cognitive science

Intelligences

Hybrid Methodology: Combining Ethnography, Cognitive Science, and Machine Learning to Inform the Development of Context-Aware Personal Computing and Assistive Technology

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MARIA CURY* ReD Associates ERYN WHITWORTH* Facebook Reality Labs *Lead co-authors[s2If is_user_logged_in()]DOWNLOAD PDF [/s2If] [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] [/s2If] The not-too-distant future may bring more ubiquitous personal computing technologies seamlessly integrated into people's lives, with the potential to augment reality and support human cognition. For such technology to be truly assistive to people, it must be context-aware. Human experience of context is complex, and so the early development of this technology benefits from a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to research — what the authors call “hybrid methodology” — that combines (and challenges) the frameworks, approaches, and methods of machine learning, cognitive science, and anthropology. Hybrid methodology suggests new value ethnography can offer, but also new ways ethnographers should adapt their methodologies, deliverables, and ways of collaborating for impact in this space. This paper outlines a few of the data collection...

Talks

Eye Tracking Methods: The Good, The Bad, and the Absurd

An EPIC Talk with LAURA E. MATZEN and LAURA A. MCNAMARA, Sandia National Laboratories March 6, 2018, 12:00–1:30pm PST Free online event, pre-registration & EPIC Membership required [s2If !is_user_logged_in()] To register: JOIN EPIC or LOG IN [/s2If] [s2If current_user_is(subscriber)] To register: JOIN EPIC [/s2If] [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] REGISTER NOW [/s2If] Overview Over the past decades, eye…

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Perspectives

Let’s Get Off the Pop-Neuroscience Bandwagon

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by GERALD LOMBARDI Interest in the unconscious and the instinctual has been on the ascent for several years now in many research realms that EPIC members inhabit. In consumer research particularly, where I’ve been a practicing anthropologist for years, the findings of neuroscience, cognitive science and the brand of social psychology called behavioral economics have driven an upsurge of interest in what lies below the surface of overt action. They all promise new ways to explain why people do what they do, and have provoked a sizable shift in research methods and goals. The consequences of this for our understanding of people have not been all good. The consequences for society are downright scary. I’ll explain; but first, some background. How We Got Here The underlying science behind this change in perspective is a set of still-emerging findings about how the brain works, how behavior in social contexts is genetically and physiologically influenced, and the role of evolutionary pathways in determining our mental structures....