On 4 Mar 2009 at 14:04, Jonathan Mueller justifiably admired Rick Froman's post on (of all things) toilet paper:
> What a beautiful example of science at work! An unstructured > observation (in the bathroom) linked to prior research leads eventually > to > an empirical question and a test of competing ideas. When I read the contributions to this thread, I was moved to remember another wipe at the toilet paper question way back somewhere. I now believe it was from the great Donald Norman, in his seminal book _The psychology of everyday things_ (1988). Yes. I am flushed with success. If you go to his website, you'll find what I think is an updated version of that essay, titled "Toilet Paper Algorithms: I didn't know you had to be a computer scientist to use toilet paper" at http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/toilet_paper_algorit.html We have not hit bottom (so to speak) yet on this fascinating question. Apropos, Norman tells us that his toilet paper essay generated 20,000 hits on one Sunday alone. This fits well with the verbal discharge it has produced on TIPS. Stephen (# 1048) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
