model human processor

a model of human information processing that is used in evaluating the usability of products and systems. The model, which is derived from empirical findings, consists of three interacting subsystems—perceptual, motor, and cognitive. Estimates of processing capacity and of processing and decay times (see decay theory) can be used to quantify human performance under a variety of constraints. See also human operator modeling. [developed in 1983 by U.S. psychologist Stuart K. Card (1943– ), U.S. computer scientist Thomas P. Moran (1942– ), and U.S. cognitive and computer scientist Allen Newell (1927–1992)]

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Psychology term of the day

January 31st 2025

Feighner criteria

a set of formal diagnostic descriptions published in 1972 for 15 mental disorders. Developed to improve reliability in psychiatric diagnosis by standardizing the definition of specific disorders, the Feighner criteria were the first symptom-based diagnostic system to be used in psychiatric research and signaled a major shift away from the then-dominant psychoanalytic approach to mental illness. They became widely cited and used in research and played an influential role in the revival of biological thinking in U.S. psychiatry. See Research Diagnostic Criteria. [developed by a team of researchers led by U.S. psychiatrist John P. Feighner (1937– ) at Washington University, St. Louis]