Collaboration technologies are difficult to design due to the complex myr-iad of social, cognitive, and communicative aspects of group interactions. New interaction technologies like multitouch sharable interfaces, such asdigital tabletops, have lead to a renewed interest in designing collaborativetechnologies. This thesis focuses on turn-taking protocols as a coordinat-ing mechanism during collaborative work with digital tabletops. The goalwas to develop new conceptual designs and interactive mechanisms to sup-port face-to-face collaborations of small groups. Inspired by ethnographicalstudies of collaborative work and theories in distributed cognition and re-lated theories of language and action a model of collaborative turn-takingwas developed. Moreover, the thesis presents five design concepts and in-teraction components for the digital tabletop that exemplifies the differentproperties of the model.

Social accounts of technological change make the flexibility and openness of interpretations the starting point of an argument against technological determinism. They suggest that technological change unfolds in the semantic domain, but they focus on the social processes around the interpretations of new technologies, and do not address the conceptual processes of change in interpretations. The dissertation presents an empirically grounded case study of the design process of an open-source online software platform based on the framework of distributed cognition to argue that the cognitive perspective is needed for understanding innovation in software, because it allows us to describe the reflexive and expansive contribution of conceptual processes to new software and the significance of professional epistemic practices in framing the direction of innovation. The framework of distributed cognition brings the social and cognitive perspectives together on account of its understanding of conceptual processes as distributed over time, among people, and between humans and artifacts. The dissertation argues that an evolving open-source software landscape became translated into the open-ended local design space of a new software project in a process of infrastructural implosion, and the design space prompted participants to outline and pursue epistemic strategies of sense-making and learning about the contexts of use. The result was a process of conceptual modeling, which resulted in a conceptually novel user interface. Prototyping professional practices of user-centered design lent directionality to this conceptual process in terms of a focus on individual activities with the user interface. Social approaches to software design under the broad umbrella of human-centered computing have been seeking to inform the design on the basis of empirical contributions about a social context. The analysis has shown that empirical engagement with the contexts of use followed from conceptual modeling, and concern about real world contexts was aligned with the user-centered direction that design was taking. I also point out a social-technical gap in the design process in connection with the repeated performance challenges that the platform was facing, and describe the possibility of a social-technical imagination.

Theses (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-103). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This thesis aims at portraying interruptions in the socio-technical domain of manufacturing industry, from a distributed cognition perspective. The research problem addressed is the lack of naturalistic inquiry in prior interruption research. Further, manufacturing is a complex socio-technical domain where interruptions have not previously been studied. In this thesis, a workplace study is applied with distributed cognition as its theoretical framework. The results of the study identify two new types of interruptions, as well as one new dimension of interruptions. This result shows that interruptions are a multifaceted phenomenon that frequently occurs within manufacturing. An integration of the theoretical background and the empirical work resulted in five recommendations concerning how to reduce the amount of interruptions and how to minimize their disruptive effects. This study complements prior interruption research, emphasises the importance of studying interruptions in natural settings, and provides several insights regarding future interruption research.

This research examined human-machine performance in a General Aviation (GA) environment under dynamic conditions using a combination of field study and laboratory experimentation. Using this combination of methods, the functional system of pilots performing a landing approach (both instrument and visual) with a Cessna 172 to the Roanoke Regional Airport (ROA) was described and analyzed. In the field study, data collection was guided by an integrative method based on macroergonomics (ME) and distributed cognition (DC), allowing the cognitive aspects of a sociotechnical system to be treated as equally important as the organizational components. Also of interest was how pilot performance was affected by the introduction of nighttime and deteriorating weather conditions to this GA environment. Few statistically significant differences were found between pilots who flew by visual flight rules (VFR) and those who flew by instrument flight rules (IFR) or within each of these pilot groups in terms of objective flight performance. However, there were several significant differences between VFR and IFR pilots and within each pilot group in terms of workload and especially situation awareness across conditions; situation awareness for VFR pilots was found to be significantly reduced compared to situation awareness for IFR pilots in nighttime and deteriorating weather conditions (p < 0.05). In addition to these statistical findings and the methodological contribution of a joint systems/cognitive method, contributions of this dissertation include a greater understanding of the GA pilot/cockpit system and a systems-oriented cognitive model of this aviation environment as described by the ME/DC method for both VFR and IFR pilots. Further, procedural comparisons were performed between the flight simulator and the actual Cessna 172 used in the field study to increase our understanding of how to improve the validity associated with using simulators in research. Findings from both the laboratory and field studies in this research support new designs and technologies envisioned for future aviation systems that would assist the pilot during a landing approach such as weather information systems, head-up displays, synthetic vision, three-dimensional auditory displays, increased automation, and communications filters. Potential future applications of this research are also explored. / Ph. D.

