VCR Programming :: CogWorks Laboratories :: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute / RPI

Research > VCR Programming

Researchers

Wayne D. Gray	leader
Vladislav "Dan" Veksler	collaborator

Abstract

The error-prone task of programming a VCR is representative of a growing number of end-user programmable devices. To help understand this task a display-based model of VCR programming was developed and implemented as a computational cognitive model. The model accurately predicted the vast majority of correct and error recovery keypresses collected from human subjects (Gray, 1995). Further VCR studies were done to compare strategies given additional costs of unnatural interface design.
Currently VCR programming data are being analyzed for memory errors and memory strategies. Computation cognitive models are constantly being developed to match and explain empirical data.

Library

Gray, W. D., & (2004). Probing the Paradox of the Active User: Asymmetrical Transfer May Produce Stable, Suboptimal Performance. Paper presented at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. (download available)

Gray, W. D. (2000). The nature and processing of errors in interactive behavior. Cognitive Science, 24(2), 205-248. (download available)

Gray, W. D. (1995). VCR-as-paradigm: A study and taxonomy of errors in an interactive task. In K. Nordby, P. Helmersen, D. J. Gilmore, and S. A. Arnesen (Eds.). Human-Computer Interaction--Interact'95 (pp. 265-270). New York: Chapman & Hall.

Gray, W. D. & Sabnani, H. (1994). Why You Can't Program Your VCR, or, Predicting Errors and Performance with Production System Models of Display-Based Action. In Proceedings of ACM CHI'94 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Vol. 2, pp. 79-80).