Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction: Designing for Cognitive Alignment - Softcover

Atkinson PhD, Robert

 
9780443413599: Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction: Designing for Cognitive Alignment
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0443413592 ISBN 13: 9780443413599
Publisher: Elsevier, 2026

Synopsis

Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction: Designing for Cognitive Alignment reframes human-computer interaction (HCI), usability, and user-centered design by focusing on the conditions under which cognition stabilizes over time. It provides an integrated account of HCI by bringing together cognitive science, neuroscience, and design principles to explain how systems shape perception, regulate attention, and support stable reasoning across repeated encounters. This approach ensures that graduate and undergraduate students not only understand core theoretical frameworks but also recognize how design decisions influence reasoning, decision-making, and cognitive effort in real-world contexts. The book emphasizes structured learning and iterative design processes, making the material accessible to both novices and advanced learners. It also addresses contemporary challenges such as AI-driven systems, adaptive interfaces, and large-scale personalization, offering a framework for understanding how misalignment emerges as instability―seen in repetition, delayed decisions, fragmented attention, and unresolved effort―and how design can support clarity, recovery, and trust in responsible ways

  • Repositions HCI beyond usability, introducing cognitive alignment as the problem of how cognition stabilizes―or fails to stabilize―over time
  • Reveals the behavioral infrastructure of interaction, showing how reinforcement, conditioning, and feedback loops shape persistence and action
  • Frames design as shaping cognitive and motivational conditions, where attention, emotion, and scaffolding support or disrupt stable reasoning
  • Recasts evaluation as breakdown and recovery analysis, focusing on how systems preserve clarity, confidence, and continuity in real-world use
  • Extends the framework to AI-driven and adaptive systems, showing how personalization and scale intensify instability and cognitive strain
  • Advances HCI as professional stewardship, introducing temporal accountability, predictive accountability, and cognitive sovereignty as core design obligations

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Dr Robert Atkinson is the Associate Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University, with a background in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience. His work focuses on the intersection of these fields with technology. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Wisconsin, and has published over 60 academic papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings across diverse fields, including computer science, psychology, data science, educational technology, human systems engineering, and informatics.

From the Back Cover

Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction: Designing for Cognitive Alignment reframes human-computer interaction (HCI), usability, and user-centered design by focusing on the conditions under which cognition stabilizes over time. It provides an integrated account of HCI by bringing together cognitive science, neuroscience, and design principles to explain how systems shape perception, regulate attention, and support stable reasoning across repeated encounters. This approach ensures that graduate and undergraduate students not only understand core theoretical frameworks but also recognize how design decisions influence reasoning, decision-making, and cognitive effort in real-world contexts. The book emphasizes structured learning and iterative design processes, making the material accessible to both novices and advanced learners. It also addresses contemporary challenges such as AI-driven systems, adaptive interfaces, and large-scale personalization, offering a framework for understanding how misalignment emerges as instability―seen in repetition, delayed decisions, fragmented attention, and unresolved effort―and how design can support clarity, recovery, and trust in responsible ways.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Elsevier
Publication date
2026
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0443413592
ISBN 13 
9780443413599
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
670