Cognitive ergonomics for data analysis

Abstract

Today's ever-increasing amount of data places new demands on cognitive ergonomics and requires new design ideas to ensure successful human–data interaction. Our aim is to identify the cognitive factors that require attention when designing systems to improve decision-making based on large amounts of data. We designed an experiment that simulates the typical cognitive demands people encounter in data analysis situations. We demonstrate some essential cognitive limitations using a behavioural experiment with 20 participants. The studied task presented the participants with critical and noncritical attributes that contained information on two groups of people. They had to select the response option (group) with a higher frequency of critical attributes. The results showed that accuracy of judgement decreased as the amount of information increased, and that judgement was affected by irrelevant information. Our results thus demonstrate critical cognitive limitations when people utilise data and suggest a cognitive bias in data-based decision-making. Therefore, when designing for cognition, we should consider the human cognitive limitations that are manifested in a data analysis context and develop general cognitive ergonomics guidelines for design to support the utilisation of data and improve data-based decision-making.