Advances in science and computing technology have accelerated the development and dissemination of a wide range of big data platforms such as bioinformatics into the biomedical and life sciences environments. Bioinformatics brings the promise of enabling life scientists to easily and effectively access large and complex data sets in new ways, thus promoting scientific discoveries by for example generating, validating, and refining hypotheses based on in silico analysis (performed on computer). Meanwhile, life scientists still face challenges in working with big data sets such as difficulties in data extraction and analyses arising from distributed and heterogeneous databases, user interface inconsistencies and discrepancies in results. Moreover, the interdisciplinary nature of modern science adds to significant gaps in scientists' performance caused by limited proficiency levels with bioinformatics resources and a lack of common language across different disciplines. Although developers of bioinformatics platforms are slowly beginning to move away from function-oriented software engineering approaches and towards to user-centered design approaches, they rarely consider users' value, and expectations that embrace different user contexts. Further, there is an absence of research that specifically aims to support the broad range of users from multiple fields of study, including 'wet' (lab-based) and dry' (computational) research communities. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this research is to investigate life scientists' user experiences with knowledge resources and derive design implications for delivering consistent user experiences across different user classes in order to better support data-intensive research communities. To achieve this research goal, we used the theory of distributed cognition as a framework for representing the dynamic interactions among end users and knowledge resources within computer-supported and -mediated environments. To be specific, this research focused on how online bioinformatics resources can be improved in order to both mitigate performance differences among the diverse user classes and better support distributed cognitive activities in data-intensive interdisciplinary research environments. This research consists of three parts: (1) understanding user experience levels with current bioinformatics resources and key determinants to encourage distributed cognitive activities, especially knowledge networking, (2) gaining in-depth understanding of scientists' insight generation behavior and human performance associated with individual differences (i.e., research roles and cognitive styles), and (3) identifying in-context usefulness, and barriers to make better use of bioinformatics resources in real working research contexts and derive design considerations to satisfactorily support positive user experiences. To achieve our research goals, we used a mixed-methods research approach that combines both quantitative (Study 1 and 2) and qualitative (Study 3) methods. First, as a baseline for subsequent studies, we conducted an empirical survey to examine 1) user experience levels with current bioinformatics resources, 2) important criteria to adequately support user requirements, 3) levels of knowledge networking (i.e., knowledge sharing and use) and relationship to users' larger set of distributed cognitive activities, and, 4) key barriers and enablers of knowledge networking. We collected responses from 179 scientists and our findings revealed that lack of integration, inconsistent results and user interfaces across bioinformatics resources, and perceived steep learning curves are current limitations to productive user experiences. Performance-related factors such as speed and responsiveness of resources and ease of use ranked relatively high as important criteria for bioinformatics resources. Our research also confirmed that source credibility, fear of getting scooped, and certain motivation factors (i.e., reciprocal benefit, reputation, and altruism) have an influence on scientists' intention to engage in distributed cognitive activities. Second, we conducted a laboratory experiment with a sample of 16 scientists in the broad area of bench and application sciences. We elicited 1) behavior characteristics, 2) insight characteristics, 3) gaze characteristics, and 4) human errors in relation to individual differences (i.e., research roles such as bench and application scientists, cognitive styles such as field-independent and dependent people) to identify whether human performance gaps exist. Our results (1) confirmed significant differences with respect to insight generation behavior and human performance depending on research roles, and (2) identified some relationships between scientists' cognitive styles and human performance. Third, we collected a rich set of qualitative data from 6 scientists using a longitudinal diary study and a focus group session. The specific objective of this study was to identify in-context usefulness and barriers to using knowledge resources in a real work context to subsequently derive focused design implications. For this work, we examined 1) the types of distributed cognitive activities participants performed, 2) the challenges and alternative actions they faced, 3) important criteria that influenced tasks, and 4) values to support distributed cognitive activities. Based on the empirical findings of this study, we suggest design considerations to support scientists' distributed cognitive activities from user experience perspectives. Overall, this research provides insights and implications for user interface design in order to support data-intensive interdisciplinary communities. Given the importance of today's knowledge-based interdisciplinary society, our findings can also serve as an impetus for accelerating a collaborative culture of scientific discovery in online biomedical and life science research communities. The findings can contribute to the design of online bioinformatics resources to support diverse groups of professionals from different disciplinary backgrounds. Consequently, the implications of these findings can help user experience professionals and system developers working in biomedical and life sciences who seek ways to better support research communities from user experience perspectives. / Ph. D.

