CYCLIC INTERACTION - A UNITARY APPROACH TO INTENTION, ACTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The history of psychological explanation in human-computer interaction (HCI) is reviewed in order to illustrate the notion of cyclic interac tion. The claim made is that much real behaviour is usefully thought o f as a continuous process of cyclic interaction with the environment. According to this account action leads to changes to the state of the world, these are evaluated with respect to, and in a manner conditione d by, the user's current goals. This evaluation leads to the reformula tion of goals and further action, this action leads to a new state of the environment, and so on. Cyclic interaction is contrasted with the more commonly adopted view of cognition that may be caricatured as a ' one-shot comprehension' where perception and recognition lead to actio n but the role of goals and the effects of action on the environment a re not primary concerns. It is argued that a change of emphasis in cog nitive research is required to make good these omissions, with new kin ds of experimental paradigm and new ways of modelling behaviour. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.