Interfacing Thought: Cognitive Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction

Interfacing Thought consolidates and presents theoretically important cognitive science research in the new and intensely active domain of human-computer interaction. It is a valuable survey of the whole range of problems and tasks in this growing field.

The twelve essays focus on the design of "user interfaces," or computers as experienced and manipulated by human users, showing how human motivation, action, and experience place constraints on the usability of computer equipment. In confronting the challenge of developing an applied science of human-computer interaction grounded in the framework of cognitive science, the essays make basic contributions to the development of cognitive science itself.

John M. Carroll is Manager of Advisory Interfaces at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He is coeditor, with Thomas G. Bever and Lance A. Miller, of Talking Minds: The Study of Language in the Cognitive Sciences, an MIT Press paperback. A Bradford Book.