A review of mental models research in child-computer interaction
TL;DR: A review of the research investigating the nature of mental models in the context of child-computer interaction, review elicitation techniques used within the field, and discusses its potential to further inform the design process is provided in this paper.
About: This article is published in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences.The article was published on 2012-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 9 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Context (language use) & Science education.
Citations
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TL;DR: An understanding of youths’ conceptions of Google can enable educators to better tailor their digital literacy instruction efforts and can inform search engine developers and search engine interface designers in making the inner workings of the engine more transparent and their output more trustworthy to young users.
Abstract: Although youth are increasingly going online to fulfill their needs for information, many youth struggle with information and digital literacy skills, such as the abilities to conduct a search and assess the credibility of online information. Ideally, these skills encompass an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the ways in which a system, such as a Web search engine, functions. In order to investigate youths' conceptions of the Google search engine, a drawing activity was conducted with 26 HackHealth after-school program participants to elicit their mental models of Google. The findings revealed that many participants personified Google and emphasized anthropomorphic elements, computing equipment, and/or connections (such as cables, satellites and antennas) in their drawings. Far fewer participants focused their drawings on the actual Google interface or on computer code. Overall, their drawings suggest a limited understanding of Google and the ways in which it actually works. However, an understanding of youths' conceptions of Google can enable educators to better tailor their digital literacy instruction efforts and can inform search engine developers and search engine interface designers in making the inner workings of the engine more transparent and their output more trustworthy to young users. With a better understanding of how Google works, young users will be better able to construct effective queries, assess search results, and ultimately find relevant and trustworthy information that will be of use to them.
27 citations
Cites background from "A review of mental models research ..."
...The latter is likely especially true for children, who may also have insufficient manual dexterity skills and/or mental agility to prepare an accurate representation of their mental models (Marhan et al. 2012)....
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02 May 2019
TL;DR: The results provide insights into how the parents and children accepted and socially appropriated the technology into the walking school bus activity, shedding light on the way they understand and conceptualize a technology that collects data on children's proximity to the volunteers' smartphone.
Abstract: Technology increasingly offers parents more and more opportunities to monitor children, reshaping the way control and autonomy are negotiated within families. This paper investigates the views of parents and primary school children on mobile technology designed to support child independent mobility in the context of the local walking school buses. Based on a school-year long field study, we report findings on children's and parents' experience with proximity detection devices. The results provide insights into how the parents and children accepted and socially appropriated the technology into the walking school bus activity, shedding light on the way they understand and conceptualize a technology that collects data on children's proximity to the volunteers' smartphone. We discuss parents' needs and concerns toward monitoring technologies and the related challenges in terms of trust-control balance. These insights are elaborated to inform the future design of technology for child independent mobility.
18 citations
Cites background from "A review of mental models research ..."
...At each step, we prompted children to describe and discuss their drawings to foster the elicitation of their mental models in the context of a teach-back interview [19]....
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Posted Content•
TL;DR: This paper presents an experimental design involving 54 children participating in two different configurations of constructive interaction and a traditional think-aloud, and outlines lessons on the impact of context on involving children in usability testing.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the effect of context on usability evaluation. The focus is on how children behave and perform when they are tested in different settings. Two most commonly applied usability evaluation methods: the think-aloud and constructive interactions are applied to the children in different physical contexts. We present an experimental design involving 54 children participating in two different configurations of constructive interaction and a traditional think-aloud. The behavior and performance of the children in two different physical contexts is measured by evaluating the results of application of think-aloud and constructive interaction. Finally, we outline lessons on the impact of context on involving children in usability testing.
5 citations
Cites background from "A review of mental models research ..."
...“While many adults struggle with comprehending and manipulating digital interfaces, today‘s young children enthusiastically approach these interfaces with little or no effort, although they may not completely understand how to use it, or what their implications are” [3]....
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Dissertation•
05 Dec 2014
TL;DR: Koios, a new programming tool, was designed and developed as a manifestation of the combined set of principles identified by reviewing literature regarding novices’ difficulties and using a theoretical framework defined by the psychological theories of Constructivism and Cognitive Load Theory.
Abstract: This thesis reports a research project that aims to improve the teaching and learning of introductory programming from a pedagogical and psychological viewpoint. Towards this aim, seven principles for designing educational programming tools for novices were identified by reviewing literature regarding novices’ difficulties and using a theoretical framework defined by the psychological theories of Constructivism and Cognitive Load Theory. This set of design principles was not only theoretically identified, but its pedagogical impact was also empirically tested. For this reason, Koios, a new programming tool, was designed and developed as a manifestation of the combined set of principles. Empirical studies were conducted by a way of a quasi-experimental design in two different Greek secondary-education institutions. The independent variable was compliance with the set of the seven principles. Students’ level of programming skills (procedural knowledge) was the dependent variable, while the quality of their mental models in the domain of introductory programming (declarative knowledge) was the potential mediator. The effect of compliance with the set of principles on students’ programming skills and mental-model quality was explored via Koios’ evaluation. Declarativeand procedural-knowledge measurements, as well as a practical test, were used to collect data, which were analysed using ANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression. The major conclusions drawn from this study are: (a) compliance with the set of design principles does not affect the development of novices’ procedural and declarative programming knowledge, (b) a programming tool that highly complies with this set facilitates novices in the application of their procedural programming knowledge during program creation and (c) programming tools, declarative and procedural knowledge are independent components in
4 citations
01 Aug 2016
TL;DR: The mental model for the blinds' mobile application revealed the usability matters as useful, easy and availability for the outcome of this study.
