Look at Behaviourism and Perceptual Control Theory in Interface Design

摘要

Behaviorism and Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) were reviewed and theirshortfalls, as well as their application to human machine interactions, were assessed. Behaviorism, which studies only observable behaviors and discards the purpose of actions, implies that given a stimulus, one can predict the response. The PCT framework introduces the requirement for a desired perceptual state which would then be compared to its perception. Behaviors would then result in an attempt to minimize the perceptual error when present. However, PCT's shortfall includes the inability to objectively measure internal variables. Behaviorism, on the other hand, can not account for variability in responses, instinctive drift, autoshaping, etc. Researchers have used behaviorism as a framework for human machine interactions concluding that compatibility between a stimulus and its response resulted in increased performance of the system. Other researchers have argued that the use of PCT in human machine interactions can explicitly show all the required feedback messages necessary for a stable and effective interaction between the human and the machine.