence was high in the novice and experienced groups in the easy task. What was surprising, however, was that confidence during the difficult task decreased for both groups, despite appropriate performance. Conclusions Given that confidence affects performance, it is alarming that doctors who may be acting unsupervised should lose dynamic confidence so quickly. Training is needed to ensure that confidence does not decrease inappropriately during a correctly performed procedure. Whether time on task interacts with incorrect performance to produce further deficits in confidence should now be investigated.

The study examined whether the presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children affects parental attributions and emotional responses to different types of child behaviours. The responses of parents of children with ADHD and a control group made up of parents of children with behaviour difficulties were compared.Participants’ attributions about positive and negative (inattentive-overactive and oppositional-defiant) child behaviour were elicited. For all behaviour types, both participant groups were most likely to attribute causality to the child. When considering negative behaviours, parents of children with ADHD were less likely to consider behaviour to be intentional or under the child’s control, were less likely to report feeling angry and were more likely to report feeling frustrated than were control parents. It is proposed that these differences reflect the view of parents of children with ADHD that the disorder is a causal factor in their children’s negative behaviour. The results are discussed in terms of attribution theory.

IEC 60601-1-8 is a medical alarms standard concerned with equipment safety. Part of its content specifies a set of audible alarms for eight clinical functions: cardiovascular, drug administration, oxygen, artificial perfusion, power down, temperature, ventilation and a general sound, along with a medium- and a low-priority alarm. It has long been acknowledged that the alarms specified are difficult to learn and retain , (Atyeo and Sanderson 2015; Edworthy, Page, et al, 2014; Lacherez, Seah & Sanderson, 2007; Sanderson, Wee & Lacherez 2006; Wee and Sanderson 2008). The alarm sounds require updating. The project reported here is concerned with developing candidate sets of alarms aimed at replacing those currently specified in IEC 60601-1-8. Four prototype sets of alarms were designed for the eight functions specified in the standard. These were as follows: Word rhythms: Each alarm contains a large number of harmonics and the eight alarms vary in pitch pattern, number of pulses and rhythm where those patterns mimic the words of the functions (so for example the ‘Cardiovascular’ alarm possesses 6 pulses and contains stresses on the first and fourth pulses). Auditory icons: These are real-world sounds that are used as metaphors for the functions. So for example the cardiovascular alarm is a heartbeat-like sound, the “Oxygenation” sound is an aerosol sound and so on. Auditory icons with beacon: Same as the Auditory icons but possesses a short beacon at the start of the sound in order to signify that it is an alarm sound. Resilient: These sounds are simple metaphors (such as a rising pitch for temperature) created at a sampling rate of 8kHz, intended for use in equipment with poor acoustic reproduction. A fifth set, IEC, is the set currently specified in the standard and was also tested for comparison. Participants were tested on a single set of alarms. Once they had been told the meanings of the eight alarms, they were presented with each of them ten times in a block-randomised fashion, and were required to name the alarm. Analysis of variance on the correct/incorrect scores considered the effect of sound type (IEC, word rhythm, auditory icons, auditory icons plus beacon, resilient), block (blocks 1 to 10) and sound (the individual alarm sounds) on the number of correct responses. Each of these factors showed significant effects, as well as some interactions. The largest effect by a considerable margin was attributable to sound type. Performance was significantly lower for the IEC condition than any of the other conditions; performance for the word rhythm condition was significantly higher than for the IEC condition but significantly lower than the other three conditions; performance in the resilient condition was significantly higher than for both the IEC and the word rhythm conditions but significantly lower than in the auditory icons conditions; and performance in the auditory icons and the auditory icons plus beacon conditions was significantly higher than in all other conditions, and similar to one another.

Despite the intense debate surrounding the use of orthographic analogy in the clue word paradigm, little is known about the skills and strategies children actually use and how these compare with their everyday reading of single words. This study, with 4- and 5-year-olds (N=125), supports previous work which suggests children rely on phonological, rather than orthographic, priming in the clue word task since children most frequently produced rhyming words in response to the clue word. The extent to which phoneme and rhyme-based skills, along with letter-sound knowledge, predicted children’s performance in the analogy task and in a test of single word reading was contrasted and compared. Our findings suggested that the balance of skills which children drew upon was determined by the demands of the task. The implications of these findings for the validity of the ‘orthographic’-analogy task and for teaching beginning readers is discussed.

This study examines the memory strategies used by psychology students during their finals examinations. The strategies used, as evidenced by exam plans at the front of their answers, were related to actual examination performance. The results of the present study showed that, when students' worst marks were considered, those not showing evidence of having used any strategy performed significantly worse than those using a strategy. The strategy which involved listing researchers names proved to be better than a no-strategy approach. However, when students' best marks were considered, no differences were apparent in examination marks as a result of the strategies which students employed. This suggests that the type of strategy used is more important when students' knowledge of a topic is weak in comparison to when students have a good knowledge of a topic area. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A number of studies have shown that childrenwith reading difficulties perform poorly ontests of verbal memory span. The extent towhich differences in memory span for good andpoor readers can be explained by differences ina long-term memory component to span as well asby differences in short-term memory processeswas investigated in this study. Memory spanand rehearsal rate were measured for high andlow frequency words and nonwords. Althoughmemory span performance for high frequencywords was comparable for all reading abilitygroups, good readers had better memory spanperformance for low frequency words. This wasattributable to differences in both short-termand long-term memory contributions to spanperformance. Differences between readingability groups also emerged when memory spanfor nonwords was measured. In this case,differences between groups also appeared to bethe result of difficulties which poor readersencountered in learning newphonologically-based materials (i.e. nonwords). The nature of the inter-relationships betweenmemory span, reading and measures ofphonological awareness are discussed in thelight of these findings.

