Computers may not be able to master poetics like Aristotle, but they have become smart enough to know a metaphor when they see one. An online database called The Mind Is a Metaphor, created by Brad Pasanek, an assistant professor of English at the University of Virginia, is a searchable bank of phrases, verses, and lines from literature that…

The response to the question "What next?" is a synthesis--a combination of philosophical, psychological, and linguistic scholarship with electronic and computational technologies, under the pressure of commercial requirements for improved man-computer communication. (Author/VT)

This paper presents a cognitive account of both the advantages and disadvantages of direct manipulation interfaces, i.e., the use of icons to manipulate and interact directly with data rather than writing programs or calling on a set of statistical subroutines. Two underlying phenomena that give rise to the sensation of directness are identified.…

Discusses the distinction between cognitive effects with computers, whereby an individual's performance is redefined and upgraded during intellectual partnership with the computer, and effects of computers, whereby such partnership leaves durable and generalizable cognitive residues. Suggests two mechanisms for affecting cognition: skill…

This essay considers whether the brain can accelerate the speed with which it absorbs or dispenses information in ways similar to those of a computer, and, if so, whether any of these speed-up approaches increase the speed of the processing of the information in the brain. It is suggested that there are tasks for which speed is important in both…

Discusses recent progress in artificial intelligence in such narrowly defined areas as medical and electronic diagnosis. Also discusses use of expert systems, man-machine communication problems, novel programing environments (including comments on LISP and LISP machines), and types of knowledge used (factual, heuristic, and meta-knowledge). (JN)

This document presents hypotheses about how much understanding a user needs to perform skillfully using a computer or a computer program. A framework for characterizing user understanding is presented which includes three criteria for evaluating the representation generated during problem solving: (1) internal coherence--whether the components of…

In contrast to conventional information storage and retrieval systems in which a body of knowledge is thought of as an indexed codex of documents to which access is obtained by an appropriately indexed query, this interdisciplinary study aims at an understanding of what is "knowledge" as distinct from a "data file," how this knowledge is acquired,…

Summarizes the key research issues and developments in cognitive science, especially with respect to the similarities, differences, and interrelationships between human and machine information processing. Nine references are listed. (JL)

A metaphor and ongoing debate of the information age is that the mind is a computer or that, conversely, the computer has a mind. Since the debate is conducted using anthropomorphic metaphors such as "intelligent,""memory," and "friendly" (terms from humanity), the language itself pressures the discussion towards the conclusion that computers will…

This document attempts to identify and promote human factors research that would likely produce results applicable to the evolutionary design of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) national space station to be launched in the 1990s. It reports on a symposium designed to yield information applicable to future space systems. The…

Two accomplishments have increased the feasibility of taking preparatory steps for the construction of machine intelligence systems which can acquire knowledge about facts or descriptions of facts through man-machine dialogue in the user's natural language. One is a better understanding of the relationship between perception, language, and…

In man-computer communication, the computer responds only as it is programed to respond. A human's response is more complicated because it depends on the "pre-programed" ways that humans process information. The three functions a man performs on received information are conservation (in which messages are retained whole), reduction (in which…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…