Approximate modelling of cognitive activity with an expert system: a theory-based strategy for developing an interactive design tool

Abstract

This paper outlines an approach to 'user modelling'. In the approach, constructs from theoretical psychology are used to decompose the representational and processing resources of human cognition. This decomposition supports a form of 'cognitive task analysis' through which user performance can be related to the underlying functioning of their cognitive mechanism. Such functional relationships have been formalized and embodied in an expert system. This builds approximate models which describe cognitive activity associated with the execution of dialogue exchanges in human-computer interactions. Attributes of these 'cognitive task models' are used to derive likely properties of user performance. This paper describes two examples of working knowledge bases and discusses their properties.