Scott D. Mainwaring

Why do speakers mix perspectives

Although considerations of discourse coherence and cognitive processing suggest that communicators should adopt consistent perspectives when describing spatial scenes, in many cases they switch perspectives. Ongoing research examining cognitive costs indicates that these are small and exacted in establishing a mental model of a scene but not in retrieving information from a well-known scene. A perspective entails a point of view, a referent object, and terms of reference. These may change within a perspective, exacting cognitive costs, so that the costs of switching perspective may not be greater than the costs of maintaining the same perspective. Another project investigating perspective choice for self and other demonstrates effects of salience of referent object and ease of terms of reference. Perspective is mixed not just in verbal communications but also in pictorial ones, suggesting that at times, switching perspective is more effective than maintaining a consistent one.

Hanging on the ‘wire: a field study of an audio-only media space

The primary focus of this article is an analysis of an audio-only media space from a computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) perspective. To explore whether audio by itself is suitable for shared media systems, we studied a workgroup using an audio-only media space. This media space, called Thunderwire, combined high-quality audio with open connec-tions to create a shared space for its users. The two-month field study provided a richly nuanced understanding of this audio spaces social use. The system afforded rich sociable interactions. As well, users were able to create a useful, usable social space; however, through an analysis of the social norms that the participants formulated, we show that they had to take into account being in an audio-only environment. Within the field study, then, audio by itself was sufficient for a usable media space and a useful social space, but users were forced to adapt to many audio-only and system conditions. The article also considers audios implications for privacy.

Thunderwire: a field study of an audio-only media space

To explore the potential of using audio by itself in a shared media system, we studied a workgroup using an audio-only media space. This media space, called Thunderwire, combined high-quality audio with open connections to create a shared space for its users. The two-month field study provided a richly nuanced understanding of this audio spaces social use. The system afforded rich sociable interactions. Indeed, within the field study, audio by itself afforded a telepresent environment for its users. However while a usable media space and a useful social space, Thunderwire required its users to adapt to many audio-only conditions.

Compilation and use of a world-wide web index of cognitive and psychological science resources

What started out as an exercise in learning to write World-Wide Web (WWW) documents has evolved into an index (http: //www-psych.stanford.edu/cogsci/) of over 750 pointers to WWW sites pertaining to cognitive and psychological science. This paper describes the structure of this index, how it was assembled, and how it is maintained. Information about the amount and type of usage has been gathered from automated logging of accesses to the index, as well as from e-mail solicited from users.

Turnover and the Model of Coordinated Action (MoCA)

This work is concerned with furthering the theoretical development of one of the seven dimensions of the Model of Coordinated Action (MoCA): turnover. Turnover is an under-researched area, particularly in HCI and CSCW, so we survey how turnover and related concepts have been theorized and researched in other fields of inquiry such as organization studies, human resource management, knowledge management, customer relationship management, and marketing.