Cognitive Design

Violet has developed a very interesting application of RFID technology. You stick an RFID stamp on any object and then program what you want it to do.  When you wave the object over the reader, called the mirror (shown below), it triggers the programmed action on your computer.

[image source: engadget] 

This is a quick way to extend the functionality of the original object to include a wide range of computer mediated functions – pull up files, send an email, update your facebook status, run a program, show a picture or map, listen to your favorite iTunes and so on.

This could be a real accelerator for cognitive designers.

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 The spirit of cognitive design is that a little bit of insight into how our minds actually work can profoundly reshape the products and services we sell, the social programs we invest in and even how we manage our organizations.  Indeed, designing for how minds work is a major driver of innovation for the 21st century. 

Take for example the idea of spaced learning and the novel approach to teaching that supports it.  In this approach learning material is presented or studied three times for 20 minutes and each repetition is separated by a 10 minute gap (or space) filled with physical activity.   

Learning that is spaced in this way is based on a recent finding from cognitive science that shows long-term memories form best when the network of nuerons encoding the memory is switched on and off multiple times.  The key is the time gap or space between stimulations. Doing physical activity (e.g. juggling) instead of another learning task insures that the network is switched off.  

The poster child for success with this approach is Monkseaton High School in the UK.  Their website has a great overview on spaced learning and the success of their program was recently highlighted in this blog post. There are even interviews on the book, Making Minds, which explores the implications of spaced learning for education.  

Last month I blogged about the new version of Ruth Clark’s book on Building Expertise. She reviews what we know about the cognitive science of learning to provide an evidence-based approach to instructional design. I believe her lessons are of general value to cognitive designers dealing with issues of learnability.  

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How, what and why we remember things plays a very important role in learning, decision-making, emotional experience and many other aspects cognition.  Understanding memory is of critical importance to anyone that hopes to design for how minds actually work. For example,  understanding how memory works means we can add features and functions to products and services that trigger particular memories and therefore stimulate emotions and personal meaning.  

The Cognitive Daily blog has an excellent post on the latest research into the nature of autobiographical memory (ABM) or memories about ourselves and our lives.   A recap of the findings: 

Adults have few accurate ABMs before age five.

 ABM is systematically biased with positive life events easier to recall than negative life events.

 ABMs appear uneven in that a 50-year old is more likely to remember something from their late teens or early 20s than from their 30s.

 This last finding is the most interesting for cognitive designers.

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Why does memory weaken as we age?  A brain scanning study, A Neural Mechanism Underlying Memory Failure in Older Adults  recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience claims part of the answer lies in the fact that older brains are more easily distracted when learning. We fail to recall certain things because distractions kept us from encoding them in the first place.

Background noise like a ringing phone, iPod or other distractions can interfere with encoding new memories in older brains.  We can improve memory by minimizing the distractions or focusing harder when learning new things.  Now all we have to do is remember to do that.

Resigning a pill bottle to meet specific cognitive needs doubles medication compliance.

Not taking meds properly is a major issue in healthcare.  Approximately 125,000 people die from improperly taking meds every year in the US. As much as $100B-$300B is wasted in hospital visits, tests and lost productivity associated with lack of compliance with medication regiments.

Studies show that we take our meds according to the doctor’s orders only 40-50% of the time.  The problem is we forget (or fail to remember to remember to take our meds – a prospective memory need), are boggled by the complexity of what to do (imagine taking 10-15 different meds per day) and have self esteem issues (taking meds makes us appear weak or a burden). In short, prescription pill bottles we get from the pharmacy don’t meet the complex cognitive needs (prospective memory, multi-pill complexity, self esteem) associated with personal medication management.

Fortunately a number of smart pill boxes have been designed to help us solve this problem. According to an excellent article on Medication Compliance by Allan Naditz in the November issue on Telemedicine and e-Health, these devices can take compliance from the 40-50% level to the 90-95% level.    

He discusses eight smart pill boxes ranging from simple reminder systems to personal med dispensers that provide multiple reminders and contact a service provider automatically if you don’t take your meds. A You Tube video outlining the problem and pitching the MD2 system, a top of the line model, can be found here.

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Almost two weeks ago I did a post on harnessing brainpower, a report by 60 Minutes on brain-machine interfaces. Now brain-machine interfaces are on the cover of Scientific American magazine. 

The lead story, Jacking into the Brain, covers the expected ground but does have some interesting speculation about the future including  the possibility of converting text into neural signals for downloading into our brains.

Many applications in cognitive design involve “juicing up” existing artifacts so that they have greater sensorial, affective, mental or psychological impact. Rarely do we get the chance to design artifacts whose sole purpose is to enhance and support cognition. An example of a “pure play” cognitive design is the rapidly growing area of brain training. These programs and devices aim to improve the memory, attention, perception and other cognitive functions (for aging baby boomers) by engaging us in simple and repetitious mental exercises.

The marketing is growing. According to experts at the Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains, the  US market in 2007 was $225M, over twice what it was in 2005.    The leading vendor, Nintendo has shipped some 15 million units of its popular Brain Age and Brain Training games.

There is evidence that some BUT NOT ALL of the programs do in fact produce short-term improvements after weeks of training.  However claims of longer term overall “brain health” improvements are still circumstantial.

Brain training promises to be a real proving ground for cognitve designers. We will track the developments closely in this blog.

  Music activates cognition in very powerful ways. It can enhance creativity.  It has long been used as an accelerated learning technique. It invokes memories, stimulates daydreaming and certain songs even become lodged in your head.  Songs that get caught in your head are called “earworms” (yikes). Metaphorically, an earworm is like a biochemical that causes a cognitive itch that you scratch by repeating the song in your head (or even out loud). Of course, the more you scratch the more you itch and the thing gets deeply embedded in your brain. Examples that turn up in the studies include: Who Let the Dogs Out, Queen’s We Will Rock You!, The Mission Impossible Theme and It’s a Small World After All.  

Despite the recent rise of the field of “music cognition” including its own professional societies, journals, academic research labs and PhD programs, little is known about the cognition of earworms.  However, “According to research conducted by University of Cincinnati professor James Kellaris, virtual any song can become an earworm. However, songs that are simple, repetitive, and contain some incongruity – an unexpected twist – are most likely to become stuck.” It’s important to note that the entire song does not get stuck just 10-15 seconds of it. Also songs with lyrics seem to be stronger earworms.

Short, easy-to-repeat and something with a twist – sounds like an idea virus, only one you keep passing to yourself instead of to someone else.  

I have not found anyone claiming they can engineer earworms but there is one company, Earworms Publishing – musical brain trainer, that claims to be using them to help your learn a second language.  I don’t know if their earworm language learning method actually works but it does seem popular.  Their module on Spanish was in the top five iTunes Best Sellers for 2007.

A reader offered interesting new research from Washington State University on the use of cues in advertising designed to invoke “nostalgic reflection” in consumers. Key finding:

“… personal thought patterns are, indeed, inspired among those presented with an ad containing nostalgic cues. Further, the researchers found that those who experienced nostalgic thoughts tended to exhibit more favorable attitudes toward the advertised brand than those who did not.”  

The research also provides some evidence for the “aestheticization of nostalgia” (experiencing nostalgia even if the artifact is not part of my personal past) mentioned in the previous post.