Researcher ORCID Identifier
Graduation Year
2023
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Linguistics & Cognitive Science
Reader 1
Laura Johnson
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2023 Jacob C. Zimmerman
Abstract
As some pioneers of personal computing argue, we have yet to reach the potential that computing offers to enhance our cognition. Some modern scholars of tools for thought give a prerogative to develop transformative tools for thought (Matuschak & Nielsen, 2019), recognizing that the tools we may use enable new thought patterns and thus new cognitive abilities. As cognition is mediated both by our tools and by the minds of others, I evaluate the current state of literature on tools built to support collaborative sensemaking, a domain of collective cognition characterized by various interdependent cognitive processes. To apply and test suggestions from the literature, I then prototype and experimentally test a virtual whiteboard tool, CoReify, with a novel drawing-replay feature, instructing small groups of students to solve whodunit puzzles with the support of the tool prototype while manipulating the availability of the replay feature. It was hypothesized that the availability of the replay feature would improve individual and group-level performance on this collaborative sensemaking task and that equity of participation using the tool may predict task outcomes, reproducing a previous finding (Wallace et al., 2013) for a new sensemaking task context. While results did not specify any significant effects, the replay feature appeared to impact individual and group-level performance, and there was no suggested correlation between equity of participation and group-level performance. Various implications are discussed, chiefly underscoring the importance of systematically training and verifying participants’ fluency with an experimental tool before investigating its helpfulness for group tasks.
Recommended Citation
Zimmerman, Jacob, "Tools for Collective Thought: Augmenting Collaborative Sensemaking" (2023). Pomona Senior Theses. 327.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/327
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Cognitive Science Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Organizational Communication Commons, Other Psychology Commons, School Psychology Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
