Dave
Over the last several years, I have become fascinated with psychology and the workings of the human mind. Since my profession is in the field of computing, I tend to think a lot about how humans interact with computer systems. This table comes from a book on that subject. I laugh when I read it because it does such a great job of pointing out our strengths and shortcomings, but it is useful as a guide when one is deciding which tool (a human brain or a computer system) is best equipped to handle a task.
From Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman (Addison-Wesley, 1992).
| Humans Generally Better | Machines Generally Better |
| Sense low level stimuli | Sense stimuli outside human’s range |
| Detect stimuli in noisy background | Count or measure physical quantities |
| Recognize constant patterns in varying situations | Store quantities of coded information accurately |
| Sense unusual and unexpected events | Monitor prespecified events, especially infrequent |
| Make rapid and consistent responses to input signals | |
| Remember principles and strategies | Recall quantities of detailed information accurately |
| Retrieve pertinent details without a priori connection | Process quantitative data in prespecified ways |
| Draw on experience and adapt decisions to a situation | |
| Select alternatives if original approach fails | |
| Reason inductively: generalize from observations | Reason deductively: infer from a general principle |
| Act in unanticipated emergencies and novel situations | Perform repetitive preprogrammed actions reliably |
| Exert great, highly controlled physical force | |
| Apply principles to solve varied problems | |
| Make subjective evaluations Develop new solutions |
Perform several activities simultaneously |
| Concentrate on important tasks when overload occurs | Maintain operations under heavy information load |
| Adapt physical response to changes in situation | Maintain performance over extended periods of time |