User analysis in HCI - the historical lessons from individual differences research

Abstract User analysis is a crucial aspect of user-centered systems design, yet Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) has yet to formulate reliable and valid characterizations of users beyond gross distinctions based on task and experience. Individual differences research from mainstream psychology has identified a stable set of characteristics that would appear to offer potential application in the HCI arena. Furthermore, in its evolution over the last 100 years, research on individual differences has faced many of the problems of theoretical status and applicability that are common to HCI. In the present paper, the relationship between work in cognitive and differential psychology and current analyses of users in HCI is examined. It is concluded that HCI could gain significant predictive power if individual differences research was related to the analysis of users in contemporary systems design.

[1]  Deborah A. Day,et al.  Information processing in the child: Significance of analytic and reflective attitudes. , 1964 .

[2]  William C. Tirre,et al.  Components of quantitative reasoning: General and group ability factors , 1993 .

[3]  Richard E. Mayer,et al.  Different Problem-Solving Strategies for Algebra Word and Equation Problems. , 1982 .

[4]  J F BENDER,et al.  Aptitude testing. , 1947, The Scientific monthly.

[5]  Don Steinberg,et al.  Deductive reasoning , 1989 .

[6]  Robert M. Gagné.  Learning and Individual Differences , 1967 .

[7]  R. H. Seashore,et al.  Individual Differences in Motor Skills , 1930 .

[8]  Hubert E. Brogden,et al.  When Testing Pays Off , 1949 .

[9]  C. Adcock,et al.  Primary Mental Abilities. , 1971, The Journal of general psychology.

[10]  R. Sternberg.  Human Abilities: An Information Processing Approach , 1985 .

[11]  Ruth B. Ekstrom,et al.  MANUAL FOR KIT OF REFERENCE TESTS FOR COGNITIVE FACTORS (REVISED 1963) , 1963 .

[12]  Lorne Olfman,et al.  Visualization Ability as a Predictor of User Learning Success , 1993, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[13]  J. Horn,et al.  ON THE SUBJECTIVE CHARACTER OF THE EMPIRICAL BASE OF GUILFORD'S STRUCTURE-OF-INTELLECT MODEL , 1973 .

[14]  E. Boring.  A History of Experimental Psychology. , 1930 .

[15]  Joseph F. Dumas,et al.  A Practical Guide to Usability Testing , 1993 .

[16]  Philip Bobko,et al.  The Estimation of Standard Deviations in Utility Analyses. , 1982 .

[17]  R. Cattell.  The scientific analysis of personality , 1970 .

[18]  H. Eysenck,et al.  A Model for intelligence , 1982 .

[19]  J. Guilford.  Cognitive Psychology's Ambiguities: Some Suggested Remedies. , 1982 .

[20]  G. Pask.  STYLES AND STRATEGIES OF LEARNING , 1976 .

[21]  F. Schmidt,et al.  Individual differences in productivity: An empirical test of estimates derived from studies of selection procedure utility. , 1983 .

[22]  Louis M. Gomez,et al.  A Cognitive Analysis of Database Query Production , 1986 .

[23]  A. Jensen,et al.  Reaction Time and Psychometric g , 1982 .

[24]  George R. S. Weir,et al.  People and Computers IX: Crafting Interaction: Styles, Metaphors, Modalities and Agents , 1994 .

[25]  Alphonse Chapanis.  The business case for human factors in informatics , 1991 .

[26]  Phillip L. Ackerman,et al.  Abilities, motivation, and methodology : the Minnesota Symposium on Learning and Individual Differences , 1989 .

[27]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Unities in inductive reasoning , 1983 .

[28]  Edwin A. Fleishman,et al.  Changes in factor structure of a complex psychomotor test as a function of practice , 1954 .

[29]  P. Ackerman.  Individual differences in skill learning: An integration of psychometric and information processing perspectives. , 1987 .

[30]  Dan Diaper.  Giving HCI away , 1990 .

[31]  F. N. Dempster,et al.  Memory Span: Sources of Individual and Developmental Differences , 1981 .

[32]  C. A. Moore,et al.  Field-Dependent and Field-Independent Cognitive Styles and Their Educational Implications , 1977 .

[33]  H. F. Rothe.  Output rates among butter wrappers: II. Frequency distributions and an hypothesis regarding the "restriction of output." , 1946 .

[34]  H. Eysenck.  Dimensions of Personality , 1947 .

[35]  J. Adams.  Historical review and appraisal of research on the learning, retention, and transfer of human motor skills. , 1987 .

[36]  T Nettelbeck,et al.  Inspection Time: An Index for Intelligence? , 1982, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[37]  John E. Hunter,et al.  Employment testing: Old theories and new research findings. , 1981 .

[38]  Thomas K. Landauer,et al.  Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity , 1996 .

[39]  Patrick C. Kyllonen,et al.  Knowledge and processing speed as determinants of associative learning. , 1991 .