Sensemaking is the way in which we understand the world around us. Pirolli and Card developed a sensemaking model related to intelligence analysis, which involves taking raw, unstructured data, analyzing it, and presenting a report of the findings. With lower-cost immersive technologies becoming more popular, new opportunities exist to leverage embodied and distributed cognition to better support sensemaking by providing vast, immersive space for creating meaningful schemas (organizational structures) during an analysis task. This work builds on prior work in immersive analytics on the concept of Immersive Space to Think (IST), which provides analysts with immersive space to physically navigate and use to organize information during a sensemaking task. In this work, we performed several studies that aimed to understand how IST supports sensemaking and how we can develop additional features to better aid analysts while they complete sensemaking in immersive analytics systems, focusing on non-quantitative data analysis. In a series of exploratory user studies, we aimed to understand how users' sensemaking process evolves during multiple session analyses, which identified how the participants refined their use of the immersive space into later stages of the sensemaking process. Another exploratory user study highlighted how professional analysts and novice users share many similarities in immersive analytic tool usage during sensemaking within IST. In addition to looking at multi-session analysis tasks, we also explored how sensemaking strategies change as users become more familiar with the immersive analytics tool usage in an exploratory study that utilized multiple analysis tasks completed over a series of three user study sessions. Lastly, we conducted a comparative user study to evaluate how the addition of new organizational features, clustering, and linking affect sensemaking within IST. Overall, our studies expanded the IST tool set and gathered an enhanced understanding of how immersive space is utilized during analysis tasks within IST. / Doctor of Philosophy / Sensemaking is a process we do in our daily lives. It is how we understand the world around us, make decisions, and complete complex analyses, like journalists writing stories or detectives solving cases. Sensemaking involves gathering information, making sense of it, developing hypotheses, and drawing conclusions, similar to writing a report. This work builds on prior work in Immersive Space to Think (IST), which is a concept of using immersive technologies (Virtual /Augmented Reality) to support sensemaking by providing vast 3D space for organizing the data used in a sensemaking task. Additionally, using these technologies to support sensemaking provides benefits such as increased space for analysis, increased engagement, and natural user interaction, which allow us to interact with information used during sensemaking tasks in new ways. In IST, users are able to move virtual documents around in the space around them to support their analysis process. In this work, we ran a study focused on multi-session analysis within IST, revealing how users refined their document placements over time while completing sensemaking tasks within IST. We also ran a study to understand how professional analysts' and novice users' analysis with IST differed in the IST tool usage. In another user study, we explored how users' strategies for sensemaking and document layouts changed as they became more familiar with the IST tool. Lastly, we conducted a comparative user study to evaluate how new features like clustering and linking affected analysis within IST. Overall, our work contributed to an enhanced understanding of how immersive space is utilized during analysis tasks within IST.

Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus, took the world by storm after the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019. A rapid spread of infection started and it is still ongoing. Many parts of the society are affected, and the flow of information to society has not been as important for long. That information is interpreted and transmitted correctly is of great importance. How are recommendations from responsible authorities interpreted at national level, at regional level, and at local level?    This policy study analyzes regulations and documents from national, regional and local levels of society on the basis of the theories Risk and Crisis communication, Distributed Cognition and quality theory. Finally, it contributes to an increased understanding of how public Risk and Crisis communication is interpreted from national to regional and local levels of society during an ongoing pandemic.   By analyzing the result with a WPR approach to analysis, the study finds a lack in communication, which leads to the information representation from regional and local society levels not being optimal during a crisis situation like COVID-19. The study finds patterns in the communication that can be improved and one conclusion is that DC can be used as an explanatory model to how information is being spread through different levels of society. Proposals for further research is to examine how DC can be applied in the development of communication for information transfer and how the quality theory can be applied to better the information transfer. / COVID-19, även känt som coronaviruset, tog världen med storm efter utbrottet i Wuhan december 2019. En snabb smittspridning startade och pågår fortfarande. Flödet av information till samhället har inte varit så viktig som i detta skede på länge i och med att många delar av samhället påverkas. Att information tolkas och överförs på rätt sätt är av stor betydelse. Hur tolkas information och föreskrifter angående COVID-19 från ansvariga myndigheter på nationell nivå till den regionala och lokala informationsrepresentationen?    I denna policystudie analyseras föreskrifter och skrifter från nationella, regionala och lokala aktörer genom att teorierna Risk- och Kriskommunikation, Distributed Cognition (DC) och kvalitetsteori används. Resultatet kan leda till ökad förståelse om hur offentlig risk- och krisinformation tolkas från nationell till regional och lokal nivå under en pågående pandemi.    Genom att analysera resultatet med en ’What´s the problem represented to be?’-analys (WPR-analys) finner studien brist i kommunikationen, vilket leder till att informationsrepresentationen från regional och lokal nivå inte är optimal vid en krissituation likt COVID-19. Studien finner mönster i kommunikationen som kan förbättras och en slutsats är att DC kan användas som förklaringsmodell till hur information sprids mellan olika samhällsnivåer. Förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka hur DC kan tillämpas vid utveckling av kommunikation för informationsöverföring och hur kvalitetsteorin kan tillämpas för att förbättra informationsöverföringen.

This thesis presents a new methodology named CASADEMA (CApturing Semi-Automated DEcision MAking) which captures the interaction between humans and the technology they use to support their decision-making within the domain of Information Fusion. We are particularly interested in characterising the interaction between human decision makers and artefacts in semi-automated fusion processes. In our investigation we found that the existing approaches are limited in their ability to capture such interactions in sufficient detail. The presented method is built upon a distributed-cognition perspective. The use of this particular theoretical framework from cognitive science enables the method to take into account not only the role of the data captured in the physical and digital artefacts of the fusion system (e.g., radar readings, information from a fax or database, a piece of paper, etc.), but also the cognitive support function of the artefacts themselves (e.g., as an external memory) as part of the fusion process. That is, the interdependencies between the fusion process and decision-making can be captured. This thesis thus contributes to two main fields. Firstly, it enables, through CASADEMA, a distributed-cognition perspective of fusion processes in the, otherwise, rather technology-oriented field of Information Fusion. This has important conceptual implications, since it views fusion processes as extending beyond the boundary of physical/computer systems, to include humans, technology, and tools, as well as the interactions between them. It is argued that a better understanding of these interactions can lead to a better design of fusion processes, making CASADEMA an important contribution to the information fusion field. Secondly, the thesis provides, again in the form of CASADEMA, a practical application of the distributed-cognition theoretical framework. Importantly, the notations and definitions introduced in CASADEMA structure the otherwise currently rather loosely defined concepts and approaches in distributed cognition research. Hence, the work presented here also contributes to the fields of cognitive science and human-computer interaction. / <p>Examining Committee: Henrik Artman, Docent (Kungliga tekniska högskolan), Nils Dahlbäck, Professor (Linköpings universitet), Anna-Lisa Osvalder, Professor (Chalmers tekniska högskola)</p>

Distributed cognition has been emerging as a new research direction in cognitive science over the last two decades and is gaining momentum. In a recent study Hollan, Hutchins and Kirsch argue that the distributed cognition framework enables the study of interaction between people and artifacts. This thesis views tools as an integral part of cognition, and focuses on the complex interaction between brain, body and environment, which complements automatic internal processing in the brain and assists with individual and group problem solving. The thesis analyses some existing research about teams working in high-pressure environments and their complex interactions with their external environment, cognitive tools and each other.