Calibration of internal representations vs. external information for the control of action

在做演讲时，我们可以凭记忆自由发言，但也有失去思路的危险。或者，我们可以依靠笔记，但要冒着陈述不流畅和生硬的风险。这是我们经常需要做的决定的一个例子；也就是说，是依靠内部表征——也就是我们的知识和记忆——还是依靠来自环境的信息来指导我们在世界上的行动。次优的内部/外部决策可能会产生重要的后果。例如，先前的研究表明，老年人有一种强烈的倾向，即在环境中寻找线索，即使他们完全知道下一步该做什么，这反过来会导致效率极低的表现。其他易受伤害的人群，比如患有注意力缺陷和多动障碍（ADHD）的人，可能过多或过少地依赖外部信息，因此可能会显得心烦意乱或过于集中。当人们与现代技术和新兴技术互动时，信息源之间的适当平衡尤为重要。例如，新款汽车上越来越多的信息丰富的显示器可能会对那些主要依赖外部信息的人造成严重的分心危险。然而，对于内部/外部决策是如何做出的，什么样的信息被用于这些决策，以及如何准确解释某些亚组（如老年人或患有多动症的个体）的次优模式，我们知之甚少。目前的项目将使用计算建模和眼动追踪实验来解决研究文献中的这一空白。这项工作的长期目标是提供支持最佳内部/外部信息校准的技术解决方案，特别是在弱势群体中。研究人员使用眼球追踪技术来监测实验情境中的人类参与者，这些实验情境要求在任何给定的时间点执行几个简单任务中的一个（例如，通过指示箭头的空间位置或指向的方向来响应箭头提示）。当前最合适的任务可以通过利用参与者自己的知识（内部表征）或通过检查指示下一步要做什么的简单提醒（外部信息）来确定。在目标1中，重点是可以“不合理地”影响内部/外部决策过程的方面，以及即使在没有客观需要使用外部信息的情况下，也会将决策过程“拉”向依赖环境的方面。例如，初步结果表明，外部提示的显著性和个人最近检查外部信号的频率都强烈影响当前环境中信息的使用。目标2侧重于参与者需要尝试实现的依赖外部或内部信息之间的最佳平衡的情况。这里的目标是确定外部/内部决策在多大程度上可以用一个简单的、理性的模型来解释，如果不能，为了解释参与者的行为，必须如何修改这样的模型。例如，初步证据表明，做出内部/外部决策所涉及的主观成本本身是一个因素，可以引导个人走向次优的信息使用模式。目标3结合了先前目标的实验范式，在一个更大的、异质的年轻人和老年人样本中，以及被诊断为ADHD的个体中，表征内部/外部决策。该项目还包括一个教育和推广部分，旨在增加ADHD学生接受STEM教育的机会。俄勒冈大学新闻学院的学生将制作关于多动症本质的动画材料，并将在该大学的无障碍教育中心进行测试。结合起来，这项工作将产生关于个人如何使用内部和外部信息来源的新的理论和经验知识，并将更好地理解弱势群体的次优信息使用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

While giving a presentation, we can speak freely from memory, but with some danger of losing our train of thought. Alternatively, we can rely on notes but risk a dysfluent and stilted presentation. This is one example of a type of decision that we need to make almost constantly; namely whether to rely on internal representations – that is, our knowledge and memory – or on information from the environment to guide our actions in the world. Suboptimal internal/external decisions can have important consequences. For example, previous work has shown that older adults have a strong tendency to search the environment for clues, even when they know perfectly well what to do next, which in turn leads to highly inefficient performance. Other vulnerable populations, such as individuals with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are likely to rely either too much or too little on external information and therefore can appear either distracted or hyper-focused. Adequate balancing between information sources is particularly important when people interact with modern and emerging technologies. For example, the increasing salience of information-rich displays in newer-model cars can pose a serious distraction danger for individuals with a strong tendency to rely primarily on external information. Yet, little is known about how internal/external decisions are being made, what kind of information is used for such decisions, and what exactly explains the suboptimal pattern in certain subgroups, such as in older adults or individuals with ADHD. The current project will use computational modeling and eye-tracking experiments to address this gap in the research literature. The long-term goal of this work is to inform technological solutions that support optimal internal/external information calibration, in particular in vulnerable populations.The investigators use eye-tracking technology to monitor human participants in experimental situations that require performing one of several, simple tasks at any given point in time (e.g., responding to an arrow cue by indicating either its spatial location or the direction in which it is pointing). The currently most appropriate task can be determined either by utilizing the participant’s own knowledge (internal representations) or by examining simple reminders that indicate what to do next (external information). In Aim 1, the focus is on aspects that can “irrationally” influence the internal/external decision process and that “pull” the decision process towards relying on the environment, even when there is no objective need to use external information. For example, preliminary results have shown that both the saliency of external prompts and how frequently an individual had inspected external signals in the recent past, strongly influence the current use of information in the environment. Aim 2 focuses on situations in which there is an optimal balance between relying on external or internal information that participants need to try to achieve. The goal here is to determine to what degree external/internal decisions can be explained by a simple, rational model, and if not, how such a model would have to be amended in order to explain participants’ behavior. For example, preliminary evidence suggests that the subjective cost involved in making internal/external decisions itself is a factor that can steer individuals towards suboptimal patterns of information use. Aim 3 combines the experimental paradigms from the previous aims to characterize internal/external decisions within a larger, heterogenous sample of young and older adults, as well as individuals diagnosed with ADHD. The project also includes an education and outreach component directed towards increasing accessibility of STEM education for students with ADHD. Students from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism will develop animated material about the nature of ADHD that will be tested in the University’s Accessible Education Center. Combined, this work will generate new theoretical and empirical knowledge about how individuals use internal versus external sources of information and will lead to a better understanding of suboptimal information use in vulnerable populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.