In instructional design work, instructional designers (IDs) often focus on the changing technological capabilities (of authoring tools, of learning management systems, and so on)—namely, on enablements / affordances and constraints. What is less often discussed are human capabilities, their affordances and constraints. Human enablements may be broadly conceptualized as the following: (1) perception (five senses and proprioception), (2) cognition, (3) learning, (4) memory, (5) decision-making, and (6) action-taking. This presentation summarizes some of the latest research on these areas of human capabilities and some design mitigations to design for these particular aspects of people.
13. Andragogy
• Autonomous and self‐directed
adult learners
• Require motivation (intrinsic and
extrinsic) to learn
• Expect respect for who they are
and what they already know
• Expect to have a voice in the
learning; need to be heard and
to have options
• Goal‐oriented, practical
applications
• Desire for relevant and
applicable learning, little
patience for theory
• Prefer kinesthetic or hands‐on
(“learning by doing”) learning
• Prefer connecting new learning
to prior knowledge
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18. 1 Perception
• Classic:
• Near senses: smell, taste, touch
• Far senses: sight, hearing
• And elicited senses: echolocation
• Internal senses / embodiment / proprioception (through muscle spindles and
joints), somatosensory inputs (tactual or through touch, through the skin),
vestibular system (involving balance, movement, perception of place of the
body, and the inner ear and other systems)
• interoception (internal senses describing internal physical states)
• exteroception (exterior senses sensing stimuli from outside the body)
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25. 2 Cognition (cont.)
• Cognition may inform analytical capability, planning, and foresight.
• Curiosity is a net positive for human learning and engagement with others and the
environment.
• A healthy skepticism is useful to question cognition and what was sensed and
interpreted. A “naïve realism,” if unquestioned and untested, can lead to erroneous
conclusions.
• In terms of what is seen (visually perceived) by people, 40% comes from
visual signals, and the remaining 60% is informed by patterns observed
from prior experiences and memory (Catmull, 2014, p. 178).
• It helps to know what a person’s tendencies are in terms of interpretations, so that
such biases may be accounted for and counter‐balanced. History informs, but it can
overshadow newer interpretations.
• People with broader cognitive schemas (mental models, conceptual models) may
better interpret complex sensory information.
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56. IQ and EQ and EI (cont.)
• Emotional intelligence (EI) as emotional self‐ and other‐awareness
(such as reading others’ facial expressions and body language),
• ability to be self‐aware and to control one’s own emotions,
• ability to moderate the emotions of others (such as through humor and other
types of messaging),
• ability to interpret others’ internal emotional states and thoughts,
• ability to empathize with others,
• high self‐impulse control,
• ability to delay gratification (marshmallow experiment with pre‐schoolers, also with 4‐
year‐olds),
• ability to be patient and persistent,
• ability to be resilient in the face of challenges, hardships, and surprises ]
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66. Daniel Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2
Thinking in Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
System 1: Automatic
• “System 1 operates
automatically and quickly, with
little or no effort and no sense
of voluntary control.”
(Kahneman, 2011, p. 20)
• Is the default situation for people
• Tends to be “unthinking”
System 2: Effortful
• “System 2 allocates attention to
the effortful mental activities
that demand it, including
complex computations. The
operations of System 2 are often
associated with the subjective
experience of agency, choice,
and concentration.” (Kahneman,
2011, p. 20)
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69. Features of System 1 and System 2 thinking
(cont.)
System 1: Over‐confident
• Tends towards confidence (vs. doubt) or “the
illusion of understanding” (Kahneman, 2011,
p. 113, Ch. 19)
• Hindsight bias or 20/20 hindsight assumptions
• May be manipulated with the anchoring
effect (a form of priming) (Kahneman, 2011,
Ch. 11)
• Salespeople putting out a certain number to
anchor a value at the beginning of a negotiation
• May be affected by availability bias or what
comes to mind easily being mistaken for truth
/ reality (Kahneman, 2011, Ch. 11)
System 2: Questioning and doubting
• Applies self‐doubt for initial
impressions and has the resolution to
follow through on decisions based on
objectively arrived facts
• Does not jump to a conclusion right
away; does not answer right away; does
not confuse availability of an idea with
truth
• Questions one’s own perceptions
• Avoids the manipulation of others’
through their storytelling, priming,
use of stereotypes, simplistic
solutions, untruths, and so on
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70. Features of System 1 and System 2 thinking
(cont.)
System 1: Makes spurious linkages
• Tends towards stereotyping or going
with the easy summary (often
informed by affect and speed)
• Discounts probabilities
• Tends towards causal storytelling and
narratives of the past for sensemaking
(naïve realism) than actual analysis
(Kahneman, 2011, Ch. 19); unlimited
patterns may be found in data
• Creates coherence where none exists in
the real (Gestalt theory of visual
illusions)
• Assumes a simpler world than there is
System 2: Assesses more accurately
based on facts and empirics
• Uses a “base rate” to begin a
profile or analysis
• Understands regression to the mean
• Understands probabilities based on
statistical analysis
• Avoids the influence of stereotypes
• Is aware of but avoids the
influences of internal and external
narratives
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74. “Big 5” personality traits
• Extraversion: Sociability, gregariousness, assertiveness (vs. solitariness, reservedness)
• Agreeableness: Altruism, trust, cooperativeness (vs. being analytical, detached)
• Openness to experience: Broad interests, abstract thinking, imaginativeness, insightful‐
ness (vs. caution, consistency)
• Conscientiousness: Thoughtfulness, self‐control, goal‐directed behaviors (vs.
carelessness, easy‐going‐ness)
• Neuroticism: Moodiness, emotional instability, insecurity (vs. confidence, security)
Notes
• Model originated from factor analysis, so an emergent set of five (initially unlabeled)
clusters.
• Think of each feature as a continuum and people being a combination of varying degrees
on the five main core traits. Some research suggests that a majority of people are
somewhere in the middle of the continuums, with some closer to one pole or the other.
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88. 6 Action‐taking (cont.)
Personality and Performance
• Which personality type “chokes” under pressure?
• Under pressure, those who tend to rank high on “neuroticism” tend to choke.
• Also, those who tend towards agreeableness tend to have poorer performance in a high‐
pressure situation.
• Both (those who rank high in neuroticism and those who tend towards agreeableness)
may make more rational decisions in less pressured situations (Byrne, Silasi‐Mansat, &
Worthy, 2015).
• Traits linked to poorer performance may be anxiety, narcissism, “fear of
negative evaluation,” and others, based on “distraction theory” (Byrne, Silasi‐
Mansat, & Worthy, 2015, p. 2).
• There is a risk in focusing on the wrong thing when a situation requiring action occurs.
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95. Designing for…
1 Perception(cont.)
Build to Actual Perception (cont.)
• Build to human tendencies in perception on various levels: conscious, sub‐
conscious, and unconscious.
• Engage perception pre‐attentively and attentively.
• Use layout and spatial relationships that build on trained aspects of human
perception (“built spaces”), such as visualizations from top‐to‐bottom, left‐
to‐right, in the Western and some other traditions.
• Test for learner perception of the relevant information.
• Draw attention to the important parts of the learning through designed attentional
devices, such main idea summaries and repetition.
• Also, reinforce the important parts of the learning by addressing the materials in
multiple ways.
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97. Designing for…
1 Perception(cont.)
Build to Accessibility (cont.)
• Consider invisible challenges such as symbolic processing ones (innumeracy,
reading challenges like dyslexia, and others).
• Continue to evolve the training to ensure broad accessibility.
• Build the digital learning objects to align with available technologies in the field
like screen readers.
• Avoid requiring mouse interactions for accessibility. Enable keyboard shortcuts and
accessibility devices for human interaction.
• Enable learners to adjust the parameters for speed of animations, level of sound,
speed and replay of video, and so on.
• Learner control of speed of transient multimedia information (and intake speed) is
paramount.
• Learner agency (such as from growing efficacy) is important (and is linked to learning and
risk‐taking in learning).
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100. Designing for…
2 Cognition (cont.)
Build to Known Cognition (cont.)
• Treat cognition as a limited resource (cognitive load).
• Build credibility and trust in the learning, so cognitive load related to non‐
trust is lessened.
• Phase learning contents in a developmental way. Allow various
points‐of‐entry for the learning.
• Chunk the learning experiences in easy‐to‐manage ways.
• Allow different paths through the learning.
• Employ the imagination and spark emotions to attend to “the
unconscious meaning‐making processes at work within the human
psyche”…and to enable transformative learning (Dirkx, 2006, p. 20).
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111. Designing for…
3 Learning (cont.)
Structure the Learning (cont.)
• In assessments, use real‐world distractors to create a nuanced sense of
discernment.
