Abstracts - Volume 14 - Issue 1 - 2009

Cognitive Technology 2009

Volume 14   Issue 1

4  Wireless Collaboration Technology to Support Distributed Teams

      Mark St. John and Brian Dister

14  An Integrative Approach to Understanding and Predicting the Consequences of Fatigue on Cognitive Performance

      Glenn Gunzelmann and Kevin A. Gluck

26  Complex Video Game Play: Self-Reported Strategy Use, Spatial Ability, and Gender

       Stacy L. Rilea, Sarah Trinh, and Matthew Van Donsel

36   Automation Reliance Under Time Pressure

       Stephen Rice and David Keller

45  When Course Management Systems Fail: Student and Instructor ‘On-the-Fly’ Adaptation Behaviors

       Jessica J. Andrews, Gary D. Bond and Lassiter F. Speller

 55  When Did I Learn That? Retraining Incidental Memory

       Lisa Pineles, Roxanne Howe, Rebeccah Bernard and Beth A. Nace

Wireless Collaboration Technology to Support Distributed Teams

Mark St. John and Brian Dister

Small tactical teams require sophisticated technologies to support distributed teamwork. In this article we discuss a field study of a tool designed to support distributed and mobile collaboration. This tool, SLATE, was designed to support a number of cognitive processes thought to be challenged during distributed teamwork.  First we discuss the factors of team cognition that SLATE supports, then we describe a field study with U.S. Navy warfighters in which SLATE was fielded on tablet PCs that communicated over the internet via cell phone broadband and wireless networks. We report our findings from this field study and describe the design modifications it elicited to improve the cognition and coordination of small, distributed, tactical team collaboration.

APA Formatted Reference:

St. John, M., & Dister, B. (2009). Wireless collaboration technology to support distributed teams. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 4-13.

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An Integrative Approach to Understanding and Predicting the Consequences of Fatigue on Cognitive Performance

Glenn Gunzelmann and Kevin A. Gluck

The deleterious consequences of fatigue have motivated decades of research to understand the impact of inadequate sleep on cognitive performance. A key objective is to use insights from that research to develop predictive models that can serve as valid tools for managing work-rest schedules and making Go, No-Go mission decisions. Ultimately, this is about maximizing human performance and minimizing risk. In this paper, we describe a methodology that is moving us in the direction of achieving this goal, involving the integration of mathematical and computational process modeling approaches to understand how fatigue affects human cognitive processes. Mathematical models that capture the dynamics of the human arousal system are integrated with a cognitive architecture that instantiates a unified theory of the mechanisms of human cognition. The integration of these approaches leads to an enhanced ability to quantify the impact of fatigue on performance in particular tasks. We illustrate this by making principled, a priori predictions regarding how human performance in instrument flight with a Predator UAV synthetic task environment may change across 4 days without sleep.

APA Formatted Reference:

Gunzelmann, G., &. Gluck, K.A. (2009). An integrative approach to understanding and predicting the consequences of fatigue on cognitive performance. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 14-25.

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Complex Video Game Play: Self-Reported Strategy Use, Spatial Ability, and Gender

Stacy L. Rilea, Sarah Trinh, and Matthew Van Donsel

Given the varying magnitude of gender differences across spatial abilities and the lack of consensus regarding the influence of practice on spatial abilities, the current study extends the ongoing investigation by assessing strategy use during complex video game play in relation to performance across three types of spatial ability (mental rotation, spatial perception, and spatial visualization) and whether this interacted with gender. Participants (50 men, 34 women) completed the Card Rotation, Water Level, and Paper Folding Tasks, and a questionnaire assessing their use of various spatial strategies (navigation, map reading, development of a mental map, and mental rotation) during video game play. Gender and ability rating were differentially related to the three types of spatial ability. The discussion centers on the pattern of results across analyses of strategy use, spatial ability, gender and video game play. These findings suggest a number of potential avenues of research to further clarify the causal and associative relations across these factors.

APA Formatted Reference:

Rilea, S.L., Trinh, S., & Van Donsel, M. (2009). Complex video game play: Self-reported strategy use, spatial ability, and gender. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 26-35.

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Automation Reliance Under Time Pressure

Stephen Rice and David Keller

A host of factors potentially can affect operator reliance on automation. Some previously studied factors include automation reliability, types of errors, and training. The current study explores another influence on operator reliance—time pressure. Participants performed a simulated target-detection task aided by diagnostic automation that varied in reliability. The amount of time given to operators to make a decision was manipulated to test how time pressure affected operator reliance. The data revealed that when under time pressure, participants tended to depend more on the automation, as seen by increased compliance to the aid’s recommendations. This increased compliance benefited overall human-automation performance when the aid was highly reliable but adversely affected overall performance when the aid was less reliable. The data suggest a potential method for mitigating automation under-reliance. Theoretical and applied issues are discussed.

APA Formatted Reference:

Rice, S. & Keller, D. (2009). Automation reliance under time pressure. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 36-44.

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When Course Management Systems Fail: Student and Instructor ‘On-the-Fly’ Adaptation Behaviors

Jessica J. Andrews, Gary D. Bond and Lassiter F. Speller

Course management systems (CMSs) have become popular in classrooms, yet system failures are common enough to deserve careful study. Instructor (N = 6) and student (N = 215) usage and perceptions of the Blackboard CMS in 10 technology-enhanced courses at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) were documented in this research. Technology-enhanced courses were defined in this research as ancillary or integrated based on types of CMS features used. Pre-and post- surveys and e-Diary entries were collected over 9 weeks. Descriptions of adaptations were coded when the CMS was unavailable. Consistent with predictions, active adaptations (e-mailing or contacting the instructor) were higher in integrated courses, and passive adaptations (waiting, doing nothing) were higher in ancillary courses. Overall, instructors hold mixed feelings about CMSs in face-to-face classes, while students generally hold positive feelings about using CMSs to scaffold learning.

APA Formatted Reference:

Andrews, J.J., Bond, G.D., &. Speller, L.F. (2009). When course management systems fail: student and instructor ‘on-the-fly’ adaptation behaviors. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 45-54.

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When Did I Learn That? Retraining Incidental Memory

Lisa Pineles, Roxanne Howe, Rebeccah Bernard, Beth A. Nace, and Rebecca Silver

Incidental learning (IL) is a type of learning that occurs secondary to our everyday experience.  IL may be a useful training tool for teaching skills to persons with cognitive limitations, such as those with learning disabilities (LD) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI) although little research has investigated IL in these populations. We completed four experiments examining different aspects of IL in LD and TBI patients. Experiment 1 examined several neuropsychological predictors of IL. In this experiment, the Trail Making Test, Part A was the only significant predictor of IL. Experiment 2 did not show any differences in IL between the LD and TBI groups, suggesting that IL does not conform to conventional frequency laws of learning theory. Experiment 3 did not show any incidental memory differences between the LD and TBI groups when receiving either incidental or intentional learning instructions. Experiment 4 showed that color and graphic qualities of an IL task are most easily processed by persons with TBI. Results suggest that IL occurs in patients with LD and TBI and may have therapeutic applications.

APA Formatted Reference:

Pineles, L., Howe, R., Bernard, R., Nace, B.A., & Silver, R. (2009). When did I learn that? Retraining incidental memory. Cognitive Technology, 14(1), 55-62.