Supporting awareness of others is an idea that holds promise for improving the usability of real-time distributed groupware. However, there is little principled information available about awareness that can be used by groupware designers. In this article, we develop a descriptive theory of awareness for the purpose of aiding groupware design, focusing on one kind of group awareness called i>workspace awareness. We focus on how small groups perform generation and execution tasks in medium-sized shared workspaces – tasks where group members frequently shift between individual and shared activities during the work session. We have built a three-part framework that examines the concept of workspace awareness and that helps designers understand the concept for purposes of designing awareness support in groupware. The framework sets out elements of knowledge that make up workspace awareness, perceptual mechanisms used to maintain awareness, and the ways that people use workspace awareness in collaboration. The framework also organizes previous research on awareness and extends it to provide designers with a vocabulary and a set of ground rules for analysing work situations, for comparing awareness devices, and for explaining evaluation results. The basic structure of the theory can be used to describe other kinds of awareness that are important to the usability of groupware.

http://grouplab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/grouplab/uploads/Publications/Publications/2002-DescriptiveFramework.JCSCW.pdf

心理学原理 = The principles of psychology

A Descriptive Framework of Workspace Awareness for Real-Time Groupware

It has long been theorised that there are two temporally distinct forms of self-reference: extended self-reference linking experiences across time, and momentary self-reference centred on the present. To characterise these two aspects of awareness, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine monitoring of enduring traits (’narrative’ focus, NF) or momentary experience (’experiential’ focus, EF) in both novice participants and those having attended an 8 week course in mindfulness meditation, a program that trains individuals to develop focused attention on the present. In novices, EF yielded focal reductions in self-referential cortical midline regions (medial prefrontal cortex, mPFC) associated with NF. In trained participants, EF resulted in more marked and pervasive reductions in the mPFC, and increased engagement of a right lateralised network, comprising the lateral PFC and viscerosomatic areas such as the insula, secondary somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobule. Functional connectivity analyses further demonstrated a strong coupling between the right insula and the mPFC in novices that was uncoupled in the mindfulness group. These results suggest a fundamental neural dissociation between two distinct forms of self-awareness that are habitually integrated but can be dissociated through attentional training: the self across time and in the present moment.

/pdf/attending-to-the-present-mindfulness-meditation-reveals-2c00bj8h6g.pdf

Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference

Task-induced deactivation (TID) refers to a regional decrease in blood flow during an active task relative to a "resting" or "passive" baseline. We tested the hypothesis that TID results from a reallocation of processing resources by parametrically manipulating task difficulty within three factors: target discriminability, stimulus presentation rate, and short-term memory load. Subjects performed an auditory target detection task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), responding to a single target tone or, in the short-term memory load conditions, to target sequences. Seven task conditions (a common version and two additional levels for each of the three factors) were each alternated with "rest" in a block design. Analysis of covariance identified brain regions in which TID occurred. Analyses of variance identified seven regions (left anterior cingulate/superior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, right anterior cingulate gyrus, left and right posterior cingulate gyrus, left posterior parieto-occipital cortex, and right precuneus) in which TID magnitude varied across task levels within a factor. Follow-up tests indicated that for each of the three factors, TID magnitude increased with task difficulty. These results suggest that TID represents reallocation of processing resources from areas in which TID occurs to areas involved in task performance. Short-term memory load and stimulus rate also predict suppression of spontaneous thought, and many of the brain areas showing TID have been linked with semantic processing, supporting claims that TID may be due in part to suspension of spontaneous semantic processes that occur during "rest" (Binder et al., 1999). The concept that the typical "resting state" is actually a condition characterized by rich cognitive activity has important implications for the design and analysis of neuroimaging studies.

https://www.jsmf.org/meetings/2003/nov/McKiernan.JOCN2003.pdf

A Parametric Manipulation of Factors Affecting Task-induced Deactivation in Functional Neuroimaging

This article presents a new theory of subjective probability according to which different descriptions of the same event can give rise to different judgments. The experimental evidence confirms the major predictions of the theory. First, judged probability increases by unpacking the focal hypothesis and decreases by unpacking the alternative hypothesis. Second, judged probabilities are complementary in the binary case and subadditive in the general case, contrary to both classical and revisionist models of belief. Third, subadditivity is more pronounced for probability judgments than for frequency judgments and is enhanced by compatible evidence. The theory provides a unified treatment of a wide range of empirical findings. It is extended to ordinal judgments and to the assessment of upper and lower probabilities. Both laypeople and experts are often called upon to evaluate the probability of uncertain events such as the outcome of a trial, the result of a medical operation, the success of a business venture, or the winner of a football game. Such assessments play an important role in deciding, respectively, whether to go to court, undergo surgery, invest in the venture, or bet on the home team. Uncertainty is usually expressed in verbal terms (e.g., unlikely or probable), but numerical estimates are also common. Weather forecasters, for example, often report the probability of rain (Murphy, 1985), and economists are sometimes required to estimate the chances of recession (Zarnowitz, 1985). The theoretical and practical significance of subjective probability has inspired psychologists, philosophers, and statisticians to investigate this notion from both descriptive and prescriptive standpoints.

Support theory: A nonextensional representation of subjective probability.

In the recent literature there has been considerable confusion about the three types of memory: long-term, short-term, and working memory. This chapter strives to reduce that confusion and makes up-to-date assessments of these types of memory. Long- and short-term memory could differ in two fundamental ways, with only short-term memory demonstrating (1) temporal decay and (2) chunk capacity limits. Both properties of short-term memory are still controversial but the current literature is rather encouraging regarding the existence of both decay and capacity limits. Working memory has been conceived and defined in three different, slightly discrepant ways: as short-term memory applied to cognitive tasks, as a multi-component system that holds and manipulates information in short-term memory, and as the use of attention to manage short-term memory. Regardless of the definition, there are some measures of memory in the short term that seem routine and do not correlate well with cognitive aptitudes and other measures (those usually identified with the term "working memory") that seem more attention demanding and do correlate well with these aptitudes. The evidence is evaluated and placed within a theoretical framework depicted in Fig. 1.

/pdf/what-are-the-differences-between-long-term-short-term-and-uesdhq0eal.pdf

心理学原理 = The principles of psychology

Citations

A Descriptive Framework of Workspace Awareness for Real-Time Groupware

Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference

A Parametric Manipulation of Factors Affecting Task-induced Deactivation in Functional Neuroimaging

Support theory: A nonextensional representation of subjective probability.

What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory?