The goal of this workshop was to advance the understanding of how cognition and action systems are integrated and operate synergistically. This knowledge of how humans efficiently interact and navigate in complex environments is vital for generating a comprehensive understanding of human behavior and will help shape the design of everyday objects and training and working environments. One poignant example is computer technology. Human-computer interfaces equipped with gestural and tangible technologies are becoming increasingly accessible and ubiquitous in educational, leisure, and work settings. A thorough understanding of the interactions between cognition and action is needed help designers engineer devices and environments that maximize the functionality and usability. Thus, the workshop will bring together a diverse group of scholars in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, kinesiology, and human-computer interactions to share and critically evaluate their cutting-edge theoretical, empirical, and translational developments.
Note: Some videos from this workshop may appear slightly altered to protect the privacy of individuals pictured in presentations.
I Don’t Have Time to Make Up My Mind: Using Actions to Understand Ongoing Decision Making Processes
Heather Neyedli, Dalhousie University, Canada
We need to rapidly select and plan actions to objects or stimuli that will achieve our goals while avoiding negative outcomes. To select and plan the best action we must be aware of the value associated with the potential outcomes of our actions and the probability that these outcomes will occur. If this information is processed more effortlessly or subconsciously, we will be able to pre-plan potential actions allowing us to react, execute and adapt the movement more quickly. In my talk, I will discuss findings that show that while choice may seem like a conscious process, unconscious processes influence our choices and the actions associated with those choices. By exploring a number of recent findings, I will show that information from movement trajectories and movement endpoint can reveal biases in attention and decision making. Furthermore, the probabilities associated with our actions are better integrated into our choices and action plans than the values associated with our actions. The tight link between perception, decision making and action planning processes may lead to faster decisions and more rapidly adaptable actions, but only in certain contexts.
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