Design of cognitive tools for everyday information-based activities

我们生活在一个知识社会。我们在许多活动领域严重依赖信息。我们的大多数日常活动既涉及思想，也涉及信息。我们被淹没在信息的海啸中。与此同时，我们被期望比以往任何时候都更有效地开展我们的活动。为了应对，我们需要工具。认知工具(CT)可以提供帮助。这些软件工具位于我们的大脑和数字信息空间之间的接口，并协调两者之间的互动。CT的例子包括交互式数学可视化软件、决策支持系统和数字图书馆。 研究人员需要知道如何设计CT，以便这些工具能够有效地协调我们的基于信息的活动。目前，研究人员对于如何设计CTS的人-信息交互组件以支持各种面向知识的活动还缺乏足够的知识。为了在这一领域拥有科学知识，研究人员需要开发设计框架，为不同的活动构建不同类型的工具，并进行实证研究，以评估不同设计策略的有效性。我的研究建议是针对三种认知工具进行上述研究：数字图书馆、数字游戏和探索数学思想的工具。 这项研究对我们理解如何设计CT有很大的帮助。设计良好的CT可以改变和扩大我们以知识为导向的生产活动，就像物理工具和机器对我们的物质生产活动产生的革命性影响一样。随着基于互联网的CT的改进，这些工具实际上可以影响世界各地数千万人的知识活动。总之，这项研究在支持我们的日常信息化活动方面有着广泛的应用。

We live in a knowledge society. We are heavily dependent on information in many spheres of our activities. Most of our everyday activities involve both the mind and information. We are awash in a tsunami of information. Simultaneously, we are expected to carry out our activities more efficiently than ever before. To cope, we need tools. Cognitive tools (CTs) can help. These software tools sit at the interface between our mind and a digital information space and mediate the interaction between the two. Examples of CTs include interactive mathematical visualization software, decision-support systems, and digital libraries. Researchers need to know how to design CTs so that these tools can effectively mediate our information-based activities. Currently, researchers do not have enough knowledge about how to design the human-information interaction component of CTs to support a variety of knowledge-oriented activities. In order to have scientific knowledge in this area, researchers need to develop design frameworks, build different kinds of tools for different activities, and conduct empirical studies to assess the effectiveness of different design strategies. My research proposal is to do the aforementioned research with regard to three kinds of cognitive tools: digital libraries, digital games, and tools for exploration of mathematical ideas. This research can significantly contribute to our understanding of how to design CTs. Well-designed CTs can transform and scale our knowledge-oriented productive activities, not unlike the revolutionary effect that physical tools and machinery have had on our material productive activities. As Internet-based CTs improve, these tools can virtually affect the knowledge activities of tens of millions of people throughout the world. In short, this research has wide-reaching applications in the support of our everyday information-based activities.