Test your basic knowledge |

Design Principles

Subject : engineering
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. The time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.


2. The deliberate use of a weak element that will fail in order to protect other elements in the system from damage.






3. 1) Physiological 2) Safety 3) Love 4) Self-Esteem 5) Self-Actualization


4. Patients experience treatment effects based on their belief that a treatment will work.






5. The tendency for people to behave differently when they know they are being studied






6. A technique used to teach a desired behavior by reinforcing increasingly accurate approximations of the behavior.






7. Teh act of copying properties of familiar objects - organisms - or environments in order to realize specifice benefits afforded by those properties.






8. The tendency to see attractive people as more intelligent - competent - moral and sociable than unattractive people.






9. A technique for preventing unintended actions by requiring verification of the actions before they are performed.






10. A technique used to modify behavior by reinforcing desired behaviors - and ignoring or punishing undesired behaviors.






11. The debgree to which prose can be understood - based on the complexity of words and sentences.






12. 1) Functionality 2) Reliability 3) Usability 4) Proficiency 5) Creativity. In order for design to be successful - it must meet ppl's basic need before it can attempt to satisfy higher- level needs.






13. There are three ways to organize materials to support a load or to contain and protect something: Mass structures - frame structures - and shell structures.






14. A tendency to prefer faces in which the eyes - nose - lips and other features are close to the average of a population.






15. The ratio of face to body in an image that influences the way the person in the image is perceived. (High = intelligent / Low = physical)






16. A phenomenon of memory in which noticeably different things are more likely to be recalled that common things. (AKA Isolation/Novelty Effect)






17. An attribute of an object that allows people to intuitively know how to use it






18. The relative ease with which a destination - idea - or concept may be reached.






19. A tendency to see objects and patterns as 3D when certain visual cues are present.






20. Elements perceived as either figures (objects of focus) or ground (the rest of the perceptual field)






21. A process in which similar characteristics evolve independently in multiple systems.






22. A phenomenon in which perception and behavior changes as a result of personal expectations or the expectations of others. (Halo effect - Hawthorne effect - Pygmalion effect - Placebo effect - Rosenthal effect - Demand characteristics.)






23. People understand and interact with systems and environments based on mental representations developed from experience.






24. An action or ommission of action yielding an unintended result.






25. The tendency for people to perform better or worse based on the expectations of another.






26. The visual clarity of text - generally based on the size - typeface - contrast - text block - and spacing of the characters used.






27. The process of using spatial and environmental information to navigate to a destination.






28. The use of pictorial images to improve the recognition and recall of signs and controls.






29. A term used to describe a set of data - that when plotted - forms a symmetrical - bell- shaped curve.






30. The tendency to perceive objects as unchanging - despite changes in sensory input. (such as perspective - lighting - color or size)






31. Adjusting parts of a device in relation to each other to create a sense of unity and cohesion.






32. The ratio of relevant to irrelevant information in a display. The highest possible signal- to- noise ratio is desirable in design.






33. Elements that are similar are perceived to be more related than elements that are dissimilar.






34. Successful products typically follow four stages of creation: requirements - design - development - and testing.






35. The usability of a system is improved when similar parts are expressed in similar ways.






36. The time required to move to a target is a function of the target size and distance to the target.


37. Tendency to form an overall positive impression of a person on the basis of one positive characteristic






38. A tendency to prefer environments with unobstructed views (prospects) and areas of concealment and retreat (refuges).






39. A tendency to interpret ambiguous images as simple and a complete unit - versus complex and incomplete. (Gestalt principle of perception).






40. The usability of a system is improved when its status and methods of use are clearly visible.






41. The use of more elements than necessary to maintain the performance of a system in the event of failure of one or more of the elements.






42. Using more elements than is necessary to offset the effects of unknown variables which may cause a system failure.






43. When participants realise the aim of the study and may change their behaviour to help or disrupt the study.






44. A tendency to assume that a system that works at one scale will also work at a smaller or larger scale. (2 kinds: Load assumptions and Interaction assumptions)






45. A relationship between variables in a system where the consequences of an event are fed back in order to modify the event in the future.






46. A tendency to see people and things iwth baby- faced features as more naive - helpless - and honest than those with mature features.






47. A diagram that describes the general pattern followed by the eyes when looking at evenly distributed - homogeneous information.






48. People tend to prefer savanna- like environments to other types of environments. Open areas - scattered trees - water - and uniform grassiness rather than other natural environments such as desert - jungle - and complex mtns.






49. Pictures are remembered better than words.






50. A phenomenon of visual processing in which certain line orientations are more quickly and easily processed and discriminated than other line orientations.