[40]  C. Spearman.  General intelligence Objectively Determined and Measured , 1904 .

[41]  Sher ry Folsom-Meek,et al.  Human Performance , 2020, Nature.

[42]  Linda A. Macaulay,et al.  AN INVESTIGATION INTO BUSINESS INFORMATION PRESENTATION AT HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERFACES , 1987 .

[43]  L. Hough.  The 'Big Five' Personality Variables--Construct Confusion: Description Versus Prediction , 1992 .

[44]  Andrew Dillon.  A PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF “USER-FRIENDLINESS” , 1987 .

[45]  M. Cook,et al.  Personnel selection and productivity , 1990 .

[46]  P. Vernon,et al.  The distinctiveness of field independence. , 1972, Journal of personality.

[47]  T. Landauer,et al.  Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction , 1997 .

[48]  C. Myers.  Educational Psychology , 1904, Nature.

[49]  L. Cronbach,et al.  Psychological tests and personnel decisions , 1958 .

[50]  Phillip L. Ackerman,et al.  Individual Differences in Automatic and Controlled Information Processing. , 1984 .

[51]  Edwin A. Fleishman,et al.  On the relation between abilities, learning, and human performance. , 1972 .

[52]  Kim J. Vicente,et al.  Accommodating Individual Differences in Searching a Hierarchical File System , 1988, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[53]  Joseph Tiffin,et al.  Industrial psychology, 2nd ed. , 1947 .

[54]  Bryce Allen,et al.  Cognitive Abilities and Information System Usability , 1994, Inf. Process. Manag..

[55]  Edward L. Thorndike,et al.  The effect of practice in the case of a purely intellectual function. , 1908 .

[56]  Brian Shackel,et al.  Human factors for informatics usability , 1991 .

[57]  Patrick C. Kyllonen,et al.  Aptitude Testing Inspired by Information Processing: A Test of the Four-Sources Model , 1993 .

[58]  E. Hunt.  Mechanics of Verbal Ability. , 1978 .

[59]  Frank J. Landy,et al.  Personnel Selection and Placement , 1994 .

[60]  E. Ghiselli,et al.  The validity of occupational aptitude tests , 1967 .

[61]  Robert L. Thorndike,et al.  The psychological value systems of psychologists. , 1954 .

[62]  Edwin E. Ghiselli,et al.  THE VALIDITY OF APTITUDE TESTS IN PERSONNEL SELECTION , 1973 .

[63]  John B. Carroll.  Stalking the Wayward Factors. , 1972 .

[64]  Stephen J. Westerman,et al.  Individual differences in human-computer interaction , 1993 .

[65]  Paul A. Booth.  An Introduction To Human-Computer Interaction , 1989 .

[66]  John E. Hunter,et al.  Validity generalization results for two job groups in the petroleum industry. , 1981 .

[67]  E. P. Brandon.  17 Deductive Reasoning Ability, Error, and Education , 1987 .

[68]  R C Atkinson,et al.  Individual differences and interrelationships among a select set of cognitive skills , 1976, Memory & cognition.

[69]  J. P. Guilford,et al.  The analysis of intelligence , 1971 .

[70]  J. Hunter,et al.  Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance , 1984 .

[71]  John E. Hunter,et al.  Development of a general solution to the problem of validity generalization. , 1977 .

[72]  S R Goldman,et al.  Reading skill and the identification of words in discourse context , 1979, Memory & cognition.

[73]  Havelock Ellis.  The Correlation of Mental and Physical Tests , 1902 .

[74]  John Karat,et al.  Taking software design seriously , 1991 .

[75]  J. M. Digman.  PERSONALITY STRUCTURE: EMERGENCE OF THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL , 1990 .

[76]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Usability engineering , 1997, The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook.

[77]  P. Ackerman.  Determinants of individual differences during skill acquisition: Cognitive abilities and information processing. , 1988 .

[78]  John E. Hunter,et al.  History and accuracy of validity generalization equations: A response to the Callender and Osburn reply. , 1982 .

[79]  P. Vernon,et al.  The distinctive ness of field independence , 1972 .

[80]  Raymond B. Cattell,et al.  Handbook of multivariate experimental psychology , 1968 .

[81]  J. Guilford,et al.  The nature of human intelligence. , 1968 .

[82]  Ronald R. Schmeck,et al.  Individual differences in cognition , 1983 .

[83]  Lee J. Cronbach,et al.  Psychological tests and personnel decisions , 1958 .

[84]  M. Kincaid,et al.  A study of individual differences in learning. , 1925 .

[85]  Joe L. Lewis,et al.  What does it mean to be high verbal? , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[86]  L. Cronbach.  Essentials of psychological testing , 1960 .

[87]  Susan E. Whitely,et al.  Modeling Aptitude Test Validity from Cognitive Components. , 1980 .

[88]  Jack R. Haynes,et al.  Hierarchical Analysis of Factors in Cognition , 1970 .