Fundamentals of cognition (Vorlesung WiSe 23/24)
How is our thinking organized? Do we all perceive the world in the same way? What directs our attention? This lecture provides the most important basics of cognitive psychological theories, findings, and methods. Content focuses on visual information processing, as well as attention and memory models relevant to human-computer interaction. By the end of the semester, participants should have gained an understanding of the mechanisms of human cognition and be able to apply these with respect to good interaction design. The course includes exercises with practical example scenarios.
Social Engineering – das Abenteuer! (Projekt WiSe 23/24)
Project content will be added at the beginning of the semester
Applying Eye-based Measures for Cognition-Aware Systems (EyeCog) (Projekt WiSe 23/24)
Physiological data can be applied to determine individual conditions and enable computer systems to adapt to changes during cognitive or affective processing. The current project aims to assess cognitive workload during different tasks through eye-related measures, including pupil size changes, blink frequency and eye-lid distance. We will review the relevant literature, discuss experimental designs and carry out empirical studies to differentiate the sensitivity of all parameters. The project is organized in close cooperation with our external partner Soma Reality.
Oberseminar Usability (Seminar)
Monthly online seminar for students who are writing their thesis in the current semester and would like to share ideas and experiences.
Usability Engineering and Testing (lecture)
What makes a product or a service usable? The course will introduce to basic concepts of Usability Engineering and Testing. Emphasis will be put on quantitative methods. Our students learn how to set up controlled experiments and analyse behavioural data in order to determine the ease-of-use of a system in different development phases. The lecture is accompanied by practical lab work that allows students to apply the acquired knowledge while designing and testing applications in the field of Human-Computer Interaction.
Physiological Computing (lecture)
Physiological computing applies physiological data (skin conductance changes, pupil dynamics, heart rate variability etc.) to generate user-state representations and enable computer systems to dynamically adapt to changes in cognitive and/or affective processing. By connecting the brain/body to a machine, the boundaries of the nervous system are extended which enables us to communicate with technical devices directly via processes that underlie our thoughts and emotions. The course will provide basic knowledge on the human nervous system and introduce to concepts and methods of physiological computing. We will discuss selected examples from the current research by putting special emphasis on eye-tracking and pupillometry but also on recent developments in the field of Biofeedback and Brain-Computer Interfaces. Practical lab work will give our students the opportunity to collect and analyse data on gaze behaviour, pupil size changes and skin conductance responses.
Empirical Semester Project
The usability department regularly offers single-semester projects on different topics in the field of human-machine interaction.
Oberseminar Usability (Seminar)
Monthly online seminar for students who are writing their thesis in the current semester and would like to share ideas and experiences.