Course Description

Psy/Orf 322

Human - Machine Interactions

Spring 2005

Lectures: 1:30 – 2:50 Mon. & Wed. O-S-6 Green Hall

Professors: Alain L. Kornhauser (Orf) E-407 EQuad, X 8-4657,

J. Cooper (Psy)

G.H. Harman (Phi)

R. G. Jahn (MAE)

P. N. Johnson-Laird (Psy)

Enrolled Students

Description and Objectives: This course studies the fundamentals of human-machine interactions from both the human psychology and philosophy side as well as the machine engineering and design side. This multi-disciplinary approach will utilize faculty and readings from psychology, philosophy, physical sciences and engineering. Starting from a framework of the elements of human-machine interactions, the course focuses on the following specific issues:

  • What are the fundamental differences between humans and machines, specifically: how can we use machines to study people, what are the functional elements of sensors, memory, control and actuators in humans? Views of the brain at work.
  • Philosophical aspects of human-machine interactions. Turing's test for machine intelligence and possible problems with the test. Searle's Chinese Room Argument.
  • Thinking by machines and humans. Deduction by machines and humans; a taxonomy of thought. Are humans rational? Induction by machines and humans. Creativity by machines and humans.
  • Computers in the social environment; motivational issues. Individual differences in human-machine interactions. Issues of gender, age and personality.
  • The decisions and control by humans and machines. The structure of the human and machine vision systems including approaches to machine vision and image processing. Information content in images. Application of computer vision to drive an "auto" mobile, artificial neural networks for massively parallel computing. Concepts of Decision Engineering, helping individuals make better real-time decisions.
  • The role of consciousness in human-machine interactions: Are the information processing in the human mind and that in the intelligent machines invariably linearly separable, or are there possibilities of resonant synergism? Design and implementation of experiments on the question, including: issues of statistical analysis, scale of effects, replicability, and protection from artifacts. Theoretical models of the anomalous interactions, and their implications and applications.

Course Format: Two (2) 1 hr. and 20 minute classes with occasional laboratories (to be arranged)

Typical Weekly Assignments: Readings must be done before class; written assignments every other week.

Course Requirements: Written assignments, participation in classroom discussions, one laboratory report, term project, oral presentation of term project, two (2) 1 hour exams.

Grading: A-F, no pass-fail. Grade based on exams (20% each), course project and oral presentation (25%), homework and labs (15%) and class participation (20%).

Other Information: This course is recommended for students from a wide range of disciplines.

Required Texts:

  1. Collection of Readings from Psy/Orf 322. (Copies to be available for $20. Please make check payable to Princeton University.)
  2. Jahn & Dunne,Margins of Reality , Harcourt-Brace, 1987. (Copies available from U Store, Please buy early in the semester, otherwise the U-Store sends them back to the publisher.)
  3. Cooper & Weaver,Gender and Computers: Understanding the Digital Divide , Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. (Soft cover copies available from U Store, Please buy early in the semester.)
  4. Two Decades of PEAR: An Anthology of Selected Publications (Copies available at
  5. Optional Texts: Johnson-Laird, P.N., Human and Machine Thinking, Erlbaum, 1983

Schedule of Lectures