Why do most customers at my bookstore have trouble understanding my instructions to swipe their debit cards with the magnetic stripe “toward me?” Almost everyone positions their card the wrong way, then asks in confusion, “Stripe toward me?”—meaning themselves. What is causing everyone to make the same mistake?
—Michael Manchester, Aylmer, Ontario
Robert O. Duncan, a behavioral scientist at York College, the City University of New York, explains:
This debit-card mystery may seem insignificant (albeit intriguing), but it actually serves as an excellent illustration of how we store memories and why that system sometimes fails us.
In 1974 psychologists Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch of the University of York in England proposed that we possess working memory, a space where new memories can be accessed and
manipulated. According to Baddeley and Hitch’s model, we store and alter memories through a phonological loop, which processes sound information, and through a visuospatial scratchpad, which maintains and manipulates spatial and visual information.
In the case of the debit-card stripe, the phonological loop comes into play because the cashier gives the customer verbal instructions. We use this loop all the time. For example, when trying to remember a telephone number, you probably rehearse the number in your mind by repeating the names of the numbers rather than picturing them.
Your customers are likely rehearsing the words “stripe toward me” so they can remember the command and act on it. A problem occurs, however, when the customer interprets “stripe toward me” literally. This happens because the phonological loop only serves to keep a phrase fresh in your memory—it does not help you intelligently interpret its meaning. Rehearsing the pronoun “me” over and over can alter your interpretation of the instruction, believing the “me” refers to yourself instead of the cashier.
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11 Comments
Add CommentI found this question and the answer extremely interesting. I think the answer is also related to another recent article about "shortcut processing" in which our brain computes a reasonable, but approximate, solution quickly, and a more considered solution after a delay. This makes sense as a survival strategy, if you replace "credit card orientation" with "does that leopard look hungry".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've been helping my wife study for the DAT, which has a spacial aptitude section. The problems involve visualizing 3D shapes and mentally rotating them. These problems definitely get easier with practice, but they take an enormous amount of processing power. Often, the most tempting answer turns out to be wrong, usually for a glaringly obvious reason, after you consider it for a few more seconds.
For the credit card stripe problem, it might be that, because of the mental stress of performing in public, that customers pick the quickly-computed approximate answer in orienting their credit card, whereas if they relaxed and thought a few more seconds, they'd get it right. I don't know about you guys, but even at a gas pump with the picture of the credit card right in front of me, I still have to think pretty hard about how to insert it the right way. :)
This whole topic would make a great neurology study. I am fascinated by the problem of how we orient ourselves spatially, for example, what is the difference between: 1) Translating the terms "left" and "right" into directions relative to self. 2) Translating a passenger in a car saying turn on "your side" and "my side" into directions relative to self. 3) Interpreting a buzzer on the left or right. 4) Interpreting an arrow pointing left or right. 5) Feeling or knowing the directions "left" and "right" without resorting to words or symbols. 6) Understanding what it means when somebody says "your left" or "your right" (the aerobics class problem). It would be cool to study the parts of the brain involved and computation time for each of these problems.
Would saying "stripe away from you" help? Or would "you" then refer to the other person?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi always describe it like this. "the black strip is always closest to the screen (or pin pad)" some people insist that it is too hard to remember, and I had at least 5 people state they'd rather not remember at all because they can more easily just bother the cashier to give the answer for them. The majority, however, go "Oh hey that makes much more sense!"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMight it also be related to a subconscious wish to "protect" your information by keeping it closer to you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs I think about the act of swiping a credit card, I have to admit it always seems less comfortable to put the stripe "away" from me, although I haven't really delved deeply enough into it to discern why.
Why are people proposing a variety of social solutions to what is a technical problem? This is just an example of a design fault in the user interface of the card reader The card reader should be designed to accept the card in either direction.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis depends on the card reader but in essence, people naturally minimize the effort. For "vertical card readers" (including gas pumps), it is because most people are right-handed. Take your card out and you probably do so in a way that allows you to read the card (whether you are left or right handed). That is, the front of the card faces you and the text is up. The stripe is at the top on the back of the card. Right-handed people naturally turn the card 90 degrees counter-clockwise, left-handed people rotate 90 degrees clock-wise (just try to turn your wrist the opposite way). Hence the stripe faces the incorrect way for the he right-handed person and the correct way for the left-handed person. Perhaps the first vertical reader was designed by a left-handed person.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is the process for "vertical card readers". The bookstore owner must have a reader that has the slot at the top of the reader. For horizontal readers, the explanation is still the simple one and is independent of being left or right handed. Once the card is in your hand, the least effort to position the card for reading (stripe inserted into the reader) is to just "roll the card" using your index and middle finger. It takes slightly more effort to cause the card to face the other way.
We are just being efficient. Blame it on poor ergonomics regarding the design of readers.
"Blame it on poor ergonomics regarding the design of readers."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgree. Anyway, the problem will likely go away as RFID comes on board, then it will just be a matter of swiping anywhere near the reader. Or, in the distant future, the machine will do a retinal scan, face recognition, or vacuum a couple of your skin cells and ID you by DNA. Or maybe we'll all have implants. :)
Not my problem. I got facing the card the correct way wrong all the time. But it was because of the picture of the card on the machine. I misinterpreted it. I didn't pay attention to the position of the magnetic stripe in the picture - toward me. Instead I faced the card away from me, because then the top (or front) of the card faces me, and that's the way I'm used to holding it and looking at it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndeed, this is a problem with design. Many, many POS devices have a little graphic that shows how to swipe the card. I would say yours does not. Make one, insist your register salesman do something useful and upgrade your terminal or give you a sign/sticker for that purpose, do *something* about it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOther examples of poor design on these things:
Making people have to use a stylus where you really don't have to. The stylus should really only be necessary for credit card transactions that require a signature, otherwise let me do it all with the buttons.
Making the button for "Yes" different in one part of the procedure from all the other parts. Green button for "Yes", green button for "Yes", blue button for "Confirm". You mean confirm as in "Yes"? Why can't you just use the same damned button!
Why are some machines different (even if slightly) from others?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think RDH is onto something. I recognize my cards by their face, because they are relatively similar on the back. Therefore, it is facing me as I bring it towards the horizontal reader at my supermarket. By the time I'm about to swipe it's too late to notice the tiny image of the back of a card, which is not what I'm seeing on my actual card; ergo, confusion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course, it makes total sense why the reader is on the screen side; economy of design and ease of engineering. Apart from adding material to the other side of the reader slot, I'd suggest having a message on the screen that politely asks the shopper to flip the card when the machine senses pressure but no magnetic strip on its reader. This would be a much more effective way to modify behavior, because all the little symbol does is add confusion to performance anxiety 8)
Or better, just put the slot on the bottom of the screen.