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Dissertation Information for Penelope Margaret Sanderson

NAME:
- Penelope Margaret Sanderson

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Psychology

SCHOOL:
- University of Toronto (Canada) (1985)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: COGNITIVE MODELS AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Abstract: Human factors psychologists are faced with the problem of explaining how people cope with complex systems, so that predictions can be made about when people will become overloaded and make errors. One body of research hypothesises that people form 'mental models' of the system they are interacting with (Gentner & Stevens, 1983). It is assumed that predictive power can only be achieved if the person's mental model of the system is known. However an 'ecological' tradition puts the burden of explanation on the environment itself rather than on the mental model. For example, Simon (1981) suggests that adaptive behaviour in complex environments can best be explained by an analysis of the outer task environment and a sensitivity goals, and very little needs to be known about internal representations.

To explore the usefulness of Simon's (1981) ideas, a system of moderate complexity named PLAULT was chosen. Subjects were required to discover the structure of a logical network whose links were invisible, and could only be deduced from examining patterns of signals. Experiment 1 showed that spatial layout of the network seemed to make some links harder to find than others. Providing more evidence for a subset of these links did not improve subjects' chances at discovering the links, but did alter the way they interacted with PLAULT. Experiment 2 showed that the technique of getting subjects to draw their hypotheses about network structure led to data which were highly predictive of later fault diagnosis performance. Moreover, a manipulation of the stated goals of the experiment influenced which links subjects managed to find. An examination of the combined data suggested that the links which were hardest to find were not only in spatially complex layouts, but conformed to either of two graph-theoretical descriptions--they were 'unique' or 'optional' links. Experiment 3 directly manipulated the type of links in the networks subjects were using and found supporting evidence that subjects reacted in different ways to these two types of links.

It was concluded that Simon's (1981) approach had helped identify important aspects of this particular task environment, from which predictions for other environments could be made. This raises the possibility that such an 'ecologically' motivated approach could be widely useful in human factors contexts.

MPACT Scores for Penelope Margaret Sanderson

A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:17:31

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