Gary and Tipsters--
I have been frustrated in watching the West Palm Beach ballot coverage to
note that (at least in all the coverage I've seen) no one consults any
human factors people!
For some reason CNN and the other news outlets seem to think it appropriate
to bring in only journalists and the occasional political scientist to
comment on the design of the ballot. I wonder whether they have been
approached by any human factors scientists offering to provide an informed
opinion on the issues of usability/readibility/error rates, etc...
Esther
At 04:20 PM 11/10/00 -0500, Gary Klatsky wrote:
>The ballot is the first thing my students will see in my human factors class
>next semester
>
>
>Gary J. Klatsky, Ph.D.
>Department of Psychology [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Oswego State University of NY http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky
>Oswego, NY 13126 Voice: (315) 312 3474
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeffrey Nagelbush [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 3:27 PM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: How I used the election for teaching
>
>
>
>G. Marc Turner wrote:
> >
> >Okay, I've kept quiet but I feel compelled to mention a few things.
> >
> >First, the US national election of our president has little to do with the
> >teaching of psychology as I see it. I would ask that those who continue to
> >feel compelled to debate this issue, please let us know how we can
> >integrate this debate in with our courses. (I commend those individuals who
> >have already attempted to relate the issues to psychology, but the vast
> >majority of posts do not seem to do that...including this one strangely
> >enough)
> >
>
>
>I always find it useful to try to integrate current events into my classes.
>So how did do this for the election? Well, in my lifespan class, I
>discussed the fact (if what I heard is correct) that the ballot in question
>was changed to make the print easier to read for the elderly ( a bit or
>irony here, perhaps). Since the size of the ballot did not change, this
>necessitated the use of the right hand column. This, of course relates to
>the sensory changes in the elderly. I also related it to the research
>showing that the elderly are more disrupted by time pressure than are
>younger folks. Finally, I did discuss the design implications that I/O
>psychologists talk about, including the problem we all seem to have with
>using the knobs to turn on the correct burners on our stoves.
>
>In my child psychology class, we were discussing the development of the
>understanding of intention. As an example of how important understanding
>intention is I suggested that if we could show that the ballots in Palm
>Beach were intentionally confusing, then we might have a case for
>overturning that part of the election. However, without intention, then the
>confusion is likely to be seen as just tough luck and something to repair
>next time.
>
>Students seemed to really like the reference to these events.
>
>Jeff Nagelbush
>nagelbuj@ hotmail.com
>Ferris State University
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Esther Strahan, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Heidelberg College
310 E. Market St.
Tiffin, Ohio 44883
Tel. (419) 448-2238
Fax (419) 448-2236
