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En modernisering av Air Traffic Management pågår för att hållbart hantera den förutsedda ökningen av flygtrafik fram till år 2035. Som en del av denna modernisering har Saab AB utvecklat en produkt, “Digital Tower”, som möjliggör att flygtorn kan fjärrstyras genom ett system av kameror. I syfte om att öka kunskap kring flygledarnas behov och flygsäkerhet i takt med ökad mängd flygtrafik, har denna studie undersökt den kognitiva belastningen inom den operativa miljön av en Digital Tower som är i bruk. I dess nuvarande form har interaktiva gränssnitt inom arbetsmiljön begränsad flexibilitet och anpassningsmöjligheter. Frågeställningen har därför ställts kring hur dessa begränsade anpassningsmöjligheter påverkar flygledares arbete och samarbete. Studien har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ metodik, en contextual inquiry med observationer och intervjuer i kontext där arbetet skedde. Analysen gjordes utifrån Distributed Cognition som teoretiskt ramverk, vilket möjliggjorde en analys av den distribuerade kognitionen mellan aktörer och hur de brukar artefakter inom kontexten. Studiens slutsats är att gränssnittets begränsade anpassningsmöjligheter påverkar den kognitiva belastningen negativt, men anses inte som ett hinder för flygledarnas arbete. Eftersom den centraliserade arbetsmiljön har en stark närvaro av kollegor, har resultatet blivit att kollegorna kan kompensera för gränssnittets brister och avlasta i situationer av hög arbetsbelastning. / An ongoing modernization of Air Traffic Management is in effect to keep up with the forecasted increase in air traffic by 2035. As a part of this modernization a product was developed by Saab AB to control air traffic from remote control towers with a system of cameras, called “Digital Tower”. With the purpose of increasing the knowledge about the needs of Air Traffic Controllers and general flight safety with increased amount of flight traffic, this study researched the cognitive load within the operative Digital Tower environment in service. Currently the interactive interface within the work environment has limited flexibility and possibilities for adaptation. The study has therefore answered the question about how these limited adaptations affect the Air Traffic Controllers work and collaboration between them. The study has used qualitative methods in order to answer the question, by using a contextual inquiry which includes observations and interviews of the Air Traffic Controllers in their context. The result was analyzed by using Distributed Cognition theory, which made it possible to analyze the distributed cognition between people and artifacts within the context. The conclusion of the study is that the limited adaptations of the interface negatively affects the cognitive load, but has not been identified as a crucial interference for the Air Traffic Controllers. The centralized work environment has a strong presence of colleagues, which has led to the colleagues compensating for the limited interface by physically unburden the workload in critical situations.

The objective of this study was to observe evidence of structural transfer among subjects in a group problem-solving activity and determine whether mode of collaborative technology or use of a priming agent affected the nature of transferred structures. Evidence for structural transfer is found in three theoretical perspectives: organizational ditransitive (linguistic) verb structures, adaptive structuration theory, and mental model transfer theory. Dependent variables included various grammatical structures and coefficients derived from pretest and posttest scores on David Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory, modified for the experiment. The combination of changes in grammatical frequencies and learning style may suggest that one or more media or the priming agent may affect structural transfer. Results indicate that groups using the GroupSystems™ collaborative technology produced less overall linguistic content than did subjects using a generic chat system, but employed more complex language as indicated by frequency of the organizational ditransitive verb structure. Also, subjects supplied with an organization chart (priming agent) during the group problem-solving session experienced greater change on the learning styles inventory than did those participating in the session without the chart. These findings suggest that mode of communication and use of priming agents may contribute positively or negatively to the transfer of structures among group members. Researchers, collaborative system designers, organizational leaders, trainers & educators, and frequent collaborative technology system end-users should be aware of these potential affects. Suggestions for future research are provided. Relationship of theoretical foundations of structural transfer to constructivism is discussed.

Human interactions with Information Technology tools are reproducing organisational cultural patterns in a process similar to the evolution of human tools and language. A multidisciplinary research in tool-mediated activity, culture, language and cognition will examine new concepts that can be important for the design of organisationally fit Information Technology interface tools. By using qualitative and quantitative analysis together with the fields of anthropology, philosophy, cognitive sciences and human computer interaction this thesis shows that cultural fitness is an important variable that can determine in a substantial degree the rejection or adoption of a tool in organisational environment. Qualitative and quantitative data collected from organisational simulations at the Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering of the University of Canberra during the period 1995-1997 has been used and analysed.

