INCORPORATING THE EFFECT OF DISPLAY FORMATS IN COGNITIVE MODELING

Cognitive modelling provides a method for identifying strategies used by people to acquire and process information. Previous research has sh own that the way in which problem information is represented can have a profound effect on performance. The purpose of this study is to inte grate the effects of display formats into cognitive modelling by deter mining the locus of that effect in information processing strategies. The research accomplished that goal by constructing cognitive models o f information processing strategies using verbal protocols, and then r elating those models to performance. In the process of constructing mo dels, the study establishes a link between previous research in displa y formats and cognitive modelling techniques by determining how the mo dels must be adjusted to account for the differences in performance re lated to a specific type of display format. The ability of cognitive m odelling techniques to preduct performance is discussed, and issues fo r further research to improve the utility of such models are presented .