Adapting a System with the User's Practice

Rick Alterman

Computer Science Department
Brandeis University

CONTACT INFORMATION

Computer Science Department
Center for Complex Systems
415 South Street
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02254
Phone: (617) 736-2703
Fax : (617) 736-2741
Email: alterman@cs.brandeis.edu

WWW PAGE

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~alterman/

PROGRAM AREA

Adaptive Human Interfaces.

KEYWORDS

Intelligent User Interfaces, CBR, Everday Activity, User-Centered

PROJECT SUMMARY

The overarching goal of this project is to develop technology for building systems that become "more intelligent" with their use as a result of a mix of user and system efforts. Our approach is to develop techniques that exploit the practice of a stable population of users working with a system for a specific application. One example testbed is reading an online manual; another is real time group problem-solving. We are especially interested in the underlying cognitive models of everyday behavior that emerge from considerations of practice and use.

Three metaphors that are explored for system usage are: reading, memory, and activity. During interaction with the system, the user "reads" information from the screen; where appropriate the user can mark information on the screen for later referral. Reading is a goal driven process. "Reading plans" are used to control the access of information. Reading plans are adapted over time as a result of the continued use of the system for a given application. Episodes of the user's transactional behavior are stored in a use-base and are reasoned from using CBR technology.

This project is in the early stages of development. We have results from a protocol study on reading online manuals that support the model of reading behavior and reading plans. We have evidence that re-using question/answer transactions between the user and the system makes a retrieval system smarter. We also have some evidence that this sort of adaptation tends to offset performance differences between different unadapted techniques for retrieval. We have a detailed cognitive model of system usage as "pragmatic action".

PROJECT REFERENCES

Alterman, Zito-Wolf, and Carpenter. "Pragmatic Action", To appear in Cognitive Science.

Alterman, R. and Griffin, D. "Improving Case Retrieval by Remembering Questions" In AAAI-96, p678-683.

Alterman, R. "Everyday Memory and Activity", In BBS, 19:2, 189-190, 1996.

Alterman, R. "Against Autonomy". In "Learning Complex Adaptive Behaviors", Fall Symposium Series, AAAI-97.

Rozier, E. and Alterman, R. "Participatory Adaptation", In CHI-97, 261-262, 1997.

Zito-Wolf, R. and Alterman, R. "Case-Based Representations for Procedural Knowledge", Technical Report CS-95-183.

Carpenter, T. and Alterman, R. "Reading to Plan: Planning to Read." Technical Report CS-96-188.

Carpenter, T. and Alterman, R. RA Protocol Study of Reading and Activity.S Technical Report CS-96-189.

Alterman, R. The "Closed Room" Technical Report CS-97-193.

AREA BACKGROUND

This project draws on several areas of research. The problem of adaptation is an longstanding problem in the CHI community and a more recent one for the learning community in AI. The underlying model of user behavior is largely influenced by work in cognitive science and the literature on everyday activity. The CBR community in AI provides a base of technology for building systems with memory. The model of reading is framed in the terms of the interdisciplinary literature on text and discourse (specifically the Society for Text and Discourse).

AREA REFERENCES

Sample Technical References

"Acquisition, Learning & Demonstration: Automating Tasks for Users". Papers from the 1996 AAAI Symposium, TR SS-96-02.

Cypher. (1991) "Eager: Programming Repetitive Tasks by Example". Proceedings of CHI 1991, ACM, pp. 33-39.

Intelligent User Interfaces 1997. Annual Conference.

Kolodner. (1993) Case-Base Reasoning. Morgan-Kaufman.

Maes, P. (1994) Agents that Reduce Work and Information Overload. CACM 37(7), pp. 31-40, 146.

Oppermann (ed.) (1994) "Adaptive User Support." LEA.

Sample Interdisciplinary References

Van Dijk & Kintsch. (1983) "Strategies of Discourse Comprehension". Academic Press.

Lave. (1990) "Cognition in Practice". Cambridge University Press.

Newell. (1990) "Unified Theories of Cognition". Harvard University Press.

Norman. (1988) "The Psychology of Everyday Things". Basic Books.

Rogoff & Lave (eds.). (1984) "Everyday Cognition". Harvard University Press.

Scribner & Cole. (1981) "The Psychology of Literacy", chapter 14. Harvard University Press.

Schank. (1982) "Dynamic Memory". Cambridge University Press.

RELATED PROGRAM AREAS

Usability and User-Centered Design