Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Psych for Geeks

Author:Matt Daw
Posted:2/6/1999; 8:55:27 PM
Topic:InfoWorld: The New Web Order
Msg #:2734 (In response to 2726)
Prev/Next:2733 / 2735

Psychology, believe it or not, provides evidence to support Dave's three-view hypothesis.

The human memory system relies upon many cues being associated with new information as it is encoded. The cues which will be successful for retrieving this information later will vary from context-to-context and from person-to person. We must then allow for these individual differences.

Suppose, for example, that I recall reading an article that Dave wrote about the software development process. In some contexts, I would first recall where I was working at the time when I first read the article. This would push me towards a time-based view, as I know this was in 1995. In another context, I might remember the slogan of the article "We make shitty software". The search engine interface turns up this article in no time. Then again, I might not recall anything other than the fact that I liked the article. I would then search through the table of contents view for software development related keys.

In summary, I suppose that what I'm saying is that I agree with Dave.

I wonder if there would be a market for a "Psychology For Geeks" book or website. Due to the information processing approach to cognitive psychology, comparisons are rather interesting to make.

Matt

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