Metacognition has been used predominantly as a strategy to improve student thinking and learning and to help students gain an awareness and control over their own thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996; Perfect & Schwartz, 2002; Robson, 2006). Recently, however, metacognition has been recognized as necessary in teacher learning to help teachers gain awareness and control over their thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996). Teacher metacognition is a critical antecedent to student metacognition because, teachers are not in a position to model higher psychological and metacognitive levels if they have not experienced these levels first as a prerequisite to encouraging them in students (p. xxi). Schraw and Moshman (1995) stated that having a better understanding of the constructive nature of knowledge and how it happens allows individuals an opportunity to regulate their cognition and learning. <p>The purpose of this study was to explore teacher metacognition within the context of successful learning communities. A phenomenological research method was used. Data were collected from three participants in three separate learning communities using a pre-interview, two semi-structured interviews, several telephone conversations, and a variety of informal contacts. The fist semi-structured interview was designed to access the participants experiences as members of their successful learning communities. The second semi-structured interview, termed the metacognitive interview, was designed to access the thinking behind their thinking.<p>It was found that the term metacognition required definitional reframing. This reframing resulted in the creation of an emerging model of Progressive Metacognition, indicating that metacognition was found to be progressive, and was catalyzed through reflection and dialogue. The interview process itself was also found to be an intervention in itself to catalyze metacognition. Each participant in this study was found to have a metacognitive characterization, which I referred to as their metacognitive fingerprint. This fingerprint represented both the participants individual characterizations as well as their strategies in influencing the processes of their learning communities. <p>Successes in planning, observation, and reflection provided members with evidence that enabled them to feel capable and competent, thus fueled their drive to continue to invest in the learning communities. Scholarship epistemology was found to have an integral part in the development of metacognition through the successful learning community. By providing participants with important tasks and challenging work within an environment of trust, space, dialogue, reflection, and accountability, deep thinking and learning took place. This study provided needed detail related to Evers and Lakomskis (2000) theory of socially distributed cognition, indicating that when knowledge travels through the social system, rather than simply assisting in distributing the knowledge, each participant had an effect on the knowledge. <p> Among the implications of this study on theory are its contributions to social learning theory and the action research spiral, indicating the effects of collaboration and success on motivation. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate the direct effects of time, reflection, and discussion on metacognition, as well as the need to conduct a longitudinal study in this area to determine these elements long term impacts. Among the implications for practice are a greater understanding of the elements at work in catalyzing metacognition, including the effects of success, as well as the environments and social dynamics required to encourage deep thinking and learning.

Metacognition has been used predominantly as a strategy to improve student thinking and learning and to help students gain an awareness and control over their own thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996; Perfect & Schwartz, 2002; Robson, 2006). Recently, however, metacognition has been recognized as necessary in teacher learning to help teachers gain awareness and control over their thinking (Manning & Payne, 1996). Teacher metacognition is a critical antecedent to student metacognition because, teachers are not in a position to model higher psychological and metacognitive levels if they have not experienced these levels first as a prerequisite to encouraging them in students (p. xxi). Schraw and Moshman (1995) stated that having a better understanding of the constructive nature of knowledge and how it happens allows individuals an opportunity to regulate their cognition and learning. <p>The purpose of this study was to explore teacher metacognition within the context of successful learning communities. A phenomenological research method was used. Data were collected from three participants in three separate learning communities using a pre-interview, two semi-structured interviews, several telephone conversations, and a variety of informal contacts. The fist semi-structured interview was designed to access the participants experiences as members of their successful learning communities. The second semi-structured interview, termed the metacognitive interview, was designed to access the thinking behind their thinking.<p>It was found that the term metacognition required definitional reframing. This reframing resulted in the creation of an emerging model of Progressive Metacognition, indicating that metacognition was found to be progressive, and was catalyzed through reflection and dialogue. The interview process itself was also found to be an intervention in itself to catalyze metacognition. Each participant in this study was found to have a metacognitive characterization, which I referred to as their metacognitive fingerprint. This fingerprint represented both the participants individual characterizations as well as their strategies in influencing the processes of their learning communities. <p>Successes in planning, observation, and reflection provided members with evidence that enabled them to feel capable and competent, thus fueled their drive to continue to invest in the learning communities. Scholarship epistemology was found to have an integral part in the development of metacognition through the successful learning community. By providing participants with important tasks and challenging work within an environment of trust, space, dialogue, reflection, and accountability, deep thinking and learning took place. This study provided needed detail related to Evers and Lakomskis (2000) theory of socially distributed cognition, indicating that when knowledge travels through the social system, rather than simply assisting in distributing the knowledge, each participant had an effect on the knowledge. <p> Among the implications of this study on theory are its contributions to social learning theory and the action research spiral, indicating the effects of collaboration and success on motivation. Among the implications for research are the need to investigate the direct effects of time, reflection, and discussion on metacognition, as well as the need to conduct a longitudinal study in this area to determine these elements long term impacts. Among the implications for practice are a greater understanding of the elements at work in catalyzing metacognition, including the effects of success, as well as the environments and social dynamics required to encourage deep thinking and learning.