Research has shown that individuals' knowledge structures change as a result of learning and experience. This article investigates the possibility that the content of graphical user interfaces can play a role in determining the nature of the knowledge structures users develop. Users employed either concrete, abstract, or arbitrary icon sets in a computer-based problem-solving task. The effects of these icons were assessed using standard measures of performance. On the basis of the assumption that users' mental models should be better if appropriate icons were presented on the interface, Pathfinder analysis was used to elicit users' knowledge structures as they gained experience with the interface. The efficacy of this measure was then compared with performance measures. Our findings show that users' knowledge structures do depend on the nature of the graphical information presented at the interface but do not rely as much on the use of the visual metaphor as previously thought. Although most measures were sensitive to initial differences between icon sets, only some measures were sensitive to the long-term differences that remained after users had gained experience with the icon set. The implications of these findings for interface design are discussed.

The visual metaphor lies at the heart of modern graphical user interfaces. The benefits ascribed to its use rest largely on the belief that pictorially realistic icons allow users to apply pre-existing world knowledge to the computer domain. Added visual realism, however, has also been associated with increased levels of visual complexity. This, in contrast, has been found to impair user performance. This paper discusses our recent investigations demonstrating that visually realistic icons can be designed without increasing their levels of visual complexity and attempts to provide an experimental basis for design practice.

Correlations between subjective ratings of interface usability and appeal have been frequently reported. This study examined the possibility that the relationship between usability and appeal are underpinned by implicit perceptions of ease of processing which act as a heuristic in making judgments of appeal. Ease of processing was manipulated by varying the amount of experience participants gained with icons in a search task prior to judging appeal, as well as varying the familiarity and visual complexity of the icons presented. These manipulations systematically affected response times in the search task (an objective measure of usability). The effects observed in appeal judgments followed thesame pattern as for search times, demonstrating that ease of processing predicts judgments of appeal. This suggests that our understanding of interface appeal needs to be predicated on an appreciation of the factors affecting the ease with which information on an interface is processed.

Cognitive neuropsychological analyses of developmental dyslexia have suggested that different forms of dyslexia exist, and that these forms resemble some of the varieties of acquired dyslexia which can be observed in previously literate people following brain injury. Thus, developmental ‘phonological’ dyslexics are meant to have a relatively intact ability to recognize words as whole visual units but to be especially poor at phonic letter-sound conversion. Developmental ‘surface’ dyslexics show the opposite pattern, with relatively intact phonic skills but poor whole word recognition. Bryant and Impey argued that such individual differences were not unique to dyslexics but could be observed in younger normal children of the same reading age. In the present study we investigate individual differences among four groups of readers matched on reading age—dyslexics, younger reading age controls, ordinary poor readers and very young precocious readers. Whole word recognition was assessed through the accuracy of reading aloud words with exceptional spellings, while letter-sound conversion was assessed through the reading of non-words. Substantial individual differences were observed within the dyslexic group, with both phonological and surface patterns being apparent, but equally substantial individual differences were present in the other three groups. There was no evidence that children in any of the groups clustered into distinct subtypes. Across the four groups non-word reading accuracy correlated significantly with other tests of phonological processing ability, but we were unable to identify any cognitive factor which correlates significantly with the accuracy of reading exception words.

Four groups of children with matched reading ages of 7:03–8:06 were given a battery of tests assessing a range of skills related to reading, visual processing and phonological processing. The groups were: (i) dyslexics (mean age 10:03, mean IQ 118 with a minimum of 105); (ii) younger normal readers (conventional ‘reading age controls’ with a mean age of 7:11 and a mean IQ of 107); (iii) ordinary poor readers (mean age 10:04, mean IQ 80); (iv) precocious readers (mean age 6:02, mean IQ 126). The dyslexics were faster at some of the visual processing tasks, including object naming, and did not differ significantly from the other three groups on any of the phonological processing tasks. There was no indication of less use of phonology in reading on the part of the dyslexics: they were no less affected by spelling-sound regularity in lexical decision and naming than the other groups, showed a similar sensitivity to pseudohomophones in lexical decision, and were not significantly impaired in their reading of non-words. Dyslexic reading comprehension was superior to that of the reading age controls and precocious readers and their listening comprehension was better than that of the other three groups. The poor readers were similar to the reading age controls on the visual processing tasks. They were worse than the reading age controls at discriminating rhyme but not at phoneme deletion, non-word repetition or verbal memory span.

