CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder MAPS - LifeLine (Distributed Support System) Stefan Carmien 11/4/2003 L 3 D

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Challenge - Individuals with cognitive disabilities are often unable to live on their own because of deficiencies in memory, attention, and executive functionalities. Computationally enhanced prompting systems can provide a bridge to independence. Unacceptably high abandonment rate (50% - 70%) of expensive (~.5-4 K$) Assistive Technology (AT) Difficult (re) configuration contributes to abandonment

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Research Objectives Lower abandonment –Dual user interface design Provide safety net functionality –Panic button –Caregiver monitoring Context aware cognitive assistance –Dynamic prompt generation –Effective error detection and correction

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder MAPS (Memory Aiding Prompting System) Hand held prompter –to display plans Caregiver script editor –To create, modify and share plans Interface to LifeLine –Safety net/dynamic context aware prompting

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Plans, Errors? What are you talking about? What is a plan/script? –A task of the right size broken down into small atomic chunks –Made into a script (of visual and verbal prompts) that can be followed What is an error or error state ? –A detected deviation from the plan –Sensors provide input –Boolean tests of expected states Example: How do you correct a detected error? –User templates provide ‘lookup table’ written in script data structure

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder MAPS Prompter MAPS Prompter (user interface)

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Caregiver Script Editor

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Demo here

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Conceptual Framework User modeling –Templates support static user modeling in configuration –Templates for error trapping/correction Information ecologies –Users with cognitive disabilities –Caregivers –System components Distributed Cognition –Dynamic prompt generation –Sensor & table driven Situated Action –Expect & plan for failed plans (driven by breakdowns)

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Tool Design Situated Action Time Envisioned Use Actual Context MetaDesign, Plans and Situated Action ClientCaregiver Key DesignerCaregiver Plans Envisioned Context

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder LifeLine prototype Andrew Gorman’s LifeLine project

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Conceptual Design Information ecology supporting caregivers and users with cognitive disabilities

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Distributed Support System Distributed –Prompting (MAPS) is inherently distributed cognition –Knowledge to maintain system stability is distributed between: user/caregiver/maps/lifeline/sensors/database Support –Caregiver is supported by ensuring safety –User activity is supported to afford independence and inclusion

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Demo 2 here

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder User Modeling & Error Trapping / Correction Reusable rules Templates for tasks & segments of tasks Error –Trapping (how do I recognize an error for this person) –Correction (how do I correct an error for this person) –Embedded in script database records (schema) Caregiver combinatorial explosion dilemma: (User type) X (task segment) X ( |prompts in this segment| )

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder MAPS – Error Detection & Correction Template based dynamic error detection & correction Lifeline monitors the running script, detects error states & contacts caregiver as needed Tom (more cognitive resources) Anne (less cognitive resources) Missed Bus Stop ! Tell the Bus driver your problem Wait on bus for Caregiver Alert Caregiver Summon Caregiver

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Context Sensitive Prompting Dynamic prompting –Loop till event wait for your bus –Fork employment (if this then do this….. else do that) Error (trapping and correction) –Sensors –User type –Task segment

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder MAPS – Context Awareness and Dynamic Prompting Dynamic prompt generation Blocking for event driven prompt This is not your bus Wait here for your bus Here is your bus, get on it.

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Meta Design Abandonment strongly influenced by lack of a tool to reconfigure/add content –Empowering and enabling caregivers to be designers of scripts –Leverage existing skills Tool needs to provide just enough support to make script generation easy but not so much that it itself needs a configuration tool

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Meta Design II User Modeling –User model –Task and task segment error trapping/correction Critiquing –Verbiage –Image attributes Sharing scripts –Scripts as templates –Community building MAPS odd twist on MetaDesign –Phased/tiered metadesign

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Shifting gears now….

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Tools for Living Tools for Learning Initial insight from AT world –Enabling learning –Enabling daily life Examples –Eyeglasses –Learning to read / use maps & schedules Grey areas and argument able issues –Hand calculators –Scanners/readers & dyslexia

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Tools for living You require this tool to accomplish this task - otherwise you cannot The tool rarely changes or is abandoned (in the sense of ‘graduate’) It is specifically tailored to you Your use of it does not typically change over time External, Fitting You, & Permanent

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Tools for Learning Is your skill in the tools domain significantly greater (such that you no longer need the tool to perform meaningful work) as a result of using/experiencing this tool? Are you different as a result of using this tool? Is there a method of having this tool disappear Internalized, Changing You, & Scaffolded

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Design Implications What would you do to make a TfLea –Low entrance cost –Tool adapts over time (Scaffolding) What would you do to make a TfLiv –Use of the tool will not change over time –Need for good personalized fit at the beginning –robust (crutches, eyeglasses)

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Arguments against this idea Too amorphous Not useful (Just Y et A nother D umb A cronym ) i.e. yada yada yada Not really news (other ideas like this) What do you think?

CLever: Building Cognitive Levers to help people help themselves Center for LifeLong Learning & Design University of Colorado at Boulder Thanks