A fundamental process in many important research foci in information systems is the appropriation of IT artifacts in creative ways by users. The objective of this thesis is to develop a theoretical explanation of that process. An embedded multiple-case study of incidents in which users, in a variety of field settings, developed creative ways to apply IT artifacts, was conducted. Employing theoretical lenses drawn from cognitive science (dual-process theory, distributed cognition), and Markus and Silver’s (2008) variant of adaptive structuration theory, a novel theoretical framework was developed to analyze the data. This framework – Affordance Field Theory – was used to abstract away the context-specific details of each case, so that the events in each could be compared and analyzed using a common conceptual vocabulary. Applying critical realist assumptions, the initial retroductive analysis was done with narrative networks, then the cases were re-analyzed using framework matrices. The complementary logical forms (processual and thematic, respectively) of the analytic tools helped to provide empirical corroboration of the findings. A set of cognitive mechanisms was identified that describe the information-processing operations involved in creative user appropriation. Using assumptions from distributed cognition, it was demonstrated that these mechanisms can describe those operations at the individual and collective levels. An integrative model which shows how the mechanisms explain user creativity at the individual level was then developed. It is called the Information Cycle Model of creativity. This thesis makes several contributions to knowledge. It develops a theoretical framework for analyzing interactions between users and systems that is designed to represent the cycles of ideation and enactment through which creative appropriation moves are developed. It also presents a model of the cognitive mechanisms involved in the discovery of novel appropriation moves. The thesis also contributes to current debates within IS about representational metaphors for user interaction with IT.

An ethnographic study loosely informed by the theoretical framework of distributed cognition was carried out in order to describe how mariners have adopted the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in their work practice, or"made the technology their own". AIS is a transponder-based identification and communication system that allows ships to automatically identify and track each other. In addition to facilitating the identification and tracking of ships, objectives behind the introduction of AIS are to"simplify informational exchange", and"provide additional information to assist situation awareness". Participant observation and interviews were made at four different ships, as well as at two shore stations. A focus group was also held at a maritime conference. The study gave some interesting results. For example, a Problem of Public Information Loss was identified. It is tentatively suggested that this problem has been overlooked partly because of a widespread but impoverished model of communication which does not account for the role of side-participants in a conversation. It is concluded that more research needs to be done on maritime work and the use of new bridge technology.

The topic of this thesis is how the decline of cognitive abilities and memory functioning in elder people can be assisted by external memory aids. This issue was approached through a combination of methods. The starting point was a literature review of two approaches to the study of memory – the traditional where memory functions are located in the brain and the situated where remembering transcends over external resources, and by a literature review on declining memory abilities in elderly people. An ethnographic study of everyday remembering in an older population, aged from 72 to 91, found many instances of the spontaneous use of the environment to support a declining memory ability, which in turn suggest that the traditional approach to memory research is of limited value when studying everyday memory abilities in older people. A study on existing memory aids, as well as memory aids currently under development in research laboratories showed that these technologies are primarily based on an explicit or implicit traditional view of memory that disregard several aspects of remembering in the natural world. It is therefore suggested that future development of memory aids could fruitfully benefit from a distributed and situated approach, where the individuals‘ current use of external memory aids are used as the starting point, with the goal of extending and amplifying methods and artefacts already spontaneously in use.