The interaction between computers and psychology is an important juncture to innovation and user-centered design in technology. It’s also a place where many unintended injuries to people happen. That’s why we need psychologists to play a bigger role in tech development–particularly given that many technology companies change human behavior at scale and profit from behavioral changes, and generally embrace scientific innovation.
Traditionally, psychological research relies on two basic methods of collecting data which are laboratory tests and surveys or interviews [1]. The former investigate one particular aspect in a controlled, small setting; the latter assess the behavior of a larger group using self-report questionnaires or (potentially structured) interviews. Both have inherent limitations.
Computers are able to store and analyze large amounts of data at a rapid speed, and in ways that traditional methods aren’t able to. This creates powerful new tools for psychologists and opens up a new field of study. For example, a new field called Psycho(neuro)informatics is emerging that merges psychology and computer science to develop models of human brains and intelligence. This requires a team composed of psychologists who have domain expertise and computer scientists who have the skills required to create large-scale systems, manage and analyze data.
There was not much collaboration in the past. For instance, Google directors have been more likely to study computer and computational science (29 percent of them had studied it), than psychology (less than 2percent). This has led to psychologists being under-represented as leaders at tech companies–with a result that technology products tend not to take psychological factors into consideration.