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

在演讲时，我们可以凭记忆自由发言，但有失去思路的危险。或者，我们可以依靠笔记，但风险不流畅和生硬的介绍。这是一个我们几乎需要不断做出的决定类型的例子;也就是说，是依靠内部表征-即我们的知识和记忆-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，以前的研究表明，老年人有一种强烈的倾向，即在环境中寻找线索，即使他们非常清楚下一步该做什么，这反过来又导致了非常低效的表现。其他弱势群体，如注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）患者，可能过多或过少依赖外部信息，因此可能会出现分心或过度集中。当人们与现代和新兴技术互动时，信息来源之间的适当平衡尤为重要。例如，新型汽车中信息丰富的显示屏的日益突出，可能会对主要依赖外部信息的个人造成严重的分心危险。然而，人们对内部/外部决策是如何做出的，这些决策使用了什么样的信息，以及如何确切地解释某些亚组中的次优模式，如老年人或ADHD患者。目前的项目将使用计算建模和眼动跟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为支持最佳内部/外部信息校准的技术解决方案提供信息，特别是在弱势群体中。研究人员使用眼动追踪技术来监测实验情况下的人类参与者，这些实验需要在任何给定时间点执行几个简单任务中的一个（例如，通过指示其空间位置或其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（内部表示）或通过检查指示下一步做什么的简单提醒（外部信息）来确定。在目标1中，重点是能够“不合理地”影响内部/外部决策过程的方面，以及“拉”决策过程依赖环境的方面，即使在没有客观需要使用外部信息的情况下。例如，初步结果表明，外部提示的显着性和个人最近检查外部信号的频率都强烈影响了当前环境中信息的使用。目标2侧重于在依赖参与者需要努力实现的外部或内部信息之间取得最佳平衡的情况。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模型来解释，如果不能，那么为了解释参与者的行为，应该如何修改这样的模型。例如，初步证据表明，内部/外部决策本身所涉及的主观成本是一个因素，可以引导个人对信息使用的次优模式。目标3结合了先前的实验范式，旨在描述年轻人和老年人以及诊断为ADHD的个体的更大，异质样本内的内部/外部决策。该项目还包括一个教育和外展部分，旨在增加ADHD学生获得STEM教育的机会。来自俄勒冈州大学新闻学院的学生将制作关于多动症性质的动画材料，这些材料将在该大学的可持续教育中心进行测试。结合起来，这项工作将产生新的理论和经验知识，个人如何使用内部与外部来源的信息，并将导致更好地了解次优的信息使用在弱势群体。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

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.