The power of cognitive psychology lies in the promise of cognitive technology.
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The power of cognitive psychology lies in the promise of cognitive technology.
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Abstracts - Fall 2000
THEORETICAL AND RESEARCH ARTICLES 4 The Relational Nature of Organizational Knowledge 14 A Case Study of Brain Body Effect on Blood Pressure, Pulse, and Cognition of an Adult Male with Cerebral Palsy 17 Perceptual and Conceptual Processing in Expert/Novice Cue Pattern Recognition 27 Age and Education Moderate the Effects of Choice on Performance 37 Using Pleasantness Ratings to Improve Word Identification PRODUCT REVIEW 45 Memory Works CDs BOOK REVIEW 48 Making Cognitive Technology more Effective: Changing the Questions and Improving the Methods The Relational Nature of Organizational Knowledge This paper focuses on how organizations maintain the knowledge that enables an organization to conduct a paradigm shift to new conceptual systems of work. There are three types of knowledge that enable change in organizations, with each type of knowledge being relational in nature. The first type of knowledge is the relationship between people in the form of social networks. The second type of knowledge is understanding the relationships between activity systems, how these relationships may be realigned to cope with novelty, and the rhythm of work that maintains the relationships between activity systems. The third type of knowledge is the strategies that enable an organization to maintain the knowledge required to change conceptual systems of work. These three types of knowledge are largely tacit in nature. The key strategy for maintaining these three types of knowledge is interweaving career trajectories that periodically return members to activity systems. Focusing on the knowledge that enables organizations to change provides new insights into organizational learning and organizational forgetting within and across conceptual systems. An area of concern is whether technology is eroding an organization's ability to sustain and renew its network of minds, and thus it's ability to change conceptual systems.
A Case Study of Brain Body Effect on Blood Pressure, Pulse, and Cognition of an Adult Male with Cerebral Palsy An adult male with cerebral palsy and a family history of high blood pressure took part in a series of longitudinal studies that used a Cyberlink-Brain-Body-Interface as an assistive technology device. The study investigated the effect Cyberlink would have on blood pressure, pulse, and aspects of cognition. Testing took place at the beginning and end of each Cyberlink recreation and communication task sessions. Blood pressure measurements showed no consistent pattern of change between the beginning of the test session and the end. The pulse showed a consistent decrease during each session. The participant verbalized a sense of relaxation after each session. The participant's speech therapist also indicated that the subject manifested improved quality of speech and decreased stammering.
Perceptual and Conceptual Processing in Expert/Novice Cue Pattern Recognition In this paper we describe an investigation of differences in cue-pattern recognitional strategies among aviators of differing experience levels. Pilots were presented with meaningful and meaningless configurations of instrument gauges. Tests of perceptual knowledge (i.e., recognition memory for the instruments) and conceptual knowledge (i.e., interpretation of the instruments) resulted in performance differences across the differing configuration types. Although more experienced pilots performed better overall, the differences were most pronounced on recognition of meaningful instrument arrays and interpretation of meaningless instrument arrays. Results are discussed in relation to other findings on cue-pattern recognition processes and expertise.
Age and Education Moderate the Effects of Choice on Performance Enabling individuals to make some choices can enhance their sense of control. Choice may subsequently enhance motivation to act and strengthen internal attributions for performance. Using cognitive and memory tests in Study 1, we examined the notion that choice enhances performance as well as attributions for performance in community dwelling young and elderly subjects. Study 2 examined the effects of choice and control in less autonomous elderly. Results showed that for choice to be effective, individuals must have attained a certain level of education and must enjoy a relatively autonomous life style. Irrespective of its effects on performance, choice enhanced task involvement and strengthened self attributions for performance. Because choice enhances task involvement, it remains an important issue for the elderly.
Using Pleasantness Ratings to Improve Word Identification The goal of the current research was to statistically combine pleasantness ratings with recognition judgments in order to improve the accuracy of identification for words. Recognition judgments and pleasantness ratings were made separately because previous research and pilot data suggested that explicit measures (e.g., recognition) might guide implicit measures (e.g., pleasantness). To account for individual differences in ratings, a pleasantness deviation score was calculated for each word rated by each participant, which was used with recognition judgments and pleasantness ratings to create an adjusted recognition measure. Adjusted recognition was found to be more accurate than initial recognition when recognition accuracy was initially low (e.g., for new words and high-frequency words).
Memory Works CDs Memory dysfunction is the most commonly reported problem after traumatic brain injury, stroke, dementia, and old age (Baddelely, Wilson, & Watts, 1995; Parenté & Herrmann, 1996; Parenté & Anderson, 1991). The demand for effective therapeutic interventions with these populations has never been greater. Moreover, a global economy and international business climate places demands on memory never before experienced by professionals (Rose & Nicholl, 1997). This combination of factors has fostered an entire memory training industry. Many memory-training programs use what has been called a stimulation therapy model whereby the therapist, teacher, or memory training provides exercises that are designed to strengthen the mind or speed up the mental processes (Craine & Gudemann, 1982). The assumption is that doing these mental exercises will enhance the person's memory. Further, it is assumed that the strengthening of the mind will carry over into everyday life. Neither of these assumptions has been shown to be true (Carney et al., 1999). The problem is that stimulation therapy alone simply provides mental exercise. It does not teach the person methods on how to remember nor does it provide practice using these strategies in situations that meet individual needs.
Making Cognitive Technology more Effective: Changing the Questions and Improving the Methods As part of the Human Factors in Information Technology 13 series, the edited volume, Humane Interfaces. Questions of method and practice in cognitive technology, highlights the central importance of the human factor in all technology endeavors and the necessity of expeditiously changing technology to better fit its users. Through the selection of authors, the editors recognize the need for multidisciplinary approaches and the need for devising approaches that "humanize" cognitive technology. This text is organized around theoretical perspectives, issues of implementation, and applications of technology. However, although the text provides us with a great deal of information, its most valuable contribution is in challenging us to ask questions, different from many that have been raised before, about how people interface with machines.
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