the abcs of technology

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The ABCs of technology Barbara Moser-Mercer InZone, Université de Genève

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The emerging future

“Every twelve to eighteen months, computers double their capabilities, and so do the information technologies that use them. Forty years out, with technology a trillion times more advanced than today, we will be so far away from our current knowledge base that it is pure guess work as to what will be going on.” (The Emerging Future 2012).

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Technological

dvances and expertise

¡ Constant technological advances may mean that expertise in a particular task domain is more difficult to develop, erodes more quickly or may not develop at all.

¡ The more rapid changes are to the technology and the work, and the more cognitively complex the task, the greater the struggle to find out how things interact and how outputs are produced from inputs. When mental models are less mature, the various functions that depend on well-developed mental models, also suffer.

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The

enefits of technology !? ¡ Technologies are developed to help people do their

current jobs more easily or effectively.

¡ But new information technology, when implemented, will transform the nature of the work being performed, and typically does so in unanticipated ways. The new technology isn’t just supporting that work, it is altering the work in ways that affect the cognitive functions of individuals and teams.

¡ This poses all kinds of challenges in designing the technology and training people to use it.

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ognitive task analysis

¡ CTA is an important tool for ¡ identifying, ¡ documenting, and ¡ communicating the cognitive elements of

performance

¡ These will then need to be be incorporated into the design and implementation of information technology.

¡ CTA allows us to understand the cognitive landscape that permits operators to effectively use technology, and for developers to create tools that support and enhance human performance, rather than constrain it.

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Technology and ageing

¡ Why are older adults reluctant to adopt new technology, such as the Internet?

¡ Attitudes and abilities are among the most powerful predictors of technology use, normative age-related changes in ability must be taken into account when designing products and training programs for aging adults.

¡  The most promising emerging technologies likely lie in training cognitive abilities (and augmenting or substituting for impaired abilities). Technology redesign and user training are critical tools to ensure a better person–technology fit.

¡ We should expect that the lag in technology adoption between younger and older adults may lessen but will not disappear in future generations.

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FACULTÉ DE TRADUCTION ET D’INTHeERPRÉTATION Département d’interprétation

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Figure 2. Basic architecture of the visuo-motor system.

Nere A, Olcese U, Balduzzi D, Tononi G (2012) A Neuromorphic Architecture for Object Recognition and Motion Anticipation Using Burst-STDP. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36958. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036958 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0036958

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Figure 3. The architecture of the biologically inspired neural network.

Nere A, Olcese U, Balduzzi D, Tononi G (2012) A Neuromorphic Architecture for Object Recognition and Motion Anticipation Using Burst-STDP. PLoS ONE 7(5): e36958. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036958 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0036958

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Adaptive expertise WELCOMES

CHALLENGES

MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

FLEXIBILITY

META-COGNITION

KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS

EFFICIENT APPROPRIATE APPLICATION

DEEP UNDERSTANDING

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Flexible brain hubs

¡ Brain’s flexible hub network helps humans adapt

¡ Switching stations route processing of novel cognitive tasks

¡ A well-connected core brain network based in the lateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex — parts of the brain most changed evolutionarily since our common ancestor with chimpanzees — contains “flexible hubs” that coordinate the brain’s responses to novel cognitive challenges.

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Background diagram shows 264 brain regions in the human brain color-coded by network affiliation. Center sphere shows networks labeled with

their potential functions; lines indicate how much inter-network communication changes across dozens of tasks, with especially dramatic

changes in bold.

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A motor skill practiced during a visual-motor task can be transferred to support the rapid learning of similar skills involving the same motor skill (e.g., an auditory-motor task).

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Meet the T3 Remote Court Interpreter

?Can you multitask?

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FACULTÉ DE TRADUCTION ET D’INTERPRÉTATION Département d’interprétation

New Millennium Learners (OECD Conference on 21st century learning)

¡ Solid evidence regarding the effects of technology on cognitive skills development, particularly in areas related to visual-spatial skills and nonverbal forms of intelligence.

¡  However, the most appealing domains, i.e., those on which technology could have positive impact, have not been documented by empirical research. Such areas as the abilities related to information processing, reflective and critical thinking, creativity and, in general, meta-cognitive skills are very often noted in this regard.

