Psychological modelling of creative design synthesis

了解设计师的内部认知对于优化创新设计过程至关重要。然而，设计认知研究目前缺乏一个共同的本体论基础和科学的强大的模型的认知（即心理）过程中涉及的创造性设计活动。这个博士项目形成了更广泛的研究视野的一部分，通过首次桥接设计和认知科学来应对这些挑战，建立了认知设计科学（CDS）的跨学科领域。作为实现这一愿景的一步，该项目旨在创建第一个基于科学的创意设计综合认知模型。创意设计综合通常被视为设计知识和概念的创造和组合，以产生功能产品的想法。它涉及物理动作，由认知过程驱动，并由草图，原型和CAD模型等外部表示支持。设计综合中的认知研究目前面临着一些重大的科学挑战。首先，现有的工作是支离破碎的使用许多不同的定义，概念化，和术语来描述认知加工。这使得很难解释和比较不同研究的结果，也很难综合整个领域的结果，从而得出关于设计师群体认知的一般结果（例如通过元分析）。其次，该领域主要是小规模的研究，使用定性和经常主观的方法，如协议分析。虽然这种方法可能是有效的初步探索性工作，它产生的结果可能是不可靠的，不确定的，并没有概括和抽象超出了小样本的研究。总之，这些问题提出了一个根本性的障碍，一般的发展，科学的强大模型的认知过程中涉及的创造性设计合成。反过来，这也极大地阻碍了设计认知研究作为一门科学学科的发展和成熟。相比之下，更成熟的认知心理学领域已经建立了涉及人类认知的认知过程的共同理论结构和模型。它还开发了各种强大的定量方法，用于研究大样本人群的认知过程，从而实现概括和抽象。这些包括，例如，行为实验和心理测试。虽然心理学家研究了一般人群的创造力，但他们没有研究产品和工程设计的创造性活动，如设计合成。拟议的博士项目将在这些领域之间架起桥梁，应用认知心理学的既定知识和方法，基于共同的本体论基础和可推广的经验结果，创建第一个设计综合的认知模型。

Knowledge on designers' internal cognition is critical for optimising the creative design process. However, design cognition research currently lacks a common ontological basis and scientifically robust models of the cognitive (i.e. psychological) processes involved in creative design activities. This PhD project forms part of a broader research vision to address these challenges by bridging design and cognitive science for the first time, establishing the interdisciplinary field of cognitive design science (CDS). As a step towards achieving this vision, the project aims to create the first scientifically-based cognitive model of creative design synthesis.Creative design synthesis is generally viewed as the creation and combination of design knowledge and concepts to produce ideas for functional products. It involves physical actions and is driven by cognitive processes, supported by external representations such as sketches, prototypes, and CAD models. Research on cognition in design synthesis currently faces several significant scientific challenges. Firstly, existing work is fragmented by the use of numerous different definitions, conceptualisations, and terminology to describe cognitive processing. This makes it difficult to interpret and compare the results of different studies, and to synthesise results across the field to derive general findings about cognition in the population of designers (e.g. through meta-analysis). Secondly, the field is dominated by small-scale studies using qualitative and frequently subjective methods such as protocol analysis. Whilst this approach may be effective for initial exploratory work, it produces results that can be unreliable, uncertain, and do not generalise and abstract beyond the small sample under study. Together, these issues present a fundamental barrier to the development of general, scientifically robust models of the cognitive processes involved in creative design synthesis. In turn, this is significantly impeding the advancement and maturation of design cognition research as a scientific discipline.In contrast, the more mature field of cognitive psychology has established common theoretical constructs and models of the cognitive processes involved in human cognition. It has also developed a variety of robust quantitative methods for studying cognitive processes in large samples of people, thereby enabling generalisation and abstraction. These include, for instance, behavioural experiments and psychometric testing. Although psychologists have studied creativity in the general population, they have not examined the creative activities particular to product and engineering design, such as design synthesis. The proposed PhD project will bridge between these fields, applying established knowledge and methods from cognitive psychology to create the first cognitive model of design synthesis based on a common ontological foundation and generalisable empirical results.