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To understand this post you must read my previous first.

The part of our mind that is used for understanding what we read has limited storage capacity. The heart of this part is our working memory. (check this post for description of working memory) I will describe the advantage of this limited capacity in a future post. We need our working memory to be as free as possible to concentrate on our current task. This capacity is sometimes called cognitive load. Automatic information processing does not seem to consume any of our working memory capacity. (Schneider and Chein 2003) This capacity will be fully utilized by controlled information processing, therefore, resulting in better understanding, and probably better decisions.

It is unfortunate that EMRs ignore this dual information processing. These EMRs take things that we used to perceive without effort and force us to use effort to realize them and take cognitive capacity off the main task.

Schneider, W. & Chein, J., 2003. Controlled & automatic processing: behavior, theory, and biological mechanisms. Cognitive Science, 27(3), 559, 525.

These two methods of perceiving information work in parallel. The slow, sequential method is the most obvious and is easy to describe. This slow method is what we use to read and understand.  The other way of perceiving information is fast. Even more, we perceive more then one thing at once (in parallel). It is unfortunate that it is believed that this faster way of perception is uncontrollable. You cannot but perceive the color of the text of this blog post. You also perceive the location of this post on the screen without exerting effort. We must design electronic medical records interfaces that allow us to tap into this fast information processing power. But, how?

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