ABSTRACT
Advances in technology over the past century have resulted in the development of increasingly complex systems that rely heavily on computers. The successful deployment of these systems often requires effective and efficient interaction between people and the computers or devices that they operate, making it important to design the systems in a manner that is compatible with human information-processing capabilities. The main assumption underlying the human information-processing approach is that a human can be conceived of as a complex communication system, consisting of various subsystems, that can be studied by systematically examining performance in various tasks as a function of numerous factors. The goal of the information-processing approach is to determine the underlying architecture of cognition, establish properties of the component representations and processes, and find out how they are organized and controlled in the performance of specific tasks. The knowledge about human information processing can be incorporated into design principles for computerized systems, as well as
into models for performing specific tasks, such as searching for an option in a computer menu.
