Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com IS3320 Developing and Using Management Information Systems Lecture 13: Practical process-modelling Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com

IS3320 Today’s lecture The psychology of process modelling Conscious and unconscious process Process modelling by conversation Process modelling by observation Process modelling breakdown

The psychology of process-modelling Two of the core concepts we have discussed throughout the course are Human-centrism We’re designing systems to address problems faced by people Activity-based, rather than feature-based, design We’re addressing problematic behaviours and designing new alternatives – we’re not designing static qualities Put differently, we’re designing for functions first, then form (not the other way around) Each of these are complicated demands

Designing for human-centrism: a dual-process view of human beings People are broadly made up of two complementary (and sometimes competing) systems for cognition (how they think) These are conscious process (thoughts of which we’re aware) and unconscious process (thoughts of which we are not aware) Sometimes referred to as System 2 and System 1 (Kahneman, 2011) or the C-system and X-system (Lieberman et al., 2002)

Conscious processes vs. unconscious processes Can be rational, verbalised Limited capacity for parallel thinking Subject to reflection Slow Unconscious processes Emotional and reflexive Tied to perceptual systems, hence run effectively in parallel Fast Prone to systematic biases

Permanent illusions

Some thought exercises How many objects in the room can you think about at a time? How do you know which object(s) to think about next? Have you ever been playing a sport or performing some complex activity and got muddled up because you started thinking about what you were doing?

Some thought exercises A video to show the challenges of conscious attention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

Tacit vs. explicit knowledge/process In the 1950s, people began to realise that not all knowledge could be externalised (described) Idea of tacit knowledge We have a limited symbolic vocabulary Not everything we do is conscious Many types of knowledge-sharing are only possible by experience within a specific context Early argument that tacit knowledge can’t be converted into explicit knowledge

Tacit vs. explicit knowledge/process In general, tacit knowledge forms in two ways An initially conscious task becomes effortless Think of writing – do you remember how much concentration was required when you first learned? Things are learned through non-reflective experience Could you explain the process to someone how you recognise faces?

Hidden vs. conscious influences From Gleasure and O’Riordan (2016)

Process modelling by conversation Useful for Listing key explicit processes Fleshing out explicit processes Understanding how a person sees their role Helping people to reflect on their processes Challenging contingencies Probing the rationale for processes Linking processes that affect multiple actors Documenting and standardising key behaviours Key: speaking to large numbers of individuals with different roles

Process modelling by observation Useful for Discovering tacit processes that went unreported because they have become routinized Processes that actors forgot they were doing Processes that were assumed to be ‘obvious’ Contextualising and enriching descriptions of explicit processes Highlighting ambiguities Identifying sensitive processes Observing visible interplay with system Key: immersion and contact in live settings (requires trust)

Process modelling by breakdown Useful for Discovering invisible tacit processes that actors did not realise were happening Processes that actors learned reflexively in context Processes that actors perform due to natural limitations Discovering the role (or absence of role) for specific system components

Process modelling by breakdown Can occur naturally Live breakdowns or ex-post analysis Prone to rationalisation Can be done systematically Identify individual feature or information sources and ask actor to describe its role Remove specific feature(s)/source(s), then ask actor to perform task and score their confidence they have performed it well Re-insert feature(s)/source(s) and ask actor to perform similar task Ask them to score their confidence and explain impact of re-introduction of feature(s)/source(s)

Want to read more? Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. University of Chicago Press, USA. Lieberman, M. D., Gaunt, R., Gilbert, D. T., & Trope, Y. (2002). Reflection and reflexion: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to attributional inference. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 199-249. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan, UK. Gleasure, R., & O’Riordan, S. (2016). Exploring hidden influences on users’ decision-making: A feature-lesioning technique to assist design thinking. Journal of Decision Systems, 25(4), 1-17.