Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload (extended)

Jo Pearce

@jdpearce jopearce.co.uk

Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.

Hacking Your Head

Managing Information Overload

http://jopearce.co.uk

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload


What is Information Overload?




“Surviving the collision with tomorrow…”




“…there are discoverable limits to the amount of change that the human organism can absorb”“…without first determining these limits we may submit masses of [people] to demands they simply cannot tolerate.”

Alvin Toffler (Future Shock, 1970)




Information Overload

Anxiety

Hostility

Senseless Violence

Physical Illness

Depression

Apathy




Orientation ResponsePupils dilate…

Hearing becomes more acute…

Muscles tense…

Blood rushes to the head…

Breathing and heart rate alter…




A soldier falls asleep “while a storm of machine gun bullets splattered around him” not due to physical tiredness, but a “sense of overpowering apathy”.

Soldiers became hypersensitive and would “hit the dirt” at the slightest stimuli, increasingly showing anxiety and anger at the slightest inconvenience.

The effects of overload in WWII







The overwhelming office?




“…the [orientation response] occurs not merely in response to simple sensory inputs.

It happens when we come across novel ideas or information as well…”

Alvin Toffler (Future Shock, 1970)




20 million words of new technical information are recorded each day.

Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.

At 1000 words/minute, 8 hours/day this is six weeks of reading.




After reading the information for that one day you would have fallen behind by 5.5 years!

Jackson, W. (2001). Information overload and managerial roles: A naturalistic study of engineers.




Information Fatigue Syndrome

Poor Concentration Hurry Sickness

Pervasive Hostility

Stress Depression

Lowered Immune Response

“Burn out”










There is always a lot to learn

Information overload is a learning problem!




How do we learn?




Working Memory Long Term Memory




Working MemoryProcesses Information

Active Thinking & Learning

Comprises visual & auditory subcomponents




Long Term Memory

Enormous Capacity

Cannot engage in thinking or learning processes




Results of learning

Knowledge Retrieval




Attention

Elaboration-Rehearsal

Encoding

The Learning Process




Attention is critical to processing information.

“In 1972 an Eastern Airlines flight crashed…as a result of cockpit distractions.

The crew became so preoccupied with a malfunction that no one noticed the altimeter reading or warnings until it was too late…”




We can help focus attention with cues and signals.e.g.

“It is important to note that…”

Bullet points!

Paragraphs and HeadingsVisual indicators

Signalling language -




Modality Effect

👁

"🔊+




Elaboration-Rehearsal helps promote Automaticity.

Writing

Reading

Speaking

Skills that become automatic require little or no processing in the working memory. Such as :




Encoding : Schemas

Multiple Elements Single Schema







Novice Learner Schemas




Experienced Learner Schemas




Understanding Our Limitations




The Magical Number 7 ± 2 (George A. Miller, 1956)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two




Working Memory

Information In






Overloaded Working Memory

Information In





The Magical (but finite) Number X?




Schema=

Novice Experienced




How do we work with our limitations?




Cognitive Science 12 (2), June 1988John Sweller

“Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning”.




Cognitive Load Theory




Defines cognitive load as the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory

Describes a universal set of evidence-based principles for managing cognitive load that lead to efficient learning.

What is Cognitive Load Theory?




Total cognitive load is comprised of three types:

Intrinsic Load

Extraneous (Irrelevant) Load

Germane (Relevant) Load




Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.

e.g.

Learning to juggle 10 balls is inherently more complex than learning to juggle 3.

Intrinsic Load




Imposed by the inherent complexity of the task being performed.

Manage by breaking large tasks into smaller ones!

Intrinsic Load




Epic

User Story

TaskTaskTask

User Story

TaskTaskTask

User Story

TaskTaskTask




Imposed by distractions or tasks which are irrelevant to the goal.

Coping with a loud environment

Unfamiliarity with a development tool

Unreadable code

e.g.





Try working somewhere quieter…

…or wearing headphones?




Reduce the number of tools or libraries to a minimum…







Paragraphs of code




Paragraphs of code

Use appropriate whitespace and line breaks as cues…




“Code tells you how, comments tell you why”.

Jeff Atwood @codinghorror




Good comments signal that all is not as straightforward as it might appear…

⁉




Maintain consistency without the load of learning a style-guide…





Reducing irrelevant load focuses attention




Beneficial load imposed by tasks which are relevant to an overall goal.

Repetition and context variation give us the skills to apply knowledge in a wider variety of situations.


Essential for complex schema creation




Repetition = Practice




Context Variation

Tree?




How about a different context?




Goal : Understand existing codebase.

👍




Develop more flexible schemas through pairing…

This can leverage the modality effect…





Elaborate and rehearse existing schemas

Encode new information

Promote automaticity




We constantly need to learn…




Cognitive psychology can tell us how we learn...




But it also tells us that there are limits to our ability to learn…




ManageIntrinsic

Load

IncreaseRelevant

Load

+

ReduceIrrelevant

Load

+

= Efficient Learning & Increased Productivity

Cognitive Load Theory


Jo Pearce


Non-binary (they/them), developer and science womble.

Thanks!Any questions?




Bibliography“Future Shock”- Alvin Toffler

“Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Manage Cognitive Load”- Ruth Colvin Clark; Frank Nguyen; John Sweller

“Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement” - Ruth Colvin Clark

“Cognitive Psychology”- Michael Eysenck; Mark T. Keane


Technology

Hacking Your Head : Managing Information Overload (extended)