Junya Morita

Learning through intermediate problems in creating cognitive models

Cognitive modelling is one of the representative research methods in cognitive science. It is believed that creating cognitive models promotes learners’ meta-cognitive activities such as self-monitoring and reflecting on their own cognitive processing. Preceding studies have confirmed that such meta-cognitive activities actually promote learning effects. However, there are some difficulties in bringing about learning by creating cognitive models in an educational context. To overcome the difficulties, we propose an innovative learning design, ‘learning through intermediate problems’ and also developed a web-based production system called DoCoPro that can be used anywhere and anytime in an environment connected to the Internet. We performed three introductory cognitive science classes in which the participants learned cognitive modelling and constructed running computer models using our system. In the first and second classes, the participants were required to construct production system models that solve pulley problems. They also posed their original pulley problems that their own models were subsequently able to solve. These generated problems were distributed to the other members. The participants were able to find incompleteness in their cognitive models, revise them to remove the incompleteness, and improve their models while solving the given problems. The participants, by successfully creating sophisticated models, acquired a deeper knowledge of the learning domain. The class practices confirmed the utility of ‘learning through intermediate problems’ when constructing an educational environment for learning creating cognitive models. In the third class, the participants constructed cognitive models solving addition and subtraction problems using DoCoPro. The cognitive processing underlying such problem solving is automated, therefore it may be difficult to verbalize and externalize such cognitive processes. The post-questionnaire showed evidence that the participants actually performed meta-cognitive activities while monitoring their own internal information processing.

Symbol Communication Systems Integrate Implicit Information in Coordination Tasks

In order to study the formation of communication systems through interactions, we conducted an experiment in which pairs of participants attempted to complete a coordination task through an exchange of messages composed of a set of abstract figures. At the beginning of the interaction, there was no shared rule for the meanings and usage of the figures as symbols. We observed that the participants completed the coordination task by forming communication systems. We suggested that communication systems can be developed effectively if participants have implicit behavioral tendencies, such as using small number of symbols, meeting at a usual place, and smooth turn taking.

Skilled gaze behavior extraction based on dependency analysis of gaze patterns on video scenes

The eye gaze behavior of individuals changes depending on their knowledge and experience of the event occurring in their field of view. In past studies, researchers formulated a hypothesis concerning this dependency on a specific scene and then analyzed the gaze behavior of viewers observing the scene. We depart from this hypothesis-testing paradigm. In this paper, we propose a data-mining framework for extracting skilled gaze behaviors of experts while watching a video based on a comprehensive comparison of viewers in terms of the dependency of their gaze patterns on video scenes. To quantitatively analyze the changes in the gaze behavior of experts according to the events in the scene, video and eye movement sequences are classified into video scenes and gaze patterns, respectively, by using an unsupervised clustering method focusing on short-time dynamics. Then, we analyze the dependency based on the distinctiveness and occurrence frequency of gaze patterns for each video scene.

Learning Mental Models of Human Cognitive Processing by Creating Cognitive Models

We investigated how creating cognitive models enhances learners’ construction of mental models on human cognitive information processing. Two class practices for undergraduates and graduates were performed, in which participants were required to construct a computational running model of solving subtraction problems and then develop a bug model that simulated students’ arithmetic errors. Analyses showed that by creating cognitive models, participants learned to identify buggy procedures that produce systematic errors and predict expected erroneous answers by mentally simulating the mental model. The limitation is that this benefit of creating cognitive models was observed only in participants who successfully programmed a computational model.

Planning Based on One’s Own Past and Other’s Past During a Communication Task

Recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies have suggested that constructing ideas about the future (prospection) is based on neural networks responsible for remembering past experiences (episodic memory). On the other hand, episodic memory involves variety of information that includes not only one’s own past behaviours but also those by others. These two types of past information may influence prospection and planning of our future behaviour, especially in a social context involving communication with others. It has never been investigated, however, how the information about one’s own past behaviour and those by others contribute to planning of our future behavior. In the present study, we explored evidence for differential planning processes based on one’s own past behavior and that on other’s past behavior. For this purpose, we used a symbolic communication task involving two subjects who sent and received arbitrary symbol messages to plan for their behaviours in the task. Our results showed that subjects’ planning in the task was influenced adaptively by one’s own past behaviour and those by the other subject (i.e., a partner of the task). Particularly, the subjects’ behaviour favoured their own past behaviour when they sent the same message to the partner as in the previous trial, whereas their behaviour favoured the partner’s past behaviour when they received the same message from the partner as in the previous trial. We speculate that such an adaptive use of differential planning strategies might contribute to successful development of an effective communication system across self and others.

