Matt Loney's Blog
What it says on the box
Tuesday 19 June 2007, 1:03 PM
The perfect UI tester: a man with short-term memory loss?
Well, would they?
PreviousComments on this post
STM does not work like RAM in a computer, it is a connective semantic memory filter. It relies on recognition of what is personally important to the individual. Survival cues are, to an extent, "hard-wired" but the rest is basically to do with what is "recognised" as personally important. The capacity limits of STM are what can be processed in 6 seconds and can be contained in about 9 elements of information. Any information that is not processed in this filter selection process cannot pass up the associative pathways to the cortex. Computer programs have a place in, for example, presenting specific arrays as a strategy learning tool, but computers cannot at present "replace" STM because to do so, the computer would need to have our entire brain content stored on that computer as a "feeling."
A computer to test STM disfunction? Sort of yes, but success would depend on the degree of motivation of the user.
Lindsay
I think Lindsay might not have read the original post fully.
It isn't about whether a computer can help with STM loss. It is about whether someone with STM would be useful as a UI tester.
In answer to the question, I would say that someone with STM loss would be an ideal UI tester. They would have to rely completely on how intuitive the UI was at guiding you through a task and not do this through any pre-conceptions they had from previous rounds of testing.
My only real query would be on how the STM takes effect. Whilst someone may have no concious memory of previous testing, I wonder how much sinks in sub-conciously?
Hi, First of all, it depends on the nature of the damage to STM. This can be neurological in which case very little or nothing can be processed up the memory system, (epilepsy for example can play havoc with STM processes) or the damage can be psychological disturbance, e.g. from trauma, that (temporarily) blocks normal functioning. "Temporary" defined as until psychotherapy has worked. In this situation, STM may work sometimes and not at other times. Many people think STM is like RAM in a computer. It is not, it is actually a filter that "prevents" cognitive material that is not recognised as personally important (already stored top down recal) from being processed up the memory system. Associative and "subconscious" work is the work of LTM "Long Term Memory" and by definition, that "personally important" material has to be already there in some form. As I said before, STM is a limited capacity filter. Anything not recognised (top-down) as personally important in 6 seconds is not processed into LTM. In cases of serious damage, no new memories will be processed in the cortex. I did read the post, but fail to see how anyone can be a good tester if they can no longer process new memories at all because the memory filter no longer works. If the loss is total, how can they follow any "guide" ? No more than a blind person can read a map. If acoustic STM processes are still working, there could be room there, but if an alternative is functioning normally, it rather defeats the point.
Regards Linds
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