Collaborating to remember: a distributed cognition account of families coping with memory impairments

Authors:
Mike Wu;Jeremy Birnholtz;Brian Richards;Ronald Baecker;Mike Massimi
Affiliations:
The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA;Baycrest, Toronto, ON, Canada;The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Venue:
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
2008

Citing 14
Cited 7

Edit wear and read wear

CHI '92 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Computer-based cognitive prosthetics: assistive technology for the treatment of cognitive disabilities

Assets '98 Proceedings of the third international ACM conference on Assistive technologies
Coordination and Virtualization: the Role of Electronic Networks and Personal Relationships

Organization Science
The participatory design of a sound and image enhanced daily planner for people with aphasia

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Designing a multimedia conversation aid for reminiscence therapy in dementia care environments

CHI '04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
MAPS: creating socio-technical environments in support of distributed cognition for people with cognitive impairments and their caregivers

CHI '04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Participatory design of an orientation aid for amnesics

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Requirements gathering with alzheimer's patients and caregivers

Proceedings of the 7th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
"LINC-ing" the family: the participatory design of an inkable family calendar

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Participatory design with proxies: developing a desktop-PDA system to support people with aphasia

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Tensions in designing capture technologies for an evidence-based care community

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Desperately seeking simplicity: how young adults with cognitive disabilities and their families adopt assistive technologies

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Shared family calendars: Promoting symmetry and accessibility

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
SenseCam: a retrospective memory aid

UbiComp'06 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Ubiquitous Computing

LIFELONG INTERACTIONS: Memory impairment is a family affair

interactions - We must redesign professional design education for the 21st century
Field evaluation of a collaborative memory aid for persons with amnesia and their family members

Proceedings of the 12th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility
Bridging practices, theories, and technologies to support reminiscence

CHI '11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
FATA: um caminho para soluções interativas individualizadas para reabilitação

Proceedings of the IX Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Patient-centered design: interface personalization for individuals with brain injury

UAHCI'11 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Universal access in human-computer interaction: users diversity - Volume Part II
Designing a social network to support the independence of young adults with autism

Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Technologies for aging gracefully

interactions

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.01

Visualization

Abstract

Individuals with cognitive deficits and their families are prime examples of collaborative "systems" that seek to perform everyday tasks together. Yet there has been little investigation into how these families communicate and coordinate in basic tasks like remembering appointments. In this paper we take a distributed cognition approach to studying ten families struggling with amnesia through nonparticipant observation and interviews. Our data show that the families work closely together as cognitive systems that must compensate for memory volatility in one of the members. We explore our participants' strategies for overcoming these difficulties and present lessons for the design of assistive technologies, highlighting the need for redundancy, easy and frequent synchronization, and awareness of updates. We conclude with implications for distributed cognition theory.