Experimental investigation of misuse and disuse in using automation system

In this study, we experimentally investigated human use of automation systems and the selection strategies of such usage. We used two different types of tracking tasks. As a result, we found that the participants neither tended to misuse nor disuse the automation system. Also, we confirmed that they tended to select to use the automation system depending on their manual performance rather than the system performance. Moreover, we found that there is a relationship between the tendency to use the automation system and the selection strategy.

Investigating memory recall by visualization of photo network

We are developing an app that presents photographs in such a way as to increase the users motivation for activity by activating memory recall and awareness. In this paper, as a initial investigation for this project, we report a photo-network visualization system and a initial experiment conducted to assess its validity. The system groups related pictures in terms of the objects and scenes in the images. The system allows user to view the photographs interactively by selecting nodes in the network. In an experiment, participants reported that viewing the photographs on the system actually improved their memory recall. Furthermore, we uncovered evidence that certain photographs better promoted memory recall than others. We also analyzed the tendencies of the participants when selecting nodes, and whether the photographs elicited feelings of fondness or interest.

Dividing Roles and Ordering Information Flow in the Formation of Communication Systems: The Influence of Role Reversal Imitation

The process and mechanism behind the formation of symbolic communication systems is studied in this paper by using human cognitive experiments and the computer simulation of cognitive architecture. In the presented experiment, pairs of participants carry out a coordination task repeatedly in which a symbolic message is passed between them. Two-thirds of participant pairs (n = 14) formed communication systems that could stably solve the coordination task by establishing role division by utilizing the order of sending messages, namely turn-taking. The behavioral strategy behind this role division is then analyzed by using transfer entropy and simulating ACT-R to model participant behavior. The analysis of the transitions of transfer entropy shows that successful pairs behave consistently from the beginning of the experiment and begin to include their partners’ behavior when deciding on role division. The comparison between human experiment and ACT-R simulation data suggests that role reversal imitation, whereby participants store partners’ behaviors and utilize them to decide on their own behavior, is effective at establishing a communication system.

Influence of Background Music on Freehand Drawing

This paper presents an experimental study that explores the effects of background music on freehand drawing. In the experiment, two types of background music and two themes for freehand drawing were prepared. To control the consistency of these materials, we used a 2 (background music: dark vs. cheerful) x 2 (themes: dark vs. cheerful) mixed factorial design. In the experiment, the participants (n = 20) drew sketches for each theme while the background music was streamed. These results showed that the theme had a strong influence on the impressions for the sketches, while the background music had an effect on the amount of freehand drawing. These results suggests two distinctive types of creative mining for the explicit and implicit creative processes.

Multi-platform experiment to cross a boundary between laboratory and real situational studies: experimental discussion of cross-situational consistency of driving behaviors

We constructed an innovative experimental platform to study cross-situational consistency in driving behavior, conducted behavioral experiments, and reported the data obtained in the experiment. To discuss cross-situational consistency, we separated situations in which people use some systems to conduct tasks into three independent conceptual factors: environment, context, and system. We report the experimental results with the following systems: a laboratory system with a gaming controller and steering/pedal controllers and a real system, COMS an instrumented vehicle. The results are summarized as follows. 1) The individual behaviors in each system were stable, and consistency was retained. 2) The consistency of the behaviors was also confirmed when the participants drove using different interfaces in identical systems. 3) However, only slight correlation was observed across different systems in a specific situation where a strong high-order cognitive constraint (i.e., rapid driving) and a weak low-order cognitive constraint (driving with easy handling toward a straight-line course) were given.