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Sequential vs Global Learners

Virtual gaming environments offer the perfect arena for balanced learning design, because “game design often incorporates progressively more difficult challenges to keep players balanced on the edge of frustration with the level of difficulty and satisfaction from achieving a goal” (Laughlin et al.,

2007, p. 6).

This situated learning offers simultaneously comfort and extension, and the story-like setting helps to overcome the concerns of disorientation brought about by cognitive overload in non-linear approaches to learning design.

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Adaptive expertise

Learners exposed to fuzzy problems and multiple inputs may be forced to develop a less dominant learning style, achieving greater learning versatility.

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63% of young people >18 multi-task some or most of the time on their computers ¡  In spite of this, no research has focused specifically on the effects

of media multitasking so far. Neurological research seems to suggest that brain capacity is finite and that attention to one task diminishes as another is introduced (Just et al., 2001).

¡  The way in which young people multitask when they are in front of a computer screen is somewhat different: ¡  they are not attempting to process non-complementary messages

simultaneously, but rather are

¡  switching back and forth between different activities

¡ Neurological research has identified the portion of the brain responsible for this kind of activity switching (Wallis, 2006), but little is known about the effects of constant switching between media, even if all of them are supported by just one technological device, i.e. a computer.

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Multi-tasking

What is certain is that multitasking is a phenomenon that will not disappear rather, contrarily, it will become mainstream.

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How are these regions involved in interpretation? Error-Monitoring

Speech Production:

Articulation

Multi-Tasking Translating

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p(fwe)<0.05 During Shadowing During Interpreting

Management of simultaneity – Regions whose activation is modulated by duration of overlap

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p(fwe)<0.05

During Shadowing During Interpreting Management of simultaneity –

Regions whose activation is modulated by duration of overlap

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Management of Simultaneity - More overlap is harder to handle

One of the challenges of interpretation or shadowing is dealing with two simultaneous streams Are there any brain regions whose activation is modulated by the duration of overlap? If so, do they differ for interpretation and shadowing?

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Modulation by Challenge

¡ Overlap of perception and production modulates:

¡ For both shadowing and interpretation: ¡ Bilateral auditory cortices, extending anterior along STS

(superior temporal sulcis), and posterior towards pSTS

¡ For interpretation: ¡ Bilateral putamen Source: Hervais-Adelman, Moser-Mercer, Golestani. fMRI of Simultaneous Interpretation Reveals the Neural Basis of Extreme Language Control.Cereb Cortex. 2015 Dec;25(12):4727-39. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu158. Epub 2014 Jul 17.

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Discussion

¡ The additional cortical regions recruited for interpretation are generally considered to be involved in more “abstract” aspects of speech processing (BA45) or motor planning (pre-SMA) (Picard & Strich, 1996)

¡ Subcortical regions: ¡ executive control ¡ language selection ¡ top-down “filtering” of simultaneous streams ¡ Inhibitory control for appropriate response selection

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The basal ganglia

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The basal ganglia and motor-pattern learning

¡ The basal ganglia are characterized by a densely packed crystalline architecture, with very regular patterns. These are needed for properly sequencing complex tasks, which they seem to accomplish through predictive coding.

¡ Sequencing patterns of thought can all be brought back down to motor sequencing (optimum S-R mapping) - > regular patterns

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The basal ganglia

¡ The field of basal ganglia research is exploding on every level — from discoveries at the molecular level to those based on human brain imaging.

¡ Basal ganglia are essential for some forms of learning-related plasticity.

¡ Combined with the new evidence on learning-related functions of the basal ganglia, these studies suggest that the basal ganglia are parts of a brain-wide set of adaptive neural systems promoting optimal motor and cognitive control.

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Basal ganglia promote learning

A key idea emerging in the field of basal ganglia research is that cortico–basal ganglia circuits promote learning of action sequences through trial-and-error learning (Graybiel, A.M. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2005,15:638–64)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKaqFz_WoIw&feature=youtu.be

In the lab…

©Moser-Mercer2015

the abcs of technology

Education