6464CP35 – Improving Human
Performance in Practice
Contents
Lecture 1: Work and task analyses........................................................................................................2
Lecture 2: Digitiaton..........................................................................................................................29
Lecture 3: Cognitie Enhancement at work and at an older age.........................................................36
Lecture 4: Cognitie Enhancement in educatonn creatiity and sports...............................................56
Lecture 5: Ethics in enhancement........................................................................................................76
Lecture 6: Gamifcaton in nractce......................................................................................................79
Lecture 7: Human Error.......................................................................................................................88
WiK – 06/01/2019
Wik – 19/01/2019 – i2
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,Lecture 1: Work and task analyses
Dennisn A. R.n Fullern R. M.n & Valacichn J. S. (2008). Median tasksn and communicaton processes: A
theory of media synchronicity. MIS quarterlyn32(3)n 575-600.
Abstract: This paper expandsn refnesn and explicates Media synchronicity theory. MST focuses on
the ability of media to support synchronicityn a shared patern of coordinated behaiior among
indiiiduals as they work together. We argue that communicaton is composed of two primary
processes: conveyance and convergence (also influenced by other factors. MST proposed that:
- For conieyance processes (= meaning): use of media supportng lower synchronicity should
result in beter communicaton performance.
o Conieyance and lower leiels of media synchronicity will be benefcial because
indiiiduals will require more tme to assess and deliberate on the informatonn using
higher synchronicity may impair deielopment of understanding because indiiiduals
will not haie tme to fully process the informaton.
- For coniergence processes (= informaton): use of media supportng higher synchronicity
should result in beter communicaton performance.
o Coniergence and higher leiels of media synchronicity will be benefcial. When
indiiiduals haie shared mental modelsn encoding and decoding familiar informaton
should be faster
We identfy fie capabilites of media (symbol setsn parallelismn transmission ielocityn rehearsabilityn
and reprocessability). The successful completon of most tasks inioliing more than one indiiidual
requires both conieyance and coniergence processesn thus communicaton performance will be
improied when indiiiduals use a variety of media to perform a taskn rather than just one medium.
Article
Media Richness Theory (MRT) = task performance will be improied when task informaton needs
are matched to a medium’s informaton richness (later called just media richness). The ‘rich’
communicaton is most useful for when there are multple task interpretatons possible (example:
face-to-face contact) and ‘less rich or lean’ communicaton when tasks is unequiiocally clear
(computer contact).
It is belieied that communicaton and task performance will improie when managers use richer
media for equiiocal tasks (where there are multple and possibly conflictng interpretatons of
informaton) and leaner media for non-equiiocal tasks
The task (set of communicaton processes) needs to generate a shared understanding. This is
composed of the conieyance of informaton and the coniergence of meaning.
nrior theories to MST:
- Social informaton processing theory (Fulkn Smiti & Steinfeldn 1990) = MRT is not objectie
but media richness is in part socially constructed and diferent indiiiduals may hold diferent
perceptons of richness
- Adaptie structuraton theory (DeSancts & noolen 1994) = it is not the objectie physical
characteristcs of the medium that matern but rather how those characteristcs are
appropriated and used
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, - Channel expansion theory (Carlson & Zmud 1999) = the perceiied richness of a medium
depends not only on its characteristcsn but also on the users’ experience using itn and with
each othern and perhaps also with the task and the organiiatonal context in which the use
occurs
- Social presence (Yoo & Alaiin 2001) = media enables the percepton of others’ presence
(more cohesiie groups reported greater social presence regardless of used media) this did
not impact task performance.
- nsychobiological model (Kockn 2004) = humans haie eiolied to faior face-to-face
communicaton. The lower the “naturalness” of
a medium (computer) the greater the cognitie
efort required to use it.
Communication = a process in which partcipants
create and share informaton with one another in order
to reach a mutual understanding (Rogersn 1986). This
iniolies informaton transmission and informaton
processing and leads to distlled sensemaking.
Conieyance processes = the transmission of a diiersity of new informatonn to enable the
receiier to create and reiise a mental model of the situaton.
o Indiiiduals partcipatng in conieyance processes engage in substantal informaton
processing actiites so that a potentally largen diierse set of informaton can be
exchanged in a iariety of informaton formats.
o Indiiiduals partcipatng in conieyance processes will ofen require tme to perform
informaton processing: the cognitie processes necessary to analyie the
informatonn make sense of itn and build their mental models
Coniergence processes = the interpretaton of a situatonn not the raw informaton itself.
