This week, Human Factors Manager Carolynn Johnson once again will be guest lecturing on the topic of cognition for the University of Pittsburgh's Human Factors Engineering of Medical Devices course. Carolynn's lecture is an introduction to the cognitive side of human factors, including overviews of human memory, attention, and decision-making.
Her lecture starts off by debunking the 10% brain use myth, provides a brief overview of the different types of attention and memory and what each means for design, illustrates real-world examples of how heuristics and biases have led to classic design fails, and ends with exercises to increase innovative design by overcoming functional fixedness.