Understanding the Mind: Developers Perspective on Cognitive Science — Part 1.
The intangible, elusive and immeasurable entity responsible for cognition, thoughts, emotions, and consciousness. — Well, I am talking about our brain, our mind.
Since your childhood have you ever wondered how your mind works. Ah, of course you did! So, did I.
Hello readers, I am a tech enthusiast, a self-taught computer science student and a designer/developer, as a rookie I have keen interest in exploring tech world. I`ll try to explain everything so far what I have understood and learned about cognitive science from my perspective. I`ll write on this topic in 5 parts trying to briefly explain important concepts with examples, references and a case study if possible.
Moving on let me introduce you to the term “Cognitive Science.”
Well, from the title you may have assumed Cognitive Science as a study of mind. You are correct.
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary discipline that studies the mind and its functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, and decision making. To explain how people acquire, analyze, and use information, it blends ideas and methodologies from psychology, neurology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and anthropology.
Google says so …. 👀
In simpler Words, Cognitive science is the study of the human mind and brain, focusing on how the mind represents and manipulates knowledge and how mental representations and processes are realized in the brain.
Cognitive science seeks to understand the workings of the human mind by investigating how individuals think, solve problems, and make decisions. It aims to not only describe but also explain how the mind performs certain mental processes.
For example, consider a simple mathematics equation of adding two numbers, let`s say “2” + “2”, consciously we all know the answer is 4. But how does our mind react in solving this problem.
The mind engages in several processes:
- Perception: The mind detects the symbols “2” and “+”. Every human being perceives differently some will visualize the numbers in space, some will take it as a word “two” depending on the age group. [Wait, that’s string concatenation! So, 2 + 2 equals 22 in the world of programming … 😂 said our eager developer, driven by their programming mindset.]
- Recognition: The mind recognizes the symbols as numbers and the “+” sign as addition. [Here we developers would think “+” represents concatenation whereas the symbols are characters as they are represented in quotes]
- Retrieval: The mind recovers from memory the mental representation of the number idea “2” as well as the knowledge of addition as a mathematical operation.
- Mental Manipulation: The mind mentally manipulates the numbers by combining them according to the addition operation by holding the value “2” and adding them together.
- Calculation: The mind computes the result by adding individual digits, here the computing process may vary some have a habit of calculating expressions from rightmost place some from leftmost place.
- Solution: Thinking is the solution, mind arrives at the final result, recognizing the sum equals to 4.
This example is centered around logical calculations that improve with practice and experience. But what about decisions driven by emotions? Such as “Choosing a career path.”
Emotional Decisions are influenced by our feelings, desires and personal values. These decisions are often driven by our intuition and subjective experiences.
Depending on individual and their personal circumstances “Choosing a career path” can evoke a variety of emotions such as excitement or enthusiasm, anxiety, fear, hopefulness, ambivalence.
Here`s what individual may think depending on the age group.
Cognitive science is a broad field which encompasses various disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, etc. It seeks to understand the intricate complex mechanisms underlying human perception, attention, memory, problem solving, focusing, detection, decision making, and language. It gives insights into the functioning of the mind and informs the design of technology by combining information from different domains. What I mean to say is……
Let`s say I am working on a website for e-commerce. So, by applying insights from cognitive science, I can optimize the user interface and user experience to improve customer engagement which will help increase product sale. Here`s what I mean,
Cognitive science research suggests that humans have a limited working memory capacity. To accommodate this, I can design the website with clear and concise navigation, minimizing cognitive load and making it easier for users to find products and make purchases.
And the result by incorporating these cognitive science principles, I will have developed a website which is User friendly, intuitive, and ultimately more successful in attracting and retaining customers.
From a developer’s perspective, cognitive science offers a valuable framework for understanding users and creating user-centered solutions. It emphasizes the importance of considering human cognition and behavior in the design thinking process, which ultimately leads to improved user experiences. We Developers draw upon cognitive science principles and apply them to interface design, information presentation, decision support systems, and adaptive technologies.
Understanding how our minds work is crucial as it enables us to create solutions that are intuitive, easy to use, and aligned with users’ mental models, considering their pain points and empathizing with them. By considering cognitive factors such as attention, memory, and perception, we can optimize user interfaces to minimize cognitive load and improve information processing. This results in reduced user frustration, improved task performance, and enhanced user satisfaction.
Moreover, cognitive science provides insights into human decision-making processes. We developers leverage this knowledge to create decision support systems that assist users in making complex choices. By incorporating cognitive models and algorithms, we can offer personalized recommendations (ever wondered how Netflix recommends the best shows of your choice……. Well now you know how), analyze data, and present information in a way that facilitates effective decision-making.
Concluding Part 1 here I just want to say that Cognitive science guides the development of adaptive systems by understanding the learning, thinking, adaption of human mind, we create solutions that adapt to individual users, their needs and preferences, and yes also skill levels. This personalized approach enhances user engagement, promotes effective learning, and improves overall user satisfaction (the emotion which lets us developers sleep at night when the client knows their users are satisfied with the product……. 😴)
Alright, before I fall from my chair, let me leave you with a real-world example that you probably use in your daily life — our humble AI assistance - you can decide whichever you use [Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant]. These voice-activated technologies rely on cognitive science principles to understand and respond to user commands, NLP (natural language processing), and speech recognition. By leveraging cognitive models of human language comprehension and interaction, developers have created voice assistants that can understand users’ intentions, provide relevant responses, and learn from user interactions (professional term machine learning). This application of cognitive science has transformed the way we interact with technology, making voice interfaces more accessible, convenient, and user-friendly.
So, the next time you interact with your assistant take a moment and appreciate those developers who worked hard in making your life better.
Now, if you`ll excuse me, I need to fall on my bed.
See you in part 2
OK Google Set an alarm of 10am………zzzzzzz
