Education Commons^™

Explicit Rule Learning: A Cognitive Tutorial Method To Train Users Of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Systems, Anne Linja

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Today’s intelligent software systems, such as Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning systems, are sophisticated, complicated, sometimes complex systems. In order to effectively interact with these systems, novice users need to have a certain level of understanding. An awareness of a system’s underlying principles, rationale, logic, and goals can enhance the synergistic human-machine interaction. It also benefits the user to know when they can trust the systems’ output, and to discern boundary conditions that might change the output. The purpose of this research is to empirically test the viability of a Cognitive Tutorial approach, called Explicit Rule Learning. Several approaches have been used …

Investigating Collaborative Explainable Ai (Cxai)/Social Forum As An Explainable Ai (Xai) Method In Autonomous Driving (Ad), Tauseef Ibne Mamun

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Explainable AI (XAI) systems primarily focus on algorithms, integrating additional information into AI decisions and classifications to enhance user or developer comprehension of the system's behavior. These systems often incorporate untested concepts of explainability, lacking grounding in the cognitive and educational psychology literature (S. T. Mueller et al., 2021). Consequently, their effectiveness may be limited, as they may address problems that real users don't encounter or provide information that users do not seek.

In contrast, an alternative approach called Collaborative XAI (CXAI), as proposed by S. Mueller et al (2021), emphasizes generating explanations without relying solely on algorithms. CXAI centers …

What Is An Endangered Species?: Judgments About Acceptable Risk, Thomas Offer-Westort, Adam Feltz, Jeremy T. Bruskotter, John A. Vucetich

Michigan Tech Publications

Judgments about acceptable risk in the context of policy may be influenced by law makers, policy makers, experts and the general public. While significant effort has been made to understand public attitudes on acceptable risk of environmental pollution, little is known about such attitudes in the context of species' endangerment. We present survey results on these attitudes in the context of United States' legal-political apparatus intended to mitigate species endangerment. The results suggest that the general public exhibit lower tolerance for risk than policy makers and experts. Results also suggest that attitudes about acceptable risk for species endangerment are importantly …

The Stained Glass Of Knowledge: On Understanding Novice Mental Models Of Computing, Briana Christina Bettin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Learning to program can be a novel experience. The rigidity of programming can be at odds with beginning programmer's existing perceptions, and the concepts can feel entirely unfamiliar. These observations motivated this research, which explores two major questions: What factors influence how novices learn programming? and How can analogy by more appropriately leveraged in programming education?

This dissertation investigates the factors influencing novice programming through multiple methods. The CS1 classroom is observed as a "whole system", with consideration to the factors present in it that can influence the learning process. Learning's cognitive processes are elaborated to ground exploration into specifically …

Individual Differences In Sensitivity To Visuomotor Discrepancies, John Dewey, Shane Mueller

Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences Publications

This study explored whether sensitivity to visuomotor discrepancies, specifically the ability to detect and respond to loss of control over a moving object, is associated with other psychological traits and abilities. College-aged adults performed a computerized tracking task which involved keeping a cursor centered on a moving target using keyboard controls. On some trials, the cursor became unresponsive to participants’ keypresses. Participants were instructed to immediately press the space bar if they noticed a loss of control. Response times (RTs) were measured. Additionally, participants completed a battery of behavioral and questionnaire-based tests with hypothesized relationships to the phenomenology of control, …

Aging, Cognition, And Motor Behavior: A Lab-To-Life Approach To Improving Quality Of Life In Later Adulthood, Kevin Trewartha

TechTalks

An important challenge facing our health care system is to maintain and improve functional independence, and thus overall quality of life, in older adults. It is estimated that by 2030 nearly 20% of the US population will be over the age of 65, and that proportion will continue to rise over the coming decades. Advancing age comes with significant declines in cognitive and physical function that contribute to diminished functional independence. In the Aging, Cognition, and Action Lab we use computerized cognitive assessments, and a state-of-the-art robotic device for studying upper limb movement to identify age-related changes in the cognitive …

Multimodal Interaction In Conneted Automated Vehicles, Myounghoon Jeon

TechTalks

Electric vehicles and automated vehicles are getting more pervasive in our everyday life. Ideally, fully automated vehicles that drivers can completely trust would be the best solution. However, due to technical limitations and human factors issues, fully automated vehicles are still under test, and no concrete evidence has yet shown their functionalities are superior to human cognition and operation. In the Mind Music Machine Lab, we are actively conducting research on connected and automated vehicles, mainly using driving simulators. This talk specifically focuses on multimodal interactions between a driver and a vehicle as well as the driver and nearby drivers. …

Premortem Light: Improving Planning Using A Lightweight, Perspective Shifting Technique, Elizabeth Veinott

TechTalks

Teams can be overly optimistic regarding the likelihood of their plan’s success. This “planning fallacy” may result from ineffective plan-evaluation strategies. The PreMortem technique, imagining that a plan has failed and then trying to explain why, leverages a perspective-shifting strategy. However, very little research has been conducted to evaluate the validity of this technique. In this experiment, a Premortem Light was tested in a challenge course. Forty-eight members of Michigan Tech’s ROTC completed 6 novel field challenges in small teams. Each team used the Premortem Light for half of the challenges, and their typical plan-evaluation strategy (baseline) for the other …

Creating A Culture Of Better Mental/Behavioral Health Among The American Indians In The Keweenaw, Selin Philip

TechTalks

Quality mental and behavioral health care is a key contributor to general health and wellness, and there is an urgent need for such care in the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). Our project, currently funded by Portage Health Foundation through Michigan Tech, evaluates the effectiveness of a treatment program that has been recently developed to help individuals of the KBIC who struggle with substance use and criminal behaviors. This treatment program is aimed to enhance health and wellness and prevent recidivism. We have measurable goals to promote evidence-based processes of care by monitoring the program’s performance, evaluating treatment outcomes, and …

Using Cognitive Word Games To Promote Lexical Memory Access And Vocabulary Retrieval In Second Language Learners, Kejkaew Thanasuan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Fluency in a second language (L2) is one of the most important skills for the modern world. However, adults learning a new language face many obstacles, including motivation, time, and other challenges in learning. Technology learning tools may help solve these problems. In this dissertation, I tested the effectiveness of cognitive word games as a vocabulary learning method, with the main goal of investigating how different word games including a crossword paradigm task, a free association task and a word-stem completion task were effective at improving vocabulary memory access. The games selectively increased semantic (meaning) or orthographic (spelling) associations in …