Researchers at Waterloo excel at creating new technologies, investigating human-technology interactions, and exploring how to mitigate harm. That’s why it’s no surprise that two computer scientists from Waterloo investigated whether technology controlling the number of words a user can highlight could affect their reading comprehension.
“There are lots of theories in psychology that show having constraints is really beneficial, especially for encouraging creativity,” says Nikhita Joshi (MMath ’20), a PhD student specializing in human-computer interaction (HCI) research at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “Traditionally, software constraints were mainly used for error-proofing. However, my research focuses on using constraints to influence positive outcomes for users, which I call ‘bounded interactions.’”
Read the full story from Waterloo News to learn more.