Publication statistics

Pub. period:1988-2008
Pub. count:4
Number of co-authors:5



Co-authors

Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:

Raymond A. Mar:1
Alison M. McGregor:1
Steven Draper:1

 

 

Productive colleagues

Keith Oatley's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:

Steven Draper:21
Isobel Baxter:3
J. T. Mayes:2
 
 
 
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-- Paul Rand, 1997

 
 

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Keith Oatley

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Publications by Keith Oatley (bibliography)

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2008
 
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Mar, Raymond A. and Oatley, Keith (2008): The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience. In Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3 (3) pp. 173-192.

Fiction literature has largely been ignored by psychology researchers because its only function seems to be entertainment, with no connection to empirical validity. We argue that literary narratives have a more important purpose. They offer models or simulations of the social world via ion, simplification, and compression. Narrative fiction also creates a deep and immersive simulative experience of social interactions for readers. This simulation facilitates the communication and understanding of social information and makes it more compelling, achieving a form of learning through experience. Engaging in the simulative experiences of fiction literature can facilitate the understanding of others who are different from ourselves and can augment our capacity for empathy and social inference.

© All rights reserved Mar and Oatley and/or their publisher

 Cited in the following chapter:

» Aesthetic Computing: [/encyclopedia/aesthetic_computing.html]


 
2004
 
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Oatley, Keith (2004): The bug in the salad: the uses of emotions in computer interfaces. In Interacting with Computers, 16 (4) pp. 693-696.

The investigation of emotional aspects of users' interactions with systems is an important matter for human-computer interaction. The finding that users are prepared to work longer on systems that offer some acknowledgement of the frustration that occurs in using systems is an interesting pointer. The next step beyond acknowledgement will be for systems to join with users in working to repair the bugs in interaction that have been so frustrating.

© All rights reserved Oatley and/or Elsevier Science

1991
 
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Baxter, Isobel and Oatley, Keith (1991): Measuring the Learnability of Spreadsheets in Inexperienced Users and Those with Previous Spreadsheet Experience. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 10 (6) pp. 475-490.

The issues of 'usability' and 'learnability' are assuming an increasingly important role for both the designers of software and their prospective customers. Objective measures of the interaction between system and user are important for the development of software that is both easy to learn and pleasurable to use. In this study, we apply a set of five measures to evaluate users' interactions with spreadsheet software, and to compare two spreadsheet packages. We tested 16 people with no previous experience of spreadsheets and 16 with experience of spreadsheets generally though not of the spreadsheet we gave them. Half were allocated to learn Excel and half to learn Wingz, running on Apple Macintosh computers. A standard task was constructed to assess understanding of the basic concepts involved in the use of spreadsheets. Users' previous experience of spreadsheet use was the most salient factor in the scores achieved on the task. The brand of spreadsheet had no significant effect on task performance. Implications for designers of software and users of spreadsheet packages are discussed.

© All rights reserved Baxter and Oatley and/or Taylor and Francis

1988
 
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Mayes, J. T., Draper, Steven, McGregor, Alison M. and Oatley, Keith (1988): Information Flow in a User Interface: The Effect of Experience and Context on the Recall of MacWrite Screens. In: Jones, Dylan M. and Winder, R. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the British Computer Society Human Computer Interaction Specialist Group - People and Computers IV August 5-9, 1988, University of Manchester, UK. pp. 275-289.

A major theoretical and practical concern in HCI is to discover and characterise what it is that users know -- of what their expertise consists. We have tested what users remember of the detailed content of the MacWrite interface. We found that even experienced users can recall little of the menu contents, even though during use those menus are the instruments of their successful performance. It seems that the necessary information is picked up, used, and discarded; it is not learned in the sense that commands are learned. More exactly, users retain only enough information for recognition, not the much greater amount required for recall. This has implications for predicting learning times (not having to learn commands even for skilled performance should make for fast skill acquisition), and for writing documentation (no need to teach what won't be learned): thus the 'information flow' view of human action (Norman&Draper [1986]) can be used to re-interpret the findings and recommendations of the 'minimal manual' approach developed by Jack Carroll and his associates (Carroll [1984a]; Carroll [1984b]).

© All rights reserved Mayes et al. and/or Cambridge University Press

 
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26 Mar 2012: Added
26 Feb 2010: Modified
27 Jun 2007: Added
28 Apr 2003: Added

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URL: http://www.interaction-design.org/references/authors/keith_oatley.html

Publication statistics

Pub. period:1988-2008
Pub. count:4
Number of co-authors:5



Co-authors

Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:

Raymond A. Mar:1
Alison M. McGregor:1
Steven Draper:1

 

 

Productive colleagues

Keith Oatley's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:

Steven Draper:21
Isobel Baxter:3
J. T. Mayes:2
 
 
 
May 19

Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated.

-- Paul Rand, 1997

 
 

Featured chapter

Read the fascinating history of Wearable Computing, told by its father, Steve Mann

Read Steve's chapter !

 
 

Help us help you!