• Offer schemas and models and rules to help learners understand
interconnections. Help learners identify relevant patterns. Help them
understand underlying principles and rules.
• Offer mnemonics to enable more accurate memories of such schemas and
interrelationships.
• Ensure that the proper language of the domain / field is used in the online
learning, to enhance transferability into the field.
• “Situated cognition” is sometimes created using cases, scenarios, as well as
full‐sensory experiences in immersive virtual worlds.
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118. Designing for…
3 Learning (cont.)
Deploy Learner Study Skills (cont.)
• Study skills include…
• Knowing how to conduct effective research and evaluate source information for
validity
• Understanding data and data visualizations
• Applying logical thinking
• Engaging abstractions
• Understanding and applying technologies strategically and tactically
• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle to enable effective learning, balancing life, work, and
study
• Maintaining effective social relationships to enable effective learning, and others
• Learners benefit from knowing the particular necessary study skills for their
respective fields (and related peripheral domains).
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131. Designing for…
5 Decision‐making (cont.)
Support Learner Adaptivity
• Encourage adaptivity in learners:
• Take time to think through decisions. Test ideas particularly those that one deeply
wants to be true. Consider counterintuitive concepts.
• Create systems for decision‐making that encapsulate known and relevant facts and
enable heightened application of rationality in decision‐making.
• Consider first, second, and third (and other) degrees of effects and intended and
unintended consequences.
• Surface assumptions, and explore those assumptions using facts and probabilities.
• Objectively evaluate the outcomes of decision‐making. Be ready to reassess, identify
and own errors (even at a cost to ego), and come to accurate conclusions.
• Make decisions from a personal place of strength and agency, not mental or
emotional depletion.
• Verify before trusting, and trust sparingly. This applies to other people but also the
self.
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143. Summary: Online learning should be
designed to actual human capabilities…
• with limited and changing perceptual systems (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing,
and proprioception) through which people engage the world;
• with sensory signals from the world and from the person’s body and mind;
• with cognition directed by the frontal lobe to what is seen as important but
implicit cognition at work even pre‐attentively and unattentively;
• with the need for history and context to understand the sensory signals;
• with learning occurring based on different preferences…
• and informed by prior knowledge but decaying (forgetting) over time…
• and limited by split attention…
• and not able to apply unlearning but having to learn over prior learning in some cases…but
building new learning over old learning in some cases;
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144. Summary: Online learning should be
designed to actual human capabilities… (cont.)
• with memory that is generally fairly limited in terms of what may be held in the
short term;
• with built‐in conscious, subconscious, and unconscious decision‐making about what to forget
vs. what to encode into long‐term memory;
• with memory that is malleable and reinterpreted over time;
• with decision‐making marred by individual cognitive biases, intuitions, prior
beliefs and attitudes;
• with the default influence of the automatic and speedy System 1 (which often occurs in an
unconscious way);
• with a tendency towards over‐confidence;
• with the influence of “noisy” social group dynamics;
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145. Summary: Online learning should be
designed to actual human capabilities… (cont.)
• with potential action‐taking affected by unthinking application of go‐to
habits…and difficulty adapting to unexpected or surprise events;
• with the application of inaccurate and irrational cost‐benefit calculations (skewed by ego);
• with not seeking better ways of solving problems by assuming that current methods are best;
• with not considering creative solutions “outside the box” from not seeing the proverbial box
or buying into erroneous myths about creativity;
• with the lack of self‐efficacy to propose new ideas (even at small risk of embarrassment)
• and so on…
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149. References
• Augusto, L.M. (2016). Lost in dissociation: The main paradigms in unconscious cognition.
Consciousness and Cognition: 42(2016), 293 – 310.
• Byrne, K.A., Silasi‐Mansat, C.D., & Worthy, D.A. (2015). Who chokes under pressure? The Big Five
personality traits and decision‐making under pressure. Personality and Individual Differences:
74(February 2015), 22 – 28. Retrieved July 1, 2016, from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914005595.
• Catmull, E. (with A. Wallace). (2014). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand
in the Way of True Inspiration. New York: Random House. 178.
• Conrad, D.L. (2002). Engagement, excitement, anxiety, and fear: Learners’ experiences of starting
an online course. The American Journal of Distance Education: 16(4), 205 – 226.
• Dirkx, J.M. (2006). Engaging emotions in adult learning: A Jungian perspective on emotion and
transformative learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education: 109(Spring 2006),
pp. 15 – 26. Wiley Periodicals.
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