Do My Thoughts Deceive Me? Human Factors and Design

Google Tech Talk
December 16, 2009

ABSTRACT

Presented by Jason H. Wong.

Our brains are not as reliable as we would like to think. Human factors is the science of understanding human cognition and designing systems to work within its limitations. A lot of time and effort has gone into understanding how our brains work (and when they don't). However, we continue to make fundamental design errors that not only go against cognitive science principles but common sense as well. This talk will explore some of the quirkier aspects of our cognition, from visual attention to memory and decision making. There will be copious examples of design gone wrong along with discussions of how to understand how we think and how to avoid making design mistakes in the future.

Dr. Jason H. Wong is a Human Factors Scientist with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC). He received his Ph.D. in 2009 from George Mason University in Human Factors and Applied Cognition, where he conducted research on visual attention and working memory. He was awarded the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship in 2007. This paved the way for his work at NUWC, where Dr. Wong examines the human-computer interaction aspects of complex systems, develops efficient submariner training methodologies, and creates cognitive models to simulate human performance.

[FirebreathXIII]

Very interesting, Doctor!
Somehow, this adds very well to a few of my classes about human/machine interactions, and given me a new insight on how the brain works, suddenly making a few concepts that much more clear.

Great speech!! :)

[michalchik]

I agree that a computer may not be a correct analogy, but I tend to think that if attention was an inexhaustible resource evolution would have produced a mind that was perpetually alert to everything. It would have definite survival value.

I do think that experimental work will show interesting things about how we can leverage attention. I have little doubt that well developed meditative traditions have insights, and my intuitions about attention may be wrong.

[michalchik]

What happens when you load more and more programs in computer?

[Tuzzle-MD]

Hmm... more of our visual cognition or perception rather than purely our thoughts deceiving us.. not sure.

[loganwestby]

then you'll find yourself having quite an annoying slight headache after a while . . . . awareness is not a focus that you create. it's a focus you allow and really it's not as important as you think.

[AufBerghofNAM]

wow.i freaked out when i didn't see the Japanese tea garden hahaha

[BZ]

Who here is doing this for a psych credit?

[TheTruthseeker]

What a joke! Derren Brown is a showman who fakes most of what he does! He is a magican who pretends to be using NLP - mindcontrol, but is basically just a showman. So this PHD Genuis uses this as an example! You have got to be kidding me! How much tax payer dollars do we spend on this guys salary!