Psychology for engineers

• Describe the core abilities and limitations of human information processing and perception (e.g. visual processing, depth perception, limits of short-term information storage)
• Apply knowledge about human information processing to identify and analyze problematic human-machine interfaces (e.g. in display design or ergonomics)
• Discuss how human factors contribute to errors
• Identify key cognitive, social and environmental factors that influence human behaviour
• Reflect upon the effect of attitudes and norms on behaviour based on different theories
• Describe selected psychological decision theories and theories of behaviour change
• Apply a psychological theory to a guide a behaviour change intervention
• Differentiate between different experimental designs and methods of data collection, and reflect on their advantages and limitations
• Collaborate effectively in randomly assigned student groups by establishing and adhering to a set of mutually agreed-upon rules

The course is divided into two blocks:
The first block is based on cognitive psychology and human factors research. Here, students learn about core abilities and limitations of human information processing and perception and will apply this knowledge to identify how easy or difficult a product or interface is to use in a usability test.
The second block is based on selected theories and concepts of social and environmental psychology. Here, students learn about social perception, attitudes and norms and their effect on behaviour and more general theories of behaviour and behaviour change. Based on this knowledge, they will sketch a behaviour change intervention and learn how to evaluate its effect based on a short theory-based survey.

• 36 – 49 (Wed 13-17)

Lectures, group work, written and oral presentation of group work, quizzes, peer reviews

Please be aware that this course requires your physical presence within the scheduled hours. For two group assignments, you will be randomly assigned to groups of 3-5 students. One of the course objectives is to manage working in random interdisciplinary teams, so it is not possible to self-select group members.