1

COGNITION & SYSTEMS DESIGN

Multimedia Review: Cognition & Systems Design

Sonal Kalia

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

MSHF 653: Cognitive Systems Engineering

Dr. Clint Balog

October 30, 2022

2
COGNITION & SYSTEMS DESIGN
Multimedia Review: Systems Engineering

For week 2’s multimedia review, we will be reviewing three videos on topics related to

cognitive systems engineering. The goal of this review is to describe my impression regarding

my understanding of cognitive systems, cognitive strategies, potential error, and cognitive task

analysis.

Stiegler, Marjorie (2014)

This video makes an excellent point about how the initial stage of “sensemaking”

influences how the rest of the cognition process. This logically makes sense that our first

impression of an activity influences the way we consider potential strategies in how we approach

the task at hand. For example, if I have an impression of a task being tedious based on my

observation of how other have completed it, I am likely to choose a strategy that may help me

accomplish it as ease. This may not be the best method to tackle the situation as the chosen

method may not be as effective than other potential strategies. For example, the chosen method

may make me more prone to making an error. Hence, it is crucial for researchers to consider

such cognitive errors that humans may make while interacting with a system.

Nature Newsteam (2012) & CTNWaterloo (2012)

Spaun seems like an interesting way to replicate our understanding of human behavior

within the system. In fact, this may be useful for studying human behaviors in the healthcare

sector, wherein humans may have some part of their brain damaged. This may be the key to

improving our understanding of how different parts of the brain play a vital role while interacting

with systems and how different cognitive processes can influence the human-machine interaction

harmony.

Conclusion
3
COGNITION & SYSTEMS DESIGN
In the end, these three videos have given a better understanding of the importance of

carefully designing systems. The most crucial information conveyed is that when designing

systems with the human in-the-loop it is essential to consider cognitive processes and states to

accommodate the general population and improve human-machine interaction. These videos

emphasize that the researchers must be aware of identify all possibilities of how humans may

interact with systems to improve the systems effectiveness and reliability.

4
COGNITION & SYSTEMS DESIGN
References

CTNWaterloo (2012). Spaun - Several cognitive and non cognitive tasks (with decoding)

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxmlbZa7C4

Nature Newsteam (2012). Spaun: a simulated brain made up of 2.5 million virtual neurons

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLTt8Za3MVY

Stiegler, Marjorie (2014). Understanding and preventing cognitive errors in healthcare [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ8EEiQyasc