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. Given a choice between functionally equivalent designs - the simplest design should be selected.


2. The designs that help people perform optimally are often not the same as the designs that people find most desirable.






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






4. A method of managing system complexity that involves dividing large systems into multiple - smaller self- contained systems.






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






6. The act of measuring certain sensitive variable in a system can alter them - and confound the accuracy of the measurement.






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






8. The quality of system output is dependent on the quality of system input.






9. A method of presentation in which information is presented in descending order of importance. (Critical information presented first).






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






11. The time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.


12. An ability to detect threatening stimuli more efficiently than nonthreatening stimuli.






13. Pictures are remembered better than words.






14. It is often preferable to settle for a satisfactory solution - rather than pursue an optimal solution.






15. 80% of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20% of the variables.






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






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






18. A technique of combining many units of information into a limited number of units or chunks - so that the information is easier to process and remember.






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






20. A phenomenon in which mental processing is made slower and less accurate by competing mental processes.






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






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






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






24. A ratio within the elements of a form - such as height to width - approximating 0.618.






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






26. Repeated exposure to stimuli for which people have neutral feelings will increase the likeability of the stimuli.






27. A preference for a particular ratio of waist size to hip size in men and women. Men prefer 0.7 in women. Women prefer 0.9 in men.






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






29. A point of physical or attentional entry into a design. (Minimal Barriers - Points of Prospect - Progressive Lures)






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






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






32. There are five ways to organize information: Category - time - location - alphabet - and continuum.






33. Designs should help people avoid errors and minimize the negative consequences of errors when they do occur.






34. Tendency to perceive a set of individual elements as a single - recogniable pattern - rather than multiple - individual elements.






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






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






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






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






39. A property of visual equivalence among elements in a form.






40. The distressing state of thought caused by recognizing an inconsistency between behavior/thought and value/belief.






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






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






43. Memory for recognizing things is better than memory for recalling things.






44. A technique used to asociate a stimulus with an unconscious physical or emotional response.






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






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






47. An activity will be pursued only if its benefits are equal to or greater than the costs. (ie. How much reading is too much to get the point of a message?)






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






49. A phenomenon of memory in which items presented at the beginning and end of a list are more likely to be recalled than items in the middle of a list.






50. Elements that are close together are percieved to be more related than elements that are farther apart.