Contact:cdent@burningchrome.com
Norman, D.A. (1988). Chapter 3: Knowledge in the head and in the
world. In _The design of everday things_ (p. 54-80). New York:
Doubleday.
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From the 597 mailing list:
After reading "Knowledge in the Head and in the World" I'm curious
what other folks in class think of what might be classed as personal
information recorders. I'm thinking of a device that would record you
and your life as you went through it and would then (through some
technological marvelousness not yet developed) index all the info so
you could "think" with/about it later. (I suppose Steve Mann (the
wearable computing luminary) is going in this direction.)
Putting aside for the moment (a dangerous thing to do) issues of
privacy do you feel, based on Norman's notions of information in the
world and information in the head, that there would be benefits to
freeing your head from doing memorization?
"Procedural knowledge is largely subconscious." Is it possible to dump
some of the knowledge into the environment and assuming good access,
get it from there instead of your head?
I personally feel that this would be a benefit. Not necessarily because it
would leave room in my brain, but because it would facillitate the type of
reinterpretations mentioned in the motorcycle turn signal anecdote. When
remembering a particular event, the little electronic buddy could provide
a more robust context than your head, shining a brighter light to create
better reflection (as in reflective thinking).
Robust and deep context is, I think, what separates rote learning from
learning which associates reasons for actions with the actions. When
we can see into and around an action we can see patterns that can be
compared to more than just one event.
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