Cognitive Offloading

If you have ever tilted your head to perceive a rotated image, or programmed a smartphone to remind you of an upcoming appointment, you have engaged in cognitive offloading: the use of physical action to alter the information processing requirements of a task so as to reduce cognitive demand. Despite the ubiquity of this type of behavior, it has only recently become the target of systematic investigation in and of itself. We review research from several domains that focuses on two main questions: (i) what mechanisms trigger cognitive offloading, and (ii) what are the cognitive consequences of this behavior? We offer a novel metacognitive framework that integrates results from diverse domains and suggests avenues for future research

Metacognitive phenomena during human–Internet interactions

External information systems often serve as an extended cognitive system and are usually conceived as expansions of the capacity of human cognition. However, the boundaries between our own mind and a powerful cloud mind, like the Internet, are increasingly blurry. This paper discusses recent empirical evidence of various metacognitive phenomena taking place while searching for information on the Internet, against the backdrop of the theory of transactive memory systems and the theory of cognitive offloading. The discussion focuses on the ways our cognitive systems maneuver and adapt their responses to the medium of the Internet by examining its effects on the metacognitive evaluations of oneself as a knower, the novel metacognitive experience of the feeling of findability, and how our metamemory judgments are affected. The conclusion proposes directions for future research and a better understanding of our interaction with the Internet

Portable inshoe gait analysis device

Gait analysers are devices or systems that quantify the planter /' pressures as they occur under the foot. The data obtained, be it. in visual or digital format, assists the medical practitioner in the diagnosis of an abnormality of gait. This thesis describes the development of a low-cost, portable, inshoe gait analysis device which overcomes all the limitations experienced by other systems currently in use. The non-availability of .robust, yet small pressure transducers, required the design and manufacture of these components. Capable of being embedded within an insole environment, it allows for the unobtrusive monitoring of localised planter pressures associated with all modes of gait. The transducer output, being analogy and continuous in nature, allows for the production of a real-time pressure display an important requirement for the therapeutic assessment and treatment of patients. The flexibility and accuracy of this system surpasses that of other systems. Its configuration provides for operation in remote environments, allowing for gait measurements under specific ambulation conditions. Use of a new transducer monitoring technique, in addition to a new video mixing technique, has enabled this device to compete with those systems making use of expensive processing and display equipment. Two prototype gait analysis systems have been built and extensively tested under clinical conditions. The results obtained provide unique, hitherto unavailable data, which can now be used for a more precise classification of gait disorders. It is already clear that the data will provide the basis for more accurate diagnosis and therefore more appropriate treatment of a variety of gait

Play Among Books

How does coding change the way we think about architecture? Miro Roman and his AI Alice_ch3n81 develop a playful scenario in which they propose coding as the new literacy of information. They convey knowledge in the form of a project model that links the fields of architecture and information through two interwoven narrative strands in an “infinite flow” of real books

The design and evaluation of an anonymous, two-way, ethics management reporting system

Despite a recognized need for whistleblowing systems in academic research, little to no attention has been given to the necessary requirements for and specific design of effective whistleblowing systems. In order to increase the rate of reporting, it is critical for reporting systems to be designed with the intent to reduce employee fears and inhibitions by reducing the potential for retaliation. Therefore, the goal of this three-essay dissertation was to enhance a firm\u27s ability to solicit and investigate concerns by proposing and evaluating a system aimed at fostering anonymous, two-way communication between employees and investigators of wrongdoing. In essay one, design science (Hevner et al., 2004; March & Smith, 1995; Walls, Widmeyer, & El Savvy, 1992, 2004) was employed in order to theorize and justify the design of an anonymous reporting system artifact. In doing so, existing reporting systems were examined and modern technologies were incorporated into a proposed design of an anonymous, two-way ethics management reporting system. Essay two reviewed existing theories in the extant whistleblowing literature and relied upon communication research, both inter-personal and computer-mediated, to address the limitations of prior theory regarding reduced perceptions of credibility for anonymous whistleblowers. The experiment tasked subjects with evaluating simulated two-way communication between an investigator and an employee attempting to blow the whistle on financial wrongdoing. The results provide strong evidence that two-way communication can reduce the credibility gap between perceptions of anonymous and identified whistleblowers. Lastly, essay three assessed the system design proposed in essay one from the perspective of the organizational insider. The proposed system was also compared to other channels available to report wrongdoing, such as the use of open door policies and telephone hotlines. Two simultaneous online experiments tested user perceptions of anonymity protections provided by each channel, as well as the specific whistlebloweroriented design features proposed in the design. This essay provides evidence that online reporting systems are perceived to provide significantly higher anonymity protections than phone hotlines and open door policies, while select features of the proposed system impact user perceptions of anonymity