Abstract: This study examines the blind users' experiences of Thai banknotes recognition to develop mobile application for them. The investigation is based on the mental model to find out how their cognitive idea related to usability concerns of the application. To conduct the study, the blind students and teachers at the blind school in Hatyai, Songkla Thailand were recruited as participants. In general, they were various in age and having different experiences with smartphones and mobile applications. The mental model for the blinds' mobile application revealed the usability matters as useful, easy and availability for the outcome of this study. The blinds' mobile application is preferred to be simple rather than complex. For example, the application features should be automatic like the feature of barcode reader application, which can scan banknotes and speak value voice in a real time. Based on the findings, the prototype of blinds' mobile application, for real-time recognition of Thai banknotes is developed.
4 citations
Additional excerpts
...[12][6][10], environment of operations [8]....
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References
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01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: For instance, the authors argues that people's views of the world, of themselves, of their own capabilities, and of the tasks that they are asked to perform, or topics they are being asked to learn, depend heavily on the conceptualizations that they bring to the task.
Abstract: One function of this chapter is to belabor the obvious; people’s views of the
world, of themselves, of their own capabilities, and of the tasks that they are
asked to perform, or topics they are asked to learn, depend heavily on the
conceptualizations that they bring to the task. In interacting with the environ
ment, with others, and with the artifacts of technology, people form internal,
mental models of themselves and of the things with which they are interacting.
These models provide predictive and explanatory power for understanding the
interaction. These statements hardly need be said, for they are consistent with all
that we have learned about cognitive processes and, within this book, represent
the major underlying conceptual theme. Nonetheless, it does not hurt to repeat
them and amplify them, for the scope of the implications of this view is larger
than one might think.
1,675 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated elementary school children's conceptual knowledge about the earth and identified five alternative mental models of the earth: the rectangular earth, disc earth, dual earth, the hollow sphere, and the flattened sphere.
1,590 citations
"A review of mental models research ..." refers background in this paper
...However, this child may encounter a football (an ellipsoid) that is kicked or thrown, or a bowling ball that is solid and has holes drilled into for the purpose of rolling rather than bouncing (Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992)....
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01 May 1982
TL;DR: This paper explored the role of analogy in the way people think about a domain and found evidence from interviews and experimental studies in the domain of simple electronics that when using analogies, people map conceptual structures from one domain to another.
Abstract: : Analogical comparisons are commonly used in the discussion and teaching of scientific topics. This paper explores the conceptual role of analogy. We compare two position: (1) the generative analogy hypothesis, that analogies are an imported determinant of the way people think about a domain; (2) the surface terminology hypothesis, that analogies merely provide a convenient vocabulary for describing concepts in the domain. We present evidence from interviews and experimental studies in the domain of simple electronics that when using analogies, people map conceptual structures from one domain to another. This important conceptual structure is shown to influence inferences a person makes about the target domain. These results support the generative analogy hypothesis.
808 citations
"A review of mental models research ..." refers background in this paper
...In terms of Gentner & Gentner (1983), analogical thinking allows people to generalize on the basis of past experiences and use this generic information in new contexts....
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01 Jul 1972-International Journal of Human-computer Studies \/ International Journal of Man-machine Studies
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assign individuals to different categories of cognitive competence on the basis of the teaching strategy they adopt, i.e., holists or global learners and serialists or step by step learners.
Abstract: In a free-learning task, individuals are assigned to different categories of cognitive competence on the basis of the teaching strategy they adopt. Two major types are distinguished: holists or global learners and serialists or step by step learners, on the basis of analysis of the type of hypothesis that learners test in carrying out the task and a content analysis of the protocols produced when learners are asked to teach back what they have learned. For other tasks, using the same subjects, it is shown that teaching is most effective when the teaching materials are structured so as to match an individual's competence and the converse holds when there is mismatch. The results are interpreted for a theory of learning/teaching and the need for a language suitable for talking about strategies and subject matter structures is discussed.
385 citations
"A review of mental models research ..." refers methods in this paper
...Developed by Pask in the framework of the “conversation theory” (Pask & Scott, 1972), it consists in asking the student to tell /teach an other person, in his own words, what he believes a topic to be (how he or she understands it)....
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