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How context affects behaviour

Lets start with a story…

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The Lab

What it looks like

The Lab

What it feels like

The Lab

It changes all three types of context : • the physical context• mental context• and social context

What it feels like

Changing any one of the types of context changes the persons cognitive ability. (Stephen J. and Antonio Roazzi)

Brazilian street kids…

… in the movie “The city of God”

Image credit: http://www.educima.com/foto-trabajo-infantil-vendedor-ambulante-i7486.html

Child selling bananas on the streets of Brazil

Research by Stephen J. and Antonio Roazzi

Image credit: http://www.educima.com/foto-trabajo-infantil-vendedor-ambulante-i7486.html

Child selling bananas on the streets of Brazil

98% accuracy rate of doing maths

Research by Stephen J. and Antonio Roazzi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_mcmt/187432802/sizes/l/

What happens when you put these street kids into a formalised test environment, where they solve the same maths problems?

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Performance drops significantly!

98%

37%

Street context Formal context

Video game play in the lab vs. real world

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50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 7500%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Number of trials

Accu

racy R

ate

Video game context

Lab task context

Source: “The effects of context on cognition: postcards from Brazil” Stephen J. Ceci and Antonio Roazzi, in “Mind Context” Sternberg R. J. and Wagner K. eds. (1994), page 78

Results

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13923263@N07/1471150324/sizes/l/

4Even numbers are unlucky

Michael Schumacher recently changed his racing number with a team mate.

Michael now has number 3, and his team mate number 4.

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The lucky sock of an American Football player

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“Despite the holes, it sticks around through the Super Bowl. My son tried wearing new ones during the Giants game and things went poorly until he switched back.”

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Superstitions are typically viewed as:

inconsequential creations of irrational minds

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But it turns out that:

Superstition improves performance through increasing self confidence.

Performance

Paper reference: Keep your fingers crossed!: how superstition improves performance.Damish L, Stoberock B, Musswiler T (2010)

You think differently when speaking a different language

If you learn another language, you learn another way of looking at the world.

Changing the way we talk to people, changes the way we think.

Marketing actions – such as pricing – affect the efficacy of the pills

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/142789779/sizes/l/

Weird people

Image credit: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~learninglab/team.html

People from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic societies.

Diversity in contexts is just as important as diversity of samples.

Stephen J Ceci, Dan M. Kahan, and Donald Braman

The brain does not exist in a vacuum.It operates in the context of the real world.

Jonah Lehrer

PRYSVL Modelof person-context interaction

Robert J. Sternberg

PERSON(who)

ROLES(what)

SITUATION(where, when)

VALUES(why)

LUCK (whoops!)

Abilities

Knowledge

Styles

Personality

Motivations

Leader vs. Followers

Entrepreneur vs. Manager

Thinking vs. Doing

Staff vs. Line

High stress vs. Low stress

Close Supervision vs. Far Supervision

Short term goals vs. long term goals

Physical comfort vs. physical discomfort

People vs. Productivity

Process vs. Product

Conformity vs. Independence

Individualism vs. Group Orientation

Altruism vs. Self Interest

Innovation vs. Stability

Appearance vs. Reality

Status variables

Event variables

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyboyster/835620369/

Human decision making is like a pair of scissors: one blade is the brain, while the other blade is a specific environment in which the brain operates.

Herb SimonNobel prize winning psychologist

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dannyboyster/835620369/

Human behaviour is like a pair of scissors: one blade is the brain, while the other blade is a specific environment in which the brain operates.

Herb SimonNobel prize winning psychologist

If you want to understand the function of scissors, then you have to look at both blades simultaneously.

For that end, we have to venture out of the lab and into the real world.

Jonah Lehrer

Send your researcher out there to mix with the wild, and find out how they use your design in their real environment.

There are a variety of methods you can use to that end:

EthnographyContextual EnquiryRemote EthnographyRemote online user research

Send your researcher out there to mix with the wild, and find out how they use your design in their real environment.

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Thank you.

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James PageDirector@jamespage

Sabrina MachDirector@sabrinamach

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