In this study the effects of 'brain training' using the Nintendo DS Brain Training program were examined in two groups of older adults; the cognitive performance of an experimental group (n = 21) who were asked to use the Nintendo DS regularly over a 6-week period was compared with the control group (n = 20). Groups were matched on age (mean age = 74 years), education, computer experience, daily activities (time spent reading or watching television), and initial scores of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Analyses revealed that improvements were primarily in the Digit Span Test, specifically Digits Backwards. Although the Brain Training package appeared to have some efficacy, other factors such as perceived quality of life and perceived cognitive functioning were at least equally important in determining training outcomes. The implications of these findings for cognitive training are discussed.

According to the prevalent articulatory loop hypothesis of memory span (Baddeley, 1986), subjects recall items from a decaying phonological store that is refreshed by a covert articulatory process. The rate of covert articulation is said to determine memory span. The present research indicates that this account underemphasizes effects of (1) other covert mnemonic processes and (2) overt pronunciation in recall. Memory span and maximal speech rate for sets of one-, two-, and three-syllable words were examined in groups of children with mean ages of 4;5 and 8;8. Although the usual linear relation between the maximal speech rate and memory span was replicated, speech timing measurements based on the memory responses revealed that age and word length effects had different effects on the timing of responding. Whereas word length affected the duration of words in the response but not silent intervals, age affected the duration of silent, preparatory and interword intervals in the response but not the duration of words. These results are discussed in light of the hypothesis that the speeds of multiple, mnemonically relevant covert and overt processes affect memory span.

A number of questions remain largely unanswered about when subjects are likely to employ imagery as opposed to verbal encoding and the subsequent effect this will have on recall. The present experiments examined some of the factors determining such use. Subjects were asked to learn mixed lists of word pairs which were either spatially related (i.e. their referents normally appear in spatial contiguity) or categorically related (their referents are members of a shared superordinate category) using either imagery or verbal mediators throughout. For half the pairs the encoding instructions were appropriate to the relationship between words (e.g. the use of imagery for spatially related pairs) and for the other pairs the instructions were inappropriate (e.g. the use of imagery for categorically related pairs). Subjects were not influenced by experimental instructions under these conditions but overwhelmingly used encodings appropriate to the relationship between words. Furthermore, it was found that subjects were able to adjust encoding strategies from one pair to the next in a flexible manner in accordance with the nature of the relationship between words. What determines strategy use at a given instant appears to result from the interaction of cues provided by the experimental materials with prior world knowledge relating to individual words or combinations of words. Recall for categorically related pairs was better than for spatially related pairs despite the fact that imagery was used more frequently for spatially related pairs and both types of pair were rated equally for concreteness and imageability. Alternative explanations for this finding are discussed.

Recently there has been a shift in emphasis from interface usability to interface appeal. Very few studies, however, have examined the link between usability and appeal and evidence regarding the direction of the relationship between the two remains equivocal. This paper examines the nature of the relationships between the usability and aesthetic appeal of icons. The findings from three studies presented here show evidence, not only for the symbiotic relationship between aesthetic preference and performance, but also for the possible causal links between the two. The implications of these findings for interface design and theoretical explanations of usability are discussed.

Until recently the guiding tenet in human-computer interaction was that any interface must be easy to learn and use. However, it has been increasingly recognized that the appeal of the interface to the user and their enjoyment of it is also important. The aim of the current study was to examine the nature of the relationships between icon characteristics, user performance, and aesthetic appeal. When participants were asked to rate the appeal of a corpus of icons, it was found that the same icon characteristics predicted appeal as those predicting user performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the remarkable similarity in the factors determining appeal and usability are discussed.

One hundred and twelve alcoholic patients treated by an intensive one-month residential programme were followed up for one year. As a group, they were socially disadvantaged and highly dependent on alcohol. Outcome of treatment was assessed at six months and one year following discharge by multiple measures which included assessments of drinking behaviour, measurements of social stability, neuroticism and self-esteem, and self-ratings of satisfaction with important aspects of day-to-day living. During the first six months following treatment, 37% were abstinent or drinking in controlled fashion; during the second six months, 53% achieved this status. Improvement in drinking status was positively related to improvements in all other outcome variables.

Searching for icons, symbols, or signs is an integral part of tasks involving computer or radar displays, head-up displays in aircraft, or attending to road traffic signs. Icons therefore need to be designed to optimize search times, taking into account the factors likely to slow down visual search. Three factors likely to adversely affect visual search were examined: the time of day at which search was carried out, the visual complexity of the icons, and the extent to which information features in the icon were grouped together. The speed with which participants searched icon arrays for a target was slower early in the afternoon, when icons were visually complex and when information features in icons were not grouped together to form a single object. Theories of attention that account for both feature-based and object-based search best explain these findings and are used to form the basis for ways of improving icon design. Language: en

This paper provides rating norms for a set of symbols and icons selected from a wide variety of sources. These ratings enable the effects of symbol characteristics on user performance to be systematically investigated. The symbol characteristics that have been quantified are considered to be of central relevance to symbol usability research and include concreteness, complexity, meaningfulness, familiarity, and semantic distance. The interrelationships between each of these dimensions is examined and the importance of using normative ratings for experimental research is discussed.\ud \ud