Distributed cognition and businesses as 'mental institutions'

This thesis explores distributed cognition within the context of business and argues that businesses can be considered ‘mental institutions’. It therefore defends a liberal view of cognition, recognising the integration of stakeholders within a larger business structure that contains multiple cognitive schemas that conduct, constrain, and amplify one’s thoughts and affectivity in relation to the organisation. The aim of this thesis is therefore to broaden the scope of investigation regarding the socially extended mind and demonstrate the real-world applicability of these discussions to business consultancy. Following a revision of how the ‘mental institution’ should be considered and a deconstruction of the concept of ‘business’, the thesis picks out six institutional artefacts and structures that are common features of business organisations. These are logos, products, shops, offices, hierarchies, and narratives. Mental business institutions are designed with cognition in mind, and thus these institutional features can become integral parts of thought for both employees within business organisations and external consumers. Chapters individually explore the various ways we can become coupled to these artefacts and structures as internal or external stakeholders, and thus integrated within the cognitive niche of the business institution. Finally, an empirical study of a large UK-based utility company provides an example of how one can investigate the collaborative efforts of employees within an organisation through the lens of distributed cognition. Ultimately, an application of distributed cognition and mental institutions to business within this text brings to fruition new additional conceptual resources for management and marketing studies

(Dis)Remembering the slave mother: shame, trauma, and identity in the novels of Michelle Cliff and Zoë Wicomb

The 'new' nationalisms that have developed in postcolonial Jamaica and South Africa invite the reclamation of the slave mother, while simultaneously 'cleansing' her body of slavery's atrocities for the purpose of national healing. Michelle Cliff's Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven, and Zoë Wicomb's David's Story and Playing in the Light, reveal this national practice of elision, and especially how the disremembering of slavery factors into personal identity formation. A deeper glance into this process exposes the lingering white supremacist, patriarchal symbolic at the centre of these nations, which maintains its centrality through the erasure of the slave mother and the disavowal of rape - two things which inevitably obscure the intersection of race and sex. The colonial residue of shame and trauma, left uninterrogated in the national script, imprints itself on women of colour and affects our legibility in society today. This dissertation evaluates the exclusion of slavery and the slave mother from the national script, and highlights this exclusion in postcolonial literature to reveal its impact on an intimate level. In my analysis, I interrogate the Lacanian symbolic to showcase the white male universality it employs, which alongside the intersecting discourses of race and sex, render women of colour illegible. Furthermore, in burying the slave past, the traumatic histories of rape are buried with it. Without a platform to excavate this trauma in the national space, there is a resulting disidentification with the nation among the women of colour it fails to represent. Additionally, I suggest that the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders that undeniably ensued postslavery, including Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS) and what Joy DeGruy calls Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), are ultimately undealt with and therefore have potentially intergenerational, melancholic ramifications. In narrating the lives of mixed-race characters, both Cliff and Wicomb reveal shame's transgenerational chokehold, resulting from neglected legacies of trauma. For the protagonists' ancestors, shame results in the denial of blackness, which manifests as a lost ideal among their descendants. As the search for identity collapses with ethnognesis and the reclamation of the black mother, Clare Savage's, Marion Campbell's, and David Dirkse's trauma remains unresolved, leading to a state of melancholia and unbelonging. Because the national scripts in Jamaica and South Africa are so exclusive, it becomes necessary to invent alternative modes of belonging. The projects of rememory and memory justice have the power to engender this sense of belonging, and therefore also create a platform for past trauma to be reconciled. In conclusion, I posit that the mining of folklore is crucial in the search for slave memory and collective healing, but also, when the erasure of slave memory has rendered these stories hidden, it is important to generate our own stories, memories, and truths