Call: Cognitive Aspects of Interactive Technology Use: From Computers to Smart Objects and Autonomous Agents – Frontiers in Psychology Journal issue)

Special Issue (Research Topic) on “Cognitive Aspects of Interactive Technology Use: From Computers to Smart Objects and Autonomous Agents” at Frontiers in Psychology Journal

http://www.frontiersin.org/Cognitive_Science/researchtopics/Cognitive_Aspects_of_Interactive_Technology_Use_From_Computers_to_Smart_Objects_and_Autonomous_Agents/5739

Submission deadline: Nov 15, 2017

MOTIVATION

Although several researchers have questioned the idea that human technology use is rooted in unique “superior” cognitive skills, it still appears that only humans are capable of producing and interacting with complex technologies. Different paradigms and cognitive models of “human-computer interaction” have been proposed in recent years to ground the development of novel devices and account for how humans integrate them in their daily life.

Psychology has been involved under numerous accounts to explain how humans interact with technology, as well as to design technological instruments tailored to human cognitive needs. Indeed, the current technological advancements in fields like wearable and ubiquitous computing, virtual reality, robotics and artificial intelligence give the opportunity to deepen, explore, and even rethink the theoretical psychological foundations of human technology use.

The miniaturization of sensors and effectors, their environmental dissemination and the subsequent disappearance of traditional human-computer interfaces are changing the ways in which we interact not only with digital technologies, but with traditional tools as well. More and more entities can now be provided with embedded computational and interactive capabilities, modifying the affordances commonly associated with everyday objects (e.g., mobile phones, watches become “smart watches”).

This is paralleled by novel frameworks within which to understand technology. A growing number of approaches view technology use as resting on four legs, namely cognition, body, tool, and context (of course including social, cultural, and other issues). The idea is that only by viewing how these notions interact and co-determine each other can we understand what makes the human invention, adoption, and use of technology so peculiar.

Consider for example how advanced artificial prostheses are expanding the human capabilities, at the same time yielding a reconsideration of how we incorporate tools into our body schema and how cognition relates to and interacts with bodily features and processes. While virtual environments and augmented realities likely change how we experience and perceive what we consider reality, robots and autonomous agents make it relevant to explore how we anthropomorphize artificial entities and how we socially interact with them.

All these theoretical changes then back-influence our view of more traditional technologies. In the end, even a Paleolithic chopper both required a special kind of mind and at the same time modified it, the users’ bodily schema, or the way in which they participated in their sociocultural contexts.

Technological changes thus inspire a renewed discussion of the cognitive abilities that are commonly associated with technology use, like causal and abductive thought and reasoning, executive control, mindreading and metacognition, communication and language, social cognition, learning and teaching, both in relation to more traditional tools and complex interactive technologies.

RELEVANT TOPICS

The current Research Topic welcomes submissions focused on theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues as well as reflections and critiques concerning how humans create, interact, and account for technology from a variety of perspectives, from cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, constructivism, phenomenology, ecological psychology, social psychology, neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

  • Distributed cognition in interactive environments
  • Social cognition and computer-mediated communication
  • Theoretical and empirical investigation of embodiment and technology
  • Affordances of “traditional objects” and technological devices
  • Theory of mind and social interactions with intelligent agents and robots
  • Cognitive models for designing, interacting with, or evaluating technology
  • Empirical studies on human-technology interaction
  • Evolutionary accounts of human tool use
  • Differences between animal and human tool use
  • Methodological issues and opportunities in human-technology interaction

ABOUT FRONTIERS RESEARCH TOPICS

Founded by scientists in 2007, Frontiers is a community-rooted open-access publisher, driving innovations in peer review, article-level metrics and research networking. The “Frontiers in” journal series hosts 54 journals covering more than 350 academic specialties, with a network of over 200,000 leading researchers worldwide. Frontiers is a registered member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (http://www.oaspa.org/member/Frontiers) and was recognized by the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing in 2014.

The idea behind a Frontiers Research Topic is to create a comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed articles that address a specific theme of research, as well as a forum for discussion and debate. Contributions can be articles describing original research, methods, hypothesis & theory, opinions, and more. Please see the relevant journal for a full list of accepted article types.

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FRONTIERS PUBLISHING FEES

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Guest editors
Amon Rapp, University of Torino
Maurizio Tirassa, University of Torino
Tom Ziemke, University of Skövde & Linköping University Linköping

For any information write to: amon.rapp@gmail.com


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