The objectie is to agree on the meaning of the informatonn which requires indiiiduals to
reach a common understanding and to mutually agree that they haie achieied this
understanding (or to agree that it is not possible)
o Coniergence typically needs rapidn back and forth informaton transmission of small
quanttes of preprocessed informaton.
o Coniergence can require less informaton processing than conieyance when it
focuses on the ierifcaton of and/or modest adjustments to existng mental models.
o If indiiiduals agree on the interpretatonn they don’t need to deiote more
informaton processing to those elements than they did during the inital
consideraton of the situaton when the informaton was frst conieyed.
Distilled sensemaiin = generally smaller than the original set of informaton as it represents a
higher-leiel framework or abstracton of the original informaton. Establishing shared understanding
(which we call coniergence) is the assessment of the oierlap and similarity in conclusions drawn by
others.
There is a need for both processes:
- Without adequate conieyance of informatonn indiiiduals will reach incorrect conclusions.
- Without adequate coniergence on meaningn indiiiduals will lack a shared understanding and
won’t moie forward.
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,Media Synchronicity Theory proposed by the authors claims there is a ft between communicaton
and the media capabilites that facilitate each other and leads to beter outcomes when
synchroniied (synchronous = same-tme (calln f2f)) asynchronous = delay (e-mailn fax)).
Coniergence processes (meaningn usually higher-leiel abstracton)
o Greater need for rapid informaton transmission
o Lesser need for informaton processing
Conieyance process (informatonn usually raw)
o Lesser need for rapid informaton transmission
o Greater need for informaton processing
Synchronicity = state in which actons moie at the same rate and exactly together. Synchronicity
exists among indiiiduals when they exhibit a shared patern of coordinated synchronous behaiior
with a common focus (true synchronicity = indiiiduals are working together at the same tme with a
common focus).
Media synchronicity = the extent to which the capabilites of a communicaton medium enable
indiiiduals to achieie synchronicity.
- High synchronicity: when people work together at the same tme with a shared patern of
coordinated behaiior. It is associated with reduced cognitie efort to encode and decode
messagesn yielding faster message transmissionsn so a message can be assessed and
modifed quicklyn eien during transmission itself (immediate feedback)
- Low synchronicity: when people take more tme between messages allowing them more
tme for informaton processing to analyie the content of a message or to deielop meaning
across messages. Lower synchronicity is deriied from a decreased leiel of interacton
between sender and the recipient.
Media Capabilitee
Media capabilities = the potental structures proiided by a medium which influence the manner in
which indiiiduals can transmit and process informaton. The transmission begins with a source (the
message sender) who uses a transmiter (sofware and/or hardware) to encode or translate the
message into a signal and it is sent oier a communicaton channel (medium). The channel carries it
oier to a receiier (sofware and/or hardware) which is used by the destnaton (recipient).
There are apparently three primary media capabilites important in deriiing a mediums ability to
support informaton transmission:
1. Transmission ielocity (channel capacity) = the speed at which the medium can deliier a
message to intended recipients (e.g. immediate or rapid) it enables synchronicity
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, 2. narallelism (number of frequencies) = the number of simultaneous transmissions that can
efectiely take place (width of the medium)
3. Symbol sets (symbol types) the number of ways in which communicaton can be encoded
(iisualn ierbaln mathematcaln etc.) the symbol needs to match the need of the message.
4. Rehearsability = the extent to which the media enables the sender to rehearse or fne tune a
message during encodingn before sending. It can create delays in the transmission
5. Reprocessability = the extent to which the medium enables messages to be reexamined or
processes againn during decodingn either within the context of the communicaton eient or
afer the eient has passed. This can also create delays in transmission because receiiers can
take longer to reiiew and deliberate on preiiously receiied messages.
Media appropriaton = media that ft that ft user needs well are more likely to be faithfully
appropriated and used; media that do not ft the needs of the user (e.g. email for contnuous
contact) are less likely to be successful.
MST proposes that the best medium for a giien situaton is the combinaton of media. Diferent
modes require diferent communicaton processes. For most tasksn indiiiduals will use both
conieyance and coniergence and that depending on contextual factorsn the relatie mix of these
communicaton processes will difer. It also depends on the familiarity or noielty of the context.
A) Familiar communication contexts (predictable paterns)
o well-deieloped roles and norms so they can quickly proceed to executon
o indiiiduals can work independently based on preiious experience
o executon will rely on conieyance (meaning) and litle coniergence (info)
B) Novel communication contexts (new / complicated paterns)
a. emphasiie coniergence processes more than conieyance processes as indiiiduals
atempt to deielop shared interpretatons of the goals and strategies for performing
the task
b. Executon initally will rely on coniergence (info) more than conieyance (meaning)
c. Later the need for coniergence will decline as the group deielops mental models for
working together.
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