The effects of knowledge type and warning format on attention to elements within instructional material and warning compliance
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine and understand the physical factors of warnings that influence an individual's cognitive behavior leading to the effective use of a product. The approach was to investigate the interaction between two levels of knowledge type (procedural and conceptual) and two warning format recommendations (conspicuous and integrated warnings) to generate research-based guidelines. It was hypothesized that as individuals progress from low to high procedural knowledge, conspicuity has an increasing effect and integration has a decreasing effect. Also, it was hypothesized that as individuals progress from low to high conceptual knowledge, conspicuity has an increasing effect and integration has a decreasing effect on the items that are attended to or retained in the working memory. Sixteen subjects recruited from the West Lafayette campus of Purdue University participated. Varying levels of conspicuity and integration were used to present specific device warnings in the instructional booklet. Additionally, half of the subjects were trained to have high conceptual knowledge. Subjects eventually experienced both levels of procedural knowledge as a result of the number of trials that they performed. The results of this research support the hypotheses. In particular, conspicuous warnings were found to produce better performance by decreasing the time to complete tasks and decreasing errors in subjects with high procedural knowledge. Similarly, subjects with high conceptual knowledge had less errors when the warnings were conspicuous. When investigating integrated warnings, it was found that subjects with low procedural knowledge were more likely to place those warnings into their working memory than subjects with high procedural knowledge. Subjects with low conceptual knowledge took less time to complete the task (increased performance) when the warnings were integrated than when the warnings were non-integrated. Integrating the warnings did not have a significant effect when subjects were either at a high procedural knowledge level or a high conceptual knowledge level. Based on this research, an expanded information processing model is validated for the purposes of explaining the interactive relationship between warning format and user characteristics. In conclusion, this research investigated and validated human-product interaction which incorporated human characteristics and product features.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Barany, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Industrial engineering|Occupational psychology
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