[M3]modern theories

distributed cognition

external cognition

it’s about the ways that people augment their normal cognitive processes with

external aids, such as external writings, visualizations, and work spaces

it related to the interaction between internal and external representations

when performing cognitive tasks

it involves computational offloading (externalization) to reduce memory load

skeuomorphism

cognitive dimensions

Abstraction gradient Closeness of mapping

Consistency Diffuseness and terseness

Error-proneness Hard mental operations Hidden dependencies

Juxtaposability Premature commitment Progressive evaluation Role-expressiveness

Secondary notation and escape from formalism Viscosity

ecological psychology

the underlying statement was that psychology

should be the study of the interaction between humans and their

environment

affordances

points of entry

signifiers

distributed cognition

Builds on the knowledge and vocabulary from the earlier information processing theories in

cognitive sciences

The unit of analysis is a wider system, not individual

Main Distributed Cognition concepts

Cognitive system - the interactions among people, the artifacts they use, and the environment they are working in.Communicative pathways - the channels by which information is passed between people (phone, email, paper, physical gesture, talking)Propagation of representational states - how information is transformed between different representations. ● Can be internal (e.g. human memory) or ● external artifacts (instruments, maps, notes). ● Can be mediated socially (passing a message verbally), ● mediated technologically (pressing a key on laptop) or ● mediated mentally (reading the time from a clock).

Focuses on the way representations and technologies are used for a distributed activity

Initially mainly used to analyse large systems supporting collaborative work

Distributed Cognition Analysis

Not one single way of doing distributed cognition analysis

No one off-the-shelf manual to be followed

Different frameworks

Distributed Cognition Analysis

● Event driven description o Main goal, accomplished through one or more tasks, each task

accomplished through one or more operations● Emphasizes information and it’s propagation through

the cognitive system● Granularity of analysis depends on the research

problem and system under studyo Research problem e.g improving communication between

team vs understanding how to train the team?o Unit of analysis (distributed system) should be determined by

functional relationships between participating elements● Important to have extensive knowledge about the

domain under study

DiCoTDeveloped by Ann Blandford and Dominic Furniss from UCL Interaction Centre in 2006

Dimensions of analysis:

Physical layout

Information flow

Artefacts

Physical layout

Space and Cognition does the physical use of space support the goal directed operations Perception do the spatial representations support the process, are there clear mapping between the spatial representations and the things that they represent? Naturalness does the form of the representation match the properties it represents? Subtle Bodily Supports can the body be used to support the cognition process (e.g. keeping track in a book by pointing a finger to a specific line of text) Situation Awareness are all team members informed of the situation simultaneously? Horizon of Observationwhat can be seen or heard by a person (influences situational awareness) Arrangement of Equipmenthow does the physical layout of equipment affect access to information

Information flow Information Movement in which ways does the information move around the system (e.g passing physical artefacts; text; graphical representation; verbal; facial expression; telephone; electronic mail; alarms etc) Information Transformationwhen and how do the representations of information change? Information Hubsare there central places where different information channels meet? Bufferingis there a need to hold up some information to await for a appropriate time when it won't interrupt important ongoing activities? Communication Bandwidthsome types of communication impart more information than others (especially face to face) Informal Communicationwhat is the role of informal communication (e.g stories about how the system behaves)? Behavioural Trigger Factorsare the roles in team divided so that each member only needs to know what to do in response certain local factors? What are these factors and roles?

Artefacts

Mediating Artifactswhat are the mediating artefacts that support the activities towards reaching the goal? Scaffoldingwhat are the external artefacts that simplify the cognitive tasks (e.g notes, reminders)? Representation-Goal Parityhow do external artefacts represent the relationship between the current state and the goal state? Coordination of Resourceswhen can an individual depend on external resources (e.g. written instructions) to decide what to do next and when do they need to rely on internal resources (memorised procedures, such as plans, goals and history of actions)? Based on Wrights Resource Model (2000).

Assignment:

● Keeping in mind the DiCoT dimensions, describe the distributed system as a diagram:o start with official/usual practices (routines and procedures

followed).o Then describe in detail if there are workarounds that

have been developed when coping with various demands, not supported by the system.

● The diagram should depict:o the separate states of the practices leading towards the

goalo all actors and artefactso different representational states of the information

(different media e.g. memory, paper, database query)

Distributed system under study:

your team work arrangement for completing this assignment