peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (08/08/83)
Some months ago, I asked for comments on the creation of a newsgroup to
discuss psychology as it applies to computer science. I received a
number of replies and submitted a summary. Here's the summary again,
somewhat edited:
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Thank-you to all people who sent mail to me regarding the creation of a
newsgroup to discuss issues involving psychology and computer science. I
received 20 votes in favour and none opposed. Some interesting comments
were made, and I hope the following summary does justice to them. Firstly,
arizona!gary mentioned that net.psych might receive postings related to
psychic phenomena and dciem!mmt felt that it might contain discussions of
interpersonal psychology not directly related to computer science. Thus,
a new name is needed, and net.cog-eng (Cognitive Engineering) seems to fit
the bill, as cognitive engineering seems to be the field closest to the
intersection of computer science and psychology, in an applied sense.
yale-comix!mwolf commented that cognitive science material should go in
net.ai rather than net.psych; perhaps the name change will solve this
problem by putting the accent on *applied* psychology, rather than more
theoretical issues. For example, results of experiments evaluating user
interfaces, which don't really belong in net.ai, could go in net.cog-eng.
Secondly, several people mentioned specific issues to be covered:
uw-beaver!mager: psychology of human interaction over networks
ihnp4!pcl: university programmes in "CS and Psychology"
ritcv!mjl: graphic design of programs, evaluation of pointing devices
In summary, there is support and material for a newsgroup to discuss,
as its description might read, "psychology and cognitive science applied
to the design of computer systems".
Thanks go to utcsrgv!(willy,ralph,roderick,perelgut), mhb5b!gsp,
uw-beaver!mager, qucis!browse, ihnp4!pcl, watmath!jamcmullan, ritcv!mjl,
arizona!(gary,rogerh), utcsstat!grant, dciem!mmt, and yale-comix!(mwolf,
feist,douglis,debenedi,rhunter) for their votes and comments.
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I'm submitting this to net.news.group to achieve the consensus needed
to create the group. I'm afraid I'm not clear on the social protocol
for creating a group, so I'd appreciate information on this as well as
comments on the proposed group itself.
peter rowley, U. Toronto CSRG
{cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!peterr
or {cwruecmp,duke,linus,decvax,research}!utzoo!utcsrgv!peterrjcz@ncsu.UUCP (08/08/83)
References: utcsrgv.1909 One vote for net.cog-eng! Are there any studies showing, quantatatively, if command interpreters are better than menus for (novices, occasional users, heavy or professional users)? At the USENIX in Toronto, Lesk gave a keynote address that sort of poked at the idea with a poorly designed 'experimaent.' I know that the question itself has been argued by unix-types for some time, but has there been a study? --jcz John Carl Zeigler decvax!duke!mcnc!ncsu!jcz
rcj@burl.UUCP (08/12/83)
A definite yes vote for net.psych; but ?????net.cog-eng???? Come on!!! :-) -- The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3814 (Cornet 291) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ floyd sb1 mhuxv ]!burl!rcj
sysman@glasgow.UUCP (Zdravko Podolski) (08/26/83)
If there are not already enough votes for net.cog-sci, here is another one.
As soon as we get our Psychology Dept on the net they too will want to add
their votes.
--
Zdravko Podolski, Comp Sci Dept, Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland
.........!vax135!edcaad!edee!glasgow!{ zp | sysman }
...!decvax!mcvax!edcaad!...