Many of us can still remember purchasing our first computers to
be used for research purposes. The primary attributes of these
new tools were their utilities in solving relatively complex mathematical
problems and performing computer-based experiments.
However, it was not long after that word processing
brought about the demise of the typewriter, and our department
secretaries no longer prepared our research manuscripts
and reports. It is interesting to us that computers are not so substantively
different from other tools such that we should disregard
much of what the study of human factors and experimental
psychology has contributed to our understanding of human
behavior in simple and complex systems. Rather, it is the computer’s
capacity for displaying, storing, processing, and even
controlling information that has led us to the point at which
the manner with which we interact with such systems has become
a research area in itself.