Investigating the Impact of Table Size on External Cognition in Collaborative Problem-Solving Tabletop Activities

External cognition;Cognitive tracing;Tabletop activities;Collaborative problem solving;System Design Engineering

Hajizadehgashti, Sepinood

University of Waterloo

关键词: External cognition;    Cognitive tracing;    Tabletop activities;    Collaborative problem solving;    System Design Engineering;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/6951/1/Sepinood_Hajizadehgashti.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Tables have been used for working and studying for years, and people continue using tables to workwith digital artifacts. Collaborative tabletop activities such as planning, designing, and scheduling arecommon on traditional tables, but digital tables still face a variety of design issues to facilitate doingthe same tasks. For example, due to the high cost of digital tables, it is unclear how large a digitaltable must be to support collaborative problem solving.This thesis examines the impact of physical features, in particular the table size, on collaborativetasks. This research leverages findings of previous studies of traditional and digital tables, andfocuses on exploring the interaction of table size and users’ seating arrangement in collaborativeproblem solving. An experimental study is used to observe the behaviors of two-member groupswhile doing problem-solving tasks. Two tasks, storytelling and travel planning, were selected for thisstudy, and the experiments were performed on two traditional tables, one small and one large.Although working on digital and traditional tables differs, investigating the impact of physicalfeatures in traditional tables can help us better understand how these features interact with workspaceawareness and external cognition factors during taskwork.In the empirical study, external cognitive behaviors of participants were deeply analyzed tounderstand how physical settings of the table and seating arrangement affect the way peoplemanipulate artifacts in the table workspace. Collaborators passed through different stages of problemsolving using varied strategies, and the data analysis revealed that they manipulated material on thetabletop for understanding, organizing and solution making through visual separation, cognitivetracing and piling. Table size, task type and user seating arrangement showed strong effects on theexternal cognition of collaborators. In particular, the accessibility of sufficient space on the tableinfluenced how much users could distribute their materials to improve workspace awareness andcognitive tracing. On the other hand, lack of space or inaccessible space forced people to use thespace above the table—by holding materials in their hands—or to pile materials to compensate forspace limitations.The insights gained from this research inform design decisions regarding size and seatingarrangement for tabletop workspaces. For cases in which there is insufficient space, designalternatives are recommended to improve accessibility to artifacts to compensate for spacelimitations. These solutions aim to enhance the external cognition of users when space is insufficientto work with artifacts in problem-solving tasks.